Chapter 2
“My Lord, you were out here after all.”
I managed to take my eyes off the boy because of what the Duke’s aide said. But the beautiful child made such a strong impression that I couldn’t easily look away from him.
His black hair and golden eyes shone brilliantly as if they were being burned onto my mind.
“Lucian.”
The Duke called the boy with a terrible, cold voice, unlike when he called me. I barely felt like I could even breathe in the heavy atmosphere.
“Yes, Father.”
“Why are you out here?”
The boy raised his head and spoke right after he bowed his head.
He stared at me, not at my new father, the Duke, and responded.
“I heard my sister was coming.”
“……hmm.”
In response to the boy’s words, the duke nasally asked him if he liked this situation.
“It’s been a while since you’ve done something you like. Yeah, I’ve been waiting for you all this way, so I’ll introduce you.”
What? You weren’t even going to introduce me?
I had no choice but to look down at the boy because the duke was holding me in his arms.
I caught my eyes on my dry wrist.
“This is Rachel de Elrand, who will be staying at our house in the future. She’s going to be Rachel De Leon soon enough.
Leon, you say?
Is this really the Leon that I know?
No, wait a second.
I was so astonished that I looked back at the duke with late recognition in my eyes. He stared piercingly back at me.
“You really look alike.”
Who the hell do I look like?
I knew the duke kept glancing at me while we were riding in the carriage, and I was wondering what he was thinking about when he was doing that.
I was curious about why he, a high aristocrat, became my godfather, but who does the Duke think of when he is looking at me?
For your information, my body in this life resembles my father and mother evenly.
My emerald green hair, which looks like jewels in bright sunlight, was inherited from my father, and my dark blue eyes that resemble the night sky shortly after sunset were from my mother.
The Duke told me with his eyes moistened with memories.
“As a godfather, I will take responsibility for you, so don’t hesitate to tell me what you want to do or have. Everything in this estate is as good as yours.”
Wow, is my godfather that incredible? Is this situation just like in the ones in movies, where the godfather is super kind?
“You are Liam’s child. That means you are like my own child.”
My curiosity was quickly resolved, and that reduced my worries.
The Duke gently swept my hair out of my face while he continued to stare and my face reddened from embarrassment.
I ended up catching the Duke’s expression when he said my father’s name.
His eyes, which were mixed with a strange longing and madness, turned to me. But he wasn’t really looking at me.
I was observing the Duke who was busy projecting my father’s image onto me.
I could see how much he loved my father just by the hand that kept caressing my face.
Oh, this is the BL webtoon, “There is another doll that lives in the dollhouse”. Now I remember.
There were already some BL couples, starting with some of the fathers.
The Duke’s attitude and words made me feel more comfortable since I remembered the webtoon now.
Before coming here, I feel like I lived my life walking on an ice covered lake and only taking careful steps.
It was no different from when I read web novels and webtoons like crazy to escape from reality in my first life.
However, now I know that I have transmigrated into a character in a BL Webtoon that I have read before, and my favorite character has appeared right in front of me.
It was at this moment when I realized the significance of my new life.
I alternated between looking at the kid, who was still looking at me, and the Duke who was still standing nonchalantly without saying a single word.
My eyes met with the boy’s golden eyes that were as bright and cold as ice.
Lucian de Leon.
My favorite.
This older sister will help you, without fail.
~+~
The place where the Duke took me first was, what would be from now on my room. It was quite vast and colorful.
I organized my thoughts while lying on the big, colorful bed that occupied a corner.
《In-to-In》, which was serialized over the years, became very popular under 《Another Doll Lives in the Dollhouse.》
It was popular even if the sections of angst and pain were long.
The reason was Lucian, who I saw just now and plays the role of the “Duke” character.
Lucian was a prince with an unfortunate past. His poor past began with the abuse that was inflicted by his father.
Yes, the very Duke who brought me here!
Pedro de Leon.
Nevertheless, he could not speak ill of Pedro.
Because he was also abused by his father when he was a child.
To explain the situation quickly it looks like this.
Pedro was the successor to this promising duchy.
If he needed to pick up a sword, then he would as ordered. In addition, as a high-ranking aristocrat, he was full of elegance and manners even as a young man.
There was only ever one scandal about him.
That he was not interested in women.
It wasn’t that he hated women, but he hated the scent of women’s perfume.
Pedro thought that his condition was strange, but he thought it was only an insignificant problem.
He just thought he had an extremely sensitive nose, and that it could be considered a weakness, so he thought it would be better not to let anyone know.
But the day Pedro turned 15, he met my father.
Liam de Elrand.
He was a beautiful boy with emerald hair and navy blue eyes like mine.
Pedro fell in love with Liam at first sight. It was the first time that his heart had beat so fast while looking at someone, so it made him realize what type of person he had actually been searching for.
‘Oh, this is the man I wanted.’
Pedro wasn’t the only one who fell in love that day. My father also fell in love with the Duke at first sight.
The two began to develop their love while disguising it as friendship.
However, if there is smoke, people start looking for fire.
The fact that Pedro’s father was the one who noticed the strange atmosphere of the two was the start of their misfortune.
At the age of 17, Pedro and Liam, who had been passionately kissing in the former’s chambers, were caught when his Father walked in at the sounds of their trist.
He was very shocked when his father, who always looked at him with gentle eyes, stared at him with contempt and disgust.
From then on, the duke’s father ruled the duchy with an iron fist.
He administered beatings under the guise of discipline to mental abuse Pedro.
Unable to accept the fact that his son was homosexual, the duke pushed him to the limit.
In the end, Pedro married someone that was chosen by his father.
He blames himself for betraying Liam, but he was forced to ignore his feelings.
He left his heart and love behind and waited for his successor to be born.
He wanted to respect his wife and be a loving father to his child even though he could not give his heart to her.
He resolved himself to be a better father than his own.
However, the duke failed to keep his promise. As soon as he saw the child’s face, his inner resentment filled him up.
The features of the child that had been born resembled, not him or his wife, but his father.
“Ha, I feel sorry for my favorite again.”
When I thought of the backstory to the webtoon, I sighed deeply. “Haaa” it just naturally came out of me.
However, it is also unfair to curse the Duke without understanding his situation.
The duke was also abused, but that does not mean that what he did to Lucian was justifiable.
“It’s too complicated…”
The biggest problem here is that I am the younger sister in 《In-to-In》.
In the original book, Rachel grows up to be the villainess.
You can tell just by looking at the Duke’s attitude towards me.
Having raised her like that, Rachel openly ignores and despises Lucian, her brother.
But in fact, she wanted to obtain Lucian for herself.
Lucian is beautiful to look at in his normal state. However, when he smiled, he was as pure and beautiful as a seductive black rose blooming fully.
Because she wanted to get her hands on the noble black rose dusted with golden powder, Rachel bullied Lucian and hoped she would be able to subjugate him.
Even if he had never expressed his feelings, if Lucian were to speak about the subject, Rachel is the most annoying person in the whole world and the one he hates the most.
Rachel, who knew nothing about his feelings, became even more obsessed with him after the Duke, who was her reliable backer, died later on.
By that time, Lucian was already interested in another main character, Sue.
[E/N: Sue is a guy because it was a BL novel but the name makes it confusing]
He was not aware of his feelings, but could not control his jealousy when Sue was looking at anyone else.
“Oh, what should I do?”
Of course, I also feel sorry for Sue, who is the other main character, but it isn’t urgent as of right now.
The most urgent thing is the happiness of my favorite and my own ending.
In the original story, Rachel eventually dies because of Lucian. I saw a scene in which Rachel was killed while holding a sword on her own.
But I kept thinking about my skinny wrist from before.
knock, knock
I jumped out of bed due to the sudden knock. I wondered if the Duke was outside the door.
I answered politely, while quickly fixing my clothes.
“Yes, come on in.”
When a maid opened the door and came in, she greeted me politely.
“Lady, my name is Amber. I was assigned to work as your personal maid. If you have questions or need anything, you can call for me.”
“Nice to meet you, Amber.”
“Are you hungry?”
Hearing that from her, I suddenly felt hungry. Come to think of it, my father, the Duke, didn’t give me anything to eat yet.
“Well, a little?”
I thought my stomach would stick to my back, but in this life, I am a noble Young Lady.
I could never covet food. After a year and a half of living in this body I was taught to think this way and it made me like this.
“The Duke has prepared a large dinner for tonight. I’ll give you some refreshments and tea to suppress your hunger.”
“Okay.”
“Well, just a moment, please.”
Amber left the room with a polite greeting. I sat on the sofa as the sound of her steps faded away.
I needed to think about what to do in the future, what to do to help my favorite, and what I could do to live a good, long life.
Then I suddenly recalled a small detail from my first life. This is the only webtoon or novel that I’ve ever written a negative comment on.
Oh, no way.
“Don’t tell me I possessed this body because of my one angry comment, right?”