Chapter 1
Chloe Garnet remembered her past life at exactly twelve years old.
There wasnât any particular triggerâwell, except for one horrifying taste that toyed with her tongue.
The moment she took a bite of that food, her head spun.
“The taste⊠itâs just⊠so terrible!”
Still, Chloe tried, somehow, to eat the food she had been served.
Why?
Because this food was a cake her mother, Duchess Millenia Garnet, had personally baked from the crack of dawn to celebrate Chloeâs twelfth birthday!
“I must not spit it out.”
With that thought in mind, Chloe desperately tried to swallow the food in her mouth.
But no matter how hard she tried, the taste was absolutely, horrifically awfulâŠ
Chloe committed the unfilial act of causing a nosebleed while eating the first ambitious dish her mother had ever made!
Drip.
âKyah! Miss!â
And it wasnât just a regular nosebleedâit was a full-on double nosebleed.
The maids and servants panicked, not knowing what to do as bright red blood streamed from Chloeâs nose.
The situation didnât stop with just Chloeâs nosebleed.
“It⊠tastes⊠awful⊔
Feeling her consciousness slipping away, she barely managed to speak these final words like a last will before passing out.
While Chloe fainted, the Garnet household went into chaos.
âCould there have been poison in the food? How could poison be in a dish made personally by the Duchess? Then why did the young lady collapse?â
Both the doctor and the local constable visited the mansion to investigate, but they found no evidence of poisoning.
Naturally, the reason Chloe had collapsed wasnât poisonâit was simply that the food was far too awful to eat.
âSo youâre saying the food my wife made was that terrible? Terrible enough for my daughter to faint?â
âWe apologize, Your Grace! But no poison was detected in the young ladyâs body.â
The only clue was Chloeâs final words before she fainted: âIt⊠tastes⊠awfulâŠâ
Everyone desperately tried to find another reason, to save the Duchessâs honor, but there was none.
Everyone had to accept it: Chloe Garnet had fainted from a double nosebleed because her motherâs cooking was unbearably bad.
âI will never cook againâŠâ
âMy dear wifeâŠâ
Duke Grania Garnet, trying to lift his wifeâs spirits, bravely tasted her food himself despite the warnings of those around him. But, true to form, the taste was so shocking that he briefly lost consciousness too. After that, he could encourage her no more.
The defeated Duchess and the deeply worried Duke were left behind, and it took a full day before Chloe regained consciousness.
The moment the Duke and Duchess heard that Chloe had woken up, they rushed to her room. Seeing her fully awake, the Duchess even had tears in her eyes as she embraced Chloe tightly.
âOh, my child!â
During the short time Chloe had been unconscious, it seemed the Duchess had endured quite an ordeal, looking slightly worn.
âFrom now on, I will absolutely never cook again. I foolishly wanted to feed you my food, and it made you faint, Chloe. I was careless.â
âŠClearly, the Duchess was just as shaken as Chloe. She swore repeatedly that she would never cook again.
Chloe didnât make empty promises either. Eating her motherâs food and fainting again would only hurt her motherâs feelings, and she was done with the stress caused by food.
âItâs okay. But please be careful with cooking for a while.â
âYes, my precious daughter. Iâm so relieved you woke up safely.â
The Duchess hugged Chloe so tightly she almost couldnât breathe, but Chloe accepted her motherâs embrace with a generous heart.
The cause of her fainting had indeed been her motherâs cooking, but thanks to itâŠ
“I remembered my past life.”
And the trigger wasnât falling from a tree, being hit by a carriage, or nearly drowningâit was that her motherâs food was just that awful.
Chloe thought it was absurd, but once she regained her past-life memories, it didnât seem impossible.
Recalling the food she had eaten in her previous life made her fully understand just how terrible her motherâs cake had been.
“Ugh⊔
Just thinking about it almost made her faint again. She desperately tried to distract her mind from the lingering taste assaulting every corner of her palate.
She thought of the romance-fantasy novel she had read in her past life: The Fake Saint Wants to Live.
Chloe Garnet, with her wavy, luxurious red hair and deep green eyes, and her doting mother and fatherâshe was unmistakably a character from that story.
If she had remembered only up to this point, it wouldnât have been too troubling.
But the Chloe in her memory had been a villain. That was the problem.
A ridiculously stupid villain. That was the problem.
The more she recalled her actions in the âoriginalâ story, the more her face twisted in disgust.
To think she had been the final villainâs lackey, arrogantly and foolishly acting out before her inevitable downfall!
Had she not regained her memory, she would have suffered the same fate again!
“Chloe Garnet, born with everything, could not accept that the heroine, Shuria, had the crown prince she herself wanted.”
If the story followed the original flow, the villainess would attempt to harm Shuria, incur the royal familyâs wrath, and be brutally punished, leading to her familyâs ruin.
“Then I just need to avoid the crown prince, and everythingâs fine, right?”
It was a bit troubling to remember she was the villain, but as long as she didnât covet the crown prince and act disgracefully, who would dare point a finger at the daughter of the Duke?
Chloe decided to stay away from both the crown prince and Shuria, living grateful for being born to parents with wealth and power.
After regaining her strength, she happily sat at the family dining table, appreciating this moment more than ever.
And then she noticed.
Roasted potatoes, steak, grilled fish, bacon, and bread with cheeseâall proudly laid out on the Garnet family table.
At first glance, the menu looked appetizing enough.
But Chloe noticed something.
“âŠWhy is there nothing but roasted food?”
No salad, no picklesâonly ingredients roasted whole.
Chloe paused, stunned.
These were the foods she had eaten without complaint before fainting.
But now, with her past-life memory restored, she realizedâŠ
“If this is what the Garnet family considers a meal, what do they even eat the rest of the time?”
Even the steak had no sauce; it was just a chunk of beef grilled as-is.
Chloe closed her eyes tightly.
âOh dear, my daughter still seems quite unwell. What should I do, my darling?â
âIâm fine!â
Hearing her motherâs worried voice, Chloe stopped her thoughts and took a bite of the roasted potato.
ââŠSo dry.â
She didnât dislike roasted potatoes, so why did it taste so bad?
âCould it really have just been roasted?â
It was so bland she doubted if any salt had been added, and no butter or toppings made her mouth feel dry and heavy.
While the Duchess had been exceptionally terrible at cooking, even the seemingly normal food was difficult to eat.
Groaning, Chloe barely managed to swallow the potatoes.
She tried the steak, hoping it might be better, but it felt even drier than the potato.
Next, she picked up the grilled fish she had enjoyed both in her past life and before regaining her memories.
âUgh.â
But the moment it touched her mouth, she grimaced in disgust.
“Itâs fishy. So fishy!”
