chapter 03
“― …Vincent! Dylan!
― …….
― Take me with you! Please? I was wrong about everything!
― …….
― Brother! Ethan, brother! I’m scared. Please don’t leave me alone! Someone save me… Aaaah—!”
“Gasp.”
I shot awake at someone’s sharp scream.
I had just had a very unpleasant, disgusting dream.
I suddenly possessed the villain of a novel, got beaten up nonstop, got trapped inside a gate, and those bastards didn’t save me. I died… and then opened my eyes again inside a coffin.
As I tried to recall the fading dream, the sunlight stabbing into my eyes made me shiver.
“What time is it? Work…!”
I hurriedly tried to sit up, but froze at the unfamiliar sight before me.
Instead of my tiny dorm room—with a single bed and a small desk—an enormous space spread out in front of me.
A huge bed big enough for three people. A lace-covered canopy. Flashy decorations everywhere.
Seeing it all, I felt like someone had poured cold water over my head.
“…Right. I really did possess someone.”
Ha…
I let out a deep sigh and rubbed my face.
I thought it was just a stupid dream, but everything was real.
Possessing the villain of a novel.
And waking up in her body right in the middle of her funeral.
‘Isn’t it usually the other way around?’
Normally, you die and possess someone who’s alive. Who possesses someone who already died?
As I thought that, I realized something was off.
‘Wait… did I die too?’
What happened to me right before I possessed this body flashed through my mind.
“― Hang in there, Dr. Yoo! We can’t both get dragged in and die like idiots, can we? Someone has to call for help.
― You’re smart. If you hide somewhere, you’ll be fine.”
The day after I finished reading that damned novel, a gate suddenly opened at the investigation site I was visiting.
The last thing I remembered was my biological father’s first adopted son abandoning me and running away.
‘…I probably died.’
If I had survived and been rescued, I wouldn’t be here.
That thought made my mood sink instantly.
“So a dead person was reborn in another dead person’s body? What is this, some kind of phase transition?”
Damn it. I don’t know.
I’d barely read any stories like this before, so I had no idea how this whole possession thing even worked.
More importantly, I had a seminar scheduled for next week.
I was finally going to announce the commercialization of Cure-1… and finally get back at my biological father!
“Don’t tell me Edith went into my body instead? No, that’s ridiculous. A fictional character doesn’t have a soul… Ha, I should’ve told Assistant Kim to make a backup. Damn it…!”
After clutching my head in frustration for a while, I finally looked around properly.
“…But where is this? The duke’s estate?”
But Edith didn’t die in the capital where the duke’s family lived.
I tried to recall the vague details of the novel I had skimmed through.
Click.
Suddenly, the door opened and someone walked in.
“M-My lady…?”
A woman in a maid’s uniform, carrying a basin, stared at me sitting upright.
Then—clatter!
“S-St-Butler! Doctor! L-Lady Edith has woken up!”
She dropped the basin and ran out of the room.
A short while later.
The once-empty room was crowded with people the maid had dragged in.
“My lady, please open your eyes wide. Good. Now open your mouth…”
An elderly man who seemed to be a physician examined me rather urgently.
It hurt a little, but I cooperated.
After all, this body had technically come back from the dead. I was curious too.
After taking my blood and a strand of my hair, the physician opened his medical bag without saying what he found.
‘What is this? A DNA test?’
To check if someone switched the corpse and I was pretending to be the duke’s daughter?
Well… the inside had been switched, so I felt slightly guilty.
‘But do they even have DNA testing here?’
My curiosity was interrupted.
“My lady, may I check your body for a moment?”
A young woman standing behind the physician approached, both hands glowing white.
‘…An awakened one?’
Without waiting for permission, she placed her hands on me.
“Ah.”
I frowned at the rudeness, but soon felt a strange energy spreading through me.
Warm light swept across my entire body, as if scanning it.
‘…A healing-type awakened.’
My body felt lighter. My head felt clearer.
‘Being born into a rich family really is nice.’
Even though I was born into a wealthy family myself, I had never once met a healing-type awakened. I gave a bitter smile.
‘Still… was Edith’s life better than my childhood?’
At least they were worried enough to call an expensive healer.
Most abilities manifested in offensive forms, so healing-types were extremely rare and could charge any price.
Since this novel borrowed a modern setting, it was probably similar here.
“That’s astonishing.”
The woman withdrew her hands and turned to the two men standing at a distance.
“There are no signs of internal or external injuries. This is truly… like a miracle.”
She spoke with surprise to the two men near the bed.
I had been glancing at them for a while.
A middle-aged man with platinum blond hair, just like Edith’s. And a young man with shining silver hair.
Even without introductions, I recognized them from the novel’s descriptions.
‘The biological father, the duke. And the adopted son he raised as heir instead of his daughter.’
Even after hearing that their daughter—or sister—had no injuries, their faces remained stiff.
They didn’t look happy at all.
‘Isn’t that too much? Your daughter came back from the dead….’
Though, in truth, she hadn’t come back. She was simply gone.
As I frowned slightly, the physician hurried over to the duke.
“There’s no trace of demonic energy detected, Your Grace!”
“….”
“No necrosis in the extremities. Her physical responses are normal. We can conclude there is no demonic corruption. Look!”
He handed over a glass bottle.
Inside, along with water, small goldfish swam calmly. My blood and hair floated within.
“As Miss Eston said, fortunately, the young lady seems perfectly fine.”
“….”
The duke barely glanced at the bottle.
I pouted slightly.
‘So not a DNA test. A demonic energy test?’
Makes sense. Of course they wouldn’t have genetic testing here.
It was a relief they weren’t suspecting me—but it was unpleasant in another way.
If someone was exposed to demonic energy—the black mist from the book—they would go mad and rot to death.
You didn’t need blood tests to tell. It was obvious from the outside.
Some parents would even donate their organs to save a child exposed to it.
Yet instead of celebrating their daughter’s revival, they were checking for corruption.
‘The way they treat her…’
I knew Edith was unwanted, but experiencing it directly felt different.
‘If I was going to possess someone, couldn’t it have been the heroine?!’
Why did I have to crawl into this world just to be treated like trash?
As I swallowed a sigh, the silver-haired man finally spoke.
“She was found inside a monster’s mouth. Is that even possible?”
“She was by Lady Luelin’s side before the incident. Perhaps she was affected by purification…”
“Then the declaration of death was your misdiagnosis.”
“M-Misdiagnosis?!”
The physician panicked.
“No, Young Master! I confirmed several times that the young lady was not breathing!”
“If it wasn’t a misdiagnosis, then how do you explain this?”
He gestured at me sitting on the bed.
Sweating, the physician replied,
“She must have suffered such a great shock that her heart temporarily stopped…”
“For over three days?”
The man scoffed coldly.
“Do you know what people outside are saying?”
“What…?”
“They’re saying the duke’s daughter was heavily exposed to demonic energy and came back as a monster.”
“Th-That’s…!”
“The nobles who attended the funeral are in an uproar, claiming they might have been exposed too. What should we announce? That it was cardiac arrest, but not a misdiagnosis? What nonsense…”
“Enough. That’s enough, Ethan.”
The duke stopped him.
“At least no demonic energy was detected. That is fortunate.”
“But Father, the imperial envoy has already been informed…”
“Edith Blake.”
The duke cut him off and suddenly called my name.
I lifted my head.
“Why did you take the purifier to the site where the gate appeared?”
“….”
“Do you know how many people were harmed because of you?”
I simply blinked.
I didn’t expect to be blamed the moment I woke up from the dead.
‘The purifier must be the heroine. So they’re in trouble because of the funeral attendees?’
And what am I supposed to do about that?
It wasn’t even me.
Even if it had been the real Edith, she couldn’t have predicted this.
“You have neither multiple lives nor any abilities. What made you commit such recklessness?”
“….”
“If the purifier had died, how would you have taken responsibility?!”
His anger kept rising until he suddenly frowned.
“…Why are you just staring blankly without answering?”
Because I have nothing to say.
But I couldn’t say that.
So I used the most basic cliché I knew.
“I’m sorry, but… who are you?”
