I Had No Complaints About This Marriage

“……”

“That’s a pretty respectable match.”

It wasn’t an empty compliment. For an illegitimate child, Baron Elzen was a genuinely good prospect. Though rigid, he was known to be solid and honest—that was the reputation surrounding him.

‘And she’d turn down such a man?’

Marrying him would be far better than being stuck as the wife of a notorious scoundrel like me.

But when Esina heard those words, she flinched and rolled her eyes. Then, after a brief moment of blank expression, the corners of her eyes crinkled brightly as she smiled.

Unlike Herman’s decadent, sensual charm, hers was a lovely smile—like a wildflower just beginning to bloom.

For a moment, Herman was captivated by that smile. And then, he froze at her next words.

“I’ve liked you for a long time, Herman.”

“…What?”

Love. That word—the very one he had always dismissed as nonsense—slipped out. Esina spoke as if her tongue had been oiled, the words pouring effortlessly.

“I liked you so much that I just wanted to stay by your side.”

“What the hell are you—”

“Every time you visited, I’d secretly watch you. I’d stand in the corner just to catch another glimpse of you, even for a second.”

Herman frowned. Just as he was about to retort, Esina quickly raised a finger and pressed it against his lips.

“I know. People like you don’t believe in love.”

Absurdly, she was right. Unbothered, she smiled softly.

“But even a sham marriage is fine with me. I’d be genuinely happy.”

After firing off words like rapid gunfire, Esina finally paused, took a deep breath, and then stared straight into Herman’s eyes as she finished.

“I just thought… this would be better than marrying another man without ever saying a word.”

For a moment, Herman was speechless. Watching him, Esina inwardly broke out in a cold sweat.

‘It worked.’

Playing the part of an unconvincing orator had left her fingertips tingling.

Why did she want to marry him?

‘Why else?’

It was the only way to avoid the future where she’d flirt with the male lead and die.

Esina had her own reasons.

A week ago, during a forced tea time—

“Cough—cough—cough!”

“Disgusting. Maid, get this wench out of here.”

“…Miss Esina, are you alright?”

“Cough—cou—gh…?”

Caught between family members who saw her as a nuisance, Esina had choked on her tea. The sip had gone down the wrong way so violently that she nearly died—only to come back with a realization.

‘This… this is the world of that novel!’

This was the setting of <The Flower That Blooms in Hatred.> The last trashy romance novel she had read before dying in her past life.

And unfortunately, her role was not that of the female lead.

‘Esina Lehier? That Esina Lehier?’

Outwardly, she appeared perfectly fine, with an impeccable public reputation—but in reality, she was destined to marry a man plagued by jealousy, prone to domestic violence, and addicted to gambling, drinking, and every vice imaginable.

‘And then, unlike her abusive husband, she’d fall head over heels for his kind younger brother…’

She’d obsessively torment the brother’s lover, only to be brutally punished and meet a miserable end—the classic wretched sister-in-law.

‘Out of all the roles to reincarnate into, why this one?!’

In other words, the man she was supposed to marry had a younger brother—who just so happened to be the male lead. Esina Lehier was both the villainess standing in the way of the protagonists’ love and the tragic victim of domestic abuse, there to heighten the story’s melodrama.

Naturally, the moment she realized this, she had zero intention of following that path.

The problem? That marriage was alarmingly close on the horizon.

‘Esina’s husband in the original story was none other than Baron Elzen!’

And the male lead was his younger brother, Xenon Elzen.

“This can’t be happening!”

Esina clutched her head in despair.

“I’ve had enough of being a trash magnet in my past life!”

Because yes—unfortunately, in her previous life, she had been…