The last thing I remembered was the blinding glare of my phone screen at 3:00 AM and the sheer indignation of reading the final chapter of *The Duke's Obsession*.
"It's trash," I had muttered to my empty apartment, rubbing my tired eyes. "Who writes a heroine this stupid? She sees the poison, smells the poison, and then *drinks* the poison because the villainess said 'Cheers'? And the Duke? He's so cold he probably freezes water just by looking at it. Why is everyone obsessed with him?"
I had typed out a scathing one-star review, hit send, and then… nothing. A sudden pressure behind my eyes, a feeling like being sucked through a straw, and then absolute darkness.
I expected to wake up in a hospital. Or maybe hell, considering how much junk food I'd eaten while binge-reading.
What I did *not* expect was to wake up smelling lavender, old parchment, and… wet dog?
My eyes fluttered open. The world was wrong.
Everything was enormous. The ceiling seemed miles away, adorned with crystal chandeliers that looked like hanging galaxies. The bed I was lying on wasn't my lumpy IKEA mattress; it was a sea of silk pillows big enough to drown in.
"Okay," I croaked, trying to sit up. "Headache. Check. Weird dream. Check."
But when I tried to push myself up, my hands didn't obey. Instead of palms pressing into the soft duvet, something small, furry, and pink pushed against the fabric.
I froze.
I lifted my right limb. It wasn't a hand. It was a paw. A tiny, cream-colored paw with neat little claws and pads that looked suspiciously like heart shapes.
Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in my chest. I scrambled backward, my legs tangling under me. I tried to scream, *"What is happening?!"*
Instead, what came out of my throat was a high-pitched, pathetic squeak.
*"Yip!"*
My eyes widened. I brought both front limbs up to my face. Fur. Definitely fur. And sticking out from the sides of my head were two floppy, triangular ears that twitched independently as I heard the sound of a door creaking open down the hall.
"No," I whimpered, the sound coming out as a low whine. "No, no, no. This is a dream. Pinch yourself. Wake up."
I tried to pinch my arm. I ended up biting my own leg. It hurt. Real pain. Real teeth.
*"Woof?"* I questioned the universe, my tail giving an involuntary wag of terror.
Wait. Tail?
I twisted my neck, straining to look behind me. There, attached to my lower back, was a fluffy plume of cream fur that was currently tucked between my legs in pure cowardice.
I was a dog.
Not just any dog. Based on the reflection I caught in a polished silver mirror across the room, I was a Pomeranian. A ridiculously fluffy, teacup-sized Pomeranian that looked like a stuffed animal someone had forgotten to stuff properly.
"This is insane," I thought, my human mind racing even as my canine brain urged me to chase the dust motes dancing in the sunbeam. "I died. I must have died. Did I get hit by a truck? Is this reincarnation? Did I get transmigrated?"
Transmigration. The word sent a fresh wave of dread through me. I read about this all the time. Usually, people woke up as the Villainess destined to be executed, or the poor peasant girl sold into slavery.
But a dog?
"Great," I thought sarcastically, pacing in a circle on the giant bed. "At least I don't have to deal with marriage politics. I just have to find a bowl of kibble and hope I don't get fleas."
As if summoned by my cynical thoughts, a blue translucent screen suddenly popped into existence right in front of my nose. It hovered in mid-air, glowing softly.
**[System Initialization Complete]**
**[Welcome, Host!]**
**[Current Form: Spirit Beast (Locked - Stage 1: Fluff Ball)]**
**[Host Identity: Mochi]**
**[Owner: Lady Seraphina (Original Heroine)]**
**[Location: The Empire of Aethelgard, Duke Valerius's Estate]**
My jaw dropped. Well, my snout dropped.
"A system?" I barked at the floating text. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm in the book? *The Duke's Obsession*?"
The text shifted, new words appearing in a cheerful font that felt mocking given my situation.
**[Main Quest: Ensure the survival of Lady Seraphina until the Happy Ending.]**
**[Failure Penalty: Permanent loss of human consciousness. You will remain a true dog forever.]**
**[Success Reward: Return to human form + 1 Wish.]**
**[Current Status: Critical. The Plot has begun.]**
"The plot has begun?" I yelped, scrambling off the bed. My four legs felt wobbly, like I was walking on stilts made of jelly. I stumbled, did a clumsy somersault, and landed face-first in a pile of silk robes.
If the plot had begun, that meant the timeline was moving. In the first few chapters of the novel, the naive heroine, Seraphina, was supposed to meet her doom at the hands of the jealous Countess Viviane during a garden tea party.
And if I was Mochi, Seraphina's beloved pet… that meant I was currently in the Duke's castle, and the tea party was likely happening *today*.
"Oh no," I groaned, the sound emerging as a series of frantic whines. "Seraphina drinks the poisoned tea in Chapter 3! If she dies, the story ends, and I'm stuck as a dog forever!"
I had to stop her. But how? I was six inches tall and weighed maybe three pounds. I couldn't exactly call the police. I couldn't write a note. I couldn't even open a door handle.
Just then, the heavy oak doors of the bedroom swung open.
A young woman with cascading golden curls and eyes full of tears rushed in. She was wearing a pastel pink dress that looked expensive but slightly rumpled, as if she'd been crying into it.
"Mochi!" she sobbed, dropping to her knees.
She scooped me up before I could react, burying her face in my fluffy belly. "Oh, Mochi, you're the only one who understands! They're all so mean to me! The Countess said I embarrassed the Duke, and now he won't speak to me!"
This was her. Lady Seraphina. The original heroine. In the book, she was written as frustratingly weak, but holding her warm, trembling body, I realized she was just scared. She was alone in a hostile world, and I was her only friend.
The System chimed again.
**[Emergency Mission Generated!]**
**[Objective: Comfort the Heroine and prevent her from attending the afternoon tea party.]**
**[Reward: 50 Treat Points, Unlock Skill: 'Puppy Dog Eyes'.]**
**[Failure: Heroine attends tea, drinks poison, Host becomes a stray.]**
Seraphina sniffled, lifting me up to look at my face. Her eyes were red-rimmed. "I have to go to the garden, Mochi. If I don't show up, they'll say I'm guilty. But I'm so afraid…"
She stood up, clutching me tightly against her chest, and walked toward the door. "Come on, boy. Let's go face them together."
My heart hammered against my ribs—or whatever passed for a ribcage in this tiny body. The garden. The poison. The death trap.
I looked at the door leading to freedom (or at least, safety in this room), and then at Seraphina's determined, terrified face.
*I can't let her die,* I thought, my canine instincts warring with my human knowledge. *And I really don't want to be a stray.*
As we stepped out into the hallway, I took a deep breath, filled my small lungs, and prepared for war.
"Alright, Seraphina," I thought, narrowing my violet eyes. "You might be the heroine, but today, I'm the protagonist."
I let out a bark that I hoped sounded brave, not like the squeaky toy noise it actually was.
*"Woof!"* (Translation: Hold on, we're changing the plot.)
Seraphina smiled weakly, scratching behind my ears. "Good boy, Mochi. You always know how to make me feel better."
Little did she know, her dog was currently calculating the trajectory needed to knock a teacup out of a villainess's hand.
The game was on.