Chapter 1
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Possessed as the Villain
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Cassius Winterguard.
He was one of the male leads in the romance fantasy novel Until the Ice Flower Melts—and a villain.
Cassius, head of the Winterguard family tasked with guarding the northern borders of the Estia Empire during its radiant golden age, appeared as an early-game villain, a mid-to-late-game villain, and a sub-male lead.
Yet despite the author tagging him as a sub-male lead, readers only ever called him a villain. And there was a reason for that.
He had imprisoned the heroine, Yelena Astria, and tried to turn her into his plaything!
"What kind of sub-male lead is a criminal?"
Even if modern stories needed to stand out with something special, making a criminal a sub-lead was just too much.
That was why, despite the decent ending the author wrote—despite Yelena ending up with the prince instead of Cassius—so many readers criticized it.
Why didn't they show Cassius getting punished or dying?!
Perhaps due to the massive backlash, in the side stories after the ending, the author hinted at Cassius's fate.
[Cassius neglected his territory, allowing endless monster incursions to overrun it, leading to his death. His lands were then annexed by the prince and added to Yelena's holdings...]
The grand duke's family fell into ruin, and the heroine inherited everything, turning it into an even better domain. It was a refreshing, satisfying side story.
As one of the readers, I had enjoyed that scene immensely. But now... I couldn't anymore.
"...That isn't going to be my future, is it?"
A villain character who loses the battle for love, sees his territory and family crumble, and meets a miserable end.
I had possessed that Cassius.
"Haa."
And the person most critically tied to that bad ending—none other than the heroine Yelena—was sleeping right in front of me.
"Mm... mmm..."
Blissfully asleep, oblivious to the depression threatening to crush me.
A crude bearskin blanket with a bear head blatantly attached covered her.
Truth be told, right after possessing this body, I'd taken it off the wall and draped it over her myself.
If I hadn't, she probably would have shivered through the night huddled by that inefficient wall furnace.
"Puhengchi!"
And as if in response, even buried bravely under the bearskin, she let out a sneeze.
"Haa."
What the hell was I supposed to do? Honestly, I had no clue.
'No, wait. I didn't even leave comments in the first place.'
Weren't you supposed to possess someone after spamming hate comments? That's how it usually went, right?
In that sense, I hadn't done anything, so this felt utterly unfair.
"...For now, obviously, I should just leave her alone."
Imprisonment, plaything—the best move was to not touch her at all. That was the trigger for all the hate and his pathetic downfall.
The silver lining? Yelena hadn't been in the Winterguard mansion long, by the looks of it.
'The novel said she couldn't even sleep properly once the trauma really kicked in.'
This lunatic Cassius, to force her submission and dependence, had stopped lighting the furnace properly and barely fed her from the mid-imprisonment phase onward.
But since the furnace was lit when I possessed him, at least we hadn't reached that midpoint yet.
'It wasn't always this bad from the start, either.'
Yelena had come to the Winterguard mansion because her family fell into ruin.
More precisely, Cassius Winterguard had demanded her in exchange for forgiving the Astria Viscount family's debts, dragging her here.
I recalled him spotting her at a royal ball a few years back, then scheming to ruin her family afterward.
Anyway, when she first arrived at the mansion, Cassius had treated her well, or so the story went.
Acting like her savior to build affection.
But as his irrational behavior and obsession mounted, Yelena grew terrified and distant, so he turned violent.
'So if I just leave her be, she'll wander off on her own, and the prince will come take her away.'
From Cassius's memories, Yelena had arrived at the mansion just yesterday morning. The 3rd Prince wouldn't visit Winterguard territory for another half-year, at the northern summer ball.
The prince who marries her and makes her empress in the ending. If I just didn't touch her for these six months until he showed up...
"...The real problem is the territory, though."
While Cassius obsessed over Yelena, he neglected Winterguard territory, paving the way for its downfall.
In other words, what I—now Cassius—needed to focus on wasn't the heroine, but the territory.
"Haa..."
Me, an ordinary guy from South Korea—what experience did I have managing a territory?
Just thinking about it made a sigh escape naturally.
If I had to stretch, maybe controlling a clan to beat opponents in a traditional Korean folk game like jegichagi or something. That was it.
'...Still, I can get help from others for that part.'
Surprisingly, Winterguard territory had several highly competent people who seemed too good for Cassius.
If I hired and favored them, putting them to work on the territory, things should roll somehow.
As I sighed over future worries, my eyes met a pair of blue ones from across the room.
"..."
"..."
"...Hiiik!!"
The owner of those blue eyes, Yelena Astria, clutched the bearskin like she'd spotted a massive monster and scrambled backward with a flurry of pababak! sounds.
"Y-You... you're...!"
She stared at me with a trembling voice.
Part of me wanted to raise both hands and declare, "I'm not the enemy!" But I couldn't.
'If the servants saw that, they'd really think I'm insane.'
In the end, I mimicked Cassius's speech from the novel.
"Cassius Winterguard. Master of this mansion."
"..."
"The one who saved your family from ruin... and the one who brought you here as payment."
"...!! So it was you!"
In the original story, Yelena had suspected Cassius's actions from the very start.
That suspicion showed in her fearful, guarded demeanor.
"D-Don't come any closer!"
Thinking I was about to pounce, she grabbed the bear paw dangling from the skin and swung it wildly in the air.
The sight was so absurdly cute that I couldn't help chuckling.
"Y-You're laughing...?!"
"You're lively even in a blizzard. No need to worry."
For now, leaving her alone seemed best. And separately, I needed time to organize my plans.
I stood slowly and nodded toward a decent bed in the corner of the room.
"When you sleep later, don't do it on the floor—use the bed. Oh, and that bearskin is fine to use, so relax."
"Eh? Ah...!"
Only then did Yelena realize I'd covered her with the bearskin. Her cheeks flushed red.
She fumbled to climb out, but felt the chill the furnace couldn't reach, and ducked back under with her golden hair.
"Puhengchi! Ah! Ahem!"
'Come to think of it, the Astria Viscount family was from the southwest.'
So she was more vulnerable to the cold than Cassius or the other northerners used to it.
Ding-a-lang~.
The bearskin alone wouldn't cut it, so I picked up a small bell from the corner and rang it.
Moments later, someone opened the door and entered.
"You called, Master?"
A maid with black hair like Cassius's and a cold, expressionless face greeted me.
Most northerners had black hair, making Yelena's blonde stand out even more.
"The guest looks quite cold."
"I'll have her change clothes and bring more firewood for the furnace."
"Good. And from now on, attend to her."
"Yes, understood. Miss, this way, please."
"Yes? What do you... Kyaa! C-Cassius!"
"Hang in there."
"W-Where are you taking me...!"
Yelena eyed the stoic maid warily, just as she had me, but it was pointless.
Northerners were stronger than southerners by nature, so the maid scooped her up like a bundle and headed off.
Probably to bathe her before changing clothes... Good luck.
I watched them go, then headed to Cassius's room.
Luckily, possessing the body had left me with his memories, so I didn't get lost in this sprawling mansion.
'From her reaction, it seems this is our first direct meeting, thankfully.'
His past memories were vivid, but the hours right before possession were hazy.
So I couldn't tell if this was our first encounter or if pre-possession Cassius had met her already.
But that reaction... It seemed like the standard response after hearing Cassius's bad rep and that he'd "bought" her.
Kiiik.
Once in the room, I sat at the desk and began planning ahead.
"...First things first, I need to normalize the territory."
And to do that, step one: survive this winter flawlessly.