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.

one day massacre their entire family. Oh

“Ruby?”

had been stroking my head, called for me again. This time his long fingers groped the back of my head. I shuddered in revulsion. It

at his eerie azure eyes, I shifted my gaze to Enzo who was frowning

at least be of some

gentle smile and

our sweet

really wanted to

more pressing matters to attend to than throwing up. After all,

***

helicopter crash that my tiresome life had at last come to 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

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

“Ugh!”

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

anorexia, or as people call it nowadays, an eating disorder. Before I became Rudbeckia de Borgia—I mean before I died—I was

adopted at a very young age, I knew nothing about the so-called ‘Korean Peninsula’ where I was born. Like my adoptive siblings, I attended a prestigious private school in Madrid and

first I didn’t understand what it meant, so I just laughed along with the rest of the kids in my

welcoming facade of my adoptive family, there was always an unspoken rule that I was to be treated differently,

brother, who was a rising tennis star, was publicly exposed for 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

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

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

few days to realize that I’d become Rudbeckia de Borgia, a character in the fantasy novel Sodom and the Holy Grail I used

subjugate others. It was a story about the countries of the North and the clergy bravely rising up

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

and to die no less than at the hands

and oldest brother, in an attempt to gain even more political influence, were hellbent on marrying off Rudbeckia, and after three unsuccessful engagements and

and austere as Izek would lose his mind and decide to murder his wife’s entire family after only being married for six months,

it was hatred—hatred of Rudbeckia, who’d

seems like Izek just got fed up with his backstabbing b*tch of a wife and