Since When Were You The Villain? - Chapter 1

Prologue

Episode 1

“Ah, I got caught.”

On a particularly beautiful night with a full moon.

The red eyes narrowed.

The silhouette revealed under the moonlight was black and secretive as if it had melted into the darkness. Nevertheless, its presence was more clear and intense than anything else.

It took my breath away.

I was trembling and eventually dropped the glass of water. But the glass of water fell into a hand in a black leather glove before it broke on the ground.

“You’ll wake people up. Sophie…?”

The corners of his lips rise gently. Even in the deep night, his red eyes shone exceptionally bright, like fireworks. But soon his gaze fell.

“It’s fine. My throat was burning.”

He brought the glass with his lip and drank the water I was holding.

The sound of him swallowing water echoed.

Suddenly, the glass was completely empty, and only a few drops of water on the cup glistened in the moonlight.

Very slowly, he placed the empty glass on the patio railing, all the while I stood there and did nothing.

Then it caught my eyes…

I covered my mouth with my hand and stared at his waist.

As if he had been cut by something, red blood was oozing over his torn white shirt. He was hurt.

Recognizing my gaze, he pulled on his black robe to hide his wounds.

The cold sweat on his white forehead gleamed faintly in the starlight.

His slow gaze touched me, who had turned white.

“Well, the doctor…!”

When I came to my senses late and tried to run to find a doctor, a strong force grabbed my wrist. It happened in an instant. My body was dragged by an irresistible force, and I bit my lips.

The familiar body scent and blood scent mixed together brushed the tip of my nose. The black hair passing by the wind tickled my cheek.

My heart was pounding as if to wake up the world.

Perhaps because of surprise, fear, or other emotions, my head was dizzy.

Slowly, he spoke.

“Forget what you saw tonight, Sophie.”

A low voice mixed with breath was carried by the wind. Gradually, the strength of his hand that held me escaped.

And

Even before I could hold him, he disappeared like smoke.

I rushed to the terrace railing and looked down, but all I could see was the dark moonlight.

However, the blood drop marks and the empty glass on the railing proved that what just happened was not a dream.

I fell down because my legs were weak.

A red mark rose on my wrist he held.

The rough heartbeat showed no signs of calming down.

“I… I… I was mistaken.”

I misunderstood.

Wasn’t it the male lead…

~*~

– When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling.

An excessively boring sentence, although that boring and common scene was real in front of my eyes.

That the same ‘event’ that I read thousands of times happened to me.

My only hobby was reading web novels.

Even in the midst of a hectic life, I collected a hundred or two hundred won and bought a moment’s happiness for several years with the belief that it could be a jackpot or a failure.

I immersed myself in almost all of the works regardless.

Therefore, when ‘the incident’, which I had read millions of times in the novels, happened, I felt a subtle excitement rather than fear.

Because what I imagined as I wandered through the typography every day actually happened!

‘Possessing a book’ that even feels like an old-fashioned relic.

‘Yes. If not a fan of its own, who else would possess the book?’

I laughed inwardly.

Maybe I was waiting for this moment.

A day to escape from the stuffy reality and live in a vast fictional world!

I couldn’t just lie down with my beating heart.

‘When the possessor opens his eyes, there is a certain task to be done.’

It is true that reading is food for the mind.

Thanks to the indirect experience I had accumulated while reading web novels, I was carrying the <Basic Manual of Book Possession> in my brain.

‘First of all, I need to know what novel this is and who I am…’

I got up from the bed and looked around.

‘Surely there’s something somewhere in the room, after all!’

As expected, there was an old mirror hanging on the wall next to the bed.

After all, if I am possessed by a book, I have an obligation to look in the mirror and admire my beautiful appearance.

I got up from bed to look in the mirror.

For a moment, my head was spinning and my eyes went dark.

My body staggered, but I skillfully leaned against the wall.

This, too, was as expected.

‘Since it was a possessed body, I knew it would be like this.’

Usually the possessed body is sickly or has just crossed the brink of death.

Even if it is not an incurable disease, orthostatic hypotension may be present.

I took a skillful deep breath and came to my senses.

Slowly, my vision cleared.

As I turned my gaze to the mirror, the figure of ‘I’ was gradually revealed.

In the mirror, there was a woman who looked to be about 20 years old.

Her light brown hair, green eyes, pale white skin, a long slender neck, blah blah blah blah…

To describe it, it was so beautiful that I got tired of describing it.

“It’s true.”

I have been facing the unreal being in the mirror for a long time.

As time passed, embarrassment crept across my flawless face.

‘Then… who are ‘you’?’

I really don’t know.

Who is the person I possessed? The ‘me’ in the mirror is pretty, but aren’t all the main characters in the original novel pretty?

Moreover, brown hair and green eyes are common regardless of the main or supporting roles.

I read hundreds of works in a month, so I can’t even remember exactly who’s appearance from which one.

‘As I can see, I’m not a venomous villain…’

A beautiful, gentle, yet modest appearance.

In this case, I can usually infer three roles.

First, the female lead. It’s not a flashy appearance, but it’s perfect for a good lead role.

Second, an extra. In the novel, even the extras are pretty.

Or third, a trivial villain, the role of pretending to be innocent and putting the main character in trouble.

I’ve possessed either one of the three…

‘How did the other possessors guess the book they possessed just by looking at their faces…?’

I needed more hints.

At least I need to find the name of ‘me’.

I turned my eyes away from the mirror and looked around.

The view of the old attic was seen through the belatedly widened field of view. Low and sloped ceilings, creaking bed without a canopy, a small desk and rudimentary wooden chairs, an old-smelling bookcase, and a low wardrobe that doubles as a dressing table.

‘Where did the gorgeous noble rooms used by the protagonists go…?’

It was indeed an unfavorable environment.

But I was not disappointed.

‘Yes, this kind of uncomfortable environment for the protagonist was like a set-up.’

I proudly put my hands on my waist.

I’m not in an orphanage with a bad director, a dark dungeon, or a cold palace, so I’d rather think I am lucky.

The original protagonist starts unhappy and has a happy ending.

‘Isn’t this the way to get a family, a castle, and an empire?’

It is impossible for the main character in the possession of a book to continue to rot in the attic.

Since I know all too well what the ending of most books is like, I didn’t have to worry.

A work with a bad ending is one in ten, no, even rarer than that.

‘Hmm, by the way, at this point, someone has to come in to give me basic information…’

In most novels, a maid would come in saying, ‘you’re awake, lady!’.

But the old-looking wooden door has been quiet since before. I don’t think a maid will come into this attic and say, ‘lady!’.

I tapped my fingers nervously.

‘Can’t wait!’

To wait for the next character without being sure, my patience was too hasty.

‘It’s foolish to just sit still and wait for the next part of the story to progress.’

Like a korean who attacks games with extreme efficiency, I began to actively collect information about ‘me’.

After searching all over the small attic, I found a diary in a desk drawer.

‘This is it!’

Could there be any better item than this to understand the situation? I saw the name written on the old leather cover of the diary.

[Sophia Frauss.]

It was my name.

And the letters with the family seal stamped in the middle of the diary.

[Count Frauss.]

‘Then I’m the young lady?’

I looked around again at the shabby attic, where the ceiling creaked with every wind.

Just as I was wondering if it was a fallen family, I heard a loud laugh outside the sunny window.

As I stretched out my head through the small window on one wall, I saw the garden of Count Frauss.

Unlike the old and shabby attic, the outside scenery was gorgeous and grand. The lawn was wide enough for horses to run on, and there was a fountain that made a rainbow with gazebos surrounded by flowers in full bloom. The family crest on the large front door of the mansion was clearly the same as that of the diary.

In other words, it meant that I was not in a position to live in another room.

‘I’m a young girl who has been left out of her own family…?’

Just like Cinderella.

It was a common setting for young children to be neglected by their family.

To be honest, how many female protagonists were loved and happy from the first episode?

‘And then everyone falls for them as well as the male lead.’

Predicting the unfathomable future, I picked up a diary.

At that moment, something fell from among the diary I had lifted.

‘A letter?’

I picked up several envelopes that had fallen on the old floor. All of the senders are ‘Sophia Frauss’.

It was a letter that ‘I’ had not yet sent.

‘Are these the letters ‘I’ was going to send to the same person?’

The recipient’s place of the letter all had the same name written there.

[To Duke Killian Viprons Rivelon.]

The moment I read that one line, a shiver ran through my body.

‘Killian?!’