Chapter 1

I was bought at the price of five hundred million markas to marry the Duke and become the Duchess. Transactions on such a large must be honored, meaning that I had no choice but to be worth the price. However, when I was faced with trials and tribulations, it made me doubt the sanctity of marriage itself.

I swallowed slowly to wet my dry mouth as I watched the spectacle unravel before my eyes.

“Aerta…” His deep, baritone voice called my name.

He was laid out on the bed in a lax, sensuous manner as the light of the lamp flickered, traveling through the dimly lit room to caress his divinely carved face while his slender, elegant body glistened in the moonlight. On his transparent skin was a harmony of beautiful features and a crooked smile clung to his untainted lips.

Upon first glance, he seemed no different from his usual self, but up close, the madness in his eyes was evident. His piercing purple eyes had lost focus, and judging by the scarlet flush that had bloomed around the rim of his eyes, it was apparent that he was riled up.

The man exuding such a dangerous aura was Zahid of Carnoire, my husband and the Duke of the empire.

Zahid beckoned me with a sly grin on his face.

I felt a chill run down the back of my neck as every single one of my instincts, like that of a prey in front of its predator, screamed at me to run away.

Ignoring the voices in my head, I approached him with slow steps. Alas, no matter how dreadfully slow my steps were, the distance between us was far too short.

I was just a couple of steps away from him when he snatched my wrists and pinned me down to the bed.

“…!!”

His large hands grasped my waist firmly, and he breathed his hot breath onto my cold, stiff skin.

“Kiss me, Aerta.” Zahid whispered in my ears as he held onto me ever so tight.

He always had a nasty habit of making me kiss him first.

I encased his cheeks in my hands cautiously and planted a kiss on him. The moment his tender lips met mine, I felt the blood in my body carbonate and surge through my veins, making my whole body tingle. My body pulsed and quivered every time he ran his tongue across my skin and sank his teeth into me softly. I couldn’t tell whether it was lust or gluttony that was driving each kiss.

The word ‘dread’ was not enough to describe how I was feeling.

I shut my eyes tightly in an attempt to ignore the overwhelming sensations that trickled down to my spine and stomach.

When I felt like his thirst had been sufficiently quenched, I tried to break out of his grasp but Zahid refused to let go, and it was only after many heated moments later that I was able to pull myself away.

The sound of our wet lips pulling apart tickled my ears.

He ran his tongue across his lips which shaped the deep grin on his face.

“Much better…”

‘Thank god, I must have made it here on time.’

The menacing look in his eyes which indicated that he was on the verge of madness had subsided completely, meaning that the purification process worked.

Though he had gotten what he needed, his long, sturdy fingers caressed from the nape of my neck, all the way down to my waist, letting me know that he wanted more.

My lips were still throbbing from the passionate encounter before and it felt like they were about to burst.

It seemed like he was about to move to me for more, but I quickly pushed him away.

“Surely, that must have been enough.”

He raised one of his eyebrows at me.

“You think that was enough? You must think I’m practicing celibacy or something.”

“Quite the opposite. Now would you please get off of me?”

His hands told me that he wasn’t planning on granting my request. A flirtatious smile spread on his face, making his eyes bend into beautiful crescent moons.

“You’re being a little too cold toward your husband, don’t you think?”

“You must be feeling better since you’re able to crack jokes and all.”

“Not even close. I’m still in pain.”

“Well, you’re being unnecessarily touchy.”

His long eyes arched out in a squint upon my firm refusal before his face bloomed into the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. He knew that I couldn’t say no to his pretty face. Fully aware of the power his beauty held, Zahid was always able to tear down my walls with his greatest weapon.

“Come on, Aerta. That was just one kiss. You know I’m dying for more.” He pulled me in closer as he whispered in my ear.

When he came at my lips once more, an alarming thought took over me.

‘If this is going to continue, he really is going to wind up eating me alive.’

By whatever means necessary, I had to escape from this man, from my husband. The very protagonist of this novel. * * * The story behind how I became the Duchess worth five hundred million markas was a long and gruesome tale.

I was born with memories from my past life… I was also born into a world deriving from an erotic fantasy novel, written solely for men. In the provocative, violent, B-list novel this story that my life was based on, there were no female protagonists; Mostly because the male protagonist kills them all.

At first, I assumed it was just some other parallel universe that I was in, and I spent the early years of my life blissfully unaware of my reality. But, as the years passed by, the feeling that something was odd about this place began to grow, and I kept noticing things and occurrences which were similar to a novel that I read in my previous life before I died.

I’m Aerta Arlez, the eldest daughter of the Arlez household.

Our family served under Holy City for generations, as loyal paladins who provided the Church with highly-qualified Holy Knights. As paladins, our family was pretty well off financially.

Just when I started to wonder why my name sounded so familiar, my younger siblings, a pair of identical twins, were born. My suspicions were confirmed the moment my parents named the two of them ‘Cheryl’ and ‘Ethan’.

It was at that moment that I knew, I had been reincarnated as a character from that novel.

Upon realizing this, I fell into despair. Aerta Arlez was a character destined to be devoured alive by the protagonist, who was a cold-blooded tyrant. He wasn’t the type to let morals deter him from getting what he wanted, and he had no pity for the weak. Whoever stood in his way would have to face a brutal death.

As a reader, I admired him for his unyielding drive and the way he managed to overcome all of the obstacles that stood in his way. As a character within the novel, however, I felt like he was nothing more than a blood-thirsty lunatic.

The most obvious thing to do would have been to run away from him and re-write the story on my own accord.

If only it were that easy.

My fate was ever so tightly wound to his, that I couldn’t help but encounter him.

In this world, there were Wizards. There were only five of them, and each was born with unfathomable magic with which they could control one of the four elements, but they weren’t necessarily able to use their powers at their will. Every time they used their magic, a dark force by the name of ‘malignity’ accumulated slowly within them, and once their souls become tainted with malignity, their psyche would crumble to pieces.

In simple terms, if they used too much magic, they would go insane.

Alas, the protagonist broke away from such limitations by devouring the Purifier, who is the only being capable of relieving malignity from the Wizards. The lead character in the novel became the only wizard capable of freely using his powers without having to worry about losing himself to the darkness.

After losing the Purifier, the other Wizards attempted to murder him, but as always, our almighty protagonist managed to sweep his foes away with ease.

That was where things got crazy.

Aerta’s siblings were both destined to become Wizards, with Cheryl as the Wizard of Flames, and Ethan as the Wizard of the Wind.

And then there was my character… The Purifier. The only thing that could relieve the Wizards of malignity. I was the very same Purifier from the novel who was destined to be devoured alive by the protagonist himself.

The Arlez household was destined to fall. * * * I struggled with all my might to find a way to survive my cruel fate, but it wasn’t long before the hardships I was faced with became impossible to overcome.

Things in our family started to fall apart even before the protagonist was supposed to seek me out.

Our misfortune began with the company that my parents started.

Both paladins, my parents weren’t exactly business savvy and were known to be rather naïve. Their so-called ‘friend’ used their weak traits as leverage to sweet-talk them into starting a business that they weren’t capable of handling.

Since I already knew what was going to happen, I tried my best to talk them out of it, but sadly, none of the grown-ups took my warnings seriously.

The ‘business’ had red flags all over it from the start, and the moment things began to go downhill, there was no stopping the snowballing downfall of our family legacy.

Our mansion was traded for a small house, which was soon traded for a shabby old shack. Along with our family going from riches to rags, the twins and I had to suffer constantly from dreadful hunger.

Though I tried to hold onto the last sliver of hope that there was, my parents chose to walk a path of no return.

“We’re sorry. We’re really, so sorry…”

They rang our necks with ropes.

After hanging their own children, who were all begging for their lives, they then hung themselves from the old wooden ceiling as well.

We were devastatingly lucky.

The ceiling was too old, and the wooden pillar that was supporting it snapped in half as a result of the added weight.

My siblings and I had narrowly escaped death’s grasp, but it was too soon to feel any kind of relief as what was left to us, were the corpses of our parents and five hundred million markas worth of debt.

All of that happened when I was at the ripe age of fifteen, and the twins were only seven.

Despite the sequence of unfortunate events, there were three things that gave me hope. The first thing was the fact that we wouldn’t be sold as slaves since it was Holy City that we were indebted to. The second thing was that I wasn’t in it alone. And finally, I knew that the twins were going to grow up and become powerful wizards.

Once signs of wizardry manifested in them, they would be treated like nobility. Even the lowliest of servants would be treated with the same level of respect as a Duke if they manifested as Wizards.It was like winning the lottery. Still, that was due to take place in the far future and till then, we were going to have to survive as orphans.

I hadn’t really thought too much of Aerta’s impoverished life when I read about it in the novel, but once it became my reality, living through it was much more miserable than I could have ever imagined.

Five hundred million markas was equivalent to roughly five million dollars, and with a debt that heavy, the interest payments were just as large.

Aerta from the original novel used to do sex work in the slums to feed the remaining members of her family, but I didn’t want to walk down that road, and instead, swore to survive by any means possible until the day that the twins manifested into Wizards.

Through the years, I took whatever jobs I could find and worked to my bones to pay off our parents’ debt, but no matter how hard I tried, I was only making enough to pay back the interest, let alone maintain the original five hundred million markas. It felt as though our debt followed me everywhere I went like it had become my shadow.

By the time I turned eighteen not much had changed, and I was still drowning in debt.

“Ha…” I let out a deep sigh.

Today was the day that I was supposed to make the interest payments. The days and nights I spent working to exhaustion seemed ever so insignificant on these days.

The debtor’s last words lingered in my ears.

“We’ll need to increase the interest starting from next month, dear… After all, we haven’t been receiving much, other than the interest payments. So, starting next month, you’ll need to start paying this much.”

I was never going to be able to get them the amount of markas written on the piece of paper he handed me, and I already knew that getting another job would simply not cut it. All I could do was beg him for mercy, of which, I, unfortunately, wasn’t shown any.

I was escorted out of the Holy City grounds with nothing but dreadful news.

With my spirits crushed, I scavenged through my pockets to find a couple of coins.

At least I’d be able to buy some bread on my way home. Of course, the delicacies that would go with the bread, such as milk, juice, jam, or cheese, never wouldn’t be making it to the table that night.

Out of the big stack of goods on the bakery’s shelves, I picked the largest loaf out of the cheapest batch, but it still wasn’t going to be big enough to last us for breakfast tomorrow.

With the sun setting behind me, I hurried back home.

A sharp cry leaked out the broken windows of our rundown shack. Startled by the noise, I ran into the house.

“Cheryl, Ethan!”

The twins were glaring at each other with fresh beads of tears hanging from the corners of their eyes.

“Aerta!”

“Y-you’re home…”

“This greedy, selfish slob here ate it all!” Cheryl angrily shoved her finger in Ethan’s face.

Apparently, somebody had given them a whole apple, and they had agreed to have a quarter each, then save the other half for me, but Ethan must have accidentally eaten the whole thing.

“I’m sorry Aerta…”

“It’s fine, Ethan. And Cheryl, don’t be so snappy with your brother. Now, come here you two, and look at what I’ve brought you.”

Both Cheryl, who had just been giving her brother a death glare, and Ethan, who had been busy swallowing his tears, quietened down and looked at me to see what I was talking about.

It was hard, bone-dry bread.

Regardless of its mediocre quality, the twins began to dig in. They must have been famished because they made it seem as if the stale pieces of bread were made of the finest ingredients in the empire.

As I sat there and ate my portion, I watched Cheryl and Ethan. It was their frail figures that caught my eye. Their arms and legs looked like twigs, which was not surprising considering the fact that they were nearly starving to death day after day during the most crucial years of their development.

The weight of our suffocating reality suddenly made it hard for me to breathe, and my eyes began to fill up with tears.

Higher rates of interest. Unbearably expensive debts. I was just eighteen, and my siblings were only ten. Given that the two become wizards at the age of fifteen as they did in the original novel, I was going to have to endure another five years of this. Though we somehow managed to survive till that point, it was really starting to seem like we weren’t going to make it.

I began to spiral and drown in my thoughts.

“...Hell, we’re going to starve to death even before I get eaten alive by him,” I murmured, slowly putting down the stale slice of bread I had been holding.

“Hm? What was that Aerta?”

“Nothing.”

I ruffled their hair and pinched their confused cheeks as I got up, and stood in front of the cracked mirror that occupied one of the corners of our house.

A lanky girl with sharp, cat-like eyes stared back at me. Her lips were shut firmly, giving her a blunt, calloused look. The iris of her eyes gleamed in a shade of bluish-gray, and her pale ivory hair flowed past her shoulders and down to her waist.

“...”

I raised my eyebrows, then tied my hair into a taught ponytail. I looked a bit tidier that way. I probably should have put on something more formal, given whom I was going to go meet, but there was nothing of the sort in my wardrobe, and tying back my hair was the best I could do.

After patting my worn-out dress down, I beckoned Cheryl and Ethan closer.

“I’m going out for a while, but I won’t be long.”

Their eyes grew to the size of golf balls as they perked up with anxious curiosity. They went on to ask me where I was headed, to which I simply smiled and told them that I would be going to get us a mouth-watering meal.

As soon as I closed the door behind me, my legs began to tremble. I clenched my fists tightly to stop it.

As a Wizard, the protagonist needed the Purifier. The Purifier, on the other hand, which in this case was me, needed money. Hence, my grand plan was to sell my body to him for the price of five hundred million markas. It wasn’t a bad deal for either party.