chapter 1
The carriage rattled along a narrow hill road.
Inside, the faces of the young women dressed in black were gloomy and full of despair.
“Please don’t be so heartbroken. First, you have to stay alive,” the maid said, trying to comfort her mistress.
“W-Waaah...! I’d rather die than be exiled to a convent. My life is over, Stella.”
“But the Duke has become Emperor now. You can make a fresh start too, Miss. Once your father and mother arrive, they’ll surely find some solution.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t even want to live. Sob...”
Despite Stella’s attempts to console her, Kayla wept bitterly and rested her face on the maid’s shoulder.
“It’s alright. Everything will be alright.”
“Stella, what did I do so wrong? All I ever did was love him. Sob...”
Kayla seemed utterly unable to accept the fact that she had been cast aside by her husband. Holding her trembling mistress, Stella gently patted her shoulder. They looked less like a mistress and servant and more like a childish younger sister being comforted by an older one.
“What did I do so wrong?”
Stella replayed Kayla’s words in her mind.
The biggest mistake you made was falling head over heels for that heartless bastard. You were so blinded by love that you couldn’t see reality for what it was.
Kayla had devoted herself to a husband who never loved her. She had been nothing more than a figurehead duchess, despised by everyone, and now she had been discarded in the most miserable way possible. Yet she still didn’t understand why.
Even after being treated so cruelly, Kayla still hadn’t given up on him. Stella, who had watched everything from the sidelines, found it incredibly frustrating.
“Hide yourself away in a convent where I’ll never have to see you again. I don’t want to look at that disgusting face for as long as I live. I’d kill you right now if I wanted to, but sparing your life is the last mercy I’ll ever show you.”
The Duke had hurled those vicious words at his wife as she clung to his feet, begging. Then he shoved her away and turned his back on her coldly.
That had been the final conversation between husband and wife.
And it was the reason the two women were now being sent away to a convent.
Stella remembered the Duke’s eyes as he walked past her that day. His icy blue gaze was filled with hatred, disgust, and exhaustion. There wasn’t a trace of affection left.
There had been another woman standing there as well.
Not the duchess in name only.
The woman who truly belonged by his side.
The real mistress of the duchy whom everyone acknowledged.
Yelena.
Yelena was the only daughter of the Marquis Guineiro family, one of the most distinguished noble houses in the Akanis Empire. Her father was currently the Imperial Minister of Finance.
She watched the pitiful downfall of the duchess with sorrowful eyes. Yet, as though resigned to the fact that there was nothing she could do, she quietly followed after him.
That was the final scene Stella remembered from the ducal estate.
As Stella reflected on that day, a desperate scream suddenly came from outside the carriage.
“AAAH!”
The carriage lurched violently.
Something had clearly happened to the coachman.
Kayla, who had been sobbing moments before, looked at Stella with frightened eyes.
“Just a moment.”
Stella gently moved Kayla off her shoulder and opened the carriage window to see what was happening.
At that instant—
“Ah!”
What she had thought was a gust of wind turned out to be the tip of an arrow.
It grazed her cheek.
A sharp sting burned across her skin, and a small trickle of blood appeared.
“Stella!”
The sight of blood filled Kayla’s eyes with terror.
But something even worse followed.
The coachman, a sword embedded in his body, collapsed to the ground. At the same time, masked riders dressed in black galloped alongside the carriage.
Blades stabbed wildly through the carriage walls.
The two women huddled together and clung to each other in fear.
“They’re going to kill us!”
Kayla screamed.
For the first time, Stella herself went pale with fear.
The carriage, now running without a driver, crashed into a tree. The women were dragged outside by the bandits.
Before they could even understand what was happening, a cold command rang out.
“Kill them.”
“Please spare us! P-Please spare me, Ricardo!”
Even at that moment, Kayla called out her husband’s name.
A sword plunged deep into her body.
Blood spilled from her lips as she collapsed.
Watching Kayla die, Stella suddenly felt a sharp pain in her own back.
Ah... So this is how I die.
It’s unfair. This is so unfair.
As the blade pierced through her body, Stella instinctively knew she was dying.
Above her were blue skies and white clouds.
As her vision slowly blurred, she briefly saw someone’s face leaning over her, seemingly checking whether she was dead.
A deep sense of regret overwhelmed her.
Along with resentment toward the Duke—who had promised to spare them only to have them killed in the end.
Faces of people who had treated her kindly throughout her life floated through her mind.
And among them was the face of one man who had always been especially kind to her.
If only I had listened to him back then... would I have avoided such a miserable death?
Does he still remember me?
.
.
.
And then Stella’s world faded completely into darkness and silence.
Sniff.
It was the first time she had ever cried in her sleep.
Wiping the tears that had dampened her pillow, she slowly opened her eyes.
The room was pitch black.
She couldn’t see a thing.
What a strange dream.
She had dreamed that she became a character from the novel she had been reading before bed, even experiencing that character’s emotions.
And not Yelena, the Duke’s lover.
Not Kayla, the Duchess.
But Stella, the maid.
Even though she was awake, her chest still felt heavy, as if a stone were pressing down on it.
The web novel she had been reading before falling asleep was a medieval romance fantasy called The Unbroken Sword.
It was set in an imperial court overflowing with schemes and conspiracies, where bloody political struggles and battles were fought over the throne.
There was some romance mixed in too.
Normally, war stories and political dramas weren’t her preferred genres.
What had first caught her attention was the cover.
The male lead was exactly her type.
Ridiculously handsome.
Let’s see... Was this an R-rated novel?
She checked with anticipation.
Sure enough, it was.
Not because of steamy scenes, unfortunately, but because of all the graphic violence, bloodshed, and profanity.
Like many readers, she had secretly hoped for some romantic scenes eventually and started reading.
At first, it was simple curiosity.
Before long, she found herself completely absorbed.
I didn’t know I liked stories like this.
The novel had many characters.
The male lead and his loyal retainers.
The arrogant imperial family.
Greedy ministers.
And of course, the beautiful and kind female lead.
But strangely enough, she found herself emotionally attached to a character who barely mattered to the plot.
Stella, the duchess’s maid.
Though only a servant, Stella was intelligent, perceptive, and kind-hearted.
If she existed in real life, she would have been someone worth befriending.
The Duchess, meanwhile, was frustrating.
Ignored by her husband and everyone around her, constantly trying to bully the heroine only to make a fool of herself.
Yet Stella cared for that foolish duchess as though she were her own younger sister.
Sometimes it even felt like Stella would have made a better duchess.
At least then the Duke might not have hated her so much.
When Stella was finally given a chance to leave the ducal estate midway through the story, the reader desperately wanted her to take it.
Please go! Just leave!
But Stella refused.
She stayed by Kayla’s side until the very end.
It had been the most frustrating moment in the story.
Yet perhaps that was why she liked Stella even more.
Then, right before going to sleep last night, she had finally thrown the novel aside in frustration.
“Ugh, this is so annoying! What is this?!”
The exact scene she had just dreamed about—
The scene where Stella and Kayla met their miserable deaths.
The original story wasn’t even over yet.
But Stella’s death had instantly destroyed her interest.
Apparently she had identified with Stella far more than she realized.
To her, the protagonist she cared about was already dead.
She didn’t even want to see the ending anymore.
After all, Ricardo Zenkis, the male lead, would surely become Emperor, marry the beautiful heroine Yelena Guineiro, and live happily ever after.
Maybe that was why Stella’s emotions in the dream had felt so real.
Real enough to make her cry.
As she lay in bed thinking about the dream, the room gradually became visible in the faint moonlight.
Then she noticed something strange.
Her eyes widened.
It was a place she had never seen before.
What? Am I still dreaming?
She rubbed her eyes hard and looked around.
An unfamiliar room.
Unfamiliar curtains.
Unfamiliar furniture.
“Where am I?!”
Startled, she shot upright.
At that moment, something heavy crashed to the floor in the next room.
Thud.
Then came the sound of a window being forced open.
Creeeak— Clatter.
“What is this?! What’s going on?!”
She slapped her cheeks and pinched her arm.
This wasn’t a dream.
Determined to figure out what was happening, she ran toward the room next door.
There wasn’t even time to check a mirror—the obligatory moment in every reincarnation romance where the protagonist either gasps in horror or celebrates their new appearance.
Click.
The moment she cautiously opened the door, she had to cover her mouth in shock.
