chapter 01

“Thanks for making time for me.”

I looked at the handsome man sitting across from me and spoke with determination.

He smiled gently as if to say it was no problem.

It wasn’t common for a woman to propose to a man first.

But I didn’t have much of a choice. I was getting bombarded with lectures telling me to get married.

Rather than marrying one of the original novel’s characters or some old man who had been divorced dozens of times…

I’d rather…

My family is having a hard time because of me too…

So proposing to my kind childhood friend was the best choice.

Let’s just live happily together as two extras in this dysfunctional country ruled by an emperor obsessed with his daughter. Please!

“Theo, there’s something I want to tell you…”

I think you’re at an age where marriage is urgent too. Of course, you could marry someone much better than me, but since it’ll be a political marriage anyway, wouldn’t it be easier if it were with someone you already know?

“So…”

I stammered as I recalled the words I had prepared.

Just then—

“Damn it! Is that really something you can say now?!”

A booming shout cut me off.

At first I was startled.

Then anger surged through me.

Seriously, who the hell is that? The mood was perfect…

“Ignore it. That’s my older brother.”

When I looked toward the source of the shouting, Theo spoke first as though it were nothing.

“The eldest daughter of Count Hertia’s family. She’s my brother’s former fiancée.”

“She was recently told she doesn’t have long to live.”

“…”

“So now he’s making a huge fuss about finding her after all this time. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“…”

No, it wasn’t ridiculous at all.

Was he joking right now?

I’ve definitely heard that story… and that name before.

Count Hertia.

Hertia… Hertia…

Rosaline Hertia.

The heroine of the dark, R-rated romance fantasy Please Don’t Look for Me, where she abandoned the trash she called her fiancé and ended up with his younger brother.

So it wasn’t Everyone Becomes Obsessed with Me After I Try to Run Away?

…I never should have trusted my useless instincts.

“Anyway, what was it you wanted to tell me, Rena?”

Theo asked innocently, blinking at me.

“…Well.”

I swallowed hard and desperately searched my mind, wondering where everything had gone wrong.

I went to sleep after an exhausting day…

And woke up having possessed someone.

“Miss, are you feeling better?”

It didn’t take long to understand the situation.

Right.

So this was the famous possession everyone talked about.

“S-So… who am I?”

“M-Miss…!”

The maid was devastated by her lady’s apparent amnesia.

Holding my aching head, I frowned.

“It’s okay. M-My head just hurts a little…”

“You’re Lady Reyna of the Marquess Soilet family. I’m Ritsa.”

Ritsa answered between sniffles.

I’d never heard either name before…

No. A family name and a maid’s name weren’t enough of a clue.

Right. First, the name of the country in the last novel I read was…

“Is this… the Plano Empire?”

“W-What are you talking about?! This is the Magran Empire, Miss. The Magran Empire, Year 534. Don’t you really remember anything?”

…No.

Looks like things were ruined from the very beginning.

“I should’ve been watching more carefully. In just that short moment, you fell down the stairs…”

While Ritsa rambled on, blaming herself, I desperately searched my memories.

Where is the Magran Empire?

It wasn’t as though I’d read so many novels that I couldn’t remember the names of their countries.

If I liked a story, I’d usually reread it carefully several times.

Right…

Carefully.

Carefully…

“…”

The problem was that I had a terrible habit.

Whenever I started reading a serialized novel, I’d deliberately erase its contents from my memory and wait until it was finished before picking it up again.

What if I’d possessed some villainess who was destined to die?

Only one thought followed that terrifying possibility.

…I want to go back.

Instinctively, I got up and staggered toward the terrace.

Ritsa shouted something after me with a worried expression, but I couldn’t hear a thing.

I didn’t have family in my previous life, and I only maintained enough relationships to avoid feeling lonely.

It wasn’t a world filled with wonderful memories.

But…

Wouldn’t that still be better than living inside a novel whose title I didn’t even know?

Beyond the terrace stretched a lawn covered in lush green grass.

Jump.

I’d simply gone to sleep as usual.

Everything from my old life should still be there.

If I got out of here…

I’d return to my original body…

It was a foolish thought born from refusing to accept reality.

But…

“…Ha.”

There was no guarantee that dying here would send me back.

It was nothing more than a guess.

I wasn’t brave enough to risk suicide over a mere hunch.

Crash.

My legs gave out beneath me, and I collapsed.

Ritsa hurried over and helped me up.

From the very first day, my life after possessing someone was already hanging by a thread.

But people say there’s always hope.

“Lady Soilet, have you heard the rumor?”

“H-Huh? What rumor?”

It was during one of the social gatherings I attended diligently while trying to adjust to my new life.

That’s when I finally realized the genre of this world.

“Well, apparently His Majesty is going to give the Kingdom of Garbon, which he conquered this time, to the Princess.”

A childcare novel.

So this really was a childcare novel…!

Magran…

Come to think of it, wasn’t the heroine of Everyone Becomes Obsessed with Me After I Try to Run Away named something Magran too?

It was the healing childcare story about a princess who had been falsely accused and executed, then regressed and became the object of everyone’s obsession, including the Emperor’s.

So that’s the novel I’ve possessed…

Unfortunately, this was a hopelessly dysfunctional country controlled by a ten-year-old princess.

The even bigger problem was…

I had dropped this novel halfway through as well.

I was going to finish it once it was completed…

Still.

At least it was a healing childcare story.

That was a relief.

At the very least, it shouldn’t be dangerous enough to threaten my life.

Even if I’m a villainess destined to die, I’ll be fine as long as I don’t get involved with the original story.

That’s what I thought.

I let my guard down.

Forgetting how unstable my life had already been from the very first day.

“Rena, come sit here.”

“I’m more comfortable standing here.”

“I said come sit.”

Seriously, you little brat…

Standing here is much more comfortable than sitting next to you.

Unable to say what I really thought, I simply forced an awkward smile.

Shuni smiled back brightly, like sunshine.

Was she finally giving up?

“I want to go see Daddy.”

“My legs were starting to hurt from standing anyway.”

Damn it.

One day I really ought to poison that emperor.

The heroine of this childcare novel, Princess Shuni Magran, was a child completely accustomed to everyone liking her.

Judging by the timeline, quite some time had already passed since she regressed in the original story.

Whenever she didn’t like the atmosphere even a little, she’d threaten me by saying,

“I want to see Daddy. Where’s Daddy?…”

I thought avoiding the original story would be easy.

The person I’d possessed, Reyna Soilet, was completely ordinary.

She came from a harmonious family.

She seemed to have a normal social life.

There was only one unusual thing about her.

Reyna was the princess’s art teacher.

“In a childcare novel where the princess’s father is an emperor obsessed with his daughter.”

How did I end up going to work on my very first day after possessing someone?

Apparently, she’d only gotten the position because someone she knew had helped her.

“Rena, what are you thinking about?”

She even shouted my name.

“Ah, y-yes? Did you call me?”

“I asked what you’re thinking.”

“I wasn’t thinking about anything.”

Shuni pouted at my answer.

“I can never figure out what you’re really thinking.”

Ever since I first came to the imperial palace, she’d looked at me with suspicious eyes.

She was always curious about what I was thinking.

As though I were someone dangerous.

That was also why I couldn’t simply quit being her art teacher.

If I suddenly resigned for no reason, she’d only become even more suspicious.

…Could it be that the original Reyna helped frame Shuni as a fake princess?

No.

Surely not.

There couldn’t be a worse situation than possessing a character who opposed the heroine in a childcare novel.

Please don’t let that be the case.

“…Sigh.”

Seriously.

Why did I have to possess some serialized novel I barely remembered?

It would’ve been better if I’d possessed a novel I knew nothing about.

Knowing just enough to be confused was the real problem.

All an ordinary transmigrator, Kim Rena, wanted…

Was a peaceful life after possessing someone.

“What’s wrong, Rena?”

“Hm?”

“Why did you sigh?”

“…”

Could it be that the obsession tag wasn’t about the male lead at all?

Was the heroine the obsessive one, instead of being the one everyone was obsessed with?

“Me?”

“Yes, you. You look like something’s bothering you. Tell me everything. Whatever it is, I can solve it for you.”

Solve it?

She looked more like she was eager to find something to criticize.

Pretending not to notice her obvious lie, I smiled and answered,

“Well… it’s because I’m so jealous of you, Princess.”

“Hm? Why?”

Shuni’s eyes sparkled as though she’d been waiting to hear that.