~Chapter 01~
“Veronica.”
As soon as I entered the office, Noah greeted me with his usual warm eyes.
“Sit here.”
I avoided the seat next to him and instead sat across from him.
He frowned slightly at my action, but quickly erased the expression as if nothing happened.
“Is it uncomfortable to sit next to me?”
“No, no. It’s not that… I just have something to say.”
I forced my lips to move and opened my mouth.
“Something to say?”
“Yes. Well, um…”
But unlike my first words, the next ones just wouldn’t come out.
I had to say them.
I had promised.
I had promised to let him go.
But all the hundreds of times I told myself this in my heart vanished the moment I stood in front of him.
We had been together for three whole years.
I thought I would be happy, and I really was.
Of course I was.
How could I be unhappy when I was with the person I loved every day?
There wasn’t a single moment in those years that I wasn’t happy.
It had been such a wonderful time.
So I completely overlooked one thing.
I never knew, three years ago, that letting go of that happiness would be so hard.
“Please, speak freely,” he said.
I want to.
But the words won’t leave my mouth.
No… Do I really have to say it?
Can’t I just stay like this…?
‘No, no, I can’t.’
Absolutely not.
I shook my head firmly in my mind and gripped my dress tightly.
I gathered my resolve, looked straight at Noah, and spoke.
“Our marriage happened purely because of my selfish desire.”
The shadow of death no longer followed him.
“So from now on, you are free.”
I wanted him to know, at least once in his life, what it meant to be free.
He had never known that before.
“Free, you say?”
His voice, which had been gentle moments ago, now felt strangely cold.
But thinking it was just my imagination, I continued.
“Yes. Don’t be tied down to anything anymore. Live freely from now on.”
Three years of his kindness to me was already enough.
I would probably miss him for the rest of my life.
But that was fine.
No — it would be fine.
As long as Noah, the man I love, could live freely and happily for the rest of his life…
As long as he could live the life he wanted, I kept telling myself over and over that I would be okay.
“If I become free, does that mean you’ll be free from me too?”
“Well, of course—”
“Then let’s forget about the divorce.”
Before I could even finish my answer, Noah tore up the divorce papers and gave a crooked smile.
In the three years I’d been with him, I had never seen that expression before.
* * *
“Aria Brienne greets Her Majesty, Empress Veronica Brienne.”
Damn it.
So it’s really happening.
Honestly, until the moment the woman in front of me appeared, I was only half sure.
How could it be possible that I had possessed someone inside a novel?
I thought I’d died after being hit by a car on my way home from work, but I woke up in another world as someone else.
Along with my past life’s memories came the memories of this body’s original owner.
I had no choice but to believe it.
This was the world of a novel I had read.
At first, I didn’t believe it.
No way, that can’t happen.
It must just be some kind of fictional world.
I had no idea where this place even existed.
I kept lying to myself, denying that I had possessed a character from a novel.
And for good reason — the person I had possessed was a pitiful woman of high status, falsely accused, and doomed to die.
I had only just died in my original world — and now I had to die again?
Impossible.
So I denied it again and again.
That is, until I met the beautiful Aria Brienne standing before me now.
“Ahem!”
A loud, pointed cough snapped me out of my thoughts.
I turned toward the sound to see my husband, Emperor Lloyd Brienne, staring at me with icy eyes.
Ugly and glaring — what a combination.
Of course, objectively speaking, Lloyd Brienne wasn’t ugly at all.
He had inherited the stunning looks of the former Empress, making him one of the most handsome emperors in history.
But to me, he was now less than a squid.
He had sweet-talked someone who didn’t even want him into becoming Empress, and now, after finding a new love, he wasn’t just throwing her away — he was going to kill her?
How could he still call himself human?
If my life weren’t so precious to me, I’d do something to him…
No, calm down.
Find inner peace.
This man means nothing to me now.
Although I had Veronica’s memories, I didn’t inherit her feelings.
So I felt no love at all for the man who was technically my husband.
No need to get angry.
“Empress. Ahem!”
When I still said nothing, the Emperor coughed again to get my attention.
Acting as if I didn’t notice, I gave a polite smile, then looked at Aria, who would become Imperial Consort starting today.
“Welcome to the Brienne Imperial Family, Aria Brienne.”
“Thank you for welcoming me, Your Majesty.”
“You may rise. You’re not alone, after all.”
“Oh, thank you for your concern.”
That’s right — Aria was pregnant.
And I knew a few things about the child in her belly.
First, the Emperor was completely wrong to believe the child was his.
Second, that child would grow up to be an even worse villain than its parents.
Foolish man.
The Emperor gazed at Aria as if she were the most precious thing in the world.
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
I could have told him the baby wasn’t his, but I didn’t feel like it.
I had no proof, and if I spoke carelessly, it could backfire badly.
Besides, he had betrayed me — why should I do him any favors?
Let him be fooled all the way to the end.
If I wanted to prevent the “seed of evil” in her belly from sprouting, now would be the perfect time.
But I decided to think about that later.
In the original story, the unborn villain only ever targeted and troubled the male lead.
So as long as it didn’t hurt me, I wasn’t particularly motivated to change the plot.
Of course, my own survival was a different matter.
Originally, Veronica wasn’t an important character.
She was mentioned only once as a tool for Aria to become Empress.
If I behaved well enough, I probably wouldn’t have to die.
‘So first, I’ll make sure I survive.’
Wait.
As I was thinking about how to live well on my own, one name flashed through my mind.
‘My favorite must not die…!’
In this novel, my favorite wasn’t the male lead, the female lead, or even the villain.
It was the villain’s swordsmanship master — Noah Everdane.
Noah Everdane was the most perfect match to my ideal type I had ever encountered in fiction.
Handsome, kind, upright, modest — and the strongest swordsman in the world.
His death was caused by something even he couldn’t fight against.
What should I do?
Noah… Noah must not die.
I remembered exactly the moment he died in the novel.
“Is this what freedom feels like?”
Even after being falsely accused, he smiled as if relieved.
It was a moment that made me feel the deep sadness of a man who could only be free in death.
At the time, I cursed the author for killing him and refused to believe it.
I was so heartbroken that I mourned for days.
I was so angry I stopped reading for a while, only finishing the novel after I had calmed down.
That’s how deeply I cared for Noah — my most special favorite.
Yes.
This was my chance.
A chance to take a completely different path from the cruel original story.
‘And I can even see Noah in real life…!’
Unbelievable.
I had only imagined him from words and descriptions, and now I could see him in person.
‘What should I do?’
I can really see him?
My favorite?
The thought of meeting Noah made my excitement impossible to control.
I was so distracted I forgot who else was in the room, until an unpleasant voice pierced my ears.
