Chapter 1 …

Prologue

“Haah, haah.”

A sky so black it felt utterly lifeless.

Black smoke billowed all around, and the stench of rot drifted from somewhere nearby.

Barely forcing open my eyelids, which were smeared with blood, I looked at the dead bodies one by one.

‘……That guy is the male protagonist, and that one is the sub male lead.’

Turning my head away from the sprawled-out figures, I saw yet another heap of dead bodies scattered in piles.

If I had to point out something unusual…… they all had the same hair color.

The same hair color as mine.

They were my older brothers.

‘That one is the eldest, and the one still clutching his sword until the very end is the second……. The third one is such a crybaby he couldn’t even close his eyes.’

Now I didn’t have much time left either.

I let out an irritated sigh.

‘Ah, so I can’t even make it past 22 in this round either.’

There was no trace of fear that normally comes before death.

Because this was already my third time repeating this nonsense.

Incredibly, this world was inside a book of the “raising-a-child (육아물)” genre.

I had lived through this world three times already.

I was exhausted.

Age 20, 21, and 22.

Those were all the ages at which I died.

Looking at my dead or dying family, I felt a strange pity.

‘……Being born into a villain family isn’t a sin, you know. Tch.’

I had been possessed into a novel, and yet no one was more pitiful than me.

And of all things, I got dropped into a cute, fluffy childcare-type novel.

Slowly, I lifted my head.

A black mass filled the sky.

And within it, a single man floated in midair.

Behind the floating man, smoke twisted and took on a shape.

A dragon.

To explain it simply, that man was a living dragon.

The one called the Dragon Duke.

And this was the situation caused by that dragon going into a rampage in fury.

‘Haah, I wish there were no next cycle. But that’s not going to happen.’

No matter what kind of absurd things I did, why wouldn’t fate change?

I could feel my life fading away.

At the same time, the man raised his hand, and a black sphere formed in it.

A massive black sphere.

Thinking about how even a much smaller one had once wiped out an entire city, this would undoubtedly be the end.

‘If those insane male leads hadn’t made the Dragon Duke go berserk……!’

Why did they have to mess with an innocent Dragon Duke and cause all this?!

‘No, what kind of ending for a childcare novel is mass slaughter?! Are you kidding meeee?!’

I stared blankly at the sky one last time—then suddenly widened my eyes.

The sky where the man floated, the black sphere about to explode and end the world.

Through the shattered fragments of the sky, something familiar came into view.

Familiar roads, familiar bridges and roundabouts. And Gwanghwamun and Gyeongbokgung…….

‘Wait. Seoul streets?!’

I wasn’t seeing things.

It was Seoul. The city I once knew.

My eyes widened even further as I saw clear Hangul signboards.

‘Why is that showing up? If I go there… I might be able to go back home!’

But unfortunately…… my eyes were slowly closing.

What the hell, what is this? I finally found my home……!

It’s unfair.

I didn’t have the strength to hold on anymore.

But even while looking at the approaching black sphere, I felt a strange thrill.

That’s it. That thing—I can survive longer with that!

I can go back home.

Facing death, I grinned faintly.

Third life of my childcare-novel existence.

Next life, I’m going to conquer the dragon.

“Hey, hey, look over there. The Dragon Bride is passing by.”

Ugh, my ears hurt.

“Is that girl the bride this generation? Lucky us. I heard she’s useless.”

“Well, yeah. They say she hasn’t awakened any power since birth.”

My name is Calypso Aquasiadel.

I am a possessor who entered a generic childcare novel, and a human cursed by time.

What do I mean by that?

I tried to change the original story so I could live well—but at the end of it, I met a destruction ending.

I thought that was the end, but it wasn’t. Instead of ending, I ended up repeating regression over and over again.

This place is a childcare novel titled
<I Became the Terminally Ill Baby Daughter of the Black Panther Duke>

Back when I read novels, childcare stories were everywhere.

And <Black Panther Duke> was one of them.

A loved female lead. Overprotective older brothers. A cold father who turns into a daughter-obsessed dad.

It was a textbook childcare novel in every way.

But the important part was—none of that applied to me.

‘I’ve never seen such an unfair system.’

In this story, the female lead—a squirrel beastkin—is adopted into the Black Panther family.

At first she is adopted as a child, then grows up into a sweet romance with the youngest son of the family. Unfortunately, that youngest son is a sub male lead.

After being showered with love there, she meets the lion beastkin crown prince—the male lead—and gets a perfect happy ending.

The role I was possessed into was the weakest youngest daughter of the “Orca” family, the final hidden villain family of the story.

Unlike the original heroine, who was simply loved for being cute and sweet, the Orca family was a world ruled entirely by strength—survival of the strongest.

‘There’s no family that melts over words like “ba-ba” or “grandpa,” you know.’

And above all, the family head wasn’t a grandfather. It was a grandmother.

In orca societies, which are matrilineal, the head of the family has always been the strongest grandmother.

The current matriarch had three sons.

I was the powerless youngest daughter of the third son. Weak and frail.

Above me were three older brothers, all talented enough to earn the harsh grandmother’s approval—but they ignored or dismissed weak me.

In the original story, I was marked as the “Dragon Bride,” a sacrificial offering destined to die.

But by the grandmother’s order, I was instead sent to the Black Panther family.

‘More precisely, I was offered as a political marriage sacrifice to the Black Panther family.’

In the original story, I became jealous of the heroine who was weak but loved, bullied her, got exposed, was expelled, and died horribly in an accident.

And that accident was passively watched by my fiancé—the Black Panther supporting character who was the heroine’s non-blood older brother.

‘I tried to change all that right after possessing the body……’

But to put it simply—I failed spectacularly.

‘Let’s see… in the first round I tried to seduce the male lead and died. In the second round I got scratched by a rusty nail and died of tetanus.’

The third round was just before this one, where I managed to become head of the Orca family after correcting past mistakes.

But absurdly, I got caught in the male lead’s scheme and ended in a total annihilation ending.

‘But that ends now.’

I have vast amounts of information now, and I won’t fail again.

‘This time, I will definitely become the Dragon Bride!’

So I ignored all the gossip around me.

“Hm, if she’s the Dragon Bride, she’ll definitely die—but she’ll bring wealth to the family. The matriarch is getting rid of useless trash, huh?”

“Being sold off, basically.”

Even better……

‘Talk more! Spread the fact that I’m the Dragon Bride!’

In this world, the Dragon Bride refers to a child offered to the Dragon Duke.

It is said that this is to suppress the dragon’s rage that erupts once every ten years, and it always ends in death.

Tracing its origins, this country was founded with the help of the dragon, who married the first emperor and bore two children.

One became a normal beastkin and became emperor. The other had dragon blood that was too strong, went berserk repeatedly, and eventually gave up the throne.

That one instead became a duke, and the bloodline has continued through generations to the current Dragon Duke.

“At any rate, that means she’s a princess destined to die.”

“Exactly.”

“Tsk, she barely lived over a year… she should’ve just died sooner. Better than being eaten by a dragon……”

“Well, then she wouldn’t bring any benefit to the family.”

Listening to their chatter, I arrived at a large room.

The massive door in front of me opened.

‘I haven’t been here in a while.’

Inside was an office, with a baby crib placed strangely out of place.

The servant holding me said nothing and placed me into the crib.

It was a rough motion that completely ignored my condition, making my butt sting against the bars.

‘Tch, at least handle babies with care.’

This family has absolutely no respect for infants.

Survival of the fittest—where the strong devour everything.

Even babies weren’t exempt. Only those who survive deserve to survive.

‘Today is the day I receive my name.’

I am currently three years old—exactly 24 months since birth.

All whale beastkin in this world are only recognized as members after surviving two years.

Because whale infants have a very high chance of sudden death within their first one or two years.

This is a world of beastkin, where land animal families and sea animal families are in conflict.

All main characters in the original story are land animals, while sea animals are always villains.

‘People in the comments used to call them “bad fish bastards,” didn’t they?’

And the leader of those “fish bastards” was the person now walking through the door.

A woman with deep wrinkles but an imposing presence. A massive build and jet-black hair, the tips artificially bleached white.

My grandmother, Ocula Aquasiadel.