HTSVD 02

HTSVD

Posted by jasmine, Released on October 16, 2025

Chapter 2 — The Princess’s Fate

“No matter how you look at it… why did it have to be *Eve*?”

If I had to end up in this world, couldn’t I at least have been someone like *Maid #1* or *Commoner #1* who only appears in passing?

Even being a *beggar outside the palace* would have been better than this.

At least beggars have freedom.

But no — I had to become *that* Eve.
The female lead’s half-sister, and the worst villainess in the entire story.

Up to this point, it sounds like a cliché possession plot, but there was one serious problem…

“The heroine’s already appeared and is famous as the true saint right now!”

When I figured out the timeline, I realized the story was already more than halfway through.

In other words — Eve had already bullied the heroine plenty and earned the hatred of every single character around her.

Why on earth did I have to possess her *now*, of all times?

If I’d come in during the beginning of the story, I might have had a chance to change her image. Maybe I could’ve even befriended the female lead.

‘But what am I supposed to do when all my relationships are already ruined?’

And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

When I calculated the dates, I realized something horrifying.

“Eve’s death… is only about a month and a half away?”

Yes — Eve, the villainess who stood opposite the heroine, died in the middle of the novel.
Her end was pitiful and short-lived.

She was **assassinated on the day of her wedding to the Grand Duke.**

—

### * * *

Eve’s fiancé — and the novel’s second male lead — **Grand Duke Terence Lenz**.

He was the dream man every noblewoman adored.

He’d already become a war hero at fifteen, winning victory after victory on the battlefield.
Now, as an adult, he held enough power to threaten even the Emperor himself.

And Eve had fallen for that Grand Duke at first sight.

‘Honestly… what a stupid decision.’

While the male lead — the vice commander of the Imperial Knights — was cold to his enemies but warm to the woman he loved, the sub male lead, the Grand Duke, was merciless and cruel to everyone.
He didn’t discriminate by age or gender — his ruthlessness was equal opportunity.

The novel mostly focused on the sweet romance between the heroine and the male lead, so it never delved too deeply into the empire’s politics or power struggles.

Still, it did describe in detail the secret conflict between the Grand Duke and the Emperor.

The young Grand Duke and the Emperor were locked in a dangerous battle for control behind the scenes.

But the simple-minded Eve didn’t understand such politics.

She just fell head over heels for the Grand Duke’s beautiful face — and clung to him desperately to make him marry her.

When he refused, she went on a hunger strike.

Of course, it was all an act.

In reality, she secretly ordered her maids to sneak her bread at night while pretending to starve herself to death.

Still, the act worked.

No one wanted to see a princess die of hunger, so even the ministers begged the Grand Duke to give in.

Eventually, even he — who despised Eve more than anyone — had no choice but to accept the marriage.

‘But that was exactly what the Emperor wanted.’

Feeling threatened by the ambitious Grand Duke, the Emperor used Eve as bait to set a trap.

His plan was to assassinate her just before the wedding — and frame the Grand Duke for her murder.

The Grand Duke, humiliated by being forced to marry a spoiled princess, was already furious.
So when the princess was found dead right before the ceremony, the story was all too believable.

Who else could have had a motive but him?

Just like that, the Emperor’s plan succeeded.
Eve was found murdered on the night before her wedding, with a dagger belonging to the Grand Duke’s knights conveniently left beside her body.

The evidence was so obviously planted, but no one doubted it.
To everyone, the Grand Duke’s guilt made perfect sense.

‘Thankfully, as the final hidden mastermind, the Grand Duke did escape in the end.’

But to do so, he had no choice but to ally himself with the male lead.

And in the process, he grew closer to the heroine, becoming another man in her orbit — the tragic sub male lead.

By the end, everyone joined hands for a happy ending.

Everyone except Eve, of course.

She died quietly, forgotten and unmentioned even in the epilogue.

As a reader, it had been a satisfying ending.

But now that *I* was Eve…
It was nothing short of a nightmare.

When I finally understood my situation, I couldn’t help but sigh in disbelief.

“Seriously… why is my life always like this?”

In my first life, I suffered endlessly and died in an accident.

And now, in my second chance at life, I was going to be *murdered* again.

How could two lives be this miserable?
Was I cursed?

When I woke up in this body, it was exactly **44 days** before the wedding.

Forty-four days. Even the number itself felt ominous.

If fate wanted to use symbolic numbers, couldn’t it have been something like *444 days* or *4,444 days* instead?

But no. I had a month and a half to live.

‘I refuse to die like a fool this time.’

It had been four days since I woke up in Eve’s body.

The first day was spent grasping the situation.
The second was spent exploring the palace.
And the next two were spent adjusting to the princess’s lifestyle — and racking my brain for a way to survive.

‘Which means… now I only have forty days left.’

My remaining lifespan was ticking away like a countdown clock.

No. I couldn’t let my second life end so miserably.

I *had* to find a way to survive.

I got out of bed and approached the mirror standing against the wall.

My reflection stared back — a beautiful girl of about nineteen, with long red-gold hair and sky-blue eyes, touching her cheeks with a dazed look.

“For a villainess, this face looks way too innocent.”

Gentle blue eyes, a delicate nose, soft pink lips, and pale, milky skin.

She was undeniably beautiful — but her features looked sweet, almost harmless.
How could someone who looked like this cause so much chaos?

I sighed, brushing a strand of red hair behind my ear.

As I stood lost in thought, I suddenly heard the door click open.

“Y-Your Highness…!”

It was the maid with sand-colored hair — the same one who had found me when I first woke up.
She gasped, bowing frantically.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness! I didn’t realize you were awake!”

“It’s fine,” I said quickly.

But even after my reassurance, she kept trembling like a leaf.

“I-I’ll prepare your bath immediately!”

A short while later, I was soaking in a warm bath filled with rose petals, the scent of flowers thick in the air.

With the maids’ careful assistance, I washed my hair in fragrant water and felt a little more human again.

The maids worked like a perfectly trained army — quick, quiet, efficient.

‘They’re more like soldiers than servants.’

Apparently, Eve had fallen ill after her hunger strike and spent several days bedridden.
The maid had told me with a worried expression that my fever had been dangerously high, and that I’d even fallen unconscious one night — before suddenly waking up again.

‘That must have been when the real Eve died.’

In the novel, Eve was said to recover quickly from her illness.

But in this world, she hadn’t.
She had died — and I had taken her place.

At least her illness gave me a good excuse to stay locked in her palace for ten days without anyone questioning it.

If anything, the servants seemed relieved that I wasn’t throwing tantrums as usual.

When I came out of the bath, the maids immediately brought in breakfast.

“Your breakfast is ready, Your Highness.”

The long table was covered in dishes — so many that there was hardly any space left.

Five kinds of soup, crepes, ravioli made with three different meats, frittatas, colorful pies, and fresh fruit.

It was a breakfast fit for an empress.

I sat down and looked at the feast before me — but what caught my eye wasn’t the food.
It was the pair of cream-colored silk gloves lying beside the plate.

Eve had extreme mysophobia. She even wore gloves while eating.

When I’d looked through her wardrobe earlier, I’d noticed hundreds of pairs — every color and fabric imaginable.

‘Come to think of it, this is why people started calling Eve a *fake saintess* in the first place.’

“Fake.”

That was the nickname everyone in the empire used for her.

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t entirely fake.
She really had been born with *holy power*.

Every princess of the imperial family was blessed with a trace of divinity — proof of their sacred bloodline.

From the founding of the empire, the royal daughters had always possessed unique gifts.

Of course, the amount and type of divine power differed from person to person.

And among them, Eve’s gift was foresight — the ability to see the future.

But her “foresight” was practically useless.

Previous princesses with the same gift had predicted the outcomes of wars or great disasters — things that changed the course of history.