Chapter 02

Nina was born in a rural village.

It was a poor settlement with no proper name. Looking back now, it was the kind of place that could be called a slash-and-burn village.

The memories of “another world” entered her when she was five years old.

For a five-year-old child, it was no different from a bandit trying to hijack her sense of self.

She clawed through her young mind, crying out.

“I am not Nina!”

“This is not my home!”

“You people are not my family!”

Everyone thought Nina had gone mad after witnessing her parents’ accident.

She was the youngest child born late in life. The only family she had left were her older brother Allen and older sister Berry—both at least ten years older than her.

The two of them took care of their feverish youngest sibling who kept rambling nonsense.

Even so, Nina remained confused.

She would scream and run out of the house, escaping.

The villagers clicked their tongues when they saw it.

“That girl’s having another episode, huh?”

“She’s lost her mind.”

Berry would glare at them every time.

Allen, meanwhile, would always go searching for Nina.

Even after exhausting days of farming—from sunrise to sunset during the busy season—he would still go out to find her.

“Nina, let’s go home.”

“Nina, where are you?”

“Nina, it’s okay.”

The gentlest calls in the world.

“Our precious little sister.”

“Our cutest Nina.”

Nina. Nina. Nina. Nina. Nina.

Those tender voices.

Even in the chaos that filled her mind, her family held her hands and never let go—and Nina won.

Calling it a victory over memory might sound absurd, but a victory was still a victory.

The memories from another world became part of her.

One fragment of the mosaic that made up Nina was the memory of that other world.

Memory could not defeat reality, and the dead could not defeat the living.

After overcoming the pain, Nina became an exceptionally intelligent child thanks to those memories.

She learned arithmetic and language far faster than others.

Allen and Berry were proud of her.

Berry always neatly tied Nina’s brown hair into twin braids.

In a village where most children had messy hair, Nina alone looked like a child carefully cared for at home.

The ribbon in her hair was dyed a bright red by Allen himself.

With that vivid red ribbon fluttering, Nina would chatter away while holding her siblings’ hands.

She was happy.

Until Bellac appeared and took everything away.

The memory flickered.

Nina knew she was dreaming.

Or perhaps it was a flash of life before death.

The first to arrive in the village after Bellac destroyed everything was a band of robbers.

The living Nina was dragged by them and sold to slave traders.

A dream. Yes, that was it.

She had dreamt it before.

A gentle voice whispering as if stroking her head.

“It’s alright. Your sincere words will be heard sincerely by everyone. And everyone will easily notice your loveliness and brilliance. Because in your soul…”

She had once had such a dream.

She couldn’t remember the rest, but when she woke the next day, she had felt strangely energized.

She had thought it was her brother or sister appearing in her dream… but maybe not?

The place she was sold to was the Ducal House of Ruboaine.

That name felt familiar.

Only after her siblings died did Nina realize this world overlapped with the setting of a novel she had once read.

So when she was sold off as a kitchen maid, there was only one thing she was curious about.

Was Adrian, the sub male lead, here? Or not?

Was this the same timeline as the book? Or different?

Surprisingly, Adrian was here.

The only difference was that the Adrian in the book was in his twenties, while this one was only nine years old—just one year older than her.

Adrian had entered the ducal household at five and lived a relatively normal life until eight.

That year, the Duke remarried, and the new Duchess began to ostracize Adrian.

That was exactly the turning point.

By the time he turned nine, the Duchess’s first son, Gerald, was born, and she began actively planning to eliminate Adrian.

The Duke supported her plans through indifference.

Servants, maids, nurses who had once attended Adrian all disappeared.

Only Nina, newly arrived, called him “Young Master.”

Nina was happy when she found Adrian.

She had thought all the light in her life had gone out—but now she had found a new hope.

At last, this cursed memory that had tormented her might become useful.

She wanted to become someone who could help—not just a pitiful girl who had lost everything.

And she could.

Nina decided to stand on his side.

No one else called him “Young Master.”

Because “Young Master” referred only to Young Master Gerald.

What Nina knew of the story was roughly this:

A villain summons a fallen spirit lord to destroy the world, and the saint heroine, the great mage male lead, and the knight sub male lead join forces to stop him.

And there it was.

That sub male lead was her young master.

“Well… being the sub male lead is fine, I guess.”

Did he have to succeed in love?

People get rejected in life. That’s normal.

The real problem was his future.

1. Abused until his body was covered in bruises.
2. Forced into the front lines as Knight Commander due to the Duchess’s schemes.
3. Poisoned by the Duchess, damaging his health.
4. The knight order is annihilated due to the villain’s plan, leaving him deeply traumatized.
5. He kills his own family and becomes Duke.
6. He neglects his worsening domain and obsessively hunts Bellac.

Look at that.

The heroine hadn’t even appeared yet, and his life was already like this.

Yes, it gets better when the heroine arrives.

In the original story, the heroine restores the territory, discovers specialties, and revives the land’s economy.

From the poorest domain to the richest in a flash—impressive, really.

But here’s the issue:

Because of the poison given by his stepmother, the sub male lead’s health deteriorates, and after the final battle, he dies shortly after—leaving everything to the saint heroine.

Wow.

What an absurd story.

Was it necessary to drain every last drop out of the sub male lead like that?

Nina had no intention of letting her young master live that kind of life.

And even less intention of getting dragged into it herself.

When you’re about to die right now, “sticking to the original story”? Ridiculous.

My life is the original story.

First, she needed to get closer to Adrian.

She tried calling him “Young Master” and acting friendly, but he didn’t even look at her.

He ignored her completely, as if she didn’t exist.

So Nina resorted to her final method.

Let’s bribe him with food!

That was honestly all she could do.

Using her position as a kitchen maid, she gathered food scraps.

She hid them in the garden, opened the window to Adrian’s bedroom, and climbed in like a thief.

Then she called him.

“Adrian.”

Calling him “Young Master” while breaking into his room at night felt wrong.

A maid must act like a maid.

So who breaks into a room at night shouting “Let’s play!”?

A friend.

Friends don’t call each other “Young Master.”

Nina was tense inside, but she tried to act natural.

He wasn’t asleep.

The boy simply looked at her calmly.

Despite her nervousness gripping her skirt tightly, Nina smiled brightly.

“Let’s go on a picnic!”

She expected to be rejected…

But Adrian quietly got up and followed her.

And the two of them shared food together.