CH 1

“The Duke is not here right now,”

Said the man with an elegant voice.

‘…How should I answer? Should I honestly say I’m not here to see the Duke, but him?’

While she was contemplating, the man raised his long and pale fingers to fix his glasses.

As his round glasses hung on the tip of his perfect nose, it gave him a languid atmosphere. The man had cold blue eyes that seemed as if he had trapped the blue sky in his eyes, a sharp nose, and red lips—all of his features seemed impeccably harmonious.

He was handsome, but ‘sharp’ and ‘intelligent’ seemed more befitting to describe him.

On top of that, his blonde hair and shirt, which he perfectly buttoned to the top, made him seem like someone without any worldly desire. He was the epitome of an elegant and elite man, so in other words…

‘…He’s exactly my type.’

As she was standing there and gazing at him without saying anything, he sighed as if he was fed up. After a while, he opened his mouth again in an extremely business-like tone.

“I’m telling you again because I don’t think you heard me. Duke Lucas is not home.”

She couldn’t feel any emotions in his snappy tone.

It seemed the man firmly believed that the woman in front of him wouldn’t be entangled with him in any way and would continue to do so.

“That’s not it…”

She muttered in a quiet voice.

When she said that, the man raised his head stiffly and glanced down at her as though he thought she had come for nothing. Her heart tightened as his relentless gaze made her speechless. Carinne desperately shook her head, trying to ignore the cold glare from her favorite character.

Why did she come here?

Memories from a moment ago flashed through her mind like a movie.

* * *

“Who is this?”

Just a few hours ago, when I stared into the mirror, a woman with long and curly red hair was staring back at me. Even though I was confused seeing her foreign and beautiful cat-like face with green eyes, I instantly realized when I saw a child in a maid uniform calling me ‘Lady Carinne’ instead of Sohyun.

…It seemed like I went inside a novel 〈 Even if I’m a ditzy lady, I want to fall in love! 〉

It was a romance fantasy novel that was published on a platform with free chapters every day. Although the author was famous for their amateurish writing skill and how their novels were only great at the beginning, they had a strong fanbase.

It was also the novel that I, who was picky as a romance fantasy genre enthusiast, kept reading. I went to that platform every night to check if the latest chapter had been uploaded.

It was the only joy in my lonely jobless life.

Sometimes, I would also complain about how it would be great to possess a body in another world rather than living like this.

But…

‘Who knew I would really possess a body—?!’

In addition, the body I possessed…

It was not the female lead nor an extra, but a supporting role.

I became Carinne, a wicked woman who faced a terrible end for obsessing over the male lead, Duke Lucas. If it were someone else, maybe they would’ve cried and grabbed their hair in frustration as they complained, ‘Why did I have to become the villainess!’

Still, I wasn’t in a position to argue about this and that.

This was because my favorite character’s life in this novel depended on me.

It was true that it was regrettable and unfair for me to possess a villainess’ body, however, even though I wasn’t an angel, my favorite character’s life still depended on me. So, was it the time to be choosy…?

As I thought so, I gritted my teeth while looking at the mirror as the little maid stared at me strangely.

‘I’ll save you no matter what.’

This was fate…

This was a chance for me to save him, my favorite character. God must’ve felt sorry for me, who had such a hard life, so he gave me a chance.

“Lady, what’s wrong?”

Seeing that I clenched my fist and teeth in determination, the maid asked me while trembling. Lowering her shoulders, she trembled pitifully.

It was natural. I knew why she was acting like this.

Carinne was someone whom the author set as a villainess. Not only did she make the maids and people around her miserable with her terrible personality, but she had also done many things that couldn’t be mentioned one by one.

Among her evil acts, one stood out compared to the others. It was Carinne’s obsession with the male lead, Duke Lucas.

It wasn’t a simple and cute one-sided love… It was more of creepy stalking.

If they lived in the modern era, the Duke could probably sue Carinne.

It was given as she followed him around, sneaked a peek, even analyzed his daily routine, and pretended to meet him by chance. In addition, she also stayed by his side so that other women wouldn’t approach him.

Needless to say, the Duke hated Carinne and was disgusted by her.

Meanwhile, Carinne, who was rejected by him, was fuming with anger. Just in time, the female lead appeared, and because of jealousy, her obsession simply became madness. There would be no end if I mentioned her terrible acts one by one, so let’s skip that…

What was certain was how serious Carinne was in intercepting the Duke and female lead’s relationship.

Because of that, the comment section was full of curses for Carinne.

[ When is Carinne going to leave? ]

[ I’m waiting for Carinne’s doom. I trust you, author. ]

‘Still, Carinne must’ve really liked the Duke. It’s nothing, but I think the Duke is so perfect that she became obsessed with him. Maybe, Carinne only thought that way when she met the Duke.’

Even though it was natural to fall for a perfect man, people used to swear at her for falling for him.

Well, I could understand why she became that obsessed…

The Duke was truly perfect. He had all the qualities that a male lead in a romance fantasy novel should have—a handsome face, tall and strong physique, power, and wealth—he also did whatever he wanted.

Shortly, Duke Lucas had the qualities of the so-called ‘Northern Duke’ in novels.

When he first fell for the female lead, there were many comments about how would the female lead felt when he confessed. He was exactly the ‘cold but warm for his woman’ type, and people were enthusiastic about it.

He was also like that when he punished Carinne, who was jealous of the female lead and almost killed her.

People readily cheered on Carinne’s miserable ending and the main characters’ love. It was a heartwarming sight. In the second half of the novel, everyone blessed the Duke and the female lead’s relationship.

However, I didn’t have such a thought.

I wasn’t interested in the male lead at all. Powerful ability? Cold-hearted personality? I was confident I wouldn’t even look at him even if he vie for my attention.

Then, why did I hold onto such a novel that didn’t suit my taste?

…It was because I like the Duke’s aide, Archenas, or Archen for short.

He was mainly responsible for mediating between Carinne and the Duke. Yet after Carinne’s death, his appearance gradually decreased. And when the Duke and the female lead had a proper relationship, he disappeared completely.

Just in case he would appear again, I read until the end though he was truly gone. The author seemed to have forgotten Archen’s existence… or maybe his role ended there.

‘Ah… I wonder what happened to him.’

At first, I thought it would be annoying if I asked that, so I quickly tried to forget about it. After all, it was just that he was exactly my type. Besides, if I asked just because of that, it would be annoying.

It was a taste I developed after years of reading romance fantasy novels.

My type was an elite young man who seemed sickly, and Archen was exactly like that in the novel. Since it would be difficult to explain my taste in simple words, let’s take a quick look at the man named Archen.

He was a sharp-looking handsome man with glasses and was highly educated.

He graduated from the best academy in the Kingdom, and he seemed like someone who grew up in a noble family, but in fact, he was a poor orphan who lived under harsh conditions. Nevertheless, he was able to succeed without any support due to his hard work, likewise, his extraordinary brain also played a part.

Perhaps, that was why he was sickly. He kept toiling away at his desk every day. I even remember he was sick several times due to the amount of work he did.

I would gladly take in this pale young man who stimulated my protective instinct, even though he was a bit cold-hearted. He was rough, but his personality wasn’t nasty. On the contrary, he spoke politely to everyone because he was a gentleman, and he always spoke with dignity and elegance.

Hence, he passed my qualification of a man being polite to everyone.

‘There was nothing less than perfect about him. He passed perfectly…!’

…But, that was only me.

While reading the epilogue, I felt like I was the only one hooked on Archen.

In the epilogue, Duke Lucas recalled his time with the female lead and other characters one by one. Carinne, who was mean to the female lead, the sub-male lead, the people he quarreled with at meetings, and more… However, he forgot one person.

…He even remembered the girl who sold flowers to the female lead in one scene.

‘How could you forget your aide—!’

It was bizarre, but no one in the comment section pointed out why Archen was left out. I even posted a message on the thread out of anger. Still, those who remembered Archen never showed up.

[ Don’t you think one person was missing in the epilogue? ]

—Who?

—Everyone was mentioned in the epilogue.

—Did you confuse them with another character?

The last comment became a dagger stuck in my heart.

What other character? How could they say that…?

Calming down my raging heart after a while, I decided to send a message to the author. Obviously, even if he disappeared in the middle, it was not acceptable if he didn’t appear in the scene where the male lead recalled every character.

Despite the fact that I may seem like a lame person who was obsessed with an extra, he was my favorite, so it was natural.

Others seemed to have no interest in Archen and didn’t even remember him, but I firmly believed the author should at least care about him. Conceivably, they forgot him because there were so many characters. So, it was possible to make such a mistake because they were also human.

Until then, my reasoning still remained.

I began typing, then pressed send.

[ Hello, author! I’m a reader who enjoys reading 〈 Even if I’m a ditzy lady, I want to fall in love! 〉. It’s nothing much, but I think you left out Archen in the epilogue, so I decided to send you a message to let you know. ]

I was going to end it there, but I added two more sentences in the end.

[ Why did Archen stop showing up? Did he resign? ]

Surprisingly, the reply came in less than five minutes. It seemed like the author was also accessing their account at that time.

I opened their reply with a pounding heart, feeling a certain emotion inside of me.