In that cramped, suffocating room—a place where sunlight had not dared to tread for weeks—silence reigned supreme. It was a silence so heavy that one could hear the persistent ringing in their ears, the lethargic rhythm of a fading heart, and the ragged, hollow sound of exhausted breaths. Lee Seol lay slumped on her threadbare mattress, devoid of any concern for the passing hours. To her, days had lost their luster and meaning since that fateful, cursed day when her small, rose-colored world collapsed upon her head.
It was the day she discovered that five years of love—years filled with sacrifices and whispered promises—were nothing more than a grand lie; a cheap theatrical play orchestrated by her fiancé. The man she had trusted above all others, her supposed safe haven, had not only abandoned her but had been plotting for months to marry her only close friend—the one person to whom she had bared the secrets of her soul.
This betrayal was not a single stab to the back; it was a total shredding of her spirit. Since then, Lee Seol had retreated from life. Her darkened room became her voluntary dungeon, where grief wrapped around her like a shroud of pitch-black silk.
Amidst this isolation and brokenness, her phone remained her only window to the living—a thin thread connecting her to a reality she no longer wished to touch. She didn't use it to communicate with the humans who had failed her; instead, she used it to flee into a fictional world where betrayal had no path. She submerged her senses entirely in the pages of a web novel titled: "Elina: A Heart Under Siege."
"Kaisel..." she whispered the protagonist's name, her voice raspy as she traced her trembling fingers over the cold screen. She tried to touch the features drawn by words. Kaisel—the brave warrior-emperor described as having features as sharp as a blade, golden eyes that pierced through souls, and a heart said to be forged from unyielding stone.
Yet, Lee Seol, peering through those dry lines and desolate phrases, felt something else. She felt his silent agony and a loneliness that mirrored her own. It felt as if the author had sculpted this hero from the remnants of shattered souls.
"If only you were real... If only I could live in your world, where love is sacred, and promises are written in blood and steel, not in falsehoods and lies," she murmured, closing her eyes in exhaustion. A single, warm, salty tear escaped her eye and landed directly over the name "Kaisel" on the screen.
At that exact moment, where her warm human tear met those cold, fictional words, the unthinkable happened. The phone's glow began to intensify unnaturally. It was no longer a mere backlight; it was a blinding white beam that pierced the darkness of the room Lee Seol had inhabited for weeks. She felt her very being being pulled, as if gravity had relinquished its hold on her. A sudden chill seeped into the marrow of her bones, causing the breath to hitch in her chest.
Slowly, the stale scent of her enclosed, miserable room began to fade—the scent that always reminded her of her solitude. It was replaced by a luxurious, royal fragrance—whiffs of exquisite oud mingled with the scent of rain-drenched jasmine. No longer did she feel the roughness of her worn-out bed; instead, she felt the touch of cold, smooth silk caressing her skin with a tenderness she had never known.
Lee Seol opened her eyes slowly, expecting to see her crumbling ceiling. Instead, her vision collided with massive crystal chandeliers hanging from a towering height. The ceiling was adorned with murals depicting ancient wars, while she lay upon a massive bed draped in cold, black silk.
"Where am I? Did I finally... die?" she whispered in a voice she didn't recognize. It was a voice as melodious as a hymn, yet it carried a dormant note of confidence Lee Seol never possessed. She tried to rise, but froze instantly as her gaze fell upon a massive golden mirror opposite the bed. She gasped sharply, her hand instinctively rising to touch her face. This was not the pale, tear-worn face of Lee Seol.
In the mirror stood a woman of mesmerizing, almost demonic beauty. Her hair was as black as a winter's night, flowing in abundance over her shoulders. Her skin was as pristine as fallen snow, and her large, violet eyes sparkled with the brilliance of rare jewels.
This was "Elina"... the Empress she had been reading about just moments ago! The wife described as "beautiful but heartless," who, at this point in the novel, was living her final days before her great downfall.
Before she could process the magnitude of this miracle—or curse—a violent crash echoed. The doors of the royal suite were flung open with a force that made the walls tremble. A man radiating majesty and absolute power entered. He wore a black military uniform embroidered with silver threads that shimmered under the chandeliers, trailing a long crimson cloak behind him—a cloak that seemed to drag his undeniable authority across the floor.
Her heart stopped. It was him. The same sharp features her imagination had carved from the novel's text: the strong jawline, the golden eyes radiating intelligence and merciless cruelty—eyes that seemed to be passing judgment on the world—and that stance which spoke of a man who knew nothing of surrender.
"Kaisel..." Her heart spoke before her tongue, her voice coming out weak and filled with a longing he could not possibly understand.
Driven by an overwhelming urge to confirm he wasn't a mirage, she rushed toward him. She wanted to touch his hand, to feel the warmth of his body, to tell him she knew all the sorrows hidden between the lines. But before she could reach him, the world around her suddenly froze. A translucent screen flickered into existence, glowing with a menacing red light, and a cold, mechanical, emotionless voice echoed deep within her mind, turning her long-awaited encounter into a merciless nightmare:
[Warning! Unauthorized "Affection" detected toward the Target.]
[Activating "Emotional Restraint System" - Beta Version.]
[Main Quest: You must make the Target fall in love with you again within 30 days, or the Host will perish.]
[Penalty: Any display of love or vulnerability toward the Target is strictly prohibited.]
[Violation of rules will result in the immediate death of both the Host and the Target.]
[Time Remaining: 29 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes.]
Her body stiffened as if invisible chains had wrapped around her limbs. A sharp, electric shock jolted through her heart, forcing her to stumble back two steps away from him. Her breath quickened as her mind struggled to grasp the reality: she had become a prisoner within her own love.
Kaisel looked at her with a contempt she had never felt through the words of the novel—a visceral disdain that stung her soul. He threw a bundle of luxurious leather papers onto the bed in front of her, then spoke in a deep voice as cold as ice:
"Elina, stop the act. Our patience has reached its limit. Sign the divorce papers and leave the palace in peace before I change my mind and replace this merciful offer with exile to the Dead Lands... or perhaps execution for High Treason."
Elina looked at him, her eyes brimming with tears, wanting to scream at the top of her lungs: "I love you! I am not the Elina you hate! I am the only one who has ever truly loved you!"
But as soon as she thought of voicing her feelings, the red screen flashed violently before her eyes, and her throat constricted as if an invisible hand were choking her:
[Warning! Detected attempt to express warm emotions... Activating "Forced Coldness" Mode!]
When she opened her mouth to speak, the gentle voice of Lee Seol did not emerge. Instead, the sharp, provocative voice of Empress Elina came out—a voice dripping with arrogance and frost:
"Divorce?" she said, arching an eyebrow with feigned mockery while her heart was being torn to shreds. "You seem quite confident in yourself, Kaisel. Do you really think I'd grant you your freedom so easily after everything I've sacrificed to get here? You sign first—if you're brave enough. Perhaps then I'll consider it if I grow bored within these walls."
Kaisel did not want to sign first. According to the Imperial Constitution, if a divorce occurs, the authority and title are automatically transferred to the second party, not the first party (the one who initiated the divorce).
A deathly silence fell over the room. She could hear the grinding of Kaisel's teeth as he clenched his jaw. She saw the veins in his neck bulge from suppressed rage. His golden eyes ignited with sparks that threatened to incinerate her on the spot, staring at her as if she were a loathsome insect unworthy of being crushed.
In that moment, Elina was screaming on the inside, pleading for any power to save her from this cold mask. Meanwhile, the System monitored her heartbeat with clinical indifference, announcing the start of a countdown to an inevitable death... or an impossible love.