Chapter 0
The maid carefully drew back the curtains with gentle, cautious movements, wary of waking her sleeping lady.
Brilliant morning sunlight soon flooded the grand, luxurious room.
“Mmm, so bright…”
A rustling sound emerged from the pristine white bedding, followed by a clear voice softly slipping through.
“Ah, my lady. Good morning.”
“Finally… am I dead…?”
“My lady?”
Hearing these puzzling words, Lynn tilted her head and called out to her lady again.
A brief stillness enveloped the motionless bed, then another small voice was heard.
“Am I… alive?”
“Pardon?”
A heavy silence fell over the spacious room at this sudden, bizarre question.
The voice’s owner slowly lowered her blanket, revealing herself.
Her peach-colored hair, soft as silk and fluffy as cotton, cascaded over the milky silk bedding as she moved.
Lynn stared blankly, entranced by the sight that would captivate any woman, before barely gathering her senses and hastily speaking.
“Ah, my lady, you are alive and well today, as beautiful and healthy as ever!”
Lynn bobbed her head vigorously as she answered the strange question, her dark eyes darting about as she studied her mistress’s expression.
“…”
Unfortunately, Lynn’s answer seemed incorrect, as the woman slowly sitting up wore an expression as if she’d eaten dirt.
Seeing that fierce look, Lynn quietly resumed tidying the bedroom.
Brilliant sunlight shattered into fragments through the drawn curtains.
“This is insane.”
“…My lady?”
The one who ruthlessly broke the peaceful morning silence was none other than Rosiel’s refined voice uttering a curse.
“Why, why… am I alive?”
I just died!
The feeling of my heart stopping is still so vivid!
Her body, languid with fatigue as if from a good night’s sleep, suddenly froze with the shock that swept over her.
She hurriedly rose and approached the mirror, her face pale with shock at her perfectly functioning hands and legs.
Her cotton candy-pink hair cascaded luxuriantly to her waist like peach blossoms, and her pomegranate-bright peach-colored eyes, brimming with dewy vitality, met their startled reflection in the mirror.
It was unmistakably the pure appearance of a twenty-year-old girl.
Rosiel’s pink pupils lowered as she stared at her reflection.
Could this be…
“Again…?”
I just died.
Not only had I suffered my whole life from an unidentified heart condition I was born with, I died at the hands of the male and female leads for being a notoriously wicked villainess.
So, I should be dead.
But why.
“Why…! Why am I alive again!”
“My lady, are you alright?”
Lynn’s expression darkened with worry at the sight of Rosiel crying out before the mirror.
“No, I’m not…”
Regardless, Rosiel continued her desperate outcry, her face buried in her hands.
“Why am I still inside the book…?”
She was still, yet again, possessed within the book.
And what’s more, she had regressed five years before her death.
* * *
This is inside a dark romance novel called “For Hertiana.”
And I am a pitiful soul possessed as Rosiel Laté, this book’s one and only ruthless villainess.
Rosiel, with her outstanding beauty, was a woman with such bewitching charm that she could easily enthrall even demons of the demon realm, who were known for their high standards.
As the sole ducal lady of House Laté, one of the empire’s pillars, Rosiel had easily conquered social circles and lived a solid life, even becoming engaged to the crown prince and male lead, Abel.
Then appeared the obstacle: ‘Hertiana Brissel,’ the original female protagonist.
Appearing with the powerful title of ‘Saint’ candidate, absent for over a decade, Hertiana immediately took both Abel and the social circle from Rosiel.
Rosiel, who fell from the top to rock bottom in an instant, tormented and cursed Hertiana endlessly in her rage.
However, all her evil deeds were effortlessly crushed by Abel.
The male lead protecting the female lead from the wicked villainess, and the villain meeting their end at the hands of the righteous protagonists.
It was truly a novel with the most common cliché developments.
Thanks to that, my possessed life was also destined for a cliché-ridden bad ending, being brutally killed by the protagonists.
“This is the third time already, the third time!”
Nevertheless, I had faithfully followed the original plot without complaint, solely focused on escaping the book.
Of course, I didn’t follow it because I wanted to. Right after realizing I was possessed, I had mountains of complaints.
What’s with being the villainess? Couldn’t I have been possessed as the female lead instead?
The reason I obediently followed the original plot was because, as a heavy reader of Korean romance fantasy novels, I knew that to complete the possession I had to see the original ending.
So I did my best in my role, acting villainous by tormenting the female lead and making the male lead’s life difficult, establishing an evil reputation not just in the empire but even in distant foreign countries.
After going through thick and thin, I saw the predetermined terminal ending, and as I crossed the long-awaited threshold of death, I thought I would finally escape this damn book.
Yes, that’s what should have happened, but…
“I can’t take this anymore…!”
Rosiel, that is to say, I, was somehow alive and well again.
And not only that, but I had regressed five years before my death!
This bizarre phenomenon of possession and regression was repeating for the third time already.
The first time I regressed, I accepted the result, thinking I might have missed some development since it was my first possession.
But in my second life, I swear I didn’t take a single action that deviated from the original plot.
So I should have woken up in my comfortable room in Korea, not in this third life.
“Being possessed as a terminally ill villainess is miserable enough, are you going to keep doing this!?”
I shouted toward the blue sky outside, releasing complaints that no one would hear.
“At this point, I can’t tell if I’m the author or the possessed one.”
By now, I’d even memorized the one-line dialogues of minor characters.
Soon, Lynn, my personal maid, will come in and offer me morning tea.
Specifically, Yuzumeri tea from the Kendtira region.
Knock knock-
At the timely knock, all my nerves tensed sharply.
Please say it’s a different tea.
Please. Let me live a new life too.
“My lady, today’s morning tea is Yuzumeri tea from the Kendtira region.”
As if mocking my desperate wish, Lynn delivered the same words to me without fail.
“No…”
I lowered my gaze in dismay.
I really hoped this time would be different.
“Sh-should I bring a different tea?”
“No, the tea has already been spilled…”
I knew Lynn had done nothing wrong.
Really, knowing too well was the problem.
…Right, I’ve decided. I can’t live like this anymore.
No, I won’t! I’m going to turn evil!
To hell with the original plot!
“I won’t do it.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m not going to be the villainess anymore. I’m done with all of this.”
I, Rosiel Laté, hereby declare that the villainess is going on strike!
