My In-laws are Obsessed With Me

read my thoughts, she whipped her head around and looked at me.
Then she threw her head back and cackled loudly. 

“Did you really think that Siph was your husband?”

“…!”

“Siph married you because I asked him to, my stupid sister.
He pretended to love you!”

As if he were tasting sweet honey, Siph kissed the back of her neck.
He smiled in support of Reina’s words. 

Reina tugged hard on Siph’s hair and scoffed. 

“How stupid.
You didn’t know that we were all waiting for the day you would die.”

There’s no way that’s true.
He definitely loves me…!

However, in the eyes of the man who was hugging Reina as if she were precious, I did not exist.

It was a three-person play from the beginning?

The husband I loved, the stepmother who loved me, and my amiable sister.
All of it?

My heart was bitter.
I felt trapped and frustrated.
I was so angry that I thought it would be better to just bite my tongue and die. 

“After you die…”

My stepmother approached me as I laid, immobile, with a small cushion.

“We’ll use your inheritance well, so don’t worry.” 

Without a change in her expression, she pressed the cushion to my face. 

I couldn’t breathe. 

I could see Siph and Reina lounging on the couch as they watched my stepmother who was killing me without an ounce of guilt and me suffocating.

Even after I die, I will never forget this.

Tears of anger spilled.
My vision began to get darker.
And, in pain, the last thing I heard before I died was the echo of Reina’s laughter. 

.

.

.

I died.
No, I thought I would die. 

But I came back to life.  On top of that, I came back to the past after I received my inheritance and before I married Siph. 

I don’t know the reason why I’m alive again.
But if this is my opportunity, I won’t let it pass.

“I need to protect my life and inheritance.”

I can’t report people for things that haven’t happened yet.
However, I won’t act like they think I will in this life. 

“I’ll take what they want.
I’m going to thoroughly trample them and make them bow under my feet.”

In order to do that, I need someone that will protect me and my inheritance.
I need someone that can give me that kind of power.

“I’ve come to make a deal with Your Excellency.”

“A deal?”

“… Exactly one year.
Marry me for one year.”

For a conversation discussing marriage, the tone was rather light.
To the person sitting opposite of me, it may have been out of the blue,  but to me it was my sole lifeline. 

“How interesting.”

A man with a jaw-droppingly beautiful appearance looked at me from the opposite sofa, his chin propped. 

He had hair as dark as the night which swallows everything and eyes as red as blood. 

He was so tall that even with heels I had to look up at him and he had such broad and built shoulders that just looking at him felt dangerous. 

His uniform fit so tightly that you could see the outline of his muscular arms and thighs through it. 

“What do you want?”

He was the rumored Grand Duke Theodore Dane Lapileon.

In the past, the Lapileon family was the first to be granted the title of Grand Duchy in recognition of its contributions to the late Emperor and expansion of the Caster Empire.
After that, they were the house that stood on the front lines when war erupted or when rebellions arose. 

That’s right.
I will use this man to get what I want.

When he bent his upper body, it looked like his uniform was in danger of ripping because of his muscles. 

“Since it’s the first time we’re meeting, you didn’t come here because you love me.
And you must have heard the rumors about me floating around in the noble circles, so you didn’t come here looking for love either.”

He catches on quickly.
It’s annoying.

“You must have come here looking for something else, so don’t waste time and say it.”

If looks could kill, then his gaze could kill a million times over. 

“The reason I came here?”

When I remembered my death again, my body began to shake, but I clenched my two fists.

“… My stepmother, my younger sister, and my former lover are going to murder me.”

“It looks like you had a nightmare, my lady.”

I could just punch-

No, I need to calm down.
I need that man. 

“After they kill me, they’re going to take my inheritance.”

He let out a low chuckle after hearing my words filled with certainty.

“You don’t need to worry about things that haven’t happened yet.
I did hear that you received a large inheritance, but it looks like you have many worries – most likely baseless.”

Yes, how nice would it be if, like he said, my worries were not based on evidence?

But to me, it’s not baseless.
It is something I genuinely experienced in the past.

“Although it was a funny offer, let’s pretend it didn’t happen.”

Grand Duke Lapileon, obsessed with blood and war.

This Grand Duke, calling it treatment, sent his heir, Selphius Sultan Lapileon, to the countryside and didn’t even look after him.
Thus, the rumor that he was a barbarian spread.

He was forced to marry a lady that had persistently followed him but divorced after barely a month.
After receiving a huge alimony, his former wife disappeared, and in came the rumors that Grand Duke Lapileon was a horrible man. 

It was rumored that he did not visit his wife once. 

“Just as you don’t need my inheritance, I don’t have interest in property nor a man so uninterested in women that he doesn’t spend the first night with her.”

“It would be good for you to return to your estate and drink a warm glass of milk.”

He’s the man that I need.

Although his personality being horrible is a downside. 

While mocking me, Theodore stood up from the sofa to pull the bell rope. 

Yes, I already knew you were this kind of jerk. 

Grab.

I ignored his patronizing gaze and held onto his hand. 

“Your Excellency needs a second wife by now.”

The reason he had left the land of the Grand Duchy and was staying at his residence in the capital was simple.

To remarry for appearances.

‘He was definitely having a hard time right around now because the Emperor was trying to make him marry a young Princess.’

Theodore looked down at his hand in mine, frowned, and pulled away.
Because of how quickly he moved, his finger got scratched on my ring and started bleeding slightly.

But it seemed that Theodore didn’t even notice.

Perhaps it’s not women that he doesn’t like but physical affection?

Looking at Theodore’s slightly pale face, I apologized.
“I’m sorry for grabbing you like that.”

“…Any more conversation is a waste of time.
Go back, young lady.”

Although Theodore had a fierce expression like a predator, I was strangely unafraid.

Even if I give way here, I’ll face death.

While subconsciously fiddling with the ring that had hurt Theodore, I smiled slightly.

“Will the emperor think the same?”

“What?”

“Isn’t the emperor trying to push for a wedding with the young seventh princess? If not me, you’ll have to marry a young princess who is still attending the academy.
Are you okay with that?

Theodore narrowed his eyes.

“How do you know that?”

How do I know that?

Because I’ve already heard and experienced all of that in the past.

“Do you still want me to go back, drink warm milk, and fall asleep?”

I intentionally smiled sweetly before gesturing towards the sofa on the other side.
Theodore’s face hardened into stone.

After glaring at me for a long time, he finally sat down once more.

Yes, I knew he would agree to my suggestion if I brought up the princess.

In the past, he abhorred the marriage to the royal family.
I smiled slightly as I saw Theodore acting exactly as I had guessed he would.

“What cursed bastard let that rumor spread? I need to sew his lips together.”

Theodore angrily undid the buttons that were tightened around his neck.
Hearing how ferocious his voice was, my shoulders shrank slightly.

“Let me correct you.
To be exact, it isn’t the young seventh princess, but the fourth princess.”

“Pardon?”

“The person the emperor is trying to force me to marry is the fourth princess, Princess Dahlia.”

“…Pardon?”

Huh? In the past, it was definitely the young seventh princess, wasn’t it?

It’s Princess Dahlia?

Isn’t Princess Dahlia the one who was born so weak that she couldn’t even leave the sickbed? To make things worse, in the past she was an unlucky princess who couldn’t defeat the illness and died in the end.

Seeing my dumbfounded expression, Theodore nodded as if in understanding.

“I heard that she got better and out of bed.”

No.
It was definitely the young seventh princess.

I even remember how the young seventh princess said ‘I don’t want to marry a scary mister like that’ and cried her eyes out at a social function.

After reviewing my memories, I brushed them aside, since it didn’t matter which princess Theodore was supposed to marry anyway.

“Then you’ll need me even more.”

As his long eyelashes fluttered, a shadow fell across Theodore’s red pupils.
Seeing his face full of contemplation, I changed my attitude from earlier and pointed at him.

“One year.”

“…”

“After that, let’s have a divorce.”