Chapter 2
Viola bit her fingernails with her lips.
“Why is this happening?”
Why won’t I wake up? Is this really a dream?
Two days passed.
In the meantime, no one disturbed Viola.
This fluffy, wide white bed contains some magic in it.
It was comfortable, but somewhat awkward since it felt like my body would sink just by touching it.
I got up and walked towards the desk, and pulled my chair down.
Paused.
I am relatively small.
Though I’m sitting on the chair, my legs can’t even touch the ground.
‘This is so high.’
At this point, I had no choice but to accept that I had “possessed” Viola.
‘H….Have I seriously reincarnated?’
This…
‘and even in the mass killer Princess Viola’s body?’
Following her father, a thousand-year-old Duke’s footsteps, she became the adopted daughter of the executioner Duke.
Genocide.
He’s killed thousands of people.
‘Impossible.’
No.
How? I thought this was a dream.
How could I believe that this ridiculous phenomenon is real?
I ripped out my hair again.
‘I have seriously possessed this body.’
I am now a part of the Iron blood family.
The Iron blood Duke.
I really had become Verratoux’s adopted daughter.
‘I became the Main Female Character…’
I’ve imagined this a lot but never thought this would actually happen.
After two days and ten hours later, Arin had finally accepted.
Arin, who lived in the 21st century, became the adopted daughter, Viola Verratoux.
I sat at my desk and started to ponder.
I need to stay alert if I’m entering the tiger’s den.
Phew.
I sighed.
This is a place where one must thoroughly prove their ability.
When Viola became a Verratoux, she started getting hunted by her siblings.
She had to prove her abilities, or she would be killed.
As a reader, it’s full of tension! It is a thrilling view of the world she lives in.
Now that I have entered the character’s shoes, it’s been smeared with dog pop.
‘First of all, I’m going to have to make those psychos of Verratoux recognize me as Verratoux, right?’
Once she survives, she will be recognized.
I bit my nails.
‘Then she would push the first Princess to be the successor.’
If Viola did not make all the bad jokes in the original book, the first Princess would have easily taken the post as the next Duchess.
When the successor is chosen, the war between the siblings will end.
All the dangerous burdens would disappear as well.
‘All right. Let’s make the first Princess become the Duchess.’
In order to follow the original Viola’s footsteps, she had to kill ten thousand people, but I knew I couldn’t do that.
I don’t want to kill anyone, nor do I want to die.
Viola’s expression became serious.
Arin, who is a reader, always felt sorry for Viola.
I don’t intend to be a ruler. I don’t want to be the lonely and poor ruler who didn’t even want to become one in the first place.
Fortunately, I have read the novel several times and read the synopsis from the author’s blog.
‘I will live differently.’
What’s the point of having no one by my side except myself.
I pledged and promised to myself.
‘Yeah, this is actually the popular novel…’
I am in a trap. I might die if I acted differently than the original course of the story. She finally admitted the reality that she possessed the main character.
Then I must do my best. I would not be able to live with just a half-hearted mind and effort from the iron-blooded Duke.
Arin, who is now Viola, didn’t want to die.
“During elementary, did you know that Arin wanted to die? Her mother was dead and she doesn’t even have a father as well.”
“Really? How did that happen?”
“She lived in a nursery.”
Han Arin was an orphan and grew up in a nursery.
No matter how loving the teachers were, they couldn’t fill in the void as her parents.
“Teacher, when will dad pick me up?”
Dad said he’d definitely come to pick me up after a hundred nights’ sleep.
That was when I was five.
But even after a hundred, to two hundred nights, my dad didn’t come back.
It was not until middle school that Arin found out.
‘I’m really abandoned…’
Little Arin had no family.
Realizing that made me feel miserable. I’ve always thought that I was the only thing that my mom and dad had.
The empty despondency I felt made me sick.
Arin, who was fifteen at the time, walked up to the school rooftop.
She climbed onto the railing. Below that level, I could see the hard ground.
I climbed onto the railing. Looking down, I could see the hard ground.
Then I quickly realized… I still want to live.
I want to live. It is fine even if I don’t have a family who will truly love me.
When I grow up, I want to become a better adult. One that can make the people around me feel loved.
I am not going to abandon my family. I will not make another kid feel the same way I did.
The fifteen-year-old Arin promised herself.
Since then, Arin has always done her best.
So she studied harder than ever.
She made a lot of friends through high school, and she even got accepted to a prestigious university. The university even gave her a scholarship saying that she “did well”.
The day she got accepted to college, her friends sincerely congratulated her.
“You really are amazing. Congratulations!”
“Arin, I knew you could do anything!”
Arin was always used to doing her best.
In the second semester of her first year in university, she was busy preparing for the midterm. While studying hard in the library, she dozed off.
And when she opened her eyes, she found herself in Viola’s body.
Arin, who is now Viola, is determined again.
‘But…’
She has a father here.
For the first time in her life, she had a family.
This seems better than having no one. That thought occurred to her in an instant.
At the same time, she was rather feeling sad.
Heron Verratoux was actually a zero-point, or more like a minus hundred-point father as a father.
Nevertheless, Arin did not hate him.
Being in a cruel succession race was better than being thrown away.
At least he’s there for her.
“After reading the whole novel, it’s not like I didn’t come to understand Heron Verratoux…”
At first, I thought Heron Verratoux was just a lunatic.
But Heron had his own circumstances, and Arin, as a reader, had felt a profound sympathy and understanding for him.
That’s why he could have easily been her favorite character.
And it wasn’t just him.
Some of them are not in their right minds, but they are now her family.
They are also longing for affection… There is still a long way to go with them, but that’s the only way.
‘All right. This mental breakdown is now over!’
I need to adapt to this world.
As always, I decided to try my best to survive.
I recalled the contents of the novel.
「 Carlton, what do you think is the probability that this child will survive in Verratoux until she becomes an adult? 」
「 I think it’s less than 10 percent. 」
Though Viola was not sure, she didn’t think Carlton would actually say that statement.
“I think it’s less than 40 percent.”
In the novel, he mentioned 10 percent, but now he said 40 instead.
She kept thinking back on the original story.
「 Appoint Xenon as her temporary butler. 」
“Yes, sir.”
I didn’t remember this part either.
A temporary butler in a novel.
Now that it has become a reality, he has become a regular butler.
She didn’t know. The fact that she is passing the role of the adopted daughter in flying colors.
Arin closed her eyes and thought.
‘Xenon, the temporary butler.’
Xenon is an elite swordsman from a prestigious family.
Due to some incident, twenty first-class regular knights of the Empire were entrusted to Verratoux.
‘The observer and capable housekeeper, who constantly tests and observes Viola’s qualities.’
Xenon doesn’t approve of Viola at first.
It wasn’t until the middle part of the novel that Viola was fully recognized, and he became the closest person to Viola.
I tried to recall Xenon’s appearance.
Purple hair.
He had a handsome visage with a good impression.
He had a warm smile.
He was also keen, and well mannered, always refined.
「 But he would always observe Viola with mysterious eyes. 」
That was the very description of Xenon.
Knock, Knock.
I heard a knock.
A gentle voice resounded from the outside.
“Princess Viola, may I come in? I’m Xenon, the new butler.”
Viola doubted her ears.
‘Huh…?’
Something has subtly changed.
「 Princess Viola, may I come in? I’m Xenon, newly assigned as your temporary butler.」
Not ‘temporary butler,’ but ‘butler.’
Viola stood up.
She walked towards the door and opened it.
‘Why are the doorknobs so high?’
Maybe it’s because this is a fantasy world, so it was relatively high.
Otherwise, the body of the seven-year-old Viola was much smaller than others of her age.
After tiptoeing and raising her arms up in the air, she was finally able to reach the doorknob.
When she opened the door, she saw Xenon’s face.
‘Wow, he’s tall.’
He looks the same as the novel’s description, the warm smile, with that purple hair of his.
He still has those mysterious-looking eyes.
He asked me with a smile while narrowing his eyes.
“Did you open the door yourself?”
“From now on, all you need to do is order me to do so. It must be the butler who opens the door, not the master.”
Viola smiled softly.
Viola is a character born to live in this kind of environment.
Viola’s eyes were full of innocence, though Arin might not feel that anymore since she was living her life regarded as someone unimportant in her world.
I know the character Xenon well.
He wouldn’t let go of the situation easily.
Xenon is someone who always tested Viola.
“Did you just lecture me?”
“No?”
“I see then.”
Xenon quickly identified his own mistakes.
“I just thought it is rather foolish to see the Princess opening the door herself.”
I relaxed a little after hearing that. It seems like I misjudged his attitude.
“The role of a butler is to advise, not discipline. Keep that in mind.”
“I will be more careful.”
How to survive as Viola Verratoux.
Is to not lose the aura of a Verratoux.
I still have the prestige and authority as much as Verratoux to people around me.
Even Viola in the original book never lost her prestige and authority.
They suppressed people with power and fear, and eventually lost everyone around them.
“I’ve heard the butler plays an important role in the Verratoux.”
Verratoux’s butlers are incredibly and deeply involved in the succession battle.
Butlers who helped the fallen heirs in the succession battle are purged and compete with each other.
On the other hand, the butler who establishes his successor wields power over the unknown.
“I wanted to check my butler’s face for myself.”
“I understand.”
“That’s why I opened the door myself.”
“I didn’t know that was what you intended. I apologize.”
Xenon fell on one knee.
He then made eye contact with Viola.
He smiled.
Xenon gave her a charming smile, staring into her eyes.
“This is my face. I’m very happy to be the butler of Miss Viola.”
“I’m happy, too”
“Even though I just made a big mistake?”
Han Arin has seen this world a lot as a reader.
This is how to win the hearts of the characters.
I can see how he was able to survive here brilliantly.
“Though I understand your intention. It is not proper for the Verratoux’s Princess to open the door herself. That will surely cause me a lot of problems.”
As a true loyal reader of this novel, I understood his point.
“I don’t have any issues with your attitude, but rather, it is what you said that bothered me.”
Xenon started into Viola’s eyes for a while.
I was a little shocked.
Ah, that’s right…
‘Those purple pupils…will turn red sometimes, right?’
It is said that very few people who were born to be a murder have such a thing.
A person who is meant to kill people in their life.
But now, I don’t feel that way.
Now that I’m here in this story, this is how I’m going to do it.
‘You’ve become a Verratoux with better qualities than I thought.’
“I’m giving you my first order, Xenon.”
Xenon swallowed a false laugh.
Originally, she was going to introduce herself briefly today and explain her stance as a Verratoux and what he should do in front of Princess Viola.
I tried to explain them briefly.
‘Hm… What should I make him do?’
The first day we met. I didn’t know that he would receive an official first order at a short time and it is only 10 minutes after we have met.
The situation is rather far beyond his expectations.
Since he didn’t hear any explanation, the little Princess also seemed to be doing her part very well.
Xenon replied with a smile.
“Yes. Please give me my first order.”
When he heard Viola’s first order, he questioned his hearing skills for the first time.