Watching Velma talk with both hands clasped tightly together and a beaming smile, Rayenne finally burst into laughter too.

The way she occasionally slipped into speech that matched her age was truly adorable.

“I will.”

Hearing the answer, Velma left with a happy face, and Rayenne finally headed to the bathroom alone.

She soaked in the warm water until her gloomy mood disappeared, and quite some time had passed.

No matter how slowly she’d washed, she never imagined Jin would be in the room during that time, so Rayenne stopped short the moment she came out of the bathroom, just like on their first night.

“I didn’t know you were here.”

Her gaze was urgent as she pulled her robe closed and looked for clothes to change into.

“I had something to inform you about, so I was waiting.”

“Ah, then I’ll quickly change and come back, so can you wait just a moment?”

“You don’t need to rush.”

Jin kept his eyes fixed on the pile of documents like on their first night, so Rayenne hurried back into the bathroom to change before awkwardly sitting down in front of him.

“You have something to tell me?”

“As you heard earlier, I’m sending back all the other letters addressed to you.”

She wondered if he might apologize about that, but instead of an apology, Jin held out a letter.

Her gaze, filled with the meaning of “what’s this,” slowly moved from Jin to the letter.

The letter with a red seal had been opened.

“First, please understand that I read it first. It was unavoidable in order to grasp the contents.”

“Yes. That’s fine.”

As Rayenne opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, Jin continued speaking.

“It’s a letter sent by the Grand Duchess.”

“The Grand Duchess?”

‘Who’s that now?’

Characters who had never been mentioned once in the original story kept appearing.

And they were all significant figures—too important to dismiss as simply everyday events that weren’t recorded.

“Yes.”

Jin’s expression clouded as he nodded in response to Rayenne’s question.

It was a rare clouded expression from Jin, who maintained his composure even in front of Dante and Shuga.

‘If she’s a Grand Duchess, her status is even higher than Jin’s, so maybe it’s difficult to refuse.’

Jin’s reaction alone made her want to read the letter quickly.

When she unfolded the neatly creased letter, ornate cursive writing caught her eye first.

It didn’t take Rayenne long to read the Grand Duchess’s letter. Only a few lines were written briefly.

The letter’s contents went roughly like this:

She congratulated the ducal couple on their marriage and, instead of attending the wedding, wanted to meet in person to offer her congratulations.

‘I suppose that’s fitting for someone in the Grand Duchess’s position… If she couldn’t attend the wedding, it would be normal to come visit and congratulate them.’

The letter naturally contained an invitation for Rayenne to visit the grand ducal residence.

When she finished reading and looked up, Jin had returned to his usual indifferent face.

“If it’s the Grand Duchess, it should be fine to get close to her.”

Sometimes Jin’s words were ambiguous to understand.

Even now, it was unclear whether he meant it would be good to be friendly with the Grand Duchess, or simply that she wasn’t someone to avoid.

‘Well, I’ll only know after meeting her anyway.’

“It’s tomorrow already.”

The time written in the letter was 11 o’clock tomorrow.

The timing would be tight to enter the imperial palace with Jin like today and then go.

“I’ll have no choice but to go alone tomorrow.”

“It can’t be helped. You can go to the library the day after tomorrow.”

“Yes.”

Jin’s expression seemed strangely bright, but Rayenne thought it was because he’d resolved the matter of the Grand Duchess’s letter.

***

After Jin left again to handle work, Rayenne headed to the study like it had become a habit.

Though the imperial palace library had an enormous number of books, Jin’s study also had quite a collection—enough to find and read whatever she wanted.

Today, instead of the rocking chair, Rayenne sat at the desk and looked down at pure white paper with a determined face.

“I can’t just keep getting swept around like this.”

The quill pen held in her transparently clear hand moved without hesitation.

Plan for a Smooth Divorce

After writing the title, Rayenne tickled her chin with the tip of the quill pen.

“No matter how differently Jin acts from the original, I know the mistress will enter this house.”

Jin had changed from being indifferent and cold to Rayenne, so he might act the same way toward the mistress.

“Then that woman might get even more out of control, thinking she’s loved. She might openly try to k*ll me.”

The mistress had been tremendously obsessed with Jin.

Because of that, Rayenne—who posed no threat to her whatsoever and was merely a duchess in name only—had even been poisoned to death.

“What happened after that…”

She was sure she’d read what happened after Rayenne died, but she couldn’t recall the contents.

“Did the story end like that?”

It was a novel she’d read to k*ll time, so naturally she wouldn’t remember it well.

Jin in the original was indifferent to his mistress too. She didn’t know if he simply didn’t like women in general, but he treated the mistress the same way he treated Rayenne.

If Jin had at least treated the mistress well, maybe the mistress, confident in his love, wouldn’t have killed Rayenne.

So this time, wouldn’t he care for the mistress as much as he now cared for her?

Sleeping together, eating together, living together.

Then she would be very happy. Without harming anyone.

The quill pen stopped abruptly, and a black stain spread beneath it.

Only when she saw the mark like billowing dark clouds did Rayenne come to her senses.

“Ugh, whether the two of them live happily or not, what’s it to me? Now I’m even giving them a divorce, so she can become the duchess instead of just a mistress.”

Rayenne’s quill pen moved again.

“First… maintain a smooth relationship with Jin.”

It was unlikely, but if Jin tried to break the divorce contract, there was no way Rayenne could win against the ducal house.

“Two, maintain a good reputation for life after the divorce.”

Even though it would be a mutually agreed divorce, there would obviously be plenty of gossip. 

But if her reputation was already bad, no one could know how distorted those rumors might become.

“And three, plan for life after divorce.”

The quill pen stopped again and stroked Rayenne’s chin.

Her fine brow furrowed and her gaze narrowed.

“This is the biggest problem…”

What should she do with her life after removing marriage, which she’d considered the biggest obstacle in Rayenne’s life?

“What do I want to do?”

Before she died, her dream had been to live an ordinary life. Having a job like everyone else, getting married if she met someone good, sometimes fighting and sometimes laughing while living ordinarily.

“I can’t remember this well either. Does possession count as being reborn?”

As days passed, memories of her past life grew hazier.

Conversely, the past that must have been Rayenne’s memories came back vividly and in detail.

“I don’t have any memories I’d call precious, but it is a bit regrettable…”

Then her train of thought, which had been flowing with her consciousness, stopped abruptly.

“Come to think of it, even if I wasn’t a top instructor, I was a second-tier instructor.”

Growing up as an orphan, the easiest thing she’d had access to was studying. She just had to read and memorize whatever she saw.

Before she knew it, she’d become an academy instructor.

“Instructor… In this world, that would be a teacher, right? Ah, a tutor?”

From what she’d roughly gathered, it was rare for married noble ladies to work. They mostly managed their households, or if they did work, they only entered service as ladies-in-waiting to royalty and high nobility.

“Well, a duchess can’t sell bread at a bakery or clothes at a clothing shop. And I can’t exactly ask to open a tea house either.”

She felt like she could see a path now.

“I need to find out if noble ladies also work as tutors.”

Rayenne wrote “tutor” continuing from what she’d written earlier, then stood up from her seat.

“I wonder if there are related books?”

She’d roughly figured out the organization system of Jin’s study over the past few days, so if there were any, she’d find them quickly.

Rayenne’s steps as she moved around the study were quite light.

***

Murmuring sounds filled the air everywhere.

Youthful voices that revealed their age were all chattering away.

“First and second place are the same again this time?”

“What’s the point of saying it?”

There were scattered glances flickering toward Rayenne.

On a large notice board attached to the wall, academic rankings were neatly listed.

Rayenne calmly raised her head and checked right below the very top.

「 2nd Place: Rayenne Shellon 」

The moment she confirmed her name, Rayenne turned around to find Dante standing in front of her.

Seeing Rayenne’s surprised face from their eyes meeting unexpectedly, Dante chuckled.

“You did well again this time?”

He looked no different from now.

Rayenne’s eyes, which had been wavering not knowing what to do, eventually fell downward like a falling star.

When she took a step without answering, Dante moved aside with the same smiling face.

Instead, he patted Rayenne’s shoulder once as she passed by.

Many people recognized Rayenne walking alone, but not a single person approached her.

Rayenne, who had walked alone for quite a while, stopped only after getting far away from the plaza where the grade reports were posted.

When she suddenly turned around, Rayenne’s eyes caught sight of Dante surrounded by various students, laughing.

Watching that scene quietly, Rayenne eventually slowly disappeared into a corridor hidden in shadow.

***

Today as well, Rayenne woke up feeling cozy and comfortable.

Though she still wasn’t used to it, Jin’s sleeping face was right before her eyes—something that no longer greatly surprised her.

‘He moved me again.’

By now it was certain that Jin was the one moving Rayenne.

Staring quietly at his tightly closed eyelids, Rayenne blinked.

‘Is sleeping on this side his habit?’

Since that first night when Rayenne slept on the inner side of the bed, she always woke up in the same spot.

The same went for Jin, who always slept on the outer side, lying on his left side.

‘Anyway…’

Even with her eyes open, the dream she’d just had remained vivid.

Dante and Rayenne from a time slightly younger than now.

And a place presumed to be the Academy.

She’d thought she was recreating original story content in dreams after actually seeing the original’s characters, but apparently that wasn’t it.

What she’d dreamed today hadn’t happened in the original.