The world outside the window burned crimson beneath a dying sun.It wasn't my world—the streets below were paved with black stone, patrolled by armored knights whose capes bore the crest of a silver serpent. A place I'd only ever read about… now stretching before me in living color.
I touched the cold glass, half expecting my hand to fade through it.It didn't.This was real.
The maid who had called me Young Master Lucien stood frozen near the door, her hands shaking. I could see the reflection of my new face in her wide eyes—those glacial blue irises that once sent fear through the kingdom.
"Where… where am I?" I asked.She blinked. "Y-Your room, my lord. The physician said you might not awaken after—after what happened at the capital."
The capital… the betrayal scene. The memory stabbed like lightning: his wife, Ana, weeping; the hero's sword; Lucien collapsing.So that was where the novel had left off.I wasn't just reborn as Lucien.I'd awoken after his death scene—the moment that shouldn't even exist.
The maid fled after setting a tray of soup beside the bed, muttering prayers. I didn't blame her. In the story, Lucien had been a monster—merciless, cold, a noble who bathed his hands in blood.But now that monster was me.
I clenched my fist, feeling power pulse through this body.Dark energy shimmered faintly around my skin, like smoke rising from a dying fire. So this was the "Cursed Mana" that made Lucien feared by everyone.It felt wild—yet… familiar."Guess I'll need to learn how to control you," I murmured.
A knock echoed."Enter," I said, trying to mimic Lucien's calm authority.
A tall man stepped in—broad-shouldered, armored, scar across his cheek. His eyes flicked up, cautious but loyal."Commander Reiss," I remembered the name from the novel—Lucien's last remaining knight.
"My lord," Reiss said, kneeling. "You survived. The council believes you're dead. The Vale Manor is surrounded by spies."
So even breathing was dangerous now."Good," I replied quietly. "Let them think I'm dead. A corpse can move unseen."
Reiss looked up in surprise, then nodded slowly. "As you command."
When he left, I turned toward the mirror once more. The blue-eyed reflection smirked faintly back.Lucien Vale—the villain doomed to fall—was alive again. But this time, his soul belonged to someone who knew the script.
I exhaled, steadying my voice."If this world runs on tragedy," I said, "I'll rewrite the ending myself."
A faint sound drifted through the hall—a familiar, delicate laugh.I froze.That voice… I'd heard it a hundred times in the novel.
Ana.
The woman who betrayed Lucien. The woman whose final words burned into my memory just before I died in my own world.Now she was here—alive, unaware that the man she'd killed was walking the same halls again.
My pulse quickened.I wasn't sure if what I felt was rage… or something far more complicated.