Clara, the live-in maid whom I hadn’t seen for three weeks, looked surprised as she took my coat while I stepped out of the carriage with my eyes closed.

“What have you come to get, Miss?”

“Huh?”

“If you had sent someone ahead, I could have prepared it for you.”

Looking at Clara, who wore a pitiful expression thinking I had come to get something rather than actually returning home, I could only offer a bitter smile.

Would others understand that I was working myself to the bone to prevent this world from falling into ruin?

“No. I’ve come home.”

“Come home?”

“Yes…… I’m home.”

“Miss. I understand you’re tired, but you look too desperate.”

With Clara supporting me, shaking me as if to wake me up because she couldn’t quite believe I had actually come home, I staggered straight to the bed and dove onto it without hesitation.

Who would have thought that lying on this bed, just a 10-minute carriage ride away, would be so difficult?

Despite having received this mansion half a year ago, the blankets and pillows felt almost new with barely any signs of use—awkward yet cozy.

“So you really did come home!”

“Yes…… I really did come home.”

“I’ll heat the bath water right away. Just rest a little, alright?”

“Too tired to bathe…… I’ll sleep right away.”

“At least change your clothes before sleeping. Your shirt is covered in ink stains.”

At Clara’s words, I sat up and sighed as I saw the ink stains clearly visible all over my shirt, including the sleeves.

“Have you eaten?”

“Yes. My great boss at least makes sure I eat regularly.”

Ian truly did take better care of me than what was written in the contract.

Although I hadn’t had a single day off in half a year! And he had lied about the working hours being 8 hours a day with a two-hour lunch and rest period despite the official hours being 8 AM to 6 PM!

Moreover, for the sake of my financial situation after taking this job against my family’s wishes, he diligently filled up the maximum 120 hours of overtime for 30 days (with a daily maximum of 4 hours), and meticulously recorded every minute of the double-rate extended work compensation that kicked in after that.

‘Lunch and dinner allowances will be provided too, Ilena.’

Seeing how he thoughtfully provided lunch and dinner allowances even after letting me go home this morning, it was clear.

“Now I understand why there’s only one aide in the Crown Prince’s Palace.”

“……I’m surprised you’ve only just realized that.”

“Hahaha!”

I finally understood why they had to advertise for the position of the Crown Prince’s First Aide half a year ago, but it was too late now.

Anyway, in this second life, I had to survive the original story, which meant I had to prevent Ian from fleeing.

I didn’t even know how I had died in my first life, but at the very least, I wanted to avoid the clearly established death flag in my second life, and while doing so, save a lot of money too.

If Ian didn’t flee and normally ascended to the Emperor’s throne, I planned to escape from the Imperial Palace without hesitation.

“Rest, Miss.”

‘Wait a minute.’

While Clara helped me into my nightgown and tucked me in, I had been thinking with my eyes closed, but suddenly opened them wide as a thought struck me.

In the countless romance fantasy novels I had read, no matter what the female lead who had transmigrated into the original story did, the events from the original story still happened.

Even protagonists who remembered everything from the original story were inevitably swept up in the original fate—what about me, who had dropped the novel midway and only remembered the basic plot summary?

‘Can I really avoid the original fate?’

I had succeeded in staying by Ian’s side to help prevent him from fleeing as in the original story.

But even if Ian became Emperor, would that really end Callian’s protagonist destiny?

“Come to think of it, if he fled when he was Crown Prince, there’s nothing stopping him from fleeing after becoming Emperor, is there?”

Why hadn’t I thought of this before! What if Ian, who had dared to flee during his Crown Prince days while suffering under the Empress’s harsh surveillance and abuse disguised as successor education, ascended to the Emperor’s throne where he wouldn’t need to be mindful of others?

Even now the workload is insanely high! Truly depressingly high! But when he becomes Emperor, wouldn’t the work increase even more, making him even more likely to flee in terror?

If Ian fled according to the original story even after becoming Emperor, then without an heir, naturally the succession would fall to the Second Prince, Callian.

If that happened, all that would remain would be the Empire’s destruction and ruin.

Having thought that far, I felt a chill run down my neck and shuddered. Despite being covered with a blanket, the sudden chill drove away all sleepiness.

“I need to connect the original female lead with Ian.”

The original female lead, Lady Fleur Rosemond.

Ian’s official fiancée.

Wracking my memory as much as possible, I felt the need to revise my principle of absolutely avoiding Callian and Fleur, the male and female leads of the original story.

Since I was already intervening and twisting the original story, to survive, I needed to do more than just twist it—I needed to rewrite with my own hands the ending of the original story that I had never seen.

“I need to properly connect Fleur with Ian. Even if Ian does flee, there should be an heir so that the throne doesn’t go to Callian!”

Fortunately, Lady Fleur’s family, the Rosemond ducal family, belonged to the Noble faction, which maintained close relations with my family, the Weiana count family.

Additionally, although I had only been transmigrated into this body for a year, I perfectly recognized all of Ilena’s knowledge and experiences—that is, what Ilena had learned and experienced before I transmigrated—as if I had learned and experienced them myself.

This was why I had been able to maintain Ilena’s excellent grades during her final year at the academy after transmigrating, and on top of that, I had achieved tremendous results in document review and organization by freely utilizing my capabilities as a civil servant from my first life, which I had found so tiresome. I had even gone so far as to spread a new document organization format to the academy professors.

It was also fortunate that Ilena’s academy major happened to be public administration. Public administration had been my university major too! Of course, the administrative system here was fundamentally different from South Korea’s, but thanks to the familiar educational content, I had been able to graduate with even higher grades than the original Ilena.

Top of the class graduation. That was me.

Recalling that I had achieved something the original Ilena couldn’t—graduating at the top of the academy—I was quite pleased with the conclusion I had reached.

Having recharged my confidence, the anxious feelings from earlier disappeared, and it felt like a hopeful future was waiting for me, causing the sense of crisis that had pushed me to my limits to subside.

With a peaceful mind, I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep for the first time in a long while.

***

“Miss, please wake up!”

“Mmm…… Clara, why?”

“Why? It’s already 8 PM!”

“Huh?”

I had no sense of reality, as if I had just blinked and it’s already night. Unlike when I came home in the morning, I had to give a hollow laugh as I looked out the window at the deep darkness that had already settled.

“I was worried because you hadn’t even tossed in bed once… you were sleeping in exactly the same position I left you in……”

“Ah, I’m too wronged to die yet. I was just sleeping like the dead.”

It had been exactly three weeks since I first reported for duty on December 1st and finally lay down on this bed. The dedicated bedroom that Ian had granted me as a duty room was very nice too, but that was a place where I went to take short naps at one-hour intervals, feeling rushed.

Moreover, if I woke up late and was even a minute late for the shift change, Ian wouldn’t say anything, but he would precisely delay the next shift change by exactly the amount of time I had been late. Because of this, I had to rest in a state of extreme tension to ensure I changed shifts on the hour, if only out of spite and pettiness.

“Wait, it’s already 8 o’clock?”

Ah, I have to go to work again in 12 hours.

This feeling was like waking up after sleeping following a Saturday duty shift and going home on Sunday.

I hadn’t expected to experience such a miserable feeling in Ilena’s body after so long, and despite having slept well, I was having trouble accepting the current reality.

“Miss, I understand what you’re thinking, but this is not the time for that!”

“What do you mean, Clara?”

Now that I looked, Clara’s attire was very neat, unlike her usual casual clothes at this hour. She was wearing a formal maid uniform with her hair pinned up perfectly, maintaining a perfect posture.

Clara was currently the live-in maid of my house, but originally she had been a senior maid at the Crown Prince’s Palace. She was a maid with an impressive career and abilities, said to be capable of doing the work of three ordinary maids by herself.

The house was too large for one person to manage, but I had been considerate enough to tell her to dress comfortably while working. Thanks to this, Clara had said that becoming my live-in maid was even more fortunate than serving at the Crown Prince’s Palace, as she didn’t have to wear the stuffy maid uniform.

“Come to think of it, why are you dressed so formally at this hour? Is someone coming? Is the head maid from the Crown Prince’s Palace coming?”

“If it were the head maid, would I be this formal? Someone from the Crown Prince’s Palace just came and left……”

“……Don’t tell me. No. Clara, I think I know what you’re about to say, so please don’t say it.”

You said I could go home! You said I could go home!

After going home once in a day, there shouldn’t be a desperate situation where I have to go back to work before the day is over! How could you put me through such a trial! I muttered as I jumped up from the bed, and Clara, who was looking at me with pitying eyes, said:

“His Highness the Crown Prince said he would come here himself in an hour.”

“What?”

At Clara’s words, I froze in the middle of hurriedly fixing my hair.

It was now 8 PM. The fact that there was contact from the Crown Prince’s Palace clearly meant that something had come up, but instead of ordering me to report for duty, Ian himself was coming here?

“It’s fieldwork.”

And I could easily realize that this was fieldwork to crack down on illegal casino gambling dens that were said to be rampant during the capital’s year-end festival. Damn it! No wonder my luck seemed too good this morning!

“……Clara, please prepare the most extravagant dress for me. Make me look like a nouveau riche. No, I don’t even have such dresses to begin with—can you quickly go buy one?”

“His Highness the Crown Prince has already sent a dress, instructing that it be prepared in advance.”

“……How thorough of him.”

It seems my perfect boss has even acquired the virtue of kindly informing his aide in advance about what needs to be done.

Truly grateful for this, I was able to hurriedly fix my hair, put on the dress that Ian had sent in advance, and even hold a fan in my hand to welcome him.

“It’s been a while.”

“A while?”

“After being with my aide for three weeks, not seeing you for 12 hours feels like it’s been a while.”

“……You said I could go home. Who makes someone report back to work on the same day!”

“How cruel, I’m happy to be going out on fieldwork with you, Ilena.”

Ian, who smiled as he said this, was wearing a golden wig instead of his usual black hair, as we needed to infiltrate a place that operated as a legal casino during the day but transformed into an illegal gambling den at night.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen this appearance too.”

“……Indeed. The golden hair suits you better than I expected.”

“Is this your first time seeing me like this?”

“Of course. When would I have ever seen Your Highness in disguise?”