Flash.
My eyes opened.
Awakening from a deep sleep, I dryly muttered as I stared at the blurry, elegant, white ceiling.
“This is such a…”
…ridiculous thing to happen to me.
My voice, hoarse from the long slumber, couldn’t finish the sentence.
Thud.
‘What was that?’
Lying in bed, I looked down at the damp towel that had fallen on my body, then turned my gaze.
There, Lisa, my maid, was frozen in shock, her hand still raised in the air.
It seemed that the towel had fallen from her hand.
Lisa was staring at me with eyes trembling in distress.
“Y-Your Highness… Y-You’ve awakened? Ah…! Is there anywhere you feel discomfort?”
“Ah…”
I furrowed my brows at the dull pain in my head.
“My head hurts.”
As I reached to touch it, Lisa quickly stopped me.
“You mustn’t touch it. The wound from the candelabra the Crown Prince struck you with hasn’t healed yet.”
Ah, right. That happened.
It’s what made me lose consciousness.
I quietly lowered my arm and let out a bitter laugh.
‘What on earth is going on?’
Why did this have to happen to me?
“Does this even make sense?”
“…Pardon?”
“It doesn’t make any sense.”
Yet, that senseless thing had happened to me.
I was struck by the candelabra swung by an enraged Etheron, and as a result, my memories of my past life returned!
It felt like my entire existence as ‘Lizbeth Anisha Tuniate’ over the past 19 years was being utterly denied.
“This is crazy, crazy, crazy.”
Lisa backed away in shock at the curses that had never before come from my lips.
But I couldn’t afford to care about that right now.
‘And why was my previous life so terrible?’
In my past life, I had to be killed by my half-brother.
When I was told at the hospital that I didn’t have much time left and should prepare myself, my half-brother took care of me with such devotion.
But as I began to recover beyond the expected lifespan, his attitude suddenly changed.
He couldn’t stand sharing with me the things he used to monopolize.
“Those were supposed to be mine.”
The intense look in his eyes as he said that is something I could never forget.
Ah, but that wasn’t the fundamental issue.
It’s true that the shock of the final moments is what woke me up, but the bigger issue was…
“Since Your Highness has awakened, I shall call the royal physician at once.”
“…Physician?”
“You’ve been unconscious for over a week.”
“Over a week…?”
“I will be back shortly.”
Perhaps sensing that my condition wasn’t ideal even after regaining consciousness, Lisa hurried out of the room.
Once I confirmed she was gone, I let out a heavy sigh as though the ground could collapse beneath me.
“Ha… So this is really the world I know.”
The very world of a novel and webtoon from my past life, no less.
I spread my fingers away from my face and looked around the room.
Even though I had lived here for 19 years, realizing the truth made it feel strangely unfamiliar.
In a nation called the Holy Empire, the architecture resembled a temple, with its pure white style, the sculptures adorning the walls, and the golden emblems representing the goddess scattered throughout.
“Ha… This is maddening. I’ve seen all of this before.”
I closed my eyes in despair.
What am I supposed to do now?
I had no idea how the life I had lived as Lizbeth would unfold from here.
After all, I didn’t even exist in the original story.
◇ ◇ ◇
“The wound is healing well. In a few days, we can remove the bandages.”
“…Is the injury that serious? Because of it, Her Highness seems a little…”
Lisa glanced at me nervously and fell silent.
Right, she probably couldn’t bring herself to say that I might need mental care right in front of me.
When her words trailed off, the physician asked, “A little…? In what way, exactly?”
He disinfected the wound and replaced the bandage wrapped around my head.
Lisa, frustrated, opened and closed her lips a few times before shaking her head.
“Since she’s woken up after a week, it could just be a temporary thing.”
“Is that so?”
Lisa visibly relaxed. The physician nodded in agreement and bowed to me.
“Please take it easy and rest well, Princess Lizbeth.”
I nodded in acknowledgment.
After the physician left, Lisa, now looking much brighter, spoke to me.
“Shall I prepare a meal for you, Your Highness?”
“Yes, that sounds good.”
A clear, delicate voice echoed in my ears. Feeling awkward all of a sudden, I touched my lips. Below my shoulders, I could see my long, transparent silver hair.
“Then, please rest while I get everything ready!”
Lisa busily moved around again.
I turned my gaze towards the window.
Beyond the arched window, the grand and pristine white palaces could be seen. Even the paths within the royal palace were pure white.
Come to think of it, from a young age, there were many things that felt familiar despite seeing them for the first time.
I just thought it was because this was where I lived, but unconsciously, I must have been recalling scenes from the webtoon.
I frowned. Although my memories had returned…
“Should I be happy about this or not?”
In my previous life, I was an avid reader of the original story and its webtoon adaptation.
Because of that, even if I didn’t remember every detail, I still recalled the key characters.
And that’s why this was so despairing.
“Lizbeth Anisha Tuniate.”
A name that shares the same surname as one of the male protagonists in the original story.
Yet, I had never seen the name Lizbeth appear anywhere in the story.
This was a huge problem.
In genre novels, a character’s importance is often tied to their social status.
And Lizbeth clearly existed.
I was the proof. I had lived as the princess of the Holy Empire of Tuniate since birth.
But to have never appeared in the original story?
That could only mean one thing…
“No, no. Stay calm, Lizbeth. Why are you already thinking the worst?”
I raised my hand to clutch my head in frustration, then remembered the bandages and clenched my fist instead.
How could I stay calm?!
Despite being related to Etheron, one of the male protagonists, I had never been mentioned!
That could only suggest one thing.
I was going to die before the original story even began.
“…I really hope it’s just a case of sloppy writing.”
Maybe the author simply forgot…
“That’s overly optimistic, isn’t it?”
It seemed much more plausible that there were undisclosed details about the setting.
This could be easily inferred by looking at the current state of my brother, Etheron.
Etheron Van Tuniate, blessed with divine power by the goddess.
The future emperor of the Holy Empire.
However, Etheron was unable to properly control his divine power.
And ironically, the only person who could help manage Etheron’s periodic seizures caused by that power was Lizbeth—me.
This meant that there had to be a reason for the existence of Lizbeth as a character.
I could bet all my money that my fate wouldn’t end well.
It was simple if you considered the genre of the story.
An intense romance disguised as an adult tragic drama.
That was the specific genre of the world I had been born into and now lived in.
◇ ◇ ◇
The novel The Caged Flower Never Withers had a rather cliché title but still inspired hope that it might end with a happy ending. Its protagonist was Sieta, who woke up in the body of the female lead.
As you might have guessed, it’s a story of possession.
Shortly after waking up, Sieta realizes that the country has fallen and that she’s inside a novel. As is typical of such settings, she starts to bewitch the male protagonists one by one with her open-minded attitude and behavior, which doesn’t fit the era.
As expected, the male protagonists held incredible statuses.
There was Seyard Atresia, the crown prince of the Atresia Empire, which commanded vast military power and ruled the continent.
Then there was Etheron Van Tuniate, the next emperor of the Holy Empire of Tuniate, a descendant of the goddess and known as the divine representative of the gods.
Lastly, though he didn’t have as much presence as the other two, there was Rahitrian Ikarsen, the master of the Magic Tower, an immortal being with enough power to destroy an entire nation on his own.
The male protagonists possessed all the basic qualities they needed in equal measure.
And they began plotting schemes to win over the female lead, using whatever they had at their disposal.
Naturally, they didn’t care about the means or methods.
That was a necessary device to display the extreme obsession that could never be separated from a true tragedy.
“…It was entertaining to read. But now that I know how it all plays out, it’s driving me crazy.”
None of them were normal, which is why I loved it, but now I couldn’t afford to feel the same.
Even if I somehow survived beyond the events of the original story…
“Sieta will come here.”
Sieta, who had secretly enjoyed watching the male protagonists go mad over her, tried to flee once the situation spiraled out of control.
She fled to none other than the Holy Empire of Tuniate.
The reason?
It was to meet the goddess Tunia and ask her to send her back to the world she originally lived in.
And indeed, Sieta eventually returns to her original world. The happy ending was reserved only for the female protagonist.
But there was no way the male protagonists would sit back and let that happen.
Seyard and Rahitrian were determined to stop her from returning to her original world.
“Before that, Etheron even commits treason.”
In short, it was a complete disaster.
Etheron, who already had a fiancée arranged for him, slaughtered both the royal family and his fiancée to prepare for the female lead to become his empress.
He kept her bound with the promise of allowing her to meet the goddess.
However, in the end, the goddess Tunia rejected him, and he even lost his divine powers, causing the Holy Empire to fade into history.
“This is such bullshit.”
No matter what, death was inevitable.
I would be facing constant mortal danger at every moment.
○ ● ○ ● ○
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