Episode 02
When I picked up my fallen phone again, the comment section was flooded—readers just as shocked as I was, spiraling into despair.
[So it is a tragedy…….]
[Ha…….]
[……What?!?]
[The pacing dragged forever and now this? It’s supposed to be a romance fantasy, but the male lead is gone—so what is it now, just fantasy? I stuck around for the writing, but I’m done. Dropping.]
[Was Clemetns just a fake lead? Is Medif the real one? Medif fans, rise up.]
[Author, please just bring him back next chapter like nothing happened. I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything.]
But the thing that truly drove me insane… was a single line of notice.
[“Beauty and the Beast” Part 1 has concluded. We will return with Part 2 after a short hiatus. Thank you.]
What?
You end it like that—and then go on hiatus?!
I collapsed onto my bed, tears pooling in my eyes, and prayed desperately.
Please… let me faint and wake up when Part 2 has already started.
But when I regained consciousness—
I had become Ophelia Leora, a twelve-year-old girl destined to be the same-aged maid of the heroine.
Golden-blonde hair like acacia honey. Eyes like polished gold. Round, slightly cute features—but no matter how much I grew, I’d never reach Bella’s beauty.
In the novel, she was barely even mentioned. A typical supporting character—dressing Bella, attending to her, delivering rumors, running errands.
So insignificant… that I didn’t even realize I had transmigrated until I heard the name of the lady I was meant to serve.
“……I only asked to be woken up when the hiatus ended. I never asked to be reincarnated as a side character.”
“Ophelia, what are you talking about?”
That must have been her mother—those wide golden eyes looked just like mine.
I smiled sweetly.
“Nothing. I just want to sleep a bit more, Mother.”
“Oh, of course. Once you go to the Monahan estate next month, you won’t be able to rest whenever you like.”
What an unnecessarily detailed dream.
Next time… please wake me when the hiatus is really over.
I closed my eyes again—unsure who I was even praying to.
But nothing changed.
No matter how many times I slept and woke, I remained Ophelia Leora.
I cried. I shut myself in my room. I resisted.
But reality didn’t budge.
After a few days, I finally calmed down… and started thinking.
Maybe—just maybe—
This was an opportunity.
A chance to stop that tragedy… and save the two protagonists I loved so dearly.
Love may burn brighter through hardship—but did that hardship really have to mean killing each other?
The deeper the suffering, the more even true love twists into something broken.
No wonder readers were screaming that this wasn’t romance—it was despair.
And despair led to tragic endings.
And a tragic ending for my favorite novel?
That was something I absolutely had to prevent.
To do that, I had to start from the root.
Why did Bella kill Clemetns?
Part of it was Camille’s manipulation—but the deeper cause lay in Bella’s true identity.
Belarusia Leunis Monahan.
She was the reincarnation of a witch.
The Klatia Empire had been founded by a great mage who sealed away demons.
Once, the world had been overrun by monsters, beasts, and devils.
- Demons were born from pure magical energy.
- Monsters emerged from murky, unstable magic.
Together, they were called the demon race.
One day, a genius mage used his own blood to seal them all away—and ascended the throne. That bloodline became the imperial family.
Yet even after the sealing, one place remained untouched—
The western frontier forest: Honwood.
There, magical energy seeped into the land itself, turning ordinary animals into magical beasts.
Even imperial blood couldn’t purge them.
Instead, deep within the forest lived a being the beasts revered as their mother—
A great witch.
Once humayxn, she commanded monsters freely and ignored the laws of mankind.
The emperor, fearing her, had her executed—and displayed her corpse as a warning.
The beasts retreated.
But her spirit did not.
It lingered… until it possessed a noble girl born in Honwood.
That girl… was Bella.
When I first read that reveal, I was horrified.
From the very beginning—
They had been enemies.
The voice urging Bella to spill Clemetns’s blood…
That wasn’t her.
It was the witch’s lingering soul.
I had feared this outcome the entire time.
What if she really kills him?
And in the end—
She did.
But there was one crucial detail.
When Bella drove the blade into Clemetns’s heart, the witch’s soul burst into the sky with a grotesque laugh—and disappeared.
Bella… cried.
The one who laughed was the witch.
The one who wept… was Bella.
They were not the same.
Which meant—
Bella would regret it.
Deeply.
So then the answer was simple.
Prevent her from ever reaching that regret.
Bella had always been lonely.
She preferred the night to the day, slipping into the forest to run freely.
There, she heard voices.
Voices that comforted her.
(They were, of course, the beasts.)
But a noble lady couldn’t have such secrets.
Her brother scolded her harshly. The servants whispered behind her back.
And when she returned cursed—
It only got worse.
“You’ve wandered too far, child of the night. Let me grant you a form more suited to you.”
The curse that turned her into a black panther at night—
To Bella, it was almost a blessing.
Freedom.
But it didn’t last.
Fearing scandal, her family confined her.
And so—
She closed her heart.
To everyone.
Could a girl raised like that accept love?
Could she distinguish between her own feelings…
and the whispers telling her to tear him apart?
Probably not.
But—
What if things had been different?
What if she had someone who understood her from childhood?
Someone who listened?
Someone who told her—
“You are not your past. You can live as yourself.”
Then maybe—
She would recognize her feelings as love.
And stop before everything fell apart.
“Alright. I’ve decided.”
There were still eight years before the story began.
Eight years was more than enough time to change someone’s life.
I would protect their love.
I would remove every misunderstanding, every obstacle.
“You two… I’ll make sure you get your happy ending.”
Clenching my small twelve-year-old fists, I made my vow.
* * *
“Bella. Bellarusia!”
The day I first met twelve-year-old Bella—
I ran forward and hugged her tightly, just as I had promised myself.
“What—what are you doing…?”
Don’t worry. You can live the way you want.
I’ll make sure of it.
The black-haired girl stiffened in my arms.
From that day on—
I stayed by her side.
Though I was her maid, Ophelia was still the daughter of a fallen noble family. I studied alongside her, lived beside her—like a childhood friend.
And the more I watched her grow…
The deeper my affection became.
I would do anything for Bella.
“Bella, if you don’t want to embroider, you don’t have to. I’ll do it—go back to sleep.”
“Your father is outside looking for you. Hide in the wardrobe—I’ll tell him I haven’t seen you.”
“If you ever want to talk… I’m here. I’m always on your side.”
Most of the time, she listened quietly while I chattered on.
But even if she didn’t show it—
I believed she was opening up to me, little by little.
Eight years passed in a flash.
And during that time, I focused on one thing above all else—
Letting Bella experience freedom… without being discovered.
Yes, it was dangerous for her to roam with magical beasts.
But suppressing her nature?
That was far more dangerous.
After all—
In the original story, every time Bella saw Clemetns, her suppressed instincts nearly exploded out of control.
And this time—
I wouldn’t let it end the same way.
