Episode 1
I Was an Extra Villain in That Novel
I knelt on the execution platform, staring at the angry crowd before me.
They jeered at me, laughing mockingly. One of the rotten objects thrown toward the platform—a single egg—flew toward my head. With a splintering crack, its thin shell broke, releasing a stench so foul it made me gag.
“Kill her!”
“Hurry up and kill her!”
The furious crowd wanted nothing more than for me to be executed as soon as possible. Everyone gathered here wished for nothing but my death.
I felt miserable, sorrowful, and scared. But at the same time, I was angry.
Why was I, the young lady of a marquis family, barely ten years old, enduring this?
I was the eldest daughter of a prestigious marquis family, a young lady, yet… why?
“How dare you abuse Count Raumdisel’s, no, the Young Master’s son!”
“You wretches who deserve death!”
Stones and filth rained down upon the platform again, and I had no choice but to endure it silently, unable to resist even a little.
“Apologize to Young Master Raumdisel with your life!”
“Repay your sins with death!”
The crowd shouted, raising their hands.
Ah, yes. Raumdisel.
This disaster had occurred because of the Raumdisel the crowd so fervently praised.
I silently traced back the origins of this disaster.
In fact, Count Raumdisel’s family, formerly a ducal house, had been as poor as commoners until recently. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t escape poverty, so the count eventually turned his eyes beyond the empire. But there was a major problem: at that time, the empire had no sea trade routes.
Just three years ago, the seas were crawling with pirates. Even the empire’s navy couldn’t handle them. Yet someone had defeated these pirates, reformed them, and incorporated them into the navy—it was the once-poor Count Raumdisel.
He was recognized for his achievements and became a duke.
“You abused the son of the empire’s hero, a crime worthy of death!”
“How could anyone be so cruel to the son of a close friend?”
And that was why I was kneeling on the execution platform.
The Count of Raumdisel had a son three years younger than me, whom he left in our family’s care when he set off on trade ventures.
My father had been a long-time friend of Count Raumdisel, and our Gladelis family was a respected and gentlemanly noble house.
“Hypocrites!”
“They act all righteous on the outside but secretly ran an illegal fighting arena?”
“They even sold slaves, banned by the emperor!”
On the surface, that is.
Behind closed doors, my father committed all sorts of vile deeds while maintaining the family’s “gentlemanly, respected noble” image, taking in Count Raumdisel’s son, Carsian.
But he was convinced the Duke of Raumdisel would die soon, and treated Carsian, whom he had taken in as part of the household, as a thorn in his side.
“You useless parasite! Do you know how much money goes into you?”
Because of this, Carsian was treated like a servant, starved, and otherwise tormented—not just by my father, but also by me, my mother, and my younger sibling.
“Our father says you deserve to live like this.”
“Our mother says that even if you ran away, there’d be nowhere to take you in.”
But as they say, even a mouse hole gets sunlight—or perhaps more accurately, one never knows what fate awaits. The eloquent Duke managed to persuade the pirates, reform them, and opened up the empire’s long-desired sea trade route.
All in just three years.
“Waaah!”
“Kill her, kill her!”
The crowd’s jeers pulled me back to reality.
For abusing the son of the empire’s hero, for operating illegal fighting arenas, and for slave trading forbidden by the emperor, my entire family had been sentenced to death, waiting only for the execution.
It was truly a moment of justice.
For a brief moment, I tried to accept the situation with humility, setting aside my indignation.
If not for my mother’s muttered words:
“See, if only you’d listened to me and blamed it all on Latia’s actions…”
Startled, I lifted my bowed head. When my mother muttered, my father spoke in a low, threatening voice:
“Are you out of your mind? Do you really think that makes sense? Even if you tormented Carsian, how could a ten-year-old run a fighting arena?”
“Why not? She managed all the accounts—Latia did. In the end, it was all about the ledgers. Carsian only suffered at Latia’s hands, and since we have the guild anyway, we could say it was part of training the successor and she was given overall responsibility…”
The world seemed to tilt.
Was I really hearing this? Were my parents really trying to pin all the blame on me?
“If I, a child born from a lowly maid, were allowed to live in comfort, then shouldn’t I happily repay that kindness to some degree?”
My mother spoke, frustrated that my father had taken full responsibility and led our family to the execution platform. She then clutched my trembling younger sister, Ellene.
“Poor Ellene, my one and only precious daughter…”
Ellene immediately burrowed into our mother’s arms, a scene full of tenderness. Yet I felt as though the chaos around me had suddenly gone silent.
I couldn’t think.
To think my parents would try to pin all the family’s sins on me alone… if they could, they would have done it long ago.
I wasn’t their real daughter.
The truth I learned on the brink of death was unbearably harsh. I sat dumbfounded, waiting for my turn. Only now did I understand why my family had treated me like an outsider and why the servants mocked me without fear of punishment.
I was a child born out of wedlock. I was not truly part of this family.
My head felt like it would explode.
I had taken the blame for my family’s crimes and Ellene’s misdeeds to protect them. I had endured being labeled a madwoman, called the greatest villainess and cruel witch—all at the age of ten.
As the executioner’s blade gleamed, I saw what they call the “life-flashing-before-your-eyes” moment.
No, could I even call it that?
In my memory, I was not the Marquis’s daughter Latia. Yet she was me, reading a fantasy novel in a world very different from the one I had lived in.
I couldn’t recall the title, but the story was vivid. The moment I remembered the entire novel, it struck me like lightning.
That was my past life. And this… this was the novel I had read in my past life!
I lifted my head, and there he stood.
A boy with jet-black hair that seemed darker against his pale skin, and red eyes so chilling they instilled fear—he was clearly the male protagonist of this world, Carsian Raumdisel.
Carsian gazed at me silently with unreadable eyes. The brief moment our eyes met felt incredibly long. Just as Carsian seemed about to speak, the executioner raised the blade again.
My eyes naturally followed the sword, glinting in the sunlight, and I thought:
A fool who harassed Carsian, thinking she would be loved without knowing anything.
A pathetic villainess extra, believing the praise she earned by tormenting Carsian was real.
That was me, Latia Gladelis!
*Shhh!* The blade descended with a fierce, slicing sound.
—
“Milady! Milady!”
“Ugh…”
A strong dizziness swept over me. I closed and opened my eyes, and in front of me was my nanny.
Huh? Nanny?
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No matter how much I blinked, the nanny, looking at me with worry, did not disappear.
“…Nanny!”
I smiled brightly and called to her.
How was Susan here?
My nanny, Susan, had been sent away three years ago for refusing to participate in tormenting Carsian.
Why she was at this execution platform, I didn’t know, but I hugged her tightly, too afraid of death to think.
…Wait, I rubbed my eyes? Hugged Susan? My arms should be tied.
I was shocked and pulled back to look. I was wearing a beautiful dress, not filthy prison clothes, and my arms were free.
And here…
“This… is my room?”
What on earth had happened?
I widened my eyes. Susan leaned closer, whispering with even more concern.
“Please, stop, Milady.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not really such a bad person.”
A faint dizziness struck me as memories surfaced. I had heard similar words from Susan before.
When was it?
“Milady, please stop. The love you get from doing this isn’t real love.”
Ah, yes. That was right.
It was when I had tormented Carsian, knowing it pleased my mother, and Susan had grabbed my hand, crying, begging me to stop. She said I wasn’t like that, that I wasn’t a bad person, and even suggested we run away together.
Back then, I had cruelly rejected her, saying how could a noble lady run away with a nanny…
Now, all the past misdeeds had returned to me.
I felt remorse for the harsh words I had spoken to Susan, ready to apologize, when… wait.
The past had returned to me?
…Returned?
I cautiously turned from Susan to see straight ahead.
And there he was.
“…Impossible.”
Carsian.
Not holding his father’s hand after returning home in triumph, but in the state he had been in when he was tormented by my family, three years ago!
This couldn’t be!
I… had gone back to the past!
