Finally, that day had come.

The woman who hastily closed the door staggered as if her legs had given out. She was trembling right before my eyes, so I quickly embraced and comforted her. Even with one arm around her, her delicate shoulders that fit snugly in my embrace trembled finely, making me feel guilty, but my mouth faithfully recited the lines I had prepared.

“Mélisande, this must be a great shock. I never expected my brother to do such a thing……”

Actually, I knew everything, but that’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.

Anyway, it was natural. For the past two years, since I learned that the world surrounding me was inside a novel, I had simulated this situation thousands of times in my head, and it was worth it.

What kind of situation is this? Well, she’s a pitiful female protagonist who witnessed her husband’s affair. And not just any affair, but she had just witnessed her husband having s*x with his closest male friend. And I’m the kind-hearted sister-in-law comforting the shocked woman beside her. Now it’s time to say the words I’ve practiced countless times.

“Mélisande, if you want a divorce, I’ll help you to the end as much as I can. Antoine is my brother, but…… Mélisande, you’re more precious to me.”

Mélisande suddenly raised her head. Her blue eyes widened as if puzzled.

Contrary to my expectations, there wasn’t a single tear in those sky-like eyes.

“Divorce? What are you talking about?”

Wasn’t she crying? The scenario in my head was shattered by Mélisande’s unexpectedly composed appearance, and I stammered.

Surely this situation was supposed to be a mentally devastating scene where a wife who had been mistreated by her husband learns that her husband was actually gay and that she had been used as a cover-up wife for a fake marriage? In the original work, Mélisande was so consumed by betrayal and sadness that she even attempted suicide.

The original plan was to calm the grieving Mélisande and take her to the male protagonist. And my strategy was to appeal to Mélisande as much as possible that only that bastard Antoine was at fault and that our Levizet family was innocent.

Sirens began blaring in my head. This was the signal of doom sent by the big data accumulated over 35 years in my previous life, 21 years in this life, totaling 56 years. Yes, something was going wrong. Trying to ignore the alarm ringing in my head, I continued the conversation with Mélisande.

“Uh…… didn’t you see what Antoine was doing just now?”

Mélisande frowned.

“Oh, of course I saw. The smell of sweat was so terrible! I’m sorry, but if it weren’t for your fragrance, Alix, I would have almost retched.”

So her shoulders shaking wasn’t from crying but from holding back retching……? Cracks began to form in my mental state, but Mélisande continued speaking regardless.

“Alix, more than that, divorce! Do you want me to become a stranger to you?”

A beauty with silver hair and large, appealing blue eyes looks at me earnestly. Wow, she really uses her beauty effectively. If I agree here, I’ll be proven to be an absolute bastard. I quickly shook my head at the rising guilt.

“No, no, that’s not it—.”

“I want to continue living like sisters with you, Alix.”

“Yes…… But even if you divorce, our relationship won’t change—.”

Mélisande firmly interrupted.

“But we won’t be family bound by sacred vows and witnesses anymore.”

No, that’s not wrong, but that’s mainly an expression used for marital relationships, not something you’d say to a sister-in-law? Cold sweat broke out at her unexpected stubbornness. Something was going wrong. Whether she knew my panicked state or not, Mélisande continued speaking.

“And originally, marriages between nobles aren’t based on love anyway. It’s a bit shocking that his partner is Sir Caleb, but I had suspected there might be someone he was having an affair with.”

What woman would expect love from someone who showed such a cold attitude just because he’s her husband? I couldn’t say anything to Mélisande who shrugged her shoulders. How could I tell her that in the original novel, despite her husband’s coldness, she was a pitiful and naive fool who couldn’t let go of her attachment until the divorce? To my dismay, Mélisande spoke as if driving in the final nail.

“What if it’s an empty position? I am the Marchioness Levizet. And I will not let go of you and Levizet. So don’t ever talk about divorce. Absolutely not.”

***

When you receive an unexpected shock, sometimes stars flash before your eyes and enlightenment strikes your head. From major things like being hit by an apple and discovering the law of universal gravitation, to minor things like stubbing your toe on a drawer and suddenly remembering a forgotten appointment.

So, should what happened to me be interpreted that way? I sighed.

It was my fault for walking hurriedly through the corridor in my haste and slipping on the polished stairs. The maids made a fuss while helping me up. Among their chatter about finding and reprimanding the child who cleaned the stairs, I realized something. Although I had only briefly regained consciousness and miraculously had no physical injuries, a real problem had arisen.

Absurdly, I had remembered my previous life at that moment.

In my previous life, I was just an ordinary office worker. Then, upon marriage, I quit my job at my controlling husband’s insistence and became a full-time housewife. Even until the moment I submitted my resignation, I didn’t know. I didn’t know it would be my entrance to hell.

The moment my career was cut off, my in-laws’ grip came down on me terrifyingly. Now that you don’t work, come to your in-laws’ house more often— when I heard my mother-in-law’s meaningful words, I should have run away. When I came to my senses, I had become a shuttle for my sister-in-law and a servant for my mother-in-law at the in-laws’ house I visited every week. I wouldn’t even feel wronged if they had only made me cook and do housework.

That creature called my sister-in-law would barge into our newlywed home without even calling, and every time she’d rummage through the refrigerator and take away anything edible, saying it was for her nephew. And whenever she discovered even instant food, she’d run to my mother-in-law and tattle that her precious son was living on instant food. On such days, I had to endure my mother-in-law’s nagging bombardment all day long. Not only that, nagging about having children was routine, and when I’d forget about it, religious coercion, give me allowance, sign up for insurance, send me on trips, etc., continued in a medley of complaints.

Meanwhile, she spread gossip about me throughout the neighborhood, and at some point, I had become a parasite who stayed home playing while sucking the life out of her poor son.

My husband? He was just on their side. He’d spout all kinds of nonsense like how his poor mother doesn’t have many days left so let’s take care of her a little, you’re young so please understand a little, and it’s my eternal regret that I died before throwing divorce papers at that face.

The cause of my death was also absurd—I had a car accident while driving to prepare ancestral rites for a father-in-law I’d never even met. Going to prepare food for another family’s ghost and ending up becoming a ghost myself. Even thinking about it again, it’s ridiculous.

Anyway, the secret comfort in my harsh previous life was the romance fantasy novels I read after making small purchases on my phone. Among them, my favorite novel was «Mélisande’s Grand Duke».

Mélisande, who was the youngest daughter of a family that was barely noble but miserably poor, miraculously met and married the influential Marquis Levizet. Up to this point, it looks like a Cinderella story, but reality was different. Even Cinderella has to run on stone pavement in glass high heels when the prince tells her to get out of the carriage. Moreover, this was truly a tumultuous situation.

The mother-in-law and sister-in-law hated Mélisande for being from a humble family and mistreated her terribly, and her husband Antoine neglected her from the first night. While enduring lonely married life with no one to protect her, to make matters worse, she learned that her husband was actually gay and had brought her in as a display wife to disguise that fact.

Up to this point, it would be the most frustrating situation, but the novel’s charm lay in the refreshing revenge that followed.

One day, the male protagonist returned from war. And he was the official romance fantasy male lead, the war hero, Grand Duke of the North! And it turned out that the Northern Grand Duke was a childhood friend who had spent his early years with Mélisande.

With the help of the Northern Grand Duke she met again, Mélisande obtained a divorce. After that, she entered into a contract marriage with the male lead who hated noble women but had to marry (quite cliché, isn’t it?). And then—ta-da—after becoming a grand duchess, she systematically destroyed the in-laws who had mistreated her. Falling into true love with her contract husband in the process was a bonus.

Although I couldn’t stage as satisfying a revenge as Mélisande, I had earnestly spent cash on this novel as a kind of vicarious satisfaction, vowing to someday spit on my mother-in-law’s grave. Ah, why am I going into such detail about this story?

Now, here’s where the real problem begins.

It seems that my identity, having remembered my previous life, is like the villainous sister-in-law who gets thoroughly destroyed in «Mélisande’s Grand Duke» that I read in my previous life.