SWTI 01

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Chapter 1 Gifts Are the Best Way to Raise Favorability

[Is the “Great Runein,” who ended the Thousand-Year War, disappearing into the pages of history?]

[Imperial Treasury Bureau: “The Grand Ducal House of Runein Is on the Verge of Bankruptcy…”]

[Why Did the Guardian of the North Fall? — Focusing on the Dangers of Reckless Investment —]

I slapped the newspaper I had been reading down onto the table.

“They’re practically cursing them to go bankrupt.”

My daily routine began with reading the day’s newspaper. It was something of a habit.

My parents had been the owners of the enormous merchant guild Seton, which operated throughout the empire. After they died in a carriage accident, I inherited it.

‘Whoever wins the empire’s greatest heiress gets everything.’

That saying had even been popular for a while.

“I’d like to propose a contract.”

Not long after my parents’ funeral, I was nothing more than a lucky heiress who had inherited the excessively large legacy known as a “great merchant guild.”

I concluded that I needed the protection of a powerful family to safeguard the guild, so I went looking for someone who could help me.

“There are a lot of people after the Seton Merchant Guild. I suppose I look like an easy target because I’m a commoner woman holding this much wealth all by myself. So I’d like to propose a contract.”

“A contract?”

“Yes, a contract. One where neither side has to humiliate themselves, and both sides can benefit.”

I needed someone powerful to back me and protect my control over the guild, so I chose a family that had been doing business with Seton for a long time and had never once caused us any trouble.

That place was—

“Lend me the Runein name. If I successfully inherit Seton without any problems, I’ll settle all of Runein’s debts for you.”

The Grand Ducal House of Runein.

“Let’s get married.”

Shubel Runein.

The sole heir to the Grand Ducal House of Runein.

Dark black hair, languid violet eyes, and an air that seemed to look down on everyone from birth.

A man who had lived his entire life as a great noble—and would continue to do so—spoke.

“Shall we?”

I proposed marriage as part of our contract, and Shubel accepted.

And so, we married on the condition that we would make up for each other’s shortcomings.

It was a contractual marriage.

“Fine. Getting married was all well and good.”

After six months of engagement, which passed in a blur as I worked to protect my control over the merchant guild, we held our wedding.

I went from Elysia Seton to Elysia Runein.

Control of Seton had completely fallen into my hands, and the guild had entered a period of stability, just as it had been before my parents died.

Since I had to live in the capital to manage the merchant guild, I also had little reason to interact with my in-laws.

For a marriage that had never been part of my life plan, I was fairly satisfied with how things had turned out.

But then—

“Something completely unexpected happened…”

The problem arose a week ago, on the day of my wedding.

The moment Shubel slipped the family heirloom onto my finger as my wedding ring—

[Change the future.]

A majestic voice rang out inside my head, and memories of my past life came rushing back.

‘So this is the world inside a book, Shubel is the protagonist, and I’m his widowed wife who barely appears except in flashbacks… This is insane.’

I had lived as Elysia Seton for twenty-one years.

Perhaps because my current identity was so firmly established and my memories of my past life were so hazy, I didn’t feel particularly attached to my previous life.

But traces of it remained.

For example, I remembered the original story.

Three years from now, Runein would be falsely accused of treason and destroyed.

Everyone would die—the parents, the wife, and the retainers—everyone except the protagonist, Shubel.

Originally, Shubel had no interest in restoring his failing family.

But this incident would become the catalyst for his awakening.

That was how the early part of the original story went.

“Ugh. Being treated like some kind of protagonist awakening device is seriously pissing me off.”

It wasn’t merely absurd. I was genuinely furious.

Wasn’t the role of a protagonist’s awakening catalyst normally reserved for some tragic unrequited love interest?

‘Why does it have to be me, when we’re nothing more than a business-like show-window couple?’

For a week, I went through the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, and depression.

And finally, I accepted reality.

“If I want to survive, I have to drag myself into the Grand Ducal Residence.”

I had two choices.

Ignore everything and break off the engagement.

Or charge straight in and change the future.

My rational side was urging me to choose the former without hesitation.

Of course, I was human too. Knowing that my future ended in death, I couldn’t deny that I’d thought, ‘Should I just run away?’

But—

‘It’s not like the Grand Ducal family’s debt is pocket change.’

The problem was that the contract hadn’t been completely fulfilled yet.

Seton had already received its payment.

The merchant guild, which had nearly been torn apart and scattered into nothing, had miraculously recovered. In that sense, I’d certainly gotten the full benefit of Runein’s protection.

But now that all my problems had been solved, was I supposed to run away from them?

‘I can’t do that.’

The most important thing to a merchant guild was, without a doubt, trust.

If rumors spread that Seton was the kind of merchant guild that failed to honor its contracts, it was obvious that all the credibility I’d built up until now would come crashing down.

I’d gone so far as to marry in order to protect the merchant guild that could be considered my parents’ legacy.

There was no way I could destroy it with my own hands.

‘Besides, my pride won’t allow it either.’

This was the marriage I had chosen.

I was the one who had proposed.

Divorcing him when there was no fault on his part?

Sure, merchants were known for swallowing what was sweet and spitting out what was bitter, but I wasn’t shameless enough to go that far.

‘And then there’s the compensation.’

I’d judged that the benefits I’d gain by restoring Runein would be more than enough to outweigh all the risks and opportunity costs.

Runein was one of the most prestigious families among the noble houses, having ruled as a grand ducal family for more than a thousand years.

If I wasn’t tempted by that reputation and those connections, I might as well quit business.

“And…”