Prologue

Someone once said that happiness will come after hardship.

But I thought that happiness would be joyful (㦡).

“Reniel.”

I never knew it would be the fall (落). If there’s someone who falls off a cliff after hardship, it might be me.

“Ha, haha… Master?”

I was in a bedroom. It was so familiar that I immediately noticed the changes.

I was very accustomed to this bedroom that wasn’t mine. After all, this was Felix’s bedroom that I used to tidy up every time.

The bedroom of the mad duke, whom no one believed or trusted.

As the head assistant of the Le Pelique ducal family, I was the only one allowed to enter and used to tidy it up for him every time.

Perhaps that’s why I was confused by the unfamiliar traces visible throughout the bedroom.

‘Cough cough!’

‘Is it painful?’

‘I’m sorry. The cigar smell is unfamiliar.’

‘Then quit.’

The cigar he said he’d quit was now filling the ashtray. The traces of it being roughly stubbed out were pitiful. The ashtray was strangely clean on the outside, as if washed just this morning. It made me suspect he might have smoked that much in just one day.

On top of that, the smell of alcohol permeating the room was intense.

‘Master, aren’t you drinking too much?’

‘I’ll quit alcohol too.’

I thought he clearly said he’d quit alcohol as well.

The remains of shattered liquor bottles were scattered here and there in the room. Though the alcohol from the whiskey had evaporated, its strong, tingling scent seemed to linger everywhere in the room. Glass shards were spread all around, making it impossible to move carelessly.

The room was strangely neat yet in complete disarray. As if someone had turned it upside down right after it was cleaned.

The bed and sheets were neatly angled, suggesting it wasn’t entirely unmanaged.

Then suddenly, seeing the remnants of white powder on the bedside table, I was appalled.

‘Are you taking this much sleeping medication?’

‘I can’t sleep without it.’

‘Then shall I help you until you fall asleep?’

‘What, are you going to tell me to quit this too?’

‘Yes.’

Remembering Felix’s smiling response to my words back then.

‘Alright, I’ll quit that too, then.’

Somehow recalling his casual answer made me feel strange.

“Ma-Master?”

“Ha.”

I squirmed, trying to move my bound body. He passed by me and headed for the cabinet.

Opening the cabinet, he had already found a new bottle of liquor, uncorked it, and was gulping it down.

Really.

Even in this situation, his face seemed to glow even in the darkness.

His pitch-black hair blended naturally into the darkness lit only by moonlight. His hair was jet black without a trace of lightness whether seen under the full light of chandeliers or under the midday sun.

However, in contrast, his striking red eyes were somehow engulfed in madness again.

“…Kh.”

With a sloshing sound, the whiskey bottle fell from his lips. Those gem-like eyes made of blood were glaring at me fiercely.

The beautiful Adam’s apple nestled between his thick neck was visibly undulating, perhaps from swallowing the alcohol.

“Don’t you have a servant to help you dress these days?”

Moreover, his attire was quite disheveled.

‘I’ve never allowed anyone but you.’

‘Come on, that’s a lie, right? What nobleman dresses himself?’

He seemed to have dressed in a hurry, as the upper part of his black shirt was undone, making his threatening pectoral muscles quite visible.

The straight collarbones and muscular shoulders that came into view, along with the strong smell of alcohol with each exhale.

“Reniel.”

“Yes, Master…”

My voice was trembling.

My own voice.

Though I was struggling to free my hands tied behind my back, only my wrists hurt while the ropes wouldn’t loosen at all.

“Master!”

Then he took out a butterfly knife from his pocket.

And was approaching me with it unfolded.

“…!”

I squeezed my eyes shut in fear. But with a thud sound.

“Master?”

My hands were free.

Clang!

“Ah!”

As the knife was thrown against the wall, my newly freed hands were grabbed by him.

“Master!”

With that, my body was laid down on the bed. The softness of the sheets touching my back and the plushness of the bed felt ominously uncomfortable.

“How dare you pretend to be dead to escape from me?”

“Master, that’s…!”

“Didn’t I say you were mine?”

Then his hand with visible veins covered my nape. And his other hand undid the buttons of the thin shirt I was wearing, one by one.

“I, well, there were circumstances…!”

“Shut up. Don’t make me angrier.”

As buttons flew everywhere and my clothes opened, I struggled to escape from him, but my hands were interlocked and restrained.

“Let’s talk this out first!”

“Talk? You mean bodily conversation?”

He sneered like that while pressing down on my struggling body contemptuously. The pressure was considerable. It was at that moment.

Ting, roll roll roll.

The ring that had allowed me to live as a man until now, hiding my female appearance, slipped off my finger and rolled onto the marble floor beneath the bed.

“Ah…”

In an instant, my lengthened hair flowed down over my shoulders. The feeling of his eyes confirming the disappearance of my Adam’s apple made my blood run cold.

“Ha.”

His expression changed strangely. His eyes were engulfed in madness and seemed to sparkle oddly.

And unbelievably, his tears fell drop by drop onto my cheeks.

“…So you were a woman, Reniel.”

He said that while laughing. With a maniacal expression.

****

How nice would it have been if life consisted only of predictable things?

In my previous life, I died from overwork. More precisely, I worked for such long hours that my eyes became blurry, and I couldn’t properly check if the traffic light was red or green before crossing the crosswalk, resulting in a fatal traffic accident.

And when I opened my eyes again, I had fallen into this world.

At first, I thought it would be a difficult start here too.

I was possessed by a 10-year-old child. And Reniel Beila, whom I possessed, was a girl from an orphanage.

Unlike where I had been, this place was incredibly cruel to children. Here, children were sold off when they turned ten.

Some to farms, some to ranches.

Lucky girls were taken as auxiliary staff for dressmakers or schools.

Becoming a maid in a noble household was a dream job for children like me, with uncertain backgrounds from orphanages.

That’s why, from my tenth birthday when I first had memories, someone suggested to me as I was running errands disguised as a boy with a magic ring:

‘Reniel, how about becoming an apprentice servant in a noble household?’

‘Me?’

‘Yes, they start taking them from exactly ten years old.’

‘Oh my goodness. Could I really do that job?’

I was lucky.

So, shortly after my tenth birthday, I went to the Le Pelique ducal family.

For almost 10 years after that, I worked without any incidents, really doing my best.

During my time working there, Felix, who had been a viscount, succeeded to the duke’s position and became the duke, while the previous duke died from illness. Rumors circulated that it might have been murder.

There were even rumors that Felix had finished him off.

Anyway, for me, the Le Pelique ducal family was truly perfect. Having died after only hardships in my previous life, it felt like I had been rewarded with a job with perfect work-life balance.

The working hours were long, but there was thorough compensation and bonuses, plus I could use vacation time freely, and the holidays were long.

I thought such a perfect workplace didn’t exist in the world.

Moreover, the doctors inside the ducal residence were always on standby for the employees. The sleeping quarters were so good that servants from other families all envied the employees of the Le Pelique ducal family.

Then one day.

I realized.

That this place was inside an R-rated, dark BL imprisonment novel.

My master, Felix Le Pelique, whose name somehow felt familiar but I couldn’t quite remember how I knew it.

I realized that he was the mad duke from the novel “Unimaginable Dream”.

“Ah.”

It hadn’t been long since I started working face-to-face with the mad duke Felix. I began serving him directly right after becoming an adult.

But of all times.

Just when I thought I was one step away from becoming the head assistant…!

I ended up encountering my master, Felix Le Pelique, like this.

“Reniel?”

Felix was smiling. His bright red eyes sparkled like a predator eyeing its prey, even in the darkness.

The blood splattered on his face and body.

The long sword in his right hand.

And the iron chain tightly gripped in his left hand.

And the person being dragged along, attached to that chain…

“Ha.”

It was Thanasis Avein Apentina, the crown prince of this empire.

Seeing his moonlight-white hair and glacier-pale eyes, I remembered that he was the mad water of the original work.

Furthermore, he was another madman who killed the original Reniel who tormented him and ended his life together with the mad duke.

“Did you see?”

Felix’s twisted lips and the sword pointed at me made everything clear.

“You saw, Reniel.”

Then the sword he was holding was raised above his head. As if about to slash me.