IRY 01

chapter 01…………………………………….

“Is this for real…?”

Alice was utterly bewildered by what had just happened before her eyes. She immediately looked down at her empty hands in dismay.

<The Tyrant’s Silver Blossom>
A serialized novel by Pihye Beiel, notorious for depicting Gong obsessively fixated on Soo.

Until just moments ago, she had been reading it with a sense of blissful satisfaction.

“Th-The next page… that was supposed to be the big scene…!”

Alice, still stunned and unable to believe what had happened, finally erupted in frustration. The serialized story had reached its climax, and she had been waiting for this moment…!

“What is this!”

She thrashed about on the bed in a body half the size of her original self.

The serialization schedule had been cruelly slow, and she had waited endlessly—yet now, the very scene she had been anticipating was right in front of her…

‘I… I’ve possessed Alice? At this exact moment?’

It wasn’t difficult to realize that she had been transported into the novel. After all, she had literally just been reading the book a second ago.

She looked into the full-length mirror in front of her, rage bubbling up.

A girl with tousled golden hair, slightly upturned eyes, and blue irises stared back at her. Her overall appearance was delicate, doll-like.

But she couldn’t be deceived by that pretty face.

In the story, this character’s actions were villainous to the core.

Crime, abuse, murder.

She was a meticulous and cruel character, willing to use any means necessary to torment Edwin and Michael.

Ultimately, she fulfilled her role as a matchmaker (?) by sending Michael to the tower where Edwin was imprisoned, and she met her death at Edwin’s hands.

Alice’s blue eyes flickered as she realized the situation.

She had possessed the body of Alice Esteban, fated for such a tragic end.

And… with empty hands?

The portion she had been reading depicted all the conflicts being resolved, with Edwin smoothly overcoming Michael and the “big scene” about to unfold.

But at the exact crucial moment—when she turned the next page, expecting a heartwarming scene—she had been pulled into the book.

“Somebody, please tell me this is a dream…”

She collapsed, overwhelmed by what felt like a mixture of shock and fever.

The child before her was in such a horrific state that it was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead. Only the faint, shallow breaths from his tiny body proved he was still alive.

“If you beg for forgiveness, I might let you go today.”

Karina’s red lips curled wickedly as she spoke, a woman who wielded violence without mercy.

“……”

The boy’s expression revealed nothing.

Yet his red eyes gleamed softly in the darkness, calm and focused solely on her.

Karina paused, taken aback by that gaze.

Those eyes always sent shivers down her spine. Facing them now, she felt a maddening unease.

“Who told you to glare at me like that?!”

In a fit of rage, Karina poured nearby filth onto him. Despite the stench, the boy’s expression remained unchanged.

The cruel smile that had tormented the child slowly began to crack on Karina’s face.

Those red eyes held only faint contempt, as if he saw her as nothing more than an insignificant bug.

Karina’s face flushed with anger.

“How dare you ignore me?!”

Clang.

At that moment, the sound of chains made her freeze.

Edwin had turned his body to face her directly. She instinctively recoiled as she met those red eyes.

Karina was enraged at being overpowered by a mere child. She was about to unleash relentless violence—

—but a knock interrupted her.

“Come in.”

Karina brushed her hair back irritably.

A pale-faced maid entered the room, nearly pinching her nose at the stench. The smell came from the boy in the corner.

“Did I tell you not to disturb me while I’m here or not?”

The maid quickly bowed deeply at Lady Karina’s feet.

“I-I’m sorry! Milady!”

Once a colleague, her demeanor changed drastically the moment she became the mistress of the house. The maid’s face, pleading for forgiveness, was twisted in humiliation.

Karina knew exactly what expression the maid was hiding under her bowed head.

Satisfied, a smile curved at the corner of Karina’s mouth.

‘Yes, this is how it should be.’

Her gaze fell on the unruly black-haired boy.

Neither the former duchess with light brown hair nor Duke Esteban with blond hair had black hair in their family lines, not even up to three generations back.

But Edwin was different. He had jet-black hair from birth—unlike either parent.

Duke Esteban thought Edwin was illegitimate and, using that as an excuse to curse him, imprisoned the boy in a remote tower.

Yet those arrogant, indifferent red eyes—looking down on everything beneath him—were identical to Duke Esteban’s.

Karina knew Edwin was the duke’s legitimate child. It was a secret only she knew.

She spoke coldly to the maid bowing at her feet.

“So, what is it?”

“Little miss is asking for you, milady…”

“Alice? She seems to have come to her senses.”

Her tone was too dry for someone speaking about a child who had been bedridden for three days.

Karina glanced at her shoes left behind and said to the maid:

“Shoes.”

The maid quickly helped Karina put them on.

“This is why kids are a nuisance.”

Karina murmured coldly as she left the room.

“Miss, is your headache any better?”

A silver-haired man standing beside her spoke. His gaze toward Alice was mature, yet his face hung somewhere between boyish and young adult.

Having barely regained consciousness over the past three days, Alice had just realized who he was.

Evan Elga.

Soo’s older brother, Michael’s sibling, and Alice’s personal physician.

He was a striking young man, with an aura both fresh and subtly ascetic.

‘I never imagined I’d meet Soo’s family the moment I opened my eyes.’

Alice, still suffering from a splitting headache after three days of feverish illness, had flashes of memories:

The day she first arrived at the Esteban household with her mother.
The first time she saw Edwin trapped in the tower.
The joy of wearing a luxurious gown for the first time.

Scenes streamed through her mind like a chaotic panorama, past and present colliding.

Yet even in her fevered haze, she remembered one crucial thing:

‘I need to see Edwin and Michael execute the plan!’

She longed to witness the moment in real life, rather than reading it in text.

‘I guess that makes me a bit of a pervert…’

Before she could scold herself for her morality, reality sank in:

She had possessed this body only to wake up bedridden, and her life was slated to end at Edwin’s hands. She felt as if she had stepped into a giant pile of excrement.

‘If I were going to possess someone, why couldn’t it have been a maid in this house or a friend of Michael’s!’

No. That wouldn’t have been much better. One option would face Karina’s daily abuse, the other would deal with Michael’s temper, potentially causing stress-induced hair loss.

Ironically, Michael was the more rational of the two.

‘This is hopeless…’

Having grasped the situation roughly over the past three days, Alice felt tears threatening to spill.

The maid who had helped with meals spoke in front of her.

“Miss, have you eaten?”
“She had three bowls of potato soup a short while ago.”
“I see.”

For someone waking up after three days, it was a considerable amount. Alice felt slightly embarrassed at her still robust appetite.

Yet Evan looked at her expressionlessly. His warm green eyes, reminiscent of early summer foliage, flickered with brief concern—but only for a moment.

“Miss, do not move today. Rest. I will see you at the next examination.”

His tone was professional. Anyone could tell that their relationship was far from easy.

A seven-year-old child commanding maids and servants wouldn’t appear pleasant, especially to the ones she had injured and whom Evan treated.

For this reason, Evan Elga didn’t particularly like Alice.

Alice didn’t mind. A more distressing fact was about to occur in the near future.

Evan would soon enter a war in the southern region as a military doctor and die early in the story. Later, Michael would inherit the family business and become Alice’s physician, officially beginning the story’s main events.

Remembering this, Alice urgently sought someone.

“Uh, where’s mother?”

Now was not the time to indulge in pity!

Following the original story’s path, she would soon die in the early or middle stages.

Edwin, emerging from the tower, would slaughter most of the family upon returning. The first would be her father, the next would be Alice.

Anyone aware of this would notice something odd: Karina was absent.

Because…

‘In the original story, Karina’s death is never depicted.’

Karina’s death could only be inferred from other characters’ dialogue.

Alice, having read the original, knew this. It was Edwin’s doing.

With desperate eyes, she pleaded with the maids:

“I want to see Mother so badly.”

At the mention of Karina, the maids flinched and exchanged glances. Evan did the same. Alice quickly guessed where Karina was.

‘She must be in the tower right now.’