Chapter 5

After that, the Efret dukedom, which had lost its successor, naturally declined. Camilla searched among her relatives and put forward a successor, but he was a swindler who only coveted the assets of the dukedom.

Camilla cruelly took revenge on the daughter-in-law who killed her son, but that revenge couldn't bring him back to life. In the end, she spent the rest of her life watching her family decline and suffering from a mental illness, before she finally died.

As described in Veronica's memoirs.

So, in the end, I was blinded by money and dug my own grave. I thought it was a terrible fate when I read the novel, but I was shaking all over to think that it would soon be my future. I can't believe my role was to be such a villain. It was terribly bad luck.

I extended my hand and looked down. 'You're going to poison your husband with this hand?' Even just thinking about it made me feel terrible.

How did this happen?

Early in the morning, on my way back from my part-time job, I was hit by a car and died. What kind of death is that? I was still so young.

At that time, the novel 'Lady Crown' was in my bag, and that was the end of 'me' as far as I could rememberthe novel I read and who I am in my previous life. I remembered all of this two weeks ago, and I wanted to believe that it was just a terrible dream or imagination.

However, as what I saw in the novel became reality bit by bit, I had no choice but to admit it. In the last two weeks, I clearly saw what was described in 'Lady Crown' became a reality.

For example, from trivial information like the pattern of rainy days. From small and big events in the capital to social news, all of them became real. After putting all the information and my observations together, I concluded that this place was the world in 'Lady Crown'.

I thought it was just a novel about people dying and transmigrating to another world.

But why me?

Well, it's fine. But why did I get this role? The role of a wicked woman who would kill her husband and then die.

Can't I live a little longer?

'I shouldn't have accepted Camilla's deal.'

I pulled at my hair out as I blamed myself.

But I couldn't help it. There was no other option I could choose at that time.

Ah, there was one.

(t/n: means the dialogue happened in the past)

It was Madame Louise, the owner of a salon called 'Opium', who said that.

When I worked by mending the clothes, there was a high-end salon where only the highest-class nobles went. In fact, the salon was a place where people bought and sold their bodies.

But the guests were either royals or nobles. Their status, power, and wealth were all perfect. The women who worked at that salon were called 'Lady', and it was not easy to meet them. Although I earned money by mending their clothes, I had never met them in person.

Then one day, I was told that Madame Louise was looking for me.

Madame Louise was a woman with red hair and wine-colored eyes. As soon as I saw her, I could tell that she was a woman with a lot of charms.

Anyway, it was a tricky dress to handle, but I did a pretty good job at mending it, and my skill caught Madame Louise's eye. After becoming well-acquainted, Madame Louise began to look at me with a rather coveting look. Then one day, Madame Louise looked at me from head to toe and said:

[Your face and body are too precious. It's such a waste to let you handle my children's clothes. How about becoming a Lady of Opium?]

[Lady of Opium?]

[If you want to be one, come and see me anytime.]

[But]

[But what? You should do things when the opportunities come along.]

Madame Louise took something out of her bosom and slid her hand through my loose dress before I could say anything. Looking at me adoringly as I was stunned, she smiled and said:

[You know that I'm not giving it to just anyone, right? Just show this, you'll able to meet me without any complicated procedures.]

Madame Louise smiled like a flower as she winked. Then she gracefully went inside the salon.

Standing as if I was possessed, I slid my hand into my bosom and took out what she had put in. What I had in my hand was a business card with a gold frame. The shiny paper sprinkled with real gold dust was only used by nobles, especially affluent nobles.

I stared at the business card for a long time. It was a business card bearing the names of the salon, Opium, and Louise in pure gold. If I worked there, I could feed my younger siblings, pay off the debts, and escape my hectic life.

I didn't know the exact amount a 'Lady' was paid, but I could roughly estimate from the conversation I overheard between the 'Lady's' when I delivered the mended clothes as they returned home. The amount of the money that they earned overnight was a sum that I could never reach even if I mended hundreds of dresses and did all the dishes and laundry possible in one day.

So, I almost accepted the offer. If Camilla hadn't come to see me a few days later, I might have really accepted the offer. At that time, I wasn't sure whether Madame Louise's offer was better than Camilla's. It was impossible to get a happy ending even if I worked there. Rather, a more dreadful end could have come.

At least now, I'm alive. I can still look for other possibilities and find a better way than selling myself for money.

But at this rate, I feel like I'm approaching death's door. It is because of this role that was given to me. The role that would kill both my husband and me. No matter how hard I tried to ignore my past life's memories, I couldn't because they were too vivid. Rather, I felt grateful that the memories of my past life came back, or else I would surely die.

Lady Crown began with the orphaned heroine who was adopted by a marquis and became a precious daughter who received a lot of love and care. After her social debut, she fell in love with the male lead who would become the future emperor, become the crown princess and eventually rise as the empress.

The main conflicts in the story included the veiled enmity between the imperial family and their relatives and the plots of the nobles that led to many filthy scandals. These were the main aspects, the 'makjang', that led to the novel's popularity.

(T/N: yeah, that very 'makjang' that we all knowI googled the meaning just in case some of you cannot understand what it means. Well, 'makjang' literally means, to take things too far or to reach a limit, regardless of the circumstances. Frequently-used 'makjang' scenarios in K-dramas include birth secrets, murder, adultery, cover-ups of illegal actions, nearly-impossible-to-happen-in-real-life happenings and endings, and ridiculous twists.)

Every page was full of provocative and riveting stories. It was the only thing that made my weary life fun. So, I used to read the novel over and over again. The novel was out of print, so I had no choice but to borrow it from the library. And whenever the due date of the novel approached, I extended it repeatedly. Needless to say, I had memorized all the details of the novel.

In the novel, Veronica eventually ascended to the empress's throne, overcoming all the crises under the firm protection of the crown prince in the imperial palace.

In other words, the heroine lived happily, like in other typical fantasy romance novels with happy endingsAnd I was only an extra that adorned one of the anecdotes in her memoirs depicting what she saw, heard, and went through in the Imperial Palace.

So, this was the problem. There was a reason why the subtitle of Lady Crown was Veronica's Memoirs. It was because the whole novel was composed of memoirs written by the heroine from her point of view. That's why I wasn't able to figure out the details of certain events or other characters' points of view.

The incident when Selena poisoned her husbandI didn't even know why it happened. The exact evidence and testimony were not explained in detail in the 'Lady Crown'. Since Veronica didn't know the inside details of that incident, she only recorded the rumors that she heard. Among the rumors recorded were:

[She tried to take over her husband's property. She was married to him to give birth to a son, but she went crazy because she couldn't get pregnant.]

[It was easy to cover the poison because the duke himself was sickly.]

[That's very meticulous. How could a person do that?]

[If her husband dies, his assets will be hers.]

[The deceased duke was very pitiful. He didn't even know that his wife was such a wicked woman and had been living with her]

But rumors were only rumors, and could not be deemed as truth. Under her mother-in-law's watch, how could she poison her husband? Wouldn't it be too obvious and be easily caught? Why would I, nowhy would Selena, kill her husband?

It was not a marriage of love, but why on earth? Even after searching through all of my memories, both my past and present lives, I still couldn't find a single reason for me to kill my husband.

Ah, there was one. It was the rumor that caught my attention the most.

[I heard that she had an affair with another man.]

[Oh my God! How vulgar]

[Did she intend to run away with that new man in the middle of the night?]

[Why would she run away? She would probably kill her mother-in-law, the former duchess too, and take over the whole dukedom.]

A manThey said I did it because of a manWas it really because of that?

I would have an affair with another man later, so I would try to kill my husband and take over his family? A timid person like me?

I really couldn't understand. Before the memory of my previous life came back, I was just a powerless duchess who even had to obey the maids' countenance. A powerless duchess who was ignored by her husband and treated like an insignificant person by her mother-in-law.

Maybe that's why it was scarier when a person who was originally gentle changed. One day, a vulnerable woman suddenly became malcontent after an important incident and said, I'm going to kill my husband along with them all!

It was a common clich in novels. Then she committed all kinds of evil deeds and ended up with a bad ending.

'But I'm a living person.'

I can't die like the extra character in the original story. Because I'm really alive! I was born in this world and have lived until now. I'm not a mere extra character inside a novel. Now, her body is my body! If she dies, I will die too!

I've already died once. I don't want to die again. To make matters worse, my neck is on the verge of being hanged by the rope since it is the destined future for Selena. I definitely refuse to die like that.

Wait, if I die, will I go back to the original world?

That's not exactly good either. On my way back from doing part time work early in the morning, I died in a hit-and-run accident. Even if I return to my original world and come back to life, would I be able to pay the medical expenses and earn enough living expenses?

No, I don't want to die. Above all else, there is no guarantee that I will return to my original world if I die. What if it really is 'The End' after I die? I can't waste this second chance that God might have given to me.

I didn't have many regrets in my previous life either. I don't have parents and it was just a life full of struggles.

Since I already know how the original story would unfold, I will live well by using it to my advantage. Of course, before that, I must absolutely avoid that destined death.