The Adventure Begins?
In the study where the two had just left.
Giovanni quietly stared at his daughter Angela.
“Father, why are you looking at me like that?”
“...”
Angela involuntarily shrugged her shoulders.
The room was quiet.
But strangely, it felt suffocating.
Just the fact that Giovanni was silently staring at her made her tense.
Angela was no longer a child.
She had the appearance of a mature woman, and the age where marriage discussions were common.
She had earned quite a bit of money.
Coins of silver and gold that even ordinary noble daughters would never touch in their lifetime had passed through her hands.
Yet to Giovanni's eyes, it still seemed insufficient.
Her body was fully grown, but her mind seemed not yet fully mature.
Just seeing her approach Ruang first at the recent ball showed that.
She moved without properly considering who the other person was, what position they were in, or how dangerous they were.
Whether it was because she was kind or because she was naive...
Both were fatal weaknesses in noble society.
“Angela.”
“Yes, Father?”
“Follow His Highness Ruang.”
“...Huh?”
Angela thought she had misheard.
She blinked several times.
“F-follow?”
“Mm-hm.”
Giovanni said it calmly.
His tone was as casual as if he were telling her to clean the ledgers for the day.
That made it even scarier.
Angela's lips trembled.
She didn't understand what following Ruang meant.
She wasn't that naive as to not understand what it implied.
If he wanted her by his side, it wouldn't end with just exchanging a few pleasantries.
From the moment she got entangled with a prince, her life would change completely.
Whether good or bad.
No.
If she got entangled with crazy Ruang, it didn't seem like it would roll towards the good side.
“Father, isn't this too sudden?”
“It's sudden, yes.”
Giovanni honestly admitted it.
“But it's also an opportunity.”
“An opportunity...?”
“His Highness the Second Prince has recognized your value. Just that in itself is already unusual.”
Angela fidgeted with her fingers at those words.
It wasn't wrong.
In noble society, marriage was originally a transaction.
Bloodline.
Money.
Connections.
Power.
And it included calculating the possibility of bearing a woman's body and children.
Angela knew that too.
But when it came to her turn, it suffocated her.
“But I...”
She trailed off.
Ruang was scary.
Sometimes he seemed like a crazy person.
But he wasn't completely bad either.
He seemed like he might kill her but also seemed like he might save her.
He could be cold but treat her strangely in some ways.
That made it even scarier.
It would be easier to guard against if he were a clear villain,
but Ruang kept moving in unexpected ways.
“Are you against it?”
Giovanni asked.
His voice was neither loud nor heavy.
Rather, it was too quiet, making it harder for Angela to answer.
What if she said she really didn't want to?
Would her father get angry?
Would he be disappointed?
Or would he calmly offer even worse choices with a calm face?
Angela loved and trusted her father.
But at the same time, she knew.
Giovanni Goldren was a person who cherished his daughter and at the same time
was a duke who moved for the family.
He would choose the best for his daughter,
But there was no guarantee that the best choice would be a comfortable path for Angela personally.
“Are you trying to send me away...?”
“You have the expression of someone being sold.”
Angela flinched.
Giovanni let out a short breath.
“It's not entirely wrong. That's the nature of noble marriages, after all.”
“Father...”
“But at least, I don't intend for you to be dragged anywhere.”
Giovanni's gaze darkened.
“I judged that being by His Highness Ruang's side was better than going to another family.”
Angela couldn't immediately object to those words.
Giovanni was not a man who made rash judgments.
He coldly weighed money, people, and opportunities.
If such a father said that, it meant his calculations were complete.
And in those calculations, probably
Some affection for her was included.
A little.
Yet strangely, it felt sad.
Even though it was words considering her daughter,
She didn't know why it felt like she was on the scale.
“According to His Highness... what will become of me?”
“That depends on what you do.”
“Me?”
“Yes. What position you become in His Highness's side is ultimately up to you.”
It was a kind-sounding but cruel word.
Surviving, being loved, not being abandoned—all depended on what you did.
Angela lowered her gaze.
Her mind was in turmoil.
There was no way it would be easy by Ruang's side.
There was also the issue of the villainess who would come from the Rosefield family.
If it followed the original story, Ruang's fiancée Rachel Rosefield would become the villainess.
She would break down with jealousy, obsession, and anxiety,
and eventually harm the people around her.
And the supporting characters next to such a villainess usually don't last long.
Angela would be more surely entangled than a supporting character.
Because she would become the target of jealousy.
She was not the heroine but just an extra.
Even if a shrimp gets in the way of a whale fight, it just dies silently.
But could she refuse?
If she said no here and now, what then?
Would marrying into another noble family be better?
Would an ordinary noble husband see her as an inventor, merchant, and person?
Perhaps it would suffocate her even faster.
She might lose her workshop, freedom, money, and end up just giving birth to children.
Compared to that, Ruang was dangerous,
But he didn't seem like he would see her as a machine for giving birth.
Perhaps he would find her inventions interesting and allow her to work.
It was too sad a standard.
But in noble society, even that was a luxury.
Angela hesitated for a long time.
She bit her lip, clenched and unclenched her fists,
and finally opened her mouth in a small voice.
“...Okay.”
Giovanni stared at her silently.
Angela avoided his gaze and said again.
“I will follow His Highness Ruang.”
Only then did Giovanni slowly nod his head.
“You’ve thought well.”
It sounded like praise, but Angela felt no joy at all.
It felt like she had walked into an inescapable door of her own accord.
“Go.”
“Yes...”
Angela answered weakly and left the study.
As soon as the door closed, a long sigh escaped.
“Haa...”
Her heart was beating anxiously.
Now, what should she do?
That meant following the original story's flow and becoming even more deeply entangled with the villainess.
If it followed the original story, Ruang's fiancée Rachel Rosefield would become the villainess.
She would break down with jealousy, obsession, and anxiety,
and eventually harm the people around her.
And the supporting characters next to such a villainess usually don't last long.
“I have to survive.”
While walking down the corridor, Angela thought.
No matter what happened, she had to survive.
There was only one answer to that.
She must not provoke Rachel's jealousy.
Then, suddenly, a very Angela-like answer came to mind in Angela's head.
“Instead of stopping the villainess... make the villainess not become a villainess?”
It was obvious why Rachel would become a villainess.
Because she might lose Ruang.
Because she might have her fiancé taken away.
And because she couldn't handle her own anxiety and jealousy.
Then, if from the beginning they made the two less entangled like in the original story, less misunderstood, and less obsessed?
If Ruang and Rachel's relationship became smooth,
at least the possibility of her being entangled and dying would decrease.
Yes.
That was what she had to do.
To properly connect Ruang and Rachel.
To prevent the two from going to ruin.
The problem was that it wasn't as easy as it sounded.
Angela involuntarily pressed her chest.
As if trying to calm her anxious heart.
“I can do it... probably.”
Her voice was completely lacking in confidence.
She had listened to many love stories, but she wasn't actually a love master.
What her friends said was that they listened well meant they gave the reaction she wanted, not that they told her the right answer.
It didn't mean they told her the right answer.
Still, she had to have confidence.
If she didn't act, she would die.
It was better to do something than to stay still.
Angela asked the servant where the two had gone,
and headed to the garden.
The more she walked, the more complicated her thoughts became.
How to appease Rachel?
If Ruang said something strange, how to handle it?
If they met and immediately disagreed and fought?
What if the atmosphere was ruined from the first meeting?
When she arrived in front of the garden after imagining all sorts of things.
Angela stopped walking.
“...Huh?”
Her thoughts stopped.
In the middle of the garden,
Ruang and Bianca were standing at a distance much closer than expected.
It was obvious to anyone that it was subtle.
Bianca's face was red,
Ruang was leaning his body towards her in a much lower posture than usual.
The distance between them was too narrow,
It was so close that if she took one more step, their lips might touch, and that wouldn't be strange.
Angela's heart dropped heavily.
Why?
Without realizing, such an emotion rose first.
It wasn't that.
No way, was Bianca trying to enter her worry too?
Angela was already worrying about how to resolve the relationship between Ruang and Rachel.
She also had to resolve her own relationship with Rachel.
But now adding Bianca?
That was too much.
“No way, it can't be.”
Angela hurriedly comforted herself.
“Bianca must have just overcome her fear and approached. Yeah, that has to be it.”
She had to believe that.
Yet between despair and fear, one strange emotion grew.
A thought that shouldn't be involved at all in a moment where she had to desperately survive.
“What if I had been there?”
Expectation.
And.
Jealousy.
“...No.”
Angela muttered to herself like that.
Jealousy?
What jealousy?
She had just heard from her father to entrust her body to Ruang.
But now the two seemed to be in such a relationship?
I can't admit—
Her chest below the sternum became heavy.
She had to take a step, but her toes seemed stuck to the ground and wouldn't lift.
Angela lightly bit the inside of her lip.
This was not the time to feel such emotions.
She had no right to feel wronged,
no reason to feel uncomfortable.
After all, she had to take care of her own life first.
She had to survive.
To do that, she had to ignore this feeling.
Angela forced her facial muscles to move.
Even if awkwardly, she made a smiling expression.
And slowly, but without stopping, she walked towards the two.
Her heart felt strangely bitter in one corner,
but what was important now wasn't that.
What was really important—
Even if the extra Angela got in between the novel's flow
to secure a position where she wouldn't die.
Yet.
Angela knew.
A moment ago, something had started inside her.
In a completely different direction from the thought of having to survive,
a much more difficult emotion.