Chapter 1
I became the villainess of a count's family.
It was one of the romance-fantasy web novels I used to read during my personal time as a senior sergeant with far too much time on my hands.
It was a quintessential romance-fantasy novel—neither especially entertaining nor especially boring—so I had read it casually to kill time.
‘If I'd known I would be reincarnated into this novel, I would have read it more carefully….’
If I had, I might not have ended up saddled with 3,000 gold coins' worth of debt like I was now.
Or at the very least, I could have been born into a good family instead of an obscure one like this….
“Phew.”
What good was thinking about that now?
Besides, if I had been born into another family, I probably wouldn't have grown up as happily as I had.
We might have been poor, but my parents and the people of the territory were all good people.
“Ughhh….”
Pop, pop.
Unable to bear my frustration, I set down the letter and stretched, making my joints pop all over my body.
“What am I really supposed to do?”
No matter how hard I racked my brains, I couldn't think of any way to earn 3,000 gold coins before the end of the year.
Just as I was wondering whether I would really have to marry a man at least three times my age…
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
“Huh?”
I heard hurried footsteps outside my room.
The mansion was quite run-down, but it was still a mansion.
At least, I thought its soundproofing was fairly decent.
Even so, the fact that I could hear the footsteps so clearly meant…
‘This must be serious.’
Something very serious must have happened.
“Alice! We have a big problem!”
The door burst open, revealing a girl about my age in a somewhat worn maid's uniform.
“Ruby. No matter how urgent it is, I told you to mind your manners when I'm working.”
“This isn't the time to worry about that!”
Ruby, the estate's only maid and my childhood friend, shouted with a deathly pale face.
“A monster… There's a monster in the vineyard!”
“What?!”
The moment I heard what Ruby had to say, I sprang to my feet.
“We even installed magical devices in the vineyard, so why is there a monster…? No, this isn't the time to stand around. I'll hear the details on the way.”
“W-Where are you going?”
“The armory!”
As I left my room and headed down the hallway, I asked Ruby, who was following close behind me,
“What happened to the magical devices? And where's Sir Gold?”
“I don't know. I'm an ordinary maid, not a mage. Grandpa Gold rode to the vineyard as soon as he heard about it.”
‘If Sir Gold rode there, I'll have to borrow a horse.’
We'd sold every other horse long ago because of the upkeep costs, leaving only Sir Gold's mount.
By the time I had heard Ruby's entire answer, we had arrived at the bare armory.
‘This place used to be packed with the knights' weapons and armor.’
Thinking of the knights who had left because we could no longer pay their salaries made my heart ache, but in this case, it had worked out for the best.
“Ruby.”
“Yeah, I'll help.”
Because the armory was empty, I was able to easily find the armor I'd had fitted when I took over as head of the family.
However…
“Nngh.”
“Why won't this breastplate fit? Did you grow again?”
“I don't know….”
I was offended by Ruby's incredulous tone.
Who could have expected the armor to become too small already when it had only been a year since I last wore it?
After finally getting the armor on through many trials and tribulations, I grabbed my sword and headed outside the mansion.
“My lady! No, my ladyship!”
“Paul?”
At the entrance to the mansion stood Paul, a middle-aged man who ran the territory's brewery, with a horse beside him.
“How did you know I was heading to the vineyard?”
“Who else could have told Ruby about the vineyard's condition? More importantly, get on.”
“Thank you.”
I lightly stroked the mane of the horse Paul had brought, then sprang off the ground with a light movement.
I was a little worried since it had been a long time since I had ridden a horse, and I was wearing armor on top of that, but fortunately, I managed to climb safely into the saddle.
“Let's go!”
“Neigh!”
Then I gathered the reins and tapped the horse's belly with my heels, sending it racing forward.
“Alice! Be careful!”
‘She really never uses honorifics, right to the end….’
I would have to say something to Ruby after I returned from the vineyard.
Even if she was one of my few friends, one had to distinguish between public and private matters.
***
“Fuck.”
I arrived at the vineyard with my hair streaming behind me, and a curse slipped from my mouth.
The grapevines had been laden with fruit with harvest season just around the corner, but every single one of them had been knocked down. It was difficult to find even one that remained intact, and most of the grapes had fallen and been crushed beyond recognition.
If my parents, who were known throughout the territory for being gentle and kind, had seen this sight, they surely would have reacted exactly as I did.
“Grrr….”
Feeling as though my guts had been ripped out, I wandered around in search of Sir Gold.
“Could that be…?”
How long had I been wandering? Beneath one of the few trees that remained intact, I spotted a familiar face.
“Sir Gold!”
“Tch, my lady.”
“Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere…?”
I hurriedly dismounted and examined his condition.
“Haha, I am a little hurt, but this is nothing to a knight.”
The old man held up his broken, dangling arm and laughed heartily as though nothing were wrong.
“Your arm is broken. How is that ‘a little’…?”
“Hoho, you should be worrying about the horse rather than me… I'm sorry, my lady.”
“What are you sorry for?”
Sir Gold pointed somewhere with his uninjured hand.
I followed his fingertip and saw a horse lying cold and still, a huge bite mark across its belly.
“The estate's only horse died because of me….”
“It's all right. For me, knowing that you're safe is enough. So you don't have to apologize.”
Of course, I wasn't saying that because I was actually all right.
Since we couldn't afford a new horse, I'd have to borrow Paul's horse or walk whenever I needed to go somewhere from now on.
‘Wait, whether we have a horse isn't important right now.’
Then I remembered the real reason I had come here.
“Sir Gold. The monster—where is it now? What kind of monster was it?”
“It was a Snow Wyrm. So, right now….”
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
While Sir Gold was explaining, a sudden, thunderous rumble rang out, and the ground began to shake as though an earthquake had struck.
‘Wyrms usually burrow through the ground like moles. If that's the case….’
Crack.
The ground only a few steps away from the tree where we stood began to split apart.
Bang!
A gigantic, earthworm-like monster clad in white carapace burst out of the ground.
“Damn it!”
The moment the Snow Wyrm appeared, I stepped in front of Sir Gold and drew the sword from my waist.
“My lady! I'm fine! Please stand back!”
Because the situation was so urgent, Sir Gold called me by the old form of address.
But I did not retreat even an inch.
“How can you be fine with an arm like that?! And I am the head of the Fortune family! How could I retreat and leave my vassal, Sir Gold, behind?”
Besides, my lingering Confucian mindset told me that I couldn't abandon an old man and run away.
“Kroooooo!”
“Fuck….”
Seeing the Snow Wyrm roar at me, the hand gripping my sword began to tremble wildly against my will.
If I had known this would happen, I should have followed the territory's knights when they went out to hunt monsters in the past, even if I had to throw a tantrum to do it.
I couldn't help resenting myself for believing my parents when they said they couldn't send their only daughter to such a dangerous place.
“Kraaaaaa!”
Meanwhile, the Snow Wyrm continued roaring at us with all its strength, and then…
Thud.
“…Huh?”
It suddenly slammed its head into the ground.
“What?”
The Snow Wyrm lay completely still, as though that roar had been its final death cry.
“No way….”
Could I have received some sort of reincarnation perk?
The protagonists of the other reincarnation stories I had read usually had at least one special ability when they were reincarnated into another world, so it wasn't strange for me to have one too.
‘If I really do have such an ability, then 3,000 gold coins should be easy….’
Shhk.
“Ah.”
Just as I was enthusiastically letting my imagination run wild, as if to remind me that such fantasies were futile,
the Snow Wyrm's mouth split wide open, and someone walked out from inside, drenched in the slimy green fluid characteristic of monsters.
“It was because of that young man that I said I was fine. He saved me.”
….”
Pointing toward a man with shaggy golden hair and a beard covering his entire lower face, Sir Gold gave an awkward smile.
“Even so, I was truly moved. To think you would step forward for an old man like me….”
“Please stop.”
I wiped my flushed face and cut Gold off.
“Phew.”
Embarrassing as it was, there was something I needed to do first.
I approached the man who had defeated the Snow Wyrm.
He looked extremely uncomfortable, covered as he was in bodily fluid that was hardening in his hair and beard.
Not only had he saved our family's knight, he had also defeated the monster that had attacked our territory. There was no way I could simply send him away.
“Thank you. I am the noble who governs this territory. My name is Alice Fortune. I sincerely thank you for saving Sir Gold, a vassal of my family.”
….”
“You got quite dirty because of the Snow Wyrm, so why don't you come to our mansion and wash up…?”
….”
“Excuse me?”
What was going on? Why wasn't he answering?
Even when I waved my hand in front of his face, the man remained completely unresponsive.
‘No way….’
A single possibility flashed through my mind.
‘Did he pass out standing up?’
He had fought the Snow Wyrm alone, so it wouldn't have been strange for him to collapse from exhaustion.
The moment I reached out to touch his bangs to check whether he had lost consciousness,
“!”
“Gasp.”
The man flinched violently, as though he'd had a seizure, and took several steps backward.
‘What was that?’
Apparently, he hadn't lost consciousness.
‘Then why didn't he answer me?’
While I was puzzled by his reaction, the man's beard finally began to twitch.
“To the mansion, you say.”
“!”
I was startled when I heard his voice.
Unlike his outward appearance, it was the voice of a young man.
Of course, Sir Gold had referred to him as a young man, but the shaggy hair and thick beard hardly looked like those of a young man.
“Yes. Since the North is cold, staying out here while you're that wet could be dangerous.”
“…That does seem true.”
The man nodded.
“Then I will accept your invitation.”
“Thank you. Sir Gold, can you move?”
“Of course. It's my arm that's injured, not my legs.”
Even so, Gold was injured, so I forced him onto the horse I had ridden there.
***
“Ho.”
Gold, who had been forced onto the horse, smiled to himself.
A young man had suddenly appeared, saved him, and defeated the Snow Wyrm alone.
All the way back to the mansion, his gaze remained fixed on Alice.
The old knight, who had devoted his entire life to the Fortune family, could sense it instinctively.
This was the opportunity to restore the Fortune family to prosperity.