Chapter 01
“W-What is this?”
I couldn’t hide my sense of emptiness.
Ravina—the female protagonist of The Sword Clad in Shadow, and my absolute favorite—dies in the side story?!
I’d been counting the days for the side story just to watch my beloved heroine walk a path paved with flowers…
How could they kill the female lead?
I felt utterly betrayed by the author I’d sworn loyalty to for years.
Skipping clock-out time, I was crouched alone on the stairs of an empty office building. The sight of myself felt unbearably pathetic.
“Let’s just go home…”
With a resigned expression, I stuffed my phone into my pocket. I almost took the elevator, then turned toward the emergency stairwell instead.
Trudge. Trudge.
As I walked down the stairs, drained of strength, the fact that my favorite character had died in the side story made my chest ache.
What am I supposed to do, Ravina…
Tears fell, drop by drop.
I truly loved Ravina, the novel’s heroine. Watching her overcome a miserable life and seize happiness had given me courage, too.
How could they kill the protagonist in a side story?!
I roughly wiped my tear-blurred eyes.
At that moment, my legs gave out. I staggered—and missed a step.
“Eek!”
With a loud crash, I tumbled down the stairs.
Something warm streamed down my head, and my vision darkened, as if black ink had spilled across it.
“Ugh…”
One side of my head throbbed, and my whole body ached as if I’d been beaten. I forced my barely opening eyes open—and an unfamiliar scene greeted me.
“Master! The young lady has opened her eyes!”
A woman in a navy maid uniform shouted. Then a breathtakingly handsome man staggered toward me.
“Lara… I thought I’d lost you too…”
His emotions seemed to overflow; tears hung in his vivid blue eyes.
I don’t know why he’s crying, but a handsome man’s tears are always right.
I stared blankly at the sight of a good-looking grown man crying—then snapped back to my senses.
Wait a second? I’m an orphan. A dad?
I parted my stiff lips and managed to speak.
“Who are you?”
Shock spread across the man’s face.
“It seems she’s suffering from amnesia due to the fall down the stairs.”
A gray-haired physician set down his instruments.
“A-Amnesia?”
The man who had been claiming to be my father asked again, his face stricken.
“There are no other injuries, so her memories should return soon. Let us wait a little longer.”
At the doctor’s words, he gently stroked my face, still looking anxious.
“My daughter, don’t worry. I’ll scour the entire empire to recover your memories. If I must, I’ll even bring the Pope himself.”
He whispered to me tenderly, full of concern.
Watching him in a daze, I couldn’t understand the situation at all.
I’d only fallen down the stairs—so why was some foreigner suddenly claiming to be my father?
Did I hit my head that badly?
A sinister chill ran through me.
This isn’t… that thing, is it?
Uneasily, I clenched and unclenched my fists. Then I noticed my hands—tiny and delicate, like a child’s.
What is this?
“Th-that mirror—no, the bathroom.”
When I hurriedly tried to sit up in bed, the man’s eyes widened like lanterns.
“I’ll take you.”
Huh? Take me where? The bathroom?
“W-wait—”
Before I could finish, he carefully lifted me as if I were fragile glass. Startled by the unfamiliar sensation, I flinched—then instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck.
It was strange and awkward, since no one had ever held me like this before, but his warmth was unexpectedly comforting.
The brown-haired man strode forward on long legs and set me down in front of the bathroom.
“If your head starts to hurt again, call for Father or Olga.”
The gentle tone and tender gaze—things I’d never received before—filled me with an indescribably strange feeling.
Click.
“Wow…”
The bathroom, dazzling with marble and gold, was several times larger and more luxurious than the semi-basement room I’d lived in.
Suppressing my confusion, I stood before the intricately decorated mirror.
“Gasp!”
I barely managed to clamp a hand over my mouth to stop a scream.
What… is going on?
The girl reflected in the mirror looked about eight years old.
Honey-gold hair that shimmered, translucent white skin, mysterious blue eyes like a clear autumn sky, and doll-like features—she was unrealistically cute and lovely.
She’s so beautiful.
If angels from famous paintings existed in real life, wouldn’t they look like this? She was so cherubic that I turned my head, half-expecting wings on my back.
For a moment, I even wondered if I’d died and become an angel.
But just as I was admiring the reflection—
“Ah!”
A tremendous pain struck, as if someone had smashed my head with a hammer.
At my cry, the man and the maid burst the door open.
“Lara!”
“Miss!”
The man hurriedly caught my swaying body. At the same time, a flood of memories surged into my mind.
The villainess who tormented Calix—the son of my favorite, Ravina—in the side story of The Sword Clad in Shadow, and was eventually beheaded for her cruelty.
“Lyla Brillston?”
The moment I spoke the body’s name, darkness swallowed my consciousness again.
When I finally lifted my heavy eyelids, it was early dawn, the darkness still thick.
What do I do…
I’d done what everyone talks about—I possessed a character in a novel. And of all people, the villainess who dies after mistreating my favorite’s son.
My body felt limp, like water-soaked cotton.
Is my original body dead?
Anxiety gnawed at me as I bit my nails. The thought that my twenty-five years had ended so absurdly made me curl up.
It’s unbelievable, but since I’ve possessed this body… I’m Lyla now. Get it together.
Pushing aside emotions I couldn’t describe, I recalled the novel’s plot.
The Sword Clad in Shadow was a romance fantasy about Ravina, born the illegitimate child of a noble, overcoming a miserable childhood to become a swordmaster, meeting the northern duke Garen, and achieving love and dreams.
I fell head over heels for Ravina—upright and just—watching her cut down monsters and dark mages with dazzling swordsmanship.
Unlike me, an orphan scorned by others, she overcame hardship on her own and grew stronger. I loved that about her.
Even if she was just a “paper sister,” my devotion to Ravina was full of affection.
I was so excited when the side story announcement came out.
All I wanted was to see the protagonists living happily ever after in the ducal territory, with a son or daughter…
What kind of sane author kills off both the male and female leads?!
My nonexistent blood pressure spiked just remembering Ravina’s death.
For some reason, the side story began with Calix—who had lost both parents, Garen and Ravina.
Unlike his mother, Calix was cold and distrustful of people. One of the biggest reasons he became that way was me—Lyla—his betrothed from the womb.
The Tracia Ducal House and the Brillston Marquessate were close friends, so the engagement between Calix and Lyla was almost inevitable.
In the novel, Lyla, despite her angelic appearance, was arrogant and haughty, tormenting Calix in cunning and persistent ways.
It’s frustrating that it doesn’t say exactly how she tormented him.
Then Lyla’s father, Marquess James Brillston, died in an accident, and the family declined.
As an adult, Calix—having lost his beloved parents—wandered until he met Ibelia, a girl with special abilities, and they fell in love.
Though Ibelia was a baron’s daughter, she was practically a commoner.
Lyla, a blue-blooded noble to the bone, found it deeply humiliating that her fiancé had fallen for a commoner.
When her scandal spread among the nobles, Lyla even plotted to get rid of Ibelia—only to fail, of course, at Calix’s hands.
Imprisoned after a noble trial with no one to help her, Lyla was eventually executed.
After the sick emperor died and a foolish crown prince ascended the throne, the empire collapsed.
Only Calix thrived—declaring the North an independent duchy and ending the story by pledging love to Ibelia.
How could the author wreck the logic of a once-great novel like this?!
Curses spilled from my lips.
It would’ve been so much better to just show Ravina, Garen, and Calix living happily together and end it there.
Sighing, I wiggled my tiny fingers.
Still, it was a blessing that I’d possessed the body after reading the side story.
All I have to do is be different.
Interfering with the protagonists is dangerous, so I’ll avoid getting involved. I’ll quietly maintain the role of “paper fiancée,” then disappear once the female lead shows up.
Calix isn’t my favorite anyway.
And most importantly—I must never become a villainess.
The decisive reason Lyla, the sole daughter of a powerful marquessate, died wasn’t just hiring assassins. Her countless misdeeds branded her a villainess in the eyes of nobles and even her own household staff.
When the imperial family stepped in to quell noble outrage, the court had no choice but to sentence her to death.
Remembering her execution made my neck feel cold; I shuddered.
If Lyla is around eight or nine, then Calix must be eleven. What—he’s still tiny.
A realization struck me like lightning.
Wait! That means my favorite, Ravina, isn’t dead yet?!
Unbelievable. I’d forgotten something this important.
I was so flustered I felt like resigning from my own fandom.
I can actually meet Ravina in person?
I clapped a fist over my mouth.
The thought of meeting my favorite made this place feel like heaven.
Maybe possession isn’t all bad.
My attitude flipped instantly, but the mere possibility of meeting her strengthened my will to live.
Maybe… I can even find a way to save Ravina.
The Tracia duke and duchess died when Calix was twenty—still far in the future.
I now had two goals:
Survive—and prevent my favorite Ravina’s death.
Whether Calix dates or not doesn’t matter. I’m investing all my stock in Ravina!
Smiling to myself, I sat up in bed—
and a pitch-black shadow suddenly engulfed my body.
