IBDF 01

Chapter 1

People who get possessed in novels usually have one thing in common.

One day, they open their eyes and see an unfamiliar ceiling.

An unfamiliar ceiling leads to an unfamiliar body, an unfamiliar face, an unfamiliar world.

But I was different.

When I opened my eyes, I faced darkness, no different from before the possession. No matter how many times I opened and closed them, it was the same.

I could only guess, from the unfamiliar sounds and smells in my room and the different temperature, that I was somewhere completely different from where I used to live.

Clang!

A sharp crash of ceramic hit my ears.

Two maids shrieked, stomping as they scrambled.

It was obvious that Mary and Dorothy were panicking to avoid a flying vase.

I crawled along the floor, putting as much distance as I could between myself and the noise. Then I flattened myself on the ground, covering my head with my hands.

All this chaos had started the moment Mary had opened the curtains to let in some air.

The young viscount, who I thought was asleep, suddenly let out a painful scream and jumped up from the bed.

“I said I don’t want light! I told you not to open the curtains!”

He yelled in a furious voice and hurled a vase—once sitting on the bedside table—into the air.

Then the chaos unfolded as expected.

The two maids screamed in shock while the viscount continued shouting to close the curtains.

“No! I said no!”

He was like a screaming beast, impossible to calm.

Soon, a heavy thud echoed through the floor. Judging from the weight, it had to be the enormous decorative vase that had been next to the bedside table.

‘Are you crazy? You’re going to throw that too?’

I pressed myself flat to the floor as if trying to disappear. Another ear-splitting crash shook the room.

Mary and Dorothy screamed and, flustered, ran out of the room.

Thump thump thump!

Their footsteps quickly faded into the distance.

‘No, wait! You should’ve closed the curtains!’

But they were already gone, leaving only me and the viscount in this madhouse.

It was utterly maddening.

“Ouch… I hate this…”

The viscount collapsed onto the floor, breathing heavily and muttering faintly.

Taking advantage of this brief lull, I slowly lifted my head.

I had to close the damned curtains first.

‘Let’s see…’

I focused on the warmth of sunlight touching my face. The spring sun at noon kissed my right cheek.

I stretched my right hand to the side and felt the cool, hard wall.

Rising to my feet, I walked forward with my hand on the wall.

After a few steps, I reached the thick blackout curtains.

Swish—

I quickly closed the curtains.

Just by blocking the light, it felt as if all the noise had vanished, and the room instantly became quiet.

Only the viscount continued to groan, though it was unclear whether it was in anger or pain.

I turned back toward him.

From the window to his bed was about ten steps.

One, two, three, four… counting, I moved closer, each step bringing me nearer to his breaths.

…Nine, ten.

I stopped. Stretching my hand down, I touched soft hair.

Smack!

The viscount suddenly swatted my hand away.

I flinched, clutching the back of my hand. The pain was so sharp that tears threatened to spill.

After massaging it a few times, I lowered my hand again. This time, I felt a bony shoulder.

The viscount shivered as if something unpleasant had touched him but did not swat my hand away again.

‘Right, he probably doesn’t want to stay sitting here in the dark all day either.’

I gathered all my strength, lifted the skinny boy, and sat him on the bed.

He rustled and curled himself back into the blanket, returning to his “caterpillar state.”

Phew… taking care of this is exhausting.

I exhaled quietly.

It had been a month since I was hired as a contract maid to take care of the viscount in the Duke’s household.

From what I had observed so far, his daily routine consisted solely of lying in the dark room sleeping or sitting blankly doing nothing.

He hated light. No—he was afraid of it.

Even sunlight through the window or just lighting a single candle inside the room would trigger convulsions and screams.

He suffered from a rare disease called photodermatitis.

Photodermatitis: a disease that kills by light.

Anyone with this condition would feel excruciating pain whenever light touched their skin, as if their flesh were burning.

How cruel and heartbreaking.

The natural warmth that every human should enjoy became nothing but unbearable agony.

And there was no known cure for this disease.

The viscount would continue to suffer through long darkness, bearing his loneliness, until he met the saintly “heroine” awakened by God’s grace and received treatment.

Yes.

This was the world from the novel The Viscount in Darkness, which I had read before I died.

This frail, irritable boy was the male protagonist, Callios Levannion.

And me?

I was the maid.

Hired hastily to care for the suddenly ill viscount, a blind maid.

That’s right. In other words, an extra who would soon disappear from the story.

“So, Lizzy, you cleaned up that entire mess by yourself?”

In the maids’ break room at the Duke’s house.

My colleague Tilda wrapped a cloth around the cut on my finger and asked while cleaning.

I couldn’t see her expression, but her voice sounded displeased.

“That’s not even your job. You were here to assist the young master. Cleaning is Mary and Dorothy’s responsibility.”

“Yes, but I felt sorry for them. The young master was throwing things around recklessly. If it were me, I probably would’ve run too if I had only been thinking about myself.”

Tilda sighed.

As a senior maid who had worked in the Duke’s household for over five years, she probably found the rookie me exasperating.

Sure enough, she started scolding me in a slightly angry tone.

“Next time this happens, report it to the head maid immediately. They need to be disciplined. Since you arrived, they’ve been dumping all their work on you.”

I nodded as if understanding, though inwardly I thought, Will anything really change?

The viscount, who stays in the room all day, cannot even light a candle, so Mary and Dorothy couldn’t do their jobs properly.

Only I, who could move unseen, could handle trivial tasks like cleaning and delivering meals.

“By the way, your face has lost a lot of weight in just a month.”

Tilda clicked her tongue.

“You’ve really had a hard time here.”

…Have I really lost that much weight?

I raised my hand to feel my face. Since I had been blind since possession, I had no idea what it looked like.

I could roughly imagine it by touch, but subtle changes, like weight loss, were difficult to notice.

“…Um, Tilda.”

I called to her as she tidied the area around us.

“What does my face look like?”

Tilda chuckled.

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden? You could see when you were little.”

But that was before I possessed this body, Lizzy Swan.

Unfortunately, I had no memory of what it looked like when I could see.

“I’m just curious, since some time has passed.”

“Well, a person’s facial structure changes a little as they grow. Let’s see.”

Tilda picked up my face and began turning it gently in her hands, inspecting it from every angle.