CH 1

Volume 1: The heroine was born

“Taleia, this is your sister, Royna.”

The moment Taleia heard the name of the little baby in Roxana’s arms, she couldn’t help but despair.

Royna Remetio.

She was the heroine in the novel that Taleia hoped would never be born.

‘Shit.’

“Tilly?” [t/n: tilly is taleia’s nickname]

Her body, which was still four years old at the time, reacted honestly to her emotions.

As Taleia’s tears blurred her vision, Roxana laid Royna back in the cradle. While Yurian, who was watching the baby, picked her up and patted her on the back.

When she hugged his neck with her arms, the stuffed rabbit in her arms fell on the floor.

“Yes, yes. Are you jealous because mom is holding your little sister? Mom is still Tilly’s.”

As expected, Yurian comforted Taleia.

She actually wanted to say no to that, but she couldn’t speak, so she just buried her face in his shoulder.

‘What’s this.’

“My Tilly, come here.”

Roxana, who received Taleia from Yurian, wiped away her tears. Roxana’s eyes were full of love.

Suddenly, it occurred to her that when a second child is born, the first born is sometimes jealous of the thought that her parents were taken away. Maybe the two of them thought she was crying because of that.

‘No, in some ways it’s true, but…’

When she heard her parents’ names, she was skeptical, but after knowing the family and country where she was born, she became certain.

This world is a novel she made up.

She already knew, but she still hoped until the last moment.

May Roxana’s child not be a daughter. She hoped that the child’s name is not Royna.

However, the plot she created worked like destiny, the baby was named Royna, and was decided to be the protagonist of this world from her birth.

“Tilly, look at this.”

Taleia sniffed her snot and turned her head only to see Yurian pulling at his own face, making a funny face out of it.

It wasn’t the usual handsome face Taleia gave him.

If she didn’t react, they would take it as if she’s still sullen, so she usually at least smile at times like this, but Taleia wasn’t in the mood for that right now.

“Dad, you’re ugly! Go away!”

At her honest words, Yurian removed his hand from his face in shock, and Roxana let out a laugh. Taleia put her head on Roxana’s shoulder and wept at her.

It felt worse than she thought to be in a novel she wrote.

She doesn’t know how it might be for others, but at least it was for her. The tears running down her cheeks, the stinging eyes, the arms holding her, and the voice wrapping around her ears are all vividly felt.

Her senses whispered that this was all a reality from which there was no escape.

After all, she had been living here pretending to be a child for four years.

The last thing she remember from her previous life were two bright lights running towards her. It was a car, and it was last year that she came to the conclusion that she had been in a car accident. And funny enough, Roxana got pregnant just in time.

Did she die and reborn? Or is she having a long, long dream in an unconscious state?

Either way, it was undeniably terrible.

“Tilly, do you like your mother?”

“Yes.”

“How about Dad?”

“…Yes.”

Unlike Roxana, Taleia answered after a bit of silence which made Yurian put on a sad expression again.

“Just because Royna was born doesn’t deprive you of your Mom and Dad’s love. Tilly, there are more people you can love unconditionally. Mom, Dad and Royna will love Tilly too.”

“……”

“But do you hate Royna?”

“No, I like it.”

“Then shall we say hello to Royna? She said hello a lot even when she was in my belly, but it’s the first time we’ve seen her face. How pretty she is that she looks exactly like Tilly when you were a baby.”

The familiar scent, low voice of a woman, and short platinum hair made her feel at ease.

When she seemed to have calmed down a bit, Roxana sits her down next to the cradle. The full cheeks and pretty dark purple eyes seemed to reflect a baby version of her.

“Come on, let’s say hello to the baby.”

“…Hi.”

Royna stared at Taleia with her lips pursed, her mouth open, and her saliva trickled down her cheek. Taleia couldn’t help but laugh in the end.

No matter how much she hated this place, this baby was the perfect heroine she loved.

‘Yes, my main character.’

The heroine, this newborn baby, and the heroine’s parents, Roxana and Yurian, are also characters in the story that she carefully created. However, she is the older sister of the female lead, who was not in the original story.

She loves them, but they weren’t her family.

Taleia wiped Royna’s drool with her handkerchief and met the eyes with the same deep purple shade as hers.

She also drools a lot during this time, and each time someone carefully wiped it off. It must have been the nanny, although at that time she couldn’t quite see who it was.

‘It’s better if you have someone else to wipe your saliva, right?’

***

Seeing Royna struggling with her limbs eagerly to turn her body over, Taleia tugged the ears of her bunny doll.

At first, she waited for Royna to turn her body over, but after ten minutes she couldn’t turn her body over, she got bored. As she let out a protracted yawn, Royna stopped her attempt to flip and stared at Taleia.

‘Did she gave up?’

Tears began to form in her large purple eyes, and soon Royna burst into her weeping. It seemed that her temper was not going the way she wanted.

Her cries subsided a little as the nanny, who had been watching the two, soothed Royna. Taleia removed her hand from covering her ears and tried to leave the room.

“Waaa!”

Royna’s crying, which seemed to have calmed down a bit, grew louder again, but Taleia came out of the room, saying that it was normal for babies to cry. She heard the nanny calling her from the room, but she just ignored it.

Taleia came to see Royna for the first time after 4 months, but all she got was fatigue.

‘Shall I go to the garden and take a nap?’

After wandering around for a while, she decided on her destination and started going down the stairs, one by one, holding the stuffed rabbit carefully.

She was worried about tripping down the stairs while holding a fairly large rabbit doll, but fortunately, she was able to conquer the stairs safely. The stuffed rabbit that sometimes felt cumbersome was given to her as a birthday present by Yurian.

Carrying it every day, others seemed to think of it as an attachment doll, but it was just an essential pillow for napping. As long as she has it, she can sleep anywhere.

‘I thought that in my next life, I would like to be born as a fat cat in a rich family and just sleep.’

She was born into a wealthy family, and now she can sleep when she wants to sleep without any major restrictions. She intended to leave the possibility of being fat later so she could say that she had almost reached her goal.

But Taleia wasn’t too happy. Because she failed in the most important goal!

‘I should just sleep when I can.’

Coming out to the garden, she took a quick look around and lay down under the tallest tree. It was a place she often goes to take a nap because of the shade and occasional wind. Today, the rabbit doll was serving as her pillow with its head distorted.

Taleia was about to fall asleep when she heard someone stepping on the grass and approaching.

“My daughter.”

“…Dad?”

Less than an hour had passed since she ate lunch, and Yurian, who was supposed to be at work until the evening, was squatting next to her.

“You were asleep when Dad left in the morning, and now you’re sleeping again?”

“…Yes.”

“Play with Daddy.”

“What are we going to play?”

“Playing house?”

“Then Dad will play as Mom.”

“Shouldn’t I become Tilly’s father?”

“No, my Daddy is the rabbit.”

Yurian was taken aback for a moment, probably because of the unexpected answer, but he soon smiled again and asked her what role she would play.

“Royna. Royna is still a baby, so she’ll sleep. Good night.”

She handed the stuffed rabbit to Yurian and closed her eyes again. Taleia wanted to be quiet for a while, but Yurian skillfully raised his voice and started talking to himself.

“Strange? Dad…No, Mom has two babies, but there’s only one Royna, do you want to go and find sister?”

Taleia opened her eyes and glanced through the glass before turning her body around and didn’t respond.

“Royna is a newborn, so mother will have to carry her.”

‘Oh, it’s annoying.’

“…Wah wah.”

Perhaps satisfied with Taleia’s dry cry, Yurian hugged her and entered the mansion. As they headed straight to Royna’s room, she covered her ears with both hands. The baby’s cry could be heard even outside the room. When Yurian and Taleia entered the room, the nanny who was soothing Royna gave a troubled smile.

“Duke.”

“Royna cries really well.”

“Yes, she’s not like Miss Tilly, who didn’t cry except when absolutely necessary.”

‘I think I cried a lot though.’

Pretending to sleep with her face buried in Yurian’s shoulder, Taleia turned her head to look at Royna. As soon as Royna and her eyes met, Royna stopped her crying and stared at her.

“Oh my?”

Royna giggled with her swollen eyes. Seeing that smile, the corner of Taleia’s mouth went up without knowing. She was really ugly, but Taleia thought she was a little cute.

“Ugly.”

At her honest words, the nanny smiled. Yurian also laughed, but he told Taleia not to say such things.

“She’s too pretty to be called ugly.”

“No, Royna looks like dad, so she’s ugly.”

“Doesn’t Tilly also look like her father?”

“You look ugly when you cry, and both of you just cry all the time. I don’t cry much, so I’m not ugly.”

“…That’s right. Then I will try not to cry in the future.”

“It’s okay. Even if you’re ugly, you’re cute.”

When Taleia comforted him by stroking Yurian’s hair, the nanny was coughing with her blushing face. She couldn’t bear to laugh out loud in front of the Duke and seemed to try to cover it up with a cough.

“Dad wants to look cool rather than cute.”

“Dad, cute things are the best in this world. And even if you tried to become cool, you won’t catch up to mother, so I think it’s advantageous to assume a cute position.”

“Where is the advantage?”

After pondering for a moment, Taleia stared into Yurian’s purple eyes. Royna’s and her eyes were inherited from him. Taleia smiled and brushed his hair, tidying it up with her small hand.

“If Dad is crying, no matter how cool Mom is, I will go first and comfort you. So please stay as a cute daddy.”

“Does that mean you like your dad better than your mom?”

“No, that’s not it.”

The nanny finally couldn’t stand it and laughed out loud at the sight of Taleia’s face and the hurt expression on Yurian’s face.