I'm Not Your Husband, You Evil Dragon! - Chapter 42: "A Contract in the Shadows"

After living as a famous Korean vlogger-slash-mukbanger, Neoma died a (shameful) death and regressed to her tragic first life— the life where she has to live as a hidden princess with a tyrannical father and a yandere twin brother.

She died at the hands of her psycho brother in her first life. But luckily, she charmed her “big brother” this time. Her father remains a sc*mbag, though.

But a blessing in disguise happened when her twin brother got “sick.” Because of that, she has to pretend as the “Crown Prince,” forcing her father to treat her well.

She thought she was finally on the road to becoming a lady of leisure.

But, despite her laziness, she still ends up completing royal duties that put her closer to the throne than her sick twin brother. The next thing she knew, they already prophesied her to be the first empress of their very patriarchal empire.

Now Neoma finds herself in the middle of the succession war she never wanted to be involved in!

Existence was divided into three realms. The Heavenly Realm. The Earthen Realm. The Infernal Realm. Below them, countless minor realms of all types existed, none able to match the might of any of the Three Fundamental realms. The Celestials led the Heavenly Realm, The Immortals led the Earthen Realm and Demons led the Infernal Realm while the Rulers controlled all the minor realms. Together, they formed The Myriad Unity and allowed peace to reign supreme. The mortals were allowed to cultivate and reach for the Heavens as a balance was installed between the Heaven and Earth, all according to the Heaven’s Will. And yet, among the billions of trillions of living beings within the Myriad Unity, one seemed unsatisfied. “They are lying to us.” This man went against all known truths and contradicted the very gods. “We are in a false world! Mere pawns used to study an outcome!” And so in search of freedom and truth, this man committed the ultimate taboo. He rebelled.

How long can one ignore the voices in their head?Nine years. To Mark, that was the limit.For the majority of his life, Mark White has been fighting a constant battle for his sanity. The voices in his head pushed him toward madness one whisper at a time, and the music he used to ward against them was gradually losing its effects.As his mental state slowly deteriorated, Mark spent more of his time working on a game he had been developing and lamenting his lack of romantic experience.One night, the voices dealt him a powerful blow, bringing their battle to an end. To his surprise, Mark won the battle, but that came at a great cost.The voices might have disappeared, but a visual hallucination arrived to replace them, taking the form of a character from his game: Maids VS Apocalypse. Little did he know that the real apocalypse was already coming for him.

ExcerptAristia could not help but stare at the platinum blonde a few steps in front of her. She seemed to sparkle with a glow that drew people in around her. Something that only happened to the main character of a novel.[Is that stupid book sure I'm the female lead?] She thought, her jaws almost going slack.At this point, she was sure she was deluding herself— or the book was deluding her.She didn't know why, but she already disliked the girl.[This is definitely not jealousy.]She rubbed her brows, watching how the innocent, naive looking girl exuding female lead aura was being flocked around already by others.“Fuck, I'm in deep shit!”—Excerpt Two“What do you mean this is where I belong?!!!” She asked incredulously.“It is the truth. It might sound extremely absurd and unbelievable, but it is the truth.” He said, his voice tinged with helplessness.“Hell, it is absurd.” She threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly. The seriousness in his eyes told her he wasn't at all joking or messing with her. He was damn serious.“Ugh. What shit am I involved in?” She asked frustratingly to no one in particular at the news she was still trying to wrap her head around.***Aristia Andrews had just come back home from work and prepared to go to sleep, when she was given a novel.Nothing strange about that though, huh?But just after she had completed the novel, she woke up to find herself tossed into a whole new world. Taken from her world and the life she deemed perfect, and tossed into a not-so-ideal world.Now part of royalty, she has to get accustomed to living in a backward world of Kings and Queens, Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Viscounts and Barons. Just the titles and hierarchy were enough to make her smart head spin.With beautiful and loving parents and relatives, a cute younger brother, loyal servants and a smart brain, join Aristia as she enjoys eating and making new and delicious cuisines, forms unique friendships, and creates successful businesses.However, she finds all is not as she thought it was; there just might be something bigger than she expected, that the book did not reveal.Now... she has a lot of mysteries surrounding her to unfold, and secrets to uncover, and perhaps she'll find a dash of love along the way.