1. At the Start of the Ruin Route
1. At the Start of the Ruin Route
"Young Lady-nim. It's time to wake up."
The voice beyond the door was cautious.
A title that Serena Val Edelhardt would have been accustomed to hearing, but to me now, it sounded like a death sentence confirming my reality.
I couldn't answer for a while, just staring at the face in the mirror.
Jet-black hair.
Cold, sharply slanting eyes.
A face that anyone would describe as having a terrible personality and looking unpleasant, yet was excessively beautiful.
Truly, the author's taste was consistent.
They doted on the female lead so preciously, yet they also put painstaking effort into the face of the villainess placed on the opposite side.
The problem was that face was now mine.
"Young Lady-nim?"
The voice outside the door drew closer.
I came to my senses belatedly and opened my mouth.
"...Come in."
It was my voice.
More precisely, Serena's voice, the one I would have to use from now on.
The door opened, and two maids entered with their heads bowed. One carried a basin of water, the other a neat dress that appeared to be today's attire. Both moved cautiously without looking directly at me.
That attitude itself was suffocating.
Ah. Right.
Serena was that kind of woman even in the original work.
A woman everyone feared, felt uncomfortable around, and chose their every word carefully around.
"What's today's schedule?"
When I asked nonchalantly, the blonde maid quickly replied.
"This morning, you have freshman registration and orientation at the Imperial Astrea Academy scheduled. This afternoon, there's a welcome tea party and a brief etiquette lecture—"
My head went blank just hearing that far.
Freshman registration.
Orientation.
Immediately after enrollment.
That meant this was the very beginning of the original work.
I swallowed a short curse inwardly.
Of all times, it had to be the most troublesome period. Before all relationships had completely twisted, yet simultaneously a time when one misstep could send me sliding very naturally onto the ruin route.
In the original work, Serena had persistently harassed Roseline right from enrollment.
It wasn't open hostility. At first, it was always in an elegant and refined form. But that subtle pressure accumulated and accumulated, eventually degenerating into vicious bullying toward Roseline.
And everyone believed it.
That Serena hated Roseline because of the Crown Prince Adrian.
I slowly inhaled.
No.
At least, the Serena I knew from the original work didn't seem like a woman who moved by such simple emotions.
The Crown Prince was merely a pretext.
What Serena truly responded to with obsession was always Roseline's side.
The moment I recalled that, a chill ran down my spine.
Why was I so certain of that?
Was it simply because of the sense of dissonance I felt as a reader?
Or was it because of the remnants of memories that had just flashed past?
"Young Lady-nim?"
I steadied my breath once more and put on a blank expression.
"Enough. Prepare me."
"Yes, Young Lady-nim."
The maids' hands began to touch my body. Removing the loose nightgown, changing my undergarments, arranging the dress—their movements were familiar and skilled. But I felt like I was going crazy from how unfamiliar and uncomfortable the entire process was.
Standing before the mirror, I was dressed up feeling like I was observing a woman who wasn't me.
A deep blackish-blue corset tightened over a pure white blouse.
The long hem of the skirt, embroidered with gold thread designs, brushed the floor.
A thin black ribbon was tied around my neckline, and gloves reaching my wrists were pulled onto my hands.
The completed look was excessively perfect.
Anyone could see I was a Duke's daughter.
Anyone could see I was an Edelhardt.
It suited me so suffocatingly well that it made me feel worse.
"Young Lady-nim, I will arrange your hair in a half-up style."
"...Fine."
I sat on the chair and bit the inside of my lip hard.
Calm down.
First, I need to survive.
Avoid the ruin route, don't deviate from the original work's progression, and just pass through as quietly as possible.
Just avoid Roseline.
The moment that name surfaced in my mind, my heart sank heavily.
Roseline Vellois.
Even now, that name was strangely vivid.
The only pearl in that trash novel.
The reason I couldn't miss a single chapter even while cursing it.
A woman who got hurt, endured, and never collapsed in the end.
And now, the person I would have to face the closest.
I unconsciously curled my fingers.
I have to avoid her.
At all costs, I must avoid her.
In the original work, the more Serena saw Roseline, the more she harassed her, and the more she harassed her, the more obsessive she became.
The starting point of ruin was always trivial.
Coincidentally running into her and throwing out a sarcastic remark.
Calling her name in front of others.
Pointlessly approaching to gauge her reaction.
Little by little.
Really, little by little.
Very persistently and obsessively.
Like a snake slowly coiling its body around its prey.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Damn it.
I didn't want to understand this body's owner, but that analogy fit too perfectly, making me feel even worse.
Even when I boarded the carriage after finishing preparations, my mood didn't improve.
The carriage bearing the crest of the Edelhardt Ducal House was excessively spacious, excessively luxurious, and had an excessively smooth ride. The street view of the imperial capital visible through the window was as flashy as any medieval fantasy noble story. Neat stone buildings, mounted knights, carriages bearing family crests moving about.
Everything was surreal.
Yet simultaneously, it was too real, and that was even more horrifying.
The original work was sloppy.
Both the setting and the plot were flimsy.
But now that I was actually inside it, the world was far more detailed and concrete than the novel.
That meant I couldn't fully trust what I knew either.
Realizing that fact made my head ache even more.
"Young Lady-nim."
The maid sitting across from me spoke cautiously.
"Would you like to check your student ID and assignment sheet again before we arrive at the Academy?"
Assignment sheet.
I held out my hand.
A thin folder of documents was placed in my hand. Paper stamped with the gold-embossed crest of the Imperial Astrea Academy. Student information, dormitory room number, orientation location, and group assignment were all organized.
Serena Val Edelhardt.
Upper-class noble special dormitory wing.
Class A, 1st Year.
Practical Basic Evaluation Group 3.
I quickly scanned the paper, then stopped my hand at the next page.
Freshman roster.
There, a very familiar name was written.
Roseline Vellois.
For a moment, my fingertips trembled minutely.
Even just seeing her name made my breath shallow for some strange reason.
It was truly absurd. A name I had read countless times as letters on a screen, but when faced with it as a real name written on paper, the feeling was completely different.
Roseline.
Vellois.
The moment I was about to brush over those letters with my fingertip for just a brief second, I came to my senses with a start.
What am I doing.
I quickly pulled my hand away and closed the folder.
Am I crazy?
To react like this over just a name.
Yeah.
This is exactly why I need to be more careful.
As a reader, I liked Roseline.
I cherished her, immersed myself in her story, and felt sorry for her.
But the body I've entered now is Serena.
This body has a high possibility of reacting in a bad direction when it sees Roseline.
Actually, just from the fragments of memories a moment ago, that was the case. Just recalling Roseline's troubled face, her ears flushed with embarrassment, her trembling breath made something deep inside me tense up strangely.
I turned my gaze out the window.
Calm down.
Today, I'll just grasp the situation.
I absolutely won't speak to her first.
I absolutely won't go near her.
I absolutely won't act like the original work.
Around the time I had resolved that three times, the carriage slowly came to a stop.
"Young Lady-nim, we have arrived."
The door opened, and I slowly stepped out.
The Imperial Astrea Academy was even larger than I had imagined. Pure white stone buildings, tall spires, a sprawling garden, and noble family carriages filling the main gate. Anyone could see it was the empire's finest educational institution.
Many freshmen were already gathered below the steps.
Young ladies in splendid dresses, young lords in uniforms, noble children accompanied by attendants. When the carriage bearing the crest of the Edelhardt Ducal House stopped among them, all eyes simultaneously turned this way.
Ah.
So this is how it feels.
Serena was a woman who commanded attention just by appearing.
I climbed the stairs maintaining as blank an expression as possible. Actually, it wasn't so much a blank expression as a frozen face from sheer disbelief, but to others, it must have looked sufficiently cold and arrogant.
I could actually feel the students passing by holding their breath.
"It's the Edelhardt young lady."
"As expected, just like the rumors..."
"I heard His Highness the Crown Prince is also coming today."
The whispers brushing past my ears almost made me let out a hollow laugh.
People are the same everywhere you go.
When a high-born daughter arrives, they stare; when the Crown Prince arrives, they chatter; and speculating in advance which young lady will be attached to his side is also the same.
I had my name tag verified by the faculty member in charge of guidance and entered the main hall.
It was a marble hall with a high ceiling.
Tapestries depicting the empire's history and symbols hung on every wall, and a long registration desk for freshmen was set up in the center. Invitations stamped with each family's crest were being exchanged, and the hall was bustling with the sounds of students receiving their assignment sheets and moving about.
I tried to keep my gaze fixed forward as much as possible.
Really.
I deliberately tried not to see anything.
And yet, in the end, I saw her.
On the opposite side of the hall.
A woman standing at the end of the line by the window.
Bright pink hair.
A soft color that faintly shimmered whenever sunlight touched it.
Neatly aligned shoulders and a straight posture.
And that subtle tension of trying not to shrink her body too much despite being under countless gazes.
It was Roseline Vellois.
For that moment, the world seemed to stop.
More than the illustrations in the original work,
More than what I had imagined in my head,
The real her was far more vivid.
She looked fragile but wasn't fragile.
She looked soft but didn't seem like she would easily break.
But precisely because of that, it was too obvious how beautifully she would waver with just the slightest touch.
My breath caught in my throat.
Roseline hadn't seen me yet.
She was quietly answering something the person in front of her asked. Her side profile was visible. White, soft cheeks, long lowered eyelashes, and the subtly stiff corner of her lips.
Whether it was because she was nervous about the unfamiliar environment,
Or because of the pouring gazes,
Her fingertips were gripping the edge of her document folder just a little too tightly.
The moment I saw that trivial movement, my lower abdomen thudded heavily.
I froze on the spot.
No way.
What did I just feel?
I should have looked away.
I should have immediately looked elsewhere.
But the moment Roseline took one step forward following the line, my gaze was caught once more by the sight of her brushing back the pink hair that had fallen forward.
She was too defenseless.
No, to be precise.
She looked defenseless, but that borderline where she didn't seem like she'd be completely defenseless to the very end was maddeningly captivating.
I swallowed slowly.
I had thought just moments ago that I needed to avoid that woman.
Yet now that I actually had her before my eyes, my body was reacting before my mind.
Truly.
I'm going crazy.
That was when it happened.
As if sensing someone's gaze, Roseline slowly lifted her head.
Eyes tinged with a hint of lavender turned this way.
It was an incredibly brief moment.
And yet, for that moment alone, all the noise in the hall seemed to fade away.
Roseline's eyes trembled slightly.
She must have recognized the Duke of Edelhardt's daughter.
Her name, her reputation, her notoriety.
Perhaps even though they hadn't directly crossed paths yet, she might have already placed me on her list of people to be wary of.
That fact strangely made my heart beat even harder.
I said nothing.
I just stood there, staring straight at Roseline.
Then she stopped breathing, almost imperceptibly.
In that instant.
A flood of emotions washed over me all at once.
Damn, she's pretty.
I didn't know a troubled face could make someone this heated.
If those eyes got just a little more moist, if that breathing got just a little more disturbed, what kind of expression would I make?
And in the midst of all those emotions, my rationality screamed, far too late.
It's over.
Serena had already recognized Roseline,
And I too had already recognized that woman.
The resolve to avoid her had cracked too easily in just the single moment our eyes met.
Roseline lowered her gaze first.
That brief retreat felt strangely sweet.
Only then did I realize.
The truly dangerous thing wasn't the ruin route or anything like that.
It was the possibility that,
In front of that woman,
I would become Serena.
The truly dangerous thing was that.