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Chapter 2
Nina was born in a rural village. It was a poor place without even a proper name. Looking back now, it was like a slash-and-burn settlement.
She first received memories of “another world” when she was five years old. For a five-year-old child, it was no different from a highway robber trying to steal her sense of self.
With a child’s mind, Nina clawed through those memories and screamed.
“I’m not Nina!”
“This isn’t my home!”
“You are not my family!”
People thought Nina had gone mad after witnessing her parents’ accident.
Nina was the youngest child, born late. The only family she had left were her older brother Allen and older sister Berry, both at least ten years older than her.
The two of them took care of their youngest sibling, who was delirious with fever, with great devotion.
Even so, Nina remained confused. She would scream and run out of the house.
The villagers who saw this clicked their tongues.
“Here we go again, she’s at it again.”
“The girl’s gone crazy.”
Her sister always glared at those people, while her brother constantly went out searching for Nina.
From sunrise to sunset during the busy farming season, even after exhausting days of labor, he still went out to find her.
“Nina, let’s go home.”
“Nina, where are you?”
“Nina, it’s okay.”
The most beautiful little sister in the world. The cutest Nina in the world. Nina, Nina, Nina, Nina, Nina. Those gentle calls.
Even in the chaos that filled Nina’s mind, her family held her hand and never let go—and Nina won.
It might sound strange to say she won a battle against memories, but a victory is still a victory.
The memories of another world became part of Nina, and as she grew, they fully merged with her.
One piece of the mosaic that made up Nina was the memories of another world. Memories cannot defeat reality, and the dead cannot defeat the living.
After overcoming her suffering, Nina became a surprisingly intelligent child thanks to those memories. She learned arithmetic and reading much faster than others.
Allen and Berry were proud of her.
Berry always neatly tied Nina’s brown hair into twin braids. The other children in the village had messy hair, so just by her hairstyle, Nina looked like a child who was well cared for at home.
The ribbon in her hair was specially dyed red by Allen.
Wearing the bright red ribbon, Nina would chatter while holding her sister’s and brother’s hands. She was happy. Until Bellac appeared and took everything away.
A memory flickers.
Nina knew she was dreaming.
“Or is this my life flashing before my eyes?”
The first time Bellac came to the village he destroyed, it was a band of thieves. The living Nina was dragged away and sold to human traffickers.
A dream. Yes, it was that dream again. A voice gently stroking her head and whispering.
“It’s alright. If your words are sincere, they will sound sincere to anyone. And anyone will easily notice your loveliness and sparkle. Because in your soul…”
She had such a dream. She couldn’t remember the rest, but when she woke up the next day, she felt stronger.
She thought it was her sister or brother in the dream… or was it not?
The place she was sold to was the Ducal House of Luvoaene. The name Luvoaene felt familiar.
Only after her sister and brother died did Nina realize this world overlapped with the setting of a novel she had once read.
So when she was sold off as a kitchen maid, Nina had only one curiosity.
Was Adrian, the sub male lead, here? Or not? Was this the same timeline as the book? Or different?
Surprisingly, Adrian was here. The only difference was that in the book he was in his twenties, but here he was only nine—just one year older than her.
Adrian entered the ducal house at five years old. He turned eight normally, and that year the Duke remarried. The new Duchess began to exclude Adrian. That was exactly the turning point.
When he turned nine, the Duchess’s first son, Gerald, was born, and she began actively plotting to eliminate Adrian. The Duke supported her plans through indifference.
All servants who had attended Adrian—maids, attendants, even his nanny—disappeared. Only Nina, newly arrived, called him “young master.”
When Nina found Adrian, she was happy. She had thought all light had gone out of her life, but now she had found new hope.
It was finally time for this painful memory that tormented her to become useful.
She wanted to become someone who could help others, not just a pitiful girl who had lost her family—and now she could.
Nina decided to stand on his side.
No one called Adrian “young master” anymore. That title belonged only to Gerald.
From what Nina knew of the book, it went something like this: a villain summons a fallen spirit king to destroy the world, and the saintess heroine, the great mage male lead, and the sub male lead knight stop it together.
So, her young master was the one who played that sub male lead role.
‘Well, being the sub male lead is fine.’
Does love always have to succeed? People get rejected in life.
The problem wasn’t that.
It was his future.
- He is abused and covered in bruises.
- He is sent to the front lines as a knight commander due to the Duchess’s schemes.
- He is poisoned by the Duchess, weakening his health.
- The knight order is annihilated due to the villain’s plan, leaving him mentally shattered.
- He kills his family and becomes the Duke.
- He abandons his devastated territory and only hunts Bellac.
See? He hasn’t even met the heroine yet, and it’s already this bad.
Still, things improve a little once the heroine appears. In the original story, she revitalizes the territory, finds local resources, and turns it from the poorest land into the richest almost overnight.
But then the sub male lead, already weakened by poison from his stepmother, dies shortly after the final battle, leaving all his inheritance to the saintess heroine.
‘Wow.’
What an unbelievable story. Do they really have to squeeze every drop out of the sub character like that?
Nina had no intention of letting her young master live like that, and even less intention of getting caught up in it herself.
Right now, she was about to die. Who cares about the original plot? Ridiculous.
‘This life I’m living is the real story.’
First, she needed to get close to Adrian.
Nina tried acting friendly, calling him “young master,” but Adrian didn’t even look at her. He ignored her completely.
In the end, Nina chose her final method.
‘Let’s lure him with food!’
That was honestly all she could do. Using her position as a kitchen maid, she gathered food.
She hid it in the garden, then opened the window to Adrian’s bedroom. Like a thief, she quietly climbed through and called him.
“Adrian.”
Climbing into a bedroom window at night while calling him “young master” would be weird.
A maid must act like a maid. So who would shout “Let’s play!” through a window at night?
A friend. Friends don’t call each other “young master.”
Nina was tense inside, but tried to act natural.
He wasn’t asleep. The boy simply looked at her indifferently. Nina gripped her skirt tightly from nerves but forced a bright smile.
“Let’s go on a picnic!”
She expected to be rejected, but Adrian simply stood up and followed her.
The two of them shared the food together
