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Chapter 01
My short, stubby legs swung back and forth in the air.
I dangled my feet and looked down beneath the chair.
They didn’t touch the ground.
Not even close—the chair was far too high for my tiny body.
Of course, the chair itself was perfectly normal. There was nothing wrong with it.
‘It’s just that I’m a baby!’
I blinked my round eyes and looked at my hands resting neatly on my lap, like little maple leaves.
Soft, chubby, and pale—exactly like a four-year-old’s hands should be.
With those same tiny hands, I clutched the precious pouch I had brought and slowly lifted my gaze.
‘Eek!’
Then I quickly lowered it again.
I dropped my head so fast my plump cheeks wobbled slightly, unable to keep up with the sudden motion.
The reason I was like this was the man sitting in front of me.
That handsome—but terrifying—man.
His hair, pale silver like strands of platinum carefully drawn by the gods themselves, shimmered faintly.
Sharp, perfectly sculpted features and a cold, cutting gaze.
Even though his face was so flawlessly beautiful it seemed unreal, his harsh aura made him feel even colder, even more frightening.
And yet… I kept sneaking glances at him anyway. That’s how strikingly handsome he was.
When I cautiously lifted my head again, the man’s deep crimson eyes—cold like a winter storm—were already staring straight through me.
“So.”
His low, resonant voice was as deep—and as terrifying—as I remembered.
This man was none other than the master of the Sladeiche Grand Ducal House.
The Sladeiche Grand Duke.
A final-boss-level figure tied to nearly every major incident in the story.
“I thought I told you that if you came here again, I’d kill you.”
“Eek—!”
My fear finally overwhelmed me, and my chubby cheeks trembled as I let out a hiccup.
Hiiing…
For a brief moment, something flickered in the duke’s red eyes.
‘Saying you’ll kill a little kid… you cold-hearted monster!’
Wiping my sweaty little palms nervously on my clothes, I managed to speak.
“G–Grand Duuuke…”
The man leaned back leisurely, crossing his arms.
To me, it looked like he was silently telling me to continue if I dared.
So scary.
‘Breathe… breathe…’
But I had to speak. Before my head got chopped off and flew away.
I fidgeted with my short fingers and forced the words out.
“G–Grand Duke, th-there’s a secret in the Undine Strait. I… I found it, right?”
“…How do you know what I found there?”
It worked.
I’d thought it would.
Come to think of it, there was no reason to be this scared. I actually had information he needed.
“I, I know it!”
At my words, I clenched my tiny fist and forced my eyes to sparkle.
“I can he-help you…”
At that, the duke’s eyes flashed.
“Eek—!”
Scary! No, no, this wasn’t right. Retreat for today.
“T–this—”
Whimpering, I slowly pushed the pouch I had brought onto the desk.
“It’s a bribe…”
I had heard that bribes work well on villains, so I had prepared this with great courage.
Not wanting him to scold me for such a pathetic offering, I quickly hopped off the chair.
“Please accept my blessing!”
With that bow, I executed a perfect escape sprint out of the room.
That way, he wouldn’t see the tears welling up in my eyes from fear.
‘I already gave him my precious bribe…’
And I even showed him that I knew what he wanted.
So he can’t kill me! Absolutely not!
The fluffy pink-haired child scampered out of the office like a bouncing cotton candy.
The Grand Duke watched her leave in silence.
He tapped his fingers lightly on the desk.
A strange gemstone retrieved from the Undine Strait. They had confirmed it contained unknown power, but even the imperial mages of the Sladeiche Duchy couldn’t decipher it.
And yet…
‘That tiny child claims to know about it?’
Despite trembling in fear.
‘At this point… am I really that scary?’
He had even threatened to kill her last time, and still she came back so boldly…
After thinking for a moment, the Grand Duke finally opened the pouch the child had left behind.
When he checked the contents, his brow furrowed.
“…A bribe?”
As the master of the Grand Duchy, he had received countless bribes before. Gold, jewels, ingots, manpower, land—even slaves.
But this was a first.
A melted lump of chocolate.
It had been squeezed so tightly that the warmth of the child still seemed to linger on it.
Alexander Sladeiche, Grand Duke of Sladeiche, simply stared at the door the child had fled through.
I had been reincarnated.
Into a novel, just like those cliché stories I used to hear about.
The title was… well, I couldn’t remember. It had been too long since I ended up here.
But I knew the story.
‘A typical cliché fantasy romance novel.’
A girl with rare black hair, the exclusive trait of the imperial family, named Remié.
Remié is adopted into a grand ducal family, wins the love of her father and brothers, becomes chosen as a saintess, defeats the demon king, and saves the world.
And me?
‘I was basically extra number one.’
A nuisance little adopted sister to the heroine.
A priest with immense divine power—but completely unable to use it.
Nana.
Nana was a supporting character who existed only to supply divine power to the heroine Remié, whom she admired more than anything.
In short, I was nothing more than a battery for the heroine.
And in the ending, Nana dies saving Remié.
In my first life, I thought:
‘I don’t want to die like that!’
So I tried to avoid the story entirely.
If I didn’t get involved in the original plot, I’d survive, right?
So I ran away from the temple orphanage.
If I stayed, I would inevitably be chosen by the saintess heroine.
Honestly, it was rough.
I was an orphan with no money, struggling just to survive.
So poor that I woke up at the sound of coins dropping.
‘But it was still better than the temple.’
At least I wasn’t bullied by arrogant priest nobles or forced to die saving the heroine.
And the ending of that life was…
‘The world destroyed because the heroine failed to stop the Demon King…!’
I died when I was about ten.
I had no idea I was absolutely essential to the world.
If someone had told me, that would’ve been nice—but there were no seniors in reincarnation.
And then, incredibly, I regressed.
Back to the point where I first entered the story.
When I was four years old.
‘Every time I regained my memories, my divine power was consumed… but still.’
Anyway, in my second run, I chose a different path: joining the heroine’s group.
But with one key difference…
“Remié unnie… please don’t ever abandon Nana. I’ll do anything.”
I clung to the heroine.
I begged her never to leave me behind. Never to let me die.
“Of course, Nana.”
She smiled beautifully, as only a saintess could.
“I would never abandon you. You’re my little sister. I’ll protect you.”
‘With a heroine like this… how could she ever abandon me?’
So I endured—even when using divine power drained me painfully.
From the outside, I was useless baggage. A fake priest who couldn’t use divine power, while Remié was the true miracle worker.
My adoptive father and brothers compared me constantly to her.
Other members of the expedition treated me like I didn’t exist.
‘This wasn’t how it was supposed to be in the novel…’
But I understood. Remié was truly amazing.
And only she treated me—the useless battery—kindly.
‘Yeah. Of course she’s the heroine.’
So I believed it completely.
This time, I would survive.
Until that final moment.
“The demonic energy is weakening!”
“Lady Remié, please come this way to complete the seal!”
The final battle scene.
This was where I was supposed to die protecting the heroine.
But I fought to change the future.
‘I’ll survive differently from the original.’
I turned around with relief—
“Unnie?”
Who could have known?
The moment I thought I had escaped fate…
A cold hand shoved me into a sea of flames.
Without hesitation.
I fell into the burning abyss below the cliff.
The heroine’s face looked down at me—cold, emotionless, without a trace of regret.
She turned away, then cried in front of my father and brothers, leaning on their shoulders as if mourning me.
Her shoulders trembled, as if she were grieving my death.
And I could feel my divine power draining out of my dying body, flowing toward her.
No one looked at me.
All of them comforted Remié instead.
Everything unfolded exactly as the original story.
‘Ah… so this was your goal.’
I had been killed by the heroine I trusted.
Discarded the moment I was no longer needed.
‘What kind of ending is this…’
Cough.
Blood spilled from my lips.
Wasn’t I supposed to survive? She was the heroine… the saintess…
She called me her sister. She said she would protect me.
Tears spilled uncontrollably from my empty eyes.
It hurt. I didn’t want to suffer anymore.
I shouldn’t have trusted anyone…
No one…
“Any…one…”
My vision blurred.
And then—
“…Huh?”
I blinked my round eyes.
The pain of death was fading… but something was wrong.
I looked down at my hands.
Chubby, maple-leaf-like hands.
I slapped my own cheek.
Soft baby cheeks bounced under my palm.
No way.
“…Again?”
Regression?!
