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Chapter 01
[Looking for a Private Tutor]
Seeing this recruitment post on the Part-Time Job Monster site was the root of everything that followed.
A twenty-year-old who’d been kicked out onto the streets didn’t have many ways to survive—part-time jobs were about all there was.
That post that caught my eye at the time was, quite literally, a lifeline.
[Looking for a Live-In Private Tutor.]
[Room and board provided. Location irrelevant. Pay negotiable.]
[We are looking for someone who will care for them like family.]
Three months after entering university, I’d taken a leave of absence, and I didn’t even have a place to stay. I was seriously considering getting a job at some factory somewhere.
So among all the conditions, the words “room and board provided” were irresistibly attractive.
Of course, I hastily threw together a résumé and submitted it.
Strangely enough, the interview was conducted via chat.
—Um, excuse me, but is your home in Seoul or Gyeonggi Province, by any chance?
I’d asked with the faint hope that if the location worked out, I could attend school while working.
—No. It’s quite far away.
—I see…! Ah, even if it’s far, I can still work without a problem! I’m currently enrolled at XX University and have extensive tutoring experience… If you’d like, I can also provide proof of enrollment!
As I desperately tried to sell myself, the person on the other end said something unexpected.
—You don’t need to provide any proof.
—? Is that so? Then the child’s personality, or the kind of educational method you’re looking for…?
I tried to explain and ask the kinds of things any parent looking for a tutor would naturally want to discuss.
But the other party didn’t care about any of that at all.
And just like that, far too easily, my employment was decided.
—We’ve decided to hire you.
—Huh, really?! Thank you so much! I’ll do my very best!
—…We already know you will.
—…Pardon?
It was a strange thing to say. And while I was tilting my head in confusion, a single line appeared in the chat window.
—Please take good care of that child, Teacher. ^^
At that moment—
a terrifying light swallowed my vision.
As a result,
this is what I’ve ended up like now.
I never should have fallen for such a blatantly false ad!
Three days later,
I finally accepted it.
“…Yeah. This isn’t a dream.”
In the vanity mirror I was staring at, a familiar face greeted me in an unfamiliar state.
The face itself looked very similar to my original one.
But the colors were different. Much paler skin, soft chestnut-brown curly hair, and clear light-green eyes that felt utterly out of place.
And above all, the person in the mirror looked… five or six years younger than my real age.
Thirteen? Fourteen? I look about how I did back then.
As I let out a sigh that could cave the ground in, the nanny knocked and entered the room.
“Oh, you’re awake. Miss—no, Young Madam. Did you sleep well last night?”
No. Not at all.
I hadn’t slept a wink for the past three days.
Seeing my sallow complexion, the nanny looked worried.
“You look tired, Young Madam.”
She still wasn’t used to my status changing from Miss to Young Madam.
Young Madam.
You can probably tell from that odd term alone, but this isn’t Earth, and it certainly isn’t Korea.
I wondered briefly if this was a dream, and I tried to grasp the situation around me.
It took three days to do that.
And as a result, I reached a conclusion.
This is one of those ‘possessed-into-a-book’ situations you only hear about!
The very day I clicked that post while desperately searching for a job.
If my memory serves me right, this place is the utterly hopeless fantasy novel The Reconstruction of the Kingdom of Paltz.
And on top of that, I’ve possessed the villainess!
The villainess who torments the final boss, Edmund Cohen, triggering his awakening as a villain—and who later meets a miserable end.
She’s also the woman Edmund’s uncle married off to him in order to steal the ducal title and have him killed.
That person—
Cassia Florence.
That was me now.
Later on, Edmund would shudder whenever he spoke of Cassia, regretting that he hadn’t killed her more brutally.
And that… would be my future.
My vision went dark.
This is a scam!
They said it was a private tutor job! They said room and board were provided!
I never once said I wanted to get a job as a villainess!
The only thing filling the bedroom was the silent scream of a villainess who’d been scammed into employment.
I was on the verge of losing my mind, but there was one undeniable fact.
Right now, I am Cassia Florence—three days into a ‘political marriage’ with Edmund, the true heir of House Cohen.
Yes. It wasn’t just an employment scam into being a villainess.
Should I consider this a marriage scam too? What is this, a scam variety gift set…?
Fortunately, after realizing I’d been possessed, Cassia’s memories began to surface bit by bit.
Thanks to that, I was able to quickly grasp the situation.
That strange post on the Part-Time Job Monster site.
—Please take good care of that child, Teacher. ^^
I still didn’t know what that was supposed to mean.
What kind of power it was—will, force, or something like a god.
But one thing was clear.
They entrusted Edmund to me.
The existence that possessed me into Cassia asked me to take good care of the child.
That meant it probably wasn’t telling me to raise Edmund into the final boss just like in the original story.
If I improve Edmund’s treatment so he doesn’t grow up to be the final boss, maybe they’ll send me back to my original world!
No—maybe the purpose was the opposite.
Maybe they brought me here so I’d abuse Edmund just as well as in the original (or even better), raising him into an even greater final boss.
But—
No matter what, I refuse!
I don’t want to be killed by the future final boss’s own hands.
And I don’t want to watch a child be abused in all sorts of creative ways and slowly turn dark right in front of me.
And you want me to abuse a kid? Absolutely not!
So what time is it now?
“It’s time to move!”
I shouted out loud and strode out of the bedroom, leaving the nanny staring in shock.
Seeing me rush out, she panicked and chased after me.
“M-Miss—no, Madam! You haven’t had breakfast yet, and you haven’t even washed up! You need to get ready—you’re a newlywed!”
“There’s no time for that!”
Right now, Edmund was probably being subjected to all kinds of abuse.
I need to stop that first!
As I rushed out in a complete mess, I could feel eyes sticking to me.
Eyes that probed.
That doubted.
That watched.
It was obvious who stood behind them.
The one who arranged my marriage to Edmund—the current Duke of Cohen.
Edmund’s uncle. His enemy.
And to me… something closer to an employer.
“You are a watchdog. Report every single move he makes.”
“Use any means necessary. Make him spill his ‘secret.’”
“If you carry out your role properly, you’ll be rewarded accordingly.”
As the duke’s face surfaced in Cassia’s memories, my body trembled on its own.
To think someone like a corrupt orphanage director exists even in a world inside a book.
I shook my head to drive away the bad memories, then grabbed a passing maid and asked,
“Where is Ed—no, where is the Young Duke?”
“The Young Duke?”
The maid looked at me as if I were extremely strange.
It was probably because of how I looked right now.
Well, I hadn’t slept for days or even washed my face.
Still, she obediently told me where he was.
It seemed Edmund was in the middle of a lesson with a private tutor.
When I arrived at the study—the supposed classroom—I heard a strange sound from inside.
A deeply unpleasant sound.
Smack!
I’d originally planned to knock and then open the door, assuming a lesson was in progress.
But the sound was both familiar and disturbing—I couldn’t just stand there.
Before I knew it, I was flinging the door open.
And the sight before me left me horrified.
Smack, smack!
The nauseating sound of a switch striking flesh filled the study.
“Huh?”
And there was something that caught my eye before anything else.
A thin, silver-haired boy.
His glacier-cold silver hair had grown out, poorly maintained.
Between long bangs, eyes red like a setting sun lay sunken in darkness.
Even so, his appearance was striking enough to steal one’s breath at a glance.
As I stood there, stunned by the boy’s presence, the slender switch continued to move busily before my eyes.
Smack! Smack!
A young woman with a sharp, irritable expression forced the silver-haired boy to hold out his hand and lashed it repeatedly.
It looked excruciatingly painful.
Before my thoughts could even catch up, I was already shouting.
“Stop it! What do you think you’re doing to a child?!”
I rushed forward, pulled the boy into my arms, and shoved the woman away.
I could feel the thin body in my embrace flinch in shock.
