* * *
“Why do I have to pay back money I never even spent! If you keep harassing me, I’ll call the police…!”
Screeech, thud.
I died after being hit by a bus while running away from loan sharks because of my father’s debt.
When I opened my eyes, I had become a young noble lord of a count’s family in the medieval era.
‘I died and woke up as a third-generation chaebol? What a win!’
I thought I would never have to stress about money again.
I believed all I had to do was walk down a flowery path and smell the roses.
That was, until a cursed system window appeared before my eyes.
[Scenario: You are inside the Omegaverse novel ‘The Emperor’s Concubine.’ You have possessed the villainous Dominant Omega, Cedric Allure Hestian.]
‘Omegaverse?’
Perhaps because I didn’t read web novels often, both the system window that suddenly appeared and the terms written on it were unfamiliar.
I asked the system window for an explanation, but there was no answer, so I just assumed it meant a novel where someone gets hit by a bus and goes to another world.
Whatever it was, I had no intention of acting like the villain the system mentioned.
I just wanted to live as an unemployed person in a nice house, wearing nice clothes and eating delicious food until I was full.
Until the next window appeared.
[Scenario: Cedric Allure Hestian is a low-level villain who dies in 9 chapters. To extend your lifespan, please fulfill your role faithfully to earn Life Points.]
A low-level villain, not even a main one, and a terminally ill character who can’t even make it past chapter 9.
Still, it meant I could live as long as I was faithful to my role.
It was too early to despair. If I succeeded, the healing life of a rich young master would begin.
Or so I thought…
[Mission: Throw a glass at your servant, Locke, and verbally abuse him.]
[Mission: Lock your servant, Locke, in the warehouse and swing a whip to leave scars on his back.]
[Mission: To your servant, Locke…]
Perhaps because I was a villain, the missions were all about tormenting a servant named Locke.
Furthermore, each request crossed the line.
Forget verbal abuse or whipping—I felt uneasy about bullying an innocent person, so I didn’t carry out the missions properly.
“Cough, hack, urgh.”
When I didn’t, a pain like being gouged by red-hot iron skewers through my organs overcame me, and I even vomited blood.
Because of that, I writhed in agony for days.
[♥♥]
Whenever I was in pain, the hearts floating on the right side of my vision since I first woke up here disappeared one by one.
Seeing a visible numerical value made me increasingly afraid of death.
I had no choice but to start following the scenario, and for several years, I lived basely, sustaining my life through the suffering of another.
Then, one day.
Locke disappeared.
The feeling of liberation from no longer having to torment him brought joy, but it was short-lived.
He returned three years later. Not as a servant, but as the Emperor of the Empire.
As it turned out, Locke was the legitimate heir who was thought to have died as a victim of an imperial rebellion.
“By order of His Imperial Majesty, as of today, all titles of the Hestian family are stripped. Judging that the atrocities committed thus far have crossed the line, you are permanently erased from the noble genealogy.”
As soon as the special envoy, who arrived with the armed Imperial Knights, finished speaking, my mother collapsed.
My father committed suicide on the spot, calling it a disgrace to the family.
The eldest son, who had blinded Locke in one eye, was beheaded right there, and the rest of the household became imperial slaves.
My older sister, Ciel, had left home early to become an archaeologist and had lost contact, so she managed to escape the calamity.
I was dragged to the castle and forced to kneel before the mad tyrant Locke—no, Emperor Barzeron.
“Looking at you like this feels different. What do you think, Cedric? Do you feel the same as I do?”
“I-I was wrong. I didn’t do it on purpose, I mean, how it happened was… Argh!”
A large hand gripped my hair tightly.
I was dragged along like a hunted beast.
And that day, I learned how a human could be dropped to the very bottom and rolled through the dirt.
Becoming more than a tyrant—someone called a mad dog—he truly became a beast and killed me cruelly.
❖ ❖ ❖
“You, this, crazy scenario! I did everything you told me to, and I still died…! Huh?”
I woke up shouting, resentful of my death, but I was on a high-end bed.
‘What is this?’
It wasn’t the room I was in before I died.
It was a familiar room.
It was Cedric’s bedroom, which I had encountered when I first crossed over to this world.
What on earth happened?
As I sat there with a dazed face, an unwelcome guest appeared before me.
[Scenario: You are inside the Omegaverse novel ‘The Emperor’s Concubine.’ You have possessed the role of the Dominant Omega, Cedric Allure Hestian.]
[Scenario: Cedric Allure Hestian is a low-level villain who dies in 9 chapters. To extend your lifespan, please fulfill your role faithfully to earn Life Points.]
The exact same system window as when I first possessed him.
I had no idea what this novel wanted from me.
However, I couldn’t just sit idly by.
I didn’t know the reason, but since I had been revived, it must mean I still had a chance to survive.
In this life, I will definitely enjoy the noble life and survive in spite of everything.
Bring it on, world!
❖ ❖ ❖
“Cough.”
I vomited a bucket of blood and woke up as usual in the high-end king-sized bed.
Knock, knock.
The servant who entered cautiously after knocking stopped and stared with wide, startled rabbit-like eyes.
It was a boy who already had the face of a perfect beauty even though he wasn’t an adult yet—it was Locke.
It’s starting.
Seeing that face, I ruffled my hair roughly.
From the moment I woke up to Locke’s appearance now.
The situation was exactly the same as what I had experienced before.
Which meant that the system window, which had kindly guided me to a dog’s death, would soon appear.
[Mission: Throw a glass at your servant, Locke, and verbally abuse him. Choose one of the lines from the examples below.]
1. You piece of trash! What are you staring at blankly?
2. Get lost this instant! Who gave you permission to enter as you please?
As expected.
Perhaps because it was such a shocking event, I remembered the first options particularly vividly.
Sigh.
I glanced at the top right. Only one heart remained.
‘Is it a choice between not throwing the glass and dying immediately, or throwing it and dying a few years later…?’
Since it was a life I had already experienced once, I could clearly see that if I bullied Locke as the system commanded, I would follow the exact same path as my previous life.
I had been backstabbed by the scenario I trusted.
It said I could live if I bullied Locke, but as soon as I completed the scenario, the novel threw me away.
Fooled once, shame on you; fooled twice, shame on me. I couldn’t follow the mission blindly.
But if I didn’t follow it, having only one heart, I would surely die immediately without getting to try anything.
What should I do? I clenched my fists.
Is there really no breakthrough to escape the mission?
Even if it means using a trick.
Think, use your brain!
[Mission: Throw a glass at your servant, Locke, and verbally abuse him. Choose one of the lines from the examples below.]
Without even giving me time to think properly, the window that had driven me to hell flashed as if urging me to make a choice.
What gave it the nerve to show up again and do this after deceiving me and leading me to my death?
Tsk.
“I knocked several times but heard no sound, so I… I’m sorry. I will leave immediately.”
Locke, perhaps misunderstanding that I clicked my tongue because of him, stood frozen at the door with a flustered face before bowing his head and stepping back.
Then, the flashing speed of the system window increased.
I soon realized why the system window was doing this.
It was because the protagonist was trying to leave the scene designated by the options.
If the opponent wasn’t there, the content couldn’t be implemented according to the choices.
‘That means, if the door closes, the mission fails and I again…’
I had died at Locke’s hands and luckily came back to life, but there was no guarantee of another life.
This time, I might really die.
Thinking that way, I suddenly became terrified again.
Since it’s still the beginning, wouldn’t it be okay to be hated just once?
I bit my lip and toyed with the glass on the table next to the bed.
Just because I throw a glass doesn’t mean I’ll be torn to pieces by Locke’s sword right this second.
Let’s earn one heart first.
‘I’m sorry, Locke. Instead, I’ll make sure to pay you back for today no matter what!’
Having made up my mind, I gripped the glass tightly.
Then, just as the door was about to close, I hurled the glass toward Locke.
However…
“Cough!”
Why now of all times…!
The glass that left my hand drew a large arc and flew toward the ceiling.
I was screwed.
For a moment, I felt dizzy.
Locke, who was about to close the door and leave, flinched and then came back in, catching the glass with amazing reflexes.
Then, he looked at me with wide eyes.
At the same time, the heart began to blink.
It was a signal that the heart was disappearing due to mission failure.
Oh my god… Am I going to die like this in this life without even finishing one scene?
‘What a miserable life this is…’
I wanted to live peacefully with a loving family, without worrying about eating or surviving just for today or tomorrow—just once.
But after crossing over to this world, thinking I’d live in the warm embrace of parents without worrying about money, I’m told I’m terminally ill.
When I’m told to follow the scenario to live, I followed it desperately only for it to end like that…
I thought it was a small wish, but it seems even that was too big a dream for me.
“Sob.”
Tears fell out of sorrow.
Drops of tears fell onto the sheets stained red from coughing up blood.
“If you are in a lot of pain, I will bring the medicine with a higher concentration. Or shall I call a doctor?”
Locke asked cautiously.
What use is a doctor when I’m about to die?
“Waaaaah!”
I cried sorrowfully, thinking of the terrible pain that would soon strike.
Locke couldn’t leave, nor did he dare to come in and comfort me; he just stood by the door.
But it was strange.
‘What is it?’
Feeling that something was off, I wiped my tears with the back of my hand and looked up.
Quite a bit of time seemed to have passed, but I felt no symptoms.
I blinked my eyes, which were damp with tears.
‘Huh, why am I not dying?’
* * *
