1.

Memories of her past life surfaced. Along with them came the realization that she had transmigrated into the world of the novel she used to love.

‘What… what am I doing right now?’

Adne, who had been pressing her lips to the mouth of a man who looked as if he were sleeping soundly, jerked back in shock and sprang to her feet.

The man with features as flawless as a carved statue lay quietly asleep, completely unaware of what had just been done to him.

Heat slowly crept up her face.

‘Prince Cassiel!’

The illegitimate son of the Armenes imperial family, the cruel man who would one day kill his brothers and seize the throne.

And her superior.

The moment Adne came to her senses, she fled the room in a panic. She rushed onto the corridor balcony and drew the cold outside air deep into her lungs.

‘A book transmigration…’

And of all times, it had to hit her at the exact moment she was secretly kissing her sleeping boss.

In her previous life she had been an ordinary woman in the Republic of Korea. Abandoned after her parents divorced when she was young, she lived a harsh life believing money was everything, only to fall to an incurable disease and die after a short existence.

While dying in a lonely hospital room no one visited, the only friend she had was a typical mass-market web novel.

A love story of a prince and a noble lady who, through every hardship and scheme, finally achieved their love.

While reading, she could forget for a little while the stabbing pain of her failing body. So when she opened her eyes again, she lived even more deeply inside that book.

But the one who captivated her wasn’t the main male lead. It was the sub male lead, Prince Cassiel, who obsessed over and imprisoned the heroine. Born an emperor’s illegitimate child, shunned and cast aside, he endured a miserable childhood. Then he met the heroine, fell in love, and to claim her killed his brothers, staged a rebellion, and became emperor.

Yet even after becoming emperor, when the heroine did not choose him, he sank into despair and fury, eventually becoming her steadfast supporter.

That character was her absolute favorite.

“A sub male lead… is my boss…?”

Her white breath scattered into the winter air, spring still far away.

Adne tried again and again to shake herself awake from the unbelievable reality.

As she forced herself to face the cold, vivid chill of the balcony, she remembered something else.

She was only a minor extra in the book.

And…

“I’m… the extra who betrays him…?”

As Prince Cassiel’s secretary, Adne was one of those worthless side characters who sold her superior’s secrets to the main characters.

A single throwaway line early in the story.

“…Do I really have to betray him?”

Just being at her favorite character’s side twenty-four hours a day already felt like happiness enough. Was there any need to betray him and join the main cast?

But the thought lasted only a moment.

“Ah… I already betrayed him, didn’t I?”

Only a few hours ago she had sold information about Prince Cassiel to First Prince Rachel and asked him to protect her position. And Prince Rachel had readily agreed to her proposal.

Adne covered her face with both hands, recalling the man’s face as she fled.

The instant she remembered her past life, she had become the trashy extra who betrays her beloved favorite.

* * *

“Ugh, my head hurts… Sir Caspalt just kept pouring drinks last night… If it weren’t for the information about the eastern territory Kanzel monsters, I would’ve run away too…”

In the office flooded with cold sunlight, a tall handsome man lay stretched across the plush sofa. The sword at his waist looked uncomfortable, yet he ignored it, clutching his head over and over in the agony of a hangover.

Adne, sitting on the opposite sofa while reviewing documents, faintly knit her brows.
He had shown up first thing in the morning, right when she arrived for work, and was now complaining about his hangover in her office for some reason.

“Sir Deon, if you want to cure your hangover, you should probably visit a physician.”

“Ah, the physician isn’t in yet. Nowhere else to go. What’s the harm, with how close we are?”

“And just what kind of ‘close’ are we talking about?”

Her grip on the papers tightened.

The knight, lounging as if he were in his own bedroom, looked at her with a mischievous grin.

“What else? We’re coworkers under that ill-tempered prince of yours.”

“……”

Sir Deon was Prince Cassiel’s right hand and long-time comrade, their bond forged on battlefields where life and death blurred.

‘I met him on that battlefield too.’

Perhaps because it had already been five years, the frightening first impression he once gave was gone, and he now acted like some neighborhood thug in front of her.

“I’m busy.”

“Come to think of it, do you know where the Captain went after the banquet yesterday? I asked the others and nobody saw him. He hasn’t shown up for work either.”

“…I went home early last night, so I wouldn’t know.”

His question suddenly brought back memories of the previous night—of herself kissing the face of the sleeping man.

‘As if betraying my boss weren’t enough… I even sexually harassed him… What trash…’

“Haa…”

“Hmm? What’s with the sigh?”

“It’s nothing… I just don’t feel like working…”

“Heeey. Don’t tell me you caught sight of the Captain with the young lady yesterday?”

“And what does that have to do with me sighing?”

Adne was genuinely puzzled.
Her sigh had only been because she didn’t want to work. Why would seeing the Captain with some noble lady make her uneasy?

When she looked at Sir Deon in confusion, he crossed one leg over the other and teased with a sly smile.

“Well, because you like the Captain. Isn’t our secretary here the picture of pure, devoted love?”

“……”

“Hmm? I’m right, aren’t I? You can’t fool my eyes.”

‘…I can’t let this slip.’

She had never imagined he might have noticed her feelings for Prince Cassiel since childhood.
She thought he cared about nothing but swords and strength, but apparently he paid more attention to those around him than she expected.

Adne racked her brain for an excuse.
But having already sorted through the words she needed to say last night before falling asleep, the lie rolled easily off her tongue.

“It’s true I respect the Captain… but pure, devoted love? Sir Deon, there’s something I haven’t mentioned. I have a lover.”

“…What?”

The arm resting on the back of the sofa slipped off. Deon’s eyes widened.

“A—A lover? You? No way! Don’t lie to me!”

‘Sharp as ever.’

Claiming to have a lover was a lie, of course.
But Deon could never find out the truth. First of all, he was absolutely loyal to the Captain. As Prince Cassiel’s closest aide and the Second Prince’s right arm, he could become merciless toward a traitor.

‘If he finds out I already sold the Captain’s information to the First Prince…’

A faint ache tugged at her chest.
Even if it had been a decision made by the version of herself who had yet to remember her past life, and even if she could understand why…

Was there anything more painful than betraying those you trust?

‘She must have thought I’d be a burden.’

To the Adne of that time, who still lacked memories of her past life, Prince Cassiel was likely a master overflowing with ambition, ready to lure his brother’s fiancée for the sake of becoming emperor.

It wasn’t that she failed to recognize the grace of the man who saved her life and gave her the chance to live like a human being.

But deeper than that, she must have liked him.

‘I must not like him.’

Even if it would never be mutual, he had a woman he loved.
For now he might weigh the power of the First Prince’s fiancée more heavily, but before long he would truly love the heroine.

‘I would never have been able to endure at his side with such a foolish heart once he became emperor.’

For a commoner like her, the only choice that wouldn’t become a hindrance to her savior… was to earn his hatred instead.

‘Even if I understand it, that choice was never the right one.’

But she had already become a traitor. A month from now she planned to attend the Pasent Duke’s party and then escape with the First Prince’s men.

‘Can I survive the month without being found out…?’

They wouldn’t bother paying much attention to a disposable side character anyway. All the more since he had already made contact with the heroine.

‘I was so happy just to wake up near my favorite… and now we’re a relationship that has to end…’

Adne forced the corners of her mouth down, trying to keep them from drooping.

“That’s because I never said anything. Why would I need to talk about my lover?”

“…Does the Captain know you have a lover?”

“He doesn’t. And since the Captain will have someone soon himself, I doubt he would care.”

Deon muttered words of disbelief under his breath.

“My instincts can’t be wrong. No… I was sure…”

As Deon spoke in confusion, the door opened and a man with a cold expression entered.

The crisp uniform he wore had not a wrinkle, and a chill seemed to follow him in from the outside air.

A man whose golden hair shone as though sprinkled with gold dust looked dazzling, yet his face was set in deep irritation.

“…Captain.”

Adne rose from her seat and gave a formal greeting to her superior, the radiant light of the empire.

His soft, lustrous hair reflected the early morning sunlight with a bluish gleam.

Praised as the very light of the Arkelo Empire.

A being draped in brilliant gold, made only of the rarest and most precious things.

Yet to Adne, he seemed an empty, emotionless man.

In the novel, he was described as someone who could never be happy, forever unfulfilled no matter how much he gained.

The absence of his mother in childhood and the discrimination of the imperial palace.

Cassiel’s mother had received the emperor’s favor and borne him a son, but she had a lover she’d loved since youth. After giving birth, unable to endure the stress of being abandoned by the man she truly loved, she ended her own life.

Because of this, the emperor rejected Prince Cassiel, and the nobles, fearing the emperor’s wrath, turned their backs on him. His childhood was always lonely.

And yet countless people approached, drawn to his beauty.

The careless words they tossed out became thorns that pierced the young Cassiel.

Perhaps that was why Adne felt his emptiness so painfully.

“Have you nothing to say to your superior?”

Last night she had fled in panic, so this was the first time she had truly looked at the Second Prince’s face.

Not that her memories of their shared childhood had disappeared.

But it was the first time she had clearly recognized her favorite character’s face since remembering her past life, and the feeling was strange. So strange that she hadn’t heard her boss calling to her.

Seeing this, Deon pressed the toe of her shoe gently, pulling her back to reality.

“…I greet the radiant prince of the empire.”

“…I greet Your Highness.”

Prince Cassiel waved a hand and dropped onto the sofa. Resting his chin in his palm with his long legs crossed, he looked like a carefully painted masterpiece.

Deon sat on the opposite sofa, and Adne followed, taking her seat cautiously.

“Your Highness, no one could find you last night. Were you alone with the young lady?”

Deon asked with a sly expression.

Startled, Adne fixed her gaze on the floor and focused on their conversation.

“Why? Would it matter if we were together?”

“Ah, the way you say that makes me think you were with someone else. The young lady isn’t indifferent to you either. Shouldn’t breaking the engagement be the first step?”

“It’s only a matter of time. My brother will never marry that woman. The Empress won’t leave a woman with a scandal with me as Crown Princess.”

“Still, considering the Pasent family’s influence, they won’t just let the Duke go.”

“I’ll make sure she chooses me. I will become emperor.”

A chilly silence settled over the office.

No one present was unaware that First Prince Rachel’s crown prince investiture was imminent.

Yet their master spoke with unshakable confidence.

Adne slowly lifted her dark eyes to look at Cassiel.

He was the very image of an arrogant sovereign.

A man who could sell love itself for power.

A man whose only living purpose was to become emperor.

‘So he’s someone who will never love me.’

Prince Cassiel had endured everything to become emperor. In the novel and from her own view at his side, she knew it.