THND 01

Chapter 1
One day earlier.

Until that moment I only thought I was Riel Alrios, the eldest daughter of the Alrios marquis house.

After finishing the family trading company’s business and taking a rare moment to enjoy myself, I went for a walk in the busy district. I sat on a bench to rest for a bit, and I brushed past a man who had been sitting there before me.

Just a slight brush against his shoulder.

“Ah—sorry.”

At a glance the man was very handsome.

He looked as if a statue had walked out of the nearby art museum.

So did I fall in love at first sight?

No.

The man who had bumped into me soon collapsed and rested his head on my shoulder as if about to faint.

So did that mean a sweet little romance was about to begin?

Sadly, no.

The man who leaned on me like a limp sheet was not the sort to be part of a fluttering-petal romance.

On the surface it looked like he might even be dead—an urgent situation.

In my previous life this would have been a medical drama, I thought.

“Hey? Are you okay? Snap out of it!”

Just before I could call to the gentleman with the hat there to help me move him to a hospital, I noticed he had a peaceful face and was breathing evenly—he did not look like a patient.

“Are you actually sleeping? If you sleep here, your mouth will be lopsided!”

Flabbergasted, I shook the man—who was sprawled on the bench in broad daylight, in weather that was still a bit chilly for sleeping outdoors—hard.

He smelled faintly pleasant, so he didn’t seem drunk.

His clothes looked expensive, so he didn’t look like a beggar.

But whatever he was, lying down on a busy street bench like it was his own home meant he couldn’t be in his right mind.

Should I leave him?

Yeah, I’d rather not get tangled up with a lunatic.

Just as I felt the urge to get up and run, the man mumbled in his sleep and grabbed for something to use as a blanket with all his might.

“Pani, I’m cold. Give me a blanket. Five more minutes.”

That “blanket” was my coat!

I tried to pull the man’s hand away, but his grip was so strong I failed even to free my collar.

What a nuisance.

Now that it had come to this, I’d wake him somehow.

“Now get up!”

Fueled by stubbornness, I grabbed his collar and shook him without mercy.

He, who had become limp from long years running the trading company, blinked awake and slowly got to his feet.

“Was I asleep just now?”

“Yes. You fell asleep without a care. If you hadn’t been dressed like that I would have thought you were homeless. Now that you’ve come to, would you let go of this?” I said, pointing to the hem of my dress he was clutching.

But he didn’t let go—he just looked at me.

“Were you the one who brushed past me before I fell asleep?”

“Yes, but—?”

“It’s the first time.”

“Huh?”

I didn’t understand his words and narrowed my eyes, asking him to repeat.

“You’re the first person who put me to sleep just by brushing past me.”

Wait—haven’t I heard that line somewhere?

The moment I heard him speak, a splitting headache hit me and a stranger woman’s memories forced their way into my head.

Those memories flashed through my mind like the life-review people supposedly see just before they die, quickly running the woman’s life and then seeping into me.

I remembered.

That in my original life I’d been an ordinary cosmetics store employee in the Republic of Korea.

My last memory from that life was getting sleepy reading a novel after work and falling asleep.

And the line this man had just said was a line from the novel I’d been reading that night, <When I Put the Villain to Sleep, He Was Ruined>, spoken by the villain when he met the female lead for the first time.

No way.

Did I actually slip into a novel? That only happens in fantasy stories.

I even slapped my cheek to see if this was a dream, but the reality before my eyes was too vivid.

Keep calm, Riel. You can check if this is a novel world.

According to my memory, there was no mention of a character named Riel Alrios in that book.

I was certain of this because <When I Put the Villain to Sleep, He Was Ruined> focused only on the male and female leads and the villain—the extras were barely worth mentioning.

What was the villain’s name again? I remembered him as the world’s strongest villain.

“Kasiar Kissen, the Duke!”

The villain’s name slipped out of me before I was aware of it.

“Do you know me? I don’t recall seeing your face.”

Of course he wouldn’t remember me! I’d only seen his name in the novel!

[His black hair reminded one of the night sky, and his sharp golden eyes—like a predator after prey—were beautiful as if they held stars.]

I repeated in my mind the sentence describing the duke’s appearance and studied him closely.

Black hair like the night sky.

Sharp, golden eyes that shone like stars.

The man in front of me matched every description and had an even greater air of superiority than the text had implied.

This was unmistakably Duke Kissen.

So who on earth was I?

In the novel, it was the female lead who put Duke Kasiar to sleep, wasn’t it?

I decided to retrace the novel’s events. It was strange that my previous life memories returned, and with them the plot I’d read.

<When I Put the Villain to Sleep, He Was Ruined> is the kind of story where everything collapses after a big event.

In the novel the villain was Duke Kasiar Kissen.

He was the head of a prestigious ducal house that had produced great archmages for generations—so handsome he was nearly sculptural, immensely wealthy, and gifted with such powerful magic from childhood that he rose to the position of archmage.

He lacked nothing, but he had one fatal flaw: he suffered from mania.

His madness manifested as mana rampage.

When his transcendent power made him lose his reason and rampage, he could blow a whole mansion to pieces.

His mania appeared when he lacked sleep—Kasiar suffered from severe insomnia and lived on sleeping pills.

When those stopped working and he reached the brink of losing control, the woman Arjen Milter put him to sleep.

Milter had a special ability: while touching someone she could remove their bad memories and calm their mind—this is what put Duke Kasiar to sleep.

If the two had fallen in love it might have ended happily, but Milter’s heart belonged to the male lead, Hassen.

Kasiar’s love, too, was empty.

He wanted Milter for himself.

When Milter refused him no matter what conditions he offered, the duke kidnapped her.

I, who had read every book I could get my hands on, remembered this title and its plot vividly for a reason: the protagonists’ ending was ruinous.

This novel was quite popular when serialized.

Unlike other stories where villains abandon their role to have romances, Kasiar remained faithful to his villain role, and that fresh development increased interest in the ending.

But perhaps the pressure of popularity was too much—the ending was shockingly absurd.

The moment Kasiar kidnapped Milter, another duke, reached a limit and rampaged; Hassen, Milter, Kasiar, and even the rampaging duke all died.

It was a truly notorious mess.

Readers even doubted the author’s sanity.

Even I, one who respected the author’s worldbuilding, thought that if I could enter the story I’d change the ending.

Could it be that my fleeting thought pulled me into the novel?

And I’d entered as an unimportant, unnamed extra who never even appeared in the book?

“Kasiar waved a hand in front of my despairing face and met my eyes.

He was so handsome I could have spat rude words out.

He was absolutely my type—so I almost covered my mouth.

Snap out of it, Riel. This is not the time to obsess over taste.

If I screw up, Milter will be the one who’s ruined, not me.

“Sorry, I’m a bit busy right now.”

“Shall we talk while we walk?”

“In what direction are you headed?”

“Wherever you’re going.”

Damn. He showed no sign of backing down.

As befits the world’s strongest villain, Duke Kasiar wasn’t an easy opponent.

“Sorry, I don’t speak to people who address me informally from the first meeting.”

“Then you speak informally too.”

Ha. The duke’s personality was bolder than I’d read.

His frankness made me laugh out loud.

There seemed to be no end to this conversation.

If you can’t avoid it, you must collide with it. The female lead is someone else anyway—nothing for me to fear!

“Since you’re coming at me so strongly, I’ll at least hear your side of the story.”

Kasiar watched me with a somewhat amused snort at my confidence, not intimidated even by a duke.

Don’t be afraid! I’m an insignificant character—if Kasiar meets Milter later, I’ll never see him again.

“You might know of my mania from what you’ve read. That it comes from lack of sleep.”

“I didn’t know the duke had such a sorry situation.”

I feigned ignorance to avoid getting involved, but he continued speaking without embarrassment.

“But the moment you touched me I felt freed from something pressing down on me and sleep overcame me. That never happened touching anyone else.”

That was a line Kasiar had said to Milter in the novel.

“Oh, so you need that power. But what can I do? I borrowed that power temporarily, and the effect will wear off soon. But if the duke needs it, I can introduce the person I borrowed it from.”

“You borrowed the power? How am I supposed to believe that? Maybe it’s your innate power but you’re lying because you don’t want to be involved with someone like me, who has terrible rumors.”

True to his nature, Kasiar gave me a suspicious look—the type who only believes what he sees.

Is he reading minds? He pierced right through me.

But I mustn’t fall into Kasiar’s leading questions.

“How could I, with only one life, dare to lie to Duke Kasiar? I can stake the honor of the Alrios marquis house on my words.”

“You are the marquis’s only daughter?”

Originally I hadn’t planned to reveal my identity, but I thought naming myself would make him believe me.

Even a villain should trust a sworn oath made on a noble family’s honor.

“But I don’t care about the marquis’s honor,” I said.

Kasiar’s expression showed he wasn’t convinced.

Is this the weight of the world’s strongest villain?

“I’ve answered your question—other matters are up to you.”

“It’s not only my problem. If I decide your words are false, since I need you, I won’t send you away easily.”

No matter how much readers like fast pacing, this was extreme—he seemed about to kidnap me right away.

“How can I make you believe me?”

Given how things were, I stepped back a bit.

“If you want me to prove it, bring that person to this spot at the appointed time tomorrow. If you fail to keep the promise, I’ll give you one request to prove your words—if you refuse the condition, you can exchange it for my life and that might balance things out.”

I shouldn’t feel relieved about being an unimportant character—that meant it might be okay if Duke Kasiar killed me on the spot!

“All right. I’ll bring the young lady by noon tomorrow.”

It was just a matter of bringing Milter.

Though the ruin ending bothered me, maybe if I explained things to Milter I could change the outcome.

I wanted to continue living with my insignificant existence.

“Do as you say.”

Kasiar, looking carefree as if he had nothing to lose, added,

“By the way, I want to know the name of the person you said you borrowed the power from.”

“Lady Arjen Milter of the Arjen count’s house.”

I gave her name confidently.

When Kasiar heard it, his face changed subtly.

“Can you bring her?”

At the time I didn’t know what he meant by that question.

If I could go back now, I’d shut the audacious mouth that answered his provocation.

“I will bring her. I stake my life on it.”