Empress of Self-Ruin

Chapter 29: My Heart Is Massive, but It's Empty

The few days following the national assembly had been long and tedious. I mostly spent hours and hours doing paperwork, having small meetings with the council, answering public requests for an audience, and even had lunch once with my uncle to celebrate our successful ploy.

After all of these, I truly desired nothing more than a cup of black tea and a romance novel I could snag from Eli's collection—now that I knew she had a huge stash of romance novel collections secretly hidden in her chamber.

I should have guessed. She was always a hopeless romantic after all. How stupid of me, really. If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have wasted my time going to Graniel Royal Library and almost getting killed by a book.

Oh, how perfect it would be if I could just simply crawl into some deep dark corner and not come out until the turmoil in my soul had eased slightly.

Contrary to popular belief, I was an introvert. This I knew implicitly. Talking to lots of people exhausted me and I needed to recharge after a long day like people needed air to breathe.

Something always felt empty inside of me—like I was hollow and after being alone and marinating in my thoughts for a while, I would feel a little bit better. Like the silence and my thoughts were slowly filling me back up.

But no, of course I didn't have time to even rest—since my informant had just sent me a notice that it was Leon's day off and he would be going to the market later tonight.

That information matched what I knew about him from the novel. In the book, Leon would often visit the night market alone after the regression to reminisce about his time with Electra. She apparently loved the night market a lot.

It was a good thing for me because it would be the perfect opportunity to set up a stage for a coincidental meeting.

To write a romance novel, there has to be a crisis.

Just like how those heroines in a novel were able to attract the male lead's attention through a bunch of coincidental meetings and ended up winning their hearts.

Unfortunately, because I wasn't the heroine, it wouldn't work like that for me.

But it was to be expected, wasn't it? Since in this world, only the heroine was meant to be the most unique.

But for an extra like me?

No way.

There were no coincidences or luck. I had to do everything on purpose.

That was why I had risked my life just to pull that monster stunt. It was easier to fall in love when you were going through hard times. People called it the suspension bridge effect in psychology.

Well anyway, for this plan to succeed, I needed to secretly sneak out of the palace alone tonight.

Of course it wouldn't be my first time going on a solo outing. I did it from time to time, but this would be the first time I snuck out after the regression.

I checked the time on the clock again. The night was still young, yet the sky was black tranquility married to the poetry of stars. It was the kind of darkness that called the body and brain to relax and let the heart go to its steady rhythm; a promise that the land would rest once more.

Not for me though. Instead of sleeping, I was getting ready to go out. I was alone in my dressing room, awkwardly changing my chemise into a set of clothes that I had prepared beforehand.

It was always strange for me to dress myself. I was used to having many servants helping me change on a daily basis. Fortunately, Park Hanbyeol's memories helped me get through it much easier than usual.