HSRD 01

The year my mother died, I had a strange dream.

It was a warm drawing room with a fireplace crackling softly. The floor was covered with a soft rug, and a plush sofa wrapped comfortably around my whole body.

What was unusual about the room was that all four walls were made of glass, so the heavy snowfall outside was clearly visible.

And beside me sat someone whose face I couldn’t remember, as if it had been erased with an eraser.

‘Aigle, if you could keep only one emotion in your life… which one would you want to keep?’

A gentle voice asked me that.

Only one emotion? Why are the choices so extreme?

Startled by the sudden question, I thought for quite a while before answering.

“Hmm… would something like peace count?”

You didn’t say I had to choose from joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, right? Peace seemed like the safest option.

Then I heard a soft chuckle.

‘I see. That’s an interesting answer. I like it.’

With that conversation, I woke from the dream.

At the time, I thought it was just a weird dream, but strangely enough, from that day on, my mother’s death didn’t feel all that sad anymore.

Reincarnation or possession—that is the question!

I took a sip of the tea placed before me and pondered the matter.

Beside me, Lily, who had been sitting there the whole time, whined loudly.

“Unni! Are you even listening to me?! Father says I have to enter a political marriage! And with the Duke of Herank from the North!”

“But you don’t want to marry the Duke of Herank, right? So you came to ask me to marry him instead?”

“Gasp! How did you know? Did you investigate me?”

Well, that’s because this isn’t the first time.

I took another sip of tea and replied,

“I don’t mind taking your place in a political marriage… but you’ve always been singing about how you want to become a duchess every single day.”

“When did I ever sing about it? And it’s not just any duchess! I want to be the Duchess of Lafman!”

I shrugged and laughed.

“That’s basically the same thing. In fact, the Herank ducal house is far more traditional and wealthy.”

“No, it’s not!”

Lily slammed both hands on the table.

Startled, my eyes widened, but Lily continued slamming the table repeatedly.

“It’s different! Totally different! The Duke of Herank and the Duke of Lafman are on completely different levels!”

I quickly steadied the plate of cookies that had begun to shake and looked at her.

From deep in her stomach, Lily shouted,

“The Duke of Lafman is so handsome it could blind you, but the Duke of Herank isn’t!”

At that, I immediately pictured the Duke of Herank in my mind.

Hmm… well, it’s true that he’s not exactly handsome…

Perhaps interpreting my silence as agreement, Lily pointed a finger at me.

“Anyway, don’t forget you promised to take my place in the political marriage! I’m going to tell Father everything!”

“Sure, sure. A political marriage, whatever.”

You’ll forget about it all anyway.

I casually replied and popped a cookie into my mouth. Lily frowned deeply and muttered,

“Your way of talking is really annoying.”

“Huh? Suddenly?”

“You’re living off our family, so why are you so relaxed? It’s irritating!”

Ah, here we go again.

I even said I’d gladly take her place in the political marriage, so why is she angry?

I set the cookie plate down and smiled.

“Did I do that?”

“It’s obvious from your tone! If my father was generous enough to take you in, shouldn’t you be bowing your head and living gratefully for the rest of your life? So why do you always talk like you’re looking down on me?!”

“You’re right. Uncle really is amazing. As expected of Count Atlas—his generosity is on another level.”

“Grr! I didn’t mean for you to praise him!”

I understood what Lily was saying.

But I genuinely felt grateful to my uncle, so the compliment slipped out naturally.

Lily glared at me, fuming.

“Come to think of it, your father ran away from home because he didn’t want to fulfill his duties as a noble, right? How cowardly! And that wasn’t enough—he fell in love with some woman of unknown origin and had someone like you!”

Lily’s insults were always the same.

When I didn’t respond, she smirked.

“Your whole family is a disgrace to the Atlas Count family!”

“Well, that’s true. My parents were a bit reckless.”

After all, they had me without any particular plan. Both of them were a bit immature.

Thinking that, I nodded.

Lily grabbed at her platinum-blonde hair in frustration.

“There you go again! You’re such a clueless freeloader! Just hurry up and leave for the North already!”

With a shout, Lily stormed out of the greenhouse.

I blinked and watched her retreating back.

Sigh, that probably wasn’t the reaction Lily wanted.

Ever since we started living together in the Count’s house when we were children, Lily had never liked me.

It was probably because she was constantly compared to me, who behaved more maturely.

But back then, I only looked like a child on the outside. Inside, I was already an adult.

Perhaps because of that, Lily always hurled harsh words at me.

The problem was that none of them really hurt me.

I wasn’t completely clueless, so I understood the intention behind her words…

But if they genuinely don’t bother me, what can I do?

Because of my reactions, Lily’s hysterics had gradually gotten worse.

At this point, shouldn’t I at least pretend to match Lily’s expectations?

“Waaah, I’m hurt.”

“How could you talk about my deceased parents like that?”

“Lily, you’re such a cruel child!”

…No, that doesn’t sound right. That sounds more like I’m teasing her.

“Well, this isn’t the important issue right now anyway.”

I’ll think about Lily’s feelings next time.

Since childhood, I often had the same question.

Where is this place? Have I been reincarnated, or have I possessed someone?

I vaguely remember my previous life.

Back then I read an absurd amount of romance fantasy novels and accumulated plenty of “big data,” so even when I woke up in a baby’s body in an unfamiliar world after getting hit by a truck, I wasn’t too shocked.

At first, I thought I might have possessed a character in a novel.

But no matter how much time passed, I couldn’t remember any novel that matched this world.

Still, when my mother brought me to live with the Atlas Count family, I thought maybe something would click.

But even after entering noble society, everything was unfamiliar.

That’s when I opened up another possibility.

Not possession—but reincarnation!

As I grew older, this possibility became more and more convincing.

No novel came to mind, and I was simply living my life here, so there seemed to be no need to overthink it.

So I concluded it was reincarnation and lived peacefully.

Until one day—

The moment Lily came asking me to take her place in a political marriage with the Northern Duke, the possibility of possession suddenly shot up again.

Of course, the political marriage itself isn’t the reason.

Sure, that trope appears often, but in the cold world of romance fantasy, an unattractive Duke Herald isn’t exactly shocking.

So what’s the problem?

Today keeps repeating!

This was already the fourth regression.

And the worst part was that I was the only one who noticed it.

At first I tried telling Uncle and Lily, but nobody took me seriously.

Sigh… the classic romance fantasy trope of regression is happening only now.

And the unit is one day? Isn’t that hard mode?

Could it be that the timeline when the protagonists of the original story become active is approaching?

If that’s the case, should I have been preparing something before the story began?

But after deciding it was reincarnation, I had been living a carefree grasshopper-like life.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what my role was.

I objectively evaluated myself.

Name: Aigle Atlas.
Age: Just turned twenty.
Father and mother: Both died when I was young.
Thankfully, thanks to my uncle, Count Atlas, I entered noble society while living with his family.
Appearance: Average. Personality: Calm. No fiancé. Social relationships: Decent.
Special note: Vaguely remembers a previous life.

Well… aside from that special note, I’m basically just a passing extra character.

If I really am an extra, I should be able to relax…

Trying to soothe my uneasiness, I drank the now-cold tea when my personal maid entered the greenhouse.

“Lady Aigle, you should begin preparing for the banquet.”

“Oh, the banquet. Alright.”

I returned to my room with the maid.

Lily asking me about the political marriage wasn’t the only event today.

The highlight of the day was the banquet held by the Lafman ducal house.

Right. The problem is the Duke of Lafman.

While the maids began dressing me for the banquet, I let them handle everything and thought about him.

Alkides Lafman.

As Lily mentioned earlier, the Duke of Lafman possessed extraordinarily handsome looks.

But besides his appearance, there were several other unusual things about him.

First of all—he was a black panther beastman.

As expected of a fantasy world, creatures like beastmen, nymphs, and dragons existed here.

The Duke of Lafman was the representative of the Beastman Alliance. Over the past seven years, he had achieved numerous great accomplishments and rose dramatically from a baron to a duke.

He commanded a formidable military force, including a powerful beastman unit, and enjoyed great trust from the emperor.

Most importantly… most importantly, the Duke of Lafman has black hair!

And his eyes are purple.

A handsome, unmarried duke with deep black hair and violet eyes, who is also a black panther beastman.

No matter how you look at it, isn’t that the male lead of a romance fantasy?!

Or at least the hidden mastermind? Or the second male lead?

Anyway, the possibility that he was a major character was extremely high.

But attached to him was one strange rumor.

For a long time, the Duke of Lafman had been searching for a woman with orange eyes.

He had even publicly announced it himself.

If anyone had orange eyes like his, they should come to him without hesitation. They would already know the reason, he said.

Not red—orange?

Characters with orange eyes aren’t common in romance fantasy.

Since neither the reason nor the purpose had ever been revealed, rumors ran wild—some said she was his first love, others claimed she was his sworn enemy.

Because of that rumor, I couldn’t relax and think, “Even if this world is a novel, I’m just an extra.”

Feeling the brush of the makeup brush against my face, I let out a long sigh.

No matter how much I think about it, I have absolutely no idea what the reason could be.

That’s right.

Because my eyes are orange.