Your Majesty, I’m not that man – Volume 1

Prologue 

 

The hunger struck. She remembered not having eaten anything all day. It was because she had overslept and missed breakfast.

 

‘Convenience stores are expensive….’

 

Still, the taste of eating cup ramen here couldn’t be so sweet. She glanced at the convenience store she occasionally visited and headed there.

 

Buying cup ramen on the way back from work. That was the only reward Yoon-hwa gave herself. It was a reward she gave herself once or twice a month. She was poor, after all.

 

Today she worked really hard, and Yoon-hwa thought she deserved a reward. She went into the convenience store and chose cup ramen. It felt pathetic not being able to choose the expensive cup ramen she wanted even in this situation.

 

“It doesn’t matter. This one is tasty too….”

 

It was the same when she was in college. She had never even thought about buying expensive coffee to go from cafes. She managed her grades, worked part-time… she lived desperately. She thought she would graduate from college, get a job, and leave this place somehow. Why am I in this situation?

 

Yoon-hwa pushed away the depressing thoughts and paid for the cup ramen and triangular kimbap. Then she poured water into the cup ramen and waited at her seat. As expected, while waiting, she ended up looking at her phone.

 

“No messages. Did I fail again?”

 

As Yoon-hwa checked her empty mailbox on her phone, she let out a deep sigh. It had been a year and six months since she started job hunting and working part-time. There were limitations to part-time jobs she could do while looking for a job.

 

Still, if she missed this period, it would be difficult to find a job, so Yoon-hwa desperately submitted her resume and went for interviews.

 

“Oh dear….”

 

She checked the time on her phone and hurriedly opened the lid of the cup ramen. It was cooked perfectly. Yoon-hwa put the cold triangular kimbap into the cup ramen to warm it up.

 

It might be a matter of personal preference, but Yoon-hwa liked eating like this. This way, the hot ramen would cool down somewhat.

 

‘And…’

 

She opened the web novel she always read on her phone. It was a completed BL novel. She started reading it on a friend’s recommendation. The scene Yoon-hwa was currently reading was where Albert, who played the role of the male lead, said he would become a spy for the emperor to save his step-sister.

 

‘It’s a typical cliché.’

 

Albert had a one-sided love for Levinea, his stepsister and former fiancée. adopted son of Wendel family, Levinea’s family.

 

He was supposed to marry Levinea and bring her into the family, but due to being the only remaining child of duke, Levinea ended up being chosen as the emperor’s fiancée.

 

The emperor was a tyrant who held numerous concubines. Levinea didn’t want to marry him, so she asked Albert to run away with her.

 

Worried about the remaining family members, Albert hesitated, and Levinea ran away alone. She thought Albert would betray her and tell the duke.

 

After all, Albert is the child of the Duke’s lover, Hans the Chamberlain. He was a fake noble brought in as a distant relative to fulfill the lover’s wish. Feeling indebted to Levinea, Albert accepted the emperor’s mockery, “Will you become my concubine?”

 

It was to protect the escaped Levinea and the duke’s retainers, but ultimately, everyone except Levinea ended up dead.

 

In a typical BL novel fashion, the emperor eventually falls in love with Albert. Desperate for not obtaining Albert’s affection, he kills everyone in the duke’s household. Amidst this, Hans, Albert’s biological father, manages to escape.

 

Whether the duke truly loved Hans or not, amidst the chaos, Hans was the only one who escaped. Since he was just an old Chamberlain, the knights didn’t bother much about him.

 

Because Hans was alive, and Albert has finally come to accept the emperor’s heart.

 

“So what now? The duke’s household is all dead except for Hans.”

 

Even the child running errands had died. Levinea, who had escaped outside the empire, was still alive, but… What did that mean?

 

“Emperor, you trash.”

 

Despite knowing the plot until the ending, she continued reading because the scenes were quite engaging. The emperor initially denies his affection for Albert and tries to quench it by pursuing him.

 

Ding dong.

 

A bell attached to the convenience store door rang. A child about six years old, wearing a wool hat, held his mother’s hand as they entered.

 

‘It’s quite late for kids to be out.’

 

It seemed to be a household with both parents working. It felt like they were being brought home late from a house where they had been left because their mother was busy. Maybe it wasn’t their maternal grandmother’s or mother-in-law’s house?

 

The child’s mother bought a familiar hotteok and cooled it a bit before handing it to the child. The child ate the hotteok with relish.

 

T/N: Hotteok, sometimes called hoeddeok, is a type of filled pancake known as a popular street food in South Korea

 

‘It’s a good time.’

 

As she watched, Yoon-hwa also felt like having a hotteok. She had hesitated to buy something she wanted, like ramen, but seeing someone eat made it different. Yoon-hwa put down her chopsticks and approached the counter.

 

“I’ll have a hotteok too. The one he’s eating….”

 

At that moment, the light pierced through the convenience store’s glass window. A car rushed towards the convenience store through the window.

 

There was no time to think about what was happening. The child’s mother seemed to have gone to buy something necessary on the way back and was separated from the child. Yoon-hwa was the only one beside the child holding the hotteok.

 

Why did she do this? At the moment she should have run away, Yoon-hwa pushed the child hard. Because of that, she missed the timing to escape and was hit and knocked down by the car.

 

Terrifying pain crushed Yoon-hwa. Before she could scream in pain, her life ended. Her head was broken, and her spine twisted.

 

The pale-faced child’s mother screamed and grabbed the child. The child had only minor scratches from the glass fragments and was unharmed.

 

Blood and brain fluid poured from Yoon-hwa’s body lying under the car. The child’s mother covered the child’s eyes and looked at Yoon-hwa. Yoon-hwa’s eyes already had no pupil response. It was as if she had died instantly. Still, just in case, with trembling hands, the child’s mother brought her hand to Yoon-hwa’s nose and felt for a pulse.

 

There was no pulse. In this situation, she couldn’t even perform CPR. The child’s mother hugged the child with tears streaming down her face. Then, she took out her phone and called an ambulance.

 

“Thank you….”

 

When the car rushed through the window, the child’s mother had looked at the child. That’s when the mother also saw the child being pushed.

 

“Thank you.”

 

Repeating the words she couldn’t bring herself to say out loud due to guilt, the child’s mother cried. She didn’t notice that the child, held in her arms, quietly turned to look at Yoon-hwa.

 

There was a mysterious light in the child’s black and clear eyes.

 

* * *

 

The moment Yoon-hwa was hit by the car, she regretted it. The first thought that came to her mind was the lack of money for hospital bills. How much would the hospital bills be? The cost of surgery? What about the aftereffects? Would she be left disabled? She was scared that it would hurt too much, and she was afraid of the enormous costs and time required for surgery and rehabilitation.

 

What was I thinking, doing something like this? If I were truly remarkable, I would have held the child and leaped away from the spot.

 

Pushing the child was all Yoon-hwa did. She couldn’t even save her own life, how foolish. This way, she only ended up being a burden to her family. Yoon-hwa regretted this fact to the core of her bones.

 

In the fleeting moment of being hit by the car, she thought of all these things, and as she was crushed by the car, she realized it. Overwhelming fear rushed over her. Yoon-hwa realized at this moment that she was going to die.

 

This was the end of setting out with a body without any skill or awareness. She ended up losing her life in a situation she couldn’t handle.

 

‘Dying? Like this….’

 

When she was young, she studied with the determination to escape poverty. She worked hard, but even then, she couldn’t get scholarships because her grades weren’t good enough. She barely got into college, but it was all debt. Her parents couldn’t afford to support Yoon-hwa.

 

‘It’s unfair. I want to live too. I want to live happily!’

 

Yoon-hwa wasn’t a beloved child. She had an older brother above and a younger brother below. Yoon-hwa was always behind.

 

Someone’s backup. A presence to support her older brother and younger brother.

 

“You’ll end up getting married.”

 

Yoon-hwa’s mother said quietly, taking care of her older brother and younger brother more subtly. She gave more to the two who were already well-fed as Yoon-hwa’s share. So Yoon-hwa thought she wasn’t her parents’ real child.

 

That’s why she had moved out early. Even the money Yoon-hwa earned from her part-time job would go towards her older brother Yoonhyung’s tuition.

 

‘Yeah. Mom is right. I haven’t done anything.’

 

Before trying anything, before blooming, she lost. But it’s okay. Mom and Dad have two beloved sons. They never asked Yoon-hwa if she had ever eaten.

 

Yoon-hwa’s funeral expenses would be covered by the security deposit for the monthly rent. No, there might even be some money left over. Yoon-hwa’s heart felt bitter at the thought. Is this all my life amounted to? It felt so unfair.

 

Suddenly, as she was hit by the car, Yoon-hwa saw her phone falling to the ground. The screen was cracked, but the words of the web novel were still visible.

 

Why…?

 

If she had to die like this, she wished she could at least become a character in a book. Like countless protagonists in novels she had read before.

 

‘I know I’m not the protagonist of my own life! I’ve spent my whole life serving my older brother and younger brother! But still… But still, just once…’

 

The world was truly cruel and unpredictable. If she had known it would end like this, she wouldn’t have lived so aimlessly. She hadn’t even properly indulged in the things she wanted to do, like buying food and clothes… Even the things others took for granted, she hadn’t done properly. Why only me…?

 

【Is that your wish?】

 

Suddenly, a voice echoed in Yoon-hwa’s mind, boiling with anger. It was a clear and pure voice. Was it because she was dead? Yoon-hwa knew that voice didn’t belong to anyone in this world.

 

【I’ll grant your wish. You deserve it for what you’ve been through.】

 

Suddenly, Yoon-hwa’s whole body felt hot. She thought her body was getting feverish, but the heat transferred to her soul, not her body.

 

Her soul was enveloped in light and instantly sucked into the phone she had been looking at. More accurately, it was the world of that web novel.

 

Looking at Yoon-hwa’s empty body, God muttered to himself.

 

【Becoming the protagonist… I guess that’s what you want?】

 

What Yoon-hwa had in mind was not possessing the protagonist, but changing the plot by possessing people around the protagonist.

 

Even though the novel she was reading was BL, it didn’t matter. Albert eventually accepts Emperor’s love after enduring countless hardships. He didn’t love Kasion {Emperor}, the public, but merely accepted the situation.

 

【So changing the protagonist should be fine, right? After all, Albert only became unhappy after receiving Emperor’s love…】

 

The genre of the novel was changed from the dirty BL to romance fantasy. Transmigration stories often changed genres like this.

 

【And… memories too. It’s difficult to relive childhood with all the memories you have now.】

 

She would have to seal the memories of her past life until Levinea’s 23rd spring, when the original story begins. It was a tedious task, but she enjoyed it.

 

When God finished his work, the mysterious light disappeared from the eyes of the child who had been watching Yoon-hwa. The child’s eyes returned to their ordinary black pupils.

 

Children who still didn’t know the dirtiness of the world sometimes served as vessels for gods. Now was one of those times.

 

【You don’t need to remember this scene. Just remember that someone saved you.】

 

As God kissed the child’s forehead, the child’s eyes closed gently.

 

Meanwhile, firefighters had arrived, and some of them were entering the damaged convenience store. The child’s mother pointed to the convenience store employee who had collapsed behind the counter. The convenience store employee was still alive.

 

A small light, like a firefly, flew away from the child’s forehead and out of the convenience store. One of the firefighters, entering the store, briefly wondered what the light was, but soon forgot about it. Saving the living was the priority now.

 

* * *

 

A young girl descended from the bed and approached the window. Her soft silk nightgown fluttered around her legs.

 

Although her nanny was sleeping in the room, she seemed to be deeply asleep. Because she greatly appreciated her nanny, Levinea was careful not to wake her up.

 

‘It was a scary dream.’

 

The nanny had said it was okay to wake her up if she had a scary dream, but Levinea didn’t want to do that. It was because the dream was both frightening and terribly nostalgic.

 

‘It was a strange dream.’

 

A world where chunks of iron flew through the sky. A terrifying city where silent iron carriages roamed the streets. Levinea spent her days there, working hard. Then, she died a terrible death being hit by that carriage in her dream.

 

‘I’m lucky to have been born into the noble family.’

 

She was fortunate to have been born into the Wendel Ducal family. In the Empire of Adaloxus, there were eight noble families, but now there was only the Wendel Ducal family left.

 

This was because the current emperor had killed everyone with royal blood.

 

Kasion Anaise.

 

He was a 14-year-old emperor fittingly labeled as a tyrant. He killed the former emperor, Kyron Anaise, and ascended to the throne as a boy.

 

He was a bastard child of the former emperor, Kyas. Since Kyron was Kyas’s younger brother, Kasion was Kyron’s nephew.

 

This Kasion had extraordinary beauty, so Kyron couldn’t bring himself to kill him and instead made him a slave until he reached the age he desired. Then he kept him by his side as an object of ridicule.

 

When Kasion awakened as a transcendent being, he killed all the nobles who had mocked him, leaving only the Wendel family, who were not of royal blood, alive.

 

Wendel was a ducal family established by the emperor’s concubine. Therefore, even though they were nobles, they did not have the blood of Anaise. This was why Kasion spared Wendel.

 

Because they posed no threat to his imperial power.

 

Levinea pulled back the curtain slightly and looked out the window. It was a bright night with the moon shining. For some reason, it felt like there were small fireflies flying around in the night sky.

 

Levinea knelt by the window for a moment and prayed. To God. She prayed for the well-being of her family and for the suffering of all innocent people in the world to end.

 

【You never change…】

 

It seemed like someone’s satisfied voice could be heard. Levinea glanced around for a moment but found nothing. Only the nanny sleeping soundly with her snoring was visible.

 

Levinea put the curtain back to its original position and returned to bed. It was a leisurely night spent as the only daughter of a duke.