Chapter 1

This is a Villainess Role, Chapter 1. (1/390)

Chapter 1.

When I came to, the first thing I saw was a luxurious chandelier.

A chandelier that could never be found in my tiny, palm-sized room.

The moment I saw it, I realized.

‘...I’m still in this world, huh.’

If I could, I would have let out a string of curses, but even that was impossible.

Because, this body was that of a three-year-old who couldn’t even pronounce words properly!

All I could do was curl up like a rice cake and sob.

My name is Yoo Hye-min.

Or rather, Elyott Astra.

I was a three-year-old who had been possessed by the villain in a novel known for its difficulty.

‘Please save me!’

* * *

Three years ago, I, a commoner in Seoul, died of pancreatic cancer.

By the time I realized it, it was too late for treatment, and I couldn’t last a few months.

And when I opened my eyes again...

‘This body, huh.’

Small, round hands like a rice cake.

A plump body swaddled in a blanket.

A body that couldn’t even make a sound, literally a newborn.

No one explained it to me, but I had a hunch.

‘I must have been reincarnated!’

It was a familiar setting for someone who had once squandered their fortune on KakaoPage.

That’s why I quickly grasped the situation.

‘Since I was reincarnated as a baby, it must be a child-rearing story.’

‘The luxurious room suggests my father is a noble.’

‘Probably a duke or an emperor.’

‘You must be a cold northern duke, but warm to your daughter, right?’

Since things were like this, I decided to prepare thoroughly before meeting my father.

The reason I didn’t prepare to meet my mother was that, in such settings, mothers are usually absent.

And since no one came looking for the real me, it was clear that I had no mother.

Anyway, I worked hard until an adult came to find me.

‘Let’s practice not crying even when I see something scary.’

I also practiced smiling for the scene where the father is surprised that I don’t cry when he sees me.

‘Abba? Pappa? Papa? ...Gongjamni?’

I also thought hard about what to call him for the scene where the father is flustered by a familiar term.

I waited for my father with a pounding heart...

“Is this the one?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

...It was my grandfather who appeared.

‘Isn’t the father in a child-rearing story supposed to be young...?’

Is this a variation on a common trope?

Still, he had a terrifying presence befitting a duke.

The duke asked the adjutant who came with him.

“So, no abilities have manifested yet?”

“No.”

“Damn.”

“What shall we do about the name, Your Grace?”

The duke glanced at me and said in a lackluster tone.

“Elyott. Let’s call her Elyott Astra.”

It was a strangely familiar name.

‘Elyott, Elyott, Ely... Ott?’

As I repeated the name, a memory flashed.

I was sure I had read a novel with a character named Elyott.

A novel serialized on a free site.

* * *

The story of *Possessed, But Turned Out to Be the Villain’s Granddaughter*.

Shortened to *Poss. Vill. Grand*.

The story goes like this.

I was an ordinary college student in South Korea.

I was possessed by an extra in a novel I usually enjoyed reading.

Despite all the hardships I endured as an orphan, I turned out to be the granddaughter of Duke Astra, the ultimate villain.

A family so fearsome that even the emperor was intimidated.

I tried to run away out of fear, but ended up forming bonds with my family.

‘There’s nothing I can do about this now.’

I have to win over the family and make them repent.

Can I fend off the original female lead, who thinks I’ve taken everything from her, and change the future?

So, is Elyott the ‘main character who was possessed by an extra’?

No, she’s the ‘original female lead’ and the cousin of the main character, Dalia.

In other words, my role was to play the villain pretending to be the original female lead.

And it was a villain who was supposed to die a miserable death for tormenting the real main character...

‘The person who named me just now was my grandfather, not my father.’

I tried to think calmly, but I felt my world collapsing.

Being possessed in a possession story.

What a ridiculous situation.

‘And this novel... it was discontinued, wasn’t it?’

That’s right. This was a novel that was discontinued due to its failure.

It started well. As they say, familiarity is sweet, and many readers were drawn to the clichés.

But they all left due to the poor plot development.

The only reason the remaining readers clicked on the next chapter was that the villain, Elyott, suffered in a way that was entertaining to watch.

The author seemed to know this and made Elyott suffer terribly.

‘To sum up, my future is...’

1. Not inheriting the power my grandfather desires, and being treated like a nonentity.

2. My father, who went to war before I was born, dying when I’m around four years old.

3. Being bullied by the family due to the lack of a proper guardian.

4. Blackening and tormenting the female lead out of jealousy, and getting my neck wrung.

The genre of my life had been decided without my knowledge.

It was a tragic story.

* * *

Three years later, the present.

I climbed onto a chair with a gloomy expression.

‘I couldn’t return to my original world this time either.’

There was a lunar eclipse yesterday.

I had high hopes for it as a last resort, but it failed again.

‘Not only did I not return, but I just lost another night of sleep.’

I was so sleepy I felt like I was dying.

‘No, no.’

I shook my head and picked up a crayon.

I was currently in a class at the ‘Twelfth Tower,’ where the Astra family’s collateral children lived.

I was a direct descendant, but I had been living in this tower since birth because I was out of favor with my grandfather.

If I were lazy, I would be completely out of favor.

I looked at the teacher while holding the crayon.

Our table, where children under seven were gathered, was currently learning to write.

“Now, let’s try a slightly difficult word. ‘Kamadeuk’.”

I wrote the word on the paper as instructed.

My underdeveloped fine motor skills made the writing terribly messy.

‘Hmm, good.’

I can write the imperial language decently now.

Thinking this, I suddenly looked around. I saw the writing of the children sitting around me.

“...”

I subtly covered my paper and added some more letters.

This was a skill I had developed over the past three years.

I couldn’t be too bad, but I also couldn’t be too good.

‘I can’t stand out.’

Only then could I move freely.

I could use various methods to return to my original world because I was free.

The teacher looked at the children’s writing and nodded.

“This is a difficult word. ‘Kamadeuk’ is written using ‘wi’ and ‘rotd’ from the letters we learned last time...”

In the middle of the lesson.

The door opened, and a servant came in briskly.

“A message has come from the main house. We are to bring the children to the main house at noon tomorrow.”

“I will prepare.”

I had a feeling that the days before would be noisy, and it turned out that tomorrow was the day we would go to the main house.

‘It’s already that day.’

The day when the direct and collateral descendants of the main house gather for an exam.

The exam was very important.

‘Because it determines the ranking.’

In the terrifying Astra family, everything is determined by ranking.

From pocket money to living quarters, even future positions.

So, everyone was focused on the exam.

‘Well, it doesn’t matter for kids like me.’

How can children who can’t even write a dictation take an exam?

They just go through the motions.

But the children were excited.

“Can we see the direct descendants? Blizen, Joshua...!”

“I like Balzac the most. He’s so cool! The youngest aura user!”

To the children, the direct descendants were like celebrities.

‘They don’t know how terrifying they are.’

In *Poss. Vill. Grand*, Elyott almost died several times due to the direct descendants.

It was enough to make the originally timid and weak Elyott turn black.

As I was thinking this, someone pushed my chair.

“Hey, dog hair.”

I turned around to see a thin boy grinning.

This thin boy had recently started bullying me.

He wanted to test me because he heard I was ignored at the main house.

He was a typical extra.

I could guess what he was going to say.

‘Your mom is a commoner, right?’

“Your mom is a commoner, right?”

‘How crude.’

“Crude.”

It was exactly as I expected, so I was unimpressed.

The thin boy grinned and raised his hand. He was about to press his fingers into my head.

I said, “Wait,” and grabbed his index finger. Then I raised my other arm.

“Teacher, he’s bullying me!”

Immediately, the adults’ gazes focused on us.

The thin boy was extremely flustered.

Normally, the proper response would be to cling to the teacher’s skirt and cry, but I had exposed him, so he was flustered.

The teachers quickly approached.

They examined the situation and soon narrowed their eyes.

“Bullying a fellow student during class. I’m very disappointed, Timothy.”

“This incident will be recorded. Reflect on your actions.”

The thin boy was severely reprimanded and had to write a ten-page reflection.

I hummed as I watched the thin boy sobbing and writing his reflection.

I had experienced this before as Yoo Hye-min, and I knew that the best response in such situations was to speak up.

‘Besides, did I do nothing for three years?’

Of course, my primary goal was to return to my original world, but I had prepared contingency plans just in case.

“Are you feeling better?”

The teachers asked with extremely kind expressions.

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad.”

“There is. Grandfather. If you invest in Pena Trading, you’ll make a lot of money.”

The teachers’ eyes lit up, and they took out their notebooks.

“Pena Trading.”

“Pena Trading...!”

To survive as a child, adult help was essential.

So, I captivated the teachers by giving them a tip about a stock that would skyrocket.

It was fortunate that I remembered the novel’s content.

“What a clever child.”

“Candy. Would you like some candy?”

“Yeah! (Yes!)”

Ah, by the way.

There’s one thing I haven’t introduced yet.

When I was Yoo Hye-min, my job was a parliamentary assistant.

Unfortunately, I had a terrible boss, and I learned only three things there.

1. The skill of switching allegiances like a migratory bird when one’s faction is in trouble.

2. The art of twisting the other person’s words to make them look like a scoundrel.

3. The weasel-like habit of pretending to be kind to the weak and even kinder to the strong, making oneself the most pitiful person in the world.

I thought to myself as I fully utilized the skills I learned from my terrible boss.

‘This is K-politics, children.’

One day after completely failing to return to my original world.

I made a decision.

‘Since I’m in this situation, I’ll do my best to survive.’

* * *

The next day, noon.

I arrived at the main house with the collateral children.

The children gasped in awe as they entered the main house.

The eleven divine statues that occupied the entire wall.

The large and beautiful stone pillars.

The luxurious banners adorned with gold thread.

It was an overwhelming sight.

‘Though it’s a bit eerie.’

I glanced at the strange monsters chained at the gate.

Their sharp eyes were incredibly frightening.

‘This is so inconvenient.’

Suddenly, I felt like a child.

Sometimes, I even completely became a child.

‘Maybe it’s because I’m not the main character, so I have a penalty.’

A child of my age was also afraid of the monsters. I quickened my pace to pass by them quickly.

I hurried to follow the children.