The acrid sting of smoke still clung to her nostrils.
Han Soo-ah tried to draw a breath, but the air was too heavy, too searing. Her hands trembled as she clutched the small dog against her chest, her soot-stained body shielding his, her heart hammering a frantic rhythm against his quiet one.
"Almost there, little one…" she whispered, her voice weary but firm. "Just hold on a little longer."
The shelter burned around her. Beams cracked like breaking bones. The fire roared, closing in, a ravenous beast.
She ran for the exit, but the ceiling gave way.
An explosion.
A flash of blinding white.
A roar that tore the world from her.
And then, silence.
A silence so profound it felt like a final, whispering goodbye.
Soo-ah felt the pain in her body fade. She felt heat… then cold… then nothing.
"I wish I could… help one more time."
"Just once more…"
That thought was the last to inhabit her mind before the darkness claimed her.
Something damp brushed her cheek.
Soo-ah's eyes snapped open.
There was no fire.
No smoke.
The dog was gone.
In its place, a white ceiling, carved with golden filigree, arched above her head like a palace sky.
A shaky sigh escaped her lips. "What…?"
A group of ladies-in-waiting surrounded her, clad in antiquated gowns, their expressions nervous. They watched her as if they feared she might rise to tear their lives away.
"M-my lady…" one stammered. "You were unconscious. We called for the royal physician, but… you awoke so suddenly."
Soo-ah blinked.
She did not recognize the accent.
She did not recognize the clothes.
She did not recognize the face reflected in the small mirror one of the ladies held clumsily.
Silver hair.
Amethyst eyes.
Skin too perfect.
A face that was cold, beautiful, distant.
A face that was not her own.
"Who…?" Her voice trembled, as if it were the first time she had ever spoken. "Who am I supposed to be?"
The ladies swallowed hard, exchanging glances. The eldest among them stepped forward and spoke in a reverent whisper.
"You are… Lady Cassianne Verelith, my lady. Betrothed to the Crown Prince of the Dravenhart Empire."
Soo-ah felt her heart stutter, as if someone had pulled on the strings of her very soul.
Cassianne.
That name…
It was like a dam breaking. A torrent of images, memories not her own, slammed into her.
A gilded palace.
Whispers of hatred.
A forced engagement.
The figure of the Prince—cold, bloody, relentless.
And another woman: Elowyn, sweet as a dawn.
Beloved by all.
The woman he loved.
The woman for whose sake Cassianne was despised.
Soo-ah clenched the sheets between her fingers.
So, this was the body she had awakened in.
The arrogant villainess.
The unwanted fiancée.
The palace's disgrace.
A low laugh escaped her before she could contain it.
It was bitter.
Broken.
Almost cruel.
"So…" she whispered, the truth settling deep in her bones, "I am the villain of this story."
What utter shit, she thought to herself.
Of all the possible fates, she had to be reincarnated in another world, just like the trashy novels she used to read when she was bored.
She let out a deep, weary sigh. Her head throbbed. Out of all the people in existence, she had to end up in the body of this spoiled, wretched girl.
But her spiraling thoughts were suspended when the chamber doors swung open without warning.
The ladies-in-waiting immediately dropped into deep curtsies.
"Your Highness…"
Soo-ah lifted her gaze.
There, standing in the doorway, was him.
Prince Alistair Dravenhart.
More beautiful than any human mind should be able to conceive, yet so icy the very air around him seemed to still. His dark eyes, deep as a bottomless abyss, held no emotion as they settled upon her.
He did not look at her as his betrothed.
Not even as a person.
He looked at her as a problem.
An inconvenience.
An obligation.
"So, you have awakened," he said, his voice low, perfectly modulated, and utterly empty.
Soo-ah swallowed.
Damn pretty boy. So this idiot is the one the original brat was obsessed with? The tension in the room was palpable, a thick, suffocating miasma.
In a moment like this, the original Cassianne would have run to him, weeping and pleading for his attention. The mere thought sent a cringe of secondhand embarrassment through Soo-ah's soul.
So, instead, Han Soo-ah, the woman who had already faced death, simply lowered her gaze with an unnerving serenity.
"Yes, Your Highness," she replied with a calm she did not expect to possess. "I will not faint for you again."
The Prince's eyes flickered, a movement so subtle it was barely perceptible.
A spark of confusion.
Or perhaps, irritation.
The Prince said nothing more.
He simply watched her with those inscrutable eyes, as if something about her did not align with the image he had expected to see. As if an invisible shadow had shifted out of place.
But finally, he averted his gaze. His dark cloak swept around him in an elegant, cold motion, and he exited the room without deigning to close the door behind him.
The silence he left behind was as heavy as a tombstone.
The ladies-in-waiting, as tense as pigeons about to take flight, immediately swarmed her.
"My lady, please allow us to help you change your clothes…"
"The bathing chamber is prepared…"
"The physician will arrive shortly, but—"
"Would you like an herbal tea for your nerves…?"
Soo-ah raised a hand gently, halting the torrent of voices.
"I am fine. I can walk," she said.
She rose from the bed with slow but firm movements. Her body felt light, elegant, too perfect for someone who had spent her life carrying injured dogs and hissing cats that scratched her out of pure reflex.
She stood.
And all the ladies inhaled in unison, as if they feared she would collapse.
But Soo-ah walked calmly towards the room's enormous mirror.
The mirror was as tall as she was, framed in ornate gold and inlaid with gems. The image reflected in it took her breath away.
"Well now…" she murmured, more astonished than anything.
Silver hair, long and silken, like threads of moonlight.
Amethyst eyes, bright, strange, almost hypnotic.
Skin like porcelain, without a single blemish.
Naturally perfect, rosy lips.
A face that belonged neither to this world nor her last.
She turned her head from side to side. The reflection mimicked her, so beautiful it seemed a living painting.
"Not even in my best dreams…" she whispered.
In Korea, she had never been considered beautiful. Pretty, perhaps. Pleasant, maybe. The kind of girl who faded into the background in grimy shelter vests, with dark circles under her eyes and hands covered in bandages from nervous animals.
But this…
This was something else entirely.
Soo-ah tilted her neck to observe her profile. Then she looked down, carefully analyzing every detail. She even leaned closer to the mirror, assessing the natural grace of her posture, the shape of her body, the sheen of her hair—
She stopped when she noticed the maids watching her with wide, confused eyes, seemingly horrified that their lady would examine herself in such a way.
One of them cleared her throat, nervously.
"M-my lady… do you… require… our assistance?"
Soo-ah froze for a second. Then she remembered something fundamental:
The original Cassianne Verelith would never have allowed herself to be seen as insecure.
Nor vulnerable.
Nor curious.
"No. You may all leave," she said, her tone firm, aristocratic… and surprisingly natural.
They all bowed and scurried out at once, as if they feared to contradict her.
The door clicked shut.
Soo-ah released a sigh she had been holding since she first awoke.
"Okay…" she murmured, crossing her arms. "Let's see just how… different I am now."
She examined herself from head to toe once more, this time without an audience, without shame, with the genuine curiosity of someone who had just been given a borrowed body.
"This is real," she whispered, touching her face. "Very real."
It was strangely ironic that the most hated villainess was also the most beautiful.
An intimidating, cold beauty that the original had wielded as a weapon.
But that body belonged to her now.
And with it, came the memories.
Fragments of Cassianne's past began to slot into place in her mind:
—The intricate rules of the palace…
—The illustrious lineage of her family…
—The venomous intrigues between noble houses…
—Her role as the future Consort…
—The contempt of everyone around her…
—And her ridiculous, all-consuming obsession with Prince Alistair.
A lifetime of looking down on people, guarding rumors, defending her honor like a feral beast, demanding obedience… and loving a man who had never once looked at her with respect.
Soo-ah closed her eyes for a moment.
That emotional weight was not hers.
But now, she had to carry it.
She opened her eyes again, looking at her reflection with resolve.
"I understand how this place works," she said. "And I know what they expect from me."
A thin, almost amused smile curved her perfect lips.
"A pity I am no longer the Cassianne they know."
And so, standing before the mirror that had witnessed the birth of so many rumors, Han Soo-ah accepted the role fate had given her…
…to either destroy it or transform it in her own way.