Chapter 2
Is this what possession is originally like?
I looked around a quiet room with no one in it. Even though it was a room I had never seen before, everything felt familiar as if I had lived there just a while ago.
I felt like I could find the mirror, the jewelry box, and the fountain pen with my eyes closed.
My vision was blurry. My unfocused eyes wandered aimlessly. The dim dawn light seeped in through the window.
The faint sunlight crept up onto the bed, illuminating the strands of hair on my chest. The surreal pink hair softly cascaded.
As I shook the bright and delicate hair in front of me like a pink rose, a delusion of floral scent engulfed me. I was literally dizzy.
Your hair is pink. But my hair is black.
Oh, right. This is Ariel Ballienor’s hair.
I’ve really possessed a character from a novel. And to top it off, I’ve possessed the eldest daughter of the doomed Black Veil family.
…Damn it.
Why, of all things, the eldest daughter? Is this insane?
<Rescuing a Cat Leads to Obsession>.
Just by hearing the title, the intentions of this work are clear. A suitable villain. A suitable cider. A suitable romance. This novel, with its three essentials, has achieved moderate success.
The content of the novel is extremely pain .
Richard, the fallen prince of the Eldrian Empire, is abandoned in the form of a cat, wounded.
The female lead wholeheartedly treats the cat that collapsed against the wall of her house. The cat, after recovering, transforms into a human and falls in love with the female lead.
However, unfortunately, the female lead is engaged to someone else. Ariel’s younger brother, Jeremiah Ballienor.
Jeremiah, a character with twisted affections, stops at nothing to have the female lead. He kidnaps her and imprisons her in the Marquis’s mansion.
“If you don’t belong to me, I’ll kill everyone. Parents, friends, territory, whatever you want. As you know, the Ballienors have the power to destroy everything you love in an instant.”
“You madman. Just kill me.”
“Sorry, I can’t kill you. Instead, I’ll kill Richard in front of your eyes.”
In the end, to protect the family, the territory, and Richard, the female lead becomes the Marquis Ballienor.
Richard rebels to save the female lead. Honestly, this process messed up the coherence, but readers unanimously supported Richard.
The reason was simple. They wanted to see the crazy psychopath fail.
Easily becoming the emperor, Richard eradicates the Ballienors. In justifying his punishment, he exposes the misdeeds of the Ballienors to the entire empire.
Originally, the image of the Ballienors was not good. If the empire represented light, it was common sense that villainess was the Ballienors.
“If you keep crying, you’ll be taken by the Ballienors.”
“A group of darkness led by the Ballienors causing incidents and accidents in the empire.”
“It was said that no one knew what they were doing behind the scenes. Since everyone who knew died.”
Most of the rumours turned out to be true, and the Ballienors were erased from history.
And the female lead and the male lead lived happily ever after! And the novel ends.
…Life sucks.
Why is my life like this? Why can’t I be happy?
Why did I have to possess the role of an antagonist’s elder sister!
If I were the protagonist of a romance novel, isn’t this a survival story? Surviving in a doomed family. Something like that.
If I remember correctly, Ariel is probably around sixteen now. So, there are still nine years left until the original story begins.
Fortunately, when I become an adult, I’ll find a way to escape somehow. Is a contractual marriage the safest option after all? Or perhaps seeking asylum?
As I was tearing my hair out over my hopeless life plan, I heard a noise from outside.
“Ariel?”
“She hasn’t woken up in the last 10 minutes.”
“How is she?”
“Her breathing, pulse, and temperature are all normal.”
“Let me go in and see.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Upon hearing that the duke was approaching, I adjusted my posture, lay down, and pretended to be asleep.
A shiver ran down my spine at the imposing presence emanating from Ariel’s father, Duke Metterio.
Sitting on a chair next to the bed, his gaze bore into me. I couldn’t even breathe loudly.
“She’s breathing.”
His voice was colder than a blade, causing my breath to catch in my throat.
Although the underlying meaning was ‘it’s fortunate she’s breathing,’ the tone was closer to ‘I could make sure she stops breathing.’
It was no surprise as the original duke was a ruthless and heartless man, shedding no blood or tears, showing no exceptions even for his children.
Meterio Ballienor.
Although deceased in the original timeline, he wielded significant influence in the work despite not making a direct appearance.
“Your Grace, you must become a dignified ruler like the late Metterio.”
“Sigh… If it were Meterio, he wouldn’t have left room for such trivial matters. Jeremiah, you’re too lenient.”
Among the Ballienors of the past, he was the most true to the Ballienor name. That was the evaluation of Meterio.
In short, he was the most psychopathic of them all.
Ariel’s memory of her father matched the description from the original work.
A cruel and ruthless father. He never once showed any affection to his children.
Realizing that I was in the presence of the ultimate villain from the original, my whole body froze.
It was somewhat relieving that the ruthless villain didn’t seem intent on killing me right at that moment.
But what if he suddenly changed his mind?
He could decide to kill me to make me regret coming back to life.
My chilling imagination kicked in. It would be futile to fight back with Ariel’s fragile body; the best option would be to strike first and make a run for it.
Amidst my heightened sensitivity to even the slightest noise, an unbelievable sound pierced my ears.
“Huh”
…?
“Huh huh huh .”
…What did I just hear?
Unintentionally, my eyes widened. G-groan? G-groan? I must have misheard.
“Fortunately… I’m alive. G-groan.”
…?
I stared blankly at the man in front of me, holding my breath for real.
He had silver hair that seemed to be made of mercury, a beautiful and toxic-looking man, wiping away tears and snot with both hands as he sobbed.
“Dar… darling, you protected Ariel, right? That’s what you did… huu… hiccups.”
…
Excuse me, are you Mr. Meterio Ballienor?
Why is my father, who usually sees family matters like a rock, suddenly acting like this?
I watched the crying man with an even more puzzled expression. I felt like bursting into laughter out of sheer disbelief.
People in this world say that the ultimate villain is sobbing on the bedsheet while wiping his nose.
Ha ha. Is this for real? This is more surreal than possession, isn’t it?
“Sob, sniff, huu… hng?”
The Duke, who had been sobbing with his shoulders shaking, suddenly seemed to sense my gaze and quickly raised his head.
His dry, stone-like gray eyes trembled slightly. His pale face cooled down like ice.
“…”
“…”
The Duke and I exchanged dumbfounded looks. It seemed like we both wanted to believe that this was all just a dream.
What should we do now? Should I pretend to go back to sleep?
…Yes, that might be better.
I slowly crawled back under the blanket at a pace as slow as a sloth.
Seizing the opportunity, the Duke quickly composed his face and attire and solemnly said,
“Nothing happened.”
“…”
“Nothing…”
A single drop of snot dripping from the Duke’s straight nose caught my attention.
Instinctively, I found a handkerchief and handed it to the Duke. It was like a cursed daughter’s instinct.
“Use this to wipe.”
“Nothing happened. Hiccups.”
…Ah, okay.
Don’t drink the snot, and, hmph, do it.
The Duke obediently blew his nose. Before he could repeat “nothing happened” again, I quickly intervened.
“Phew, now everything makes sense. The Duke wouldn’t have come all the way here to see a humble person like me. I should go back to sleep.”
Great, a perfect performance.
I closed my eyes tightly under the blanket, adding soft breathing sounds as if I had fallen asleep.
Not long after waiting for the Duke to leave, understanding the deep intentions of the cunning daughter, the Duke disappeared from the room in an instant.
Click, thud-
…
What was that just now? What did I see?
The tearful sight of Meterio, the ruthless villain, flashed before my eyes like an illusion.
It seemed more reasonable to think that the recent events were a combination of hallucination and auditory hallucination.
Even in a fantasy world, a villain doesn’t shed tears, let alone snot, right?
Someone with a problem in the prefrontal cortex crying “huu” like that?
I wrapped my head in a cloth and rolled on the bed. Before I knew it, the warm morning sunlight covered the bed like a blanket. A wave of irresistible drowsiness swept over me.
Hoping to return to my original body when I opened my eyes again, I closed them with a swoosh.
