CH 1.5

Chapter 1: Stop Calling People Ugly. Everyone Has a Reason

There were a total of three male leads in <Bird in A Birdcage,> which I read on my phone before the accident.

Unfortunately, I had already met them at the crown prince’s birthday banquet when I was 13 years old.

First of all, the crown prince, Theobald Vassium Ivrenia, who can be called the true male lead, has dark black hair that seemed to cut down the night sky and eyes that shine red like the midday sun.

He was arrogant and cynical, and when he flashed Lila a wicked smile, she felt goosebumps all over her body.

The second, Duke Heinrich V. Frederick, ruler of the southern part of the Ivrenian Empire, was a handsome man with long silver hair that cascaded like a waterfall. His eerie violet eyes curved gently as he looked at her, and Lila couldn’t help but blush.

But she couldn’t forget that he was the first man to legally imprison her in the original story.

The last was the Marquis Alfonso Lou Benière, with his gorgeous blond hair and eyes that reflected the blue sky.

He was the second man after Heinrich to take the original female lead. He had a childlike innocence, but he was also extremely possessive and sadistic.

He was a madman who thought he had the original Lila, a mere baroness, in his hands, and when he didn’t, he locked her up and tried to fill her with his marks.

It goes without saying that the process was highly sensational and radical.

Because this novel was R-rated!

“Ugh, I hate that.”

Anyway, in the end, the original Lila chose the crown prince, Theobald Vassium Ivrenia.

I don’t know if you’d call it choosing, or if you’d call it getting what she wanted, but once she’s in the palace, she takes the medicine he gives her and became a total idiot.

Pining for his mistress, who had left him for another man, the crown prince made a choice he shouldn’t have, one that ultimately turned her into an idiot.

A side effect of the magic potion he had given her hoping that it would make her forget all about them.

The original story ended with the prince happy that he had brought her back from the dead, whole and in his arms.

Lila rubbed her forearm and muttered, looking horrified just thinking about it.

“It’s the pre-wedding laws that are the most problematic.”

Lila recalled a peculiar law that existed only in the Vassium Empire. A plot device that allowed a male lead to legally imprison the female lead in the original story.

Looking at the novel alone, she wanted to hit ‘herself’ in the past, thinking, ‘If it’s R-rated, there should be a law like this.’

When reality hit her, she changed her mind. It was a crazy law.

It was a special law the emperor had created for the nobility, a law of cohabitation called the ‘pre-wedding cohabitation law.’

In the case of arranged marriages in the empire, the couple would have to live together in the man’s house for a year to prove their compatibility before the actual wedding.

The aristocracy of the Vassium Empire took romance very seriously, and before the ‘pre-wedding cohabitation law’, divorce was common and illegitimacy was a serious problem.

This is because people were having sex with their lovers and having children before they could produce a suitable heir.

Even if it’s an arranged marriage, if the compatibility is that bad, it shouldn’t have been arranged in the first place. Isn’t this why they fell apart while dating separately?

Lila clicked her tongue and shook her head. If it wasn’t for that law, she wouldn’t have suffered so much.

If only the original had not imprisoned the female in her mansion and teased her with the ‘pre-wedding cohabitation law’.

She was first imprisoned in Heinrich’s house, then taken to Alfonso’s mansion, and finally to the crown prince, where she is turned into an idiot.

“What an idiot. I’m never going to be like that. I didn’t even have a relationship in my last life, I was just making money. Why can’t I have a relationship in this life and do all the things I want to do? I don’t deserve to die a miserable death!”

If there was a silver lining to this ridiculous cohabitation law, it was birth control. If one of the partners wanted contraception, it had to be provided. Whether it was the man or the woman.

Because if you got pregnant during the ‘pre-wedding cohabitation’ period, the marriage would be irrevocable.

Lila remembered the crown prince she had met as a child. The strange madness in his eyes had frightened her, even without her knowing who he was.

It wasn’t until she met the other two men that she fully realized she was in a novel.

That night, she cursed every swear word she knew. To the Grim Reaper.

Then, exhausted, she fell asleep and dreamed of the Reaper.

He looked at her, still dressed in his robe, his face haggard with fatigue.

[What are you unhappy about?]

[If it were you, you wouldn’t have any complaints?]

[So why in the world…]

Seeing the annoyance in his gesture and expression, Lila vented her anger.

[What’s the point of being the heroine, I’m destined to be an idiot after all!]

The Reaper, who had been watching her expressionlessly as she banged her head against the pillow while wailing, sighed.

[Well, then, I’ll grant you one last wish: tell me what you want, but only from the things you’ve been carrying].

She stuck out her lips and muttered, “What kind of wish is so restrictive?”

When she didn’t say what she wanted, the Reaper turned to leave.

[No? Well, then, I’ll go. I’m busy, don’t call me now].

[Wait! No! I have a wish! Give me my, my makeup box!]

[Okay, if that’s what you want…]

Before she could finish, her large makeup box appeared out of thin air.

It was so big that it contained every kind of professional makeup and hair product.

Little Lila couldn’t even lift it.

Sobbing, Lila looked at the Reaper. The reaper sighed heavily and spoke.

[Pull out that little bag you carry around or something].

At his words, Lila pulled out the small pouch her father had given her as a birthday present before he died.

The handled pouch was a bit large for her, but she had no problem carrying it.

With a light flick of his hand, the Reaper placed the large makeup box inside the small pouch.

[Okay, done, right? There’s nothing I can do for you now, just don’t call me again, and by the way, you and she are both a pain in the ass].

Lila’s ears perked up at the Reaper’s muttered words before he disappeared, but she was immediately awakened from her dream.

From then on, she worked tirelessly to ruin her face.