Chapter 1 - Chapter 1

Translator: Nox

Three weeks before the incident.

My story, so to speak, goes like this.

I died in a car accident and was reincarnated in a novel.

Generally, when people think of being reincarnated or possessed in a novel, they imagine a noble lady wearing extravagant dresses, surrounded by handsome men, and leading a luxurious life.

I, too, had been living a life similar to that until recently. Keyword: “until recently.”

This was a world with a social hierarchy, high society, and parties that reminded me of 19th-century Europe during the Industrial Revolution—but it was scheduled to end soon. Because a virus was about to spread.

I was reincarnated in a B-movie style apocalyptic survival romance novel titled .

To make matters worse, I was Cherry Sinclair, a nuisance supporting character who dies after putting the sub-male lead’s life in jeopardy.

I realized this fact in the early spring of my nineteenth year.

Three years ago, my parents died in an accident, leaving me alone in the world.

I wasn’t lonely, though. The massive inheritance I received kept me from feeling that way.

‘Money is the best, after all.’

I wasn’t a noble, but I lived happily thanks to being born into the bourgeois class, possessing more wealth than most aristocrats.

I could live just fine playing around like a spoiled brat and splurging my money!

“I’ll take this, and pack that up too.”

That day, I was on a spending spree at a shoe boutique. Afterward, I hummed a tune and crossed the busy street ostentatiously.

Susanna, my maid, struggled behind me, her arms full of shopping bags. It was a loud, attention-grabbing sight.

I could hear the noble ladies who recognized me whispering.

“Isn’t that Lady Sinclair?”

“I wonder whose design that dress she’s wearing today is?”

“That hat is lovely.”

Hmph. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and smiled with satisfaction.

I wasn’t a noble, but all the nobles envied me. It was a very thrilling and pleasant feeling.

I was often featured in the headlines of the newspapers as a thoughtless heiress, but that was fine. I just considered it a form of public interest.

Until then, I had been living without a single care in the world. I had no idea what dark clouds were about to loom over my future.

“My Lady, please wait a moment.”

After the shopping was finished, Susanna loaded the luggage into a four-wheeled carriage. This was because the steam car I was traveling in had no room for luggage.

I just stood by and watched. She groaned and struggled with the heavy boxes filled with shoes.

‘She looks like she’s having a hard time.’

After checking to make sure no one was around, I hoisted the boxes with one hand and tossed them into the carriage.

“Wow… My Lady, you really are strong.”

Susanna clapped and looked at me. I shrugged nonchalantly. As she said, I was stronger than most.

I wasn’t born this way. I had been frail as a child. But one day, after taking some medicine my parents had obtained and letting a few years pass, I gained this kind of strength.

However, super strength was not a virtue for an upper-class lady. Since I had been a shallow girl who longed to be a noble, I had desperately hidden this power until now.

“Huh?”

I was about to get into the steam car after loading all the luggage when a sudden chill ran down my spine. Susanna, seeing me with only one foot in the car, asked, “What is it, My Lady?”

“Oh, nothing…”

‘What is this ominous feeling?’

A strange sensation suddenly seemed to envelop me. Thinking it was just my imagination, I tried to climb back into the carriage, but I lost my balance, slipped, and fell.

Thump!

I hit my head on the ground.

Ugh. A scream was swallowed automatically. A startled Susanna helped me up.

The pain of slamming the back of my head against the hard ground was immense. It felt as if someone had split my skull right down the middle like a watermelon with an axe.

And through that split gap, memories suddenly came pouring in. Like a flood.

Memories that felt like mine, yet not mine, surfaced vividly. As if they had happened only yesterday.

‘What on earth is this?’

Just like that, I suddenly came to a realization.

Good heavens! I had a past life.

Furthermore, this world I was reincarnated into was the world inside a novel I had read in my previous life.

A novel called .

Dammit, what kind of novel-like situation is this?

Life is made of shitty timing—the female lead of some survival novel had said something like that once.

“My Lady, are you really alright?”

“I’m fine.”

In truth, I wasn’t fine at all, but I climbed into the car with Susanna’s assistance for now.

My head was still throbbing. Leaning my back against the car seat, I began to think.

The novel I remembered thanks to hitting my head was the apocalyptic survival romance .

, or for short, was a story about the heroine, Aurora, gathering male leads to form a ‘survival team’ and searching for a cure after the world ends.

The novel featured various survivors and the survival camps they built, where the scale of the camp equated to power.

And Aurora, the protagonist of the novel, gains power by conquering these camps one by one.

But the problem was…

‘The novel was discontinued.’

The reason why the virus spread was never properly revealed.

The only things clearly mentioned were that the male lead scientist, who had the ability to develop a cure, would meet the heroine’s party two years later.

And that only then would they discover that the heroine’s brother, Eden, was a carrier of the virus antibodies.

Dammit.

Was that all? All the original Cherry did was whine that Aurora’s group wasn’t taking care of her.

And Cherry’s end was dying from a virus monster’s bite after throwing a tantrum. Shit.

“My Lady, are you crying?”

Susanna, who was sitting next to me, handed me a handkerchief with a startled expression.

Leaning my head against the chair and quietly shedding tears, I answered her.

“No, this is sweat.”

“…Pardon?”

Susanna asked back, looking bewildered.

I took the handkerchief from her and wiped away the tears flowing down my cheeks.

Right. I’m not sad. These aren’t tears.

Of all the novels to be reincarnated into, why did it have to be ? Why an apocalypse, of all things!

Shit. Why are you doing this to me?

Benton, the capital of the Graeden Kingdom.

The exterior of the Sinclair family townhouse located in the center of the city was incredibly magnificent.

Gold statues carved into the white walls of the building boasted the prestige of the mansion, and the roof was covered with lavender.

It was a detail that showed the owner of the mansion pursued ‘extravagance’ over ‘harmony.’

On the third floor of the building was the largest room, complete with a walk-in closet.

On the table in the room, a three-tiered tray filled with desserts was always present, and scented candles were constantly burning, giving off a soft floral fragrance.

Beside it was a bed decorated entirely with gold, and I was currently lying on that very bed.

As soon as I returned home, I had been lying there lethargically without even eating.

Because I wanted to deny this unbelievable reality!

Even in a world where the CO-VID virus had spread globally, I was a ‘unicorn’ who had never even had a PCR test. I had been thanking God for my good luck, only to die suddenly in a car accident.

And then the world I’m reborn into is inside a novel, and it’s scheduled to be destroyed by a virus? The difficulty level has been upgraded significantly.

‘So that’s why you left me as a unicorn. Just to give me an even bigger middle finger.’

—If the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.

Well, isn’t there a famous quote like that?

However, the Cherry Sinclair of this world had no loved ones, having recently lost her family. Naturally, she had zero interest in things like apple trees.

Because of my parents’ business, which required them to travel the world constantly, I had no friends, and not even a common cousin.

‘Ah. There is Harrison.’

Harrison Howard.

He was the legal advisor for the Sinclair family, and although we weren’t biological siblings, we had been together since childhood, making him as close as an older brother.

I hadn’t lived with the servants of the Sinclair mansion for very long either, so the only person I felt any affection for was Susanna, my personal maid.

While I was lying on the bed shedding tears like that, Susanna came to my room.

“Lady Cherry. Here are the newspapers you asked for.”

In her hands were newspapers from various dates. I rubbed my eyes, sat up, and took the newspapers.

“Thanks.”

I immediately scanned the papers. After looking through several of them for a long while, I finally found the article I wanted.

[A Comprehensive Analysis of Cherry Sinclair’s Spending Patterns! How Far Will the Thoughtless Heiress’s Extravagance Go…!]

Ah, not this one.

The article included an analysis of my spending patterns along with photos of the dresses I had worn.

Whenever the clothes and jewelry I wore were featured in newspapers or magazines, those designs would become massive hits.

‘Everyone points fingers at me, yet they sure are interested.’

I shook my head and read the article below it.

[Large-Scale Funeral Held at the Marquis KC’s Estate! Family Spokesperson Claims the Deceased Were Servants Suffering from a Contagious Disease…]

This is it.

As expected from my memories of my past life, something was happening at Marquis KC’s estate.

‘This is driving me crazy. So the memories of my past life I recalled are real?’

The tragedy of this novel begins with that suspicious experiment by Marquis KC. Alchemists sponsored by the Marquis had released a catastrophic virus after unethical experiments, and the Marquis’s family had hidden the fact to avoid responsibility.

In the novel, the world was destroyed exactly three months after this article was published…

When I quickly checked the publication date of the article, two months had already passed!

“Oh, dammit, what is this?”

There were only 21 days left until the end. Less than a month.

“This is insane, 21 days is too tight!”

I clutched my head and groaned.