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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Seven-Year-Old Friends
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At seven years old, on the night she fell into the water for the first time in her life.

Lellia realized she had been reincarnated into a novel.

When she'd fallen in, she had been certain she was going to die.

Fortunately, a nearby child had saved her, and the priests had frantically infused her with holy power.

She had woken up sputtering water like a whale.

The priests had tried to take her to the infirmary, but Lellia insisted she was fine and returned to her room.

She had hastily washed up with warm water, changed her clothes, and shivered uncontrollably.

She hadn't drowned, and her secret hadn't been exposed. A wave of relief washed over her at this miracle, yet her body wouldn't stop trembling.

Somehow, she managed to crawl under the covers, curl up like a rock, and fall asleep.

And the next day.

The priests returned to her room.

Worried that word of the incident might reach Lellia's home country, they stood before the just-awakened girl, at a loss for what to do.

“……”

Lellia stared blankly at the priests, her mind drifting to the dream she’d had the previous night.

Her past life had appeared in the dream.

In her past life, she had been a patient. Terminally ill, confined to a hospital bed, just waiting to die.

There wasn't much for a patient like that to do all day.

‘Reading novels and playing games was all I did.’

She spent her days in a tedious cycle of reading romance novels and playing games.

Then one day, the death she had long awaited finally came.

In the moment of her death, she thought she felt a sliver of freedom along with the fear. And she had prayed.

‘If I can be reincarnated, please let it be into the alchemy game I played, *Alchemy Lottery*,’ she had pleaded. ‘Please.’

It was an absurd prayer, yet her wish to be reincarnated had all but come true.

‘But why into a novel?’

If you're going to answer a prayer, you could at least do it right...!

Instead of becoming the game's protagonist, she had been reborn as a character in a novel.

Her life, from the moment of her birth until now, had likely followed the original story's plot to the letter.

She could only assume, because not every single day of her life had been recorded in the novel.

Her role was a minor one, a supporting character. She was even fated to die partway through the story.

She had never thought her life was special, but she'd certainly never imagined it was that of a supporting character in someone else's story.... It felt like a betrayal.

Displeasure came first, but it was followed by a sense of relief.

‘I guess it's a good thing I found out early?’

She was only seven now, so there was still plenty of time before her death.

“Your Highness, Crown Prince Leo. Are you truly all right?”

“…Ah.”

Snapping out of her daze, she turned her attention to the still-hesitant priests.

The priests were on pins and needles. The crown prince was already rumored to be frail. For him to have nearly died...

If the high priests found out, they were dead men.

Lellia cleared her throat and spoke.

“I am fine. You may leave.”

“Ah, very well. But please, call for us anytime if you need anything.”

The priests exchanged glances, bowed their heads slightly, and departed.

Left alone, Lellia surveyed the lavish room.

Until yesterday, this place had been familiar... but now that she remembered her past life, it felt strangely foreign.

‘Still, to be reincarnated into a novel...’

Remembering the future that awaited her in the novel, her mood soured once more.

To think someone else had decided my future for me! And such a pathetic one at that.

‘I don't want to die again.’

I already lived and died as a terminally ill patient. You expect me to die young again? Absolutely not!

Besides, avoiding her death wouldn't even be that difficult. In the novel, she died by slipping and falling into the imperial palace pond.

All she had to do was stay away from the pond.

Right, it'll be fine!

‘But….’

There was just one problem.

She was currently in this sacred neutral territory under the guise of the crown prince.

Deceiving everyone, pretending to be a man.