1KWI Ch 1

Have you ever thought about wanting to be in a novel?

A heroine with stunning looks, wealth, and a heart as pure as an angel’s.

On top of that, a perfect lover from head to toe. If you had to choose between such a novel and this harsh reality, anyone would pick the former without a second thought.

“But this is just ridiculous!”

I paced anxiously around the spacious room. The silk carpet, so soft it could bring me to tears, pleasantly wrapped around my bare feet, but it didn’t lift my spirits at all.

The quiet dawn, just as the light breaks.

A soft breeze blew through the slightly open window. I couldn’t even raise my voice, afraid someone might hear me, and ended up stifling my groans until I noticed a small hand mirror lying on the table.

“No, it can’t be. It couldn’t be!”

As I reached out with trembling hands and picked up the mirror, what came into view was a slender pale hand. Not to mention the perfectly manicured, almond-shaped nails.

I swallowed hard and, with effort, looked into the mirror.

Skin as white as snow, golden hair flowing like ripples at the sunset, eyes that sparkled like jewels in violet color, and a small heart-shaped beauty mark under the right eye!

The mirror slipped from my weakened hand and fell. I collapsed back onto the bed in a daze.

Was she truly only fifteen?

Youthful yet possessing a radiant beauty so dazzling that even another woman would be left mesmerized. She wasn’t me. But I knew her very well.

Lydia Odette!

A character from a fantasy novel I had been eagerly reading just moments ago. The only enjoyment for an ordinary person worn out by a tough life.

But why wasn’t I thrilled?

“How could I possibly be thrilled!”

She wasn’t the main character.

All the overflowing wealth, angelic kindness, and perfect fiancé belonged to the novel’s heroine.

Lydia Odette was just one of those extras, barely possessing just one of the heroine’s many strengths, her beautiful appearance.

So what if she was beautiful, you ask?

Shouldn’t she be able to live well with that face?

You clearly don’t know!

She was one of the imperial concubines who bullied the heroine and met her end at the hands of male lead, the Emperor. And, to make matters worse, she happened to provoke the heroine at the moment the Emperor was falling for her, unluckily getting herself beheaded right on the spot.

Though she was a minor character who didn’t appear in much detail, she was the first villainous extra to die. As the two protagonists get married in the final part of the novel, her name is personally mentioned along with a description of her appearance—that’s how I came to know of her.

Heavens, what did I do wrong to deserve such punishment? I was just reading a novel and fell asleep, that’s all! Ah…I think I smelled something burning while I was sleeping, was there a fire? Ugh, then I should wake up from this dream right away!

“This is just a dream, just a dream!”

I closed my eyes tightly and muttered to myself.

Yeah, there’s no way this could actually happen, right? This must be because I fell asleep after reading the novel too intently, and now I’m having a very vivid dream! I wonder how many times I muttered this. Sprawled out on the fluffy bed, I repeated it about a hundred times until I felt myself slipping into a daze.

Alright… this is it. Now I’m going to wake up from the dream. When I open my eyes, I’ll be back in my small but cozy room. While thinking this, I fell asleep.

---

Bang!

“Lydia?”

Mmm… it’s so noisy. Mom, please don’t put on those morning dramas.

“Goodness, at this rate you’ll be late!”

I burrowed deeper into the warm blankets, trying to sleep even just one more minute, when suddenly someone yanked off the blankets and sat me up with a whisk!

“Get ready to go to the Imperial Palace!”

What?! The Imperial Palace?!

My eyes snapped open. Then, in my drowsy, blurry vision, a scene both unfamiliar yet strangely familiar spread out before me.

Medieval-style, fantastical furniture, a luxurious bed draped with a flowing canopy, a stern-eyed lady, and my own reflection in a basin of water thrust in front of me!

“You stayed up late last night, didn’t you? Look at you, still half-asleep!”

She quickly shut my gaping mouth with one hand, then soaked a white towel in water and scrubbed my face vigorously.

W-w-wait! Stop!

“Y-you’ve got the wrong person! Ah!”

“Hold still! Why are you squirming so much today? If you want to catch the carriage on time, you need to wash up and change quickly!”

I struggled, trying to escape her rough grip, but it was useless.

‘What on earth is going on? Why am I still inside this novel?!’

While my eyes went wide with shock, the lady washed and dressed me in the blink of an eye.

The dress, covered in lace and frills, with a puffed-up checkered pattern, was hideously tacky, but the girl’s lovely red-gold hair, flowing like a sunset, was so beautiful that it made the tacky outfit seem forgettable.

But it wasn’t a situation where I could get lost in admiration of the beauty before me. I cried out in a fluster.

“W-wait a second. Something’s wrong here, this isn’t right!”

“Don’t worry; it’s a dress made from the finest fabrics Madame Torso owns. If you don’t like it, you can just get a new one in the capital, can’t you?”

This isn’t about the dress! I shook my head furiously, trying to explain this absurd situation, but that was also useless.

“Wait! Please listen to me!”

“Oh, right, I almost forgot. They say all the young ladies in the capital are as cunning as wildcats. Since you’re pretty, be careful not to attract any jealousy. If you mess up, you might be marked and kicked out before you even meet His Majesty.”

The lady pretended not to hear my words and kept saying I should behave quietly going forward. She non-stop lectured me about how I must catch the Emperor’s eye.

The capital?! The Emperor?!

Someone help! I’m not Lydia Odette!

Before I knew it, I was fully dressed and dragged out of the old stone castle by her hands, then shoved into a fancy carriage waiting at the front gate.

“Lady Odette?”

“Haha! Yes, it’s her. I’m sure you’ve been waiting quite a while. This girl was so reluctant to leave me that she threw a fit, crying and wailing.”

“That’s not it at all…”

“Oh, come now, girl! You’re going to be late!”

This woman! I’m not Lydia!

I tried to jump back out of the carriage but froze, shrinking under the gaze of a man looking at me coldly through his monocle.

“If we delay any longer, we’ll be late.”

“Oh ho ho, of course I know that.”

The lady winked at me and then shoved me into the carriage. She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief, pretending to wipe away tears, and quickly whispered to me before closing the carriage door.

“Lydia, no matter what happens, you must catch the Emperor’s eye. The future of our family depends entirely on you.”

“Wait a minute!”

I can’t move because of the massive puffed-up skirt on this hideous dress!

I tumbled onto the carriage seat, flailing as I yelled, but by the time I barely regained my balance and turned around, the door had already shut, and the carriage had started moving.

“Oh my gosh!”

In just one night, I’ve been thrown into the world of a novel. Into the body of a pitiful extra who dies! What’s worse, I knew almost nothing about this woman except her name!!

I stared dumbfoundedly at the passing scenery, and then belatedly grasped the situation and shot up from my seat.

But the situation had already unfolded. For a carriage in a fantasy novel, it was moving quite fast, and golden wheat fields soon zipped by outside the window.

The capital? The Imperial Palace? The Emperor?!?

So, does that mean I’m going to die? Is that it?

A sudden fear struck me, and I grabbed the door handle to try to escape, but it wouldn’t budge, as if it couldn’t be opened from the inside. In the end, after struggling for a few more minutes, I sank down helplessly, completely at a loss.

“What do I do? What am I supposed to do?”

I was so nervous that my teeth were chattering.

Should I jump out the moment the carriage opens? If I go to the Imperial Palace, I’ll die! While I was anxiously fidgeting with the hideous checkered dress, two hours passed. Before I knew it, the wheat fields had ended, and the carriage was now on a grand road. This is crazy!

“No, I can’t just die a meaningless death here!”

I have no interest in the Emperor! I have no intention of dying unjustly here, not even a little!

I guess I should run away. Yeah, that’s the best idea!

Grabbing the hem of my trailing dress,I prepared to escape through the carriage window instead of the locked door. But then suddenly, parts of the novel’s plot flashed through my mind.

‘The Emperor, in order to end the war, makes peace treaties and takes the daughters of local lords as concubines…’

I remembered the setting in the novel—that the Emperor was the god of war who had conquered this vast continent. I also recalled how the young Emperor, who had just ascended to the throne, beheaded all the rebellious nobles who had underestimated him and dared to revolt.

……Is it really okay for me to run away? What if my escape leads to a war breaking out because it violates the peace treaty? I’m exhausted.

It’s a dead end. I either die by the Emperor’s hand for tormenting the female lead, or I run away and start a war on the continent by breaking the peace treaty…

What kind of hopeless options are these? Why is everything so extreme?

I clutched the carriage window frame tightly with both hands, contemplating throwing myself out.

If I don’t obediently go to the capital and become the bloodthirsty Emperor’s concubine, he will likely assume I’m a traitor and start a war. And what would become of me, a person with nowhere to go in this world?

If my identity as Lydia Odette gets revealed, I’ll be lucky if I don’t lose my head right away!

I slumped back into my seat and tried to organize my thoughts.

The answer was surprisingly simple.

I just have to make sure I don’t get in the way of the Emperor’s love affair with the heroine. If I avoid joining the concubines who bully the heroine out of jealousy and simply live quietly in some corner of the capital, I’ll be fine! And if, in the meantime, I can find out how to return in my own world, even better!

Yes, live quietly. Live quietly.

I don’t have the slightest intention of attracting the Emperor’s eye at all. Right, let’s think positively. Since Lydia Odette was going to be the Emperor’s concubine, she’ll be treated extravagantly, at least in terms of food and clothing.

Then living quietly in the Imperial Palace shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

Since the heroine will become the empress later, I just need to make a good impression on her to live comfortably! That way, I won’t have to worry about annoying the emperor and ending up dead!

However…

“Lydia Odette, daughter of the Viscount Odette, you are hereby appointed as the thirtieth concubine of His Majesty, the Emperor.”

Huh? Excuse me?

“Your residence will be at the far west end of the Imperial Palace, at the Lily Palace. Proceed there immediately. Next!”

How could they appoint concubines as if they were just unloading baggage!

I was dumbfounded and wanted to argue, but the door was coldly shut in front of me. Like packages being stamped with delivery labels, the carriages lined up in front, behind, and next to mine, passing by one after another.

That’s right.

The great god of war, the Emperor, took in no less than thirty concubines. And he granted them ranks according to their status, placing Lydia Odette, the daughter of a mere viscount, dead last.

I didn’t even get to see the Emperor’s face, only a weary official read aloud a scroll stamped with the emperor’s seal.

Even though I’m just a wife in name only due to the peace treaty, isn’t this treatment a bit too harsh?!

To make matters worse, the Lily Palace where I was to stay wasn’t some grand tower like Rapunzel’s, but rather a small castle tucked away in a corner of the Imperial Palace.

Ha…

Isn’t it for the better in some way? At least I don’t have to meet the cold-blooded, bloodthirsty god of war they call the emperor. Fortunately, as a concubine, I’d be provided with adequate food and clothing.

I clenched my fists, trying to think as positively as possible.

Yeah, maybe this isn’t so bad!

If I live tucked away in this corner, there won’t be any chances to get jealous of the heroine or fall out of the emperor’s favor.

Moreover, as a concubine, I will be provided with enough to eat and wear.

Alright, let’s just live quietly.

I’ll live as if I dont exist, unnoticed by anyone.

Maybe this way, I can avoid the fate of a villainous side character. Who knows? I might even survive without getting killed!

I made a firm decision again.

Whatever happens, I won’t let things play out like the original story. I’ll hide, live quietly, and stay out of sight so that no one notices me!

That’s how I, once just a villainous extra, now have a goal in life.

Survive.

Live long and live quietly.