Chapter 1
Chapter 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Ghosts from the Past
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I encountered people like ghosts from the past.
Actually, they were too outstanding to be called mere ghosts.
“Marso.”
At the voice calling my name, I lifted my gaze as if awakening from a dream.
His blond hair was beautiful like a gem bathed in light, but it strangely lacked vitality.
Ryan Streugen, the male lead who should have possessed everything.
His blue eyes had sunk into a deep abyss, staring at me.
“…I didn’t know you.”
Hearing his voice filled with regret, I laughed in disbelief.
You never had any intention of knowing me to begin with.
If they had just treated the changed me like a person, I wouldn’t have come to ignore them so thoroughly.
In my new life, I had truly tried to maintain good relationships with them, after all.
“I told you from the start.”
I spoke coldly, staring at the man before me.
The prince who would one day become the Crown Prince ruling this nation, and once the man who had harbored a crush on the heroine Resuan.
Of course, not anymore.
“…Miss Marso.”
As Ryan froze in place, Kaisen stepped forward from where he stood beside him. Wary of even the slightest contact, I stepped back.
“You’re the same.”
I replied coldly and shoved Kaisen away. The strength drained from his wrist as he reached out toward me.
The sight of both of them gazing at me with pitiful eyes like lost puppies was utterly ridiculous.
Who was it that had dragged the situation to this point?
Who was it that deserved to make those eyes?
“You don’t… have to seclude yourself anymore.”
Ryan, standing there dumbstruck as if at a loss for words, spoke in an affectionate tone.
I could guess at the misunderstanding Ryan was laboring under.
Rumors had circulated that I had begun my seclusion after being wounded by his words at first, and similar gossip had spread about my second seclusion as well—so he must have thought I longed for him.
‘The world doesn’t revolve solely around you lot.’
I recalled what they had said in the past.
“I’ve given you plenty of warnings so far. This time, it won’t end with mere words.”
“If you dare try to blemish Resuan again, I won’t let your house stand, even if it costs me everything I have.”
That day too, without fail, the two men had come demanding that I stay away from Resuan—and they had been far too busy threatening me to listen.
Telling them that I was no longer harassing Resuan, that they should come see for themselves the truth of things between her and me, had done absolutely no good.
My every action was inevitably twisted into an attempt to slander her somehow.
No one had any interest in the truth of a Marso who was trying so hard to get along.
Every time, I had told them.
“I was only trying to look after Resuan.”
I had strained my voice hoarse letting them know I had changed, showing it through my actions.
But that day, even I had finally reached my limit.
And so, I bid farewell to them—to the original story.
“Understood. I’ll stay home from now on.”
With those words, I cast aside the last shred of expectation I held for them. And I truly began a hermit’s life, barricaded in my house.
“I’m sorry for not believing you back then.”
But that hadn’t been because I liked them.
To cut off Kaisen as he pressed on in that desperate voice all alone, I raised my hand.
“Kaisen, you seem to be under some misunderstanding.”
I stepped forward and continued, my face expressionless.
“The reason I holed up in the house back then wasn’t for you or His Highness the Prince.”
“…Pardon?”
To the stunned Kaisen, who asked again in bewilderment, I drove the point home.
“I simply wanted time to myself, free from the sight of your ugly mugs or the hassle of rumors.”
“…”
“If you think you occupy enough space in my life to affect it, that’s a problem.”
“But you secluded yourself after that too, didn’t you? How do you explain that?”
Ryan protested.
“That was for my own sake as well. You should know that, Sir Kaisen.”
At my words, Kaisen seemed to lose the power of speech.
An awkward silence followed my answer. I blinked, then let out a sigh.
Ryan always acted as if disaster would strike unless I loved him.
‘No, wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t cling to you?’
You hated me, after all.
It felt like we had said everything there was to say.
I wanted to head back to the main square, where the festival was in full swing.
“I was worried because you hadn’t shown up in so long.”
A voice soft as gentle sunlight rang out, and a cloak draped over my shoulders.
“…Darsi.”
I’d thought he was swamped right now—how did he know I was here?
My surprise was fleeting; facing him left me speechless.
His eyes, each a different color, gleamed like jewels set in place.
He was a beautiful man, like a flower in full bloom.
He smoothed his silver hair, fluttering in the breeze, and smiled.
“It’s a festival for you, after all. We should head back.”
His gaze, fixed solely on me, behaved as if the people we had just been speaking to weren’t even there.
“That bastard…”
The moment Ryan, bristling with outrage, reached for his sword hilt—Darsi’s pistol materialized in his hand, aimed at Ryan in an instant.
Darsi, who hadn’t seemed to glance aside even once, had Ryan’s temple squarely in his sights.
“Sir Darsi!”
As Ryan went rigid, Kaisen bellowed. But Darsi’s eyes remained locked on me.
With a face as innocent as a child’s, he asked.
“What should I do?”
His sweet timbre melted away like candy.
“What you want is what I want.”
The full focus of his mind and senses was me.
“The weapon you came up with for me.”
“…”
“I’m alive because of you.”
Watching Darsi whisper words utterly devoid of jest, as if he would offer up the world itself, I recalled our first meeting.
The time when I had thought eternal seclusion was my fate—and the stroke of luck that had burst into my life unannounced.
Today’s pointless war of words was no different from any other.
“Do you think insulting her will make you look more appealing?”
“Miss Marso, you don’t deserve anyone’s love! How dare you try to tear her down!”
The sharp voices made my ears ring dully. It felt as if a volcano had erupted nearby.
Watching the enraged male leads, I narrowed my eyes. I wondered if the truth even mattered to them.
There was a glaring contradiction in their words.
I had never insulted the heroine Resuan.
I had simply corrected her table manners, which still bore traces of commoner habits. Better to hear it from me once than to have people whispering behind her back, I had thought.
Was extending a courtesy to a girl weak in noble etiquette really cause for the male leads to storm in and threaten me?
Especially since I knew Resuan herself would have conveyed my words with genuine thanks.
But it was clear my actions hadn’t appeared that way to those around her—not Resuan herself.
Because the ‘Marso’ I had possessed was the villainess.
The rumor that I committed misdeeds out of a desire for their love was the same story.
Their visit to my estate today would no doubt become fodder for that rumor, blown up even larger.
Headlines like [Prince and Knight Commander Deliver Justice, Enraged by Marquis Etwar’s Daughter’s Villainy] would be par for the course.
The novel I had possessed was a romance fantasy called [The Heroine Wins Everyone’s Love]—a fluffy tale chronicling the life of a heroine from misfortune to universal adoration.
This world existed solely for the heroine Resuan, her happiness the greatest joy for all.
But she couldn’t simply be happy for the story to unfold. Hence her added obliviousness. A heroine too quick on the uptake would disrupt events with the male leads.
And so the author introduced one extra character to provide trials for the kindhearted heroine.
The outsider. In a story where everyone loved the heroine, the sole exception who hated her: the villainess Marso Etwar.
‘Marso’ was the only daughter of Marquis Etwar’s house, elegant in appearance and blessed with everything. And from childhood, she had been in love with her playmate, Prince Ryan.
Ryan was the sole man the Marso—who had never known failure in obtaining what she wanted—approached with caution.
The prince worthy of a girl who had it all.
Marso fluttered around him like a girl lost in first love. Hoping that someday, he might come to like her.
Of course, it never happened.
For Ryan had fallen at first sight for Resuan Epekle, who burst into Marquis Epekle’s house like a comet.
Ryan, ever indifferent to the point of chilliness toward Marso, was different around Resuan.
Marquis Epekle, Resuan’s grandfather, felt the same—as did the sub-male lead Kaisen. Everything came easily to the heroine.
How much of a thorn in the eye Resuan must have been to Marso goes without saying.
Resuan, a marquis’s granddaughter raised like a commoner, had many deficiencies.
Marso, meanwhile, had already debuted in high society and made her name.
Marso exploited those gaps to torment her.
That was the exact situation when I possessed her body.
It could have seemed hopeless, but I saw it as a chance handed to me.
Setting aside Marso’s villainess role, she was surrounded by people eager to befriend her.
I, who had met a dog’s death in a traffic accident in my past life, now had a fresh start.
Isn’t that right? In novels, when a villainess changes, those around her are startled but delighted. I’d read the arc of a villainess’s redemption countless times.
As a devoted romance fantasy reader, I firmly believed good fortune awaited after her turnaround.
“I’ve given you plenty of warnings so far. This time, it won’t end with mere words.”
…Like hell it would. Glaring at the male leads radiating menace like they’d press a blade to my throat, I could see just how idiotic I’d been!
Life wasn’t fiction—it was reality, and people were ruthless.
I forced my reluctant lips upward into a smile.
“I only helped because I figured you’d hear the servants gossiping behind your backs. You both hate that sort of thing. And I whispered it to her. Lady Resuan smiled and thanked me.”
That was the truth. Pretending to recommend a dish, I had murmured that her fork wasn’t positioned correctly for etiquette.
“She has worth simply by existing—no need to change. What needs changing is your arrogant attitude.”
…Save those heartfelt confessions for Resuan herself. Don’t waste them twisting someone else’s intentions.
“His Highness is right. I love her just as she is!”
Wow. Really. Now it was too filthy to stomach.
Time to end it all.
“Yes, it was all my fault—utterly. I’ll spend my life in remorse and never cross paths with Lady Resuan again.”
Now, everything was exhausting.
“How is that even possible? You’re the marquis’s only daughter.”
To the two male leads, their faces blank with dismay, I replied flatly.
“I just have to stay home.”
A perfectly straightforward solution.
Regrettably straightforward, given all the time I’d wasted thus far.
Yes—that overflowing wealth in the house of a rich villainess into which I’d been dropped? Divine providence telling me to hole up inside from the start.
“…What?”
“Exactly what I said.”
And so I resolved to put it into action.
With money to burn, I’d hole up at home and live!