Chapter 3
My name is Yeji Ahn, and I was an ordinary office worker living in South Korea.
No, let me correct that. I looked ordinary, but I was someone who had small prophetic dreams every day.
Today, I saw a moment in my dream where I got into a car accident. But as always, I couldn’t stop it. So I thought I had simply died in the accident. But when I came to, I was inside a dark cabin.
There was only a single bed. I used to think my studio apartment was the smallest place in the world, but this was even smaller.
As I turned my head, I happened to see a round mirror hanging on the wall. The face reflected in it was someone I had never seen before.
Lustrous red hair, obsidian-black eyes, a high nose, cherry-like lips, an oval-shaped face, and skin like white jade.
She was beautiful—too beautiful. I was so shocked that I leaned closer to the mirror. What was this foreign, noble, and mysterious feeling?
I was so curious about the face that I started touching it, and in the process, I accidentally knocked the mirror with my elbow. A leather notebook fell from behind it.
I picked it up and looked through it. It seemed to be a diary. Thinking it might hold clues about this situation, I opened the cover.
On the first page, it said:
[Anier’s Diary]
Anier? It sounded unfamiliar, yet strangely familiar.
At that moment, the title of a book flashed through my mind. It was a romance fantasy novel I had started reading a few days ago.
[The Unlucky Emperor]
In that book, the name of the last witch who tried to kill the male lead—the emperor—was Anier. I slowly began reading the diary.
[I’m a half-witch. A witch usually has red hair and red eyes, but I have red hair and black eyes. Normally, the witch gene is so strong that you always take after your mother. So why did I get my dad’s eyes? Thanks to that, no one suspects me of being a witch.]
At the line about red hair and black eyes, I became certain that I—more accurately, my soul—was now inside Anier’s body.
[Flip hit me again. I want to kill him right now, but he keeps threatening to tell the emperor that I’m the last witch, so I can’t do anything.]
I tried to recall what I knew. Flip was the one who raised the last witch while abusing her and even used her powers to steal money. That was why the witch turned out so twisted.
[I finally succeeded in astral projection. I’ve reached the level where I can move my soul freely.]
I paused at the next entry. It was something I didn’t know about. Probably because I never finished the novel.
Since there were no other witches, the last witch had to learn magic all by herself. That was all I knew from the story.
But now it said she had succeeded in soul possession on her own?
That would mean that when the witch’s soul left her body, mine entered it.
[It’s so fun to enter someone else’s body and play around. I might get addicted.]
[I spent half a month living as a handsome noble, acting like a playboy. I want to give up on revenge and keep having fun. Haha.]
The more I read, the more uneasy I felt. The last witch seemed much more unpredictable than I had expected. The diary in my hand was trembling slightly.
So now, for the witch’s soul to return and mine to go back, what exactly needed to be done?
Since I had no idea, I figured I had to meet the witch. She was the only one who could solve this.
But I had no clue where she was. With a heavy heart, I kept reading the diary.
[The emperor just won’t die. How could someone be this tough?]
[What are the people in the palace who promised to help me even doing? Why is the emperor still alive?]
After reading the last page of the diary, I closed it. Thankfully, there was an important clue inside.
Now I knew what I had to do. Before sunrise—and before I ran into Flip—I had to escape and head to the imperial palace.
I left the cabin right away, and that night, I had a dream of the emperor falling off a horse.
That was how we first met.
❖ ❖ ❖
In the Louis Empire, there were secret rumors that the last witch had cursed the empress dowager, but no one knew the details.
However, because the officials in the palace had witnessed so many dangerous things happening to the emperor, they guessed the curse was actually aimed at him.
So, they believed the emperor’s position could change at any time. But in front of him, they acted meek and respectful out of fear.
The Louis Empire had grown into a powerful nation by uniting over 20 countries, thanks to the war-obsessed Emperor Cutter and his son, Louisville.
Current Emperor Louisville had gone to war since his teenage years, but he was never seriously hurt.
He had sharp intelligence as if he could see through everything, speed beyond human limits, and incredible combat skills.
He was so perfect—or maybe just so unlucky—that people called him “The Unlucky Emperor” behind his back.
“The last witch is still alive.”
There was another rumor spreading through the Louis Empire: that the last witch, who had supposedly been burned at the stake, was still alive.
“She survived by stealing money from nobles and erasing the memories of witnesses. But she failed to erase the memory of one maid, who ran away and exposed her.”
A guild member with a half-shaved head lowered his head in front of the emperor and sold his information.
“She’s just a thief now?”
Hearing about the infamous witch, Louisville gave a small laugh. Still, all the time and gold spent on this search had finally paid off.
“But the maid went mad later, so we couldn’t get more details—only that the witch looked to be in her mid-twenties.”
“Mid-twenties?”
“Yes, that’s what she said.”
“Mid-twenties… hmm.”
The last witch, as people knew her, had died 25 years ago. If she had given birth around that time, her child would be twenty-five now.
Louisville finally felt like the puzzle pieces were coming together.
It wasn’t that the last witch had survived. She had a daughter.
Now, he had to find the real last witch.
❖ ❖ ❖
“When will the last witch try to kill me?”
The emperor already knew that the last witch was alive.
Which meant…
I thought of the novel The Unlucky Emperor. At the beginning of the story, the emperor spends tens of millions of gold at the empire’s largest information guild to find out about the last witch.
Was this the beginning of the novel?
The emperor calmly continued.
“That time I fell off the horse—was that also the witch’s doing?”
On the day we first met, the emperor had fallen from his horse, and I had saved him.
That was the first time I saved someone through a dream. After one big failure, I had stopped trying… but that time, I acted.
I stared at the emperor who was quietly looking at me—and suddenly felt emotional.
I had saved such a handsome man.
I really deserved an award.
The emperor, completely unharmed thanks to me, spoke again.
“Did you already know? That the last witch was still alive.”
Saying I didn’t know felt too incompetent, so I gave a convincing answer.
“I found out a few days ago. I saw the guild member in a dream.”
I recalled the scene in the novel where the emperor and the guild member spoke.
“He had a pretty bold hairstyle.”
I mentioned the guild member’s half-shaved head to sound like a skilled prophet, but the emperor just kept talking, leaving me feeling awkward.
“The last witch gave birth to the real last witch before she died.”
I was shocked by what he said. The guild member hadn’t said that.
How did he know? Was he just that smart?
“There was no baby at the witch’s cabin. That means she gave birth during the execution.”
He was right. With that face, that height, and that brain—he was overpowered.
The emperor’s sharp face slightly tensed.
“Where could the real last witch be now?”
Actually, I knew the answer.
But I couldn’t tell him. Not yet. I needed to meet and talk to the witch first.
“I’m not sure.”
I forced a nervous smile. The emperor couldn’t have imagined it, but over the past month, he had met the witch several times.
Not me—the real last witch.
In my mind, I recalled the last page of the witch’s diary.
[I just had a great idea. I’ll enter the empress dowager’s body and kill the emperor myself!]
Unbelievably, the last witch’s soul was now inside the empress dowager.
