Thud.
The black spear, crafted from dark magic, pierced my heart with lethal precision.
The force of the impact caused dark red blood to surge from my throat.
‘Ah, so this is how I die.’
I had possessed a character destined for a gruesome end, and I had struggled with all my might to avoid that fate, yet here I was, meeting an end where I died in place of the man I loved.
“Theor…… run…….”
My mouth was so full of blood that the words barely came out.
My breathing grew rapid, and my vision dimmed.
Yet, even in that state, the sound of Periose unnie screaming my name cut through the air with strange clarity.
“Ellie! Pull yourself together! Ellie! No!”
‘Unnie…….’
Back when I first possessed this body, my only plan had been to seduce the woman who was meant to kill me, just so I could enjoy a peaceful life without a gruesome ending.
Throughout my time reading the original work, the charismatic, complex villainess, Lady Periose, had been my absolute favorite. I had intended to get close to her, avoid my death, and spend my days happily by my favorite character’s side.
‘And yet…… how did it end up like this?’
Perhaps it was because I had fallen in love with a man I never expected to.
Theor.
At first, I was drawn to him because he was the only other existence with an affinity for darkness, much like my own dark magic.
Just as dark magic was shunned as evil in the world I came from, it was rejected here too, labeled as a foul power standing in opposition to the light.
It was only that commonality that drew my heart to him, but before I knew it, I had fallen in love.
I let my blurry vision take in my tear-streaked favorite, Periose unnie, and Theor, who stared at me with a face frozen in shock.
‘In the end, I couldn’t even protect my favorite or the person I wanted to keep safe…… is this how it all ends?’
As my consciousness slowly sank into a dark abyss, I prayed one last, desperate prayer.
‘Please, let it end with me. Unnie, Theor…… please, let no one else die…….’
And then, every light in my world vanished completely.
At that moment, my world should have surely ended.
* * *
I possessed a body.
I was currently inside the novel I had read before I died: *Caroline’s Lover*.
*Smack!*
With a stinging pain that snapped me back to reality, stars exploded before my eyes.
Before I could even be confused, my head turned to the side, and the scene that filled my sight was completely foreign.
People adorned in fancy dresses, over-the-top suits resembling tuxedos, and sparkling jewelry.
They all stared in my direction with young, fresh faces, either just reaching adulthood or not yet there.
Then.
“Do you honestly think a mere daughter of a Baron has the right to stand in my way?”
A voice, cool yet elegant and strangely mesmerizing, echoed in my ears.
Instinctively, I turned my head, and what filled my vision was a woman with dazzling red hair and eyes like rubies.
‘……Huh?’
Even though it was a face I was seeing for the first time, it felt so familiar that I couldn’t tear my gaze away. Then, another woman’s voice reached me from the side.
“Please stop, Lady Periose!”
It was a woman with crystal-clear emerald eyes and hair as white as snow.
‘Huh?’
This woman, too, felt familiar despite never having seen her before.
I racked my brain to quickly grasp the situation.
‘Familiar looks. Strange clothes and surroundings. And Lady Periose…… Gasp!’
At that moment, my eyes widened until they nearly popped out.
‘Are you kidding me! Who did I just see? No, my goodness! Did I actually meet the real-life version of my favorite, Lady Periose?!’
My heart was thumping so hard I thought it might explode.
“Uwooooooh!”
A sound that wasn’t quite a cheer or a scream burst from my lips.
Instantly, every gaze in the room turned toward me.
I realized exactly what was happening.
I was inside the novel *Caroline’s Lover*, which I had read before my death.
It had to be, because I had just died.
In truth, I had been the strongest dark mage in a country called Odelon.
Though I had lived an unfair life, pointed at and mocked because my magic used human souls as ingredients—a life that ended absurdly when I tripped on the stairs—I was definitely here now.
Just so there’s no misunderstanding, in the modern world, magic that uses human souls as ingredients doesn’t exist, nor should it.
My intro before possession would simply be: ‘I was born with dark magic and could use it, and since I was far more talented than the others, I was the one chosen to die as a representative.’
Regardless, it was certain I had possessed the novel *Caroline’s Lover*, which my roommate had recommended to me.
After all, the person who had just slapped me across the cheek was undoubtedly my favorite character from the book, the strongest villainess, Periose Mackenzie.
With skin like snow and hair that looked like living flames.
She was so cool and beautiful that I couldn’t help but be struck by the realization that such a person truly existed.
“Lady Caroline. Did you just tell me to stop? A Baron’s daughter, daring to speak to a daughter of a Duke?”
“That’s not it, it’s just… you were slapping my innocent friend, Ellinea!”
“Gasp……!”
At that, the faint scream-like exclamation that slipped from my lips drew everyone’s eyes to me again.
‘No, Ellinea! Why did I have to possess her of all people……!’
Ellinea Brensia.
A character who had met a gruesome end at the hands of an assassin sent by Periose in the early parts of the original work.
I strained my face to keep it from crumbling.
This novel was a romance fantasy where the only person born with light affinity, Caroline, saves the empire from monsters and villains alongside other ability users, while also falling in love, dealing with jealousy, and having a romance.
It was so popular in the dorms that everyone was talking about it, and I had eventually become hooked after my roommate’s recommendation.
Of course, not for the heroine, but for the villainess, Periose.
While everyone else was shouting, ‘Poor Caroline!’, I was the one shouting, ‘Villainess unnie is the best!’
So, the moment of seeing my favorite alive and breathing was enough for me to make that bizarre sound, “Uhuuuuugh!”
“Wh-what?”
“Ellinea, are you okay?!”
I wasn’t okay at all, but at the same time, I was.
To think I possessed a character killed by my favorite while my favorite was standing right in front of me.
It was a strange situation where I wanted to thank the god who sent me here, yet also felt the urge to curse.
“So, don’t go blocking my way as you please, young lady.”
Seeing the villainess standing there with her guard up, like a cat with its fur on end, I made a vow.
‘Let’s change the original plot.’
I’ll change the original story to avoid my gruesome death, fix the villainess’s tragic ending, and become her one and only best friend, meeting her every single day to laugh, chat, and play.
Having thought that far, my mouth acted before my brain could filter it, just as I used to do before I possessed this body.
I grabbed Periose’s hands and shouted.
“You’re my favorite, Periose unnie!”
Caroline possessed an attribute, and Theor, the Grand Duke of the North, was born with a dark attribute. The Crown Prince also possessed a light attribute, a secret known only to the Emperor and the late Empress, his mother.
The reason the Crown Prince’s light attribute was a secret was that in this world, the authority of the Imperial family was on par with the Great Temple that served the gods.
In any case, because of that, every noble had their own attribute, but…
“……Huh?! I don’t have one!”
I shouted before I could stop myself.
Damn it all, Ellinea Brensia had no attribute.
The Brensia family were commoners who had made a fortune in the shipping business and bought their viscount title with money.
Because of this, in a place where only nobles used attribute powers, I was often subjected to the pointing fingers and wary gazes of other nobles.
It was in this situation that the kind Caroline had shielded her, which was how they became friends.
I felt unnecessarily miserable at the fact that, of all people, I had possessed a character who would not only be killed by my favorite character but was also a mere human with no attribute powers at all.
But then, my eyes widened as I saw black magic—something I had tried to manifest without thinking—flowing from the fingers of this possessed body.
‘Wait! I can use black magic?!’
Inside the carriage, I tried to create a “Magic Hole,” a basic ability of black magic.
A Magic Hole is a defensive spell generated in front of the caster’s body that swallows attacks like a protective barrier.
While it seems quite useful because all attacks flying toward the caster are sucked into the hole, the problem is that this barrier only unfolds in front of the caster.
Because of that, it was a somewhat useless, shitty spell that couldn’t block attacks coming from the sides or behind at all.
*Hummmm—*
A black hole formed in front of me.
It really worked.
‘What is this? Then, I can survive just fine even without some attribute power, can’t I?’
……Probably.