I Became the Tyrant’s Cure in a Tragedy Novel [Novel] Chapter 1 is available as a full text chapter. Published August 31, 2025 and updated March 13, 2026.
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: A Rude Awakening
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“Mmm.”
I shifted at the touch of a hand shaking my shoulder, rubbing my face against something hard and wide.
‘Warm. This feels nice.’
I’m pretty sure I was drinking at a bar with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time…
I guess I got drunk quickly, even though I didn’t have that much.
‘At least they didn’t just abandon me. Looks like they put me to bed somewhere.’
I’ll have to thank them when I wake up, I thought. As I moved my head, a warm sensation touched my soft earlobe.
The pillow I was on was quite large and warm, making me feel drowsy. I licked my lips.
Tap, tap.
Something touched my shoulder again.
“Ugh, what is it? Let me sleep.”
“…Are you in any position to be sleeping? After putting me in this state?”
Huh?
My ears perked up at the languid, alluring voice.
My friends are all women. When did their voices get so deep?
I chuckled softly, imagining my petite friends with voices that deep and resonant.
“Wha—?”
Someone pinched and pulled my cheek.
Startled by the sudden attack, I groggily opened my eyes, blinking to focus.
“Ow, why’d you pinch me? That hurts.”
“‘That hurts’? Now you’re even speaking informally?”
“Hey, that voice doesn’t suit you at all. Stop joking around.”
“Hey?”
Why is she getting so hung up on my words today?
Wondering what was wrong, I started to turn my head, but my body froze at the object that came into my now-clear vision.
“Huh? What is this?”
I poked the smooth rock in front of me, and it twitched.
Why is a rock moving?
Thinking I was still drunk, I rubbed my eyes, but the voice came again from above my head.
“If you’re awake, you should get up now.”
“Whoa. The rock can talk, too.”
Curious, I clumsily sat up to get a better look at the talking rock, but my jaw dropped wider and wider.
“What… the…?”
As I scooted back, my view expanded, revealing a firm chest and a set of well-defined abs.
It didn’t take long to realize that what I had been leaning on just moments ago wasn’t a rock, but a stranger’s chest.
“Wow… what is this situation?”
I covered my gaping mouth, then slowly looked down, feeling strangely exposed.
My trembling gaze fell upon a thin slip.
“W-what?”
I’d never made a mistake like this, no matter how drunk I was. This was a rather bewildering situation.
In a hurry, I grabbed the first thing I could find and wrapped it around myself, my eyes darting around the room.
“Why am I dressed like this, and why is this room so dark?”
Where am I? Why are there strange candles lit instead of electric lights?
My gaze, which had been wandering aimlessly in the dark room, returned to the man’s body still lying beneath me.
I looked at my palm, which could still vividly recall the sensation. Then at his broad chest. Then back at my hand.
This time, I moved my head instead of just my eyes, trying to grasp the situation, and glanced up toward where the man’s face should be.
No. It can’t be.
“Um… excuse me…”
“Mm?”
“Did I, by any chance… just…”
Pounce on you?
I couldn’t bring myself to say the words, swallowing dryly. The man’s reply was mercilessly clear.
“Yes. You climbed on top of me.”
“…I did?”
“You even took off my shirt yourself. Don’t you remember?”
“Oh…! I-I’m so sorry! My drinking habits aren’t usually this bad, I don’t know what came over me…”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not fine for you to be so fine with this…? It’s not, right? I-I’ll get off now. I’m sorry!”
I stammered, trying to get up. It would be truly mortifying if the man got a cramp from me sitting on him for so long.
Well, to be honest, I was already mortified enough.
Just as I was about to move off the solid body beneath me, the man grabbed my clothes, and I lurched forward.
“Oh!”
“I said it’s fine.”
‘His eyes… are beautiful.’
The candlelight, now closer, made his eyes shine more clearly.
I stared, mesmerized, at his gray eyes, which seemed to hold the flame’s light in their depths. The man guided my hand back to his chest.
“I didn’t dislike it.”
“Oh, I see… You didn’t dislike it.”
“No. So, shall we continue what we were doing?”
“Yes, let’s continue—ah, no! Continue what!”
I had been mindlessly repeating his words when the sudden touch of a muscle against my fingertip made my shoulders tremble.
My hips shot back reflexively, landing precariously on the edge of the bed.
“You’re going to fall. It’s dangerous, come here.”
My predicament must have looked quite precarious to him as well. He pushed himself up from his reclining position and moved toward me.
The problem was…
“W-wait! Don’t come any closer!”
The sight of the man revealed by the light was rather shocking.
His upper body was completely bare, without a single thread on… except for a pair of gloves.
Gloves… on a naked body…
Before the blanket covering his lower half could disappear as well, I quickly covered my eyes.
“I-I’m not mentally prepared yet…! Could you please not come any closer for now?”
“What in the world are you talking about… Wait! Don’t move!”
“Huh…?”
The moment the words left his mouth, my body tilted.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa?”
“Riana!”
Crash.
I must have grabbed something to keep from falling off the bed, because I heard a loud clatter as it hit the floor.
Over it, a man’s voice called out a strange name—Riana, or something like that.
Then, finally, a thud and a sharp impact to my head.
Tears welled in my eyes from the pain before I could even process what had happened.
“Ouch…”
My vision had flipped upside down in an instant, and an ornate ceiling came into view.
As I lay on the floor staring up at it, a pair of slender legs encased in dark blue trousers approached.
“Are you all right?”
“You’re… wearing pants?”
“…Pardon?”
Ah. If I’d known his lower half was properly covered, I wouldn’t have caused such a scene.
As I clutched my throbbing head, swallowing my embarrassment amid the chaos that had shattered the quiet night,
“Your Majesty! What is it!”
A group of people, likely having heard the commotion, rushed into the room.
They were dressed rather strangely. And they used a rather strange title: Your Majesty.
“What the… Am I in a foreign country…? Did I get drunk and somehow end up on a plane…?”
***
A furtive glance.
When I looked up, the man, now impeccably dressed, was looking down at me.
“So, my name is…?”
“Riana Daphne.”
“And your name is?”
“Enoch Philippe de Hihart. And I’m not just ‘you,’ I happen to be the emperor.”
I fidgeted with my fingers as I looked at the man—no, at Enoch—who was leaning his head back languidly.
“So, what happened earlier was…”
“Yes. I was changing my clothes when you suddenly came in and climbed on top of me. You also threw off your own clothes, saying you were hot.”
“Ahaha. I see.”
“Oh, and just in case you were worried, nothing of concern happened. Any other questions?”
I shook my head, signaling I had none, and carefully replayed what Enoch had told me.
“So. I’m Riana, and you’re Enoch—I mean, Your Majesty. And I just brazenly jumped you and started groping you?”
“Yes. Hah. I don’t know how many times I have to say it.”
At my repeated question, Enoch’s gray eyes narrowed.
Then, seeing me tear at my hair, he muttered.
“I heard you enjoy drinking… Has it caused memory loss? Riana, you need to cut back on your drinking.”
“Ahaha. Yes. I’ll try.”
I cautiously averted my gaze from his sharp stare, and a curtain of shimmering platinum blonde hair fell into my view.
‘Does any of this make sense?’
After the fifth explanation, I had finally accepted reality and now my leg began to shake uncontrollably.
If I understood correctly, I was inside a 19+ angst-ridden novel.
Its name was just as unusual: [Why Did That Duke's Daughter Roll in the Rose Garden].
It was so full of steamy, complicated relationships that it went beyond 19+ to something more like 29+! What was even crazier was that I’d learned of this novel less than a day ago.
‘My friends were talking about it so much, I only read a little bit of it!’
I’d read it to see what all the fuss was about, but I got too embarrassed to finish it. And now I’d been transmigrated into that very novel.
‘If I’d known this would happen, I would have at least finished it.’
I stopped shaking my leg and started chewing on my hair. I tried to recall the character named Riana.
Riana Daphne.
With platinum blonde hair and green eyes just like the female lead, she was the heroine’s cousin.
She had no particularly special traits and was a typical villain who appeared briefly at the beginning to add variety to the plot.
She loved money and power.
Oh, and she loved to drink. A lot.
In any case, she was a character who relentlessly tried to seduce the emperor at every opportunity in her quest to become empress.
“Ah! But why did it have to be now, of all times?”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“…Nothing. Just talking to myself.”
“Riana.”
“Yes?”
Enoch called my name, his tone quite serious, and stared intently at my hand.
“In case you’re not aware, hair is not for eating.”
“…Pardon?”
Shaking his head, Enoch leaned forward slightly, plucked a strand of hair from my lips, and settled back into his chair.
“Shall I have food brought in if you’re hungry? You’ll get a stomachache eating things like that.”
“I’m not hungry!… I mean, yes. You’re right. One shouldn’t eat hair. Haha. I won’t.”
I bristled at his tone, which sounded like he was scolding a three-year-old, but I quickly backed down.
Because, after all, the man sitting languidly before me,
“Yes. Good girl.”
…the man who curled his red lips like a well-fed predator, that very emperor, was none other than…
The mad tyrant from this train wreck of an angst-ridden novel.
