Chapter 1: The Ordinary End and the Confusing Beginning

The wall clock above the cash register read ten minutes past eleven at night. 

The convenience store's white neon lights hummed softly, keeping company with the quiet of the final shift hours. 

My name doesn't matter, at least not anymore. In my old world, I was just an ordinary guy living on a meager monthly salary, renting a small room on the edge of town, and spending my weekends reading fantasy web novels online. 

There was nothing special about my life. My days revolved around a monotonous cycle of inventory shelves, the cash register, and a silent apartment hallway. 

I straightened a few rows of canned drinks in the refrigerator shelf, then walked out after my shift officially ended. 

The autumn night air was biting and cold. I pulled my worn jacket tighter around myself as I stepped along the empty sidewalk toward home. 

At a quiet intersection, I stopped in front of a red traffic light. 

The asphalt road looked wet from the afternoon drizzle, reflecting the yellow glow of the streetlamps. 

Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed quickly from across the pavement. 

I glanced sideways and saw a boy around five years old running after his toy ball, which was rolling right into the middle of the street. 

His eyes widened in terror, while from the right side of the corner, a large truck sped forward at high speed without showing any signs of slowing down. 

Time seemed to slow for a split second. 

Without a thought for my own safety, my body moved on pure instinct. 

I ran as fast as I could, crossed against the red light, snatched the small child, and shoved him with all my might toward the safety of the curb. 

However, before I could pull my own foot back, a crushing, searing impact slammed into my body. 

The screech of tires meeting wet asphalt echoed sharply in my ears. 

The world spun instantly. My body lifted into the air before slamming hard onto the cold surface of the road. 

A burning wave of pain spread through all my bones, but strangely, that sensation slowly faded into numbness. 

In the remnants of my rapidly fading consciousness, my vision blurred. 

Yet, right before my eyes finally closed for good, I saw the little boy I had saved standing behind the roadside guardrail. 

The child stared right at me. 

And on his lips, a thin smile curved—one that felt completely alien, cold, and entirely unlike the expression of a child who had just escaped death. 

Then, everything turned pitch black.

---

When my consciousness slowly returned, the first thing I caught was the sound of a woman sobbing heartbrokenly close to my ear. 

"Alicia... please, wake up..." 

The voice sounded gentle, full of anxiety, yet felt foreign and pierced straight through my heart. 

I blinked slowly. My eyelids felt heavy, as if glued shut. 

Who is Alicia? 

Why did that name feel so familiar in my head, even though throughout my entire life in my old world, I had never known anyone named Alicia? 

Before I could process my thoughts, a pair of warm arms suddenly embraced my body tightly. 

A woman dressed in luxurious Victorian-era attire hugged me while wiping the tears from her cheeks. 

"Mother is so worried, Sweetheart," the woman whispered with a trembling voice. "The doctor said you collapsed from exhaustion because you pushed yourself too hard practicing magic. Don't scare Mother like this again." 

Mother? 

My heart beat rapidly, not out of emotional warmth, but from sheer panic. 

In my deepest memories as a modern working man, my mother had passed away from illness five years ago. 

The woman before me was not my mother. 

Or more accurately, this body was not mine, and I was definitely not in a world I recognized. 

"Mother..." my voice slipped out. It sounded so melodious, clear, and delicate—the voice of a teenage girl, not the baritone of a twenty-something adult male. 

The woman smiled in relief, stroking my hair affectionately. 

"Yes, Sweetheart. Rest in your room for now. Don't go anywhere today." 

After the woman who claimed to be my mother finally left the room with quiet steps, I bolted upright from the large bed adorned with carved antique wooden posts. 

My steps were unsteady as I approached the large gold-framed mirror standing in the corner of the room. 

As soon as my reflection stared back from the surface, I froze completely. 

The figure looking back from the mirror was not my usual self in a plain t-shirt and worn-out jeans. 

Instead, it was a teenage girl with long, snow-white hair cascading gracefully, and a pair of striking ruby-red eyes radiating a fierce yet cold charm. 

That face was breathtakingly beautiful, flawless, and without a single blemish. 

And along with that sight, a flood of foreign memories struck my mind like a tempest. 

The girl's name was Alicia Valerian. 

The world she stood in now was the setting of a popular web fantasy novel titled *The Crown and The Blade*, which I had once read to the very end during breaks at my convenience store job. 

And the most terrifying fact that made my blood run cold was... 

Alicia was not the beloved female protagonist. 

Alicia was the villain. 

In the original plot of the novel, Alicia Valerian was born as the sole daughter of Duke Valerian—the most influential noble family holding absolute control over the kingdom's military and serving directly as the king's right hand. 

She was the most genius student at the Royal Magic Academy, possessed rare ice-element magic, and was the official fiancée of Crown Prince Leonhardt Arcelion. 

However, that perfection was tainted by her own overwhelming arrogance. 

Driven by blinding jealousy toward the female protagonist—a talented commoner named Elena Rosehart—Alicia gradually turned into a cruel monster. 

She bullied Elena, abused her family's power, tried to harm those around the prince, and ultimately ended up as the final antagonist executed on the gallows at the story's climax. 

"Wait... wait a minute..." I whispered softly to myself in front of the mirror, my hands gripping the edge of the vanity table tightly. 

An ordinary guy who just wanted to live in peace after working part-time was now trapped inside the body of a noble villainess fated to meet a tragic end at the hands of the hero. 

Outside the bedroom window, the stone spires of the Royal Magic Academy stood majestically against the twilight clouds, welcoming the dawn of a new nightmare I had to face all by myself.