How to Get My Husband on My Side

“I’ve finally found a worthy groom for you, darling,” announced Father, as he wiped off his lips with a napkin.

Laying on the knees of my oldest brother Cesare, I felt the urge to run back to my bedroom and throw up all the food I’d just eaten.

My second brother Enzo, who had been busily chowing down on an awfully smelly quenelle, slammed his fork down and cried out in protest.

“Not again! Father, how many times has it been already?”

“Enzo.”

“It hasn’t even been three months since her last engagement was called off! Regardless of what our family would gain from this marriage, shouldn’t you at least try to consider her feelings?”

“What a surprise to see you side with your little sister. Then would you rather battle the barbarians yourself instead of accepting Britannia’s support?”

“What are you talking about? Those savage barbarians up north wouldn’t stand a chance against the likes of me, the greatest, most noble soldier to ha—”

“Shut your trap, boy.”

The great noble soldier took the rest of the quenelle on his plate and shoved it into his mouth, aggressively chewing in protest.

The marriage proposal wasn’t any surprise to me though. I knew that it would come sooner or later.

“Who is it, Father?”, I asked cheerfully.

My father, who had been staring disapprovingly at Enzo, looked back my way and smiled.

“He’s Britannia’s hero. The king’s beloved nephew and famous knight of the South. He’s very handsome, I’m sure you’ll like him.”

“What! Father, do you know how bad his reputation is?!”

“Boy, was I talking to you?”

Enzo became quiet again.

would one day massacre their entire family. Oh poor, wretched creatures

“Ruby?”

again. This time his long fingers groped the back of my head. I shuddered in revulsion. It felt like a cold snake slithering

his eerie azure eyes, I shifted my gaze to Enzo who was frowning discontentedly, and then to Lady Julia and my

I’m grateful that I can at least be of

lips into a rare gentle smile and

sweet little angel,”

really wanted

to than throwing up. After all, the handsome knight of the South was out to kill me

***

an end and I could finally rest. But if I’d known that I would be reincarnated as a lady in the Renaissance Era, and as a character in a novel that I’d read long ago, and, to make matters worse, forced to survive in an

be reincarnated as a character in this novel, couldn’t I have at least been born into a

“Ugh!”

tense up and my eyes begin to water. I’d gotten good enough at throwing up silently that I didn’t need to worry about being caught by the maids, but, nevertheless, it was still

and new life was anorexia, or as people call it nowadays, an eating disorder. Before I became Rudbeckia de Borgia—I mean before I died—I was an adopted daughter of an upper-class family in Spain. I

my adoptive siblings, I attended a prestigious private school in

time I felt different than the kids around me was sometime around 4th grade, when a boy in my class laughed at me while pulling back his eyes. At first I didn’t understand what it meant,

faced at school, but as for my life at home, despite the sophisticated, welcoming facade of my adoptive family, there was always an

his promiscuous private life and drug addiction. The only one in my adoptive family who would sometimes treat me nicely was my older sister, and she committed suicide at age twenty-one. As for my oldest brother, I quickly learned that

became a habit for me to play the role of a smart, cheerful, and obedient daughter, since if I ever brought the smallest bit of shame to my family or offended them in the slightest, there was hell to pay. And when I woke up here, it was exactly the

just hallucinating before l passed away. But when I looked in the mirror, instead of seeing my face, there was a beautiful

Rudbeckia de Borgia, a character in the fantasy novel Sodom

to subjugate others. It was a story about the countries of the North and the clergy bravely rising up and banding together to overthrow the wicked pope, his family, and the

the title referred to the people of the northern Romagna region of Italy, and ‘Holy Grail’ was a metaphor for the holy site of

and to die no less than at

gain even more political influence, were hellbent on marrying off Rudbeckia, and after three unsuccessful engagements and another last minute cancellation, she ended up being married off to

and decide to murder his wife’s entire family

wasn’t love that made him lose his mind, it was hatred—hatred of Rudbeckia, who’d poisoned his

I think about it though, more than being mad about Rudbeckia killing his little sister, it seems like Izek just got fed up with his backstabbing