She was persecuted as an illegitimate child of the Countess Green from an early age and had an unfortunate childhood. However, she gradually revealed her talent for magic and was later praised as a great wizard.

After hearing the story so far, Fiona looked like the main character in the novel. A genius wizard who overcame a bad past. Isn't it really a typical main character cliché?

But unfortunately, Fiona was never a protagonist.

Fiona, are you listening to this father?”

With a hoarse voice, TAK! And the sound of the stick hitting the floor was heard loudly.

Only then I quickly raised my head and looked at the man in front of me. The man in his early 40s was the head of Count of Green and Fiona's biological father. Well, I didn't think it was too much to call him my father now.

I replied calmly.

“I'm sorry, father.”

“You little cocky.”

Ugh, I sighed unintentionally

Count Green clicked his tongue. It was rather a harsh expression to say to be heard by his daughter.

But to be honest, he saw Fiona as an annoying burden rather than a daughter. However, because of his pride as a noble, he was reluctant to accept her as she was an illegitimate child.

So Fiona could not be treated well by the Green family. And a good example of that was the half-brother, Cain Dell, who looked at me with contempt right next to me.

Cain Dell said in a sarcastic voice.

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“Don't worry about not being a humble, father”

Oh, I will rip that mouth apart. I grumbled inside.

Count Green's successor and eldest son, Cain Dell, treated his half-sister, Fiona, as less than livestock. And now I had no choice but to accept that irrational. He would too because the current Fiona was a 13-year-old girl who had no power.

That is, my age is 13 years old.

…. What I mean was I am now Fiona Green.I'm a girl who is an old-fashion girl but later is praised as a genius wizard, Fiona.

If you listen up to here, it looked like she is the main character, but It wasn't really at all.

She had a future when she later became the villain and died in the hands of the lead couple!

Why did I know so well? That was because where I am right now is in a novel world. The title of the novel is “Emperor and the Lady”.

As the title suggested, it was about saving the world while a male lead, the emperor, and a female lead, the lady, were dating. In addition, the ending of Fiona, the villain, was terribly miserable and unmerciful.

I still remembered Fiona's end correctly.

Fiona who had a natural magic talent, whose heart became dark and later contracted with darkness, was not easily killed. At the very end, she became almost immortal and threatened the main character couple.

So the male lead cut Fiona's neck with a sword, split her chest, and pulled out the darkened heart. And then stabbed the sword in the heart that still beatsIt was not the end. Fiona's neck, the world's worst witch, was hung up on the wall, the rest of her body was burned, and her soul fell into darkness and suffered forever and never ends. This was the end of Fiona Green. It was also a story that could be my future.

I smiled bitterly.

…. Haha, would you rather be comfortable if you die now?

I managed to brush my thoughts about Fiona's terrible end and my impending future.

Currently, Count Green has called the whole family, including me, into the drawing-room. Once again, I've been caught in a bad situation. To say the least, I might end up being beaten with a club.

“Everyone knows that these days, the situation at war is not good.”

As expected, Count Green's grim expression mirrored the words that came out of his mouth.

“Yesterday in the Imperial Palace, an order fell on our family. We must send a mage to go to the northern front.”

Suddenly, my siblings in the drawing-room became fussed. However, I nodded calmly. If my guess was to be correct, the current timeline was about six years before the original war began.

In this world, the war, rather than being a conflict between nations was more precisely, a fight between the forces of evil and humans. The demons were led by cursed dragons, and to block their attack, people who could fight – mercenaries, mages, knights, etc. – participated in the war. Perhaps during this recent period, the empire was in a disadvantageous situation because the duration of the war had been pushed out for a long time.

…… If you were to ask me in my past life about why Fiona had no dreams or hopes in this romance fantasy novel, honestly, it was just to make the main characters stand out.

The summary of the storyline was roughly like this. In this world, more and more humans were dying in the face of the cursed dragons and monsters. These occurrences to the people happened until the male and female lead came to save them all from this retribution. They had appeared like comets. That was it.

“Because of this, one of you must join the war in the northern front.” Count Green said grimly.

The words “join the war” that came out from my father increased the agitation of my older siblings who gathered in the reception room.

“Father, it's a war. Are we really going?”

“Oh my god….”

The House of Green was one of the imperial mage families. So when things became worse, it was only natural for the Imperial Palace to order support from the families that existed. The biggest question was, who the hell would want to go to the war?

Everyone was a child of a noble family. They were people who had grown up fine and pampered; even I, Fiona, had never done chores. Let alone, go to war. If someone tried to join the war which had been prolonged for a long time, with insufficient training, they would not be able to fight properly. Count Green, who knew the truth of the matter better than anyone else, gave a fake smile.

“I wonder if any of my children will bravely volunteer for this glorious thing.”

Everyone became silent whilst looking at each other.

*At that time, Cain Dell nudged my side and whispered, “you go, rice worm”**

Gosh, since earlier, this guy. I glanced at him with my eyes twitching.

The Count had four children. Except me, the youngest, all the three above me were born from the Countess. So, all of them wanted me, the bastard child, to go to war instead.

Even more, Cain Dell raised his hand and said, “Father, our proud youngest sister wants to go. I think she can't speak up because she is shy.”

“W wait..”

Of course, I had never said a word! I looked at Cain Dell with my eyes wide open. When his eyes met mine, the snitch smiled menacingly. This son of a *****.

“Oh, perfect, so you're saying you will go, Fiona.” Count Green's face became bright as he welcomed the idea. This father-and-son duo was exactly the same. Wasn't this what the two had been planning from the beginning?

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“Representing the family is an honorable task. I want to thank you for taking this opportunity to repay me for raising you all this time.”

…. No matter how much I heard this, it just sounded like he was telling me to go to the battlefield and die. No, that was not it. In fact, how could there be a family that would send a thirteen-year-old kid to the battlefield without hesitation in the first place!

The second sister even started to help them next to me. “Yes, Fiona. Cain Dell has to be in the family to continue, and I'm about to get married. Our third brother, Jen, is about to get engaged to a beautiful and lovely young lady. How can you send the family's limbs, legs, and arms to that situation? You'd better go.”

….What! I wasn't even taught magic properly since I am an illegitimate child. They locked me up in the attic every day, and then beat me up.

Well, even so, I was familiar with magic. I learned by watching them from the side and practicing secretly. So, fortunately, I already knew the basic way to use magic.

“I'm…”

The second I opened my mouth, everyone stared at me with their stiff face. I was not so foolish to not know the meaning behind those venomous sly looks directed at me.

'You think you can refuse?'

The realization came after I finished my judgment about the situation. It was already decided. The thing was I never had a choice in the first place. If I were to refuse, they would forcibly throw me into the middle of the battlefield like a beast being dragged to the slaughterhouse. In the first place, there was no one on my side in this mansion. No one was going to feel sorry for me either.

“I'm….”

There was only one line of past settings for Fiona, who was not even the main character. 'As an illegitimate child, she grew up tormented by her family.'

That was exactly what was shown to me in front of my eyes. A family who would casually send a thirteen year old into the middle of the battlefield to die. A family who would order a death sentence on an innocent, without batting an eye. For the villainess in her childhood phase, there was no dream or hope.

I managed to swallow a sigh and spoke slowly. “…. Yes, I understand. I will go”

What if I refused and forcefully refuted them? If I rebelled against them? Even if I were to act like that, getting rid of this sly family in front of me, my dark future would still remain the same.

Naturally, even in this world, the punishment for the murder of relatives was heavy. Even if I were to escape the situation right away, I could be put in jail for the rest of my life, or, the life of the fugitive remained open.

So if I had to go unconditionally, I should go with two feet like a person rather than being dragged like a beast. At least, this was the way to keep my pride.

My family cheered pretentiously at my words.

“That's a very good choice, Fio.”

“I'm very proud.”

“You are finally doing your part.”

From the beginning, this was the reason why they called me to go here. They didn't usually treat me like a human being, so I thought they'd lock me up in the attic and not call me to the family gathering. I wanted to wipe those fake faces away.

Somehow I felt sad. Even a year ago, when I realized that I first possessed Fiona's body, I wasn't so sad. Did Fiona, the villainess herself who I created, feel this way?

I was deeply sorry for some reason. Fiona, who had never been truly loved by anyone in her life, resented the world. One wrong decision led to another. In the end, her choices lead her to a pitfall. The outcome of her future, irreparable.

But, unlike her, I didn't feel like blaming anyone easily.

Right here, because this is the world I wrote.

*Rice Worm: a Korean term; a person who only eats and sleeps all day/ a person who doesn't do their duty properly and just gets their wage in a lazy way like the worms that eat rice in storage as a parasite.

Sigren's mother, Carla, had cared for her son until the moment she died.

'You have to live, Sigren'

That short sentence bound itself to him, becoming something almost like a curse. Because of those words he couldn't give up his life and had barely managed to escape from the people who tried to kill him. Of course, it was a life that was difficult to live. For a ten-year-old boy, while trying to escape from death, he also had to worry about eating and living. Fortunately, he entered the mercenary corps to do chores, so he could avoid starving. But that was the only fortunate thing. Living there wasn't easy. He entered the mercenary corps that had the roughest personality among the mercenaries. Sigren was assaulted due to rage many times, sometimes for no reason. Those with a really bad temper hurt his skin with the cigarettes they smoked. Sigren's body was filled with small scars from it since he wasn't properly treated.

However, he endured silently. All again, it was because his mother's wishes rang clearly in his ear. Nevertheless, amidst the repeated pain and loneliness, a question rang in his mind. 'I have to live. But what the hell do I live for?'

He couldn't lie. He was lonely. The thought of someone needing him by their side, it would be a nice thing. He wanted to find the value of his existence, just a little bit, and not live as though he was an insignificant bug.

'You bastard, you're not even worth it. You have nowhere to go, just take it. I took you, but you're a complete useless.'

The reality was cold. The treatment towards an orphan boy who could only do chores was worth nothing more than a toy. The mercenaries threw harsh words, knocked him over the floor, and ruthlessly hit him with their fists and feet. Others, who at least didn't participate in the senseless violence, did nothing to stop their actions. They just watched with a heartless gaze.

He had always lived in such an environment. In a world without even the slightest sympathy, far from favorable. Not a day went by where new bruises didn't form on Sigren's small body.

After all those years, the mercenary corps which Sigren belonged to had to defend the Heilon territory. The fight against monsters was obviously dangerous, but the payment was great.

Sigren, who didn't even receive a proper weapon, survived the fight against monsters with the sword of someone he'd picked up on the battlefield. The endless fight was tough, but there was one good thing. The battle over life and death made him stronger.

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However, that one battle. The onagers were broken. One of the mercenaries who always had bothered Sigren pushed Sigren through to the middle of monsters. “You are so useless. Go, be a human shield!” and that mercenary escaped through the gap.

Sigren was skilled to endure with his life. However, no matter how much his skill had improved, the fourteen-year-old boy was still not strong enough. Eventually, he was deeply cut at his abdomen and passed out due to exhaustion.

Is this my end…?

He was relieved at the thought that it was finally over. One thing that he felt was unfortunate was that he was going to die on behalf of such crap. The mercenary who pushed Sigren was the guy who had the worst temper. There were people who needed more help than someone like that. He wanted to reach out to the weak. Because no one helped him when he was alone. At least, he wanted to help.

He knew it was a weak mindset that he didn't want anyone to live like him. The world he lived in was in a place where one must exploit someone to go up but he didn't want to be that kind of person. As a result, he was beaten like a livestock every day and finally met his end.

Yet, still, even a little bit, he wanted to believe that his wish was not in vain. There must be a light somewhere, or he could be the light for somebody.

But it's impossible now. 

Soon after, Sigren closed his eyes.

In the darkness, someone gently stroked his head. It was a kind of touch that he felt for the first time in a long time, it was so comfortable that he could almost cry. Then, when he opened his eyes, Sigren saw a girl asleep at his side in a room full of sunset glow. Silver hair spread out gently on the edge of the bed and glowed in the sunset.

It was the most peaceful sight in his tired life.

Chapter end