Warm sunlight streamed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, bathing the room in a soft golden glow. The sheer curtains swayed gently as a cool morning breeze drifted inside, carrying with it the faint scent of blooming flowers from somewhere outside. Every corner of the room seemed to radiate elegance, from the polished marble floors partially hidden beneath an expensive woven carpet to the intricately carved furniture that looked as though it belonged in a museum rather than a bedroom.
The room itself was massive.
A grand chandelier hung from the ceiling overhead, its crystal ornaments sparkling beneath the sunlight. Against one wall stood a dark mahogany wardrobe adorned with delicate golden engravings, while a matching bookshelf occupied another corner of the room, filled with neatly arranged books bound in leather covers. Near the windows sat a beautifully crafted desk cluttered with stacks of parchment and expensive-looking stationery. Even the smallest decorations appeared carefully selected, each one contributing to an atmosphere of overwhelming luxury.
Resting atop an absurdly large bed covered with silk sheets, a young man slowly began to stir.
His eyelids felt unusually heavy as he gradually woke from his sleep. For several moments, he remained completely motionless, staring blankly at the ornate ceiling above him while his mind struggled to catch up with reality.
A deep frown slowly formed on his face.
Wait... where am I?
The question surfaced almost immediately.
Pushing himself into a sitting position, he glanced around the room once more. His gaze wandered across the expensive furniture, the towering windows, and the luxurious decorations that filled the room. Everything looked immaculate.
Everything looked expensive and most importantly... everything looked completely unfamiliar, which only caused him to be even more confused for he was certain that he had never seen this place before.
...Is this heaven?
The thought appeared so naturally that even he was slightly surprised.
Honestly, it wasn't a completely unreasonable conclusion.... he had previously been hit by a truck, so the thought had come to him naturally.
The bed alone felt more comfortable than anything he had ever slept on before. The room was quiet, peaceful, and so ridiculously luxurious that it looked like something straight out of a fantasy novel.
For a brief moment, he simply sat there in silence, then his expression abruptly changed, the corners of his lips twitched slightly as an annoyed look immediately settled across his face.
Why do I suddenly have the urge to use the bathroom?
The feeling had appeared out of nowhere, yet it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Whatever mysterious circumstances had brought him here would have to wait.
At this exact moment, there was a far more urgent matter demanding his immediate attention.
Throwing the blanket aside, he climbed out of bed and immediately began searching for the bathroom. Fortunately, it didn't take long to find. A polished wooden door stood near the corner of the room, and after stepping through it, he found himself inside a bathroom that was somehow even more luxurious than the bedroom itself.
The floor was made of smooth white marble, while the walls were decorated with elegant silver accents that reflected the morning sunlight pouring through a nearby window. Everything looked spotless. Even the bathtub looked large enough for three people to comfortably fit inside.
Who the hell designed this place?
The thought briefly crossed his mind.
Unfortunately, he had more pressing concerns at the moment.
Several minutes later, after finally taking care of the issue that had been bothering him since he woke up, he let out a relieved sigh before making his way toward the sink.
"Much better..."
His mind felt considerably clearer now.
Turning the faucet, he scooped a handful of cold water into his palms before splashing it across his face. The cool sensation immediately helped chase away some of the lingering drowsiness clouding his thoughts.
After repeating the process several more times, he slowly raised his head.
And froze.
For a brief moment, the entire world seemed to stop. His gaze remained fixed on the mirror hanging above the sink as he stared at the face reflected within it.
The young man reflected in the mirror possessed raven-black hair that fell neatly across his forehead, sharp features that looked almost unreal, and striking blue eyes that seemed far too beautiful to belong to an ordinary person.
His heart skipped a beat.
"...What?"
The word escaped his lips before he could stop it. Slowly, he leaned closer toward the mirror, his eyes never leaving the reflection. The young man on the other side mimicked his movements perfectly. When he cautiously raised a hand, the reflection did the same.
His expression gradually stiffened.
"No."
A nervous laugh escaped his lips.
"No, no, no..."
There was absolutely no way.
The face staring back at him looked identical to someone he knew. Someone he had spent countless hours looking at on TV... when put like that, it make Minjae sound like he was a stalker, the face from the mirror was recognisable.... Of course, those who spent entire hours playing 'Lords and Love's Deception' would be able to recognise the face of the games major villain
"Edric Montclair"
The name slipped out before he could stop it.
His eyes widened. The bathroom suddenly felt much smaller than before, the air around him growing strangely hot and suffocating. For reasons he couldn't explain, even breathing felt more difficult than it had a moment ago.
No way.
His gaze remained locked onto the reflection.
There's no way.
This either had to be a dream or a halluciation.... Perhaps, it could be the side effect of playing the game from morning to night
That had to be it.
There was no other explanation.
After all, normal people didn't wake up looking like fictional characters or find themselves inside a luxurious room, neither did they find themselves waking up looking like a character from their favorite otome game
For several moments, he simply stared at the mirror in silence. Then, as though he had finally pieced together the mystery behind everything, an expression of complete understanding appeared on his face.
Ah.
Guess this is what happens when you get addicted to a game.
Immediately after reaching that conclusion, he nodded to himself.
It was the only logical explanation.
Still convinced that he was hallucinating, he gave the reflection one last glance before turning away from the mirror. After everything that had happened since waking up, he had already come to what he believed was the most logical conclusion.
He had finally lost his mind.
Honestly, there was no other explanation.
Satisfied with his reasoning, he left the bathroom and stepped back into the bedroom.
The moment he crossed the doorway, however, he came face to face with a butler.
The man appeared to be somewhere in his late forties and was dressed in an immaculate black tailcoat. His silver hair was neatly combed back, and not a single wrinkle could be found on his uniform. Everything about his appearance screamed professionalism.
Before Minjae could react, the butler bowed respectfully.
"Good morning, Young Master."
Minjae froze.
For several moments, he simply stared at the man.
The butler patiently waited for a response.
Minjae continued staring.
The butler continued waiting for a response
An awkward silence gradually settled between them. Eventually, Minjae slowly raised a finger and pointed at himself, seeming half annoyed and half confused for why the butler referred to him as young master
"Me?"
"Yes, Young Master."
The response came without the slightest hesitation.
The corner of Minjae's eye twitched.
This hallucination was becoming far too detailed.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he arrived at what he believed was the perfect solution to test whether any of this was real.
"Can you slap me?"
The butler blinked.
"...I beg your pardon, Young Master?"
"Slap me."
The butler's calm expression immediately cracked.
"I'm sorry, Young Master, but... did you just ask me to slap you?"
"Yes."
The answer came so quickly that the butler looked even more confused than before. For the first time since entering the room, genuine panic appeared on the man's face. The butler slighted trembled thinking of all the possible consequences for slapping a noble on the face
"I apologise, Young Master, but a lowly servant such as myself is in no position to raise my hand against a noble."
"It's fine."
Minjae casually waved a hand.
"I don't mind."
The butler looked deeply conflicted. His expression shifted several times as though he was internally debating whether this was some kind of test.
Several long seconds passed.
Finally, the man lowered his head.
"...If you say so, Young Master."
A look of determination suddenly appeared on the butler's face before closing his eyes tightly
Minjae immediately got a bad feeling. Unfortunately, it was already too late..... before Minjae could tell the butler to stop.....
SLAP!!
A loud sound echoed throughout the room.
Minjae's head instantly snapped to the side from the force of the impact. The room fell silent and a bright red handprint was visible of his cheek
"..."
"..."
For several moments, neither of them moved.
A sharp stinging pain exploded across the side of Minjae's face.
"..... Why'd you slap me that hard?"
Clutching his cheek, he stared at the butler in complete disbelief.
The butler's face immediately drained of color.
"Young Master!"
He hurriedly bowed.
Then bowed again.
And again.
And again.
"I....I sincerely apologise, Young Master!"
"I deeply apologise, Young Master!"
"Please forgive this servant, Young Master!"
The man looked as though he was moments away from collapsing from fear.
Meanwhile, Minjae simply stood there rubbing his burning cheek.
The slap had hurt.
A lot.
Far more than a hallucination should have.
As that thought crossed his mind, the expression on his face slowly changed.
A horrifying possibility suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"...Oh."
The color gradually drained from his face.
"...You've got to be kidding me."
The words left his mouth in little more than a whisper.
A cold chill slowly crept up his spine as he stood there rubbing his burning cheek. The butler's frantic apologies continued in the background, his voice filled with panic as he repeatedly bowed his head. Normally, Minjae would've paid attention to the man practically begging for forgiveness. Right now, however, he couldn't bring himself to care.
His mind was occupied by a much bigger problem.
The familiar face in the mirror.
The luxurious bedroom.
The title of "Young Master."
The butler standing in front of him.
The realization settled heavily in his chest.
There was no denying it anymore.
The face he had seen in the mirror belonged to Edric Montclair. The same Edric Montclair who appeared countless times throughout Lords and Love's Deception. The same Edric Montclair who served as the main antagonist of the entire story. The same Edric Montclair who stood at the center of nearly every major conflict in the game.
A feeling of dread slowly began creeping over him.
Out of all the characters he could have become, why did it have to be Edric?
Why not one of the male leads?
Why not some random noble who appeared once before disappearing from the story entirely?
Why did fate decide to throw him into the body of the villain?
The more he thought about it, the worse he felt.
Then another thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
A very important thought.
One that caused his expression to freeze.
Wait... What year is it?
The question immediately sent his thoughts racing.
His knowledge of the game was perfect, but he knew enough to understand that timing was everything.
How old is Edric right now?
More importantly... has the story started yet?
That was the question that truly mattered.
If the plot hadn't begun, then there was still hope.
There would still be time to prepare.
Time to avoid making enemies which meant that he had to stay away from the heroine and male leads since they were the first ever enemies that original Edric made. If the plot hadn't begun, then Minjae had just enough time to prevent the events that led to Edric's downfall from occurring.
But if the story had already started... Minjae felt a headache beginning to form.
Because there was one fact about Edric Montclair that every player knew. No matter which route the player chose, no matter which male lead ended up with the heroine, no matter how different the events became.... Edric Montclair always died. Sometimes, he was publicly executed before a cheering crowd, sometimes he was assassinated by a rival kingdom and sometimes he perished due to the rebellion started by a secret organisation. The details varied from route to route, but the outcome never changed. The villain always met a miserable end
The realization hit him like a truck.
Again.
His shoulders slowly slumped.
"...I'm screwed."
For the first time since waking up, genuine despair appeared on his face.
Meanwhile, the butler had finally stopped apologizing. Concern gradually replaced the panic in the man's expression as he cautiously lifted his head to look at his young master.
"Young Master... are you feeling unwell?"
Slowly, Minjae turned his head toward the butler. Whatever color remained in his face had long since vanished, leaving him looking unusually pale. The shock of his realization was still written clearly across his features, making him appear as though he had just received the worst news of his life.
For several moments, he simply stared at the butler before speaking.
"When is it?"
The butler blinked in confusion.
"...Pardon, Young Master?"
"The date."
The confusion on the butler's face only deepened.
A brief silence followed.
"The date, Young Master?"
"Yes."
Minjae's expression remained serious.
"Today's date."
The butler stared at him for a moment longer before slowly giving the answer.
And for the first time in his life, Minjae found himself desperately hoping that he had been reincarnated before the beginning of the story.
The butler stared at him for several moments, clearly confused by the sudden question.
"Today's date, Young Master?"
"Yes."
Minjae's expression remained completely serious.
Although he had already accepted that he was somehow inside the world of Lords and Love's Deception, there was still one thing he desperately needed to know.
The timeline.
If he knew when he was, then he could roughly figure out how much time he had before everything inevitably went wrong.
The butler hesitated briefly before answering.
"It is April 12th, Year 427 of the Imperial Calendar."
The moment those words left the butler's mouth, Minjae froze.
His brows furrowed slightly as he searched through his memories. The date felt strangely familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere before. Unfortunately, before he could properly think about it, the butler continued speaking.
"Speaking of which, Young Master."
Minjae looked up.
The butler straightened his posture before continuing.
"Lord and Lady Delaire recently sent an invitation to the Montclair family."
The moment he heard that surname, something immediately caught Minjae's attention.
"...Delaire?"
"Yes, Young Master."
The butler nodded.
"The Delaire family has invited our household to attend the birthday celebration of their daughter, Lady Seraphine Delaire."
For a brief moment, Minjae thought he had misheard.
The room suddenly felt unnaturally quiet.
The butler stood patiently before him, completely unaware of the storm unfolding inside Minjae's mind.
Meanwhile, Minjae stood frozen in place.
His expression slowly stiffened.
"...What?"
The word slipped out before he could stop it.
"The birthday celebration of Lady Seraphine Delaire, Young Master," the butler repeated politely.
The color gradually drained from Minjae's face.
Seraphine Delaire was the protagonist of Lords and Love's Deception. The woman around whom the entire story revolved.
His heartbeat began accelerating.
As someone who had spent an embarrassing amount of time playing the game, there was no way he could forget that name.
The moment it registered, countless memories immediately resurfaced in his mind.
The opening chapter.
The day everything started.
And the most important thing that he remembered was that the heroine's original name was Ahn Yoon, a modern day girl who died and suddenly found herself inside the body of Seraphine Delaire.
Minjae's eyes widened slightly as he remembered something from the game.... Seraphine's birthday, according to the game Ahn Yoon had reincarnated into Seraphine's body on her birthday. The exact same birthday that the butler had just mentioned.
"..."
Every piece suddenly clicked together inside his head.
This wasn't the middle of the story which meant that the heroine hadn't met the male leads and formed a harem. The major conflicts that were originally meant to occur haven't started yet which meant the political struggles that plunged the Albion kingdom into chaos hadn't begun. It was only the beginning meaning that Minjae had the chance to change the outcomes
Minjae slowly raised a hand and covered part of his face..... A complicated mixture of emotions washed over him
Relief.
Confusion.
Panic.
And a growing sense of dread.
At the very least, he hadn't reincarnated halfway through the plot. There was still time to prepare. Time to think. Time to figure out a way to avoid the miserable fate that awaited Edric Montclair.
Unfortunately, that realization came with a different problem.
If Seraphine's birthday was about to occur in three days, then.... It would only be a matter of time before everything started going according to the plot, which meant that he had only three days before Ahn Yoon's reincarnation.
"...This is bad."
The words escaped him in a low mutter.
The butler immediately looked concerned.
"Young Master?"
Minjae didn't answer.
His mind was already racing through every route, every ending, and every death scene he could remember from the game.
Because if the story was about to begin... then there was only a matter of time before the everything started going according to the plot.
A tired sigh threatened to escape his lips.
If he wanted any chance of avoiding that fate, then he needed information..... as much information as possible
Slowly lowering his hand from his face, Minjae turned toward the butler standing nearby. The man immediately straightened his posture the moment their eyes met.
"Young Master?"
For a brief moment, Minjae stared at him as though trying to recall something.... then it crossed his mind.
The man in front of him was Fredrick.
One of the few servants who remained loyal to Edric throughout the entirety of the game. While most people eventually abandoned him, Fredrick stayed by his side until the very end.
"Fredrick."
The butler appeared slightly surprised at being addressed by name, but quickly recovered.
"Yes, Young Master?"
"Give me the invitation."
The request clearly caught him off guard.
"The invitation, Young Master?"
"The one from the Delaire family."
Understanding immediately dawned on Fredrick's face.
"Ah, of course."
After offering a respectful bow, the butler walked toward a nearby desk positioned against the wall. Opening one of the drawers, he carefully retrieved an elegant envelope sealed with dark blue wax.
"The invitation had been here all along."
"Yes young master, It was delivered to the manor a few weeks ago... I believe you were on a trip to the west, I originally wanted to inform you of the invitation but you only arrived yesterday and seemed rather tired from the trip. So I opted against informing you."
"Ah.... I see."
Even from a distance, Minjae recognized the crest pressed into the seal which belonged to the Delaire family.
In the game, the Delaire family crest was depicted to have a blooming white rose surrounded by intricate golden vines. The flower rested upon a silver shield, while a small golden crown adorned the top.
Fredrick returned a moment later and respectfully presented the invitation with both hands.
"Here, Young Master."
Minjae accepted it without hesitation. Breaking the wax seal, he unfolded the invitation and quickly scanned its contents.
[To the Esteemed House Montclair,
The House of Delaire extends its warmest greetings and wishes for the continued prosperity of your distinguished family.
It is with great pleasure that we invite Lord and Lady Montclair, along with Young Master Edric Montclair, to attend the birthday celebration of our beloved daughter, Lady Seraphine Delaire.
The celebration shall be held on the evening of April 15th at 7:00 PM at the Delaire Estate. We would be honored by your presence on this special occasion as we gather with family, friends, and esteemed guests to commemorate Lady Seraphine's coming of age.
We sincerely hope that House Montclair will grace us with its attendance and contribute to making this occasion a memorable one.
May fortune and prosperity continue to bless House Montclair.
Respectfully,
Lord Adrian Delaire
Head of House Delaire
Lady Eleanor Delaire
Matriarch of House Delaire]
For several moments, Minjae simply stared at the invitation. A strange feeling settled heavily within his chest and that was due to the fact that several of the future male leads would also be attending the celebration.
Including.....
"No."
The word escaped him before he could think twice.
Folding the invitation shut, he shook his head, there was absolutely no reason for him to involve himself with the heroine, including the male leads or anyone connected to the main story.
His goals were simple.
1) Stay alive
2) Don't get involved with the female lead
3) Don't get involved with the male leads
Those were the goals he had in mind.
Unfortunately, he had woken up in the body of the main villain... so avoiding the main story would be about as realistic as avoiding rain while standing in the middle of a storm.
Silence filled the room.
Minjae stared blankly at the invitation resting in his hands.
"...This is going to be a pain."
Nearby, Fredrick silently observed his young master. The concern on the his face only continued to grow, he had the feeling that ever since the young master woke up. He had begun to act different from the way he used to before... almost as though he became an entirely different person.