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Chapter 1
“Beautiful…….”
The woman leaning against the terrace railing murmured as she looked down below.
Across the imperial palace garden, where darkness had settled, soft magical lights were lit everywhere, creating a fantastical atmosphere.
Just as she was sipping from the wine glass in her hand, a large shadow fell over her shoulder.
“Were you here, Ailesia?”
A deep voice gently resonated against her ears. Ailesia slowly turned her body and looked at the man who had stepped onto the terrace.
He was tall enough to seem a full span taller than her, and his refined military uniform clung flawlessly to his solid muscles.
The grown-up Thermion was overflowing with the scent of a fully matured man.
Even though she had seen him many times already, the moment their eyes met, her face heated up slightly.
“……Am I drunk?”
No, she had not even gone over her limit yet, so that could not be it. Ailesia brought the wine glass, which she had stopped herself from drinking earlier, back to her lips.
“Excessive drinking is bad for the body.”
“Huh?”
Thermion gently took the wine glass from her and set it on the table.
“I’m not drunk.”
“Only if what’s in the glass is pure wine.”
Tsk. As expected, he noticed everything. Caught red-handed after secretly mixing in a strong distilled liquor, Ailesia pouted.
“Since when did you become such a nag?”
“Who do you think I learned it from?”
Well, it was all thanks to how well she had taught him.
Before Ailesia could even feel proud of herself, Thermion’s face moved closer.
In contrast to the faintly lifted corners of his lips, his deeply calm eyes fixed on her.
Thermion’s gaze was steady and composed, yet her heart was pounding as if it might burst.
“Th-th-this is bad for my heart……!”
The banquet inside was still noisy and lively, but the terrace was filled only with silence.
If he were really drunk, it would be one thing. But facing him with a clear mind was so overwhelming it was almost burdensome.
As Ailesia hesitated and stepped back, reaching for the railing, Thermion’s fingers skillfully threaded through hers.
“T-Thermion?”
“What if you break the terrace too?”
His firm arm wrapped around her waist. Holding Ailesia completely captive in his embrace, Thermion lowered his head and spoke.
“The last time, the villa storeroom was my private property, so it did not matter.”
……Why are you bringing that up here?!
The problem had been that the full moon amplified her magic more than usual.
It was also true that the quiet seaside atmosphere had made her feel unusually excited. But!
“It is not my fault the storeroom collapsed from one wall slam!”
Of course, the embrace she had received after that was very…… no, never mind.
A person should stay grounded in reality. Judging by Thermion’s eyes, at this rate she was going to be devoured whole.
“This is the banquet hall, isn’t it? There are a ton of people inside!”
His hot breath tickled the nape of her neck, and Ailesia found herself biting her lip slightly without realizing it.
“I cannot tolerate leaving your touch on this kind of imperial palace.”
……What on earth is he saying?
How had this man changed like this?
Where had the innocent boy from when they first met gone? In his place was only one wolf left.
A fierce, loyal wolf who allowed no one beside him but her.
Seohwirin, age 26. A working adult who successfully found a job after graduating from university.
In her previous life, she was one of those people commonly called “ordinary.”
Of course, she only looked ordinary on the surface; her life had been truly tumultuous.
On the day of Wirin’s middle school entrance ceremony, her parents had made a firm promise that they would absolutely come despite being busy, but in the end, they never attended their daughter’s ceremony.
After her parents were suddenly taken away in a car accident, the young Wirin was left alone, and there was no way the people around her would simply leave her be.
When relatives, driven by greed for the billions in inheritance, rushed in like starving beasts, the only person who stepped forward to protect Wirin was her aunt.
“Our brother and sister-in-law earned that money with their lives! Not a single penny goes to anyone but Wirin!”
Her aunt was only twelve years older than Wirin. She was a late-born child from her grandfather’s remarriage.
After her grandfather passed away, the people who had practically raised her aunt were Wirin’s parents, and Wirin herself, though she called her “Aunt,” followed her just like an older sister.
Her aunt even gave up graduate school, which she had been attending well, and devoted herself to taking care of Wirin. At the time, she had a boyfriend and they were even discussing marriage, but when his future in-laws showed obvious greed toward Wirin’s inheritance, she immediately called off the engagement.
Thanks to her aunt’s devotion, Wirin was able to overcome the grief of losing her parents and live through a school life no different from anyone else’s. She went on to university without trouble, graduated smoothly, and even got a good job.
She thought that after living so diligently, all that remained was to live happily and comfortably with her aunt.
“Unnie is sorry. For not being able to stay with our Wirin for a long, long time.”
After even her aunt died of cancer, she had no motivation left in life at all. That was also why Wirin quit the job she had worked so hard to get and became a shut-in.
“……I don’t know what I should do.”
Crushed by helplessness, Wirin let each day pass by.
During that time, the only thing that could be called her one source of comfort was reading web novels.
The subtle emotions exchanged between characters, their sweet and affectionate moments. Stories that finally ended in a happy ending were her only refuge.
About a year had passed since she had gone into hiding and spent her days reading such dreamy, hopeful stories when one day—
“What on earth is going on……?”
As usual, when she woke up and opened her eyes, she found an unfamiliar scene she had never seen in her life.
Instead of pastel-colored wallpaper, the space was surrounded by thick logs in a deep brown tone.
No matter how she looked at it, it was the kind of house that would only appear in a fairy tale.
Maybe she was dreaming? Wirin raised a hand and pinched her own cheek hard.
“Ow!”
She must have used too much force, because a sharp cry escaped her mouth.
She got out of the old-fashioned bed and looked into the mirror hanging on one wall, blinking blankly.
“……Who are you?”
Golden hair spilling down to her waist, blue eyes that looked as if sapphires had been embedded within them.
Skin so white and flawless it shone without even a speck of blemish.
If a god carefully molded the word beauty into a human being, would it not take this form?
What was certain was that this was not the face she had originally had.
“Ugh……!”
A headache suddenly surged, as if needles were digging through her skull. Through that pain, jumbled memories began to settle one by one.
“Ailesia Milenov……?”
Before she knew it, a name naturally slipped out between her lips.
Only for a moment was she flustered. Soon, she began quickly piecing together the situation.
She scanned the room several times with her eyes, went outside, and looked around. Then, recalling the countless works she had read up to now, she reached a conclusion.
“……This is that thing I only ever saw in novels, isn’t it?”
Seohwirin had possessed a character inside the romance fantasy novel she had been reading before falling asleep last night.
No one knew exactly when it had begun. It was only that rumors slowly started spreading bit by bit.
In the lake of the western forest lives a beautiful witch.
She commands all kinds of animals as she pleases, raises trees to turn the forest into a maze, and whenever she gets angry, she strikes down lightning and overturns the lake. On nights when the full moon rises, she is said to fly freely across the sky as well.
And yet she also had the strange trait of being especially kind to children. In fact, children who got lost in the forest would return home again carrying baskets full of bread and cookies.
Then, all in unison, they would tell stories about the witch.
“She’s prettier than a fairy! I think she’s the prettiest in the world!”
“Her hair sparkles too, and her bright blue eyes sparkle as well!”
“When she waved her staff, cookies just poured out of the air!”
Those children grew up to become old people, and the testimonies continued for a long time as those elders passed the stories down to their sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters.
So what exactly was the identity of the witch who had become more than a folktale and was now a legend?
‘A possessor who argued with a repetitive, over-the-top author and fell straight into the novel.’
And that would be me.
Ailesia, the witch of the western forest, got up from her bed with a drowsy face.
After quickly getting herself ready with magic, she opened the door.
“You’re here?”
In front of the entrance were two giant wolves as large as horses, wagging their tails obediently.
Whitey and Blancky. A wolf couple living in this forest.
“Nothing happened overnight, right?”
“Woof!”
After generously giving them plenty of meat she had prepared in advance, she walked outside wearing a thick robe.
The sky was clear and cloudless. It was the prettiest morning of the year so far.
‘Has it already been…… about five hundred years since I came here?’
It had already been 500 years since she possessed an extra character in the romance fantasy novel I Am the Cute Niece of the Demon Grand Duke.
Not 5 years, not 50 years, but 500 years.
……Five hundred years! Even the landscape would have changed at least fifty times!
Good heavens! Joseon existed, and then it did not!
“When on earth is this damn original story going to start?!”
Ailesia shouted toward the lake.
Goo-goo-goo-goong!
On the rippling water’s surface, as if sending out waves, old memories flashed before her eyes once again today.
