Chapter 01
“Zeroth Prince on a White Horse”
The northern summer was a season with cool breezes and pleasant weather to live in.
The sun was hot, but with a glass of juice filled with ice, it wasn’t hard to endure.
It would have been even better if not for the man who barged into my room early in the morning and sat himself down.
His red eyes, the signature of Callier, had been stuck to my face for a while now.
I pretended not to notice his gaze as much as I could.
Ever since he entered my room, I hadn’t been able to read a single letter from my book.
Please ignore me. Don’t pay attention to me!
Anyway, he won’t kill me. He can’t kill me.
“Do you have something to say to me, Your Highness?”
But as I thought about it again, since the man in front of me was Callier Esperos, he might actually kill me.
Unlike other novels where the male lead goes dark, he was just a villain mastermind.
I tried to smile as prettily as possible and asked him.
Callier, who had been staring at me quietly, slightly raised the corners of his lips.
“Heidi Eliana.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Make me laugh.”
He often made all kinds of unreasonable demands like that.
But I had no power, and I was even pretending to be Heidi Eliana right now, so there wasn’t much I could do to rebel.
I parted my lips and looked at him.
“Do you know what it’s called when a cow climbs the stairs?”
“……”
“Cow-reening (So-reum; pun).”
Wow. My life is a joke. Fuck.
Two Months Ago
“Kyaa!”
“Oh my, I’m sorry. Are you okay, miss?”
A slow apology came from above my head.
It wasn’t like I was outside, I was just walking inside the house, and suddenly filthy water was poured all over me. I was shocked.
The water dripping from my hair to my whole body smelled so foul it made me gag.
“Ah, your dress is ruined. Well, it wasn’t in great condition anyway.”
I held back my anger even as the maid giggled and mocked me.
It wasn’t hard to hold back anger. The servants often made my life difficult.
But lately, it was definitely getting worse.
The maid slowly came down from the second floor, looking at me standing frozen, her expression indifferent.
“There’s water everywhere.”
Whether she didn’t know it was her fault or just didn’t care, she looked annoyed.
She tilted her head and looked at my stiff face, frowning.
“Are you okay?”
Am I okay?
Of course I wasn’t okay.
This was the second time today.
The maid of this house had poured dirty mop water over me – the only daughter of the family.
Even seeing my fierce gaze, the maid just smiled.
There was no sign of fear or apology on her face.
As I pushed my soaked hair back, I twisted my lips into a smile.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“……”
“It’s nice and cool. Smells so bad it makes me want to puke.”
Even as I spoke sarcastically, the maid just smiled.
“Oh my, our young lady is so kind-hearted.”
“……”
“Thank you for understanding, miss.”
The young maid, whose name I didn’t even remember, smiled as if my sarcasm meant nothing.
She twirled her curly brown hair and looked down at the dirty water.
“Sigh, when will I finish cleaning this up?”
I glared at her as she turned away without another apology, and squeezed the water out of my hair.
Water drops fell from my hair into the puddle below, creating ripples.
As I blankly stared at the puddle, sudden memories flooded my mind, making me freeze.
“Young miss Rebelia?”
The maid called me from nearby, but I couldn’t open my mouth easily.
Because at that moment, I realised – I had died from overwork and stress under my boss in my past life, and now I was in the novel “Zeroth Prince on a White Horse”, which I couldn’t even finish reading because the male lead was so bland.
And in this novel, I was the villainess who bullied the female lead, Heidi – Rebelia Piace, daughter of Crocan Piace.
I couldn’t believe it, but I focused hard as all these facts rushed into my head.
If I remembered the story well, maybe I wouldn’t have to live like this.
“Young miss?”
“……”
“Did you lose your hearing after getting drenched?”
“Ani…? Oh my, what happened?”
Another maid came rushing over, pinching her nose at my stench, and asked the first maid.
“Ani, did you pour dirty water over the young miss?”
“Pour? I just dropped it.”
“Still, how could you drop it?”
“Why are you making a fuss? Let’s go. Looks like she can’t hear us anyway.”
“That’s not it. My hands slipped too today and I poured dirty water over her head earlier.”
“What?”
“Oh my, then she got soaked twice just today?”
Their voices were filled with mockery, not fear, even though I was standing right there.
They snickered and walked away with cheap laughs.
I stood there, sifting through my memories, then let out a bitter laugh.
“Of all stories, I ended up in ‘Zeroth Prince on a White Horse’ as Rebelia Piace?”
If my memory was right, Rebelia loved the male lead, Crown Prince Delphian Zeroth, and hated Heidi for receiving his attention.
And if this novel was like other typical romance fantasy stories, Rebelia, the villainess, would bully Heidi until she…
“Gets executed.”
Realising that my future was even worse than my current life, I lowered my head deeply.
Later That Day
I washed my hair for the third time today to clean off the dirty water.
Looking at myself in the mirror, I clicked my tongue.
“…Rebelia Piace.”
The woman I reincarnated as had beautiful violet hair like violets and eyes like a lake’s blue.
If she was born in the real world, she could have been a celebrity. But her life was harsh and miserable despite her pretty face.
And as Rebelia herself for 18 years, I knew that better than anyone.
With my only remaining family, my father Crocan, ignoring me, the servants treated me like I was invisible.
“…Crocan Piace.”
With an eyepatch from an accident ten years ago, he was the final villain of this novel and my father.
The reason the servants ignored me was because he allowed it.
No, maybe he even encouraged it.
I remembered his cold, empty black eyes every time he looked at me.
What did I do wrong?
Thinking back over the last 18 years, nothing came to mind.
Even if I had done something, I was just a child then. Blaming me for over ten years was absurd.
I sighed lightly and placed my towel on the table.
“If I had known I’d reincarnate into this novel, I would have finished it even if the male lead was boring.”
Even if I had read to the end, Rebelia’s role would just have been bullying Heidi in all sorts of ways.
But at least I understood now why Rebelia hated Heidi so much.
At her first ball, Rebelia fell for Delphian at first sight, but his gaze was always on Heidi.
That was why she bullied Heidi so badly.
But if that was the only reason, I knew I wouldn’t do the same.
“Anyway, rather than forcing myself to stay in a family that doesn’t love me, maybe I should escape as soon as possible…”
As I turned absentmindedly, I noticed the bookshelf felt emptier than before.
Some books seemed to be missing…
My gaze quickly turned to the fireplace.
It was late spring, not cold at all, but someone had lit a fire, filling the room with warmth.
I hurried to the fireplace and saw burning scraps of paper turning reddish as they burned.
[…love you, my…]
It was a letter.
The only letter my mother, Anna Piace, had left for me when she abandoned me here alone ten years ago.
I couldn’t throw it away, but I also couldn’t keep it close, so I hid it in a book – and now it was burning in the fireplace.
As I stared blankly, it turned to black ash and disappeared, and my mother’s faint memory overlapped with it.
‘Lea.’
Remembering her bright smile made my stomach churn.
It hurt like something was tearing inside, and an indescribable nausea rose.
Did I resent my mother for leaving me here alone?
Not really.
But I also couldn’t understand her.
In my memory, my mother never loved my father, and maybe she couldn’t love a child born from him either.
Thinking that, tears I hadn’t shed despite all the abuse threatened to spill.
I bit my lip hard, holding them back.
As I wiped my eyes and turned around, I met eyes with a man standing at the door.
“…Father.”
“You look pathetic, Rebelia.”
It was my father, Crocan Piace, head of the Piace family.
