Chapter 1. Beware of Job Scams

[Looking for a Private Tutor]

That job posting I saw on the “Part-time Monster” website was the cause of everything.

I was a 20-year-old who had been kicked out and had no place to go. The only way to survive was by doing part-time jobs.
So when I saw that posting, it felt like a lifeline.

[Looking for a live-in private tutor.]
[Room and board provided. Location doesn’t matter. Pay negotiable.]
[Looking for someone who can care like family.]

At the time, I had dropped out of university only three months after enrolling and was seriously considering whether I should work at a factory just to have food and shelter.
So the words “room and board provided” were more attractive than anything else.

I quickly put together a rushed résumé and sent it.
Strangely, the interview was done through chat.

-Excuse me, but is your house in Seoul or Gyeonggi Province?

I asked with hope—thinking that if the location was close, I could even keep attending school while working.

-No. It’s quite far away.
-I see… Oh! But even if it’s far, I can still do the job! I’m currently a student at XX University, and I have plenty of tutoring experience. If you’d like, I can even show my enrollment certificate!

I was trying hard to appeal, but the person replied with something unexpected.

-There’s no need for proof.
-? Really? Then, what’s the child’s personality like, or what teaching method do you prefer…?

I thought they would ask me normal questions any parent would when hiring a tutor.
But the other side didn’t care about that at all.

Instead, my “employment” was decided far too easily.

-We will hire you.
-Really? Thank you! I’ll do my very best!
-…I already know you will.
-…What?

It was a strange thing to say. And while I tilted my head in confusion, another line appeared in the chat.

-Please take good care of that child, teacher. ^^

The next moment—

A blinding light swallowed my eyes.

And the result?

I ended up like this.

‘I shouldn’t have fallen for such a scam!’

It’s been three days since then.
And finally, I admitted it.

“…Yeah. This isn’t a dream.”

The mirror on the vanity reflected back a face I knew, but in a different form.
The face itself was very similar to my original one.

But the colors were different.
My skin was whiter, my hair soft brown curls, and my eyes a clear light-green.

Most of all, I looked six or seven years younger than I really was.

‘Thirteen? Fourteen? I look about that age.’

As I sighed deeply, a nanny knocked and came into the room.

“Ah, you’re awake. Young Lady—no, Little Madam. Did you sleep well?”

No, not at all.
I hadn’t slept a wink for the last three days.

The nanny worried over my dark complexion.

“You look tired, Little Madam.”

She still wasn’t used to calling me “Little Madam” instead of “Young Lady.”

But one thing was clear.

This wasn’t Earth. And it wasn’t Korea.

‘At first I wondered if it was just a dream. Then I tried to figure out the situation.’

It took me three days.
And finally, I came to a conclusion.

‘This is that so-called “novel possession!”’

The day I clicked on that weird post to find a job—

I was thrown into the world of a fantasy novel called The Reconstruction of the Palz Kingdom.

And worst of all—

‘I’ve possessed the villainess!’

The villainess who bullied the boy Edmund Cohen, which became the trigger for him to awaken as the final boss villain of the story.
The same woman who married him only because his uncle forced it, and who eventually met a miserable end.

Her name was—

Cassia Florence.

That was me now.

In the novel, Edmund would later shudder at the memory of Cassia and regret not killing her more brutally.

And that was supposed to be… my future.

My head spun.

‘This is a scam!’

A tutoring job, they said? With free meals and lodging, they said?

‘I never asked to be employed as the villainess!’

Only my silent screams filled the bedroom.

It was enough to drive me mad.
But there was one undeniable fact.

‘Three days ago, I married Edmund—the rightful heir of the Cohen Dukedom—as Cassia Florence.’

That’s right.
Not only was I scammed into becoming the villainess, but I was also scammed into marriage.

‘This is practically a scam bundle package…’

Thankfully, since realizing I was possessed, bits of Cassia’s memories had started surfacing.
Thanks to that, I could grasp the situation quickly.

The strange words from that chat:

-Please take good care of that child, teacher. ^^

I still didn’t know who or what that was.
A force? A will? Some kind of god?

But the request was clear.

‘They’ve entrusted Edmund to me.’

Whoever pulled me into Cassia’s body wanted me to look after him.

That meant—it probably wasn’t to make him the final boss as in the original story.

‘If I treat Edmund better and he doesn’t grow into the final villain, maybe they’ll send me back home!’

Or… maybe it was the opposite.
Maybe they wanted me to abuse him, just like in the story, so he’d grow into an even better villain.

But—

‘No way! I refuse!’

I didn’t want to be killed by him.
I didn’t want to see a child suffer horribly until he snapped.
And I definitely didn’t want to be the one to abuse him!

So, what time was it now?

“It’s time to act!”

I said it out loud, striding out of the bedroom with a dramatic flair.
The nanny gasped and chased after me.

“Young La—no, Madam! You haven’t had breakfast, you haven’t even washed! You must prepare yourself properly, you’re a new bride!”

“No time for that!”

Right now, Edmund was surely being mistreated.

‘I have to stop it first!’

The moment I stepped outside, I felt the stares.

People’s eyes watched me—probing, suspicious, monitoring.

And I knew exactly who was behind those stares.

The man who arranged my marriage with Edmund.
The current Duke Cohen.
Edmund’s uncle.
And my so-called “employer.”

“You are his watcher. Report every detail of his actions to me.
Use any means necessary to make him spill his ‘secret.’
Do your job well, and you will be rewarded.”

Just recalling Cassia’s memory of the Duke made me tremble.

‘So, even in this world, there are people as rotten as orphanage directors.’

I shook my head to drive away the bad memories and grabbed a maid who was passing by.

“Where is Ed—no, the Young Lord?”

“The Young Lord?”

She gave me a strange look, probably because of how messy I looked.
Well, I hadn’t slept or even washed for days.

Still, she answered.

Apparently, Edmund was having a lesson with his tutor.

When I reached the study, I heard it.

An unpleasant sound.

Smack!

I had thought they would be in the middle of class.
I was about to knock first—but the sound was too familiar and too horrible.