Bellatrix Berce
I opened my eyes to find myself inside a novel.
And of all things, a romance fantasy world I barely knew anything about.
My mind was a complete blank. I couldn't even begin to grasp how any of this had happened.
People bustled and chattered around me while every kind of memory came pouring into my head.
“Ugh!”
When an entire lifetime slammed into my skull all at once, I couldn't help letting out a strangled sound.
Bellatrix Berce.
The name was surprisingly familiar. She was a supporting character—the female protagonist's closest friend—in a romance fantasy novel I had once read.
That was right. A woman.
I had suddenly transmigrated into a side character in a rofan novel.
Why?
No—wondering about something like this would never give me answers. There was no one to ask, and I already knew there was no undoing what had already happened.
I thought carefully, trying to dredge up every scrap of information I still remembered. In the original, Bellatrix Berce was only a supporting character, yet she was far from minor. In fact, her role carried considerable weight.
The moment that thought struck, cold sweat slid down my back.
This novel's genre was romance fantasy. Getting involved with the female protagonist was the real problem. Whenever anything happened to the heroine, she got tangled up with her, which naturally meant becoming thoroughly entangled with every male character who typically appeared in rofans.
Of course, given Bellatrix's personality, it never progressed as far as an actual romance line with them… but even that much was already a nightmare for me.
Get mixed up with those sweaty men?
If I were the pure original Bellatrix Berce, perhaps. But right now I still retained my identity as a man. No matter that my body was female—that was a hard pass.
Yet given my social standing, I could not avoid getting involved with the female protagonist. Our families were close, and more than that, my younger brother was destined to end up with her.
That was right. Following the original plot, the Berce family would become the heroine's in-laws. How could I possibly stay uninvolved with a family like that?
In the original, every time something happened the female protagonist came running to Bellatrix to vent—and now I was supposed to play the role of her emotional dumping ground? And on top of that, get engaged to some man who was friends with her?
I would rather die.
So was there a legitimate way for me to escape that role? That was the problem I had to consider from now on. Whatever it took, I had to at least avoid the goddamn situation of ending up under some man.
But before I could sink deeper into thought, voices of concern and questions about my well-being kept coming from around me.
“Bella, are you sure you're all right?”
“Yes, I'm fine. I just bumped my head a little, so I feel a bit dizzy…”
I figured I should at least answer them, so I dug through the memories of how Bellatrix treated them and did exactly the same—speech patterns, personality, everything. I could not risk being purged because they thought something strange had possessed my body. This was a world where divine power and inquisitors actually existed, after all.
Fortunately, no one suspected I was someone else. Whether it was because the mannerisms were already ingrained in the body or because mimicking Bellatrix's behavior felt surprisingly natural, I was never suspected after that either.
My gait, my actions, my etiquette… everything came out so perfectly refined that even I found it hard to believe these were my own movements. It was almost unsettling.
But I had to get used to it. This did not feel like a simple dream. If it were a dream, the sensations could never be this vivid. Which meant I might have to live the rest of my life in Bellatrix's body.
…Just thinking about it was utterly horrifying.
In the story, Bellatrix's appearance was described as top-tier. Brilliant golden hair and matching golden eyes, plus a face so beautiful that no one I had ever seen could even come close. The first time I looked in a mirror after coming to my senses, even I was startled. Is this really my body, moving under my will? I wondered.
But that beauty only forced me to face the cruel reality that was coming. It was the kind of looks that would make men's eyes spin. Just how many advances would be thrown my way? My mind went blank just thinking about it.
I was not even a woman, and now I had to deal with men hitting on me? The mere thought made my skin crawl as if insects were crawling all over me.
“I'll just step out for a bit of fresh air alone.”
After saying that to my parents, I wandered outside. Even though this was my first time seeing the magnificent scenery of the grand mansion, it felt strangely familiar.
What should I do?
My head was a mess. Looking through Bellatrix's memories, it seemed she was currently fifteen years old. Which meant there were still two years left until the original story began.
Two years. In that time I had to find a way—any way—to avoid getting involved with the female protagonist.
Bellatrix got involved with the original female protagonist two years from now, on the day Eleonor Rubencia debuted in high society. But no matter what, I might not be able to avoid getting tangled up with her. Because of Ragnar, the little brother Bellatrix thought of as an idiot.
In the original, Ragnar fell for Eleonor at first sight. That was where all the entanglement began. Nothing I did could change that. Even if I left, Eleonor, drawn by Ragnar, would come to the Berce estate, and I would get involved with her.
I hated that.
So the best method was… for me to leave the Berce Duchy. Who cared about the original plot? I simply found the idea of some unnecessary emotional-dumping-ground girl latched onto my side utterly repulsive.
But a problem always arose at times like this. How was I supposed to leave the Berce estate?
I was currently nothing more than a fifteen-year-old girl. Setting aside my original identity, if I thought about it coldly there was no way for me to just run off from the Berce family on a whim. And if I simply ran away? I would meet with some kind of misfortune for sure.
This world was not twenty-first-century Korea, where public safety was so solid you could roam the streets at dawn without danger. No matter that it was a rofan world—or rather, precisely because it was a rofan world—the places out of sight were even harsher. Even a rough dig through Bellatrix's memories made it clear that this world's public safety was not particularly good. Especially since I was currently nothing more than a fifteen-year-old girl. If I showed myself openly on the streets in any way, it would be dangerous.
So how could I escape from the Berce Duchy? No suitable method came to mind.
Clang—!
While I was lost in thought and wandering aimlessly, the sound of cold weapons clashing made me look around. Without realizing it, I had come all the way to the knights' training grounds.
Fierce shouts rang out; weapons collided with fierce intensity. Even digging through Bellatrix's memories, there were not many instances of her visiting the knights' training grounds—just occasionally to check on her younger brother Ragnar. From that it was clear she had no particular interest in the sword. No, she definitely had no interest in swords. Bellatrix's tastes were thoroughly feminine. She preferred reading books over picking up a sword, and took a deep interest in the kinds of things girls her age usually cared about.
But now… the world I faced after waking up in her body was completely different.
The sound of swords clashing, the trajectories of the blades, the movements of the muscles… all of it was being etched into my eyes as if time had slowed down. It was a sensation that raised goosebumps. Literally, the world I saw was different. I could discern one by one the principles behind how they moved—why they moved that way, why they blocked and countered the blade like that, what that sword would look like if it reached a higher realm. All of it was vividly clear.
I even wondered how Bellatrix could have faced this scenery and still not taken an interest in the sword. It could not be expressed with a simple word like “talent.” If there was a god of the sword in this world, and that god bestowed a blessing on someone, it would be exactly the current Bellatrix, I thought.
As if entranced, I stepped into the training grounds. The sensation I had just felt began to grow even more refined. My eyes followed the swords of their own accord, and before I knew it I was standing in front of a sword lying in a corner of the training ground.
No one had noticed my presence yet. The knights were absorbed in the sparring match currently underway between the knight commander and the vice-commander.
Should I pick up the sword, or not?
The hesitation did not last long. I grabbed the sword that was roughly lying on the ground. I felt its heavy weight, yet it was not so heavy that I could not lift it. Bellatrix had a slender body, but contrary to appearances she was quite strong. As a child she had broken several things because she could not control her strength well. So I knew that at the very least my current self was capable of swinging a sword.
Without hesitation, I swung it.
The motion was awkward since it was not yet ingrained in the body, but a fierce sense of liberation shook my mind. It did not take long for the clumsy posture to take on a form similar to what the knights were swinging.
Three times.
Just three times. After swinging the sword three times, I went beyond simply mimicking the basic motions and could recognize why swordsmanship took this form.
In that moment, I was certain. This was the path I had to walk in this world.
Rofan this, original heroine Eleonor that—all those complicated things vanished from my mind. All that remained was the sword itself, stretching straight and true.
Without realizing it, a smile formed on my lips.