Chapter 1. I Turned the Male Lead into My Husband

Just yesterday, I had my wedding night.

And not just any wedding night. I had carefully raised a man who had washed up on the shore with no memories, and then snatched him right up for myself.

It was an obligatory night, but after that blazing stretch of time, I fell asleep like I had fainted. And in my dreams, I saw my past life.

But then… my husband turned out to be the male lead of this world? On top of that, my absolute favorite character!

I stared at the strikingly handsome man sleeping soundly beside me, utterly dead to the world, and scrunched up my face.

“Well. I’m screwed.”

***

Me: Riel Martina Leviengel.

The Kastua Empire, occupying roughly a third of the Ekandor continent, boasts vast territories and a dense population. Blessed with four distinct seasons that sustain its prosperity year-round and backed by overwhelming military might, it has remained the continent’s foremost power for eight hundred years! Right next to that empire was……

A tiny island nation barely clinging on by a single bridge at the eastern edge of Kastua territory. So small it would barely register as a speck on a continental map.

I am the one and only princess of the Martina Kingdom.

Well, with a population of around thirty thousand, the title of princess sounds rather grand. Ahem. Setting all that aside, I now had one enormous problem on my hands.

Specifically, the fact that this handsome, dark-haired man I had spent a year feeding, housing, clothing, and teaching, was the male protagonist of a novel I had read in my past life. A dark, harrowing novel called 〈Goodbye, My Savior〉.

Aiden Kastua Vaillot. That was his real name.

And I had been reborn as the extra princess in the final illustration of that novel, the one clapping her hands at the wedding of the male and female leads.

Following the original story, the male lead would recover his memories completely in just one month.

Then, with the female lead’s help, he would obtain the power of the 『Philiose Demonic Sword』 and take revenge against the Kastua imperial family, who had not only killed his mother but had also tried to have him assassinated.

Burning with vengeance, the male lead would go berserk under the demonic sword’s influence, and a storm of blood would sweep through the Empire. He would track down every single person who had ever stood in his way and punish them.

And the targets of that ‘punishment’ included people with no direct involvement.

[I hear you spoke nonsense about my birth.]

[P, please calm yourself, Your Highness! I only heard the story from Viscount Riplan……!]

Thwack.

‘Ugh. Horrifying.’

The male lead, out of his mind, was in a state utterly devoid of mercy or tears.

But true to the nature of a dark adult novel, the female lead, watching the male lead suffer between sanity and rampage, showers him with kisses.

Then she looks at him with sorrowful eyes.

[Stop tormenting yourself, Your Highness.]

After that, as expected, an embarrassingly intimate scene unfolds between them……

[Ilesia…… you are my savior.]

Ilesia’s hidden power then stops his rampage, and the world reaches its happy ending.

Of course, if the male lead never gets his hands on the demonic sword, he would never go berserk.

But what would happen then?

Aiden would be unable to manifest his latent magical power, meaning he could not take revenge against the imperial family. Worse, the villain and sub-male lead, Crown Prince Jake, would seize the throne and begin his full-scale conquest of the entire Ekandor continent.

Naturally, our Martina Kingdom would be among those countries…… and everyone would become slaves of Kastua.

As the princess of this nation, that was something I could not allow, even at the cost of my own life.

My conclusion was clear. To protect this world from the forces of evil, the male lead and the female lead were absolutely necessary.

I let out a long sigh, looking at him sleeping peacefully beside me, completely unaware of my thoughts.

“My grandmother from my past life always said you should never take in a beast with black fur……”

Those were the words my grandmother had said to me as a child when I brought home a black puppy. I ignored her and named it Dusik and raised it, only to be horrified as it grew larger and larger.

Dusik, it turned out, had been a wolf all along.

How strange that memories from a past life could feel as vivid as yesterday.

The moment that thought crossed my mind, I gasped.

“Wait. Dusik?”

The name surfaced, and goosebumps erupted all over my body. Then a whirlwind of everything I had done over the past year came crashing through my mind.

‘No. No! That can’t be right. Don’t surface…… please, don’t surface!’

I clawed at my hair, but it was no use. Something seemed to jam a memory straw straight into my head and begin pumping it all in.

It started with the memory of the day I had found Aiden, soaking wet and collapsed on the shore.

“Hmm. You don’t remember anything? Not even your name? Then for now, your name is Dusik. Yes! Let’s go with Dusik.”

I hadn’t realized the strangely familiar name had come to me because of the Dusik I had raised in my past life.

“Hey! What do you think this is, a resort? Eat, sleep, and play all day? Get over here! You have to earn your keep!”

He had a solid, hardworking body perfectly suited for labor, and watching him laze around like a grasshopper had irritated me, so I had put him to work on kingdom affairs.

And after that……

“Dusik. I took you in, so now you have to repay me, right? Let’s do it. Marry me.”

Through something close to coercion, I had turned the innocent Dusik into my husband.

“Aaaah……! I’m not some thug! I’ve lost my mind, I’ve completely lost my mind!”

Wait. If he thought I had not only worked him like a slave but also used him as a marriage partner……

“Don’t tell me. Am I going to become a target for punishment too?”

The moment I recalled the illustration of severed heads rolling at the feet of those he had punished, a chilling cold crept up my spine from behind.

“My dear. Did you have a bad dream? Punishment, you said. Who on earth would……”

“Kyaah! It’s nothing!”

Seized by terror, I reflexively snatched the vase sitting on the nightstand and swung it. A thud rang out, and a crack split across my husband’s handsome face.

Aiden crumpled and collapsed exactly as he had been lying, with an utterly serene expression on his face.

Oh, good heavens. Add one more charge to the list.

Attempted assassination of imperial royalty.

“I must be out of my mind. What am I going to do……”

***

Outside the window, peach blossoms bloomed in wild abundance beneath a sky so blue it looked freshly washed.

Gazing at my reflection in the window glass, I reminded myself once again that I was inside a novel.

Light orange hair, like white with a single drop of orange paint stirred in. Milky skin, courtesy of the princess buff. Round, wide eyes with water-blue irises.

True to being the princess of a modest but charming little kingdom, my eye and hair colors ran bright and vivid, and honestly, quite lovely.

“Sigh…… what do I do now.”

In the novel, the female lead Ilesia boards a ship bound for the Empire and rescues the male lead when he gets swept away by the current in the middle of the sea. That was their reunion.

Because the two of them had met once as children. That fact became the crucial reason the female lead chose to help the male lead. For Ilesia, he had been her first love.

And one year after the male lead disappeared, swept away by the current, the sub-male lead and villain, the Crown Prince, would claim the throne and begin moving in earnest to conquer the continent.

Something stung faintly in my chest, and a bitter taste lingered on the tip of my tongue.

‘I’ve wedged myself between the two characters I loved most in 〈Goodbye, My Savior〉, like a foreign object that doesn’t belong.’

But where the female lead had gone, and how I had ended up finding him instead, I had no way of knowing.

‘Well, I’ll think about that later. I have enough problems of my own right now.’

Pulling my gaze from the corridor window, I turned toward the door. Then I gently pushed open the door to the marital bedroom.

‘Oh, blinding.’

Whether it was the sunlight filtering through the tall arched window or my husband himself, I couldn’t quite keep my eyes open. I squinted, then blinked them open again.

He was there, leaning against the headboard with a cold compress pressed to his forehead. Perhaps it was the male lead buff of this world at work.

He was fine, thankfully. Aside from the lump swelling up on his forehead.

Knowing now that he had belonged to someone else all along, I found myself looking at him with fresh eyes today.

The clean forehead with its new bump. The jet-black hair slightly damp from the ice compress. The sharp yet open eyes, and those violet irises. All of it was impossibly perfect.