Escaping the Archduke of the North’s Obsession - Chapter 1

‘Effort will never betray  you.’

Unfortunately, she was thoroughly betrayed by these words which she had considered her life motto.

As a researcher at a pharmaceutical company, she had succeeded in developing new drugs for infectious diseases that affected the world.

She thought that she would only walk on a flowery path now as her life unfolds, but it was all in vain.

A day before the announcement of the new drug, she died in a car accident.

She had been so busy that she had never engaged herself in a relationship and her age had gone past 30 years old!

She was angry that the price of her efforts was death and she couldn’t stand it!

Had God even considered her or was it just a cruel yet pitiful joke?

She opened her eyes in a new body and it seemed strange.

It seemed like she had possessed an extra who did not appear in a few lines that  she had read before in the novel.

It would have been nice if she was a noble family’s daughter who turned into an extra.

Isabella, a woman she had possessed, was an 18-year-old commoner who lived alone in a mountain cabin in the north, making medicine.

Still, she had hopes.

Isabella was an extra that did not appear in a few episodes in the novel, but she was a person who developed a cure  for the illness of the heroine,  Seria.

It was written in the novel that the cure had given her tremendous wealth and power but it was something that would happen in the distant future.

Unfortunately, long before Isabella developed a cure, she had possessed her body.

‘Is that all it is?’  This body was already starving for a few days before she possessed it. She was really hungry to death.

She couldn’t believe that her life was threatened as soon as she possessed her. What an unpleasant start to a new life!

Fortunately, Isabella, who lives alone in the mountains, had someone to talk to.

Unfortunately, however, that ‘someone’  was not a human being.

“Isabella! Isabella!”

She looked at the small, red bird that flew around and called her name loudly.

“Be quiet before I get rid of you.”

“I’m Ignis, the Almighty , superior Spirit of Fire…….”

“Now you have no ability other than to create a bonfire.”

She was merely speaking the truth but Ignis  felt attacked. Covering her eyes with her wings, she cried  in a quiet voice.

“Fake Isabella is bad! Bad!”

Ignis, the superior spirit of fire, was such a noisy crybaby.

How sad!

According to Ignis, the King of the Spirits of Fire, King Ifrit, disappeared the day she possessed Isabella’s body.

He wasn’t extinguished, but he suddenly vanished without completing his term. That is why there was no spirit of fire in this world now.

Rather, if he was extinguished, the next generation of the spirit of fire would be born, but it wasn’t really possible.

To the rest of the spirits of fire, the idea was insane.

According to Ignis, he was a firebird that appeared incredibly cool and had huge wings, but now he was only a small and noisy redbird resting at the palm of his hand.

“Be quiet and share my energy.”

According to Ignis, Isabella is contracted to King Ifrit, the spirit of fire that disappeared and Isabella had lived alone in this deep mountain after signing a contract with Ifrit when she was 12, but she did not know the exact story behind it.

Ignis was always next to the young woman instead of Iprit, the spirit of fire, who was occupied with  other endeavors.

Unfortunately, she had no memory of Isabella before she possessed her body. Since she was not a main character in the novel, she had no idea how Isabella had lived before she possessed this vessel.

She  was already lucky to have Ignis, who lives with Isabella. Because Ignis remembered Isabella’s life that she couldn’t remember.

After the disappearance of Ifrit, almost all other spirits of fire had disappeared.

However, Ignis, who was next to Isabella, did not disappear.

He only turned into the body of a small red bird thanks to the strong, fiery energy inside Isabella’s body.

It seemed like the reason for Isabella’s strong fire energy despite Iprit’s absence, was due to the red medicine she made which consisted of herbs called Fleria and fused with the energy of fire.

It was a very mysterious medicine that kept the body’s temperature warm and consistent despite the cold parts of the North.

Isabella, who she possessed, was clearly a genius.

She was a person in which this world had considered a genius and she felt infinitely lacking compared to Isabella.

She remembered how shocked she was when she had witnessed Isabella’s method of manufacturing various drugs that she had studied and recorded herself.

She suddenly felt the urge to study these drugs right away out of habit.

She became increasingly used to hunting with bows, and after the threat of starving to death had diminished, she began to study various methods of manufacturing medicine in Isabella’s notebook.

Inside the cabin, there were various herbs originally raised by Isabella.

Using the herbs, she began to make the medicines, one by one, based on what was written from her notebook.

More than two years have passed and before she knew it, the name Isabella had become more popular than her original name, Lee Ji-young.

In the novel, she would leave this cottage to gain wealth and fortune and go to Molin, the capital of the Acnis Empire. But before all that, she had a medicine she really wanted to complete.

“Isabella, what are you making this time?” Ignis, who stayed next to her to share each other’s energy, asked curiously.

“Love potion.”

Among the medicines written in Isabella’s notebook, it was the love potion that interested her the most.

Can she really feel love with  this medicine?

Honestly, she thought it was almost impossible.

She made it for fun, but she was not sure about this medicine.

If it was successful, then great!

Of course, she couldn’t use it without thinking it through, but it would be quite useful if she used it for couples who came to her due to boredom in their relationships. If she succeeded, wouldn’t she be able to sell it at a very high price?

“It’s done”.

Looking down at the bright red love potion, she smiled happily. Slowly, she took a look at the medicine in the glass bottle she had prepared.

The red medicine that could control body temperature and the love potion were quite similar in color.

She would check the difference between the two.

Deep in thought as she settled the love potion on the table, she walked to her desk to get a pen and paper.

At that moment, the squeaking sound of an uninvited guest appeared in her ear.

Really, the rat’s vitality had to be recognized.

How on earth do they manage to hide into a deep cabin located in the mountains?

It would have been terrible if it was a mouse, so she quickly picked up the broom.

Short chaos occurred and she succeeded in kicking the mouse out of the cabin.

However, due to the commotion, the bottle which contained the love potion she had placed on the table rolled down to the floor.

“Where did it go?”

Whether it had rolled into the corner, she couldn’t see where the bottle with the love potion went.

“I’ll have to make it again after hunting.”

Food had run out and she had to go hunting before sunset.

“I’m watching your house well.” She said as she picked up a bag that the bottle of love potion had fallen instead of the floor due to the previous disturbance.

The red medicine that kept her body temperature warm had fallen from the bag she had dropped.

She picked up the red medicine that came out of her bag and packed it.

Putting the medicine back in her bag, she left the house with a bow and arrow.

Isabella, who has silver hair, blue eyes, and fairy-like appearance but it was her body that she found a little strange.

However, it was a surprise that her muscle strength was good and well-developed since she  was trained to survive.

It was hard to climb the mountain to find her prey.

Please, just one deer, or even one rabbit. It didn’t matter.

If she could just fill her stomach, any game would have been good.

She hunted yesterday and she caught only a small bird the size of a quail.

Ignis cried a lot and it took a long time for him to shut up. He said it was cruel to watch her grill and eat the bird his size.

He was a troublesome spirit of fire with as many tears as it was loud.

But was it because it’s getting colder?

It was hard to see a bird today and she was tired of eating porridge with a few medicinal herbs on it.

What if she  starves to death?

As she walked, worried, she saw a person sitting under a large tree.

What?

Why is that person here?

For the first time  that she had possessed Isabella’s body, she met a person like her and she approached him warily but then, his dazzlingly beautiful face caught her eyes.

Was it a sculpture and not a person, then?

The face of the man who sat under the tree was handsome enough to be mistaken for a sculpture.

Dark black hair and eyes that were tightly closed, sharp nose, and attractive lips.

She was briefly mesmerized by his shining appearance that wasn’t human at all.

Did he freeze to death?  She looked at the man sitting there motionlessly with his legs crossed.

He was too handsome to die like this.

Suddenly, the pattern engraved on the man’s cape strayed into her vision, making her think. Strangely, the pattern felt familiar.

“That’s right. It’s a pattern of the Kyar family, right?”

That pattern, which she also saw in her cabin, was clearly a family pattern of Archduke Kyar from under this mountain.

Recalling the pattern flying on the high wall, she opened her eyes to a circle.

Duke Kyar was the male protagonist in this novel where she had entered.

Come to think of it, his appearance seemed almost similar to what the novel had described.