Chapter 1: I Became a Minor Character in a Novel

I didn’t hear any birds chirping or see any sunlight.

All I knew was that I had a pounding headache, a queasy stomach, and a parched throat.

“Ugh, water…”

I struggled to pry my eyes open and desperately wished I had someone by my side as I searched for water.

Apparently, I drank way too much champagne last night. When I was a freshman, I had hangovers all the time because I didn’t know my limits, but things like this usually didn’t happen anymore. I must have really had a blast yesterday.

I was relieved when a glass of water appeared in front of my eyes. It seemed I wasn’t alone after all. I tried to sit up, and someone held my arm and politely supported me. It was probably Sylvia—the so-called maid I’d met yesterday.

“Thanks…” I said weakly, before gulping down the water.

With at least one of my hangover symptoms fading, I began to feel a bit better. I gave my empty cup to the waiting hand and went back to bed, but something seemed off. Was Sylvia’s hand…really this big?

The question made me open my eyes again, and I stared at her hand. It was way too large to be a woman’s hand.

My gaze slowly traveled upward from the hand to the attached arm. The woman I met yesterday certainly didn’t have biceps this big.

And what was with those broad shoulders?

And her chest was…flat?

Wait, but why was she…naked?

“What are you staring at? Didn’t you have enough of this last night?”

Wow, Sylvia, your voice got really deep.

Bull crap! This person was obviously a man!

And what did he mean, had I had enough?

Don’t tell me…

I hurriedly peeked under the sheets and checked my body.

Ding ding ding! I was buck naked!

“I saw it last night. There was nothing special under there.”

I panicked and rolled myself up in the sheets as the man bent to look under the covers. And that’s when I finally took a look at his face.

The man in front of me had blond hair and blue eyes—which was no surprise, because the author of the book I’d been reading was obsessed with blond hair and blue eyes.

Okay, just calm down. As I tried to understand the situation, a few scenes from the book crossed my mind. Or were they scenes from my own memory?

“I…I can’t anymore…”

“Can’t what? You don’t like it?”

“No, it’s not that…”

No, it certainly wasn’t that I hadn’t liked it… Hang on, this wasn’t what I was trying to think about!

“Wait… Wait a minute…”

“Why? Do you want to stop?”

“Ah, no. Please don’t stop. Please…”

No, we should have stopped! I had no idea what was happening, but we definitely should have stopped!

And why were all my memories full of naked bodies? There were so many beautiful things at that party in the book; why did I only remember naked bodies?

“What are you thinking about?”

I turned toward the low voice and saw a ridiculously handsome man staring at me. Well, I had an awful lot to think about. I was beginning to suspect I’d lost my virginity in a novel instead of in real life, which was a big problem in and of itself. More importantly, though, I didn’t even know who I’d done it with.

It’s fine, I told myself. Just relax.

First, I had to get out of this situation. And in order to do that, I had to know where I was and who this gorgeous guy was.

“Hey…”

His blond hair looked like someone had intentionally styled it to look sexy, in a very “I just woke up” kind of way. He also had the kindest blue eyes—ones you wouldn’t expect from a one-night stand.

Gosh, he was so beautiful. He was way too hot to be just a minor character.

But please, let him just be an extra. Or maybe just someone with a very small part!

“So, um… Who are you?” I asked.

The moment I asked, the man’s face turned cold. My anxiety began to grow under his icy gaze.

“You mean you don’t know me—the sole heir to the Duke of the Erenel Empire?”

The only duke in the novel was…“Are you referring to…the Inglid family?”

The Inglids were the male lead’s family. He stared at me, stone-faced.

“Then you must be…” I gulped, terrified that I might be right. The heir to the main character’s family could only be one person.

“Duke Zeronis de Inglid?”

His smirk could only mean one thing. I looked at his sexy smile and thought to myself, I’m screwed.

I was a nobody who didn’t even have a name, and I’d slept with the male lead?

* * *

I thought the line I woke up in a novel was something you only read, well, in novels. Until I woke up in one myself.

“Miss Ripley, it’s time to wake up.”

To be honest, I didn’t even know I was inside a novel. I just thought, Oh, I must be dreaming. It wasn’t possible for me, someone who lived in a closet-like studio apartment, to be lying on this fluffy bed with flowy curtains.

“Miss Ripley, you need to wake up.”

And it wasn’t possible that someone was calling out to me using a name I didn’t even know.

“Miss!”

As the kind voice suddenly turned into a snarl, I jumped up in my bed without thinking.

“Very good. Would you like to wash your face now?”

It was definitely a question, but she didn’t seem to be expecting an answer—seeing as how she placed a bowl of water right next to the bed.

It’s a dream, so what? I thought, but the moment I put my hand in the water…

“Huh?”

The water was cold. Were sensations in dreams always this realistic?

“Miss, what are you doing? You have to wash up quickly. Today is Miss Etoile’s birthday party. You must hurry and get ready.”

Huh…what a familiar name. “Wh-who?”

“Etoile de Hailey, the baron’s daughter, is holding her birthday party today.”

Even the surname was familiar.

“By any chance, do you mean…the one with blond hair the color of honey, eyes like a deep-blue lake, and lips even redder than blood? That Etoile de Hailey?”

“Oh my! Miss, where did you learn such romantic novel-like expressions?”

From a romance novel.

“I don’t know if it’s like honey, but yes, Miss Etoile does have blond hair and blue eyes.”

“Then do you mean…the one who was once a poor orphan but happened to save the baron’s life and was adopted into his family? That Miss Etoile?”

“My goodness! How did you manage to summarize her story as if it were the plot of a novel?”

Because it is the plot of a novel.

In the book, the baron’s daughter just so happens to meet the incredibly handsome but wildly possessive duke, just so happens to get trapped in a confined space with him, just so happens to hear his very heartbreaking childhood story, and just so happens to fall in love with him; and of course, the jealous villainess nearly kills her, but the duke just so happens to find out about it, and the two confirm their feelings for each other and live happily ever after.

It was a typical romance fantasy novel—a novel in which every scene was connected through pure coincidence, with the male lead’s hotness and the female lead’s kindness being the only things holding the story together. That kind of novel.

And apparently, I was in that novel right now. But who the heck was Ripley?

Although I knew it was a cliché novel, I was totally obsessed with it. I had binge-read the entire thing many times. But there was no Ripley in that story.

“Excuse me…”

“Yes, my lady?”

As I finished washing my face, my so-called maid smiled warmly and handed me a towel.

“By the way, my lady, why are you speaking so formally to me today?”

Because today is the first time I’ve ever been your lady! But I couldn’t say that. “Uh…w-was I? I must’ve been half-asleep,” I said, hurriedly dabbing my face with the towel. I had to be careful. I would have a hard time if she thought something was wrong and had me sent off for psychiatric evaluation.

First, I had to find out whose body I’d possessed in order to know how to behave.

“So...do I know Miss Etoile well enough to receive an invitation to her birthday party?”

“Yes, of course. You are Miss Ripley, the friend of Miss Julia, the younger sister of Miss Juliet, the fiancée of Baron Dimitry, Miss Etoile’s older brother.”

Wasn’t that what you’d normally call a stranger? In that case, Ripley would probably just be an extra at the party.

“Now then, if you’ve finished washing your face, you should start choosing a dress.”

As she gestured, some other maids dragged in something that looked like a clothes rack—and on that rack were at least thirty or so dresses.

“Which dress would you like to wear today?”

“Oh…um…well…”

“Or would you like to choose your jewels first and match the dress to them?”

She gestured again, and another maid came in pushing a trolley with about ten jewelry boxes on it. The maids opened them one by one, displaying dazzling jewels of every color.

“Are these...all mine?”

“Goodness, my lady. You usually complain that you own too few jewels for a count’s daughter.”

“I’m a count’s...daughter?”

Holy cow—Ripley sure had a good pedigree for a side character. She was the daughter of a count, for heaven’s sake! Even the heroine was only the daughter of a baron.

As I looked into a mirror among all the beautifully arranged jewels, I saw a bewildered young woman staring back at me. My red hair was the color of carrots, and my green eyes blinked in confusion. As a foreigner to this realm, I didn’t know if I would be considered pretty. But if I had to, I’d say I was kind of cute.

“You sure are acting a bit strange today, my lady… Oh, and what do you want for breakfast? Would you like the usual—cream soup with carrot juice?”

“Um, no. I want to try something different.”

“Really? What would you like?”

“Um…I want a freshly baked bagel with crispy bacon and a bowl of fresh salad. Also, a sunny-side up egg and a cup of black coffee.”

The maid looked at me as though I had grown an extra head. A hotel-style breakfast was probably too much to ask for, even for the daughter of a count.

“Can you eat that much?” she asked. “You usually eat very little in the morning.”

I nodded. “I’m hungry today.”

“All right then, I’ll get it ready. In the meantime, please select your jewelry and dress.”

Thirty minutes passed by and for the first time in my life, I was wearing a diamond necklace, diamond earrings, a diamond ring, and a princess dress—all while enjoying a luxurious brunch in bed.

Woohoo! Waking up in a novel is the best thing ever!

I want to live here forever!

* * *

It was a lovely ball. Beautiful ladies and handsome gentlemen were enjoying the music and dancing in perfect harmony.

But it was all someone else’s story.

I couldn’t dance, obviously. How could an average twenty-two-year-old university student from South Korea know how to ballroom dance? So instead, I quietly ate some delicious food in a corner and pondered my situation.

No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t escape the fact that I had possessed a character in a novel. The title of the novel was none other than The Flower of Erenel, which I had just read—or should I say, re-read, for maybe the zillionth time—a few days ago. I was sure of it, seeing as how there was a baron’s daughter with an unfortunate past here.

It appeared I was near the beginning of the novel. According to the plot, I knew it was the heroine’s birthday today, and she was meant to meet the duke for the first time at her birthday party. Then, after a whirlwind of happy coincidences, they would live happily ever after… But it would take about a year for them to get married.

So all I had to do was eat good food, wear pretty dresses with expensive jewelry, and live the happy life of a count’s daughter. After the main characters got married, the novel would end, and I would go back to my original place.

“Miss Ripley! Thank you so much for coming all the way here.” A sweet voice suddenly interrupted my thoughts.

“…Oh, of course!” I replied about five seconds too late, because I had forgotten who I was while stuffing my face with macarons. And I turned around to see…

Who are you?

The young lady standing in front of me was so gorgeous, I didn’t know what to say.

I guess I should just…smile. I chuckled awkwardly as I brushed macaron crumbs off of my dress.

“Thank you so much for the birthday present you sent,” the young lady said. “It’s perfect.”

Oh! A birthday present? Then she must be Etoile.

I couldn’t help but stare at the heroine I had so enthusiastically rooted for. Just like it said in the novel, her gleaming blond hair and kind blue eyes were the first things I noticed. A shy smile lit up her pretty face.

She stood out like a beautiful lily even in this room full of blond-haired, blue-eyed people. Her lovely smile made me grin back without realizing it.

“Ah, don’t mention it,” I said, even though I had no idea what I had sent her. “It’s nothing big.”

“I promise I’ll cherish it. I hope you have a wonderful time tonight.”

“W-wait!” As she smiled gracefully and turned to leave, I couldn’t help but call her back.

“Yes?” She looked back at me, that warm smile still on her face.

There were a lot of things I wanted to say to Etoile.

But I couldn’t warn her about the villainess, Rose, and how she shouldn’t eat the cake that Rose sent for her birthday; or tell her that when the dress shop called her about a problem with her wedding dress, she shouldn’t go; or say she shouldn’t hold back any of her feelings to avoid misunderstandings with the jealous duke.

My shoulders slumped. “Happy birthday, Miss Etoile.”

“Thank you.” She gave a little curtsy and walked away.

I couldn’t say a thing. I didn’t want to ruin the original plot. She had to go through all of those events in order to become the heroine and achieve her happy ending. I knew how much she had suffered before being adopted by the baron, so I really, truly wanted her to be happy.

But…

I liked the second male lead, Wright, more than the obsessive duke, I thought as I watched Etoile leave. Wright is a super sweet guy. I looked around as I sipped some champagne. Etoile and the duke are supposed to have their first encounter today, so he must be here, too. Let’s see, the duke has blond hair and blue eyes, so…

…I would never be able to find him here.

The author of the novel was obsessed with blond hair and blue eyes. The female lead had blond hair and blue eyes. So did the male lead. And so did the villainess.

The ballroom was full of people with blond hair and blue eyes. Finding the male lead in this crowd would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Hey, this is really good. I looked down at the glass of champagne in my hand. Who knew that alcohol could be so delicious? The stuff royalty drank was clearly on another level.

“Another glass, please!”