The Viridescent Crown - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Temporary Head

Ding-

Ding-

Beyond the Black Forest, bells rang in the distance to mark the end of the funeral. A group of people dressed in black mourning clothes lowered their heads to pay a silent tribute.

Slowly, a coffin began to descend into the pit.

There were three graves in total.

Ran stared blankly at the coffin.

‘I couldn’t stop it.’

She knew it would be like this.

Because she wrote this story.

Because she is the author.

So even though she knew, she failed to stop it.

She looked up at her younger brother.

A younger brother who she doesn’t share a drop of blood with.

He was the male lead of this novel.

Dressed in his dark blue academy uniform, he raised his dry eyes and looked straight at Ran to see if he felt her gaze.

His eyes, as blue as a glacier, faced her without wavering.

Ran looked at him again unknowingly after avoiding his eyes, but he had already turned his gaze.

At the end of the last moment of silence, the soil began to cover over the coffin.

Father,

Mother,

And her younger brother, Tas.

Ran squeezed the hem of her black dress. Then someone grabbed her shoulder.

“Ran.”

Ran looked up in surprise.

“Uncle.”

Ran looked at her opponent, while trying to hide her vigilance. The draped black veil covered her expression.

Her uncle, Baron Lindbergh, was an ambitious man. How ambitious, he was ambitious enough to want to become the duke.

“This may hurt your feelings. But, I’m afraid there is something I must tell you.”

“Please do say.”

“Ran, I think of you as my niece, but the dukes people don’t. It’s only a matter of time before you, who doesn’t share blood, gets kicked out of the dukes house.”

Baron Lindbergh looked around and whispered,

“But I want to follow my brothers will who gave you the last name of the duke. I think you should be the next head.”

“Oh…”

When Ran become embarrassed and stumbled on her words, Baron Lindbergh smiled vaguely and said,

“Or you’ll be kicked out on the street. They’ll take away everything you’ve ever had. Not only your dress or hat, but you’ll be begging on the street because you won’t have a day’s worth of bread.”

It was enough to intimidate someone who had just finished their coming-of-age ceremony and did not know the ways of the world. Baron Lindbergh gazed with satisfaction at Ran, bowing his head with a pale face.

“So trust this uncle. Yes?”

“All right.”

Baron Lindbergh rejoiced in delight to Ran’s response.

“Yes, well thought out.”

“Uncle, may I see another guest for a moment?”

Baron Lindbergh nodded at Ran’s words. Ran got away from that place and dismissed the idea of rubbing her shoulder he had gripped.

Glancing at her younger brother, Yustaf, he was also surrounded by several people.

‘Oh, it’s driving me crazy.’

Ran held back her desire to run to Yustaf right away.

Instead, she approached the grave where the soil was filling.

“Miss.”

When one of the men covering the soil showed reluctance, Ran shook her head.

“I’m alright. Please continue.”

Hearing her words, the two men glanced at each other and began to work again.

The soil quickly began to cover the coffin.

Ran looked blankly, lost in thought.

Four years.

It has already been four years since she fell into this world.

Before falling into this world, Ran was a graduate student in her mid-twenties. It was the weekend and she was returning to the dorm from her home.

Then suddenly a thud! It was a huge shock and then everything went dark.

She woke up and found herself in a wrong world. What she managed to figure out in a week was that she had become a character from her novel.

‘I named the title of the book ‘Eternal love’. The wit of a fifteen year old……’

At least she managed to remember the contents thanks to finding a folder whilst cleaning the computer at home.

At first, she said “what is this?”, and opened the folder to see what it was.

It was fortunate that she swallowed laughter as the switch turned on when she read the content.

‘But it’s the same.’

She is the daughter of the stepmother who left a deep trauma in the male lead.

‘Why is it this person? And it’s a long time before the novel starts, right?’

The heroine in her story is a dimensional mover. When the male lead met the heroine, he was twenty years old.

Currently, Yustaf is seventeen.

There is still three years left before the original story begins. Seven years in all because she fell into the world four years ago.

She possessed the body seven years before the beginning of the novel.

So it was more difficult to understand the contents.

‘In the first place, Ran should have died.’

Ran Romea de Lazia.

A daughter brought in when her mother remarried, and not a drop of blood shared with the Duke of Lazia. In fact, as the author, she never set her a name.

It was only from coming here that she got to know the name.

But the duke, who was infatuated with his young new wife, gladly registered Ran so she became part of the ducal household.

Later, her mother gave birth to a younger brother, Tas, and the harassment towards the ex-wife’s son, Yustaf, began.

Ran also played a part in it. But it wasn’t that bad until she died.

‘Originally, I should have died after being accidentally crushed by Yustaf, who had fallen from a tree.’

After that, her mother becomes a half crazy person, and begins to persistently harass Yustaf.

The tutor attached to him also treated Yustaf harshly, creating a trauma of women.

‘However, I entered this body.’

As she entered this body, Ran came back to life.

Then, she earnestly asked her mother, who was trembling in anger, to send Yustaf to the Imperial Academy.

Her mother also approved of keeping him far away, and praised Ran for being clever.

‘I actually just wanted to keep Yustaf away from the tutor.’

Yustaf seemed to agonise for a while and there was backlash from some of the vassals, but he eventually left for the Imperial Academy.

‘Yes, Yus must have wanted to get out of the hands of that tutor.’

Ran nodded inwardly.

To that point, she thought she had behaved well.

‘I did……’

In the end, both parents and Tas died in a carriage accident.

She knew this would happen, but she couldn’t stop it.

It was on the way to see Yustaf in the capital. The Imperial Academy’s academic festival was being held, and Ran nagged her parents to go.

Let’s all go see Yustaf together.

Then, she suffered from a high fever to the point that she lost consciousness, and only her parents and younger brother, who could not afford to make long preparations, left and ended up in a landslide.

They all died.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be like this…’

Apparently, in her novel, her family died in a ship accident. So she thought she just needed them to avoid ships.

But that wasn’t it.

Ran wrapped her hands around her face.

It was only four years, but it was a long four years. Although she wasn’t truly a family member, she treated herself well even with the confusion in her memory.

“Sister.”

Hearing his low voice, Ran raised her head.

Yustaf was standing next to her. Her younger brother, who is two years younger than herself, was already about the same height her.

“You’re not feeling well, let’s go inside now.”

His face has a cold look to say he was worried.

Ran looked at his face for a moment and nodded. She turned and looked at the mansion in the distance.

In most of the duchy’s area, the duke’s mansion at the entrance of the mountain range can be easily seen.

The huge mansion, which stands tall against the backdrop of endless mountain range, was not made by human hands.

It was a work formed by the hands of a magician.

The mountain range is called the ice wall, that is why the Duke of Lazia is called ‘Lazia of the ice wall.’

There is a beautiful pure white door in that great mountain range.

A white door sealed by the great sage Ivria, who pushed back the darkness behind it. The Lazia family are the guardians of that door.

A family older than the empire. Even if the continent was immersed in war, and the kings and queens changed, the family continued to exist here.

‘Of course, it’s because the land is barren.’

Ran let out a small sigh.

The Duchy of Lazia was poor.

The land is vast.

It is wide, but half of the year is winter. We can’t farm properly and there is little land on which crops are grown.

As a result, the duke’s finances have always been tight.

‘It’s on the verge of bankruptcy.’

It was because of her mother’s luxury spending.

— May you be blessed by the shade of green.

It is a greeting said by the Duchess of Lazia, passed down from generation to generation.

The crown of deep green.

This is because the so called crown belongs to the lady of the house.

In the duchy, where half the year is winter, green is a symbol of nobility. Moreover, it is a blessing that symbolises everything is overflowing with abundance. So, it’s not surprising that the crown of platinum, inlaid with the highest quality emeralds is named ‘the crown of deep green’. And just as such a blessing is spread from person to person, so is the hope of the lady’s compassion.

May you be blessed by the shade of green.

This is how the greeting is said.

But her mother hated the crown. Instead, new tiaras made of ruby or sapphire were produced.

The necklaces, rings, earrings, bracelets and belts she bought were overflowing accordingly.

And as she said,

‘The duke’s finances are tight.’

We have to prepare for a long winter, but they were buying luxury goods. It’s only natural that debts were incurred.

‘And what’s more, the current heir Yustaf is not yet of age.’

Ran glanced at her younger brother walking next to her.

Black hair and blue eyes. In dramatic contrast, his pupils looked bluer.

Like his sharp impression, he is a very capable man.

‘That’s the male lead.’

However, because he was the male lead, he had many trials.

‘To begin with, the bullying from the stepmother and tutor.’

There is an event after this.

Baron Lindbergh.