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Chapter 3
I spoke weakly, my voice sounding as though I were on the verge of death.
“Is someone who tries to hit a person that just regained consciousness even in their right mind?”
Cecilia stared at me as though she had seen a ghost.
“I’m hungry. I think I need to eat something before we can talk.”
I lay back down on the bed and pulled the blanket over myself.
Even without looking, I could tell her anger had already surpassed its limit.
“Did losing consciousness for three days drive you insane?”
“Then just kill me. I’m too weak to even kill myself.”
For the first time, the composure of a duchess disappeared from Cecilia’s face.
In the end, instead of cornering me further, she ordered a maid to bring food before leaving the room.
Honestly, it had been a kind of test.
If there was a reason they couldn’t kill me, I wanted to know how far I could push it.
I would need that information for my future plans.
As I ate the hard bread and watery soup that barely retained traces of vegetables having once soaked in it, I felt utterly pathetic.
Me, someone who used to eat only the finest foods.
And now I had to eat this.
‘So something exists that tastes even worse than diet food!’
Still, once my empty stomach was filled, my mind finally started working properly.
I recalled the original novel, First Love of the Crown Prince.
It was a romance-growth story about Crown Prince Blake of the Perlin Empire and Delia, the daughter of the Courtois Ducal House who possessed the power of fire and fought monsters.
The story was pretty predictable: the two defeated enemies and monsters together and gradually fell in love.
At first glance, the main storyline was beautiful and ordinary.
But the novel’s side story—the story of the Lewin Ducal House—was a brutal tragedy revolving around despair and abuse.
The Lewin family abused Arabelle, the illegitimate daughter of Duke Isco, while deceiving the empire into believing that the water powers she possessed actually belonged to Rosaline.
Worse still, Arabelle was a character who spent her entire life being exploited before eventually being killed through a scheme.
I didn’t want to die like that.
No—I absolutely would not die like that.
Fortunately, Arabelle’s storyline had no connection whatsoever to the protagonists’ route.
Wasn’t the standard transmigration trope that people always end up changing the original plot despite claiming they wouldn’t? Then the altered story creates a crisis!
But I didn’t need to worry at all.
Arabelle’s life had absolutely no overlap with Blake or Delia.
In fact, the original novel never even had them meet.
Unlike others, I was in a completely separate storyline where the only thing I needed to care about was saving my own life.
‘From now on, all I need to think about is how to survive—no, how to live extravagantly and well.’
At first, I briefly considered running away.
But Arabelle’s current situation was that of the empire’s poorest pauper.
If I fled the ducal house, I might starve to death before even leaving the capital.
What could be more dangerous in an unfamiliar world than having no money?
And more than anything, I couldn’t bring myself to abandon everything because I had become too deeply immersed in Arabelle’s emotions.
Now my feelings and hers were mixed together to the point of confusion.
She was obviously another person, yet somehow I felt completely united with her.
It was strange and fascinating.
This feeling was different from the empathy and immersion I experienced while acting.
Perhaps that was why an overwhelming desire consumed me—to repay everything Arabelle had suffered.
It felt like the proper courtesy owed to the girl who had given me this body.
‘Everything you couldn’t do, everything you wanted to do—I’ll do it all for you.’
I would rescue Arabelle’s mother, Stella, and steal away every bit of the Lewin family’s immeasurable wealth and status.
And above all else—
Justice deserved to win.
‘If heaven won’t punish them, then I will. How could people calling themselves family act like that? No… can they even be called family? Just because they share half the same blood?’
In my previous life, my only family had been my mother, but I grew up surrounded by love.
After debuting, I received endless affection from fans as the group’s visual center.
And after becoming an adult, there were more men than I could count who would pretend to die if I wanted them to.
Unlike Arabelle, I had never once thirsted for love.
“Haah…”
At the end of my deep sigh, my wandering thoughts eventually settled on my mother.
‘Thinking about Mom makes me miss her so much. Back then it hurt terribly, but now… maybe it’s better this way.’
My mother had died from illness two years before my accident.
At the time, I couldn’t accept her death and even fell into a slump.
But in the end, at least I avoided the worst kind of unfilial behavior—dying before one’s parent.
After countless tangled thoughts, my chaotic emotions gradually settled.
As Arabelle, my goal was simple and crystal clear.
Revenge.
And living a new life.
It was hard to accept that someone who had only ever lived as the protagonist was now no longer the main character.
Still, unlike other transmigrators, I was in a storyline separate from the protagonists, which meant I could freely pursue my goals without pressure.
That actually felt pretty lucky.
At least, that’s what I thought then.
Carelessly.
‘Right! The first thing I need to do is improve my quality of life and working conditions.’
Reflecting on Arabelle’s unbelievably terrible life reminded me of a story I once saw online in my previous life.
A real-life version of “Boss, you suck!” from a comedy show.
A terrorist who infiltrated South Korea ended up disguised as an employee at a black company and suffered from brutal labor exploitation, unpaid wages, and eventually got deported for illegal residency.
‘Come to think of it, am I technically an illegal resident too? Well, no one’s going to notice soul-level illegal residency, so I probably won’t get deported.’
No matter how I looked at it, Arabelle’s situation was far worse than any story I knew.
Normally, she worked as a maid in the Lewin household, serving Rosaline and doing all sorts of menial chores.
Whenever necessary, she also secretly used her water powers behind Rosaline’s back.
Since water was essential for human life, there were countless situations requiring her powers.
Especially because the empire lacked proper water infrastructure like modern Korea, drinking water had to be purified manually.
And whenever issues involving water arose elsewhere, Arabelle was personally sent to solve them.
Manipulating part of nature required enormous energy, yet the Lewin family constantly beat and starved her.
That was why her body had become so thin, weak, and frail—like a dried-up leaf.
No, perhaps things would have been better if they had only exhausted her physically and exploited her labor.
The demons of the Lewin family also endlessly abused Arabelle mentally.
Not only did the ducal family verbally and physically abuse her, even the household servants mocked and tormented her.
In this enormous ducal house, not a single person stood on Arabelle’s side.
Arabelle herself was naturally gentle and kind, but years of gaslighting had left her incapable of normal thinking.
On top of that, her mother Stella was held hostage and used to continuously threaten her.
In that hell where the worst circumstances combined together, Arabelle endured everything alone.
But unlike her, I knew Arabelle’s ending.
There was no way I could obediently endure the same fate.
‘If I’d finished the novel, I’d at least know where Stella is. What a shame.’
Of course, there was no time to sit around regretting things.
Arabelle didn’t know it, but I did.
I knew exactly what kind of massive weapon she possessed.
The power of water.
Right now, if I disappeared, the ones in trouble would be the Lewin family—the people who had deceived the empire with lies.
What would happen if their fraud were exposed?
Sure, they held a hostage, but the true advantage in this fight belonged to me.
At the top of the Lewin family food chain built upon the power of water—
The real boss was me.
The true protagonist of this family was me.
If I wanted to survive, I had to change.
And to achieve proper revenge, I needed power.
Luckily, gaining love, popularity, and influence was what I did best.
‘The timid pushover Arabelle is gone now. From here on out, only Arabelle with world-class attitude exists. I’ll use every talent I have to rise up and destroy this ducal house!’
I looked around the old, musty-smelling room.
‘First things first… maybe I should start by changing rooms? I’ll take everything from them one step at a time.’
Having made up my mind, I opened the door and headed toward the main residence where the ducal family lived.
But the moment I entered, I ran into Marsha.
She approached me with an irritated expression.
“No one called for you. Why are you here?”
“Do I need a maid’s permission to enter my own house? And how dare you speak informally to your master? Do you need a trip to the punishment room before you come to your senses?”
Marsha stared at me like I’d gone insane before calling over the male servants.
“She’s lost her mind. Lock her in the punishment room immediately!”
“Huh? W-wait?”
Two male servants instantly lifted me off the ground.
And just like that, without even meeting Cecilia, I was dragged straight back to the punishment room.
I had learned action choreography while filming movies before, so I wanted to fight back—
but Arabelle’s body was so shockingly weak that I became exhausted before I could even properly resist.
