Chapter : 01
I Will Live as If I Barely Exist
Elena struggled as she clung to the tall window frame and leaned her head out.
With the body of a ten-year-old child, even looking at the scenery outside was no easy task.
“It’s a bit cold. Did I come out here for nothing?”
Despite the effort it took to hang onto the window, she watched the procession of carriages approaching the duke’s castle with eyes as detached as if it were someone else’s business.
The moment she both awaited and dreaded was drawing near.
Today had finally come.
Inside that carriage was Sirius Hyperion—the emperor’s younger brother and a thorn in his side.
The overly sensitive and weak-hearted emperor had expelled his brother, who had just turned ten, on the suspicion that he might someday become the mastermind behind a rebellion.
“How pitiful.”
“He’s only ten years old. What could such an innocent child possibly do? His Majesty the Emperor has gone too far.”
Elena snorted softly at the nearby whispers.
Innocent?
A naïve ten-year-old?
She couldn’t agree with that.
Sirius was far too special to be dismissed as innocent just because of his age.
Elena knew his true identity.
He was the master of this world—a wolf destined to devour everything.
How did she know that?
Because inside her head was a detailed record of events yet to come.
Along with the very setting of this world.
A legend had long been passed down in the Hyperion imperial family: that the blood of wolves ran through their veins.
Sirius was the incarnation of the wolf that appeared once every three hundred years.
Yet despite being born with the greatest advantage of all—blood ties—his life was anything but easy.
Unfortunately for everyone, by the time he was born, an official crown prince had already been chosen.
And strictly speaking, Sirius was nothing more than a bastard.
His mother had been one of the many women the emperor casually discarded after a single night.
An unclear lineage—but no one denied that he carried imperial blood.
Because Sirius had not been born as a human.
He had been born as a wolf.
His mother fainted on the spot, but for the empire, it was proof that the legend was true.
…But was it really a blessing?
A powerful existence appearing out of nowhere in an already stable regime inevitably caused chaos.
The crown prince purged everyone who insisted that the newborn Sirius should be enthroned as the ruler of the empire.
Including his own father, the emperor.
Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to kill Sirius.
How could one openly kill the wolf incarnation that appeared only once every three hundred years?
That would be equivalent to destroying the very myth upon which the imperial family stood.
After ascending the throne, the new emperor became extremely paranoid.
He hid Sirius away in a cold palace and persecuted him relentlessly.
Finally, when Sirius turned ten, he was expelled from the capital and sent to the northern House of Duke Rode.
This was where things truly began—where the future unfolded.
Sirius, who had worn an innocent face and kept himself completely submissive under the emperor’s rule, slowly began to reveal his true nature once he was cast out of the capital.
His ambition to place everyone beneath his feet led him down a merciless path.
Was it revenge against his half-brother who had oppressed him?
Elena shook her head with an uncertain expression.
In the end, it was true that Sirius took revenge on his half-brother—and devoured the empire as a bonus.
But that wasn’t the whole story.
It was simply his nature to tear the throats out of anything that dared block his path.
As the incarnation of the wolf, Sirius possessed power closer to that of a monster.
Whenever a crisis arose, he shredded his enemies with brutal efficiency.
And tragically enough, among them was the House of Duke Rode—Elena’s birthplace.
“How can someone be this unlucky?”
Elena muttered quietly as she shivered. Her dry, messy hair fluttered along with the movement.
When she had read it as a reader, it had felt like pure catharsis.
But being placed on the receiving end of that misery was nothing short of horror.
Her strength drained away, Elena released her grip on the window frame without hesitation.
She had clung to it longer than necessary anyway.
“Ah!”
At that moment, someone bumped into her as they passed by.
Thrown off balance, Elena naturally fell backward onto the floor.
It was obviously intentional.
“If you’re cold, you should stay holed up in your room instead of stupidly hanging off a window.”
“What else would she be but a crazy bitch? Just ignore her, sister.”
A brother and sister who shared Elena’s features sneered down at her.
Elena brushed herself off, stood up, and walked past them without a word.
After all, knowing the future was an enormous advantage—and a fortunate one at that.
It meant she could plan how to respond.
Her strategy was simple.
Method: stay still.
Execution: do absolutely nothing.
In more technical terms, it was “riding on the original plot” or “getting on the male lead’s bus.”
Wasn’t she being far too relaxed for someone whose family would be wiped out?
At first, she had naturally considered trying to change the future.
But the House of Duke Rode was utterly rotten to the core.
For example, Elena was the seventh daughter—but now she had only two siblings left.
That was because Duke Rode, her father, had killed more than half of his own children.
“Are you saying I should take responsibility for weaklings who died on their own?”
If someone were to ask how he could possibly do such a thing, that was all her father would say.
He wouldn’t even blink.
Of course, no one could ever witness such a conversation.
Because there was no one brave—or foolish—enough to ask Duke Rode such a question.
“Well, now that the male lead has arrived, this household is going to go even more insane.”
Muttering to herself, Elena climbed the stairs.
She headed toward her attic room at the very top of the elegant castle.
Frankly, it didn’t matter to her how much worse things got.
Her father was already killing his own children—what difference would it make?
And strictly speaking, Duke Rode’s claim that he never killed his children with his own hands wasn’t entirely false.
He had never directly murdered them.
He had merely driven them to the brink of death—
—or to the point where they wanted to die.
