~Chapter 1~
My back ached.
Her fingertips were torn, the nails worn down from scraping the floor as the whip lashed against her back. Her vision blurred from the endless pain.
“Nina—! That flower-brained brat left signs she escaped alive. Tell me, Camilla, you made the drug, didn’t you?!”
Even then, Camilla faintly smiled at the man’s loud shout.
Thank goodness. Looks like she escaped safely.
[Drake and Nina successfully escaped and lived happily ever after.]
That was what she desperately hoped for—and what she made happen. She saved the doomed couple who were enemies in fate and helped them flee.
It was the perfect happy ending in a story.
But in reality, the price for that sin was never light.
Her father’s hound, Ares, noticed Camilla’s involvement and dragged her straight into the underground torture chamber. He poured cold water over her and began the torture.
It started with mental torment that kept her from sleeping, and soon escalated into lashes that shredded her back.
Still… I’m glad.
They hadn’t caught her little sister, Nina. Her whole body was in pain, but the thought alone almost made her laugh.
Ares grabbed her by the hair, forcing her to look up as he growled.
“Liar. So you could make potions after all, you treacherous wench.”
A deep voice cut through Ares’s shout.
“Is that true?”
Camilla looked past Ares’s shoulder at the man who had been watching her torture with indifference but was finally showing interest now—her father.
Baron Mowin.
Head of the Mowin family, operating in the shadows of the beautiful city of Escalus.
Master of poison, smuggling, and assassination.
Her biological father.
“Can you still make potions?”
“……If that were true, I would’ve begged for my life using that as an excuse.”
The truth was, Camilla had never actually lost her ability.
She had only pretended to—because she no longer wanted to lend her power to this filthy family.
From that day on, she’d fallen from being treated as a “family treasure” to being scorned and abused. But even that so-called “treasure” treatment had been a lie.
Before she revealed her talent for potion-making—something she’d gained from her past life’s memories—Camilla had been nothing more than the despised illegitimate daughter.
“That’s enough. Dispose of her, Ares.”
Right. To them, I was never a person—just a “thing.”
Camilla Mowin.
The illegitimate older sister of Nina, the heroine of the tragic romance novel The Downfall of Nina—
and now, a traitor to her own family.
Ares grinned like a beast at the Baron’s order, but Camilla felt no fear.
It’s fine. I protected her.
‘Big sister, I love you most!’
She remembered Nina’s bright smile, like a flower in bloom.
Maybe her purpose for reincarnating into this world was to give her wretched life to protect the only family she had.
“Baron, why don’t you just hand her over to me instead? She’s trash, but it’d be a waste to kill her just yet.”
Ares pressed his boot on Camilla’s head, rolling it like a toy before leaning close and whispering against her face.
“Beg for your life. Maybe I’ll spare you.”
Camilla stared at his face, full of filthy desire, without expression.
“Nina’s gone now. It’s obvious what’ll happen to the rest of this family.”
“What did you just say?”
There was once a time when little Camilla had desperately wanted love from these people.
Back then, she thought even her cold father who ruled the underworld, Ares the family’s hound, and the Baron’s icy wife were still her family.
But not anymore.
Camilla gave a fragile smile that looked ready to shatter.
“May you all rot in hell.”
“You—!”
Shing!
At her quiet words, Ares drew his sword and swung at her. Camilla thought blankly of the poison she’d left behind in her laboratory—
a special brew made to work even on herself.
If I’d used that, I could’ve died without pain. What a shame.
Then it happened.
Bang! Crash!
There shouldn’t have been any sound leaking from the basement, yet a commotion erupted outside.
“Stop—!”
“Gah!”
The sudden screams made both Baron Mowin and Ares tense.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Clack.
The door to the torture chamber burst open as the butler stumbled in, breathless.
“What is this noise? Don’t tell me the investigation’s already reached us?!”
“……My lord, it’s terrible! The Grand Duke’s heir—!”
Slash!
The butler never finished his sentence. He spat blood and collapsed.
Camilla froze. Even the Baron and Ares, who’d been torturing her moments ago, looked completely stunned.
Beyond the butler’s corpse, a cold, cutting voice echoed through the air.
“I told you to move.”
The man who spoke flicked the blood off his blade. Tall, with an impossibly beautiful face, he stood surrounded by splattered red.
“Since you didn’t listen, I had to make you.”
Broad shoulders, a strong build that even his fine clothes couldn’t hide—
golden hair shining like silk, and eyes of arrogant, gleaming blue.
Those cold sapphire eyes turned strange the moment they fell on Camilla.
“I heard my fiancée was here.”
“What—Grand Duke Escalus?!”
Dane Escalus.
Heir of the Grand Duchy of Escalus.
Nina’s fiancé.
The future Grand Duke—someone even Baron Mowin hesitated to cross.
Dane came here himself?
Camilla blinked, bewildered.
Did he find out that Nina hadn’t died, but escaped?
In the original story, Dane was just a side character—the heroine’s old fiancé, barely mentioned. But in this world, he was different.
A darling of high society.
Commander of the Grand Duchy’s knights, and a Midas who turned every business he touched into gold.
The sole heir to the ruler of Escalus.
“You seem to be mistaken, Your Grace! The trial hasn’t even been held yet—”
Baron Mowin stepped forward to block his way, but Dane looked down at him as if at an insect.
“Shut your mouth.”
At his icy tone, Camilla’s heart sank.
She didn’t know why he was here, but for a fleeting moment, she wanted to cheer for the Baron who stood between them.
When she’d been around Dane, she’d always wanted to appear strong and dignified.
She never wanted him to see her beaten, broken like this.
Their eyes met over the Baron’s shoulder.
Ah… I really want to die.
His blue eyes were so beautiful she could die just looking at them.
Step.
Before she knew it, Dane stood before her and reached out.
The sword in his hand made her breath catch.
Clang!
With a swift strike, he cut through the chain that bound her wrist to the ceiling.
As she collapsed, Dane knelt to catch her in his arms, whispering in a voice trembling with rage—
“How dare you do this to my fiancée?”
What?
Both the Baron and Ares gasped, and Camilla froze in confusion.
His fiancée?
You were my sister’s fiancé… weren’t you?
‘I don’t like you. Nina—she’s my fiancée.’
He had said that. Clearly.
He’d told her he didn’t like her. That he loved Nina.
Their connection should’ve ended there, just as in the original story.
Dane wrapped his cloak around her shoulders, eyes burning with emotion as he lifted her up.
“As a wedding gift, I suppose I’ll destroy this entire place.”
At his words, knights rushed in behind him.
The scene felt unreal—the chaos, the smell of blood, and the warmth of the man holding her so tightly.
What… is happening?
“Stop him!”
“Quiet. Burn it all down.”
Despite his cold voice, his arms were so warm that she couldn’t think straight.
What’s going on…?
As her mind faded, Camilla’s eyes slowly closed
