SDD PROLOGUE

Prologue

 Once a Civil Servant, Always a Civil Servant

So basically, I’m that.

A transmigrator.

And not just any transmigrator—
a very cliché “villainess transmigration.”

The moment I realized I had transmigrated into a novel, I grabbed my hair and screamed inside my head.

Not because I was scared—
but because it was so damn unfair.

I didn’t miss a step on the overpass on purpose,
I didn’t throw myself into the river after a breakup,
I wasn’t running away from a tragic past.

To be precise, I was living a successful life.

Throughout all three years of high school, I never once missed getting the highest score in every subject on any of the mock college entrance exams.
Even on the infamous “Hell Exam” version of the SAT, I didn’t miss a single question.

After that, pushed by my grandma who wanted a doctor in the family, I bulldozed my way into the pre-med program of S University.

…But not everyone is meant to be a doctor.
Since there were other paths in life, I took a leave of absence early.

Then, at age twenty-three, I passed the level-5 civil service exam.
And dropped out of med school without a second glance.

I became a respectable civil servant and took the subway to work every day while reading romance-fantasy novels.

And that day, I was scrolling to the next chapter—

Then suddenly, I blinked… and woke up inside the romance-fantasy novel I was reading.

I don’t remember how many curses I screamed inside my skull while yanking out my hair.

To make it worse, the character I possessed—
“Blanche Nostalgia”—dies pathetically.

How pathetic?
She’s supposedly the villainess, but all she does is chase the male lead around bragging that she likes him, only to get used by the real villain (the sub-male-lead emperor) and eventually discarded and killed.

In other words:
a punching bag character,
a pawn to showcase the mastermind’s charisma,
a disposable NPC.

So immediately after transmigrating, I decided:

If I want to survive, I must twist the plot.

Sorry to the author who worked hard on this story,
but I lived a successful life once—
I refuse to die miserably as Blanche Nostalgia.

Luckily, I transmigrated at the very beginning of the novel.

I would survive, return to reality, and reclaim my civil servant life.

On the first day, after realizing all this, I wrote a memo:

1. Do not draw the emperor’s attention.
2. Do not get involved with the main characters.

Just these two alone should guarantee basic survival.

…Except every female transmigrator who says this ends up meeting the heroine, the male lead, and the villain anyway.

A bad premonition flashed across my mind.

But I slapped both cheeks and collected myself.

“Who am I? I’m Min Doyeon—
the woman who got into S University’s pre-med program and passed the civil service exam.”

I could do what others couldn’t.

…Or so I thought.

“Ah… what’s the problem here.”

About two years ago.

I stood in front of the burned-down Nostalgia estate and muttered.

“What went wrong.”

I hadn’t met the villain.
I hadn’t met the heroine.
I hadn’t met the male lead.

I skipped every event that could connect me to them and stayed home, avoiding society like the plague.

Then why—

“Why did our house go bankrupt?”

I watched the culprit being dragged away.

Blue hair with gold eyes. Ridiculously handsome.

Of course.
Because he’s the male lead.

That’s right.

The arsonist who burned my house down was none other than the male lead of “Love With a Kind Person,” Mellen.

I did everything to avoid him—
and he set our house on fire.

“Ah. I’m screwed.”

My plan collapsed.
Our household collapsed.
All thanks to the male lead I desperately avoided.

Still, I thought, We’re a noble family. We won’t just end up homeless.

I comforted my father, who was crying into the dirt.

I didn’t care where the male lead was being taken by the guards.

“It’s fine. A house burning down doesn’t mean we’ll starve to death.”

I really believed that.

Even if we struggle financially for a while, we were still counts, after all.

But a few days later—

Words have consequences.
Because we really almost starved to death.

Turns out, the one who threatened the male lead into arson was our own butler.

He had been embezzling from our family for years.
When he ran out of things to steal, afraid of being caught,
he kidnapped the male lead’s brother and forced the male lead to burn our house.

What kind of chaotic trash plot twist was this?

And excuse me?
I was supposed to be the villainess of this book.
Why is the butler suddenly taking my job?

It was ridiculous, but real.

Thankfully, our estate was insured,
but to get compensated we needed the imperial government office to process it.

Days passed. Then weeks.

No progress.

Every time we went, someone said,
“This isn’t our department. Try another bureau.”

We were passed around endlessly.

And like that—
we ended up homeless.

We became nobles only in name, poorer than tenant farmers.

All those nobles who used to party with us?
They vanished in an instant.

That’s when problem number two appeared.

Just when we were poorer than peasants, someone reached out to help us.

A girl.

She lent us money even though she barely had any,
shared food with us whenever she got some,
and even split potatoes she scavenged somewhere.

I finally asked her name.

It was the heroine.

Yes.

The girl who helped us was Gloomy, the heroine of Love With a Kind Person.

She would later become a saintess.

Not only did she live next door,
but I also learned the male lead had already been released from custody because they proved he committed arson under duress.

Our house was still ashes,
yet the arsonist was already freed.

What kind of legal system is this?!

And you protagonists—
do you not have shame?

I’ve been hiding from you with my entire soul.
Why are you popping up everywhere?!

At night, before falling asleep on a scratchy blanket, I gnawed on the fabric and muttered:

“So that’s how it’s going to be, huh…”

No matter how much I resisted the plot,
no matter how much I tried to avoid the main characters—

If I was destined to meet them anyway…

And if every meeting would be in the worst possible way…

I reached a conclusion.

If everything is going to crash anyway, then I’ll make it crash gloriously.

The next day, I said to my dad, who was stirring watery potato soup:

“Father. I’m going to become a civil servant.”

“…What?”

After thinking all night, I realized that I would inevitably meet the final villain someday.

Maybe, just like how the male lead ruined us when I avoided him,
if I avoid the villain, I’d meet him in the worst way.

The true final villain of the novel is the sub-male-lead—the Emperor.

And the worst possible encounter with an emperor?

Execution.
My death.

Absolutely not.

“We’re living like this because imperial officials—
I mean, because civil servants aren’t doing their job, right?”

It had already been two months of this suffering.

“So I’ll become a civil servant and handle our case myself.”

If officials wouldn’t process our insurance,
I would become an official and process it myself.

I used to be a civil servant.

Like someone whose body becomes small but whose brain stays the same,
my body changed, but my brain stayed sharp.

Father didn’t get a vote. I began studying immediately.

Six months later, I passed—obviously.

I even did a group interview with high-ranking officials.

Who am I?
I bulldozed into S University pre-med.
Civil service interview self-PR? Easy.

Years of academic competitions and exams hardened me.
Compared to entitled nobles and naive commoners,
I was on a different level.

I crushed them and got hired.

I became the empire’s rising star: the strongest elite rookie.
Within a year, I was promoted to Level 8 imperial civil servant.

And just a few days ago, I finally resolved our family’s case.

After two full years, we got our assets back.

I cried.

Everyone else in transmigration novels romances hot protagonists and gets happy endings.

I studied for civil service exams. Again.

While others flirted and sparkled,
I worked one year surrounded by sweaty middle-aged bureaucrats.

My fist trembled.

But it was fine.

Our family recovered.
The male lead disappeared.
Once I paid back the heroine, we’d never cross paths again.

And most importantly—
I still hadn’t met the final villain.

“Hide a tree in the forest,” they say.
Working among thousands of civil servants, the emperor would never meet a low-ranked employee.

Today, after cherishing it in my coat for a year,
I handed in my resignation letter.

I had dreamed of this moment.

It felt like flower petals were falling from the sky.

But then my boss frowned strangely at my resignation.

“Sss… This won’t do.”

Huh? What won’t do?

He looked at me with regret and shook his head.

“I understand that now your family is financially stable, you want to quit—”

He understands but…?

“But we can’t accept your resignation.”

“…Sorry? Why?”

“Well…”

He pinched the bridge of his nose like this was troublesome.

“You’ve been appointed as His Majesty the Emperor’s personal secretary.”