Chapter 2
Let me warn you first:
My life was the definition of a tragic cliché.
How cliché, you ask?
Well, I was treated like an outcast in my own family.
Things like this happen all the time.
* * *
A few months ago.
Dinner at the House of Viscount Starace.
“Let us pray to the goddess Armas for today’s meal.”
The whole family closed their eyes in prayer.
Meanwhile, I just stared at the food in front of me.
Compared to everyone else, my plate had much less meat and way more vegetables.
Even the vegetables were ridiculously few.
‘Dear goddess, is this grass my portion for the day?’
“To our plentiful dinner!”
The butler walked around the table, pouring fine wine into the family’s glasses.
Just in case, I quietly held mine out too.
But of course, the butler ignored me completely and walked right past.
In the end, my wine glass was filled with plain water.
“Cheers!”
My water-filled glass sparkled awkwardly under the chandelier.
The next dish wasn’t any better.
Unlike everyone else, the sauce on my dish was a mess—splattered and sloppy.
It was well-known that the cook always served me the dishes he messed up on first.
‘Whatever. As long as it tastes good.’
Trying to stay calm, I took a bite—and instantly crunched on sand.
The fresh taste of nature’s dirt was not something I could tolerate.
“Anna.”
Only one person responded to my voice—my maid, Anna.
She rushed over quickly, while everyone at the table turned to stare at me.
Their eyes said it all: Why are you making a fuss again?
Some looked annoyed, others confused.
“Can you go ask the cook if he cleaned the clams properly?”
Before Anna could move, my father—Viscount Starace—interrupted.
“My clams are perfectly fine.”
Then my cousins jumped in right away.
“Mine too.”
“Same here!”
Why were my cousins even sitting at the same table as me?
I’ll explain that later.
“See? Everyone’s fine. Why are you the only one complaining?
You’ll hurt the chef’s feelings.”
My stepmother twisted the knife.
I flinched but gathered the courage to reply.
“I was just asking politely.
My clam had sand in it.”
My cousin Zenovio sneered.
“Oh wow, Viola’s not satisfied with devouring her own mother, now she’s after the cook too?
What a temper.”
Then my stepmother added in a mocking tone,
“What’s wrong with that girl?
Can we please just eat quietly? Please? Hmm?”
She was clearly talking about me.
Then she turned her glare on Anna.
“And you! Why are you even responding to her?
Viola acts like this all the time.
Just because she’s a young lady doesn’t mean she needs to be treated like royalty!”
“But, Madam—” Anna tried to defend me.
I didn’t want her to get punished for my sake, so I quickly gave her a signal to go back.
Zenovio smirked again.
“So now she calls her maid on a whim and dismisses her just as quickly.
What is she, training a dog or something?
What an awful master.”
And you?
You curse and harass the maids all the time—I swallowed those words silently.
“Tch.”
Even as his daughter was being mocked and humiliated, my father only clicked his tongue and calmly cut into his steak.
“Still, it’s a good thing your wife keeps Viola in line.”
“If you let her do whatever she wants, she’ll turn out spoiled.”
My father and stepmother went back and forth, criticizing me.
Just like that, I was once again painted as the sensitive and immature noble daughter.
I felt empty inside and, honestly, hungry.
But most of the tiny portion I had was already ruined with dirt.
There wasn’t even a decent piece of meat left on my plate, so I stuffed vegetables into my mouth like a goat chewing grass.
“This is so delicious!”
The two cheerful people across from me were my cousins—the children of my father’s late younger brother.
After their father died in a carriage accident, they moved in with us and have been living comfortably with my stepmother ever since.
They look more like my father than I do, so of course, they’re the favorites.
Why did all the luck go to them instead of me?
Genetics really can be cruel.
They can turn someone’s entire life into suffering.
“Haha, eat up.”
How I wished something—anything—could change this miserable life.
I swallowed my bitterness and silently made a wish.
* * *
Even in this awful life, I never gave up hope.
And so it was—Viola Starace, me—who one day, by sheer accident, discovered the secret of this world.
The moment that changed everything… hurt a bit.
“Ahhh!”
The next day.
I left my room and started walking down the staircase—only to suddenly tumble down, rolling over and over.
As I hit the stairs, one thought ran through my mind:
I’m going to die.
Thud! My head slammed into the steps.
In that moment of chaos, something strange happened.
My thoughts spun around wildly… and then everything went clear.
Suddenly, memories of a past life came flooding into my head.
And just like that, I realized the truth—This world was a plaything for the gods.
In other words, I was living inside a novel.
It was unbelievable.
Had I gone insane?
Was that why my father and the rest of the family always treated me like nothing?
The thoughts only lasted a second.
“Aaaah!”
Then came the pain.
Crippling, burning pain that made my entire body ache.
I tried to get up, groaning, but as I pushed against the floor—slip—my hand slid right through soapy water, and I collapsed again.
“Oh no! Lady Viola! Are you alright?”
The maids came running from afar when they heard the noise.
When I saw the mops and buckets they were holding, I realized what had happened.
“Did you mop the stairs and leave soapy water on them?”
One maid, who arrived first, answered casually.
“Oh, come on. It’s not like we knew you were coming out.
We were going to do your floor last, after cleaning the others.”
Then she let out a snicker, clearly finding my situation funny.
Even the others nearby couldn’t hold back their smirks.
I looked at them coldly.
‘Is this really a novel world?’
But in the story I remembered, there was no one named Viola.
Not me, and not any of the people laughing at me now.
None of us were even worth being named in the book.
We were all just background characters.
That realization made me feel strange.
Why, out of all the minor extras, did the heavens choose me to suffer such a miserable fate?
‘Was my entire existence created just to be mocked and ignored by others?’
“You’re in the way of our cleaning, so please change out of those wet clothes.”
The male servants who arrived after didn’t even ask if I was okay.
They just told me I was being a nuisance.
“Anna! Come help Lady Viola!”
Finally, Anna came running, carefully stepping down the wet stairs.
She helped me up gently.
“My lady, let’s go to the dressing room.”
Anna shot a sharp glare at the maids who had been laughing, but they just pretended not to see her.
Even though I’d just escaped what could’ve been a fatal fall, no one seemed to care.
That coldness from everyone around me…
It made something inside me stir with anger.
Anna leaned close and whispered,
“Are you alright, my lady?”
It was the same kind of comfort she always gave me.
And for some reason, her words really touched my heart, so I answered her… as politely and calmly as I could.
