✪ Chapter 2 ✪
In my previous life, I was a college student who worked three or four jobs to save my family from a mountain of debt.
To put it simply…
I failed.
While carrying bricks at a construction site, I fell and died in an accident.
It didn’t really hurt.
Rather than feeling like I was dying, it felt as if I was moving somewhere at incredible speed.
A fierce wind blew around me.
Just as I thought, ‘I’m about to hit the ground,’…
I felt something soft instead.
Strangely enough, it felt as if someone had caught me in their arms.
When I slowly opened my eyes…
“Rosé! You’re awake?!”
Someone was hugging me tightly while crying their eyes out.
Still dazed, I blinked and looked around.
A young girl was clinging to me and sobbing.
She had cotton-candy pink hair and fair skin that shined like sunlight.
She looked no older than thirteen or fourteen.
Confused, I froze.
Then I heard her name.
“You are…”
“It’s me, Elline!”
At that moment…
I realized where I was.
“You’re not hurt, are you? You recognize me, right?”
“You’re… Elline?”
“Yes! Elline! Your best friend in the whole world, Elline Ross!”
The only daughter of Baron Ross.
The heroine of the romance fantasy novel The Mage’s Way of Love that I had read.
“And… who am I?”
“You’re Rosé! Rosé Stein!”
…The heroine’s friend.
The supporting character.
“Right.”
“That’s me.”
‘Am I just everyone’s punching bag in this story?’
It felt as if the pages of the novel suddenly opened inside my mind.
Rosé’s entire life flashed before my eyes.
With every scene that passed, the corners of my mouth grew heavier.
By the time I reached the final chapter…
I wanted to pull my hair out.
“Rosé? I’m really Rosé Stein?”
“Rosé… What’s wrong? Did you hit your head…?”
“How old are the main characters when the original story begins…?”
The heroine, Elline, entered the Magic Tower as an earth mage when she turned twenty.
That was when she began her romance with the Crown Prince, Lucas.
In other words…
The real story hadn’t even started yet.
“This is insane!”
After counting the years left…
I screamed.
You’re telling me…
I have to stay here for another six years?!
Six years passed faster than I expected.
When I first woke up inside this novel, it was right after Rosé had fallen from a window.
Yes.
Rosé Stein from The Mage’s Way of Love was a rather gloomy girl.
Although she had been born into a wealthy Count’s family, her body was so weak that she couldn’t enjoy the luxurious life she had been given.
‘You must have suffered too.’
But becoming a villain…
Was still a choice.
Rosé had been sick ever since she was little.
And she dealt with her unhappiness in terrible ways.
For example…
She enjoyed watching other people suffer with her own eyes.
Whenever Baron and Baroness Ross brought their only daughter, Elline, to the Count’s estate under the excuse of making her “the only friend of the sickly Count’s daughter,”
Rosé was delighted.
She treated Elline like nothing more than a toy.
Despite Elline sincerely caring for her as a true friend…
Rosé bullied her in new ways every single day.
One day she refused to let her inside.
Another day she forced her to play with dolls.
And on bad days, she even blamed Elline for things she had never done.
Rosé hated Elline.
At the same time…
She envied everything Elline had.
Her healthy body.
Her cheerful personality.
Her lovely face.
She wanted more than that.
She wanted to control her.
That was why, at the age of twenty, Rosé even became engaged to the Crown Prince—the man Elline loved.
She was the perfect villain prepared to make the heroine suffer.
I was certain.
The reason I woke up while falling out of the window couldn’t have been any different.
Rosé had probably been trying to frame Elline again.
Still…
Compared to falling from the top of a construction building like I had in my previous life…
Falling from the second floor was almost laughable.
“What an awful girl.”
Meanwhile…
I had worked myself to death in my previous life.
“Hm? What did you say, Rosé?”
“Nothing.”
“I was just thinking you’ve been through a lot.”
From that day on…
I decided to be kind to Elline.
I wasn’t heartless enough to keep bullying such a kind girl just because the original story said so.
Fortunately…
Rosé was supposed to disappear from the story within a year after the original plot began.
I’d walk into the wedding hall with the male lead…
Walk right back out after the wedding was ruined…
And finally gain my freedom.
“I’m going to become independent.”
I’ll exercise.
I’ll get a job.
I’ll strengthen this weak body that could probably be blown away by the wind.
I’ll stop being a sheltered noble lady and find a proper career.
To do that…
I needed a little help from Elline.
‘Since we can’t avoid being together anyway, we might as well help each other.’
You’ll grow up without getting hurt.
And I’ll become stronger.
Let’s stay friends…
At least until then.
“Starting tomorrow, I won’t stay depressed anymore. I’ll wake up early every morning and exercise. I’ll eat three proper meals every day. Every afternoon, Elline and I will ride to the capital by carriage and attend the class called ‘101 Ways to Become the Charming Rose Who Captivates the Handsome Men of High Society.’ I’ll pay for Elline’s expenses too. Mother, Father… please allow it.”
“If we say no, you’ll go anyway, won’t you?”
“Yes.”
After everything Elline had endured because of Rosé’s bullying…
I felt responsible for giving her the best environment I could.
Skipping a few scenes where the heroine embarrassed herself in high society because she didn’t know proper etiquette wouldn’t change the story.
Those small incidents weren’t what moved the main plot forward.
This world existed to bring Elline and the male lead together.
A few embarrassing moments that happened before they even met weren’t important.
“I’m not much different.”
“Hm?”
“No one really cares what kind of life I’ll live when I grow up.”
In a world created for the main characters…
Only I could care about my own future.
It was still far away.
But according to the original story…
The Stein family would eventually lose everything.
‘Whether I bullied the heroine or not doesn’t really matter.’
Once the wedding was ruined…
The royal family would look for someone to blame.
Naturally, they would put the responsibility on the Stein family.
‘And the Crown Prince would probably want to keep my family as far away from Elline as possible so she wouldn’t be troubled.’
Still…
I couldn’t stop the ending from happening.
After all…
I was an important villain whose role was to bring the main couple together.
I just wanted to prepare a way to survive after the Stein family lost everything.
Even if Rosé deserved punishment for getting in the way of her friend’s love…
Her parents had done nothing wrong.
Maybe it was because…
Whether in my previous life or this one…
I never wanted my family to suffer.
‘If we end up homeless, I’ll just open my own magic workshop.’
As far as I was concerned…
The best way to support a family in this world was by becoming a mage.
Magic existed here.
And when in Rome…
Do as the Romans do.
Fortunately…
I had entered this world six whole years before the original story began.
There were no detailed settings or events for this period.
That meant…
For a while, I could do whatever I wanted.
Hidden in the parts of the story the author never wrote…
I received special lessons from Elline every single day while she prepared to join the Magic Tower as a management mage.
“So, which element do you want? Water? Fire? Wind? Earth? Let’s decide your goal first.”
“Any of them.”
“As long as I can make enough money to live.”
“Rosé, that’s not a real goal.”
“Then… enough fire magic to reheat cold tea if I work at a café?”
“What a weak dream. Just like your stamina.”
“Fine.”
“Then I’ll become someone who causes floods, earthquakes, and droughts.”
She taught me everything.
How to gather magical power into my hands as if creating something from nothing.
How mages thought.
How they used magic.
At that time, Elline was still just a beginner mage.
But one day…
She would become the strongest mage in the world.
“The key is imagination. Picture all the energy touching your skin, from the ground to the top of your head, gathering into one place. Simply put… imagine creating a huge natural disaster inside your mind.”
“A disaster?”
“Anything?”
“Yes! Anything! Now close your eyes, search for the source of the energy flowing inside your body, and ask yourself.”
“Who am I?”
‘You are—’
“…Huh?”
It was a moment I would never forget.
Just as a sharp ringing filled my ears…
The six years of effort finally paid off.
“…I think I can feel it.”
And so…
On the first day of spring, when I turned twenty…
I finally awakened as a mage.
“My goodness…”
“Congratulations, Rosé…”
Elline froze for a moment as a stream of water appeared before us.
Then she smiled brightly.
“It’s water magic! And you have a very broad spectrum!”
“Thank you, Elline.”
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“Then you should apply to the Magic Tower! The Security Department is currently recruiting water mages through a special hiring program.”
“…Huh?”
And just like that…
I found a job much faster than I expected.
Although…
Something felt like it had gone terribly wrong.
