Adonea had originally been an orphan.

That was, until she caught the eye of the duchess, who regularly volunteered to help children living on the streets.

Adopted into the family when Evelyn was around fifteen, Adonea was devastated when the foster mother she loved took her own life in the very same year she entered the ducal household.

The central premise of The Labyrinth of Purity was that all the brothers and male leads came to love Adonea as she wandered through life with no one to depend on.

Evelyn swallowed a sigh.

The original Evelyn had always been gloomy and withdrawn. It was only after Adonea came into the household that she became violent. There’s no way this face is still fifteen, which means Adonea must already be living here.

Duchess Jubel must already be dead as well.

Evelyn clutched her aching head.

Adonea’s delicate appearance, which naturally inspired others to protect her, was one of her greatest weapons.

Even now, Evelyn, the girl who had cast a dark shadow over the ducal household, was probably receiving nothing but hostile glares, while the kind and beautiful Adonea was showered with affection.

Evelyn steadied herself before anxiety could overwhelm her.

‘I managed to deal with that nightmare couple who demanded I pay for their divorce proceedings. Winning people over will be a piece of cake.’

In truth, had she been only slightly luckier, Evelyn, or rather, Isu herself, could have become the most beloved duke’s daughter in the world.

In the original novel, House Chantalis was one of the families that had helped establish the empire, and it was the most powerful of the four ducal houses.

Even if the duchess had taken her own life because of Evelyn, and even if the shock had rendered Duke Chantalis mute, once a duke’s daughter, always a duke’s daughter.

Evelyn was hated because she had been born with the mark of an evil god and possessed a vicious temperament to match. Even so, there was still plenty of room to change her life.

‘Still, continuing to live in a holy empire puts me at a disadvantage. Should I somehow make a fortune and leave this country as soon as possible?’

At that moment, an idea flashed through Evelyn’s mind.

What had she done for a living in her previous life?

She had been a matchmaker.

And where was she now?

Inside a romance-fantasy novel.

What was a romance-fantasy novel without?

Love and marriage, of course.

Evelyn’s eyes lit up with delight.

“That’s right! I’m living in a romance-fantasy world!”

And what kind of place was a romance-fantasy world?

A place utterly obsessed with marriage.

As a duke’s daughter, she could even use her family’s connections to meet clients of “Black Diamond” caliber.

It was the perfect opportunity to make an enormous fortune from matchmaking fees.

To establish herself quickly as a matchmaker, however, she would need a wealthy father willing to support her both financially and emotionally, as well as brothers who could introduce her to a wide variety of influential people.

An eerie chuckle slipped from Evelyn’s lips.

She drew a question mark beside Duke Chantalis’s name and a large X beside the name of her eldest brother, Oden.

‘The original novel never revealed much about Father, so I’ll put him aside for now. Oden is the first one I need to deal with.’

Since she had already been born with a diamond spoon in her mouth, she intended to squeeze every last drop of profit from it. She could not afford to leave any obstacles in her path.

In the original novel, Oden ground his teeth at the mere mention of Evelyn’s name.

He was largely responsible for leaving her without a single place where she felt she belonged.

Not only had he subtly manipulated the estate’s servants into tormenting her, but he later sided with the heroine, Adonea, and personally demanded that his own sister be executed.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes.

‘Dying once was unfair enough. I refuse to let my own brother kill me this time.’

In her previous life, she had been so skilled at navigating workplace relationships that she could have made even the most experienced salesperson weep with envy.

Besides, how many older brothers could possibly mistreat a younger sister as beautiful as this?

Confidence surged within her. If necessary, she could surely win over even the ice-cold Oden with a little calculated charm.

“Oden is the ultimate target. Good!”

Evelyn clenched her fist.

In the original novel, Evelyn died at the Debutante Ball held shortly after her twentieth birthday.

Having debuted later than the other nobles, she dressed herself to the nines and entered the banquet hall, only to be poisoned to death on the spot.

‘But I’m still alive, so that means I have plenty of time, doesn’t it?’

Her most urgent task was to find a genuine ally who would support her position as the daughter of the ducal family.

As far as Evelyn could tell, the easiest people to win over right now were neither the mysterious Duke Chantalis nor the terrified servants. They were her second brother, Locke, who was known for his gentle disposition, and her reclusive third brother, Sachi.

At this point in the story, Locke should have been attending the academy, which meant meeting him would be difficult.

“Then the only one left is my third brother, Sachi.”

Evelyn drew a large circle around his name.

Now that she thought about it, Sachi was that character, the one who remained eternally young.

Only one year older than Evelyn, Sachi mysteriously stopped growing after she descended into darkness. For many years afterward, he remained trapped in the body of a sixteen-year-old boy.

She clearly remembered that he was small and had a remarkably sharp tongue, but he appeared so rarely in the novel that she could not recall much else about him.

Did he love his younger sister? Did he hate her? Or did he feel nothing toward her at all?

Whatever the case, he probably believed that he was merely developing more slowly than his peers. Before he realized that Evelyn was somehow responsible for his body’s failure to grow, she needed to befriend him.

Evelyn added another category to the page: Potentially Dangerous People.

The first name she wrote was Adonea’s, tucked into a corner of the family tree, the undisputed heroine of the novel.

Adonea Chantalis, the sole savior destined to cleanse the empire Evelyn had corrupted.

Her long, translucent white hair and fairy-like red eyes were the very embodiment of the supreme god Chara.

“Adonea became famous after the imperial princess’s birthday party, didn’t she?”

Until then, eighteen-year-old Adonea had been nothing more than the fortunate orphan adopted by a ducal family. But at the imperial princess’s birthday celebration, she used divine power to heal a high-ranking noble who had collapsed, revealing herself to the world for the first time.

It was also at that birthday party that Adonea first met the male leads.

Even at a young age, Evelyn had felt intense jealousy toward Adonea, who was loved by everyone, but that had happened in the original story.

‘Adonea can find her own way to survive. I’ll find mine.’

Evelyn sprang to her feet and rang the servant bell. This time, she did not forget the veil covering her face.

A short while later, the maid who had delivered her breakfast entered the room.

“Y-You called for me, my lady?”

“…Good grief. It’s not as though I’m the daughter of some gangster.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind. How old am I this year?”

“Y-You are seventeen, my lady.”

That meant Adonea was eighteen.

Unfortunately, this was the year Adonea was supposed to distinguish herself at the imperial princess’s birthday celebration.

“Don’t tell me the princess’s birthday party has already happened.”

“No! As far as I know, it hasn’t happened yet!”

“When is it?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked when the birthday party is.”

Evelyn was asking out of pure curiosity, but the maid, unaware of her circumstances, went deathly pale.

“The imperial princess’s birthday party will be held in two weeks!”

Fortunately, two weeks gave her a fair amount of time.

‘I can’t allow the princess to develop a bad impression of me.’

Adonea might command everyone’s attention at the party, but Evelyn had to bring the imperial princess, the person who actually held power, over to her side.

Evelyn looked out the window.

It was still winter, and far too cold to roam freely outside.

‘I’d like to bring her a bouquet, at least. But I’m going to need a useful ally.’

Should she try winning over the maid standing before her?

But judging by how easily frightened the girl was, she probably would not even make a reliable messenger.

Evelyn fell deep into thought, staring intently at the maid’s face. The maid grew paler by the second.

‘She’s staring me down like this because of “that,” isn’t she?’

After glancing nervously around the room, the maid lowered her voice.

“Um…the dress you secretly asked me to have made will take about another week.”

“What dress?”

The maid lowered her voice even further.

If Oden ever found out about this, she would be expelled from the ducal estate immediately.

“The red dress you secretly ordered for the birthday party!”

A red dress?

Evelyn stared at the maid in bewilderment.

Evelyn had ordered a dress?

And not just any dress, but a red one clearly intended to spit in the temple’s face?

…This was never mentioned in the novel.

As a rule, the original Evelyn was only ever permitted to wear black dresses, even when attending parties.

Evelyn distinctly remembered her wearing a black dress during the scene at the imperial princess’s birthday celebration.

Yet at seventeen, this girl had intended to defy the temple’s rules at a party where all the highest-ranking nobles would be gathered?

“…Was she secretly a genius?”

“My lady?”

Evelyn remembered the sketches she had found in the diary.

If the original Evelyn had truly drawn them, then she had possessed extraordinary talent.

Evelyn waved dismissively at the puzzled maid.

“It’s nothing. Tell me when the dress is finished.”

“Y-You really don’t need me to have a separate veil made, do you? And you must pay me the compensation you promised!”

When Evelyn sighed, the quick-witted maid promptly fled the room.

Evelyn raised a finger and lightly tapped her smooth cheek.

Perhaps Evelyn, the original Evelyn, had been different from everyone else from the very beginning.

‘If only she hadn’t been so jealous of Adonea… No. Actually, I can understand why her personality became twisted. Being ordered to wear nothing but black dresses every day would drive anyone mad.’

Evelyn did not know precisely what her original counterpart had planned, but one thing was clear: she had intended to give the temple a resounding middle finger.

A red dress and no veil.

For some reason, the thought made Evelyn’s stomach flutter, and she could not suppress a smile.

Evelyn, Evelyn. What was it that you truly wanted? Revenge? Or did you simply want to cry out that you were an ordinary person too?

Even so, she had still been completely alone.

Evelyn’s green eyes clouded momentarily before regaining their clarity.

Smiling, she began moving her pen once more.

If she devised this plan but never carried it out in the original novel, someone must have stopped her.

Perhaps they had told her not to cause a scene because Adonea was supposed to be the center of attention.

If so, who had been responsible?

Oden, most likely?

Or perhaps one of the other male leads?

Evelyn firmly pressed her pen against the page and wrote down everything she remembered about them.

Male Lead No. 1

Name: Aint
Occupation: The crown prince, traveling incognito
Notable traits: Suffers from bouts of madness caused by explosive surges of magic. A mysterious, beautiful young man.

Male Lead No. 2

Name: Derrion
Occupation: High Priest
Notable traits: Possesses immense divine power. Has an utterly terrible personality.

Male Lead No. 3

Name: Bavil
Occupation: Connected to the criminal underworld
Notable traits: Incredibly wealthy. Obsessed with threatening people.

A mysterious beautiful boy, a high priest, and even a dangerous man connected to the criminal underworld.

Now that she had listed them together, every one of them looked suspicious.

‘I remember all three of them being incredibly handsome. I wonder what they look like at this point in the story.’

Evelyn cleared her throat for no particular reason and glared at their names.

The original author had crammed every imaginable cliché into the story, and that effort had paid off, the male leads were enormously popular with readers.

Every single one of them loved Adonea so obsessively that readers had given them a collective nickname: Adonea-crazed bastards.

After Aint lost the last traces of his boyishness, he swore almost daily that he would devote his life to Adonea, who had cured his madness.

Derrion, whose temperament was so awful that people openly asked whether he had been born without basic human decency, was prepared to abandon his position in the clergy for Adonea.

Then there was Bavil, the once-in-a-generation psychopath who silently murdered anyone who inconvenienced her.

Not one of them was sane.

With a sigh, Evelyn placed her pen beneath her own name at the center of the family tree and began to write.