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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The Novel I Didn't Finish
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A room adorned with a lavish chandelier. A woman with light pink hair cascading down lay soaked in a cold sweat.
“...So, the child was miscarried?”
“Yes, unfortunately, it seems to have been a miscarriage.”
“Ha.”
At the doctor’s words, Eric let out a deep sigh. He turned his back on the woman lying in bed, not even glancing at her, and made to leave the room.
“Please don’t worry, Countess. She’s showing signs of recovery and should wake soon.”
Bang. Before the doctor could finish speaking, Eric stormed out the door.
“Tsk, tsk. She’s still his wife, how can he be so indifferent?”
The doctor clicked his tongue, looking at Roje, who lay unconscious. In the doctor’s eyes, Roje seemed utterly pitiful. What was so appealing about such a scoundrel that she clung to him so desperately? There was no one in the empire who didn’t know that their marriage had come about due to Roje’s fervent pursuit. Just then, Roje, who had been lying as if dead, twitched her fingers and slowly began to open her eyes.
“Countess! Are you awake?”
‘Countess…?’
A strange man’s voice reached her ears. As she opened her eyes, a middle-aged foreigner was speaking to her.
“You’ve woken up after three days.”
Three days… She tried to recall her last memory before losing consciousness.
‘I definitely remember a building collapsing and being buried under it…’
Suddenly, the ground gave way, and the building crumbled. She had been sure she was dead, but it seemed she hadn’t died and had been rescued.
‘…But I wanted to die.’
It was a life where she couldn’t even die. Her husband had been stolen by a friend she trusted, and she had been miserably abandoned.
‘…Where on earth is this place?’
It was too lavish to be a hospital, and it was strange that the foreigner in front of her spoke fluent Korean.
“Where is this place?”
They said she’d woken up after three days, but her voice seemed to have changed strangely too. It was a tone higher and clearer than her original voice.
“Pardon? …This is your room, Countess. Are you alright?”
The doctor looked at Roje with a worried expression. To ask where she was, not even knowing it was her own room.
“My… room?”
She looked around with a bewildered expression.
‘This lavish room, incomparable to some shabby studio apartment, is *my* room…?’
As she looked around, she saw her reflection in the mirror and froze like stone. Why was there a woman she’d never seen before in the mirror? Staring blankly at the mirror without a word, she slowly got up. She heard the doctor say she shouldn’t get up yet, but she ignored him and staggered towards the mirror.
“Wh-What’s going on?”
A slender, beautiful woman, completely different from her original self, stood before the mirror. The moment her legs gave out and she swayed, the doctor beside her quickly supported Roje.
“Countess Wens, are you alright?”
And he called her Countess Wens…? Even amidst her confusion, the name of the male lead from a novel she’d once read came to mind. She wasn’t good at remembering the names of characters in novels, but this name she remembered clearly. Because he was the male lead she’d cursed as a “cursed man” of a count.
‘…Of all the people to transmigrate into.’
Roje clutched her throbbing head, certain. She had transmigrated into Countess Wens, the female lead of a grim novel she had abandoned right before she died.
Roje de Wens. That was the name of the character I had transmigrated into. Roje was the only daughter of a fallen count’s family, and a daughter of a family that had been at odds with the Wens household… And she’d fallen in love with Eric at first sight and chased after him, which supposedly caused Roje’s parents to fall ill with worry, right? After the doctor left, Roje sat blankly on the bed, trying to organize her current situation. But because she had read the novel so carelessly, she couldn’t recall the details precisely. All she remembered was that Roje was deeply infatuated with Eric and couldn’t escape it, while Eric, on the other hand, didn’t like Roje. Just then, a maid knocked on Roje’s door and entered.
“Countess. Your bathwater has been drawn. I’ve even scattered lavender petals.”
“A bath? The doctor said my body isn’t well and that I should only take light showers, and that baths should wait for about two weeks. Besides, my period isn’t over yet.”
Roje was unaware that she had suffered a miscarriage. This was because the doctor hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell the distraught-looking Roje about the miscarriage, only informing the Head Maid. Hearing the word ‘period,’ the Head Maid’s face turned stark white.
‘So the doctor was right about her possibly having short-term memory loss…’
Remembering the doctor’s words that in severe cases, she might have even forgotten she was pregnant, the Head Maid looked at Roje with a truly pitiful expression. The Head Maid briefly wondered what she should do in this situation. She offered Roje an awkward bow and then hastily left.
“...I wanted a shower, though. Should I just sleep today?”
Her body felt incredibly heavy. Her entire body drooped as if something was pulling her down from the ground. Roje began to doze off like a sick chicken. Sleep poured over her the moment she lay down. Before long, Roje was completely asleep. Only the soft sound of her breathing quietly echoed in her room. Just as it seemed a peaceful, uneventful night would pass, creak. Someone opened Roje’s door and entered. The lights were off, and there was no sign of movement, so they must have known Roje was asleep. Yet, as if it didn’t matter if the recently fallen-asleep Roje woke up, the person strode purposefully towards the bed. The man gazed intently at the softly breathing Roje. Had he just bathed? The man’s hair, as he looked at Roje, was damp.
“Is she asleep?”
He poked Roje’s sleeping cheek, murmuring. At his touch, Roje burrowed deeper into the sheets as if ticklish. As the man slowly shed the robe he had draped over himself, his firm, muscular body was revealed, reflecting the moonlight. Half-naked, he lay down on Roje’s bed. He caressed Roje with a soft touch.
“Hmm…”
Roje, who had been asleep, stirred, rubbed her eyes, and opened them.
‘It’s ticklish…’
A dark shape shimmered faintly before Roje’s eyes as she blinked in a hazy state.
‘What is it?’
Her vision, hazy as if fogged, gradually cleared. She had definitely fallen asleep alone, but now some man was staring intently at her.
“Kyaaak!”
Roje, who belatedly spotted the man, screamed and burrowed into the sheets.
“Don’t scream so loudly.”
The man grabbed Roje, his face twisted in annoyance.
“Wh-Who are you?!”
Roje glared at the man, utterly terrified.
“You’re playing quite a prank. Asking your husband who he is.”
The person who had entered Roje’s bedroom was her husband, Count Eric de Wens.
“Hus…band?”
At Eric’s words, Roje looked at him with a skeptical expression.
“Countess!”
Hearing Roje’s scream, maids and knights opened her door, but couldn’t hide their embarrassment at the sight of the two of them on the bed.
“Why don’t you leave? You’re not planning on watching a private moment between husband and wife, are you?”
At Eric’s curt words, the servants scrambled out of the room. Only then did Roje realize with certainty that the person before her was Count Eric de Wens, her husband.
‘So Roje fell in love at first sight and chased after him…’
He was a man whose appearance made it entirely believable. He swept his jet-black hair back once, then sighed and stared at Roje.
“You said you’d give me a child.”
“...Pardon?”
“You said it yourself. That you could bear ten children. But…”
Roje, who had been staring blankly at Eric at his sudden words, couldn’t help but stiffen her expression at what he said next.
“Why haven’t you birthed even one child yet? After three years of marriage, I finally thought I could relax when you became pregnant, only for you to have a miscarriage.”
Miscarriage…?
“Don’t fail this time. I won’t be consummating with you indefinitely.”
“...Did I have a miscarriage?”
“What? You haven’t heard yet?”
Eric, far from worried by her somewhat dazed reaction, frowned and muttered.
“...When did I miscarry?”
“Three days ago, when you collapsed. They said it was a miscarriage then.”
Hearing Eric’s words, Roje could guess which part of the novel she had transmigrated into. Right after the miscarriage… Yes. It was after *that* incident. The day Roje first witnessed Eric’s infidelity. The shock of that day ultimately caused Roje to miscarry the child. Why on earth would the person who cheated brazenly come here tonight? Could the cliché of ‘transmigrating and finding the male lead is actually decent, unlike in the novel’ apply to her too? Had he come to apologize for his affair and comfort her in her grief…?
‘…No, that’s not it.’
The moment Roje looked at Eric, she realized her expectations were futile. For someone who had come to offer comfort, he was far too undressed. Roje quickly averted her gaze upon seeing Eric’s appearance. His intentions were all too clear. He had simply come to satisfy his own desires. He certainly wasn’t undressed to apologize.
“...Please just leave.”
Was there no consideration for his unwell wife? Roje turned her back coldly, not even glancing at Eric.
“I don’t want to.”
However, Eric, unconcerned by her reaction, whispered as if to tickle Roje’s ear, then embraced her waist from behind. Roje’s entire body stiffened due to Eric holding her.
‘I almost forgot.’
That this novel was a grim novel. The Roje in the novel had tried to confirm Eric’s love through the nights they spent together. Unfortunately, Eric didn’t love Roje, but she was always certain of his love. The Roje in the novel had never refused Eric when he came to her late at night. But she, who had transmigrated into Roje, was different.
‘To come onto someone who just woke up today after being unconscious…’
Roje lost any lingering affection she might have had for Eric due to his utter lack of consideration.
“If you won’t leave, then I will.”
Roje tried to shake off Eric’s arm and slowly get out of bed. But Eric pulled Roje back onto the bed. Roje fell weakly onto the bed. Eric climbed onto her body and muttered irritably.
“Just stay.”
With those words, Eric abruptly got up. At Eric’s nakedly revealed form, Roje quickly turned her head and burrowed into the bed sheets.
“I will leave.”
Eric picked up the robe from the floor and slowly put it on.
“You’re the one who refused. From now on, whatever I do, don’t cry and collapse like you did that day.”
He was so blatant about his affair? Roje stared at him, speechless in her bewilderment. She knew it was common for male leads in romance fantasy novels to have mistresses, but to say such a thing to someone who had collapsed because of his infidelity. Eric, who had been fuming, left Roje alone, slamming the door shut with a bang.
“...The novel really glorified the male lead.”
Eric was even more of a scumbag than described in the novel. A man truly beyond recycling, beyond redemption.
‘I have to live in the same house with that kind of guy?’
Roje felt a chill run down her spine, knowing the thorny path that lay ahead of her. The Roje in this novel had certainly not lived a happy life.
‘The first thing I need to do in this novel is to escape being the female lead of a grim novel.’
What was the point of staying by the side of a male lead who cheated as a matter of course, and who was so irredeemable he didn’t hesitate to lay hands on her as their family spiraled into decline? Less than a day after transmigrating, Roje resolved to escape this place. And her wish would come true before long. For an unexpected encounter awaited her. *** The next day, Roje stepped out of her room for a walk.
“The mansion is too big, even for a mansion.”
The grand scale of the mansion was very unfamiliar to Roje. Not yet knowing the layout of the estate, she was wandering around when a noisy commotion from the opposite side stopped her in her tracks.
“I’m telling you, I’m not a maid in this house!”
“Did she eat something bad?”
“Why is she suddenly acting like this? She used to be so diligent.”
“Doana, because you haven’t worked for days, we’ve been taking on your duties too!”
Roje slowly moved towards the source of the noise. There, several maids in uniform surrounded a woman in a worn-out dress, all of them angry. Amidst the commotion, the woman calmly sipped her tea and mumbled.
“Why is this dream so vivid? Why won’t it end even after several days?”
Doana, who had been looking around while drinking her tea, met Roje’s eyes across the space. Doana glanced back and forth between the lavish clothes Roje was wearing and her own worn dress.
“...I think that would suit me better.”
Doana mumbled, pushing her unruly blonde hair behind her ear. The maids nearby, having spotted the Countess, couldn’t help but freeze at Doana’s next words.
“Doana! Have you truly gone mad? What are you saying in front of the Countess?!”
“We apologize, Countess. Doana has been… not herself these past few days.”
“Quickly, apologize to her!”
The maids forcibly held Doana’s body, making her bow her head.
“What’s wrong with you?! Let go of me!”
Doana shook off the maids’ hands that held her, speaking irritably.
“How dare you lay hands on me? If this weren’t a dream, I’d call 112 right now! You lot won’t learn until you’ve all been sued.”
Hearing Doana’s words, Roje couldn’t help but flinch.
‘112’… Did I just mishear something?
A term that was all too familiar. But it didn’t belong here. Roje doubted her ears, gazing at Doana with a strange expression. Roje, who had been looking at Doana with uncertainty, became certain at Doana’s next words.
“Ugh… No cell phone either. This is truly boring.”
That she, too, was someone who had transmigrated into this novel.
