The Villainess Captured The Grand Duke - Chapter 1

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The guest room of the Blenga estate was warm, quite contrary to the northern weather. However, the hospitality felt as cold as the outdoors.

“I mean, I even proposed, and he didn’t even pretend to be surprised.”

Scheuer, along with her chicken, ended up confined in this lavish room. There was no mention of confinement, but the two knights standing guard at the door were surely not just for decoration.

Scheuer took out the ring she had carefully kept in her robe again.

“Did he not like it?”

Disappointedly, she loosely tossed the ring onto the bed.

Traveling all the way from the south to this distant north required much more patience than she had expected. Especially for Scheuer, who had left her family without anything.

She closed her eyes and recalled the events leading up to her arrival here.

About a week ago.

She had clearly died.

To be precise, Scheuer, who lived in South Korea, had died.

She remembered a time when she preferred friends over family and enjoyed being outside more than staying home. At the immature age of 20, her parents’ worries sounded like nagging, and their interference felt burdensome. 

A car accident had suddenly taken her parents away. It didn’t feel real. Not when she saw her parents’ photos side by side at the funeral home, nor when her relatives fought over her parents’ life insurance, arguing over who would take her in.

The moment she truly grasped reality was when she returned to that spacious house and realized no one was there. There was no one left to scold her or wait for her when she came home late at night. With the protective barrier of her family gone, all that remained were people drawn by the large insurance payout. No one embraced her with genuine care.

It took her a long time to realize that what she had found so bothersome was actually attention and love. Every day was a cycle of regret. She wished she had done better and wished she had said she loved them. Why had she held back from such simple expressions?

It was during this time of apathy and listlessness that she happened to stumble upon the popular novel “The Princess of the Flowers.” This story of a stoic and skilled knight commander and the prince who embraced him, overcoming family conflicts to save the empire and find love, instantly transformed her life.

While it was a fairly typical romantic fantasy, the character of Duke Raygrain Blenga of the North captivated her. As the inheritor of the Blenga family’s ability to wield emotions as a weapon, Raygrain had lost all feelings due to his frequent monster exterminations. His unwavering expressionlessness and indifference to any emotion immediately piqued her interest and soon captured her heart.

At first, it was mere admiration.

“If only I could be like him, not feeling any emotions at all.”

What a blessed ability that must be. Without having to struggle, he could simply use his powers to escape regret and sorrow.

However, the more she read, the more she began to pity him. Isolated in the North and living alone, avoiding public appearances, he seemed to mirror her own situation.

But unlike her, who longed to let go of her emotions, he valued even the fleeting emotions he had felt towards the female protagonist, Erina.

From that point on, she unconsciously sought him out in the novel. When she realized it, she was already rooting for Raygrain. She read and reread his sections until the letters were worn.

She discovered for the first time that she could become so deeply invested in something. She imagined his face daily, to the extent that she began to dream of reading the novel. The idea that not feeling emotions meant living without such joy or happiness made her heart ache.

She eagerly awaited the next installment, hoping he would regain his emotions through Erina. Wishing for his happiness brought many changes to her life. She walked out of her house, which had felt as cold as the North, after a year. She began meeting people and studying again. Her life, which had been stagnant for a year, started moving again.

However, unlike her, who had regained her emotions, Raygrain in the novel died. Erina, the only person who could stir his emotions, ultimately did not accept him.