Married to the Villainous Duke

Chapter 1

"The romantic love story of the beautiful Lady Odette and the brave Prince Klavin takes place in a universe completely different from our own. Magic and mysticism flourish. Royalty and nobles rule. True love exists..."

A cliché historical romance premise, exactly what I like. She's reading the back of the book: My Beloved Prince - one she randomly picked from the bookshelf. She's in the library, as usual, and was planning to get a head start on the reading for this semester. But, she ended up getting distracted by all the new books the library acquired for the start of the school year.

She loves reading these types of novels in her free time even though most people might consider this genre childish and cheesy especially for a 21-year-old college student. She's not actually ashamed of this pastime but she'd rather not let her friends find out. She knows they'd certainly poke fun at her and that would be an annoying thing to deal with. She easily gets embarrassed and can't stand being teased.

Being a nursing student is already stressful as it is so she would like to keep her friendships as stress free as possible by not letting them know too much about her. To be frank, she just really needs her friends so she wouldn't be eating her meals alone at school. She hates eating by herself.

She decides to borrow the book so she could continue reading it anywhere and anytime she liked. She rummages through her blue backpack, searching for her library ID. Where did I last put it? Some of her things accidentally fall from her bag as she tries to dig through all the stuff. Oh no, did I misplace it?

"This what you're looking for?" Her library card comes into view.

"Yes!" She feels relieved. I thought I lost it.

She looks up to see a guy holding the ID out for her but she can't see his face. Was the lighting in the library this bright? The faceless guy gives it to her and leaves without allowing her a chance to thank him. Bye and thank you stranger!

She still has some time left until her next class begins so she decides to start reading the first chapter of My Beloved Prince.

"Ghesquire is considered to be the most powerful Empire on Earth. It has been the largest and richest Empire for the past 500 years. House Ludington is the Imperial Family that sits on the coveted throne..."

I'll probably finish this entire book in less than three days.

~•~ ~•~ ~•••~ ~•~ ~•~

A few weeks later...

Morning classes just ended and she's with her two friends Trisha and Michelle. They're on their way to the university cafeteria to have lunch. She suddenly remembers she has a BioStatistics quiz right after.

"Hey, can we stop by my locker? I need to get a book," she tells her friends.

They agree and stop by the row of lockers along the hallway. She opens her locker and, to her surprise, a blue envelope falls out. A letter? She picks it up and reads to find out who it's meant for. Her heart skips a beat when she sees her name written neatly on the front of the envelope.

"Oh my gosh, what's that?! A love letter for you? How romantic!" Trisha says. Her chubby friend clasps her hands together as if she was swooning. Her shoulder length black hair and plump cheeks bounce along with her movements.

This is why Trisha has so many secret admirers. They all fall for her cute charms. She thinks to herself. Meanwhile, her other friend is the opposite. Michelle's tall height, curly black hair and striking features makes her easily stand out in a crowd. The only problem is she often acts like a kid.

"What? Who writes love letters in this century? Everyone flirts thru dms, let me see that!" Without warning, Michelle steals the envelope.

"Hey! Don't read that!" She tries to get it back from Michelle but the other girl is much taller so she fails.

She thinks it would be very embarrassing if her friends read the letter, even though she has no clue what it's about. Michelle starts to open the envelope but stops midway when she could feel her friend's burning gaze on her moving hands. She looks at her friend who was as red as a tomato.

"Sorry, I was only joking! Here," Michelle returns it to her, laughing awkwardly.

"I've never seen you so worked up like this before, you must be h-angry!" Trisha says trying to lighten the awkward mood.

She didn't realize she was acting so upset over the teasing that Michelle did. She knows Michelle was probably just trying to fool around. She quickly composes herself and smiles, "yeah, I'm just h-angry ha ha! But still, Michelle, you shouldn't try reading someone else's letter!"

"Yeah sorry, I won't do that again... Let's go now, I'm starving!"

Michelle jumps between the two girls and links their arms together. The three of them walk happily to the cafeteria arm in arm but her mind wanders to the mysterious blue envelope that's now stashed in her backpack. She's itching to know the contents of it and wonders who it's from.

As soon as she gets to her dorm room, she opens the envelope and reads the letter inside. She notices her hands are shaking. Why am I feeling so nervous and expectant over this? It could just be a prank letter.

To my dear lady,

On a fateful day, I laid eyes on you. I saw you standing in my favorite place in the world. Like a lightning strike, I instantly fell in love with you at first sight. I was admiring you from afar because I was too bashful to approach such a beautiful lady.

You were searching for something in your bag when your identification card suddenly slipped out. I wanted to know your name so I took that opportunity and picked it up from the floor. I memorized your name and returned what belonged to you. I wanted to converse with you but, alas, my shyness overcame me so I walked away.

But now, I've mustered up the courage to write my confession of love to you. I wish to meet you in person at Quireghes Park, the one right across the university. Please meet me at sunset on the 21st of September.

Love,
N

What. the. actual. fuck?! Her heart is beating so fast and she could feel butterflies in her stomach. Did I just read the letter correctly? A guy just randomly fell in love with me and, of all places, at the library! She remembers what happened a couple of weeks ago at the library but she can't recall what the guy who gave her ID looked like. All she can picture out is a man's figure whose face is covered by a bright light.

This N guy writes just like how the characters from my favorite romance novels talk and he says he wants to meet me on September 21 which is 3 days from now... But wait, he could end up being a creepy stalker or a psycho serial killer! Her active imagination starts making up different scenarios if she does decide to meet this N guy at the park.

One: he could be a handsome guy with a great personality. She'll end up dating him then marrying him and then they'll live happily ever after!

Two: he could be an unattractive weird shy guy. She'll feel flattered that someone thought of her that way but she'll end up rejecting him. Let's be honest, good looks is one of her priorities. Of course, aside from good hygiene and a good personality. She can't help it; she likes handsome faces the most!

Three: N guy meets her and kills her. The end.

There's a large chance it could be number two but there's a small string of hope in her heart that it could be number one. Maybe this is finally my chance to live out my fantasy of becoming the female lead of a romance novel!

She starts pacing in her dorm room to try to organize her thoughts. Reason tells her that meeting a stranger is highly dangerous. But what if she had other people to accompany her to the meeting? Trisha and Michelle will most likely agree to go with her...

I've decided that I'm going to meet him.