Chapter 2

You reap what you sow.¹it actually said: “Beans grow where beans are planted, and red beans grow where red beans are planted.”

Evil begets evil.

There was a reason why Leonel became obsessed. His father, Raphael, was the world’s greatest villain. This unyielding antagonist had also made his own son unhappy. Raphael Lloyd Siegfried was a devil.

He was called the ‘Iron-Blooded Grand Duke’ but that was only used in official settings. In most cases, he was called a devil. There was no other word to describe him. No, he was worse than a devil. Even a devil wouldn’t treat their own child like that.

Even though it was a loveless marriage, Raphael treated Leonel like an animal. A misbegotten, lesser beast.

“Grand Duchess?”

“…Ah, sorry. I felt dizzy for a moment…”

She was so surprised that she just stood there staring at Raphael. When she was reading the book, she had resented Raphael and Amelia for making Leonel like that. Why couldn’t they have done anything else? Especially since the beginning of all this misfortune was the man right in front of her, Raphael Siegfried.

“What’s the problem this time?”

Why was he so angry? And even calling it a problem. While there had been a small commotion earlier, it had nothing to do with him.

“There’s no problem.”

“Why did you cause such a commotion then?”

“Are you saying I caused a commotion just to call for you?”

When someone is too dumbfounded, they can’t speak, and that’s exactly how she feels now. Even though she was overflowing with confidence. She couldn’t believe that he thought she had caused a commotion just to call for Raphael…

“Should I increase your personal budget?”

Amelia couldn’t help but burst into laughter at his expression, looking as though his head was throbbing just thinking about it. She hadn’t thought it was this bad when she’d read about it, but now that she was experiencing it, she didn’t feel good.

“I’ll ask Edward to increase your dignity maintenance fee…”

“That’s not necessary.”

“What?”

It wasn’t difficult to understand Raphael’s reaction right now. The original Amelia had done everything possible to provoke his response. She treated the servants cruelly as a basic instinct and spent money recklessly to seek attention. She even staged a suicide attempt and used their son, Leonel, for blackmail.

“I didn’t cause a commotion to call for you.”

Raphael was the last character she wanted to encounter when she realized that she was in the book ⟨The Woman of the Sun⟩. So why would she try to call him.

“…….”

“I had a nightmare and was so startled, that’s all.”

Amelia deliberately bowed her head politely and even apologized as much as possible, conveying the meaning of asking him to leave the room.

“You won’t be bothered by me anymore. So please rest assured.”

“…How am I supposed to believe that?”

“You’ll just have to trust me.”

Suppressing her deep-rooted distrust, Amelia sighed inwardly and smiled as innocently as possible. Raphael, like anyone else, couldn’t spit on her smiling face. But that was because she still didn’t know Raphael Lloyd Siegfried yet.

“I don’t know what your plan is, but there’s one thing I want from you.”

To maintain the illusory position of the Grand Duchess.

***

It had been several minutes since Raphael left the room, but Amelia’s pale face did not expect him to return. She could still hear his cold, low voice in her ear. She had tried to solve everything with words. Just as he had treated his son, Leonel, as a worthless object, Raphael had treated his wife, Amelia, similarly.

“Raphael Lloyd Siegfried…”

Why he was the greatest villain in the world. He did not hesitate to sacrifice anything to strengthen the power of the Siegfried family. Not only killing people, but also confinement, torture, kidnapping, and threats. There was no end to the crimes he committed. Raphael was repeatedly described in the book as someone who always had a sense of blood that couldn’t be hidden.

Blood-crazed Siegfrieds, Devilish Siegfrieds. There were many words to describe the Grand Duchy. The problem was that they were all negative. In fact, ordinary people could only think of the Siegfried family as using evil power. The people of Siegfried were capable of evil.

Human and demons. The difference in absolute power brought people fear. That’s why, even though it was the only grand duchy in the empire, its territory was located in the most barren north. It was a plausible excuse for protecting the borders, but there were no nobles who did not know the hidden agenda behind it.

“It’s worse than I thought when I saw it in person, huh?”

There was only one reason why Raphael and Amelia got married. It wasn’t an arranged marriage done out of necessity.

Raphael had nothing to gain from her. He married Amelia solely because of her silver hair.

“You got married just because of this hair color?”

She tugged at a lock of fine silver hair in front of her eyes. This woman’s life was so bleak because she walked into the devil’s den because of her hair color. The original Amelia would have thought she was saved.

Amelia was the daughter of a small and insignificant viscount. It was Amelia’s seventeenth birthday. On that day, Amelia’s father tried to marry his daughter to an old count. To have her as his third wife, despite having two already, he had set his eyes on the young Amelia. She couldn’t run away even if she wanted to.

Since she was born into a small and insignificant viscount family, it was impossible for her to defy fate.

“How on earth did they meet?”

In the book, it was described that Amelia tasted salvation. For her, who couldn’t even live in high society, meeting Raphael was like a miracle. It seemed like he rescued her from the crisis, but in reality, that was not the case at all. Raphael Lloyd Siegfried, was he someone who would rescue others?

Amelia was just unlucky. The fact that she caught his eye was proof of that. Of course, becoming an old count’s third wife was not a good choice, but becoming Raphael Lloyd Siegfried’s wife was even worse. Raphael needed a duchess at the time, and Amelia caught his attention.

Amelia resembled his first love from childhood. 

It was a very pure and unrequited love. To the extent that he would sit a woman who resembled her in the position of his wife.

“I can’t believe that a man who is so villainously dark, who seems to know nothing about love has a woman who loves him.”

That’s where the problem started. Naturally, to Amelia who married without knowing such circumstances, Raphael was a perfect husband and a hero who saved her. Of course, she couldn’t help but fall in love. But as time went on, Amelia, who had initially been elated thinking that she had become Cinderella, began to feel something strange.

Intimacy between a married couple? They never held hands throughout their married life. Until Amelia pounced on Raphael in frustration. The mistake made on that day was Leonel. Since that day, their relationship as a couple plunged into disaster. Raphael came to hate Amelia and openly denied her.

“No matter what happens, that incident must be prevented.”

At this moment, the current Amelia had no intention of rushing towards Raphael. Only someone who is not in their right mind would do such a crazy thing. The original Amelia in the original work was a pitiful woman. More precisely, it was the Amelia before Leonel was born.

“I’m sorry for the unborn Leonel, but…”

The marriage between a minor noblewoman with nowhere to go and the only Grand Duke in the Empire. It was a perfect noble marriage. Naturally, she couldn’t enter high society, and no one welcomed her. First of all, her husband Raphael never attended parties at all, so Amelia couldn’t attend parties alone. The nobles disliked outsiders.

Who would welcome a minor daughter of a viscount who is nothing special. In this way, Amelia became isolated in the Grand Duke’s residence. She longed for the day when Raphael would look at her. Moreover, Amelia’s personality could not be described as strong.

The man she loved didn’t pay attention to her, and people pointed fingers at her. But she believed that if she only gave birth to his child, if she only gave birth to the child in her womb, everything would go as she wished.

“Foolishly, that was the wrong choice.”

From the moment of Leonel’s birth, Amelia’s already strained mental state gradually deteriorated completely. She directs all her resentment towards her son, Leonel, a mere newborn. As time passed, when Leonel turned six, Amelia took her own life in front of her son by hanging herself.