“Ugh… Urgh!”
Veronia opened her eyes, feeling a twisting pain in her gut.
Parched lips continuously released groans.
‘I thought I was dead… but I’m alive?’
All her senses were overwhelmed by terrible pain, so she didn’t notice the unfamiliar scene before her eyes.
‘…It hurts. It hurts so much! If it’s going to be like this… I’d rather just die…’
Veronia felt no gratitude or appreciation for being alive.
The intense pain made peaceful death seem like a blessing.
“Ah… ugh…”
Veronia, uttering painful groans, lost consciousness again and fell into a bottomless sleep.
How much time had passed?
Veronia had no way of knowing whether hours or days had gone by.
All she could tell was that the place where she opened her eyes was an extremely unfamiliar and new space.
Veronia lay still, rolling her eyeballs this way and that, trying to assess the situation.
Physicians with serious expressions and maids were bustling about.
The one who seemed to be the chief physician among the many approached her and spoke politely.
“Your Highness, your fever has gone down considerably, so you should feel much better. Is there anything causing you discomfort?”
“…No, I think I’m fine.”
Veronia shook her head slowly as she lay straight under the blanket.
Though her pale face looked weak, in her heart, she was actually cheering.
‘It’s amazing enough to have died and possessed someone else’s body, but to be none other than Her Highness the Imperial Princess! Literally born with a silver spoon!’
The corners of her mouth kept twitching, wanting to curl up.
‘No, wait! It’s not just that level. Look at this now. How many physicians and maids are working hard to treat this one body.’
Unaware of her inner exclamation, the physician continued his polite explanation.
“There’s still some poison in your body, so normal meals are not possible yet. If you take medicine for just one more day, the poison will completely leave your body.”
“…”
Veronia’s eyes widened at the word ‘poison’ from the physician’s mouth.
‘What? I was poisoned…? So that’s why it hurt so much. Is this Imperial Princess a hated one?’
Veronia’s heart sank.
Life in the imperial palace with death threats lurking everywhere! Veronia suddenly disliked all this luxury.
‘Isn’t it better to just die than to live in constant fear of death?’
Veronia’s mind and heart became tangled in complexity.
The physician’s calm voice, still unaware of her inner thoughts, was heard.
“If you take medicine with rice porridge just for today, you’ll be able to have normal meals from tomorrow.”
“…Alright.”
Veronia nodded slightly.
Following the physician’s instructions, maids prepared medicine and rice porridge.
It was then.
Without knocking, the door burst open, and the Emperor and Empress, dressed lavishly, entered, followed by the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, and the Third Prince.
“Is it true Veronia has woken up? How is her condition?”
“Veronia! Are you alright?”
The Emperor and Empress approached the bedside, making a fuss.
Veronia frowned at the pungent smell of strong perfume.
But the perfume smell was not important right now.
‘…Veronia? …Veronia!’
Just hearing that name they called, she knew.
That this was the world of the web novel ‘Evangelina of Dawn’ that she had spent her teens with.
How could she not know the novel she often revisited as a web novel in elementary school, as a webtoon in middle school, and as collected editions of both in high school?
Her heart started pounding heavily.
‘The original owner of this body is Veronia…? I’ve possessed Veronia’s body! Of all people, the villainess who’s about to die!’
Imperial Princess Veronia was a typical villainess character.
She cruelly tormented the female protagonist, the saint, and even went as far as to instigate murder, and in the end, everything was discovered, leading to her execution.
She didn’t deviate one bit from the basic conditions of a villainess.
‘Originally, thanks to the image fabricated by the imperial family, she was loved like a national little sister, a national idol, but due to all sorts of evil deeds against the original female lead, her true nature was exposed to the world.’
Even the imperial family couldn’t prevent the execution of their only imperial princess.
The imperial family, a hotbed of luxury, pleasure, injustice, and corruption, didn’t have that much power.
‘Was it just lack of power? There was no affection or interest at all.’
The Emperor and Empress didn’t consider Veronia as their daughter.
The Crown Prince and Princes didn’t consider her as family.
To them, Veronia was a tool.
A tool for whitewashing the image of the corrupt imperial family.
‘And quite a functional one at that. Huh, really!’
Before the Imperial Princess was born, the empire had been suffering from famine and starvation due to a long drought.
People of the empire, tired of hunger, cursed the merciless sky and pointed fingers at the incompetent imperial family.
But on the day the Imperial Princess was born, miraculously, rain poured from the sky.
The rain continued for a week after that.
That was why.
That was the reason Veronia was loved by the people of the empire as a symbol of luck and blessings.
However, soon after, hardship struck the Imperial Princess who had been special to all the empire’s people.
Because the previous Empress passed away just a year after giving birth to the Imperial Princess.
The people of the empire shed tears for the Imperial Princess with one heart and mind.
Gradually, Veronia took deep root in people’s hearts as a poignant existence.
But as they say, if you gain something, you lose something.
The overwhelming affection and attention from the empire’s people towards Veronia rather turned into poison.
The Emperor was incompetent in all aspects, but strangely, he was quite clever when it came to using the young Imperial Princess’s image.
Thus, from the moment of her birth until she turned 20, Veronia’s every move was frequently featured in newspapers with large pictures.
Whenever the imperial family was involved in scandals or accidents, they used Veronia as a shield.
Even people who were angry at the imperial family’s incompetence and corruption laughed and cried together over articles about the Imperial Princess.
‘Maybe… there was some reason like that for this poison incident too?’
Veronia looked at the Emperor, Empress, Crown Prince, and Princes without lowering her guard.
After confirming that all the physicians and maids had disappeared, the Empress spoke first.
“This time, I personally adjusted the dosage, and it was quite appropriate, wasn’t it? I guess practice makes perfect even with this!”
The Empress’s high-pitched laughter grated on the ears.
The Second Prince Tate, standing nearby, chimed in.
He was Veronia’s older brother by two years.
“Come to think of it, that’s true! The schedule was to lose consciousness for four days, wake up, and then regain health while resting for another four days, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. That’s right. You remember it accurately, Tate.”
“To match the planned schedule so perfectly! You’re amazing, Mother.”
Clearly words coming from human mouths, but it was all nonsense.
Veronia’s complexion, sitting up against the bed’s headboard, grew increasingly pale.
On the contrary, the atmosphere among the other family members, excluding her, was as cheerful as could be.
The Third Prince Caspian opened his mouth.
The 15-year-old boy, tall as a beanpole but still not shed of his boyish looks, lowered his eye corners.
“Thanks to sister, the articles about me have completely disappeared. I thought things would blow up this time because a pig-like girl was named and a stupid boy became crippled, but it’s completely quiet!”
Caspian rattled on as if it were something to boast about.
“It’s so quiet it’s almost boring. I think something’s wrong with people’s brains. They’ve already forgotten all about it. Thanks, sister!”
Ah… so that’s how it was! Veronia gritted her molars, suppressing the rising indignation.
It was disgusting.
Even though they were at the very top of a class-based society as imperial family members, when people were harmed without proper reason repeatedly, voices raising questions were bound to be heard.
Especially if the victim was a noble, the problem was even bigger.
And if the perpetrator was the youngest prince, still green and ignorant, there was a risk of even losing public sentiment.
‘To feed Veronia poison to cover up an unsavory incident related to the youngest prince! How can you call yourselves human after doing that?’
Veronia’s fists, gripping the blanket, clenched tightly.
The anger piled up in her solar plexus began to boil.
‘What? You adjusted the dosage appropriately? You’re wrong! Your Veronia is already gone from this world! She’s dead! The Veronia in front of you is not the real Veronia!’
She struggled to suppress the urge to shout at these monsters wearing human skin.
The Emperor spoke, slowly stroking his chin beard with a solemn expression.
Though to Veronia’s eyes, he just looked like the fool leader of a bunch of incompetent villains.
“It’s a thousand blessings that it turned out this way. It seems there won’t be any problem with moving about until the victory celebration next week.”
Victory celebration? Veronia pricked up her ears, focusing on their conversation.
She needed to gather as many clues as possible about how far the original story had progressed.
The Empress added to the Emperor’s words.
“Yes! If we show a healthy appearance at the victory celebration while also showing an affectionate image with Lord Killian, the people will go wild again.”
Victory celebration and Lord Killian.
Then this must be the early part of the original story.
‘It’s still before Veronia meets the female lead Evangelina. It means she hasn’t accumulated bad karma yet!’
What a relief! There’s still a chance! Veronia secretly let out a sigh of relief.
It was then. Caspian began to chuckle, his shoulders shaking.
“They’re really such an easy-to-understand bunch! Stupid things!”
Pure 100% evil! Veronia clicked her tongue inwardly as she looked at her brother.
Caspian felt no guilt despite having beaten people into disability for no particular reason. The 15-year-old boy looked like a demon.
The family members trying their best to cover for him were the same.
‘Well, so far the empire’s people have been fooled just as they wanted.’
Everything must have been easy.
Because they had the shield of a beautiful, lovable, pitiful Imperial Princess who people wanted to protect.
‘But that’s only until yesterday. From today, things won’t go as you want, just wait and see! The Veronia who was your puppet doll is already dead and gone!’
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
