Chapter 01
The woman who had been sleeping deeply in her bed—Lia—could not believe what was happening.
She had definitely been sleeping very soundly.
But she felt something strange and opened her eyes, only to see an unfamiliar man inside her room, staring at her. Without a second thought, she assumed he was a pervert and struck him mercilessly with the lamp she grabbed nearby.
There had already been rumors lately about men sneaking into houses where women lived alone to do terrible things.
And perhaps because he truly was a pervert, even after being hit hard enough that anyone else would have collapsed, the man was still fine—so she hit him again.
That was only natural from her point of view.
Any woman would mistake a strange man who entered her room while she was sleeping for a pervert or a thief and react the same way.
But then—what was this situation?
Lia could not understand it.
She could not understand why unfamiliar men had rushed in after hearing her scream, nor why they were calling the collapsed man “Your Majesty.”
But things became even stranger.
She, who had only acted in self-defense, became the villain, and that perverted man became the victim.
“So you’re telling me that pervert is the emperor?”
At Lia’s words, the knights’ expressions hardened.
To dare call the one and only supreme ruler of the empire a pervert—how rude could that be?
But because the one who said it was the empress, the knights restrained themselves from drawing their swords.
“No matter that you are Her Majesty the Empress, injuring His Majesty is not something that can be taken lightly.”
“Who exactly is Her Majesty the Empress?”
At Lia’s question, the knights looked at her as if they could not believe what they were hearing.
Who was the Empress, she asked?
Was she claiming she did not know she herself was the Empress?
That made no sense.
Two years ago, had she not formally married the Emperor and become the Empress? For her to now say she did not know she was the Empress was absurd.
Ignoring Lia’s question, the knights carried the unconscious Emperor out of the room. At the moment, the Emperor was far more important than the Empress’s condition.
After they left, Lia could not gather her thoughts.
No—what on earth was going on?
Empress, Emperor… This wasn’t medieval Europe. In 21st-century Korea, those words made no sense.
Then suddenly, Lia noticed something odd.
She had definitely been sleeping in her own room, but this place felt unfamiliar.
At first, she had been too shocked by the situation to properly look around, but now that she did, she realized this was not her room.
Her room was not this large. Her bed was not this big. And a chandelier hanging in a perfectly fine room? The furniture, the carved patterns—everything was unfamiliar.
Unless someone had remodeled her room without her knowing, this was definitely not her room.
Then where was she, and why was she here?
Nothing made sense.
Still, thinking alone would not give her answers. Lia opened the door and stepped outside. She needed to ask someone about her situation.
But she could not leave.
Knights in uniform were standing sternly in front of her room.
As Lia opened the door, they looked at her with cold expressions.
“Please return inside. Until His Majesty regains consciousness, you are not permitted to step outside even once.”
“…What?”
Lia looked at them in disbelief.
She was being confined in a place she did not even understand, without knowing what she had done wrong.
But with three large men standing there, she knew she could not win a fight.
“Fine, I’ll go back in. But send someone to my room.”
I need to understand what’s going on.
Lia made her demand confidently.
The knights frowned but did not refuse.
After Lia returned to her room, a woman who appeared to be a maid entered. The maid immediately bowed deeply, her face filled with fear.
“I have something I want to ask.”
Lia did not like how frightened the maid looked at her, but she decided to let it go.
There was something more important.
“Where is this place?”
“…Pardon?”
The maid stared blankly, as if she did not understand the question.
Where was this place? Wasn’t this her own room?
But suddenly remembering something, the maid dropped to her knees and slammed her head to the floor.
Lia stared at her in shock.
What was that supposed to be?
“Hey, please stand up first. You need to answer my question.”
The maid hesitated, then slowly stood up.
She did not understand the Empress’s question, but she was still the Empress. She had to answer properly—otherwise, she did not know what would happen to her.
The woman before her was known as someone who showed no mercy to her maids.
“This is Your Majesty’s chamber within the Imperial Palace.”
“And who exactly is ‘Your Majesty’?”
The maid nearly asked again in confusion but hurriedly covered her mouth and answered carefully.
“The person standing before me right now.”
“…Me?”
Lia pointed at herself.
There was no need for confirmation. There was no one else here.
But she was “Her Majesty”?
By now, she could guess that “Her Majesty” meant Empress, based on what the knights had said earlier. But that only made things more confusing.
So Lia began asking questions one by one, trying to resolve her doubts. She did not know how well the maid would answer, but it was her only option.
Through the maid’s words, Lia roughly understood the situation.
She was the Empress of the Jero Empire, and the man she had knocked unconscious with a lamp was the Emperor.
Still, the most important questions remained unanswered.
Why had she become the Empress? How had she come here?
“Am I really the Empress?”
“What if you’re mistaken?”
The maid answered without hesitation.
“Even the goddess Freya herself could not deny it.”
Freya was a name Lia recognized.
A goddess from Norse mythology.
Why that goddess was being mentioned here, she did not know—but the maid was certain.
Just in case, Lia walked toward the mirror.
When she saw her reflection, she could not believe her eyes.
She had dyed and bleached her hair before, so it had been a pale color—but this was different. The silver hair in the mirror shone naturally, without any artificial look.
Her eye color was also different.
No—everything was different.
This was not her face.
Even full-body plastic surgery could not give her this appearance.
At that point, Lia realized something was terribly wrong.
Being in a strange place could be explained as kidnapping.
But this body?
She thought of one impossible explanation.
Possession.
No—this was ridiculous.
But there was no other explanation.
If it were dimensional travel, her appearance should have stayed the same.
So… possession?
Was that even possible?
She could hardly believe it, but there was no other way to explain her situation.
Lia asked the maid more questions.
And through those answers, she realized the truth.
She was inside the romance fantasy novel she had been reading before falling asleep.
And this was not good news.
Because she was not the protagonist.
She had possessed the body of the Empress—a woman who tormented the Emperor’s beloved concubine and was eventually imprisoned in the cold palace and died miserably.
A woman destined to die.
She had struggled to marry the Emperor using her background, only to be ignored and despised, and eventually killed.
Unbeknownst to anyone, the original Empress had loved the Emperor.
But the Emperor despised her.
He loved another woman—the concubine.
Unable to accept that, the Empress pretended not to care, claiming she only wanted the title, and endlessly harassed the concubine.
She ruined her reputation and lashed out at everyone.
Lia could not understand her at all.
If it were her, she would have left a man who did not love her and found someone better.
Why destroy your own reputation?
She was the very definition of a villainess.
And yet—
Now Lia was her.
And she had just assaulted the Emperor.
“…What a mess.”
And that was only the beginning.
