Chapter 01

Has someone ever said that life is just getting blindsided by a brand-new disaster every single day?

I couldn’t agree more.

A year ago, I was doing what I always did—cooped up in my room, killing time by reading a novel until I fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes the next morning, the first thing I saw was scenery straight out of medieval Europe.

I was lying in a plush bed that looked completely out of place compared to my gloomy little room, which had been filled with nothing but old, secondhand furniture.

You think that lacks context?

Well, isn’t that how life usually works? Most things happen without any warning or explanation.

Anyway, despite the absurdity of the situation, I calmly got out of bed and searched every corner of the room.

Then a lightbulb suddenly went off in my head.

After over ten years of reading romance fantasy novels, my instincts screamed the answer at me.

I’d transmigrated into a novel.

Me? Transmigrating…?

I’d read hundreds of romance fantasy stories, but I never imagined I’d actually become one of those protagonists.

“…Huh? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Just recently, I’d finally escaped my abusive family, earned a scholarship through my own efforts, and started attending college.

A kind-hearted twenty-three-year-old who had become the head of the household.

Want to know who I am?

The soul remained the same, even if I suddenly transmigrated!

The truth is always singular!

I’m Cha Miso—

…Yeah, right.

Instead, I’d somehow become a four-year-old child in a bizarre world.

Am I in some kind of hidden-camera prank?!

* * *

While I spent my time denying reality…

An entire year passed.

How does any of this make sense?

Even as I stubbornly refused to accept this ridiculous situation, I gathered information bit by bit.

Eventually, I uncovered a horrifying truth.

This world was…

No.

To be precise, it was the setting of my favorite novel.

<I Thought I Was Adopted, But It Was All a Misunderstanding!>

How did I know?

Honestly, I wish I didn’t.

But I’d reread that novel dozens of times.

There was no way I could mistake it.

The descriptions, the scenery, every line that had been burned into my memory…

And the dragon ornaments decorating every corner of the mansion, along with the dragon-shaped family crest, erased any lingering doubts.

The biggest giveaway, however…

…was the family’s name.

Etam.

Why would I remember such an ordinary name?

First, because the entire novel took place here.

Second…

Because the Etam family was infamous for committing some of the cruelest and most deranged acts in the story.

Would it help if I told you this was technically a childcare novel…

…rated for readers seventeen and older?

<I Thought I Was Adopted, But It Was All a Misunderstanding!>, commonly shortened to , followed the heroine, who had lived in hiding with her mother.

After her mother died and she was drowning in despair, a duke suddenly appeared before her.

“I’ve finally found you. I’ve been searching for you all this time.”

He brought her back to the ducal estate and treasured her like the most precious thing in the world.

The only problem…

The heroine mistakenly believed she’d been adopted by accident.

Convinced that she didn’t truly belong there, she secretly prepared to leave the family.

When the duke’s household realized what she was planning…

They practically lost their minds trying to stop her.

Like every romance fantasy heroine, she was endlessly bright and gentle.

Watching her quietly prepare to leave without resentment broke readers’ hearts.

But that wasn’t all.

The Etam family also hid a tragic secret.

As descendants of dragons, every member of the family was born with extraordinary physical strength, regenerative abilities, and heightened senses far beyond those of ordinary humans.

Naturally, such tremendous power came with a price.

Every Etam suffered from an incurable condition known as Berserk, where their magical power ran wild and filled them with murderous impulses.

The purer their dragon blood…

…the worse the Berserk episodes became.

And the heroine possessed an extraordinary gift.

She alone could calm those berserk fits.

Imagine it.

A warm, sunshine-like heroine entering a cold, broken family…

while also possessing the very power needed to save them from their greatest curse.

How could they not adore her?

That’s why was filled with every feel-good trope imaginable.

Mistaken identity.

Found family.

Childcare.

Life reversal.

An overpowered heroine.

A healing story that left readers smiling.

…Well.

Until it eventually transformed into a reverse harem political drama.

The less said about that, the better.

Still…

I absolutely loved the heroine.

Unlike me, she was loved by everyone.

She was more than enough to make me completely emotionally invested in the novel.

Unfortunately…

I wasn’t the heroine.

If you insisted on asking what role I’d been given…

I was an extra.

An illegitimate child.

And everyone knows what happens to half-baked extras in stories like this.

They’re disposable.

The Etam family had been founded by Betad Etam, a man who had forged a contract with a Black Dragon by drinking its blood.

People called them…

The Dragon Family.

Just like dragons, they rarely produced offspring.

Every descendant was precious.

As for me?

I was supposedly the illegitimate daughter of one of the family’s collateral branches.

…At least, that’s what everyone believed.

In reality, I was almost certainly unrelated by blood.

The man everyone thought was my father…

Was complete trash.

I have no idea how he ended up bringing me here…

Alcohol.

Drugs.

Women.

There wasn’t a single vice he hadn’t indulged in.

Even the Etam family—who almost never abandoned their own relatives—had finally cut him off in disgust.

The only reason I was allowed to stay…

…was because I was still young, knew nothing, and children of the Etam bloodline were incredibly rare.

Except…

I was fake.

How did I know?

First…

I wasn’t an ordinary human.

Second…

I was actually a lizard beastkin.

In the novel, I existed for only one purpose.

To demonstrate just how merciless the Etam family could be.

Every New Year, the entire family gathered for an important meeting.

During that meeting…

I accidentally transformed into a lizard.

That incident led to a bloodline test.

Before the test results could even come back, I caused another incident and was thrown out of the house.

Though honestly…

The results were obvious from the beginning.

Still, that wasn’t the important part.

The important part was that…

I was destined to be kicked out no matter what.

…I’m only five years old.

How am I supposed to survive outside?

Just thinking about it filled me with anxiety.

Why?

Because…

Tomorrow was that fateful day.

Still!

Who was I?

A die-hard fan of !

A veteran romance fantasy reader!

So over the past year, I’d tried my best to follow every trick I’d learned from countless childcare transmigration novels.

I wanted to earn favor with the ducal family.

Warn them about future dangers.

Save characters destined to die.

Expose spies.

The problem was…

I never met them.

Not the duke.

Not even the members of his household.

I never got a single chance.

Come to think of it…

Every transmigration novel I’d read had focused on the protagonist.

From everyone else’s perspective…

The original heroine was simply living in another story.

“Oh my, Miss. Why are you sitting out here? It’s cold.”

My maid, Myla, hurried toward me, her light brown hair fluttering behind her as I sat alone on a bench in the garden, reflecting on the past year.

“Mmm… life’s… too hawd…”

“Huh? Pfft.”

She giggled.

“Oh dear, what could possibly be making our little lady so troubled?”

“Tomorrow… I’ll be fi’ years old…”

“Oh, that’s right! You’ll be turning five. I suppose growing another year older has made you emotional?”

Emotional?

No.

Terrified.

It felt like my heart might burst.

My tiny, precious life was hanging by a thread.

“Poor thing. What can I do to cheer you up?”

Smiling warmly, Myla gently stroked my cheek.

In this miserable life in a strange world…

She was the best thing I’d been given.

Of course…

She hadn’t always been kind.

At first, it had felt more like she was only taking care of me because her conscience wouldn’t let her ignore a child.

So…

I’d worked hard too.

“Myla! Eat dis berry! Your head won’t hurt anymore!”

When she’d been sick but couldn’t afford a doctor, I used the knowledge I’d gained before transmigrating as a pharmacy student and amateur botanist to identify medicinal herbs.

“Myla! Don’t go anywhere tomorrow! And definitely don’t go to da temple!”

Using knowledge from the novel, I’d prevented her from being caught in a mysterious terrorist attack that would later occur at the capital’s temple.

“Myla! Dis is my present for you! It’s shiny! Pretty, right?”

I even gave her a tiny gold nugget.

Originally, the heroine was supposed to discover it and use it to earn the duke’s affection.

The nugget was so small that it wouldn’t have sold for much.

To the duke, it would have been practically worthless.

Yet that scene had become one of the novel’s most beloved moments.

“Did you know, Your Grace? People like shiny things! You always look so sad… so I wanted this to make you smile too.”

Readers had cried their eyes out.

…Me included.

Of course…

There was no way I could say something that pure.

Giving it to Myla had been the closest I could manage.

I’m not the heroine.

Still…

Thanks to all those tearful efforts…

Myla had become someone firmly on my side.

Though that’ll all end tomorrow.

For an entire year, I’d kept telling myself,

Tomorrow.

I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

There’s still plenty of time.

In other words…

I’d been running away.

And now…

I was about to be kicked out with not a single coin to my name.

No matter how loyal Myla was, she wasn’t going to abandon her job and leave with me.

I guess I’ll have to find a new place to live… like in all those other novels.

The thought made me sigh.

“Oh! That’s right!”

Myla suddenly clapped her hands.

“How about hot chocolate with marshmallows for today’s snack? I had to visit the main mansion earlier, so I managed to get some cocoa powder and marshmallows.”

“Myshmellows?! Yay!”

This was the perfect chance to replenish my rapidly declining sugar levels.

I wonder what hot chocolate with marshmallows tastes like…

I’d always wanted to try it in my previous life.

But my two older brothers always ate everything before it was ever my turn.

Later, we simply stopped buying hot chocolate altogether.

As an adult, I could’ve bought it myself.

I just never bothered.

Is this your farewell gift to me?

My wonderful maid…

“Myla… even if I’m gone… live well…”

My year’s worth of effort…

“Huh? Why would you be gone?”

She blinked in confusion.

“I’ll always stay by your side. I even requested to keep serving Lady Eirin this year.”

“…Really?”

“Of course. Unless someone else volunteers, I’ll continue looking after you.”

“Mm… thank you…”

But…

Your workplace probably won’t exist after tomorrow.

It was a shame to lose everything I’d worked for.

Still…

I couldn’t ask her to throw away her own life because of me.

“I’ll bring your hot chocolate right away. Please wait.”

“Mhm.”

I nodded obediently.

If I wanted to survive—even if it meant ending up in an orphanage—I needed to eat while I still could.

Come to think of it…

Wasn’t there a pretty decent orphanage somewhere…?

It was run by a retired hero from the Holy Demon War.

Why can’t I remember where it was?

That was strange.

I’d read the novel so many times.

There should’ve been a list of orphanages in the library.

I should go check.

As I turned my head, my reflection appeared in a nearby mirror.

By the way…

I’m ridiculously cute.

I lightly touched the mirror.

Definitely nothing like my old appearance.

Compared to the breathtakingly beautiful members of the Etam family, I didn’t particularly stand out…

But objectively speaking…

My pastel pink hair…

My soft, chubby white cheeks…

And my honey-gold eyes…

Made me undeniably adorable.

I was smaller than most children my age, with short little limbs and a tiny frame.

Still…

I liked how I looked.

But what’s the point of being cute…

If I’m just going to be thrown out without accomplishing anything?

I’d entered my favorite novel…

Only to discover there was nothing I could change.

A novel is still just a novel.

As I absentmindedly stretched my squishy cheeks in frustration…

Myla returned.

I dutifully drank my hot chocolate, then pretended to take a nap.

The moment she left the room…

I quietly slipped outside.

First things first…

Let’s gather information about my future home.

What I didn’t know then…

Was that I was about to run into one of the Top Five People I Absolutely Must Never Meet in <I Thought I Was Adopted, But It Was All a Misunderstanding!>.