Chapter 1

The lintel of the abandoned palace wasn't particularly high, so I had no trouble hanging myself from it. At long last, I was going home. I couldn't wait to reunite with my family in my original world.

I kicked my feet out, and an intense force immediately gripped my neck. As my consciousness faded, the lively palace music in the distance waned, and every memory of my time in this world flashed before my eyes like a kaleidoscope.

21 years had passed since I was born into the Beaufort Empire. I had four targets to romance, and as long as I could max out the favorability of just one of them, my terminal illness in my original world would be cured.

My four targets were all extraordinary women, ranging from gorgeous and aloof to gentle and adorable. However, because of Caelum Talbot, the male protagonist of this world, every single one of them hated me to the core and wished me dead.

In the end, the system declared my mission a failure. Now, I was granting their wish. I was about to leave this world.

My senses were fading, but I could hear someone calling my name. As soon as I could breathe again, a bucket of ice-cold water was dumped over my head, causing me to cough violently.

When I looked up, I saw a woman wearing a purple court official's uniform. She had a graceful figure and strikingly beautiful features. She rolled her rosary beads between her fingers as she stared at me, her expression somber.

Her face was far too familiar. Before I could stop myself, her name slipped out of my mouth. "Esmeralda?" I regretted it as soon as I said it.

As expected, she scowled when she heard her name roll off my tongue. "Don't call me by my name. You're not worthy!"

The gloomy, aloof woman standing before me was the iron-fisted Grand Chancellor, a figure who struck fear into everyone in the Beaufort Empire. She was also one of my romance targets, Esmeralda St. Clair.

Back then, after her family was wiped out, they were about to reduce her to a licensed courtesan. I had risked my life to rescue her, a severely injured and helpless young woman. I'd taken her home and personally nursed her back to health in half a year.

Having just lost her loved ones, she was like a wounded little beast. Esmeralda had flinched away whenever I tried to get close. I gradually broke down her walls and taught her to stop hurting herself.

She was determined to clear her family's name, so she'd concealed her identity and entered the palace, climbing the ranks one step at a time until she finally became the all-powerful Grand Chancellor.

After countless brushes with death, I had seen her at her lowest. I was once the older brother figure she trusted most. Regrettably, those days were long gone—four years gone, to be exact.

Four years ago, during Thanksgiving, I married Empress Phoebe Beaufort. Everyone came to offer their congratulations and blessings. Even the system believed I was on the verge of completing my mission.

However, after leaving behind a letter written in blood, Caelum mysteriously disappeared. Every single word in the letter was written in anguish, and he explicitly named me as the one who had driven him away.

My biological elder sister, Calista, had kicked me out onto the streets and declared that she wanted nothing more to do with me. Phoebe had annulled our engagement and aborted our child.

Esmeralda had abused her authority and had me sent to the abandoned palace, where I was subjected to torment from handmaidens and page boys every single day. "God knows how much suffering Caelum is enduring out there. A heartless monster like you should spend every single day atoning for your sins!"

During my four years in the abandoned palace, I'd endured endless torture. No matter how hard I tried or how many ways I sought to prove my innocence, no one was ever willing to believe me.

Now that Caelum was back and Phoebe was determined to spend the rest of her life with him, I was no longer allowed to stay in even the abandoned palace. Thus, the system declared my mission a failure. I had no choice but to end my life as soon as possible and return home to live out my final days.

Esmeralda ordered two page boys to haul me to my feet. When she noticed the rope burn on my neck, a trace of mockery flashed through her eyes. "The stage hasn't even been set, yet you're already itching to put on a show. If you really want to die, you've picked the wrong place. The abandoned palace's too remote. No one will be around to watch your performance."

I forced a smile. Did she really think I was only pretending to take my own life?

"Your Grace, since the abandoned palace is so remote, what brings you here? Did you come all this way specifically to see me?"

Esmeralda's expression hardened before she sneered. "Caelum's back. I won't allow you to ruin his happiness on this joyous occasion. If you want to end your life, do it somewhere far away from here!"

Esmeralda ordered her men to throw me and my belongings out of the palace gates. She gazed at me condescendingly, as if I was a filthy piece of trash. "Now that you're out of the palace, do you really think I give a damn whether you live or die?"

I raised my head and flashed a smile at her. That was the best news I'd heard all day. I was finally going home!

Without taking a single thing, I sprinted onto the moat bridge outside the palace walls and leaped straight into the river.