It was a day of wilting flowers and falling summer leaves. I finally accepted my situation.
Three months ago, I opened my eyes and found myself in a totally different world, a world of a book that I had read in my spare time.
I had transmigrated into a book. And it obviously wasn’t your typical transmigration.
I hadn’t transmigrated into a fancy room with a lavish bed or one in a dilapidated wooden shack.
I had transmigrated into…a prison. Right in front of me were a group of people dressed in drab clothes of striped gray patterns, with prisoner numbers hanging near their chests.
…I mean, how could I have opened my eyes to a prison!
Even if I was only dreaming, I would rather have a different dream than a pathetic one like this. But though it was the most pathetic place for transmigration, this prison, ‘Kambrakam,’ was definitely the setting from that book I had read before. I could tell from the strangely familiar ‘European Middle Ages’ setting.
Of all stories, why did I have to transmigrate into this X-rated tragic romance novel. The book was something I had casually read to pass the time, so the details were fuzzy, especially of the male lead. I only remembered that he was super handsome, but a bit peculiar.
I was in a sort of special prison cell with other prisoners. In a time period in which human rights were thrown out the window, we were given proper meals and even taken to a place for daily exercise.
This was because all the prisoners here were of noble class. As for me, my character was in prison in my father and older brother’s stead.
“Hey, Iana.”
I didn’t know what exact crime I was here for, but I knew I was some sort of extra character named Iana that hadn’t even been worth mentioning in the novel.
“Hey, hey. You listening?”
“Ah, yes, yes!”
Though I didn’t know everyone’s last names, the people in this prison cell with me were nobles, so I assumed that I was part of an aristocratic family as well.
I turned my attention to the middle-aged, pot-bellied man sitting in front of me. He cleared his throat and continued speaking.
“The reason why we don’t have personal rooms and have been stuffed into a prison cell together? Simple. They want to set an example. That aristocrats can be punished too. It’s a show of the emperor’s authority.”
“Aha, I see.”
Baron Paladis, who had been caught and imprisoned for selling fake money despite his smarts, was a useful confidante.
“So that’s why all the nobles are imprisoned in here.”
Here’s a rundown of what I remembered of the pretty strong plot.
The female lead. A lovely, kind, and friendly lady, Francia was imprisoned in Kambrakam in place of her father. This innocent lady couldn’t control her always insatiable curiosity, and one night, took a secret tour of the prison, only to get lost in the deep parts of Kambrakam. She chanced upon a prison cell with a single man imprisoned inside, but…
[Who are you?]
The man who had been chained by his hands to the wall, was the longest-term prisoner in the history of Kambrakam. In other words, the male lead, Heinrich Dorean von Hel.
The future Archduke of the Hel estate.
An incredible power was passed down to the sons of the Hel family, but unable to control his powers, he had been imprisoned in the depths of Kambrakam, and wouldn’t be released until there was someone who could help him with his control.
It was because this incredible power apparently turned the wielder into something like a ‘beast.’ Strictly speaking, one would gain power that surpassed human strength but would lose human awareness and reasoning.
[What a pitiful person…]
The kind and innocent Francia pitied the male lead after hearing about his situation, and released him from his bonds. But because of his power, as soon as he was free, he became a beast and ended up knocking down the female lead.
[Ahh~…!]
Ehem, you can guess what happened next.
Anyway. After an intense night together, the female lead became the male lead’s ‘companion,’ the only one who he allowed to free him from his shackles. In this case, ‘companion’ referred to a lover to the duke that was connected to him by their souls.
And then there’s more stuff about the villain and such, but for now, the male lead, the supporting male lead (villain), and the female lead developed their relationships with this prison as the setting in the X-rated novel. So, a love triangle was formed.
The love triangle concept continued throughout the story because the male lead had a relatively unstable personality and the villainous supporting male lead was consistently fixated on the female lead.
“The contents are quite…what a relationship those three must have had.”
As far as I knew, the villain and the male lead were of rival aristocratic families, so the love triangle persisted even in high society.
I stood outside the male lead’s prison cell as I thought to myself.
“Hmm, so I guess that’s him.”
Though I couldn’t see that well because of the darkness
“Ugh, I can’t see.”
I could make out a shape, but it wasn’t clear. Though the cells on the second and third floors had windows, this cell didn’t have any. Maybe because it was situated in the basement? Though they could have probably installed windows in the basement cells…
It made sense that the male lead had a gloomy personality. Even if he wasn’t born with it, he could probably only feel gloomy after being in such a dreary cell.
“Iana, I think you should go.”
“Aw come on mister, just a little more.”
I smiled at the prison guard Hans and hit his shoulders in a playful manner. He looked at me knowing that he couldn’t convince me to leave and shrugged.
“You know that such a thing like this shouldn’t even happen, right? If the boss finds out about this, I’m dead. Hmm?”
“Of course. Know that my lips are sealed.”
“Huh. You really are a little different. Usually the precious ladies of noble families wouldn’t mingle with lower class people like me, you know.”
As I smiled at him without an answer, Hans smiled bitterly and shrugged his shoulders again.
“Well…though I probably wouldn’t have talked with you if not for what you gave me.”
Kambrakam was a prison for the nobles, so all the guards were knights. Especially for the male lead’s cell, the guards were those with pretty high-level abilities.
A characteristic of this prison was that there were less chances of interaction between women and men than outside of the prison. And then, of course, there were a few people like me who struck up conversations with anyone, causing the bewildered knights to shake their heads. Though now that three months had passed, they had all gotten used to my actions.
“Did you like what I gave you?”
“Of course. Exactly where were you able to get such a high-class cigar? A middle-class knight like me would obviously drool over such an item.”
“I don’t know. I just asked for it in a letter to my family and they sent it to me.”
The knight looked at me as if he didn’t believe me, but I was telling the truth. As soon as I opened my eyes in this world, the first things I had seen were the desk I was sitting at and an almost blank letter with a small note scribbled at the top.
[Write to me what you want me to get.]
From then on, a blank letter would arrive every month, and if I wrote what I wanted and sent it back, those items, whatever I had asked for, would arrive.
Even items that were normally banned in prisons, like alcohol and cigarettes, were delivered to me if I asked. At first, I didn’t know what this letter was, so I just left it alone, but the next month I received a letter asking, ‘You don’t need anything?’
To the others who couldn’t get anything they wanted like I could, I quickly became a superstar.
There were people here who went by their first names and others who went by their full titles. There wasn’t anyone who was called by their number, like, “Nobleman 3615!”
Anyhow, to the people who were curious about my family name, I always shook my head and asked them to call me Iana.
Because the thing is, I didn’t know either. So I didn’t let anyone know who my family was.
If my family was someone that I did know from the novel, then they would probably be someone with a high enough status based on how they could get me anything, but….it was difficult to see family members during imprisonment and other than the blank letter that arrived every month, there wasn’t anything else for me to work with, not even a name.
So I just assumed that I was from a relatively stable noble family. Because if I was from a family that appeared in the book, I would have figured that out by now. Well, it’s not like there were a lot of characters in the novel. I mean, other than the steamy hot nights between the female and male leads, nothing else was really that important.
Hans shook his head when I told him I didn’t know where I got the cigars.
“Well anyway, you are an interesting person, Iana.”
“Am I? I can’t really tell. Ah, more than that, Hans, I have a favor to ask of you.”
I pointed at the vague outline of a figure collapsed in the dark cell.
“Can you let me inside there?”
“No I cannot.”
“Really?”
Hans shook his head in a firm no, but I knew what these guards were most weak against. I smirked at him and spoke.
“Next time I’ll give you two of the same kind.”
“…I cannot.”
“3 cigars?”
He flinched at my smile.
“But still…”
“3 cigars and a pipe. If you don’t want to, I’ll just ask and give it all to Talmin-“
“Now that I think about it, I think going in for a few seconds is okay.”
Talmin was another prison guard who was a rival of Hans.
“Deal.”
I couldn’t stop my chuckle. Hans cleared his throat and turned his head the other way. He tried to hide his embarrassment.
“You really can only stay there for just a little bit, okay?”
“Oka~ay.”
Perhaps it’s because the novel’s events hadn’t happened yet. Unlike how the cell was under strict surveillance in the novel, the male lead’s prison cell wasn’t heavily guarded. Perhaps it was because no one knew the male lead’s power? In the novel, the prison cell was strictly monitored after the male lead caused a huge ruckus. So.
“You need to put in the key and turn it. Two times to the right. It’s a bit rusty, so you have to put in some strength.”
“Yup. Got it.”
I pushed open the door after unlocking it. I could smell something like wet moss past the rusted door. This cell hasn’t been cleaned at all, has it?
I took a few steps towards the wall and then stopped, blinking my eyes repeatedly. Someone lay on the ground, his body chained to the wall.
‘So this is the male lead who hasn’t met the female lead yet, huh…’
He probably hadn’t been eating well because he was rather scrawny, but he still gave off a sacred, saint-like feeling. Maybe it was because of his silver hair. Or maybe because of his long eyebrows or his eyes with a color like the sky.
My throat made a sound as I gulped.
Heinrich Dorean was hella fine.
He wasn’t the most presentable-looking he could be. His appearance was slightly worse than a dirty ghost or worn-out clothing, I guess. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t keep looking at him.
“I guess just ‘ghost’ wasn’t exactly the way to describe him.”
Let’s see, I was currently 18 years old. The male lead, Rick Dorian, who had been trapped in here was 16, right…?
It was exactly 4 years before the plot began. 16 meant he was almost a grown-up, but with closed eyes, his face gave off a feeling of childlike youth.
Wow. He looked like an angel while sleeping.
“Is he alive? I feel like someone with such a face wouldn’t be able to live in a place like this.”
On the boy’s neck lay a special sort of necklace. Honestly, more than a necklace, it seemed like some sort of shackle. Wasn’t this the restraint tool that was used on the male lead as described in the novel?
Though he seemed heavily guarded and firmly shackled by this tool, his handsome appearance couldn’t be hidden. Honestly, I had come here just to make sure I was really in the world of the novel I thought I was in, and now I had no choice but to admit that I was.
The male lead’s beauty was too high to be in the real world and could only exist in a novel that had described his looks exactly as I saw them now.
‘He’s breathing, right?’
Without thinking, I stretched out my hand towards him.
Flinch.
I stopped. Hoping that I had seen incorrectly, I once more reached out to the male lead, but saw his eyelids twitch. And then he opened his eyes. My breath stopped as I looked into his sparkling blue eyes, which slowly blinked at me.
I had no time to appreciate the sight before me.
“Grrrr! Bark! Bark!”
“Oh my gosh!”
I was so shocked at the dog sounds that I fell on my butt. And then realized I had to get away from here.
…Do iron chain get longer? Because it just did!
I quickly avoided the male lead to a safe spot in the cell, barely escaping from his attempt to bite me. I looked at him, shocked.
Didn’t the novel say he would just go crazy? And that though he was supposed to end up having a violent personality, he was definitely still supposed to be human?
“Bark! Bark Bark!”
That’s just a dog! A! Dog! I stood speechless in front of the boy who, at this point, had forgotten any sort of human speech and behavior.
But after looking at the lad who continued to bark at me for awhile, I got used to it, and began to grope around my surroundings. Eventually, my hand hit an object. I wasn’t sure why exactly there was a random stick in the cell, but.
I quietly and carefully approached the male lead while holding the stick towards him.
Chomp.
“…Ah. He bit it.”
The male lead stared at me with a guarded expression on his face, but he continued to hold onto the stick.
So, this means he doesn’t hate the stick, right? He likes it, right?
I looked at the male lead with interest and then lightly touched the end of the stick. His gaze towards me immediately grew more hostile.
Hmm, he’s still not letting it go? He looked exactly like one of those puppies who didn’t want their chew toy taken from them. I blinked with surprise at this realization and chuckled. Though rather than a puppy, he looked more like a baby predatory animal.
I soon realized my mistake in giving him the stick and held out my hand.
“Oh no no no. You should give that to me now. It’s dirty.”
He shook his head.
“…Huh, wait, you understand my words? Really?”
As I spoke, he looked at me with a violent gaze. Sort of like, how dare you look at me like I’m an idiot? Wow, I guess he did understand me. But then why did he bark instead of talk?
But if I just left him like this, his teeth were going to rot.
“Grrr…..”
For now, I needed to get the stick away from him. If I teased him in any way, I knew I was going to feel guilty later. So without taunting him, I said ‘Ahh,’ and put my hand out towards him with my palm facing up. And since it didn’t look like he was going to give me the stick, I needed something else to replace it.
I undid my hairdo and dangled the hair tie in front of the male lead.
“Look at this, Rick Dorian. Hmm? Come on, look. This is softer and squishier than that stick. Pretty, isn’t it?”
Although he kept watching me carefully, I saw his gaze blur as his resolve wavered for a second.
Well, now he was acting like a cat. While he was distracted I quickly grabbed the stick from his mouth. And before he could start barking again, I shoved my hair tie into his mouth.
“Now, how is it? Nice, right?”
“…”
“There you go, there you go. Coochy coochy coo, you’re such a good boy. You’re really chewing it well.”
“…stop.”
“Hmm?”
“Pl, please stop.”
Tik. The hair tie fell to the ground. My eyes widened.
I moved my lamp to get a better view of him. The sparks of the lamp I was holding surrounded his glowing face.
“Ahh…st, stop…”
The lad opened and closed his mouth, and then made a tearful face.
“Wh, wh, what d, d, d, did I do to deserve this?”
As soon as he saw me, his face flushed. As if he was embarrassed over his actions from earlier. His eyes began to tear up as he looked at me. I began to feel flustered.
“Ri, ri, right now, you, my first time…”
…Hm?
What crap was this guy spouting now. First time? First time of what.
“First time?”
Without thinking, I went along with the flow. And I realized when I spat out those words. He had a completely different expression than before, even his gaze was different.
“How, how could you do this, be the first bitten…you are the fir, first…”
“No. No, no, wait a second.”
I stopped him from continuing. This male lead was just blurting out fantasies with sexual innuendos, left and right.
That was close.
****
“So, what you’re saying is, I’m the first person you’ve ever bitten, correct? Please speak clearly so people don’t misunderstand.”
“It, it is no-not a m-m-mi-misunderstanding.”
“It is.”
What kind of a situation was this, seriously. This meant that whenever he returned to his senses, he acted like this.
“S-so, it’s a misunderstanding?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
He looked at me with watery eyes. Any signs of his previously beast-like, predatory gaze had disappeared, but he continued to stare at me with sharp reproach.
I thought I could see the ocean in his blue eyes, especially when his eyes, akin to blue jewels were filled with tears…
If a single tear fell, I was going to be nailed down with an immense sense of guilt.
Fantastic.
I felt my conscience unnecessarily pricked, and spoke as I turned my head.
“Well, I’m sorry.”
I rubbed my cheek with my hand and looked around the room, avoiding the staring eyes of Rick Dorian. For some reason, he looked surprised.
“Tha, that’s the first time some, someone has a-a-apologized to me…the, first.”
…What. What was with this guy and his whatever-firsts?
“No. No no no no no no. Let’s get this straight.”
I walked up to him and held his hand that was fastened to an iron chain. Rick Dorian’s eyes shook. I was worried that his hands were hurt, but there weren’t any wounds. Anyway, I held his hand and spoke sincerely.
“Firsts are not important.”
“…”
“It isn’t important that today was the first, it’s important that you will experience things like this in the future, so get used to it. Ah, except the part when you were biting and chewing things.”
So please don’t stick the first label anywhere. I looked at Rick Dorian, hoping that he would seriously listen to me.
– Tak.
He slapped away my hand. I heard the sound of the iron chains rattling against each other. His eyes roamed around the room and his angelic face was now quite red.
“You, you shouldn’t just t-t-touch someone’s han, hand, like that!”
“Hand? It’s not like I’m hurting it in any way. Wait, more than that, were you even listening to me?”
“But it’s a man, man, man’s hand!”
Who was he calling a man. Though his body was a bit large, his face was still like a child’s…was he really referring to himself.
I wondered if I should ask himself something like, ‘Who are you calling a man,’ but I shook my head. He might end up bawling if I said that, and then I’d really suffer.
Pretty boys weren’t my type.
But maybe a grown-up Rick Dorian would be, who knows. He fit the phrase, ‘a beastly beauty’ to a T as the male lead, a fountain of overflowing, unpolished charm and good looks. But, really.
He was a beast, a beast.
‘Phew, especially at night.’
Though his elegant presence was also very charming when he wasn’t a beast, I’d never heard of him being a crybaby. Maybe it was because he was still young?
Four years could really change a person.
“Iana!”
I heard Hans yelling for me from outside.
“Ah, I’ve got to get back.”
I looked at the lad and smiled.
“Time’s up, Iana!”
“Yes, coming!”
I quickly muttered one more apology to Rick Dorian before picking up my lamp and leaving. I was a little sorry to be leaving in the dark cell. He was still young, after all.
“I’ll come again.”
I couldn’t see his face because my lamplight didn’t reach him.
***
I kept remembering the male lead’s tearful appearance as he told me about ‘firsts,’ but I didn’t worry about him too much.
That this male lead seemed to be labeling everything as a ‘first,’ even more than a female lead would say in a typical romance novel!…is maybe what I might have been worried about if not for knowing what sort of novel I was in.
There were tasks that only the female lead could do, and this X-rated novel revolved around the male lead and female lead. Their first meeting was an important event that would free Rick Dorian from his restraints, specifically, the shackles on his neck, wrists, and ankles.
With the female lead Francia’s unique healing ability, Rick Dorian would be free from his prison cell. Let me explain.
Rick Dorian would be freed from his shackles the day after their encounter. Evidently, Francia was the only one who could heal and save Rick Dorian from his curse, and so the only one who could help the male lead get out of prison was the female lead.
The male lead would get discharged from the prison according to the novel’s timeline.
Speaking of prison, I wondered when I’d be getting out of here.
“You’re sighing. Thinking of when you’ll be discharged?”
“Please don’t use that term. It makes me really feel like I’m a criminal.”
“What, why’re you like this all of a sudden~”
The smiling nobleman sitting next to me was Baron Paladis, the one who had been imprisoned for selling fake money.
He was pretty good company when I was bored.
Amusingly, though this was a prison, there was even a living room for the nobles. So anyone could meet up and share a conversation with the others. I found a bit funny seeing how everyone would languidly talk to one another, enjoying their privileges while all wearing the same striped-patterned-shirts.
That we were wearing these clothes while acting like nobles.
Did it even make sense to call ourselves nobles at this point?
“But more importantly, did anything fun happen today?”
“Do you want something from me, mister?”
Everything in our prison lives were for free, as was written in the law. To be precise, it was free because it was stated so in a law.
“Ehem, no, it’s nothing.”
Paladis didn’t see how society was any different than how it was in prison, and though I hadn’t experienced the noble society of this novel yet, I could see his point.
And if that was really true, I didn’t want to be released.
“Then tell me more about the Domulit family. You said you’d tell me the last time we talked, remember?”
“Oooh, right, the Black Rose of the capital.”
Duke Domulit. One of three dukes of the empire. Moreover, a member of the Domulit family was a very important character in the novel.
****
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