“I’m screwed,” muttered Juliana Auburn, who remembered her past life in a dream last night. She then said as she stared blankly at the sparrow sitting on the windowsill, preening its feathers and flicking its wings.

“What can I do?”

Juliana Auburn, no, the one who remembered her past life, ‘Lee Sian’, began to cry. The sparrow that seemed to be listening to her concerns chirped as though it was laughing at Juliana and asking ‘What do you mean you’re screwed?’

“Yes, I think I’m definitely screwed,” Juliana muttered again, shaking her head as though in answer to the sparrow who obviously wasn’t really paying attention to her at all.

It was just yesterday that Juliana heard the news that her husband, who had been fighting barbarians at the border, was returning. She hadn’t been particularly interested in this reunion since, in the past year, Juliana had almost forgotten about her husband’s existence.

On that day, Juliana was in a petulant mood, complaining that the sun was too bright and dazzled her eyes. Finally, she drove away the servant who had delivered the news, then rested alone, ate delicious food, and fell asleep early.

If you sleep deeply, do you dream of your past life? But, unfortunately, Juliana Auburn slept fitfully and had a very vivid dream.

A dream of her past life.

It was a very difficult past life that the present-day Juliana Auburn could never have imagined.

In her past life, Lee Sian was an orphan, who, after leaving the orphanage as an adult, had a hard life. She lived on mere hopes and dreams until, in the end, she…

“I was hit by a car and my body was all smashed up.”

Juliana/Lee Sian’s body was still wracked by that terrible pain.

She could still feel it vividly.

One morning when she had just finished her night shift at a convenience store and everyone else was going to their workplace, she had been hit by a huge car as she was crossing a street on her way home. Although she died on the spot, it was inevitable that she felt a great deal of pain.

She remembered that the pedestrian crossing light was properly lit up. She was not at fault. Remembering the crooked way that the car was moving, it was clear that the driver must have been drunk.

“You son of a bitch! Why were you drinking so early in the morning?!”

She rubbed her slightly swollen eyes and cried again. When she thought of her miserable past life, goosebumps grew all over her body.

Fortunately, she had been reborn and was given another chance to live. Juliana, who was reborn as a noble lady whose lifestyle couldn’t be compared with her past life, was lost in thought.

…Alright. I’m Juliana Auburn. I’m the only daughter of the Marquis of Auburn and I’m the fire elemental mage—. Although my body is frail, I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

She glanced at the sparrow that was still perched on the windowsill. The fat little sparrow was drinking the rainwater from the window frame, moistening its throat. Seeing its leisurely manner made her feel disgusted and Juliana covered her mouth with her hand.

But why did I have to be reborn in a romantic fantasy novel?

“And…, that! What’s with that spoiler?!” she cried as though seeking advice from the sparrow.

The sparrow stretched its neck up and seemed to chortle ‘That’s your destiny.’ Then it flew away.

“Argh!”

Juliana had just woken up and her eyes were still bleary. Rubbing her face on her pillow, a thought inexplicably crossed her mind and made her feel dejected, ‘I went to sleep without dessert yesterday—.’

It seemed as though it was just yesterday that she cursed because the ending of ‘The String of Fate,’ a romance novel that she used to read quite often during her part-time work, was spoiled for her. She only read the middle of the spoiler in the comments section, but it seemed obvious that she was reincarnated as a scum-like villainess of the novel, Juliana Auburn.

Juliana Auburn was a selfish and prideful villainess in the novel. She thought only of herself and was a cruel woman who, in her boredom, would trample on her despised husband’s self-esteem. Her usual routine was to slander her husband and the people around him and to curse her father who had married her to an illegitimate son of a ducal house.

To be fair, from Juliana’s point of view in the novel, she had a lot to complain about. Originally, she was betrothed to Duke Hilchen’s eldest and legitimate son, Kelton.

Juliana wasn’t quite convinced that Kelton was good enough but her father was convinced that the Hilchen family who had served the empire since its founding, was a good match. Thus, from the time she was 10 years old, Juliana, who was always a proud young girl, would visit the Hilchen family.

She had never known that the Duke of Hichen had a second son, an illegitimate child who was considered quite inferior in the eyes of the nobility of the Ariakne Empire.

But when Kelton died in his first battle against the barbarians, Juliana and her father felt it was quite unfortunate but they were preparing to end their relationship with the Duke of Hilchen to find a new political and marriage partner for Juliana.

However, the clever Duke of Hilchen announced that he actually had a second son and begged Julian’s father to marry him to her. Since the Marquis of Auburn also thought that it would be too wasteful to end his relationship with the Duke of Hilchen, he condoned the existence of a hidden child, and agreed to engage him to Juliana. At first, Juliana didn’t think it was suspicious that the Duke had a son who had a very weak body and was thus hidden away for his own protection, but…

“He’s illegitimate!”

The mere memory of that discovery made Juliana scream into her pillow. That wasn’t enough to vent her anger so she also punched it then lifted her face and glared at the ceiling.

“If it weren’t for that illegitimate child, I wouldn’t have been tricked! That’s why all these bad things happened…”

As had been said a moment ago, Juliana Auburn has been prideful since childhood.

If one were to put it in a positive light, she was a very self-confident person. If one were to put it in a negative light, she was a narcissist who lived her life according to her own exorbitant taste. However, she had enough common sense as a noble to accept the marriage negotiations between their two houses.

However, it was unacceptable to her to conceal the fact that ‘Evan Hilchen,’ who was later revealed in the marriage negotiations, wasn’t a sickly young man who had been hidden away by his family but was, instead, an illegitimate child from who-knows-where.

In addition, what was even more unacceptable to her was her father who was bewildered by the Duke of Hilchen’s cunning arguments and tried to comfort his daughter by saying, ‘Nowadays, it’s common for illegitimate children to be accepted into their family and the Duke of Hilchen is a very distinguished noble—.’ And other such bullshit words were spouted.

Juliana, who had hitherto lived a flawless life, felt that her pride was smashed but the marriage negotiations were simply too far along to be stopped.

Thus, the unyielding Juliana Auburn who wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything since she was born, slapped her bridegroom’s face on their wedding day…

“Argh!” Juliana ‘Lee Sian’ Auburn screamed in agony as she recalled the memories from her past life. Why?! Why now?! Why after I’ve already done all of those things to the male lead…?!

“Ugh…”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, the maids who didn’t know what language the Duchess was speaking, could only listen to her howling.

Time flowed on, uncaring.

Today was the day when the story of Lee Sian, now Juliana Auburn, was flowing again. Today was also the day when her husband was returning from the battlefield after a year of absence.

* * *

The Duke’s servants were busy cleaning and spiffing up the mansion since early morning to prepare for the Duke’s triumphant return.

Normally, the Duchess should be supervising them but this generation’s Duchess was unusual. The butler, therefore, took charge in preparations, basing the return ceremony on his memories of a previous occasion.

As time went by, it was already morning. During that time, the Duchess still failed to make an appearance, and the servants of the mansion were all clicking their tongues, ‘Tch,’ under their breaths. The Duchess’ lazy attitude was well-known to all of them so they didn’t bother to complain at her routine negligence.

Under the butler’s guidance, the mansion was polished to perfection such that the doorknobs all shone brightly. It was then that the Duchess went downstairs, shocking the servants who all stared at her as though they had seen a ghost.

“Du, Duchess?”

“Isn’t this the day the Duke will arrive? Can you prepare some tea? I must celebrate his return.”

The Duchess didn’t look as splendid as she usually did. She seemed a little wan even with her beautiful dark red hair and bronze-colored eyes that change color depending on the light. Her face was pale and her eyes were slightly swollen.

There might be a story in there somewhere, the servants gossiped as they quickly prepared the tea.

“…tea? Has the Duchess ever volunteered to prepare anything for the Duke herself?”

After the Duchess left, some of the servants went to the kitchen to make the tea. They looked at each other and gossiped before they finished selecting quality tea leaves, boiling the water and warming the teacups.

“Maybe she’s sorry about the fact that her lovers have been in and out of the mansion all this time?”

“No way. Don’t you know the Duchess? Even if everyone in the empire is talking about it, she wouldn’t even blink.”

“Ah, that’s too much. The Duke has been risking his life to fight the barbarians for a year, all to bring glory and wealth to the dukedom.”

“That means nothing to the Duchess who didn’t want to marry the Duke of Hilchen. There was a lot of gossip about it when I was hired. Haven’t you heard of it? It’s a famous story. When she found out that the Duke was an illegitimate child, the great Duchess slapped his face…”

One of them, who was also quietly sniggering, glanced at a clock and said, “Oh, the Duchess is waiting. Go and bring it to her quickly.”

Afraid that the Duchess would be angry enough to stab her with a sword if she was late, the maid took the tea set to the drawing-room.

* * *

Meanwhile, Duchess Juliana Auburn was sitting in the drawing-room. This was the first time in her life that her heart pounded so fast and loud. Taking the tea that the maids had respectfully handed to her, she nervously stirred her tea with a spoon then sent them all out.

After confirming that the door was closed and no one was around, Juliana pinched her cheeks.

“Oof!”

Her cheeks quickly turned red after she pinched it too hard. Then Juliana started slapping herself in the face.

“If only this was just a dream!”

But it was no dream. It was real and she had felt everything quite vividly.

Juliana cried out in her heart. No, if you’re going to remember your past life, do it from the start! What’s the point of remembering when you’re already about to be killed as the villainess character?!

“It doesn’t make sense!”

Juliana screamed quietly as she gazed at her black tea.

Just a few days ago she had entertained her lovers in this very house, eating and drinking merrily as they all mocked her husband who hadn’t returned home yet.

At that time, she really had no idea that she was living in the world of a romantic fantasy novel with a rating of 4.4! The truth was that she was Juliana Auburn, the number 1 villainess of the novel who could only see her illegitimate husband’s flaws and was blind to his good qualities.

But last night’s dream changed everything. Now Juliana knew that she was nothing but a minor villainess character who would soon be killed.

“I’m nothing but an extra…like parsley beside a steak…”

Juliana couldn’t control her feelings of frustration and hid her face in her hands. She was so overcome with her emotions that her shoulders shook. Soon she heard the sound of a group of knights approaching on horseback.

“He’s here.”

Juliana rose abruptly and opened the window.

Indeed, it was her husband who was proudly arriving with a group of his men. The parade of elite soldiers looked very grand as they rode up the main road to the mansion. Outside the mansion’s closed gate, the loud cheering of the welcoming crowd could be heard.

Juliana gulped down nervous saliva.

Leaning out of the window, she noticed that her husband was looking up at her. But she denied it in her heart because it was impossible. He was only riding up the main road. You cannot see your wife peeking out the drawing room window at the far end of the mansion.

Juliana hurriedly closed the window and took a deep breath to calm herself.

Her husband was here.

The husband who, sooner or later, would kill her.

* * *

Juliana impatiently led the servants to the mansion’s entrance. The staff stood there to wait with the butler in the forefront, who seemed to be taking over the Duchess’s duties as she walked to the gate. All of the knights on their horses looked large and intimidating, which made Juliana tremble in fear as she clasped her hands in front of her body.

…what did Juliana originally do in the novel? No, no! If you were planning to do the same thing as her, why would you go outside like this? You’re doing this to do something different to avoid death!

Juliana had no intention of repeating Juliana’s foolish actions in the novel. Now that she has made up her mind, it was time for her to put her ideas into action.

The knights said, ‘Whoa—.’ Then she approached the spot where they had stopped. Seeing Juliana standing on this unpaved dirt road was unprecedented.

“Whoa—!”

Evan Hilchen, clad in a black helmet and armor, stopped his black horse. If an enemy were to encounter this knight in the battlefield, they would be overawed by his menacing air.

Juliana’s eyes went wide with fright but she forced out a smile.

“E, Evan, welcome home.”