Chapter 01

People who transmigrate into novels all seem to have one thing in common.

One day, they open their eyes and see an unfamiliar ceiling.

That unfamiliar ceiling soon leads to an unfamiliar body, an unfamiliar face, an unfamiliar world.

But I was different.

When I opened my eyes, what greeted me was the same darkness as before I transmigrated. No matter how many times I closed and opened my eyes, nothing changed.

Still, from the sounds, smells, and unfamiliar temperature—things that could never have existed in my room—I was able to guess one thing:

I had arrived somewhere completely different from where I originally lived.

Crash!

The sharp sound of shattering porcelain rang beside my ears.

Immediately after, two maids stomped around noisily while shrieking.

It was obvious Mary and Dorothy were scrambling to avoid a flower vase flying toward them.

I crawled across the floor as quickly as I could, trying to get as far from the noise as possible. Then I flattened myself against the ground and covered my head with my hands.

This entire chaos had started the moment Mary pulled open the curtains, saying she was airing out the room.

The young duke, whom everyone thought was asleep, had suddenly leapt upright from the bed with a scream of agony.

“I told you I hate the light! I said don’t open the curtains!”

The young duke shouted in fury and hurled what had clearly been a flower vase from the bedside table.

Then, exactly as expected, all hell broke loose.

The two maids screamed in shock, while the young duke kept yelling for the curtains to be closed…

“No! I said no!”

He sounded like a howling beast. There was no calming him.

Soon, a heavy scraping sound vibrated through the floor.

Judging from the weight of it, it had to be the large decorative water jar beside the nightstand.

You’ve got to be kidding… he’s going to throw that too?

I pressed myself flatter against the floor, practically becoming a flounder.

Another deafening crash tore through the room.

Mary and Dorothy shrieked wildly before fleeing outside in confusion.

Tap tap tap!

Their footsteps quickly faded away.

Hey! At least close the curtains before you go!

But they had already run far away, leaving only me and the young duke in this disaster.

This was seriously unbearable.

“It hurts… I hate it…”

At some point, the young duke had collapsed onto the floor and was muttering faintly between rough breaths.

Taking advantage of his temporary quietness, I slowly raised my head.

I needed to close those damned curtains first.

Let me think.

I focused on the warmth of the sunlight touching my face. Noon spring sunlight brushed against my right cheek.

Stretching my right hand outward, I felt a cool, hard wall.

I stood up and moved forward while tracing the wall with my hand.

After only a few steps, my fingers found the thick blackout curtains.

Shrrrk.

I hurriedly closed them.

The moment the light was blocked, the room became silent—as though all sound itself had vanished.

Only the young duke continued letting out groans, whether from anger or pain.

I turned back toward him.

From the window to his bed was roughly ten steps.

One, two, three, four…

As I counted and walked, his breathing grew closer.

…Nine, ten.

I stopped.

Reaching my hand downward, I touched soft hair.

Smack!

The young duke violently slapped my hand away.

I flinched and grabbed the back of my hand. It hurt so much my eyes watered.

After rubbing it a few times, I lowered my hand again.

This time I felt a thin, bony shoulder.

The young duke inhaled sharply and shuddered as if something unpleasant had touched him.

But he didn’t slap my hand away again.

Right. He probably doesn’t want to keep sitting in this pitch-black room forever either.

Gathering all my strength, I helped the frail boy stand and sat him back on the bed.

The young duke rustled for a moment before crawling back under the blankets.

He had clearly wrapped himself tightly inside and returned to his usual “caterpillar state.”

Whew. Taking care of him is exhausting.

I sighed inwardly.

It had been a month since I entered the duke’s estate as the young duke’s temporary maid.

From what I’d observed during that time, his entire routine consisted of sleeping in a dark room or sitting blankly doing nothing.

He hated light.

No—he feared it.

Not only sunlight through the window, but even a single candle lit in the room would send him into convulsions and screaming.

Because he suffered from a rare illness called Light Sickness.

Light Sickness.

As the name implied, a disease that brought death through light.

Whenever light touched someone afflicted with it, they endured pain as though their flesh were burning away.

How cruel and tragic.

The warmth of nature, something every human should naturally enjoy, could only feel like fire consuming them.

But there was no known cure.

The young duke would continue suffering from this terrible illness, enduring long loneliness in endless darkness—

Until he met the female protagonist, a saintess awakened by divine blessing, and was cured.

That’s right.

This place was the world inside the novel I’d read before dying: The Duke of Darkness.

This sickly, irritable boy was the male lead, Kallios Rebanion.

And me?

I’m a maid.

A blind maid hastily hired to care for the young duke after his sudden illness.

That’s right.

Which means I’m an extra destined to disappear from the story soon.

“So, Lizzy, you cleaned up that entire mess by yourself?”

The servants’ break room in the duke’s estate.

My coworker Tilda wrapped a cloth around the finger I’d cut on broken glass while cleaning and asked me.

I couldn’t see her expression, but her voice was full of irritation.

“That wasn’t even your job. You were hired to assist the young master personally. Cleaning is Mary and Dorothy’s responsibility.”

“Yes, but I figured they couldn’t help it either. The young master was throwing things around so wildly. If I could see, I probably would’ve run away too.”

At my words, Tilda sighed heavily.

As a senior maid who’d worked in the estate for over five years, she probably found a beginner like me frustrating.

Sure enough, Tilda began scolding me with mild anger.

“If this happens again, report it to the head maid immediately. Those two need a lesson. Ever since you came, they’ve been dumping all their work on you.”

I nodded as if I understood her advice.

Though inwardly, I thought, Would anything really change?

The young duke spent all day in his room and wouldn’t even allow lights to be lit.

There was no way Mary and Dorothy could properly do their jobs.

Only I—someone who could move around despite not seeing—could handle small tasks like cleaning and delivering meals.

“By the way, your face has gotten so thin in just one month.”

Tilda clicked her tongue.

“You must’ve had a hard time since coming here.”

…Had I lost that much weight?

At her words, I raised a hand and touched my face.

I had already been blind when I transmigrated, so I didn’t know what this face looked like.

Of course, I could imagine vaguely through touch, but subtle changes like losing weight were hard to notice.

“…Um, Tilda.”

I called out to her as she rustled around tidying nearby.

“What does my face look like?”

Tilda chuckled softly at the question.

“Why ask that all of a sudden? Didn’t you say you could see when you were little?”

But that was before I transmigrated into this body—Lizzy Swan.

Unfortunately, I had no memories from the time when this body could see.

“Still… time has passed, so I’m curious.”

“Well, people’s facial structure changes as they grow up. Let’s see then.”

Tilda took hold of my face and began turning it from side to side, examining me.