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"The heir will be the child Stella bears."
"...Do you know what you're saying right now?"
"Yes. It means that even if we marry, I will never take you to my bed."
Clatter—
The trembling teacup fell with an unpleasant sound.
"Raymond. I'm asking because I genuinely don't understand. Surely you're not talking about the succession of my family, the Martir Dukedom, are you? Huh? You must mean your family, the Larsen Dukedom, right?"
"Pfft. Evgenia Martir. Please don't act so foolishly."
"W-what did you say?"
Raymond shook his head as if genuinely disgusted and elegantly set down his teacup.
The teacup returning to its place without a single small noise showed just how composed he was.
He looked straight at the flustered Evgenia and spoke.
"This marriage is happening because you wanted it. For your pitiful love."
"......"
"So shouldn't my love be respected as well?"
It was utter madness.
Raymond, who had been watching Evgenia—now trembling down to her shoulders—with an indifferent gaze, rose from his seat. As if whether Evgenia cried or not had absolutely nothing to do with him.
From behind Raymond, who turned away coldly, came the rustling sound of a dress.
Raymond, thinking Evgenia was coming to cling to him again, turned back with a disgusted expression.
And then.
"M-Martir, what are you doing now...?"
"Raymond Larsen, you son of a b*tch!"
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
"Die! Die!"
"Ugh, aaaah! Ah!"
The only one of its kind in the empire, the heavy shoe studded generously with diamonds was an object that could rightfully be called a weapon.
The pointed shoe heel came down indiscriminately on his shoulder, back, and forearm.
"Oof, stop, Martir, you crazy—! Ah!"
Raymond curled into a ball and stumbled backward, but Evgenia did not give up.
Seeing him still stubbornly using the distant title 'Martir' even while being beaten made her even angrier.
Back in their childhood, when they were barely sucking on milk-soaked bread, he used to call her 'Zhenya, Zhenya' just fine!
Stumbling due to having removed one shoe, she persistently chased after him.
Only after the shoe heel finally came down with a thwack! on his forehead, drawing blood, did everything stop.
"Huff, huff. Martir, you've really gone mad—"
"Yeah, I'm mad. But you seem even crazier. A guy coming in as a live-in son-in-law, what? The heir will be Stella's child? Thinking about it again makes me furious. Take more, take more!"
"Ah, ah!"
Under the renewed shower of shoe heels, Raymond's attire began to look increasingly disheveled.
After several attempts, he finally managed to put some distance between himself and Evgenia. Clutching his bleeding forehead, he shouted.
"You, you crazy b*tch! You used to at least pretend to be demure in front of me, but now that your name has manifested, I guess you don't even need to do that anymore?!"
"Go f*ck yourself. Want more? Huh?"
"...N-nothing will change even if you act like this. No matter how much you pretend to be crazy, I will never look back at you..."
There was no need to speak any longer here.
When she flicked the hand holding the blood-red shoe, Raymond's face turned pale.
There was nothing respectable to be seen in his back as he hastily fled outside the drawing room.
Evgenia, who gently set the shoe down, clicked her tongue and muttered.
"Why on earth did I ever fall for a bastard like that? Is this also the original work's coercive force or something?"
Evgenia Martir. The legitimate daughter of the Martir Dukedom, one of only two ducal families in the empire.
A famous beauty in imperial high society, and a crazy b*tch.
Despite having reached the age of her coming-of-age ceremony, Evgenia was not even engaged yet.
Because she was head over heels for her childhood friend, the Larsen heir—that is, Raymond Larsen.
She had brushed off all marriage proposals that came her way and blocked every proposal that came to Raymond.
So, naturally, Evgenia, who had only ever believed she would marry Raymond, was confronted by the appearance of 'Stella Aer.'
How on earth did a mere baron's daughter manage to seduce the heir, Raymond? She had watched with murderous eyes...
"Stella is the female lead, and Raymond is the male lead. How can I possibly compete with that...?"
What's the use of hiding it?
This was the world of the romance fantasy novel <The Baron's Daughter Who Defies Fate>, and Evgenia was a reincarnator who had just regained memories of her past life.
The female and male leads were already taken.
Then, wasn't the remaining role obvious?
"Even if it's the villainess, if it's a role with a somewhat guaranteed future, wouldn't that be great?"
Burning at the stake? Beheading? Execution? Any of those was better than Evgenia's future.
Evgenia Martir would... starve to death in prison!
"There was even a description that after she died, everyone celebrated happily. How does one live their life to end up like that? Didn't I live decently enough?"
After muttering those words, the book in her mind flipped through pages, reminding her of the things she had done.
Throwing a steak on the floor because the degree of doneness wasn't to her liking.
Whipping a maid because her hair was parted two degrees off-center.
Engaging in self-harm to get Raymond's attention.
The memory from just a week ago, climbing onto a windowsill in front of him, begging him to love her, was vivid.
"The wind was... stronger than I thought..."
The man who clicked his tongue at the sight of Evgenia swaying in the blowing wind turned and left without a care.
After that, she broke household items, tore bedsheets, and then...
"I suddenly remembered my past life. ...Well, 'suddenly' might not be quite accurate."
A cautious hand traced over her collarbone area.
On skin smooth enough to sigh over, pitch-black letters were engraved like a tattoo.
Raimund Larsen (Raymond Larsen).
It was the name of the man she had just chased out after giving him a thorough beating.
"Ugh. 'Name'... This feels more fantastical than reincarnation."
There is such a story in the founding myth of the empire, which is the setting for the original work and her homeland.
In the distant past, the gods themselves designated whom one would love.
Now, over a thousand years after its founding, it was treated as nothing more or less than a 'myth,' but far from it.
Why do you think the original title includes 'Defies Fate'?
"It's just a myth created to somehow insert an impurity into the love between the male and female leads, right?"
If only she had hastily hidden her name the moment she first woke up, but unfortunately, she was out of her mind with pain at the time.
By the time she barely regained her senses, the fact that Raymond's name had manifested on her had already spread thickly between the two ducal families.
Among the servants, the engagement between Raymond and Evgenia was already spreading as an established fact, so there was no one left who would believe a denial now.
Given this situation, she tried to act like a reformed person, as other villainess-possessing seniors had, and maintain a good relationship with the male lead.
...As a result, she got to experience the new thrill of stomping on someone's head with a shoe heel.
"No, but is this my fault? He's spouting nonsense that doesn't even sound human!"
Ever since recalling her past life memories, the burning love she had for Raymond had long since cooled.
The fact that her heart didn't flutter at all when she saw his face said it all.
So she actually thought it was fortunate, but who could have known Raymond's head would be the unfortunate one?
"Was he always like that? To think my love-blinders were adamantium..."
How could he say something like cutting off your family line right in front of the person involved?
He must either be truly insane or have trusted Evgenia's love that much—blegh!—one of the two.
Considering the things Evgenia had done so far, it was overwhelmingly likely to be the latter.
"This won't do. Getting along well with the original male lead? That's absolutely impossible."
Just seeing his face once today was enough to make hitting him with a shoe heel possible.
If she saw his face two, three times, she would surely cause a disaster someday.
"Murder is not an option, of course."
If she couldn't get close to Raymond, she couldn't get close to the original female lead, Stella, either.
It was obvious that all her well-intentioned approaches would appear distorted to the thoroughly twisted Raymond.
She had tried to kindly talk it out and get the engagement annulled, but seeing that he had already made plans for the succession, it seemed Raymond had completely set his mind on marriage.
"He asks me to respect his love while making the person he loves into a mistress? Does that make sense? Thinking about it again, he's a madman!"
And the attitude of treating that insane value system as if it's natural!
Perhaps because Evgenia in the original work did so many crazy things, their love grew solid through adversity.
In other words, unless she commits crazy acts on par with the original, Raymond's thoughts might not change.
But Evgenia was not one to stop here.
"Do you think I'll just let that happen? Just you wait."
Evgenia, wearing a twisted smile, rang a small bell—ding-a-ling—
"You called, miss?"
"Yes. Where is Father right now?"
If Raymond's thoughts wouldn't change, then she just needed to change the thoughts of a stronger person.
For example... a certain Duke Martir, who loves his daughter—who closely resembles his wife, who passed away early due to poor health—more than anyone else in the world.
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