IMT 02

Chapter 02

It was only four years ago that I realized I had been born into the world of a game.

It happened after I drank poison that someone had slipped into my soup.

The poison was, of all things, venom from a Casa Snake, infamous for its extreme toxicity. I was bedridden for a long time, and even after waking up, I continued to suffer from the lingering effects.

Vivid hallucinations and voices so realistic they felt real.

That was when I remembered who I had been in my previous life.

My name had been Kim Songju. I was a Korean from Gangwon Province, South Korea, where I had lived for over thirty years.

At first, I couldn’t tell what was real and what was merely a delusion brought on by the poison.

But after carefully verifying things over a long period of time, I finally accepted the truth.

I had been reincarnated into the visual novel game I had been obsessed with before I died.

The visual novel I Became a Character in a Trashy Novel consisted of two parts, each containing thirteen routes.

When I had been completely hooked on it, Part One, Flower of Creras, had become a massive hit. Around that same time, the title, teaser trailer, and release date for Part Two, My Husband’s Wife Returned, had been announced.

Part One told the love story between Eunsu, who had been transported to another world, and the male lead who loved her with all his heart, Mihail Prime Haorua.

Honestly, the plot itself was a rather cliché romance.

But the visuals were breathtaking, the characters felt incredibly alive, the male and female leads were stunning, and the soundtrack was simply beyond words.

The branching storylines based on player choices were also incredibly entertaining. Even after reaching the ending once, I replayed it sixteen times just to see how different choices would change the story.

Who wouldn’t be thrilled to be reincarnated into a game they had loved that much?

I had laughed to myself in excitement, suppressing my giggles.

The Kingdom of Vivace, where I was born, was a small nation located in the southern region of the vast Creras Empire. Though small, it was blessed with a mild climate throughout the year and breathtaking natural scenery.

After living there for seventeen years, I no longer cared how I had died in my previous life or why I had been reborn here.

After all, how often did anyone get the chance to meet the characters they adored in real life?

For a brief moment, I wondered whether I had entered Part One or Part Two.

But it made no sense that I would end up in Part Two, a game I had never even played.

Naturally, I had to be inside Part One, Flower of Creras.

Granted, I happened to occupy the role of the villainess who stood in the way of the protagonists’ romance.

But so what?

I hadn’t even met the protagonists yet, and I already knew the entire story of Flower of Creras. As long as I didn’t foolishly dig my own grave, there was no reason my life would go off the rails.

As a princess of Vivace, which traded frequently with Creras, I figured that after the point where I was supposed to appear as the villain had passed, I could simply accompany a diplomatic delegation to the empire and see the protagonists with my own eyes.

…Or so I believed.

One day, while I was still recovering, my physician finally declared that I had completely recovered.

Overjoyed, I went to see my mother.

Just as I was about to knock on her door, voices drifted out from inside.

“The poisoning failed, so there’s no other choice. We’ll have to send her to Creras.”

“Surely… you don’t mean as a candidate for empress?”

“Yes. The Emperor of Creras is already infatuated with another woman. Even if Evelyn somehow becomes Empress, she’ll never receive his love.”

The coldness in that voice sent a chill through my chest, freezing me where I stood.

The new queen, Krita, had entered the palace when I was nine years old.

Though she wasn’t my birth mother, she had raised me with affection all these years.

The same went for my stepbrother.

Though we shared no blood, both had always treated me with endless kindness.

Not once had I ever believed they disliked me.

So why…

Why did they want me dead?

Even as I desperately told myself it couldn’t be true, my hands trembled with betrayal.

The palace guards standing nearby looked at me curiously.

Their expressions clearly asked why I wasn’t going inside.

I silently raised a finger to my lips.

The muscles in my cheeks ached from forcing a smile, but I couldn’t afford to reveal anything here.

I worried my expression might seem unnatural.

Fortunately, I often came to visit Mother playfully like this, so the guards simply smiled and looked away.

The guards didn’t hear anything.

I quietly stared at the firmly shut door.

Carved into it was the crest of the Kingdom of Vivace.

A great tree with lush leaves, encircled by two enormous serpents.

Every room used by the royal family was protected by a magical soundproof barrier that prevented voices inside from leaking out.

The kingdom’s crest engraved upon the door served as proof that such magic had been cast.

For some reason, neither magical barriers nor magical restrictions had ever worked on me.

Thanks to that, after my birth mother died and before Krita entered the palace as the new queen, I had wandered freely through every forbidden place in the Kingdom of Vivace.

Maybe it’s fortunate they don’t know barriers don’t affect me.

“Even if she actually becomes Empress, her succession rights will fall to the bottom anyway, so we lose nothing. If the opportunity presents itself, we can simply eliminate her there.”

“Just imagining getting rid of that thorn in our side makes me feel refreshed, Mother.”

“Indeed. Thankfully, the position of Empress of Creras is vacant. Without such a convenient excuse, how else could we have gotten rid of that girl Evelyn?”

The moment my name came out of her mouth, I felt as though someone had grabbed me by the hair and slammed me to the ground.

“Once that girl Evelyn disappears, our Dayna can become queen. And once that happens, Vivace will belong to us. Philip!”

I slowly stepped backward.

They were doing all this just so Dayna could inherit the throne?

She was only seven years old.

At that moment, I understood everything.

Krita had worn a mask this entire time.

The woman I had loved and trusted all these years had secretly conspired with her son to murder her stepdaughter and place her own seven-year-old daughter on the throne.

She was nothing more than the stereotypical evil stepmother from a novel.

To think I had trusted her…

Called her Mother…

The shame made my entire body shake.

One of the guards noticed me backing away and gestured toward the door, asking if he should knock in my place.

I silently shook my head.

Then I hurried over and whispered quietly,

“Don’t tell them I came.”

Though the guard looked puzzled as to why I had come only to leave immediately, he simply nodded without asking further questions.

I slowly turned around and returned to my room.

“Princess, did you meet Her Majesty?”

Bella asked as soon as I entered.

Now that I knew Mother and my stepbrother wanted me dead, I couldn’t help wondering whether my maids secretly harbored different intentions as well.

My maids, Isabella Trix and Teredona Rubens, were the daughters of Countess Trix and Countess Rubens, who had once served my late birth mother.

We had spent ten years together.

It didn’t seem right to doubt their loyalty without reason, so I simply answered.

“No.”

“You don’t look well. Did something happen?”

Donna asked while folding my towels.

Her freckled nose wrinkled as she frowned, her face filled with obvious displeasure.

Bella’s expression also stiffened at Donna’s words.

The two of them looked as though they knew something I didn’t.

Carefully, I repeated the conversation I had just overheard.

Both of them stared at me in shock before finally confessing something they had kept hidden.

I was stunned once again.

They had already suspected the true nature of the new queen and my stepbrother.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

I demanded.

Bella answered sadly.

“We didn’t have any concrete proof. Without evidence, we couldn’t recklessly speak ill of members of the royal family.”

Donna also hurried to explain.

“I actually told my mother once, but she warned me that saying the wrong thing could endanger Your Highness, so she ordered me to stay silent.”

After dismissing everyone, I lay on my bed and agonized over everything.

Why did that woman spend eight whole years pretending to love me?

If she wanted me dead, she could have simply killed me.

Why earn my trust first…?

…Ah.

I understood.

Krita had invested all those years because she wanted to avoid even the slightest suspicion falling upon herself after my death.

In fact, after my poisoning, not a single investigator had suspected Krita.

How can I survive this?

In Vivace, even after marriage, members of the royal family retained their succession rights.

However, anyone who married into another country would be pushed to the very bottom of the succession order.

Dayna was currently second in line behind me.

For her to become queen, she first had to move ahead of me.

Krita planned to accomplish that by marrying me off.

But would marrying a foreign prince really keep me safe?

No.

Of course not.

If I divorced before Dayna ascended the throne, the succession order would change once again.

And even after Dayna became queen, my succession rights would still exist.

Krita had worn a mask for eight years just to avoid being suspected of poisoning me.

A woman that meticulous would never leave behind a future threat.

She would undoubtedly have me assassinated.

Most likely after I arrived in Creras.

If I died before completing my marriage, Vivace could even demand compensation from Creras for failing to protect its princess.

Krita would lose absolutely nothing.

The preparations for a royal marriage would take, at most, one year.

Which meant…

I had less than a year left to live.

I don’t want to die like this.

The next day, I told only my maids that I was going to visit my childhood friend, Casian, before leaving the palace.

After hearing my situation, Casian, now at the Mage Tower, didn’t ask many questions.

Instead, he silently handed me a single sheet of paper.

“To the Master of the Serento Mage Tower,

I, Mihail Prime Haorua, Third Emperor of the Creras Empire…”

What Casian showed me was the confidential recruitment notice I had seen in the game—

Mihail’s secret advertisement for hiring a contract Empress.

Without hesitation, Casian and I traveled to Creras.

There, under the alias “Lynn,” I applied to become the contract Empress that Creras III had secretly commissioned the Tower Master to recruit without his ministers’ knowledge.

As the mysterious woman Lynn rather than Evelyn Vivace, there was no reason for me to become entangled with the original story.

The darkest place is always beneath the lamp.

They would never imagine I had already gone to Creras.

While the new queen and my stepbrother searched everywhere else for me, I intended to secure my safety under the Emperor’s protection, earn plenty of money, and then quietly leave.

Everything went according to plan.

I never became deeply involved with the Emperor.

I earned a fortune.

Eunsu returned.

And, just as planned, I prepared to resign.

But who could have predicted…

…that the Emperor would refuse to let me go?