In my previous life, I lived drowning in debt.
After my parents died in an accident, the only family I had left was my younger sibling—and that one remaining relative was a complete mess.
They had never cared much for studying since childhood and caused me endless trouble.
Still, I thought that as long as they didn’t go completely astray and managed to grow up into a somewhat decent adult, that would be enough.
But contrary to my hopes, my sibling started hanging out with a bad crowd.
“Excuse me? My sibling is at the police station?”
There were several times I had to drop everything at work and rush over because of sudden phone calls.
Sometimes it was because they picked a fight with a passerby while smoking on the street. Other times, they ordered a ton of food at a restaurant and ran off without paying.
There was always some new ridiculous reason.
That troublemaking sibling barely managed to graduate from high school.
Then they said they wanted to start earning money, and I thought maybe they had finally come to their senses.
“Hey! A guy I know told me about a great opportunity just for me. If I make a lot of money with this, I’ll even buy you a house!”
They said something completely absurd, like a person full of hot air.
And then…
Bang!
I slammed my fist down on the desk I had just been absentmindedly stroking.
“I should’ve broken that bastard’s legs back then if it meant knocking some sense into them.”
While I was at work, my sibling stole my ID and seal and ran away.
Using those, they took out loan shark debts…
And, of course, disappeared without paying them back.
Leaving me with a massive principal and outrageous interest.
“Damn it…”
The fear and terror I felt when those tattooed men were waiting for me in front of my house—
I thought that kind of thing only happened in dramas.
I never imagined I’d meet loan sharks carrying ledger bags in my own life.
That worthless sibling went into hiding after that and ignored all my calls.
To repay the debt dumped on me, I worked like crazy.
I didn’t even hesitate to work overtime just to earn more money.
And the result of all that is… my current situation.
“Ha…”
Resting my trembling fist on the desk, I slowly took a deep breath.
The anger was still there, but it was all in the past.
Now, I have no debts to repay.
All I have is the enormous wealth I just saw earlier.
And as someone who died after going through every kind of hardship, I had no intention of throwing away this stroke of luck.
‘Honestly, unless I deliberately go looking for them, I’ll never even run into the female lead or male leads.’
In the original story, everything began because the villainess picked a fight with the heroine.
So if I just stay quiet and live like I’m dead, wouldn’t everything be fine?
There’s no need to twist the original plot or run far away.
Reading romance fantasy novels had been the only hobby I could enjoy in that hellish life.
And based on my long experience as a reader, trying to hover around the heroine to maintain a good relationship would only cause unnecessary trouble.
The same goes for trying to leave a good impression on the male leads.
Even those who try to run away end up drawing attention and getting dragged back anyway.
“And honestly, why should I have to run away?”
Even in my past life, I never ran.
Because it felt like I would be surrendering to the misfortune that had come my way.
Maybe that mindset made my life even harder…
But that was the way I lived.
“Alright. I’ve decided.”
I’ll just stay quiet. Don’t stand out. Don’t get involved.
There’s no need to overcomplicate things. I can just make excuses and avoid any situation where I might get entangled with them.
My goal is to make people think, ‘Was there someone like that?’
A proper level of distancing brings peace.
“Perfect.”
Having made up my mind, I nodded in satisfaction.
It’s so simple!
Just ignore them and go our separate ways.
Whether the heroine flirts with the male leads or gets swept up in romance, I won’t care.
You all can fall in love.
I’ll love my family’s money.
“Then the real question is how to maintain my new, happy, rich life…”
In truth, my current situation wasn’t entirely optimistic.
Yes, I had the luck of possessing the body of a daughter from an incredibly wealthy family—but it was a life with a time limit.
Not my health.
My family’s.
There was someone here just like my sibling from my previous life.
“Nathaniel Pieren…”
Rosénia’s older brother and the eldest son of the Pieren Marquis family, the future head.
“That bastard was a complete wreck.”
He was notorious in the capital—a drunkard who caused scenes at every opportunity and abused innocent servants.
And that wasn’t all. He was even more extravagant than Rosénia, to the point people said he spent in one year what the imperial family used in a month.
Addicted to women and gambling, too.
In the original story, he even fell for the male leads’ scheme near the end, accumulated massive debt, and brought the entire family to ruin.
Debt, debt, debt.
Just rolling that word around in my mouth made my skin crawl.
I had only just gotten a chance to be happy—and now I was supposed to give it up again because of a trashy relative?
Absolutely not.
“I think I’ve found the first thing I need to do.”
I should kick out that freeloading parasite of our family and send him far away somewhere with fresh air and clean water.
At a time of day when others might be enjoying a lively afternoon—
“Pieren again?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Standing in front of a completely wrecked hotel room, Calyx Artemir smiled coldly.
The Erendis Hotel, boasting a history of 180 years.
It was a prestigious landmark of the capital, built by the first Duke Artemir as a birthday gift for his beloved wife, named after her maiden name.
The finest engineers and artists of the time had participated in its construction, and it took seven years to complete—one of the largest architectural projects in the empire’s history.
“Calyx, take over this hotel now. It will serve as excellent training before you fully inherit the family business.”
When Calyx Artemir received the hotel as a gift for his sixteenth birthday, he vowed to preserve this masterpiece left by his family.
But it wasn’t because he was moved by the love story behind it.
What he wanted to protect was its reputation as the finest hotel in the empire.
Artemir, a founding family and pillar of the empire, could not afford even the smallest blemish.
Now that he had inherited the ducal title and managed multiple businesses, the hotel was only a small part of his domain.
But recently, that small part had been persistently irritating him.
“It seems the Marquis of Pieren raises beasts, not humans.”
Calyx let out a disbelieving chuckle.
Nathaniel Pieren had stayed at the hotel for three days.
But in just those three days, had there been a war?
The furniture in the room was overturned, bedding ripped apart with white feathers scattered everywhere.
The rug on the floor was stained red, as if soaked in spilled alcohol, and even the paintings on the walls had not been spared.
“It looks like a rabid dog tore through the place.”
Though Calyx spoke calmly, the air around him turned icy.
His expression hadn’t changed, but the employee who had served him for years could tell he was in a very foul mood.
“Y-Your Grace…”
The employee hesitated before carefully handing him something.
A long slip of paper with the amount left blank.
“He said… to use this for the repair costs…”
“…Ha.”
A crack appeared on Calyx’s handsome face as he looked at the blank check.
