“You have competed for a long time to earn the right to be chosen.”
Father-in-law’s low voice echoed in my ears.
I swallowed dryly and clenched my fingers so tightly it felt as though I might snap them.
The air was heated.
Alpha pheromones, thick with extreme excitement, were running wild in every direction.
“The one who will become the next head of the family is the one chosen by the future mistress. Only the most outstanding male among you is worthy of being chosen.”
Three handsome men were kneeling before me, all of them blindfolded.
The eldest, Ian Driblyane, was the master of the Joker, the largest assassin guild in the Empire.
He lifted his chin with a faintly deranged smile and tilted his head slightly toward me…
It looked exactly as though he were saying that if I didn’t choose him, he would unleash his entire army of assassins and eliminate his younger brothers on the spot—
“Baby. If you’re having trouble choosing, should I make it so there’s only one option left?”
“No!”
Just as I thought!
I hurriedly denied it with all my might.
He was one hundred percent serious.
Ian was the terrifying sort of man who would gladly eliminate every other option until he was the only one left, then patiently wait until I fell in love with him.
“I don’t care what you do. I even cleaned up after you when you smacked the Pope on the back of his head.”
W-Well, that was true.
I flinched at Ian’s gentle reminder.
That had been the biggest disaster I had ever caused.
‘But I didn’t know he was the Pope of the Holy Empire! And besides, who was the one cheering me on and telling me to hit him a few more times?!’
Thinking about it made me feel rather wronged.
He had definitely deliberately egged me on back then.
“Hey, Donggeul. You’re going to choose me anyway, so what are you hesitating for? You’re wasting time.”
That was when the second brother cut in with a growl.
Dante Driblyane.
The youngest member ever accepted into the Paladin, a world-renowned order composed exclusively of Sword Masters.
He was currently cracking his fingers with a series of loud pops, as though trying to suppress his impatience.
I had no idea why that made it look as though he would kidnap me and run away with me the moment things went south.
Normally, he was disciplined to the point of being rigid, just like a well-trained knight…
But Dante was actually highly impulsive and impossible to predict.
‘And then there’s the youngest…’
While the other two spoke, I shifted my gaze toward the one who remained completely silent.
‘He’s probably smiling with his eyes even without looking.’
Even though his eyes were covered by a blindfold, I could somehow tell.
He was probably staring straight at me even now.
A thin piece of cloth wouldn’t be enough to stop him from watching me.
That was simply the kind of person he was.
Yuri Yerevan Helico-prion Driblyane.
The only Crown Prince of the Magical Empire.
He was infamous for his persistence.
Though, come to think of it, none of the three could exactly be called non-persistent…
But he was especially persistent.
And that was something I needed to be careful about.
“Sister.”
Yuri crawled toward me on his knees and nestled his cheek into my palm.
“Yuri only listens to sister.”
He didn’t threaten me not to abandon him.
Nor did he warn me not to leave after taming him.
Because he would never say things like that to me.
His voice was nothing but adorable.
His attitude is harmless.
His expression is gentle and obedient.
He acted like a cute little predator who willingly placed the leash in my hands.
Before long, Yuri began showing off his usual charm, rubbing his lips against the inside of my palm.
My toes curled for no reason, and I had to desperately maintain my composure.
“It may be difficult, but we cannot avoid this. Our bloodline is simply too heavily tainted with the blood of beasts.”
Father-in-law gently placed a hand around my shoulder and quietly declared,
“Now, Florin. It’s time to choose your husband.”
Thump.
As I exhaled, my heart sank for some reason.
My heartbeat gradually grew faster.
‘Now… one of these three is going to become my husband.’
In this world, there were seven superior races said to have been deeply loved by the gods and granted extraordinary powers and status.
One of them was the Saber-Toothed Tiger Beastkin, the Driblyane family.
The kings of predators.
Those blessed by demons.
The heart of the Magical Empire, and a prestigious family possessing wealth and power so immense that they could rival the Imperial Family itself.
But more importantly…
The Driblyane family was the greatest arms manufacturer in the entire world.
In the original novel, they were portrayed as villains who shamelessly sold weapons, prolonged wars, and lined their pockets with the profits.
‘And in the end, they got into a love triangle over the heroine and happily met their doom together when the entire family was wiped out…’
Now, I was about to become the official mistress of the very family destined for that future.
It was something I had been waiting for a long, long time.
“By the way, I don’t care who you marry. The result is the same either way—you’ll still become my daughter-in-law.”
“Father-in-law, what if I make the wrong choice?”
“The Driblyanes will go bankrupt. Don’t worry.”
Excuse me, but that was surprisingly encouraging…!
I hadn’t been sleeping properly at night lately, so my head felt dizzy.
I sighed and hesitated for a moment.
Putting an end to a relationship was an incredibly difficult thing.
I wanted to run away, but if there was one thing I had failed to learn as the daughter-in-law of the Driblyane family, it was how to back down.
I only knew how to bite.
Well, I was a predator too, after all.
‘Honestly. When I first possessed this body, I never imagined I could create a future like this.’
I had been so busy working to make sure the Driblyane family didn’t collapse exactly as it had in the original novel that I could barely keep up.
And it wasn’t over yet.
The latter half of the original story was where the real war began.
To protect my family from the clutches of the heroine, the woman this world adored beyond reason, the choice I was about to make was—
“Father-in-law, I…”
When those words finally slipped past my lips, I suddenly remembered something that had happened a very long time ago.
I first met my Father-in-law one winter, after I had possessed seven different bodies.
***
‘What the hell? That’s an unfamiliar ceiling!’
Just like the protagonists in romance-fantasy novels, I immediately realized that I had possessed someone else’s body the moment I opened my eyes.
The only thing that made me slightly different from the usual possession victims was that I welcomed it with my entire being.
‘Wow, this bedroom is so luxurious it looks like I could bite into a diamond spoon!’
After quickly looking around the room, I let out an ecstatic cheer internally.
‘God, thank you! Thank you! So this is what it means when people say I had one big break waiting for me in life…!’
My last memory was of flipping off a truck that had been speeding away after hitting me.
I had died while cursing it with every insult I knew, only to discover that it had actually been a possession truck!
I didn’t have much to regret about my old life, so honestly, I was rather happy about it.
My body felt a little uncomfortable and stiff, but whatever.
I was probably just a newborn baby.
I brushed it off and decided to enjoy my happiness first.
‘The bedroom smells nice, too.’
Was this one of those childcare stories?!
If I had been given the chance to start everything over, just like the protagonists of all those childcare novels, I would have been more than happy to accept it.
I never understood why they called them childcare novels instead of baby-billionaire novels, but whatever.
The important thing was that I was fully prepared to embrace this possession.
‘What’s my status? Am I royalty? Maybe even a princess?’
A solid-gold leopard decorated the extravagant vanity, the sort of thing a queen might use.
The upper part of the enormous window was fitted with stained glass engraved with lingonberry flowers, while well-maintained potted plants filled every corner.
An elegant green chaise longue.
Collections of blue-toned porcelain.
And covering the walls from top to bottom…
Family portraits…?
‘Hmm. Somehow, this feels more like the taste of a middle-aged noblewoman than a baby’s.’
Maybe this was my mother’s room!
As a ten-year veteran of reading romance-fantasy novels, I surveyed the room with hawk-like eyes and came to a firm conclusion.
I had hit the jackpot!
From now on, I could live surrounded by people who would say things like,
“Miss has breathed! Therefore, today shall be declared a national holiday!”
even if all I did was breathe!
Sob.
My name was Kim Aram.
My parents had died young while exploring some remote wilderness, so I was sent to live with relatives when I was thirteen.
From then on, I lived under the constant pressure of being a burden.
I worked desperately to avoid being disliked and to make sure I never caused anyone any trouble.
Fortunately, I had inherited a sturdy liver.
The moment I became an adult…
I got a license to operate an excavator and moved out on my own.
At first, the older men at work gave me a hard time because I was a newcomer.
But I took after my parents and had such an easygoing personality that fitting in with the group wasn’t difficult.
‘Ah. Looking back, it really was an interesting life.’
I didn’t particularly regret leaving it behind.
‘Could this be a reward for always paying legally instead of illegally downloading things, even when I was broke?’
As I remembered the purchase history on my KakaoPayX app, I casually wiped my nose.
Yep.
Long live childcare stories…?
“Mother, the lingonberry tree has such pretty flowers.”
“Oh my. It must mean you’ll return safely from the battlefield again this time. That makes me happy.”
Huh?
Wait.
Why are you pointing a watering can at me?
A few seconds later, I broke into a cold sweat.
Something was very, very wrong.
‘WHY AM I NOT EVEN A HUMAN?!’
Plop.
As I screamed internally, a beautiful flower fell from the branch.
I would only learn the truth after possessing several more bodies, but this place was actually the world of a mature, bleak, trashy novel titled The Fallen Saintess and Her Mad Beasts.
In this steamy reverse-harem beastkin novel, where scenes of the protagonists doing that wherever they pleased made up more than half the story, I had possessed—
A tree being raised by a noblewoman.
“AAAAAAAH! SEND ME BACK!”
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