Chapter 1
“If you die in front of me, I’ll kill you.”
A man’s strained voice came through the blurred haze of my vision.
Kill me if I die? That line doesn’t even make logical sense—it has the word die in it twice.
I wanted to retort with that sarcastic thought, but my mouth was full of blood and my body was overwhelmed by pain. I couldn’t say a word.
“Ke, cough.”
All that came out of me was a pitiful, wheezing cough.
“Commander, please…”
The man pulled me tightly into his arms.
Now that we were close, I could see his handsome face twisted in anguish.
With that nasty personality, uncooperative nature, the way he growled every time he saw me, and despite being the male lead, how he rejected the heroine and made my life harder—
‘There’s really nothing redeemable about him except his face. And now even that face is a mess…’
What a truly miserable man he’d become.
That ridiculous thought made me let out a faint laugh.
Carlos, the male lead, only grew more furious.
“You’re laughing? When you’re on the brink of death? Do you really not value your life, Commander?”
Swoooosh—
Ironically, just then, I heard the sound of pouring rain outside the cave.
Ah, as if being stranded wasn’t bad enough—now a downpour?
My already slim chances of survival dropped even further.
The cold, damp air seeped into me.
“So cold…”
“Damn it, goddamn it!”
Carlos reacted when I muttered that through trembling lips.
Geez. I said I was cold, and that’s your response?
“Just hold on a little longer.”
He took off his outer coat and wrapped it around me tightly.
Even in my pain, I tilted my head in confusion.
“Why… are you trying to save me?”
I barely managed to ask in a hoarse, boiling voice. Carlos looked at me with an incredulous expression.
“Of course I’m trying to save you. You think I’d just let you die? Especially you? Right in front of me?”
Well… I was supposed to die by your hand originally.
“Cough.”
After clearing something from my throat, it was a bit easier to speak.
“If I die, you get to become the commander. Then you’d be closer to the imperial family—your goal.”
Carlos stiffened slightly at the mention of the imperial family.
He stared down at me with a deepening gaze.
“You knew my secret?”
His voice dropped low—so low it was frightening.
It was a serious moment. Normally, I would’ve snapped back, but I just smiled weakly instead.
I was dying anyway. What was the point in hiding anything?
“I know.”
I looked up at him through my hazy vision. His face was now veiled by shadows.
“You know? About me?”
“Of course.”
He asked with a trembling voice. I answered without hesitation.
“Carlos Ivach. I know everything about you.”
Confusion washed over Carlos’s face.
Understandable.
If I were him, I’d make that exact expression too, if someone I fought like a mortal enemy suddenly said, “I know everything about you.”
“How do you know about me?”
“Simple.”
I smiled again, despite the pain. For some reason, I couldn’t stop.
“Because I liked you.”
I admired you—the victorious hero who struck down villains and triumphed with justice in the novel.
You, the protagonist I rooted for, adored, and supported wholeheartedly.
After possessing this body, I couldn’t express those feelings, not with this awful character.
But once, I was utterly fascinated by Carlos Ivach. I memorized everything about him.
“You liked me?”
Carlos muttered, staring at me in a daze.
Not that I could blame him.
After all, this monstrous boss just said she liked you out of nowhere.
How horrifying.
I thought back to all the cruel things the original Elia did to him: abandoning him during missions, humiliating him in public, throwing documents at him, insulting him, canceling his leave on a whim…
She did every awful thing a toxic boss could do.
After I possessed her, I did everything I could to be different. I tried my best to be a better person.
‘And yet… here I am. Still dying.’
My vision darkened, but I kept letting out those faint little laughs.
“You liked… me.”
Carlos’s voice came unusually clear through the growing shadows.
“Commander!”
He shook me, desperate to keep me conscious.
“Ugh, cough… wh-what…?”
I was about to protest—seriously, shaking a dying person? Too much.
“Commander, look at me.”
Carlos spoke seriously now.
There was no urgency, no panic, no confusion—just resolve.
“If you like me… then I have no choice. I will save you, no matter what it takes.”
…Huh?
‘What does that have to do with anything?’
What did me liking him have to do with him saving me?
But he kept shaking me, giving me no room to think.
“Stop—stop shaking me.”
“Just look at me, Commander.”
Eventually, I gave in and opened my eyes.
Through the haze, I saw his golden eyes glowing brightly.
The mark of the imperial bloodline—the golden eyes of the Zeruka royal family.
A key element of this story’s core: the golden eyes.
‘Wait a second. Doesn’t he normally keep those hidden with magic? Why reveal them now?’
But once again, I had no time to dwell on it.
“From now on, I’m going to do something terrible to you. You might hate me forever for it.”
Carlos said this with an ominous tone.
Terrible? What was he going to do to me, someone already half-dead?
I flinched with fear, but Carlos gently pulled me into his arms.
Now face to face, close enough to feel his breath, I looked at him again.
Damn, he was ridiculously good-looking.
A bit too sharp, maybe, but even his flaws became part of a perfect design.
I was just thinking how lucky I was to witness such beauty before dying when—
“I’m going to imprint on you now.”
“…Huh?”
I froze.
Imprint?
The thing he was supposed to do with the heroine? Why with me?
I couldn’t speak anymore, but my confusion must’ve shown clearly.
“I like you too, Commander. And if we like each other, then imprinting isn’t one-sided violence—it’s mutual.”
Wait… what?
‘Oh no.’
He thinks I like him romantically.
No, no, no. I liked you as a fictional character, okay?
But that desperate scream never reached him.
“I actually had my suspicions. You said you’d never leave my side. That you’d never abandon me.”
“When did I ever say that…?”
I squeezed out the words with my last bit of strength. Carlos answered confidently.
“You said you’d never quit being commander.”
That was because I’d have to marry someone awful if I did!
“You also said you’re on my side. That you trust me more than the Crown Prince.”
Because you’re the one who wins in the end, obviously!
“And most of all…”
Carlos leaned in closer, whispering.
Where his skin touched mine, a burning sensation spread.
Oh no. I recognized this—it was the beginning of the imprinting process.
‘No, no, no!’
He was supposed to do this with the heroine. That’s how they save the world together!
I might’ve been dying, but I had family left behind. People I cared about in this world.
I couldn’t just let it all go to ruin.
I struggled, trying to break free from his embrace.
“It’s okay. Calm down, Elia.”
Carlos must’ve thought I was panicking, so he tried to soothe me with my name.
“I… I…”
I tried to speak again. But no sound came out.
Even if I could speak, how was I supposed to explain everything in the next few seconds?
“Actually, this is a book, and I’m just a filler villain not meant to be your imprint partner…”
“N-no…”
I barely managed to get out a protest.
But just then, a brilliant golden light engulfed us.
And I felt it—this unbreakable bond, this intense, reciprocal force tying us together.
The imprint had been completed.
‘I’m screwed.’
Now who’s going to save the world?
???imprint?