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“I’m going crazy. Seriously.”

In the early dawn when everyone was asleep, I sat alone in a chair, pulled out a thin book, and muttered softly.

The light green leather cover in my hand bore no title. Of course, it wasn’t a book sold in stores but one I had written myself. As proof, the contents were written in Hangul, not the characters used here.

The first page was filled with a chaotic jumble of words, clearly reflecting my urgency when I first found myself in this situation.

At that time, I was solely focused on jotting down whatever I could remember, so the characters in the book were too crude to be called sentences, and no one, even if they looked at it, could distinguish whether it was writing or a worm with its condition.

Even I, the writer, struggled to decipher several pages upon reviewing them later, making the task of organizing this a real headache.

I flipped through the pages until I stopped at one particular section of the book.

Unlike the previous pages, it was written in neat handwriting, and it read:

[1. Breakoff with Elena Edelweiss. Pay attention to any peculiarities that may arise thereafter.]

“What’s with this attention note nonsense?”

The fountain pen in my hand scratched the paper as if it was going to carve the text away.

With multiple lines crossing out the now-invisible text, I recalled the events of today.

If things had gone according to plan, I would have either ended my engagement during today’s meeting with her or simply exchanged casual pleasantries, so how did it end up like this?

Her last words still echoed in my ears.

“Then, shall we get engaged? Formally.”

“Why are those words coming out from there…?”

In that moment, I handed over the right to decide, making Elena choose for herself. I never imagined she would think positively about our engagement, which is why I pulled that stunt, but the outcome turned out to be the exact opposite of my expectations.

For heaven’s sake. Elena Edelweiss is proposing to me.

I don’t know what kind of expression I had when she said she wanted to get engaged, but I must have looked like a fool.

For today, I had prepared dozens or even hundreds of questions and responses based on her character from the novel, but not a single one of them contained a reply about her proposal.

I had never once thought she would suggest an engagement to me.

“Did Elena ever say something like this to other male candidates in the original story? As far as I recall, she hasn’t.”

If someone in the story had been proposed to like that, they wouldn’t even need the title of a male candidate.

In the story centered around Elena Edelweiss, the male protagonist represented a character who would connect with her, especially since the genre of the novel was romance. However, similar to many female leads in fantasy novels, Elena had several male characters vying for her affection, but it was never clear who would end up with her, so they were simply referred to as candidates.

The original story never made it clear which candidate Elena had feelings for.

The plot involved those who liked her trying to help each other, leading to a butterfly effect, and then later, Elena cleaning up the mess, making it quite different from conventional romance fantasy plots where it’s simply about straightforward relationships.

Well, if the story were to continue to the end, a male protagonist might be decided, and a romantic development could occur, but unfortunately, this was not a completed story, and at least up until the point I was reincarnated, I had never read a description where she directly liked someone.

However, back then, Elena had suffered greatly from her relationship with Damian, fiercely shutting her heart toward men. But the current Elena was different.

I wondered if that could be the reason, but to my knowledge, there was a male candidate beside her who had been a childhood friend.

Although things had been strained now, it was also a factor that allowed me to calmly devise my plans.

One of the seven great Magic Towers of the continent, the Dawn of Edelweiss, stood in opposition to Twilight Ertuwen, which belonged to Elena’s family.

The head of the Ertuwen family, Richard Ertuwen, known in the future as the Connector to another realm, was the pawn I had in mind.

In the original work, the relationship between childhood friends Elena and Richard was described as not bad, and it mentioned that Richard had been in love with Elena for a long time. Hence, I thought that if Elena was to choose, she would naturally pick Richard over me.

I had no way of knowing how the current Elena felt about him, since such descriptions were absent in the text, but it was certain they had a closer relationship than she had with me, who she just met today.

Thus, I expected Elena to break off our engagement in favor of Richard; however, was it possible she wasn’t seeing Richard as a romantic option?

That expectation went absurdly awry.

“Why on earth did she choose me over such a capable childhood friend? I really can’t grasp it.”

Despite being young, Richard Ertuwen was renowned as a magical genius born of the Ertuwen family. In comparison, I came from a family famous for martial arts, yet I held no particular fame myself.

I was just the firstborn of a renowned swordsman family. That’s about it?

Even with this time spent together and differences in ability, her choosing me would be truly bizarre.

In today’s meeting, I had forced her to make her own choice; I didn’t insist on the engagement. In fact, throughout the conversation, I subtly hinted that I didn’t want her to engage with me.

Yet, her reply indicated the proposal to get engaged was entirely her decision.

So what in the world was it about me that made Elena come to that conclusion?

In this world, aside from herself, and perhaps I knew her even better than she did, but I simply couldn’t find the answer no matter how much I pondered.

That means the answer to this must entirely be known by her alone.

“Still, the good thing is that it’s merely a proposal to try things out; I haven’t given her an answer yet.”

If I couldn’t find an answer even after thinking it over, it would be much better to stop worrying and consider other options.

There was still a year left until the story officially began. During that time, I could somehow lead her to break off the engagement. What means could I use to make sure she was put off without committing any evil like the original Damian?

But as I tried to dive back into my thoughts, it felt as if I had used up my mental energy earlier, and nothing was coming to mind, my head only throbbed.

“Oh, I don’t know. I might as well just sleep.”

I abandoned the thought altogether.

*

Time flowed swiftly, and the once dark sky now displayed clear blue, as if it had never been dark at all.

A bed is like a time machine. Just lying down for a moment erases time, truly an unbelievable object. The cheap bed I used in my previous life was like that, but compared to this, the Count’s bed was even more so, undoubtedly better than any modern mass-produced product.

The bed in my room was one of the few things I was satisfied with in this life I had entered after being reincarnated.

Feeling as if I had awoken from a deep slumber, my throat felt dry.

I called for a servant, downed a glass of cold water, and stepped into the bathroom to wash up. The shower operated by magic instead of science. Even after spending quite a long time here, I was still amazed every time. The droplets of water hitting my body washed away the remnants of sleep.

Upon returning to my room, I noticed Ken, who seemingly had arrived without my knowledge, standing with clothes prepared in his hands.

The left arm of the outfit made from luxurious black fabric bore the symbol of the Kraus House, a dragon embroidered in golden thread. It was more refined and noble than it was extravagant.

I dried my body with a towel, then naturally received the clothes from Ken and put them on.

“Your father says you shouldn’t attend breakfast.”

“Huh? Did I do something wrong? Suddenly leaving his son hungry for breakfast.”

“That’s not it; he said to join the young lady of the Edelweiss family for breakfast in the eastern annex.”

“….He’s really trying to stick us together completely. Tell him I understand.”

Ken tilted his head as I grimaced.

“You seem a bit upset, sir. Did you, by any chance, offend the young lady?”

“No, just because I grimaced doesn’t mean I offended anyone, right? Common sense says it should be Elena Young Lady who’s at fault here, doesn’t it?”

“That’s impossible. If you unconsciously did something, maybe, but it’s not Elena Young Lady.”

“Ken. Are you really my butler?”

“Just joking. But seriously, why do you feel that way? You’ve got a beautiful fiancée; you should be happy. In my fifty years, I’ve never seen someone so beautiful. Is there really something wrong?”

Worry clouded the face of the simple old butler. I told Ken to stop worrying and finished adjusting my outfit before heading to the annex, where breakfast awaited.

The morning mansion was more bustling than I expected. The servants, upon rising, immediately opened the curtains on every window, beginning to clean both inside and outside. After I took over Damian’s body, I behaved like a model student, and everyone met me with smiling faces as they went about their tasks.

In the past, maids would secretly give me candies or snacks behind my father and mother’s backs. Now that I’ve grown somewhat, they’ve stopped giving me treats, which is a small regret. Just because I didn’t like sweets didn’t mean I hated their kindness.

With that thought, I remembered yesterday’s events.

“Oh, Ken. Please ask the cook to prepare the same dessert as yesterday for after breakfast.”

“You don’t usually eat sweets…Ah. Understood.”

Ken nodded with a smile, understanding my request, and opened the door to the annex, the Isilia Pavilion.

“Sir, I hope you have a wonderful meal with the young lady.”

“You too, have a good morning.”

As I passed through the door Ken opened, I was greeted by the glistening sight of the room illuminated by sunlight. One wall of the Isilia Pavilion was made of glass crafted by alchemists, famous for capturing a view of the garden filled with flowers basking in the morning sun.

But what caught my eye at that moment wasn’t the flowers, but one person.

Her pure, white hair sparkled as it reflected the sunlight passing through the glass. She emitted a bright light as if a star had fallen to the earth, completely overshadowing everything around her.

It was dangerously alluring from the morning.

Concealing my hand behind my leg, I pinched myself and smiled slightly.

“Good morning, Elena.”

As my face was reflected in her clear, violet eyes, she smiled back.

“Good morning, Damian.”

 

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