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Chapter 01
A pitch-dark space where not a single ray of light could enter. Two people stood facing each other.
“The world is finally in my hands, just as you wanted.”
After a long silence, the man spoke. Then he gave a faint, bitter smile.
The woman’s shoulders trembled ever so slightly as she watched him.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t grow up to be the good child you wanted.”
A cold wind swept through the room. The sound of curtains fluttering filled the silence.
As if refusing to accept reality, the woman kept shaking her head.
“But you can’t let me go anyway. Right?”
The man’s gaze upon her was filled with sorrow, yet carried a cruel glint.
His ominous crimson eyes flashed, making the woman instinctively stumble backward.
But as though he had no intention of letting her escape, he strode forward and whispered softly,
“I’ll belong to you forever.”
The sharp scent of blood lingered around him.
Held tightly in his grasp, the trembling woman barely managed to part her lips.
“Y-You…”
The next moment, she lunged forward, grabbed him by the collar with both hands, and shouted,
“You crazy bastard! Do you have any idea how I raised you?!”
Winter was the precious only daughter of Duke Vladimir’s family.
The angelic ten-year-old girl, with hair as black as a moonless night and brilliant golden eyes, drew attention wherever she went.
However, it was also common knowledge that beneath that adorable appearance lurked a temperament no different from that of a vicious demon.
“Aaaah! S-Stay away from me! Agh!”
“Hmm. Looks like you haven’t been beaten enough yet.”
Her delicate hand sliced sharply through the air.
Sitting on top of one of her younger cousins and raining punches down on him, Winter wore an expression of complete boredom.
Come to think of it… what was this kid’s name again?
She had so many cousins that she couldn’t even remember most of their names.
The reason she was beating him was simple.
Earlier, while peacefully taking a walk through the rear garden alone, she had overheard something she found thoroughly unpleasant.
“You filthy beggar! How dare you touch me with those disgusting hands?! Lick it clean if you have to! Clean it, I said!”
“Half the Empire’s gold belongs to the Vladimirs.”
The old saying had existed for generations.
Raised in one of the richest ducal families in the Empire, her cousin had grown into first-class trash.
And today, that rotten brat had been caught screaming at the stable keeper’s scrawny son.
It was a stroke of luck.
Winter had never liked him anyway, and now he’d kindly handed her a perfect excuse.
So naturally, she dragged him away and beat him like a rat.
She didn’t know either the cousin’s name or the stable keeper’s son’s.
If she was going to hit someone anyway, she might as well choose the one who was plump enough to make punching satisfying.
“Aaagh! Winter! You crazy mutt!”
After doing nothing but scream while covering his face, her cousin finally shoved her away and scrambled to his feet.
“Hey, wait! I’m not done beating—”
“AAAAAH!”
Seeing Winter calmly reaching for him again, he let out a terrified shriek and bolted.
Winter clicked her tongue.
Her fists were sore, but she still hadn’t beaten him enough to feel satisfied.
Chasing him could have been entertaining, but the mood had already been ruined.
“Tch. How boring.”
Naturally, her gaze shifted to the stable keeper’s son, who remained curled up nearby.
The moment their eyes met, the boy hiccupped in fright and trembled violently.
“A-Are… are you… going to… hit… me too?”
He could barely speak.
Listening to his stammering voice that sounded ready to burst into tears at any second instantly killed what little excitement she had left.
It was like finally deciding to study, only for your mom to ask when you were going to start studying.
The motivation disappeared immediately.
“No.”
The boy looked up in shock.
His face was covered in bruises, and blood trickled from his nose.
Whatever it was about those dazed eyes that drew her in remained a mystery.
“Hey. Let me get a proper look at your face.”
She walked over and brushed aside his tangled hair.
Startled, the stable keeper’s son didn’t dare resist and quietly let her examine him.
The instant she saw his face, lightning struck her mind.
“You… don’t tell me…”
His appearance was dirty and shabby, yet those features were unmistakably familiar.
As though some divine revelation had descended upon her, Winter understood everything in an instant.
“…Mei?”
“H-How… do you know… my name…?”
The moment the boy stammered his answer, confirming it, Winter stood frozen with her mouth hanging open.
Then she collapsed backward and fainted.
On the day Winter Vladimir turned ten years old, she remembered her previous life.
The stable keeper’s son she had met that day was MeiDillion.
The protagonist of this world.
Her all-time favorite character.
MeiDillion Kader Genius.
For reasons unknown, he was an abandoned imperial prince who spent his entire life in misery.
Every place MeiDillion passed through fell into ruin.
Everything he touched crumbled away and disappeared.
Even the noble house that had once taken him in was destroyed.
Every person he ever loved died.
After a lifetime of countless atrocities, even those who had once served him betrayed him, and in the end he was executed as a traitor.
Yet Winter loved MeiDillion.
There was only one reason.
He was described as possessing the greatest beauty in the entire novel.
His silvery hair, smooth and translucent, shone so brilliantly it hurt the eyes.
His crimson eyes, as though they had gathered every misfortune in the world, were endlessly profound.
His voice flowed like music.
His smile bloomed like a rose.
From a single strand of hair to the tips of his toes, the novel described him as physically flawless.
How could anyone not fall in love with someone like that?
Of course, his personality was completely broken.
Winter had never denied that.
He was undeniably gorgeous.
He was also undeniably garbage.
But somehow, when someone with a face that perfect said something, it became strangely convincing.
How had she gone ten whole years without realizing this?
The unfairness nearly drove her crazy.
Well…
It made sense.
The servants always ran away with their tails between their legs whenever they saw her.
Winter was the treasured daughter of House Vladimir.
She was also the infamous little madwoman of the duchy.
Ever since childhood, she’d been wicked beyond saving and notorious wherever she went.
Unfortunately, she died at eighteen after suffering a mana rampage.
“…Huh?”
Only then did Winter remember.
She wasn’t going to live very long.
Yet she quickly accepted it.
She had already died once.
Dying a second time couldn’t be that difficult.
With only eight years left to live, she decided to spend them enthusiastically fangirling over MeiDillion.
Since she already knew the future, she’d help him become Emperor, pave a perfect road for him, and then quietly disappear.
Wouldn’t that be the ideal life?
The moment she reached that conclusion, her vision suddenly cleared.
At the same time, she heard someone crying desperately beside her.
“Ugh…”
“W-Winter! Are you awake?”
“Miss!”
“Miss, you’ve finally opened your eyes!”
Through her feverish, blurry vision she saw a face with a swollen red nose and tear-filled eyes.
“…Mom?”
“Yes! Yes! It’s Mommy! I’m your mother!”
At Winter’s weak voice, Duke Vladimir burst into tears and nodded frantically.
The maids nearby either stared into the distance or covered their faces as they sobbed.
What on earth was going on?
Still half-conscious, Winter couldn’t understand the situation.
But she soon realized her entire body felt unbearably heavy, and she was shivering so violently that her teeth chattered.
Oddly enough, despite feeling freezing cold, every breath she exhaled burned with heat.
Looking around, she spotted a middle-aged woman sitting beside the bed with a grave expression.
The ducal family’s physician.
Only after making eye contact with her did Winter finally understand.
‘Ah… so everyone knows now.’
She must have suffered a mana rampage while unconscious.
Her stomach churned worse than ever.
The physician had probably already declared that she was terminally ill.
Calmly nodding to herself, Winter pushed her mother away.
The constant sobbing made her pounding headache even worse.
Besides, crying wasn’t going to magically cure a terminal illness.
“G-Go… away…”
Her hand barely had enough strength to nudge her mother’s shoulder.
Yet instead of backing away, the Duchess moved even closer.
“My daughter! Sob… You don’t have to hide anything from your mother! Please don’t push me away! I’ll save you somehow… somehow! Sob!”
No, that wasn’t it.
This wasn’t the time.
With only eight years left, Winter wanted to meet MeiDillion as soon as possible.
“…Good heavens, Winter!”
Driven solely by that determination, she forced herself upright.
Watching her grit her teeth and struggle to move despite obvious agony, even the physician’s eyes became moist.
“Winter, my baby! Waaaah!”
“…Bring… him…”
“Sob… Miss…”
Though Winter managed to sit up, she collapsed right back onto the bed.
The entire mansion dissolved into another wave of tears.
As a result, no one heard her asking them to bring MeiDillion.
Unable to contain her frustration any longer, Winter fainted once again.
It took another week before Winter could finally walk out of bed.
During that time she had fainted five times and coughed up blood on three separate occasions.
“This… stupid body…”
Winter had always lived exactly as she pleased.
She ate only what she wanted and did only what interested her.
But after the mana rampage forced her to stay bedridden, her physical strength had declined rapidly.
News spread astonishingly fast.
Rumors that the infamous young lady of House Vladimir didn’t have long to live quickly circulated throughout the estate.
The servants’ attitudes toward her became strangely different.
Even when she acted as rude and tyrannical as always, everyone simply endured it in silence.
That irritated her immensely.
Still, she decided to let it slide for now.
Soon enough they’d realize that being terminally ill didn’t suddenly turn someone into a saint.
In the original story, the moment Winter recovered from her fever, she had both her cousin and MeiDillion dragged before her and brutally stomped them.
Even though neither of them had actually caused her collapse.
She hadn’t earned the title of House Vladimir’s madwoman for nothing.
After that, she continued summoning MeiDillion whenever she felt like it, beating him whenever she was bored, until eventually dying from a mana rampage.
Because of that, MeiDillion later used the incident as justification to wipe out House Vladimir.
That’s right.
The noble house that had temporarily sheltered him before being completely annihilated in the original novel…
…was Winter’s own family.
Originally, Winter had merely been a minor villain whose only purpose was to torment MeiDillion and fuel his desire for revenge.
This time, however, she intended to make things much bigger.
First of all—
“Cindy.”
“Yes, Miss. Did you call for me?”
“Go bring MeiDillion.”
“…Pardon?”
She wanted to see her favorite’s face first.
