I swore as I stared at the dead end before me. Wasn't my luck supposed to be higher than average? How had I ended up in this mess? Taking a deep breath, I turned around slowly to face the villain. It wasn't like I had anywhere else to run.
"Hey… Rafayel, let's talk this out…" My voice faltered as I caught sight of the anger in his silver eyes.
Rafayel let out a dark chuckle. "You were the one who ran first without a word, and now you want to talk?" The fury in his voice was palpable.
I looked away, guilt twisting in my stomach. We both knew he wasn't referring to my latest attempt to escape– when I'd bolted the moment I sensed his presence a hundred meters away.
People might think I was overreacting, but this was Rafayel, the overpowered villain of a dungeon system novel we were talking about. My reaction was completely justified. And now it seemed I had thoroughly pissed him off.
Desperate, I glanced pleadingly at the man standing beside Rafayel, silently begging for help. Surely, as the male lead, Cirrus could do something. But all he did was glance at Rafayel's seething figure, shrug lightly, and throw his hands up in surrender.
I glared at the coward. After everything we'd been through together… seriously?
Fine. If no one was going to help, I'd have to get out of this mess myself.
I decided to gamble on my only S-Rank skill, Master Orator, and face Rafayel head-on. If I could just talk my way out of this…
"Rafayel, I didn't run away, per se. I left you guys a note! I was planning to meet up with you after a few years, once everything had settled down. You have to believe me," I pleaded, summoning every ounce of sincerity I could muster.
Rafayel stared at me, his expression unreadable, as though trying to piece me together.
"We both know that's absolute bullshit, Nora," he said, venom dripping from his tone as he spat out my name.
Tsk, he was still smart as ever. He had always been the one person who could see through my lies.
He took a step toward me, and I instinctively backed away until my back hit the cold wall of the cave.
"But it's fine," he murmured, his voice soft but laced with unyielding resolve. "You'll never leave me again."
Before I could react, he pulled me into a firm yet unsettlingly gentle embrace.
"I'll make sure of it," he whispered, the words brushing my ear like a vow.
I flinched involuntarily, realizing too late that I might have worked a little too well for my mission.
When, exactly, had the main villain become so obsessed with me?
My thoughts spiraled back to the day it all began…
—-------
I woke up with a start, panting for breath. Opening my eyes, I was confronted by an unfamiliar white ceiling. An incessant beeping sound came from my right, adding to my disorientation.
'Where the hell am I?' I thought, confusion flooding my mind as I tried to sit up. Tried being the key word. As soon as I moved, a searing pain shot through my body, forcing me to lie back down with a pained scream.
But in that brief moment before I collapsed again, I managed to catch sight of one thing– the source of the beeping noise: a monitor displaying what seemed to be my heartbeat, something I had only seen in medical dramas.
Why was I in the hospital? My last memory was falling asleep after checking my semester exam results on the college website. But when I tried to recall anything further, a sharp headache greeted me, blurring my thoughts. Just then, the door burst open, and two nurses rushed into the room. One hurried to my bedside, while the other disappeared into the hallway.
"Are you in pain? Where does it hurt? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?" the remaining nurse asked, her brown eyes filled with concern as she leaned over to check my temperature.
"Why am I in the hospital?" I interrupted her, struggling to make sense of things.
The nurse's expression shifted, and she opened her mouth to respond. But before she could speak, the door opened again, this time revealing a petite yet imposing woman with jet-black hair, followed closely by the other nurse who had left earlier.
'That must be the doctor,' I thought, my gaze locking onto her.
The blonde nurse leaned over and whispered something into the doctor's ear. I couldn't hear much, but I caught enough to piece things together: 'A car accident.'
That's when I realized– my memories were all jumbled up.
"Do you remember your name?" the doctor asked, her voice calm and measured as I tried to process the situation.
I nodded. "I do. I'm Nora. But I don't remember anything about the accident. What's today's date?" I asked, trying to make sense of the situation. I had read somewhere that trauma could cause memory loss after accidents. This felt like one of those cases, and while it wasn't surprising, it did make me anxious.
'How many classes have I missed? What about my attendance?' I wondered, but before my thoughts could spiral further, the nurse answered my question.
"It's the thirty-first day of the seventeenth month," the blonde nurse said cheerfully.
"You almost missed New Year's!"
My body froze. 'The seventeenth month?'
'Is this some kind of elaborate joke? Are they testing my memory?'
But the nurse continued, oblivious to my confusion. "We're about to enter the fiftieth century! You're quite lucky, miss. You woke up just two hours before the big event!"
'The fiftieth century?!'
Suddenly, a high-pitched screech drowned out the nurse's words and I winced slightly at the sound.
A translucent blue panel flickered into existence. The text was faint, and no one else in the room seemed to notice it. I stared at it, my confusion deepening.
[Warning: The current life's memories are being updated. The host's soul will be temporarily transported to another dimension. Kindly do not panic.]
"Eh?" I murmured, my voice barely audible even to myself.
The nurse continued to chatter, her words now a blur in the background. The blue panel flickered again, displaying a new message:
[Congratulations on reincarnating into the world of I Am The Real Lady...]
Before I could finish reading, my vision blurred, and the world around me dissolved into darkness.
—--------
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself surrounded by darkness. What was that weird blue translucent panel? Why did it look like it was straight out of a role-playing game? More importantly, the last text in that panel...
'What reincarnation?'
But that novel title was strangely familiar. Wasn't that the web novel I'd binge-read the night before my Python lab semester exam and regretted ever touching?
Just as I tried to process that, a bright screen suddenly appeared out of nowhere, interrupting my thoughts.
At first, the screen was blank, but then it began to play something– almost like a movie. With nothing else to focus on, I decided to watch. Maybe it would give me a clue about what was happening.
The enormous screen flickered to life, showing the life of a cute little girl with silvery-white hair and bright molten gold eyes– Nora, we shared a name I guess. The little girl's parents were rarely around, but she always had a capable nanny to look after her. Her life seemed smooth and peaceful, at least until she turned ten.
That was when a stranger revealed a shocking truth: little Nora wasn't the real child of her absentee parents. The real daughter had golden eyes like Nora, but she had inherited her father's black hair and her mother's features. It quickly became clear who the "fake" child was.
Though the couple had taken Nora in as their adopted daughter, it wasn't enough to secure the girl's place, now that her origins had been exposed.
That was when Nora's misfortunes began. The screen then shifted to play out the familiar plot of the novel I had read: 'I Am The Real Lady'. I suddenly realized what I was watching.
'So, this is the life of the supporting villainess, Nora Roscente!' I thought. 'But why am I seeing this? And why does she look so familiar?'
The scenes continued, and I focused intently on the screen, trying to figure things out. Then, it suddenly fast-forwarded to a grown-up Nora, now with black-dyed hair, trying to look more like her adopted father. I stared at the familiar face, a sudden wave of realization hitting me like a hammer.
'Wait a second, isn't that just me– with golden eyes?' My heart skipped a beat.
'Why does Nora Roscente look like me?'