Chapter 1 …
One day, an invitation arrived for me.
“There’s going to be a ball at the Winchester Count’s estate.”
My mother handed me the invitation with a beaming smile, and once again I was reminded of the meaning of my existence.
An extra whose role was to decorate the shining moments of the protagonists.
“I can’t even remember how long it’s been since Camellia Manor was opened. The funeral of the previous Duchess of Winchester was the last time, wasn’t it? Has it been two years?”
Mother seemed to be searching through her memories, but it meant nothing to me. It had only been six months since I had possessed this extra character in a novel and started living as her daughter.
‘I never imagined I’d wake up inside a novel.’
I let out a small sigh, careful not to let Mother notice. At first, I had been bewildered and unable to accept the situation. When I started saying strange things, my family simply worried and assumed it was aftereffects from a carriage accident.
During the few days I was forced to stay in bed while being nursed, I finally managed to understand what had happened.
I had been dropped into a strange world and become the third child of Baron Pomots.
I realized much later that this place was the world of the novel The Sun of Tantillia.
That was because this was still the protagonists’ childhood, before any of the story’s major events had begun.
‘Maybe I’ll get to see the heroine if I go to the Winchester estate?’
I thought of the female protagonist, Danielle de Winchester.
Like a camellia blooming in the depths of winter, Danielle was elegant and beautiful. Yet her life was as harsh as winter itself.
During her childhood, she grew up under her father’s indifference and her stepmother’s abuse. When she came of age, she was married off as though she were being sold for her dowry, and that marriage was a tragedy.
Her husband was a complete libertine, and life with her in-laws was miserable.
When she nearly died because of her husband, it was the male lead who saved her.
Even after meeting her true love, Danielle’s life was far from easy. Her insane, womanizing husband refused to let her go, and the noble family of the high-born male lead strongly opposed their relationship.
‘Still, it’s fortunate that she eventually divorces that scoundrel ex-husband and gets her happy ending with the male lead.’
In any case, this was the world of The Sun of Tantillia, and I was an extra.
Figuring out what role I had been given was simple.
All I had to do was look in a mirror.
‘Brown hair, brown eyes, average appearance—an extra through and through!’
The moment I looked at myself in the mirror, I understood perfectly.
A baron’s family with a status that was somewhat high but not particularly important.
The surname Pomots, which somehow lacked style.
And even the name Neary, which sounded as though it had been thrown together without much thought.
Everything about it screamed “extra.”
“Should we buy you a new dress?”
“Why would we buy a dress just to attend one ball? I’ll just wear one I already have.”
“But you never know.”
“Know what?”
“Oh, honestly! Count Winchester is still single, isn’t he? Why else would he go to the trouble of reopening that closed-off estate and hosting a ball when there’s no mistress of the house? He’s obviously looking for a bride!”
Mother raised her voice excitedly.
“He already has a child, but there’s no better marriage prospect in the Empire than Count Winchester. His family is prestigious, they’re wealthy, and Count Winchester is one of the few Sword Masters in the Empire. And besides, isn’t he handsome?”
“Then why would a count like that marry me?”
“……”
With that one sentence, Mother’s excitement instantly deflated.
“Y-You’re actually quite pretty when you dress up!”
“A noble, wealthy, handsome Count Winchester would choose me—a girl who’s only fairly pretty after putting in maximum effort?”
“Why did you have to take after your father…”
Mother grumbled regretfully.
Honestly, it hardly mattered whom I resembled.
My mother and father looked so alike that strangers could have mistaken them for siblings.
Still, people said similar-looking couples lived happily together, and judging by how affectionate they remained despite their age gap, things had worked out well for them.
A kind father and mother.
A reliable older brother and sister-in-law.
A talkative older sister and a quiet brother-in-law.
A younger brother who grumbled like a teenager but was actually kind.
And adorable nieces and nephews.
The Pomots family was a truly harmonious large family.
And for someone who had once been an orphan, they were the first family I had ever had.
“So, do you not want to go?”
“No. I’ll go.”
I shook my head.
I had no grand ambition of catching Count Winchester’s eye and marrying him.
But I wanted to see Danielle.
She probably wasn’t yet the delicate yet resilient Danielle I knew from the novel.
Still, as someone who had cheered for her while reading—watching her cling to hope despite living through hell and protecting her love through countless hardships—I wanted to meet her.
‘If I keep living here, will I really get to watch the events of the novel unfold in real life?’
Even now, the reality before my eyes still felt strangely unreal.
As soon as I stepped out of the carriage, the first thing I saw was the Winchester Count’s estate, commonly known as Camellia Manor.
It was enormous and magnificent, but somehow it looked gloomy.
The trees visible throughout the garden were carefully maintained, yet the dried-up pond and the vines tangled around a distant tree stood out.
It felt as though an abandoned estate had been hastily cleaned and organized before inviting guests.
The first floor, where the ballroom was located, blazed brightly with lights.
In contrast, every light on the second floor was extinguished, adding to the eerie atmosphere.
“I wonder if Danielle is here too?”
I murmured unconsciously.
Still, the chances were slim.
Perhaps if it were a tea party attended only by noblewomen, a private banquet for close acquaintances, or a gathering exclusively for young ladies and gentlemen.
But at a grand event like this, young Danielle—who hadn’t even made her debut yet—wouldn’t be allowed to attend.
Besides, the novel mentioned that her stepmother kept delaying her debut because she hated spending money on Danielle.
Eventually, she combined it with Danielle’s coming-of-age ceremony to get it over with all at once.
And it was there that Danielle’s scoundrel future ex-husband, who at least had eyes capable of appreciating beauty, fell for her at first sight.
“Still, she has to be somewhere inside this house, right?”
Feeling as though I were attending a private fan meeting, I entered the manor.
‘Ooh~ As expected, a wealthy count’s family is on another level.’
That was my first thought upon entering Camellia Hall, where the ball was being held.
Unlike the exterior, which looked hastily prepared, the interior had been decorated flawlessly.
A massive chandelier.
Sparkling lights.
The music of an orchestra echoing through the hall.
People dressed in splendid attire.
Together, they created a truly magnificent ball right before my eyes.
“……”
Yes.
It was magnificent.
And that was all.
Nobody approached me.
Nobody greeted me.
It felt as though nobody even knew I was there.
“Right. That’s how it is for a background extra with no presence.”
I shrugged.
Then I found a servant on my own, handed over my coat, and immediately started searching for food and drinks.
“Wow~ The food is amazing too.”
As expected of the wealthy Winchester family, the food was delicious.
I didn’t know much about alcohol, but the sweet aroma was pleasant.
Though perhaps everything tasted even better because Mother had practically starved me since lunchtime, insisting that maintaining the dress’s silhouette was important.
“Have you heard the news, Baroness?”
“What news?”
While enjoying my solitary feast in a corner of the ballroom, I heard whispering voices nearby.
They seemed to think they were speaking quietly enough that only they could hear each other.
Apparently, they hadn’t even noticed I was standing beside them.
‘Am I really that much of an unnoticed extra?’
This was something I had realized over the past two months.
Neary de Pomots, the brown-haired, brown-eyed embodiment of an extra, was so ordinary that her very presence faded into the background.
If I stood quietly behind a table like this, nobody would even realize I was there.
Funny enough, the same had been true in my previous life.
Twelfth place in class.
Never a class president or club leader.
A biology major at some provincial university whose name people vaguely recognized.
Just another ordinary girl wearing glasses.
That had been the original me.
“The Aitley Count’s family has changed their tutor again, apparently.”
The Aitley Count’s family?
Wasn’t that the family of Danielle’s scoundrel future ex-husband?
The moment I heard a familiar name, I was pulled out of my memories of a reality that had already become the past.
My reality now was different.
I was Neary de Pomots, the daughter of a baron and an extra invited to a count’s ball, dressed in a gown covered in lace that looked as though it belonged in a masterpiece painting.
