Chapter : 1
Everyone has probably imagined at least once what it would be like to suddenly wake up in another world for no reason at all.
However, if such a thing actually happened, they would undoubtedly be filled with confusion and panic.
But Jang Hyo-joo, a sixth-year romance-fantasy writer who had produced numerous blockbuster works on various platforms, was different.
“Good heavens, is this a dream or reality?”
She hadn’t been hit by a truck, fallen down a flight of stairs, or lost her life to an illness. And yet, when she opened her eyes, she found herself in another world.
She had read thousands of novels and written dozens of them.
Hyo-joo instinctively realized that she had transmigrated into a novel—the very situation she had wished for so desperately.
The readers of this story would probably be making a huge fuss, asking where the logic and plausibility had gone, but Hyo-joo would never see those comments, so there was no need to worry about it. Let’s just move on.
“If it’s a dream, please don’t let me wake up forever. And if it’s reality, thank you.”
Hyo-joo clasped her hands together and offered a prayer of gratitude to whatever god might be somewhere up in the heavens.
Then, following the law of female protagonists in the usual regression, possession, and reincarnation stories, she walked over to a mirror to check her appearance.
‘Please let me be beautiful. Please let me be beautiful….’
Even if she didn’t have blonde hair and blue or emerald-colored eyes, being a beautiful character at least meant that she had been given some kind of role.
A background extra or an unnamed girl like Girl 1, 2, or 3 would not suit someone like herself, who was thoroughly steeped in lookism.
Thus, when Hyo-joo stood in front of the mirror and saw her reflection, she bit her lower lip tightly and screamed internally.
‘Hooray!!!!!’
She had thick, glossy brown hair, clear skin without a single blemish, and green eyes that reminded one of a forest. Her red lips, without even a trace of makeup, gave her a calm and graceful impression rather than a flashy one.
Since no particular character immediately came to mind when she looked at her appearance, this probably wasn’t a novel she had written herself.
This wasn’t bad at all.
She was a little lacking in beauty to be the heroine, but she looked far too kind to be the villainess.
With slightly drooping eyes and a puppy-like appearance, she couldn’t possibly be a villain. She was obviously going to be the heroine’s friend or helper.
“Of course. There’s no way a great author like me would transmigrate into some extra who has nothing to do with the story.”
There was always the possibility of twisting the readers’ expectations and making someone who looked kind turn out to be the mastermind behind everything, but Hyo-joo began praising her own incredible luck for ending up in such a decent body.
Moved by her own good fortune, Hyo-joo tilted her head this way and that and began analyzing herself once again.
“Am I about eighteen? Or maybe twenty?”
After muttering that, Hyo-joo turned away from the mirror and examined the condition of the room around her.
It wasn’t particularly flashy, but it was furnished with high-quality materials. The room was neat and clean, without any overly cute decorations, striking pink colors, or lace.
If she had to describe it, it was the kind of warm and cozy room she had seen several times on interior-design apps when selecting styles such as Scandinavian, natural, or lovely and romantic.
If that was the case, then she probably wasn’t hated by her family or treated like an unwanted child. So she likely wasn’t a character in a growth-type story, either. And it certainly wasn’t a childcare story.
There was a possibility that she might have a role as a nanny, but there was no way the young lady of a fairly wealthy family would volunteer to be a nanny. So it definitely wasn’t a childcare story.
“What a relief….”
It wasn’t that Hyo-joo disliked childcare stories, but she was especially weak to them.
Her publishing company had tried to feed her popular stories several times, saying they were the latest big trend, but as an orphan herself, they were simply the kind of stories she wanted to avoid the most.
“Who cares what genre it is? The important thing is that I came to another world.”
Hyo-joo had even made a list of 101 things she would do if she ever transmigrated into another world.
With her modern knowledge, she could start a business and become a wealthy tycoon, or perhaps have a romance with a handsome man—something she had never been able to experience in reality.
As for the profound questions, such as what had happened to the person whose body she had possessed, she decided to simply close her eyes to them.
After obtaining the minimum amount of information she could, Hyo-joo began to feel that something was missing.
“By this point, someone is supposed to appear and bring me information….”
Just as she was thinking that it was strange that no one had appeared despite the noise she had made, there was a knock at the door.
A red-haired maid who looked to be in her thirties, her face covered in freckles, entered the room.
“Miss Allosha, are you awake?”
Allosha.
Hyo-joo felt that the name of this character sounded strangely familiar.
‘Even better.’
If the name sounded familiar, that meant this was at least one of the novels she had read before.
It was a shame that the title didn’t immediately come to mind, but she figured she could gradually figure it out.
“Miss?”
“Oh! I’d like to have some tea. Could you prepare some with snacks?”
“Tea and snacks? You don’t really like sweets, Miss.”
At the maid’s words, Allosha felt as if she had been struck hard in the back of the head.
There were so many tea-party scenes in romance-fantasy novels, and this girl named Allosha didn’t like sweets?
‘How is that even possible?’
She felt that something was slightly off, but the world was vast, and novels were filled with characters who had all kinds of preferences. So it was possible.
A modern person possessing the body of a noble young lady who disliked sweets wasn’t all that special, after all.
“And in a little while, your brother, Count Alexis, and his friend will be arriving at the estate. Wouldn’t it be better to have them together then?”
Count Alexis?
Hyo-joo frowned at the déjà vu she felt once again.
‘Allosha… Alexis…. I’ve definitely heard both of those names before, so why can’t I remember the title?’
No matter how obsessed she was with romance-fantasy novels and how good her memory was, she had read hundreds of novels that she had paid for and then stopped reading after a hundred chapters.
She decided to assume that this was simply one of the novels she had read about fifty chapters of before giving up because it didn’t suit her tastes.
“I received word two hours ago, so unless something happens, the Count should arrive within thirty minutes. Shall I help you get dressed?”
“Okay. I’ll leave it to you….”
While wondering what she should call the maid, she noticed the name ‘Marsha’ written on the chest of the maid’s uniform.
“Marsha.”
When Allosha called her by name, Marsha nodded with a pleased expression.
“Just leave it to me!”
There was no reason to dress up for a family meal, but since she had gone to the trouble of transmigrating, it was probably best to follow the customs of this world.
Marsha walked toward a door on one side of the room and opened the sliding door.
Inside was a large collection of dresses that looked expensive at first glance, just like the dressing rooms found in wealthy households.
‘Wow, are those real jewels?’
Seeing the glittering jewels attached to the colorful dresses, Hyo-joo felt so moved that she thought she might cry.
‘Yes! This is what romance fantasy is all about! Fancy dresses! Jewels! Nobility is the best!’
She had briefly worried that she might have transmigrated into some strange genre, but then the maid took out a light purple dress and showed it to Hyo-joo—or rather, Allosha.
“I know you always wear blue dresses whenever the Count’s friend comes to visit, Miss, but why don’t you try wearing a light purple dress for a change today?”
At the red-haired maid’s words, Allosha glanced at the numerous blue-toned dresses hanging in the wardrobe.
‘She wears blue dresses every time her brother’s friend comes?’
Having sensed the scent of romance less than thirty minutes after transmigrating, Allosha couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from rising.
Her brother’s friend. A dress in the same color?
This was the heart of a girl taking the path of unrequited love.
‘She must have been told that the color suited her, or perhaps she received it as a gift.’
Although she had no actual romantic experience, Allosha finished her deduction as someone with pseudo-romantic experience accumulated through romance on paper, on screens, and through counseling her real-life friends about their relationships.
Then she nodded.
“Really? Then I’ll wear that.”
If it was true that Allosha had a crush on her brother’s friend, then this was probably her first love.
In almost every story, first love usually doesn’t work out between the two people involved.
‘But this isn’t my story, and I’m not the protagonist, so it doesn’t matter to me.’
Allosha decided that she would determine whether her brother’s friend was husband material after seeing what he looked like.
With Marsha’s help, she changed into the dress and had her thick brown hair braided and let down.
She looked even more innocent and graceful than she had before.
Just as the maid had said, the light purple dress suited her fair skin and green eyes perfectly.
“I didn’t have much time, so I only dressed you up simply. Do you like it?”
“Well… it’s pretty.”
Although she answered in a somewhat prim manner, Allosha’s inner thoughts were filled with excitement that went beyond mere enthusiasm and into outright fanaticism.
‘Crazy, she’s insanely pretty! Is this what they call a winter cool tone? How can this shade of light purple suit her so perfectly?’
She was this beautiful despite not being the protagonist?
Allosha was slightly confused, wondering if this was really allowed.
As she continued admiring herself, a question suddenly came to mind, sending a shiver down her spine.
‘Then how beautiful must the protagonist or the villainess be?’
Even to someone like herself, who was serious about appearances, Allosha was undeniably pretty.
So what would happen if she met the heroine or the villainess, who had probably received an even greater beauty buff?
“Whose side am I supposed to take?”
While creating a conflict between a heroine and a villainess she had not even met yet, Allosha wondered whose side she should take—or whether the two of them could simply get along peacefully.
Just then, Marsha opened the door and entered.
“Miss, Count Alexis has arrived.”
“…I understand.”
Allosha went downstairs from the second floor to greet him at the entrance.
When she arrived at the foyer, she saw a brown-haired man who appeared to be around 180 centimeters tall. He had a warm, pleasant appearance and a kind expression as he handed his coat to the butler.
“My beloved little sister, Allosha! Did you come out to greet me?”
The moment he spoke to Allosha in a sweet voice, she reached the first major hurdle of being a transmigrator.
‘Should I speak informally or formally?’
While she was wondering how to naturally speak to a blood relative she was meeting for the first time, the man smiled brightly and walked over to Allosha.
Then he pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her forehead.
Ordinary siblings definitely didn’t act like this.
‘So I should speak informally.’
Based on an author’s intuition, Hyo-joo guessed that the two of them had lost their parents when they were young.
Alexis had probably been forced to grow up early during his teenage years in order to protect his younger sister from the adults in the family who resented the fact that the young Alexis had become the heir.
If her brother had filled the empty space left by their parents by indulging Allosha’s every whim, then a character like her would either grow up spoiled and ill-mannered—or become an incredibly lovable person.
“Hm? You always insisted on wearing blue. What happened to make you wear a different dress today?”
“Oh, nothing. It was just pretty.”
“That’s the dress I bought for you last time, isn’t it? It suits you well.”
At Alexis’s gentle manner and warm voice, Allosha felt a strange sensation tickling somewhere in her chest, making her feel strangely shy and embarrassed.
‘What is this? Is this the emotion Allosha is feeling right now?’
