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Chapter: 1
“Have you heard that rumor? Lady Heather got engaged.”
“I did. After courting so obsessively, I guess her feelings were finally accepted.”
“That’s not it. I heard she even threatened to jump if they didn’t agree to the engagement.”
Whoever it was, to stake their own life just to win love—what incredible obsession.
I couldn’t help but admire it.
“Wow, that really is incredible devotion.”
“……Aaaah!”
The two young ladies who had been whispering nearly popped their eyes out when they saw me.
Only then did I realize that my reaction hadn’t exactly been appropriate.
Come to think of it, I was that very ‘Irillin Heather’ they’d been gleefully trash‑talking.
At home, everyone just called me “Irillin,” and no one ever used “Lady Heather,” so I hadn’t even realized they were talking about me.
Still… looks like Irillin had done something again that I didn’t know about.
She’s only thirteen, yet she’s been causing incidents you’d expect to see in a trashy soap opera.
“H‑Hello, Lady Heather. Did you have a pleasant vacation?”
“You seem even more beautiful than before.”
Fearing they might get into trouble, the two young ladies buttered me up, sweating profusely.
It’s been two months since I became this person, but I still can’t get used to it.
Kids who are, at most, thirteen using vocabulary like jaded adults worn down by society.
If I had to possess someone, couldn’t it have been at the start of 황태자의 연인—when the characters were twenty, my original age? Why did it have to be thirteen?
My past had been reduced to a single page of backstory—there was hardly any information to go on.
“I’ve decided to spend my entire life with the one I love. Every day is blissful—of course my beauty would only bloom with time.”
That should have answered both questions, while sounding like something a thirteen‑year‑old noble lady would say, right?
I was glad I’d prepared for conversations with my peers before the academy’s first day… or so I thought. Apparently, I was mistaken.
The same expressions the two young ladies had worn when I’d first asked Irillin’s parents, “Who are you?” appeared on their faces.
“To say something so obvious—one can really tell the level of young ladies like you. No wonder you start gossiping about others on the very first day of school.”
There. That was the reaction you were expecting, wasn’t it?
Sure enough, their stiff expressions relaxed. One of them even let out a sigh of relief.
…I just clenched my teeth and hurled an insult—why are you relieved?!
Just how atrocious had Irillin usually been?
“Unlike you ladies who have time to spare, I’m terribly busy—I have a beloved fiancé to see. Excuse me.”
I felt a twinge of guilt speaking like that to children with chubby baby fat still on their cheeks, but outwardly I brushed past them coldly, as if I meant to crush them underfoot.
As I walked on, a large wooden mirror at the end of the corridor caught my eye.
The mirror that should have reflected my face showed instead a stranger.
A child with hair and eyes as blue as a frozen lake.
When I stepped closer, the child in the mirror approached as well, hair swaying softly. When I moved my eyes, the blue pupils followed.
Deliberately turning away from the unfamiliar sight, I opened the door according to the information I’d memorized and entered the classroom.
So this is it—am I finally going to meet them?
The protagonists of 황태자의 연인—the Crown Prince and Bin Ortega.
“…It’s Lady Heather.”
“Why is she here? Isn’t Lady Heather from the class next door?”
…Hmm. Looks like that meeting will have to wait.
First, I need to find my own classroom.
* * *
“What are you doing after academy?”
“Probably sword training. And you, Your Highness?”
“I want to watch you train.”
“…Why?”
“No reason. I just want to.”
That was the scene that greeted me the moment I finally found the classroom.
I froze, thinking, What kind of public display is this in broad daylight?—then it hit me.
The two voices I’d just heard were soft, unbroken by puberty, but unmistakably male.
And then—
“Ah.”
“Ah.”
Both of them frowned the instant they saw me. That’s when I knew.
These two must be—no, definitely were—the Crown Prince and his lover, Bin Ortega, the protagonists of the BL (Boys’ Love) novel 황태자의 연인.
At this point in the story, they’d be having exactly this kind of conversation, and there was no one they despised more than Irillin.
Why? Simple.
Because Irillin is in love with Bin.
And not just a quiet crush—she pursues him as obsessively as her personality allows. As a result, Bin is sick to death of her, and the Crown Prince’s jealousy is at its peak.
“The criminal Irillin Heather is sentenced to death!”
So much so that, in the future, the Crown Prince issues exactly that order the moment he ascends the throne.
“Am I seeing a ghost? Why is the person who said she’d kill herself standing right in front of me?”
With eyes the deep blue of ice—cold enough to drive a spear straight through my heart—the silver‑haired boy glared at me.
This one must be Bin Ortega, the ‘bottom’ of the story.
“Just ignore her.”
Then the black‑haired boy with crimson eyes must be the Crown Prince—the ‘top.’
His words made it sound like I didn’t matter, yet his gaze looked ready to burn me alive.
That little chestnut‑headed kid might kill me one day?
It’s hard to believe—but even now, the oppressive aura flowing through him makes it entirely plausible.
“Give her attention and she’ll only cling harder.”
What am I, a dog? I wanted to snap back—but I held it in.
No matter what I said, I’d only be treated like one.
“….”
So I chose silence instead.
As I simply passed by without a word, Bin stared at me in a daze.
I could feel his gaze lingering until the Crown Prince called his name in a low voice, urging him to focus.
I pretended not to notice and kept my eyes forward.
If I don’t want to be executed by the Crown Prince, I have to push Bin away.
The fate of a villainess in a BL novel is always a miserable one.
To avoid execution, I have to prove I’m not an obstacle to them.
But how on earth am I supposed to survive safely—and make it back to my original world?
