Diana lay on a wrecked boat, waiting for death. Her body, tormented by the storm all night, no longer felt the cold, and her mind was hazy.

She tried to raise her powerless hand over the boat, but she could no longer feel the child that had been moving healthily until yesterday.

Her maid had drowned and been abandoned to the sea, and the screaming boatman was dead with a knife in his neck.

A single body placed on the vast sea. That was all that was left for her.

‘Raoul.’

Through blurry vision, the image of a sweet man flickered.

Next to him, walking in the bright light, was a beautiful woman who perfectly matched him.

Her slender body clung tightly to his mountain-like frame, and his strong arms wrapped around her waist. Her curly red hair was as fresh as a flower blooming in the tropics, and her shyly smiling face was as lovely as if it contained all the happiness in this world.

The two of them, bursting into warm laughter and moving towards the horizon, looked like a painting. There was no reason to look back at all.

Only then did Diana taste the bitterness of regret.

‘I wasn’t the one meant to be with you…’

She resented herself for not giving up earlier and letting the situation come to this.

But what use was it now?

It couldn’t be undone.

The descending light was so bright it felt like it would blind her. Diana was exhausted and no longer had the will to live. She decided to close her eyes.

‘If there is a next life, I want to live without even a hint of regret, without foolish lingering feelings…’

Feeling the shadow of death approaching, she fell into an eternal sleep.

The girl who woke up from sleep immediately faced the engraved eagle pattern on the bed as soon as she opened her eyes.

Having to see the family crest every morning was truly a burden.

Once again today, she was reminded of her situation.

‘To think that I am the princess of House Arnel… That I am the daughter of the villain…’

From the moment of her death that day, Diana regained all her memories. The fact that she was just a character in a novel she had read in her previous life, and that her father was the final villain destined to be defeated.

Diana de Arnel.

Before her regression, she was an extra villain in the novel “Ayla’s Song,” appearing significantly only when tormenting Raoul, the sub-male lead.

From the time he flowed into the duke’s castle at the age of 10 until the day he breathed his last, her main role was to follow him around like an ignorant foal who didn’t know her place.

The novel’s description was consistently one-dimensional. It said things like Diana looked at Raoul with snake-like eyes, or that she clung to him stickily – a thoroughly flat setting befitting an extra character. Her appearance was no different.

Cat-like slanted eyes, snake-like pitch-black pupils, black hair hanging down to her waist. Anyone could see it was a suspicious appearance.

Diana sighed deeply, lamenting her situation.

‘Why does it have to be so accurate?’

She pinched her cheeks and stretched them this way and that, but stopped out of self-loathing.

If there was anything fortunate, it was the fact that in this life, she could live as Diana the possessor, not Diana from the novel.

Before possessing the novel character, Diana was a woman in her 20s from South Korea. Her only pleasure while barely scraping by with part-time jobs was web novels.

‘Could there be such love in this world?’

The moment she put down her phone and lifted her head, her vision flashed white and her memories disappeared.

‘Did I die from overwork?’

Regardless of the faint memories of her past life, Diana was able to objectively grasp her situation early on thanks to realizing she was a possessor.

Needless to say, she had no intention of repeating the pain and regret she felt before her regression.

Her goal was one. In this life, she would give up on unrequited love that would never come to fruition early on, accumulate funds, and escape from the duke’s castle.

“Can I do it?”

Diana bit her lip and muttered anxiously.

‘Not falling for Raoul is harder than making money. I might fall for him again as soon as I see him.’

Raoul was Diana’s favorite character even when reading the novel, and for the past 10 years, he was the person she truly loved.

Even if her actions were governed by the original work, the fact that Raoul was a wonderful man remained unchanged.

The adult Raoul was a handsome man that made her heart ache just thinking about him. Not only that, but his mountain-like build and well-defined muscles befitting a lycan (werewolf), and his ash-gray hair that briefly wrapped around his neckline, reminded one of a majestic wolf standing on a snowy mountain.

Of course, she was worried, but she had no intention of trying to seduce him or start anew.

‘That’s nonsense. Raoul hates me so much.’

Raoul’s iron wall defense was still intact even before the female protagonist appeared. He had never happily accepted any of the good clothes, good swords, or good medicines she gave him.

‘He just dislikes my very existence.’

Aside from the sadness of a fate that would never be fulfilled, getting entangled with him made it difficult to escape the villainess position.

‘He goes crazy saying I’m gloomy just by looking at him, what could I possibly do? I should just focus on saving money!’

Surely Raoul would welcome this with open arms.

And finally, today, a year after her regression, the day to meet Raoul had come.

She swallowed dryly as she looked out the window. She could already hear the sound of hooves approaching.

She straightened her shoulders to look as confident as possible, and chanted inwardly like a spell. ‘No falling in love, no pupil dilation, no blushing.’

Reciting the list of prohibitions, she stood in front of the castle wall overlooking the iron gate.

‘Raoul isn’t interested in me at all. I just need to do well!’

She was determined to show a changed self.

The loud sound of trumpets announcing the return of the army was heard from outside the castle.

Led by Duke Carlyle, the knights of Arnel entered the castle, savoring the joy of victory. The duke’s black horse raised its front legs high, its iron helmet overturned.

“My goodness, how many are there? To think we have to offer all of that to the imperial family.”

Beside her, Angela clicked her tongue in regret. But Diana couldn’t hear anything.

The countless slaves rushing into the castle were disgustingly crowded. The thought that Raoul was in there made her sweat and feel extremely nervous.

In a little while, a scene that would be hard to watch would unfold, and Diana had to endure it. ‘No pretending to know.’ She chanted the spell once more.

As expected, the lower-ranking knights began to take out whips from their waists and swing them wildly.

“Quickly, move quickly!”

They kicked powerless slaves who deviated from the formation and threatened them with whips.

It was excessive, even for a show of force.

Diana tried to close her eyes tightly and ignore it.

‘I’m just fodder for this work, I can’t help!’

But the more she tried to ignore it, the more aware she became of Raoul’s presence. At that moment, with an ominous crack, a young boy fell forward.

‘Kyaaaaaah!’

It was the sub-male lead whose appearance stood out even from ten miles away. The knight, as if he had a death wish, brought down the whip once more on Raoul as he tried to get up.

Crack!

With a sharp sound that quickly cut through the air, Raoul rolled on the dirt ground.

“No leniency just because you’re young! Walk faster!”

‘That, that despicable bastard…!’

Diana’s hands trembled with anger. She still tried to endure. She had no intention of taking any more actions for his sake.

But before she could, the knight raised his whip high again.

Seeing that sight, Diana felt her reason fly away.

‘Endure… I, I can endure. I can…’

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Huk, Angela, standing behind her, startled and stumbled back. Ha, Diana closed her eyes tightly and muttered. Indeed, old sayings never fail.

‘Old habits… carry over to the next life…’

Diana instinctively bared her teeth and immediately regretted it.

‘Mouth, please stay still…’

Angela, standing next to her, also seemed startled by the sudden outburst.

“No, if you whip a child, the march will only slow down, what are they doing…”

Diana awkwardly averted her eyes, trying to smooth over the situation.

No one was more flustered by the sudden action than Diana herself. Her recent behavior was closer to a learned response rather than her own will.

Ah, Diana felt that her unrequited love cells were still running rampant in her body.

‘My body hasn’t caught up with my thoughts yet…’

She couldn’t raise her head due to the belated embarrassment that washed over her.

‘Calm down. He couldn’t have heard.’

But the moment she raised her head, her expectations were shattered miserably.

Raoul was looking beyond the ramparts where Diana was standing while being dragged by iron chains.

With a sinking feeling, she changed her position, but each time she did, Raoul’s head moved along with her.

‘No way. It can’t be…’

Diana quickly turned her gaze away, avoiding Raoul. But more than the piercing gaze, the afterimage of him walking with a bent back remained more painfully.

‘Ah, God. Why such a trial for me…!’

It was clear she wouldn’t be able to sleep easily tonight.