"Under the Moonlight."
A romance fantasy novel I enjoyed reading in my free time. Originally an otome game, it got adapted into a web novel which brought the story to new heights. By all means, it was your typical otome story with a poor girl and rich prince set in an academy – yet the writer of the novel was excellent at writing, making every moment, no matter how ordinary, seem alluring.
Embarrassingly, I admit, I was a guy who enjoyed reading romance fantasy novels, and this particular one was at the top of my list. One day, I jokingly prayed to live in the novel's world.
Never in my twenty-two years of life did I ever imagine that such prayers would be answered.
I 'awakened' in this world when I was five years old – or more accurately, my soul merged with the soul of the little boy who was to become the novel's infamous "temporary villain", Edwin Grayson.
Edwin Grayson, at a glance, looked just like any other boy. Brown hair and green eyes as common to ninety percent of the empire, although with an exceptional face. If you digged deeper, probably the only abnormality was the absence of a father in his family; Edwin's mother, Sarah Grayson, gave birth to and raised Edwin alone initially in a poor part of Hilford, the imperial capital, before they moved to better quarters after her successful career as a dressmaker.
However, the truth unraveled itself just before the novel's main story began, on Edwin's 15th birthday. One day, Sarah fell ill and was unable to administer to Edwin his yearly medicine, which she claimed was for an illness he contracted as a baby. As it turns out, the 'medicine' was actually an appearance-concealing potion, which hid Edwin's true hair and eye colours. The potion's effect ran out after a year, and despite waking up to silver hair and purple eyes, he failed to realize this and carelessly went out. People pointed at him, some even bowed to him, which confused him a great deal, until he saw his reflection on a mirror. In a frenzy, he ran back home and told Sarah, who panicked and told him to take a medicine. Then, she spilled the beans.
Years ago, Sarah had a one night stand with a random nobleman, after which she got pregnant. However, she failed to find the nobleman from that night. It wasn't until after Edwin was born that she realized who that person was – or rather, a vague idea of that person. Upon seeing Edwin's silver strands and purple eyes, she nearly fainted realizing that the nobleman was actually someone from the imperial family. In the end, she purposely fed Edwin the concealment potion to hide his true identity, fearful of her own fate should they be discovered. Sarah, a lowly commoner, absolutely did not want to play the part of a mistress to a prince, or a concubine.
Edwin himself became fearful after hearing Sarah's story, so he did not blame her. He was every bit as unwilling to be a prince as his mother was to be involved with the noble world, and hoped that they would be able to stay hidden forever.
Unfortunately, the talk of a prince walking among common citizens failed to escape the notice of officials, who leaked it to the Emperor himself. Soon enough, imperial guards stormed the Grayson home and forcibly dragged Edwin out, and ignoring his and his mother's pleas, the Emperor practically confined Edwin to the palace for a whole month, leaving his sick mother alone in a half-thrashed home. As a result of this, Edwin immediately disliked his father and new family.
Sadly, when Edwin was finally allowed to go out, his mother had just died of illness, whose symptoms worsened after Edwin was dragged out. His disdain for the imperial family turned into all-out resentment and anger.
Long story short, his personality became twisted, and just to spite his brother the protagonist, the First Prince, Ezra, he repeatedly tried to woo the heroine and create discord between them, tragically resulting in Edwin's expulsion to the empire's nether regions forever.
Of course, there was no way I'd let that happen to me, or to my mother. To the plot, I'd like to say a nice "fuck you." I'm willing to step down from the role of villain to simple cannon fodder – no, less than that. Of course, that was what I steadfastly thought – initially, at least.