IBMDSF 01

Chapter 1 

Return from Death

After finishing her meal with her family, Grace returned alone to her bedroom and immediately dismissed everyone around her.

“I’m sorry, but I want to be alone. Please leave.”

“Yes, my lady.”

At her words, the maids bowed as if they had been waiting for the excuse and quickly exited the room.

Grace let out a bitter smile at how eager they seemed to leave—clearly itching to step outside and gossip about her engagement to the so-called Monster Duke. She walked over to the window.

Leaning against it, she stared blankly at the vast lake stretching out below, with a dense forest spreading beyond it.

I never thought I’d get to see this beautiful scenery again.

A few months ago, she had rejected the marriage proposal, severed ties with her family, and left this estate, declaring she would become a nun.

Freeing herself from the crushing weight of the name “Alberton,” she had turned her back on this view, dreaming of a life where her body might be confined within monastery walls, but her mind would finally be free.

She had never imagined that path would lead to the end of her first life.

Just two days after beginning preparations to live not as Grace Alberton, but as Sister Grace, she was poisoned to death.

Inside the birthday cake her mother—the Duchess of Alberton—claimed to have made just for her was a lethal poison capable of melting a person’s stomach with a single sip. Unaware of it, Grace had eaten the entire slice with tears of gratitude. Her death was inevitable.

In the dead of night, alone in the freezing convent, vomiting blood as she lay dying, she prayed desperately to God.

O God, please save this pitiful soul. I cannot die like this.

She could not die like this.

It was too unfair to die without ever having truly lived.

If it meant she could live, she would have married not just the Monster Duke—but a real monster if she had to.

Until her final breath, she begged God to let her live.

And perhaps—perhaps God had heard her desperate plea.

When Grace, unable to endure the agony of lungs tearing and her stomach dissolving, lost consciousness and then opened her eyes again—

She had returned to that very moment when her family first proposed the political marriage to the Monster Duke.

Opening her eyes not to a dilapidated ceiling or the barred windows of a closed convent, but to a wide, luxurious bedroom, Grace realized then that God had answered her prayer.

I don’t know how I came back to life—but I refuse to die again by making the wrong choice.

Having miraculously obtained a second life after untold hardship, she began to think carefully about how she would survive this time.

After spending half a day without eating or drinking, lost in thought, she finally reached a conclusion.

She would accept the political marriage.

I became a nun to escape the marriage ordered by His Majesty. That’s why I entered the convent.

If she accepted the marriage, she could escape both the Emperor’s grasp and her family’s.

And after that?

Would she continue a loveless married life with the Monster Duke?

After much deliberation, she came up with a way to escape even that horrific fate.

She would make use of the curse—that anyone entangled with the Monster Duke either died or went mad.

I’ll pretend to go mad from the curse… and have myself confined to a foreign island.

Feign complete insanity, escape Duke Felix’s castle, flee toward a distant island, and disappear into the forest along the way.

If she managed to survive for a few days, the search would eventually be abandoned.

And after that, her life would finally be her own.

She would shed the label of “the useless one” of the Alberton family and live as a single human being—Grace.

Perfect.

Satisfied with her flawless plan, she offered another prayer of gratitude to God.

Though it was a decision that would undoubtedly trouble Duke Arthur Felix, her own life mattered more to her than any guilt toward him.

Grace quietly clasped her hands and closed her eyes.

O God, please forgive me. I want to live.

Please help me live out the second life You have given me to its fullest.

She continued praying, suppressing the fear blooming in her heart and the pangs of conscience she felt toward the Monster Duke.

* * *

Once Grace accepted the proposal, the wedding preparations proceeded at lightning speed.

The Emperor’s desire to save his unfortunate cousin—whose every betrothed either died or went mad—aligned perfectly with Duke Alberton’s wish to dispose of the disgrace of his house: the only child born without magical ability.

Under normal circumstances, the process would have involved endless formalities—exchange of gifts, wedding dress preparations at the bride’s home, farewell banquets—but given the situation, everything was completed within just three days.

And one week after accepting the proposal—

The wedding of Duke Arthur Felix and Lady Grace Alberton was held at King Sentra’s Grand Cathedral in the imperial capital.

Built at the founding of the Empire, the magnificent cathedral was adorned with the finest white roses and lilies, and dazzling white veils hung everywhere to bless the bride and groom.

No matter what ominous rumors circulated behind the scenes, in name it was the marriage of the Empire’s greatest knight and the daughter of the only orthodox mage family. As such, the ceremony was more extravagant than any wedding ever held there.

The bride, Grace, stood at the entrance of the cathedral wearing a modest wedding dress that covered her neck and arms completely, a veil nearly three meters long cascading behind her.

Supported by two maids, she waited for the Pope presiding over the ceremony to call her name.

“Bride, Lady Grace Alberton, please enter the sanctuary.”

At that moment, the voice of the vice bishop calling for her echoed through the cathedral.

With the help of the maids, Grace took one step at a time toward the altar where the bishop stood.

Ignoring the countless gazes pouring down on her with every soft step, she walked on silently.

And when she finally reached the altar, Grace came face to face with her groom—the Monster Duke himself.

…So this is him. The Monster Duke.

For the first time seeing her husband, Arthur Felix, Grace forgot her fear and simply stared.

Even through the thick veil, his figure was imposing—true to his title as the Empire’s greatest knight, standing more than half a head taller than her.

Dressed in a black uniform with a dark blue cloak draped over his shoulders, his entire face concealed behind a black mask, he looked more suited to a secret masquerade than a wedding.

They say that merely approaching him makes one freeze—from the smell of blood soaked into him from the battlefield, and from the curse clinging to his body.

Yet the awkward tension visible in the masked man’s lips made him seem unmistakably human.

The difference from the rumors fascinated her so much that Grace stared at him with what might have been considered rude persistence.

Then, behind the mask, his eyes trembled strangely as they met hers.

“Bride Grace Alberton, lift your veil and look upon Groom Sir Arthur Felix.”

How long had they been locked in each other’s gaze?

Standing at the altar, the bishop requested that Grace remove her veil for the final rite of the marriage ceremony.

As Grace slightly bowed her head, the maids lifted the veil from her face, just as they had been waiting to do.