Chapter 01

My corpse had been carelessly discarded halfway up a mountain, as if I were food for wild beasts.

I realized this at dawn that day.

“Cough, cough, cough—! Khack—!”

The moment I felt a searing pain, as though the root of my tongue were burning away, a lump of blood surged up from my throat.

The ground beneath me was damp and cold. Without even thinking to wipe the blood from my lips, I stared blankly at the clotted blood spilled across the ground.

Sssssss—!

The black fallen leaves splattered with my blood began to melt with a revolting hiss, as though they had come into contact with hydrochloric acid.

It was proof that the blood flowing through my veins was a deadly poison.

In particular, when it came into contact with certain special compounds found in plants, it could produce an especially dangerous and potent reaction like that.

No wonder they treated me like a witch…

I mocked myself inwardly as I slowly pushed myself up.

At any rate, I was alive…

“…Ugh.”

My cracked voice scraped against my throat as it escaped.

Those bastards repaid my kindness with betrayal.

I looked toward the lights of Billot Village, which lay not far away.

“Evelyn, this is all for the sake of the village. Absolutely, absolutely not because we hate you…”

The village chief’s face flashed through my mind as he spouted that load of nonsense with such sincerity.

They took more of my herbs than anyone else, yet they were also the most eager to make me drink poison.

Billot Village was a tiny settlement at the southernmost tip of the Empire, so small it didn’t even appear on maps.

The people there had taken me in as an orphan and raised me. I had been grateful to them.

That was why I had willingly sacrificed my own body for their sake.

I had chewed and swallowed poisonous herbs until I reached my limit so I could have prophetic dreams and help them prepare for epidemics, droughts, and floods. I had even experimented on my own body, distinguishing poisonous plants from medicinal herbs and using them to make potions.

But what I got in return was the stigma of being a “witch” and a dose of poison.

They went and found some cheap poison I’d never even heard of…

Ptooey—!

I spat the blackened blood still lingering in my mouth in the direction of the village.

Those ignorant people had repaid my kindness with poison.

They probably had no idea.

The poisonous herbs I’d chewed and swallowed to help them had made my body resistant to poison.

And because they’d fed me poison and stopped my breathing once…

I remember everything now…

My memories from my previous life—and the fact that this world was the setting of a novel I’d read in that life.

I couldn’t afford to waste any more time here.

If they find out I’ve come back to life, they might burn me to death this time.

I had to get the hell out of here. Now.

First, I headed for the cabin I’d secretly built halfway up the mountain.

It was a laboratory where I researched medicinal and poisonous herbs, as well as a sort of secret base that the villagers didn’t even know existed.

I wondered if the musty air inside the cabin had ever felt as welcoming as it did today.

But I didn’t have time to say a proper goodbye to the cabin I’d grown so attached to. I hurriedly swept everything off the drawers and shelves, stuffing whatever I could into my bag.

They were medicinal and poisonous herbs I’d collected while roaming the mountains over the past several years.

Oh, I need to bring my research journal, too.

I crammed even the battered notebook—one I’d read and revised hundreds, if not thousands, of times—into a small backpack.

There was no time to hesitate any longer. I dashed out of the cabin and began making my way down the mountain. At the same time, I unfolded a mental map of the Empire.

First things first, I absolutely have to avoid the capital and the northern region of the Empire.

Those places belonged to the novel’s main characters. They were the stages on which their stories unfolded.

The capital and the North. The Imperial Family and the Grand Ducal House. The Crown Prince and the Saintess. The Saintess and the Northern Grand Duke.

Every major event, romance, betrayal, and political scheme took place there.

The East really does seem like the best option.

Crack, crack.

The dry leaves crumbled beneath my feet. I lightly leaped over protruding rocks and skillfully crossed the slippery dirt path with the practiced ease of an expert.

The instincts I’d developed from spending over a decade roaming the mountains like a wild animal in search of herbs had become even sharper after my brush with death.

I ran without hesitation until I was so out of breath that it felt like my lungs would burst. Then I’d lean against a tree trunk and catch my breath for a moment.

I’m heading for the eastern coast, where commerce is thriving.

I even considered selling the herbs I’d brought with me, securing passage on a ship, and leaving for an entirely different empire.

That’s right. I had knowledge of both medicinal herbs and poisonous plants.

I’m confident I can keep at least myself fed, no matter where I go.

I’m done with all of it.

Now that my memories had returned, I wasn’t going to ruin my body any further just to help other people.

Besides, those dreams I’d thought were prophetic visions had simply been memories of the original novel resurfacing.

Now that I remember the entire original story, there’s no reason to keep swallowing poison just to have prophetic dreams.

It’s all already in my head.

The future? Prophecy?

You can shove all of that where the sun doesn’t shine!

I’m just going to open an apothecary somewhere quiet and live peacefully until I grow old and die!

I pushed myself up again and ran like a madwoman toward the eastern forest, where darkness still lay thick.

Perhaps thanks to the potions I’d brought along and kept drinking, my body—which had once stopped breathing—was recovering at an astonishing rate.

How long had I been running?

The dawn mist grew dense, gradually blurring my vision.

That’s when it happened.

I heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance.

What? Don’t tell me the villagers are already here?

No. I shook my head.

They’re not the sort of people who’d climb the mountain at dawn just to check my corpse.

It would take them some time to realize I’d disappeared. Perhaps they’d be too afraid to climb that mountain and spend the rest of their lives without ever realizing I was gone.

Then who is it?

I quickly stopped running and crouched down.

I was used to situations like this. How many times had I wandered through the mountains in search of poisonous herbs only to come face-to-face with a wild beast?

Just as I’d done back then, I held my breath and concealed my presence.

A moment later, a black carriage appeared through the mist.

In front of it, a woman was kneeling with her head bowed. Men dressed entirely in black surrounded her.

Her dress, which must once have been gorgeous and beautiful, was covered in mud and spread wide across the incongruously filthy ground.

At that moment—

Shing—!

The cold sound of metal sliced through the dawn mist.

And then, thud.

Without even managing to scream properly, the woman’s head fell limply to the ground.

Y-you’ve got to be kidding me…!

I clamped both hands over my mouth, barely swallowing the scream threatening to burst through my teeth.

I slowly began to back away.

Quietly.

Careful not to step on the dry leaves beneath my feet, careful to let even the sound of my breathing disappear into the mist.

Just a little farther. Just a little farther, and—

Crack!

A dry branch snapped crisply beneath my foot.

Ah…

The heads of the black-masked men turned directly toward me.

“Get her!”

“Damn it—!”

I immediately spun around and ran in the opposite direction.

But—

Whoosh!

A sharp dagger flew through the air and embedded itself in the ground right in front of my feet.

“Ah!”

I stumbled over my own feet and tumbled to the ground, unable to escape. Before I even had time to feel the pain, dark shadows loomed over my fallen body.

“So we had a little rat hiding nearby.”

One of the men grabbed me by the hair and wrenched my head backward.

“Ugh!”

I groaned, grimacing in pain. Then I glared fiercely at the men.

“P-please, spare me! I really didn’t see anything! I swear!”

“Don’t give me that ridiculous—”

I knew, okay? I knew there was no way they’d buy that excuse.

But it’s better to say something than just lie here and die!

However, the eyes of the man examining my face widened slightly.

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

What? What did he see? I panted as I studied the sudden change in their demeanor.

The other men looked at my face, too, then exchanged strange glances between me and the woman’s body lying a short distance away.

“…She looks just like her.”

What? Who? Me? Who did I look like? Don’t tell me… that corpse?

I mean, sure, I was a corpse myself just a little while ago, but…

I stared at the men uneasily. I had no idea what they meant, but one thing was certain: this couldn’t possibly be a good sign.

They certainly don’t look like they’re going to let me live, do they?

A sudden wave of indignation welled up inside me. I’d barely survived being killed by the villagers, and now I was going to die all over again in a place like this…

If this was how it was going to be, they should’ve just left me dead in the first place!

I cursed the heavens. I clenched my teeth, then suddenly screamed at the top of my lungs.

“E-either let me live or just kill me already!”

The man’s eyes curved into thin slits.

“Quite the temper you’ve got.”

“Who in the world doesn’t have a temper?”

When I snapped back through gritted teeth, a few short chuckles escaped from among the men.

At that moment, the man holding me glanced at the bag slung over my shoulder and spoke.

“Were you an herb gatherer? How amusing. You’re working as an herb gatherer with a face exactly like that of the princess from Delmar.”

At those words, my shoulders flinched.

What…?

A princess… from Delmar?

Startled, I turned my head toward the woman who had gone cold.

T-that woman… She’s the Princess of Delmar?!

Princess Evelina Delmar.

A hostage sent to the Empire by the enemy kingdom of Delmar, a pawn in a political marriage meant to secure peace.

In the original novel, the Emperor bestowed that very princess upon the Grand Ducal House of Escar in the North.

She eventually did marry the Grand Duke, but…

Later, when the original female protagonist appeared, she was ultimately abandoned and took her own life.

A princess abandoned by her own country, then abandoned by the husband she’d relied on after being sent to an enemy nation.

Perhaps it was inevitable that a woman left with nowhere to go, and whose mind was no longer sound, would make such a choice.

No, more importantly…

She’s dead. Right now. Isn’t she…?

Before she’d even met the Grand Duke. Before she’d even married him. Before she’d been abandoned!

Why the hell is the princess, who is supposed to still be alive, lying over there?!

As I stared in confusion in the direction where the princess lay collapsed, the man gripping my hair looked down at me and said,

“Starting today, you’re the princess.”

“…What?”

What kind of bullshit was this supposed to be?

The man stared unpleasantly into my eyes and continued.

“You’re in luck. We won’t have to waste expensive mana stones to change your eye and hair color.”

Then, with his other hand, he pulled a small glass vial from inside his clothes.

Inside the transparent vial was a grotesque-looking, dark brown root that was wriggling ever so slightly.

“This is a poisonous herb. It’ll help ensure you don’t get any funny ideas.”

A poisonous herb? My eyes widened slightly as I looked at the root inside the vial.

Ordinary poisonous herbs shouldn’t be able to harm me.

But this wriggling plant was a species I’d never seen before.

Through the knowledge from my previous life and the experience I’d gained in this one by digging up and eating all kinds of plants, I instinctively knew.

That thing is dangerous…!

As I tried to move and escape again, the other men grabbed both my arms and forced me down.

“Let go of me!”

“Living as a princess for a while before you die shouldn’t be so bad, should it?”

“Why the hell do you get to deci—?! Mmph!”

The man twisted my jaw roughly in his grip. Then, as though he’d never had any interest in my opinion to begin with, he opened his mouth.

“Now, Your Highness.”

A nasty, mocking chuckle followed.

“Open wide.”