She still remembered the last day clearly. There was nothing special about it. It was just another ordinary day, with a simple routine, classes, short conversations, and the accumulated fatigue of weeks that were all the same. She was on her way home when everything ended abruptly, without warning, without time to react. The memory of the impact was fragmented, felt as if her body had been crushed too quickly to feel pain, and after that there was only silence.
'Where am I?'
When she opened her eyes again, she was no longer in the same place. At first, she didn't understand what was happening. The environment was different, the body was different, and the voices around her didn't make immediate sense. It took a few minutes for the initial confusion to give way to the realization that this was not an ordinary dream. The memories began to align slowly, not only hers, but also those of another person.
'Wait, this is…'
It was at that moment that she realized she hadn't died—she had reincarnated, and worse than that, not just anywhere. It was the world of a story she knew all too well.
'That's not possible'
A story she used to follow as entertainment, a romance and political manga set in a rigid nobility, with well-defined conflicts and almost unchangeable fates for each character. At first, the feeling was disbelief, followed by a slow, heavy understanding of what that really meant.
'I'm not the protagonist… I'm'
She was the villain. She confirmed it when she finally had the courage to look carefully. Long, well-kept black hair, intense red eyes that couldn't go unnoticed, and a face marked by a naturally cold expression. The red lipstick completed the look, creating an even stronger contrast with her gaze. She knew that character, her role, and her ending.
'Why did this have to happen to me?'
The villain of that story did not have a favorable fate. Her path was built to collide directly with the protagonist, making mistakes, taking impulsive decisions, and in the end, being discarded inevitably. No matter how much she tried to remember variations, the result was always the same.
'I am destined to die'
From the moment she understood that, her priorities changed completely. There was no room to follow the original script. Every action had to be reconsidered, every interaction different from the original. She had to be careful to avoid any path that led to that ending. The problem was that she was already placed in one of the most dangerous parts of the story. She was in the house of one of the five elementals, and more than that, directly tied to him. That man was originally her fiancé, but also the protagonist's romantic partner, which made everything far more complicated than it should have been.
In the original story, their relationship never worked. It was a political union, cold and without any real foundation, which eventually broke apart as the protagonist grew closer. The villain reacted poorly to that, made wrong decisions, and in the process accelerated her own downfall toward the inevitable end.
'I have no intention of repeating that'
From the moment she regained consciousness, she began thinking of ways to break that bond before it became a bigger problem. However, it wasn't simple. The position she held within the nobility required caution, and any rushed move could attract unnecessary attention.
"How do I do this?"
She was sitting in one of the mansion's rooms, observing the environment around her while organizing her thoughts. The space was large, well-structured, and maintained to the standard expected for someone at that level. Every detail reinforced the influence of the man she was tied to.
"I need to get out of this before it progresses"
Breaking an engagement with someone at that level was not something that could be done directly. It would require time, justification, and the right moment. Any abrupt attempt could bring consequences she wasn't ready to face. At the same time, staying there too long was not a safe option either. She brought her hand to her face for a moment, pressing lightly against her temple as she analyzed the possibilities more carefully.
Days had passed since she awakened in that world, and during that time she maintained a controlled routine, avoiding unnecessary interactions while carefully observing the behavior of those around her. Nothing seemed out of place at first glance, which only reinforced the feeling that she was still within the original flow of the story—at least until that moment.
'This is bad, I'm spending too much time with him'
She was sitting on one of the stone benches in the garden with a slightly irritated expression, maintaining a composed posture while watching servants pass in the distance, when she overheard a conversation between two staff members. It wasn't directed at her, just a casual comment, but the content was enough to immediately catch her attention.
'What do you mean the war has restarted?'
She didn't react immediately, but her eyes fixed on a point ahead as her mind tried to process the information. It didn't make sense. According to the original timeline, that conflict shouldn't happen for at least two more months. It was one of the key events marking the transition between arcs, something that couldn't simply occur ahead of time.
'This… is wrong'
She remained silent but began paying closer attention to the information circulating around her. It didn't take long for more details to appear. The conflict had not only started earlier, but it was also being treated as a major event from the beginning, with military movements in multiple regions at once—and then that name came up.
'Leon… that monster shouldn't act like this. Why would he expose traitors on his own side? And from what it seems, he's been using different techniques'
In the original story, Leon was already a relevant figure, but at that specific point he shouldn't have had this level of influence. More than that, he should have been somewhere else at that moment, following a completely different sequence of events. He should have been by Elara's side.
A few more days later, while she was in her room, another piece of information reached her—this time more directly, brought by one of the maids who spoke about recent events with clear curiosity. Leon was going to get married, and worse, it would be to Rebecca.
'Why? Shouldn't he be madly in love with Elara?'
She brought her hand to her arm, pressing lightly as she tried to keep her mind steady in the face of this new reality.
'Everything changed so much… wait, could he be reincarnated too?'
Getting up from the bed, she put on a discreet outfit. Pulling up the hood, she walked out of the mansion. If Leon was also reincarnated, then she had to act—and she already had an idea of how this could help her.
'I never thought my hope would be that monster… though maybe he isn't that anymore'