Prologue
Choi U was the second regent of the Choe clan's regime in Goryeo, the powerbroker of the military dictatorship's stability era who had once crushed the Khitans and ushered in a dazzling golden age—only to devour the kingdom whole.
Choi Yeon had been born as the daughter of this very man. The daughter of a regent whose authority had genuinely threatened the throne in those days. She was the perfect archetype for a romance fantasy: the duke's daughter, straight out of some title tailor-made for the genre. After all, Choi U bore the title of Duke Jinyang, so in modern terms, you could call him a duke, couldn't you?
The reason she framed things in such contemporary language was simple: she was a reincarnated soul. And not just any soul—this woman carried the essence of someone from far in the future. Sixteen years had passed since her birth into the regent's family, yet her memories of her previous life as a man from twenty-first-century South Korea burned as bright as ever.
Right now, that very Choi Yeon found herself backed into an enormous crisis.
"You must marry Kim Yakseon, the son of Kim Taeseo."
Her damn military dictator of a father was demanding she wed the man, spouting utter bullshit.