Episode 1

Have you ever come to your senses one day and found yourself sitting on a mountain of debt?

And then spent your bright, green twenties doing nothing but working to pay that debt off?

I have.

I paid off all my debts, only to die in an instant just as I was about to start a new life. After dying, I even possessed the body of a villainess in a novel.

You might think I sound pitiful.

But this is simply a matter of bad luck.

However…….

Sudden Mission

‘Anastasia Solen’s weakness is hot things! Let’s splash hot water on her!’

Accept / Refuse

Every time a translucent window only I could see popped up, I did feel pitiful, if only for that moment.

* * *

My death was absurdly empty.

When the debt I had been paying off for ten years was finally cleared, I called the parents I had cut ties with.

I’d called to curse them out to my heart’s content, but I was so distracted by the ringing tone that I didn’t notice the car coming and got hit.

The sensation that my entire body had shattered, my breathing slowing down.

As my vision grew distant, I knew.

I was dead.

But for some reason, that wasn’t the end.

My darkened vision suddenly brightened, and my mind snapped awake as if someone had dragged me out from underwater.

‘What is this?’

Before I could even grasp the situation, my palm was struck by something.

“Kyaa!”

“Gasp, my palm!”

The feeling of my body breaking vanished, leaving only a sharp pain in my hand.

I immediately clutched my palm. It throbbed as if I’d been struck with a switch.

‘What the hell!’

Someone collapsed pitifully in front of me.

I was dumbfounded. After hitting my palm, she had beaten me to the punch and collapsed, which felt extremely detestable.

‘Anyone watching would think I hit her!’

Just as I was about to blurt out, Who the hell are you, hitting my palm and then pretending you were the one who got hit?

I saw the fallen person’s hair color and shut my mouth.

It was silver hair, the kind you only saw in movies, and on top of that, she was wearing a dress you didn’t see every day.

‘Wait, come to think of it, why am I here?’

Just a few seconds ago, I’d been hit by a car. Where on earth was this…….

“Lady Blair, what is the meaning of this?”

Amid my confusion, I heard a low, solemn voice.

When I turned my head, this time I saw some blond man—and a man dressed in a formal uniform, at that.

‘Wow……. Holy shit. This one has red eyes, too.’

At that natural crimson color that couldn’t possibly look like contact lenses, I was once again at a loss for words.

The man strode straight over to the fallen person.

“Anastasia, are you all right?”

“I am all right, Your Excellency. Please don’t concern yourself.”

Anastasia? Your Excellency?

Strange words, yet somehow familiar.

I didn’t need a mirror to know. I was wearing a stupid expression.

‘What on earth is this? Am I dreaming?’

If it wasn’t a dream, there was no way to explain this situation.

Just then, the man called Your Excellency looked back at me.

Cold, dry, dark-red eyes.

I’d spent years being tossed around in society. It wasn’t hard to tell that the look in his eyes was much like that of a superior looking at me like I was a bug.

I see. That man despises me.

‘No, more importantly, where is this? Who are you people?’

The man parted his lips.

“I won’t say much. Stop causing a disturbance and return home.”

Thanks to the man speaking as if this were my fault, indignation boiled up inside me.

No, I’m telling you, that woman hit my palm.

I knew it was rude to do this to someone I’d just met, but out of sheer injustice, I shot the woman an irritable glare. But my indignation melted away like snow when I saw her red cheek, swollen to the point of bursting.

‘Why……. Why is that woman’s face so swollen?’

My throbbing palm, the woman who had fallen, and the woman’s puffy cheek.

When I put those things together, there were two possible interpretations.

Either the woman had hit my palm with her cheek.

Or I had……. hit that woman, no, that lady…….

A shock came over me as if someone had smacked the back of my head.

‘I hit a woman I’d never met before……!’

It was truly shocking. My legs even started trembling.

What should I do? First, I needed to apologize…….

“Um, I’m sor…….”

“Lady Blair.”

But before my apology could come out properly, the blond man cut in. The way he had been going on with Lady this, Lady that since earlier didn’t make him seem sane.

“Can you not hear me? Return home.”

Unlike a moment ago, this time it sounded like a threat. As if he would do something to me if I didn’t leave.

Naturally, I was intimidated by that, and soon turned around and started walking.

A wide, splendid garden I had never seen before unfolded before me. Thanks to that, I understood this situation even less.

Where was this place, and who were they? I had definitely collapsed on asphalt, so why was I here?

Even worse, the more steps I took, the more my toes and heels hurt. The moment I glanced down without thinking, my face twisted.

Because I saw my body wearing a gorgeous dress and uncomfortable heels.

I stared unfamiliarity at my unusually pretty-looking hand, then touched my face with it. And my hair, while I was at it.

At that moment, things flashed through my mind like lightning.

Anastasia, Your Excellency, Lady Blair.

After turning them over a few times, I realized those weren’t words I’d never heard before.

They were, well…….

Words I’d heard—no, words that had appeared—in a novel I’d read someday.

“No way.”

Even as I muttered as if it were impossible, I quietly pulled the hair behind my back forward. It wasn’t black hair. It was a coral shade, reflected by the sun and looking especially vivid.

A color others would call coral.

In that instant, whether because the strength left my legs or because I wasn’t used to the shoes, I ended up falling flat on my face.

I heard someone shouting from behind me, but that wasn’t important right now. As if I had never fallen at all, I sprang to my feet, grabbed my long skirt, and hurried back with quick steps.

I saw the woman and the man looking surprised. If my guess wasn’t wrong, those two were…….

As soon as I approached the two of them, I opened my mouth without even taking a breath.

“Anastasia? Anastasia Solen?”

“H-huh?”

“And you are Aiden Burwords?”

“……It’s Budwords.”

“Oh my god!”

The moment I heard the man’s answer, I screamed and jumped into the air.

Because…….

A situation you’d only ever see in a novel was happening to me!

Overcome with joy that felt like my heart would burst, I grabbed Anastasia’s hands—her eyes wide like a rabbit’s—and spun around and around with her. The man beside us seemed to be babbling something, but I let it go in one ear and out the other.

The most important thing was that I had possessed someone inside a novel! Yes, if my guess wasn’t wrong, I’d been transmigrated.

Judging by how they kept calling me Lady Blair, it seemed I had probably possessed the villainess called the greatest madwoman in the history of the Kingdom of Conia…….

Who cares! I just have to get along with the heroine from now on, don’t I?

The heroine was none other than Anastasia Solen, standing right in front of me. Reminding myself of that anew, I stopped spinning and looked at her.

Though her hair was slightly disheveled from spinning around with me, she was beautiful, just as she had been described in the novel.

Especially her clear golden eyes.

“Re-Renee?”

With a confused face, she called the villainess’s name.

No. Not that.

From now on, that name was my name, so she was calling me.

Yes, that’s my name.

My heart swelled to a strange degree. Unable to control my excitement, I finally hugged her.

I felt Anastasia’s body stiffen completely in my arms. Normally, I would have pulled away right away, but I hoped she would let it slide just for today.

‘They say fortune comes after hardship, and they were right.’

But I didn’t know at the time.

That possessing a villainess wasn’t something to be purely happy about.

It was the very next day that I learned why Renee Blair had done such vicious things that she was called the greatest madwoman in history.