I couldn’t ask Diart because he wouldn’t be able to give me a proper answer, so I decided to go to the eastern study room, thinking that even if I couldn’t read it, it would be better than not trying. I might have been using some gibberish language without realizing it, so I thought maybe the letters themselves were automatically adjusted.

And my judgment was exactly right. As soon as I entered the study room and randomly picked up any book, even though it was clearly written in unfamiliar characters, I was able to read it fluently and understand its contents.

I choked back an inward cheer and began searching the library for the book Lily had mentioned, the book about the history of the Wheaton family, as well as the diaries of generations of family members.

But after a few hours, I became completely exhausted.

“What the hell, there are so many books!”

I had rummaged through countless books, and my neatly dressed attire and hair had become a mess.

“Do you actually read all these books?”

From what I remembered, Diart Wheaton wasn’t fond of books. In the novel, his activities were described as spending the whole day with the knights in the training ground and, when it was time, going to the office to deal with documents. But when he met Adelia, he spent all his days obsessing over her.

Why would someone like him gather such useless books?

Feeling exhausted, I sighed and leaned my head against the bookshelf.

“When am I going to find it, seriously…”

My stomach growled audibly. Having only eaten a light soup and bread in the morning and spending hours searching through books without putting anything else in my mouth, I was extremely hungry. Unable to bear it any longer, I got up from my seat with the intention of eating something.

That’s when a book caught my attention from a distance. I was drawn to a book standing out at the far end of the second floor of the study room. The thick and heavy book appeared extremely worn, as if it had captured the traces of time.

I placed the book on the floor and sat down. I gently stroked the deep burgundy cover, which seemed to be made of leather, and slowly opened it, only to be taken aback. It contained characters that were completely different from any I had seen before, making it unfamiliar. But the more surprising thing was that I could effortlessly read it.

‘Is this some sort of possession buff?’

Well, in romantic fantasy novels, when heroines possessed others, they often gained various abilities one by one. It seems like this is a language ability.

“Since you’re giving me one, it would be better to have a more useful ability. Liberal arts is utterly useless. You can’t make money with it.”

Why not give me magic or divine powers, or even sewing skills?

I sighed deeply, regretting the decision to enter the liberal arts in my past life, as I flipped through the pages.

“Oh, oh, this is it!”

I cheered enthusiastically after reading the description of the achievements of Beast Wheaton, the founding hero of the Velric Empire. Quickly bypassing his uninteresting life and accomplishments, I searched for information about the curse. After a while, I finally found the desired clue.

[Duke Beast Wheaton, who was instrumental in founding the Velric Empire, was inundated with marriage proposals. Among them was an evil fairy named Ursula…….]

Ursula? An evil fairy? I paused for a moment. Somehow, the name sounded familiar.

[Beast Wheaton, who was straightforward and resolute but had no eye for women, fell in love with the beautiful Ursula and married her. But he was too busy and didn’t have enough time to take care of his family. The lonely Ursula cast a curse spell on a rose blooming in the garden and gave it to him. The contents of the curse were…]

The content were? It’s like an annoying morning soap opera. I swallowed hard and carefully flipped through the pages, and my jaw dropped.

[The person who touched the rose gradually had their limbs paralyzed, and after six months, their heart would harden and they would die.]

Die? I… I’m going to die?

[There was only one way to lift the curse.]

What is it? What is it! I hastily read the next sentence.

[It’s ‘love.’ The only way to gradually neutralize the curse through contact with the opposite s*x and ultimately become completely free.]

I put my hand to my forehead and bowed my head. I put out of my mind the uninteresting story of Beast, having willingly accepted the curse, used it as an excuse to apply for a leave of absence from the imperial service and spend the day banging Ursula.

So, according to the contents of this book, I am under a curse that is embarrassing to talk about, and I can only survive by consistently having contact with men for six months.

“No. Why would you leave such a stupid thing lying around!”

It should have been carefully kept in a place beyond reach! Anger surged within me, and as I was about to throw the book, I put it down heavily and took a deep breath.

Could it just be some kind of creation myth? Every country has some whimsical mythology like that, you know. I held onto hope and slowly reread the book, but when I turned the last page, that hope was completely shattered.

“So… the curse is real.”

The book I’d been poring over for hours had repeatedly said that the curse was real, and aside from the curse, the rest of the book read like a serious history book, so I had no doubt about its authenticity.

“If it can be bought with money, then I can at least repay it somehow. What kind of… nonsense is this…”

Are they trying to kill me again after I died and barely found hope by possessing this book? If I’m destined to die to my husband, fine, but to put such an embarrassing curse on me! It’s a double trap, isn’t it!

Do you want to kill me like that? Hey, you…!

I couldn’t contain my anger towards the merciless god.

“No, this isn’t going to solve anything.”

Despite cursing and venting my frustrations for a while, I tried to calm down. And just like in my past life, where I adapted to various part-time jobs and achieved a max level of adaptability, I quickly thought about ways to overcome this situation.

First, let’s just get a random rose to replace the one that’s been smashed. Lily said so, and as mentioned in the book, only those belonging to the Wheaton family can see the cursed rose.

I suddenly realized this here. For some reason, I felt strangely compelled to touch the rose, which had an aura about it that made it impossible for anyone who saw it to leave without touching it.

As someone who had just possessed the role of Wheaton’s wife, it felt to unfair getting entangled in the family’s curse in less than a day.

No, it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t entered this room in the first place. Yes, it’s my fault, my fault. I placed my hand on my chest and took a deep breath.

“The problem is how to break the curse…”

Beast Wheaton was able to easily break the curse because he had a beloved wife. No, it would have been better if his own wife hadn’t even thought of putting such a curse on him in the first place. Why is this so annoying?

I looked back at my situation while I was cursing the founder of House Wheaton, whom I had never seen before. So, Roeni Wheaton also has a husband. Diart Wheaton is a handsome guy, but he’s also an asshole.

“Do I have to have physical contact with Diart?”

I tried to imagine a tender moment with him for a moment, but couldn’t come up with anything at all. It was strange in itself that I could imagine such things with a man who saw me as a bug.

I raised my head as I remembered Diart last night, who had a face that wanted to cut off my wrist that was resting on his chest.

Besides, Diart Wheaton was the man who would kill me after a while. He’s a villain.

“Well, the only remaining option is to meet another man…”

The problem is that I’m still a married woman. Of course, I plan to divorce Diart soon, but it felt really uncomfortable to meet someone else when the paperwork hadn’t been sorted out yet. Literally, it would be cheating. Cheating!

For me, who was born in South Korea and lived here for over twenty years, betraying the morals and principles that I, as a person, should uphold is completely unacceptable.

No matter how much I say I’m not the real Roeni Wheaton, my upstanding morals wouldn’t allow it.

‘Ah, what should I do?’

As I grabbed my head and worried, someone opened the study door and came in.

“Um… Madam? Are you here by any chance?”

At the familiar voice, I poked my head out of the second-floor railing. Lily was relieved when she saw me.

“It’s time for dinner. Master is already waiting in the dining room.”

“Dinner?”

I turned my head, forgetting about the passage of time and my hungry stomach. Darkness had already settled heavily on the window where the bright sunlight was shining.

Suddenly, the novel setting came to mind. In House Wheaton, the whole family should gather for dinner. So Diart had dinner together with Roeni, even though he hated her so much.

But right now, I didn’t feel like sitting face-to-face with that bastard and having a meal.

“Just bring it here…”

I was about to say, ‘Can you bring it here?’ but immediately closed my mouth. There’s a Korean proverb that says, ‘even if it’s a bitter persimmon, you should give it a taste.’

Though the meanings might be slightly different, anyway, Diart felt like an untouchable sore spot to me at the moment.

‘Well, just in case, let’s poke it and see.’

After all, I was already fed up with that guy. It wouldn’t make much of a difference if I bothered him a few more times. I made a quick decision and stood up in one go.

“I’m going now!”