CH 1

I possessed the body of the villainess of the novel I was reading. 

I’m doomed.

It wasn’t because I had transmigrated into a novel, nor was it because I had possessed the body of a villainess.

Rather, it was because in this novel, demons had suddenly invaded and destroyed the empire, right before the happy ending, which caused it to descend into an anticlimax1.

…Damn it. What should I do?

***

I was also working overtime on that day too. After revising the powerpoint that had already been revised five times at the request of the manager, it wasn’t until 11 o’clock that I finally managed to leave the company with a heavy body.

I was waiting for the traffic light at the crosswalk in front of my house after taking the taxi back, since I had just barely missed the last train, thinking to myself that the transportation cost would be extremely high for this month as well.

“Is that really the end? It’s not a joke?”

Although there were no cars around since it was rather late, I was double checking the pages of a novel that had been completed a few days ago while waiting for the light to turn green.

This rofan2 novel, titled <A Divine Retribution3>, was a popular work that had maintained it’s top rankings on the Series4 app for the past year.

The male lead, a crown prince who had both power and good looks, and the female lead, who was a good-natured but strong saintess.

As the title of the book suggests, they were a righteous couple who embodied the saying ‘good will always triumph evil’, always punishing evil and rewarding the good. They were even nicknamed by the comment section as the ‘Hong Gil-Dong5 couple’.

But was its huge popularity its problem? Right before the wedding of the male and female lead, the author suddenly introduced demons to her story! And it was even a horned demon that lived in the Demon Realm!

“I thought the story would be extended due to its popularity.”

Naturally, I had thought that the male lead would neatly save the empire with the support of the female lead.

“But this is actually the ending?”

However, contrary to the expectations of the readers, the author completely destroyed the empire!

They had killed of the male lead, female lead, second male lead, and even the extras!

What sort of anticlimactic ending was this? No, rather it was a complete death penalty6 ending!

The readers, who were felt greatly betrayed by the author, went crazy in the comment section, and I had also hoped that the author was playing some sort of joke on us. However, the author instead, left a ‘completed’ tag on it without even posting an epilogue.

“Did you fight with the publishing company or something? Did something happen in your personal life? No, then you should’ve just taken a break instead of writing this sort of crazy ass ending!”

The traffic light finally turned green while I was complaining about how much time and cookies I had wasted.

“You should at least write an epilogue though.” 

It was then when I was walking across the crosswalk while muttering to myself. 

A white light suddenly struck me along with a screeching sound.

The pedestrian light had clearly already turned green.

Of course, although it was also because I hadn’t checked my surroundings properly since I had been on my phone, the cause of the accident was clearly at the fault of the driver.

WIth a loud bang, my body rolled over the bonnet before being slammed to the floor. The pain that followed was too painful to be put into words.

Maybe all the bones in my body had been broken. There wasn’t anything else I could do but moan in pain.

It was then the door of the nice-looking car finally opened as a man alighted and staggered towards me.

“It’s really a person. Fuck. Why would you suddenly pop out of nowhere?”

The man, who muttered at me, annoyed, brought his face closer to mine to check my face. The smell of alcohol was so strong that it covered the reek of the blood that was splattered everywhere.

“Haa, they said that they’d cut off my credit card if I cause another accident though.”

The man who muttered like so, looked around.

“There’s no CCTV, and no witnesses either. I can just burn the black box.”

I could hear some sort of vague murmuring faintly through my ringing ears.

“You’re the one at fault for jumping in front of my car.”

He went back to his car, as if fleeing, and drove over my body. With a cracking sound, my world turned to darkness as my remaining bones shattered.

*** 

After that, when I opened my eyes, I found everything to be too confusing. From the antique furniture and my appearance, to even those who constantly called me ‘Young Miss’.

There were also a lot of typical lines that I never thought I would ever utter, such as, ‘who are you’, and, ‘where is this place’.

However, after a few days, I soon had to acknowledge the fact that I was about to start a new life now. Since there was no other way I could explain this absurd situation.

However, after I had accepted that fact, another problem cropped up.

‘Of all things, to think it’d be the last novel I read! And a villainess at that as well!’

Meliara Darchez. 

The original owner of the body I had possessed was the second daughter of the Duke of Darchez, one of the three major dukes in this Empire, and the villainess of <A Divine Retribution>!

She was like a speck of dirt, a foreign substance that kept on interfering with the love between the female and male lead, so although the readers all naturally hated her, I, however, just could not bring myself to curse at the villainess.

Was it because the name ‘Meliara’ was similar to my name, ‘Lee Ara’?

‘She was also a rather pitiful character.’

When the Duchess died in the process of giving birth to her, she became the object of resentment for both the Duke and her older brother, the Duke’s heir, as soon as she was born.

Even if she made sure to be the very model of an exemplary noble young miss through her bearing and sophistication, and always took care to maintain high scores in all her classes, she was always treated as nothing but a nuisance.

When the Duke treated her harshly, the servants of the Duke also followed suit in ignoring her rather naturally.

‘Haa, just what sort of offense could a small child even commit?’

Even worse, was that when she was fifteen, a prophecy proclaimed that a saintess of the sun god, who would rewrite history, would soon appear.

The Duke of Darchez claimed that she was the saintess. Upon receiving attention from her father, which she was receiving for the first time, Meliara clung on to the hope that ‘perhaps this time, I’d be able to receive his love too’, but that excitement didn’t last for very long.

The Duke began to force her to show her powers.

His coercion then turned to forcefully pressuring her by locking her in a windowless room and even starving her, going as far to say that she had no right to see the light until she could exert her powers.

‘Honestly, when I listen to that sort of narrative, I don’t feel like a villainess, but rather some sort of unfortunate female lead… but that’s not what’s important right now!’

What’s important right now isn’t how unfortunate her life has been so far.

Rather, it’s that I’ve now become her!

“Ha…”

To think that of all the many novels I had read, it had to be <A Divine Retribution>.

Had I known this would happen, I would’ve just read a calm healing water7!

Although I regretted it, there was no helping what had happened already. I would just have to try and deal with it somehow.

“You can even sigh right now?! To not only tarnish our Ducal family, but to even make us into a joke, just what sort of face are you showing right now?!”

I looked at the man who had been yelling at me since earlier. 

The man who was standing on the other side of the desk and yelling unjust insults at me was none other than the Duke of Darchez, this body’s father.

“If you don’t have anything to do, then mess with the saintess! Do you understand or not?! If your head is empty, then you should at least be quiet and not cause an accident!”

It was hard to believe that the words he had spoken without any hesitation were words of a father to his daughter.

‘He really doesn’t care about the loss or disappointment his daughter, who had just gotten her engagement broken off, was suffering from, would feel.’

The reason he was so angry was because of the notice informing him of the broken engagement that had been delivered this morning.

Meliara had been engaged to the Crown Prince through a political engagement. She was destined to be the Empress.

However, Meliara, who becomes anxious when the true saintess of the sun god from the prophecy appears, and the crown prince falls in love with her, turns the arrows of her resentment towards her instead, and commits all kinds of evil, even eventually attempting to poison the saintess.

Although she wasn’t given the death penalty since it ended as an ‘attempted murder’, the breaking off of the engagement was unavoidable.

‘Although it was a wise decision from the Emperor’s perspective in order to quell the temple’s dissatisfaction…’

The Duke, who was one-sidedly notified of the break up, had his pride severely scratched, leading him to expel Meliara.

“Never mind. You’re no longer my daughter. Just know that your name will forever be erased from the Duchy’s family genealogy!” 

Just like that.

This incident was the so-called ‘cider8’ section in <A Divine Retribution>, in which the villainess had her engagement broken off, and was even expelled from her family.

However… 

‘Don’t even mention the refreshing situation! The ending of this novel was its downfall!’

It was a whopping destruction!!!

‘That definitely can’t happen!’

My previous life had already ended unfairly with a hit-and-run, so I definitely couldn’t die in vain this time too.

I would definitely live! And very well at that!

‘I have to leave the empire before the demons invade.’

If doom is the ending, then getting exiled was the answer.

“Get out of the Duchy, right this instance!!!”

While I was in the middle of thinking about the dark future, I nodded my head refreshingly at that welcome suggestion.

“Yes, I understand.”

Anyway, if I wanted to escape to someplace faraway, my status of being the princess of a Duchy could prove to be an obstacle.

Meliara didn’t even have a good relationship with her family, so I didn’t have to feel sorry for leaving, and I, who was an orphan in my previous life, couldn’t even begin to understand the what a family bond was. 

I was happy to be exiled.

“You…!”

However, the Duke’s face turned red, as if he didn’t like my answer.

Perhaps due to Meliara’s original nature, which longed for her father’s love due to lack of affection, he probably thought that she would grab onto his pants and cling to him.

Although I considered acting like that for a while, I was someone who wasn’t able to cry and cling to someone, even if I had lived through a very tough life. Even if I got beaten, I wasn’t someone who would get on my knees that easily.

If I didn’t protect my own worth, then who would?

We weren’t going to see each other after today anyway.

“I’m saying, don’t even think about setting foot in this house ever again! You will never be able to pretend as if you know me, and you will never be able to use the name Darchez ever again!”

“Alright.”

Even if you didn’t explain in such detail, I still knew what a banishment order was.

“It’s not necessary for me to be there when you remove my name from the genealogy, right? Then I’ll leave right away.”

I had to formulate a defection plan as soon as possible. I couldn’t possible waste my time constantly getting entangled with the Duke.

“Then goodbye…”

“You ungrateful bitch!”

Clang!

The Duke threw a teacup at me just as I was saying goodbye and was about to leave. Although I wasn’t it since it had flown to the wall, it was still enough to shock me.

I looked at the wrecked remnants of the shattered teacup and asked.

“Did… you just throw that at me?”

“What? You’re leaving? It wouldn’t be enough, even if you begged on your hands and knees!”

“Huh…?”

“Your clothes and your food, to enjoy such a life, who do you think it’s thanks to?!”

Even in the novel, the Duke had also cursed and used abusive language and violence on Meliara, on the pretext of educating her.

However, when I saw such violent tendencies in person, my anger doubled, and I truly felt that Meliara’s life was pitiful.

“Why did you long for love from such a madman like your father?”

The Duke wrinkled his forehead at the astonishingly harsh words and sharp voice that came out of my mouth.

“You seem to be mistaken about something. Just because you provide food, clothing, and shelter, that doesn’t make me your puppet.” 

“W-What?!”

“To throw things just as you will is clearly a show of violence. How could someone like a Duke of the Empire be unable to keep his anger under control properly?”

As if anger had loosened the filter on my mouth, all the words I had wanted to say suddenly all flowed out.

“J-Just what sort of senseless words and actions right now…!”

“What’s senseless is the fact that you lost your wife, yet used your sense of loss as a shield to abuse a motherless child!”

Among the children who entered my orphanage in my previous life, there were many children who had become victims of child abuse. Therefore, this was a rather sensitive topic for me.

In the end, my voice naturally grew louder. Meliara’s original body also helped me to conjure a loud voice, as if venting out her own anger and frustration.

So much so that the Duke flinched.

“Haa.”

I let out a sigh and calmed my pounding heart.

Although he wasn’t worthy of my respect, he was still a duke anyway, so I tried to be as polite as I could.

“I’m begging you so please, make sure that my name is removed from the genealogy.”

If this was what a family was, then it’s this side that refuses.

“I won’t accept any apology, so don’t even think of looking for me with that as an excuse.”

Although my heart wanted to snap back even more, I stopped.

It was a waste of my time since he wouldn’t understand, even if I talked about it to him anyway, and I was also starting to feel uncomfortable breathing the same air as that human being, as if it were polluting me.

“May we never cross paths in the future ever again.”

I sincerely prayed like that before leaving his office.

I heard the Duke’s shout from behind after a while, but I ignored it.

Because this body was too precious to care about such trash, and there was too much to do in the future to waste time in a place like that.

Besides, when the demons invaded in the future, the Duchy would be the first to fall, and the Duke especially, would suffer a particularly terrible death.

The moral of the story is that the good will be rewarded and the evil will be punished, even without my intervention.

‘Fall into the hell that’s brought on by the demons, you damned abuser!’

Knowing the fact that I was now able to freely leave the Duke’s household, I raised my middle finger in a refreshing way with a relieved heart.

AHHHH QUEEN LEMME BOW DOWN RQ

[1] 용두사망 is used to describe a composition that starts off well, but fizzles out with a bad ending. examples include bleach and game of thrones (source: the qoo)

[2] 로판 is a genre that combines elements of both romance and fantasy.

[3] 권선징악 is rather hard to tl into a book title, but it roughly translates to good triumphing over evil, or [something] having a moral lesson behind it (like a parable).

[4] 시즈리 author is trying to avoid copyright (they’re referring to the series app)

[5] 홍길동 is a character in a novel who is a superhero and is often compared to that of robin hood (i.e. robbing the rich and giving to the poor). his name is also used synonymously with the name ‘john smith’ in official documents as a sample name.

[6] 용두死 the hanja for death is pronounced ‘sa’ which makes it a pun with 용두사(미) which is anticlimax.

[7] 잔잔 힐링물 refers to works that are heart-warming, and about overcoming hardship/healing from fl/ml’s trauma and how they overcome it together. an example of such is the manga ‘orange’.

[8] 사이더 is internet slang for a refreshing/satisfying situation.