Your Majesty, I’m Not that Man - Chapter 0

She was starving. She suddenly remembered she hadn’t eaten anything all day. It was because she had overslept and missed breakfast.

“The convenience store is so expensive…”

Still, there was nothing quite like the taste of a cup of instant noodles bought from there. Yoonhwa stood staring at the convenience store for a moment before heading inside.

Buying a cup of instant noodles on her way home from part-time work was her only form of self-reward. Once or twice a month—if that. She was poor, after all.

Today, though, Yoonhwa felt she deserved it. She had worked really hard, and this small reward felt well-earned. Entering the store, she picked out a cup of noodles. Yet, even in this moment, she couldn’t bring herself to choose the more expensive one she actually wanted.

“It’s fine. This one tastes good, too…”

It had been the same when she was in college. She never even considered buying expensive takeout coffee. Balancing her grades, part-time work, and just surviving took everything she had. She had believed that once she graduated, she’d somehow land a job and escape this life.

So why was she still stuck like this?

Pushing aside her gloomy thoughts, Yoonhwa paid for her cup noodles and a triangular kimbap. After adding hot water to the noodles, she sat down and waited. Like always, she reached for her phone to pass the time.

“No messages… Did I fail again?”

She let out a heavy sigh as she checked her empty email inbox. It had been a year and six months since she began job hunting while working part-time. The part-time jobs she could manage while job searching were all exhausting and low-paying.

Even so, she couldn’t afford to stop. Missing this window of opportunity would make it even harder to get hired. So she kept writing resumes and attending interviews with relentless determination.

“Ah, right…”

Noticing the time on her phone, Yoonhwa hurriedly opened the lid of her cup noodles. They were cooked perfectly. She added her cold triangular kimbap to the noodles, hoping it would warm up.

It was a matter of preference, but this was how she liked to eat. The kimbap cooled the hot noodles slightly, making them easier to eat.

“And now…”

She opened her favorite web novel app on her phone. It was a completed BL (Boys’ Love) novel that a friend had recommended to her. The part she was reading now showed the submissive character, Albert, offering himself as a concubine to the emperor to save his stepsister.

“So cliché.”

Albert was in love with his stepsister, Lavinia, who had once been his fiancée. He was adopted into Lavinia’s family, the Wendell ducal house, as an heir. Initially, he was supposed to marry Lavinia and become the next duke, but because Lavinia was the last surviving member of her noble house, she was chosen as the emperor’s fiancée.

The emperor was a tyrant with numerous male concubines, and Lavinia didn’t want to marry him. She begged Albert to run away with her.

Albert hesitated, concerned about the family members who would be left behind. Lavinia, assuming Albert would betray her and inform the duke, fled on her own.

After all, Albert wasn’t truly a Wendell. He was the illegitimate child of the duke’s lover, Hans. The duke had only adopted him to fulfill Hans’ dying wish, presenting him as a distant relative.

Albert, feeling indebted to Lavinia, agreed to the emperor’s mocking suggestion, “You, then—will you be my concubine?”

Although he did it to protect Lavinia and the rest of the household, his sacrifice ended in tragedy. Everyone in the family, except Lavinia, was eventually killed.

As expected in a BL novel, the emperor eventually falls in love with Albert. In his despair over failing to win Albert’s heart, the emperor destroys everyone in the Wendell household. However, Albert’s biological father, Hans, manages to escape amidst the chaos.

Perhaps the duke harbored a love for Hans that spanned a thousand years, because in the turmoil, Hans was the only one allowed to flee. Being just an old servant, even the knights ignored him.

With Hans still alive, it seems Albert ultimately accepts the emperor’s feelings.

“What’s the point? The entire Wendell household, save Hans, is dead.”

Everyone, from the highest-ranking retainers to the lowliest errand boy, was killed. Lavinia managed to escape the empire and was still alive, but what meaning did that even hold?

“Stupid, trashy emperor,” Yoonhwa muttered.

Even though she already knew the story from start to finish, she kept reading because the scenes were so… compelling. At first, the emperor refuses to acknowledge his affection for Albert, trying instead to quench his feelings through lust.

Ding.

The chime of the convenience store door caught her attention. A small child, around six years old, walked in holding their mother’s hand, a knit cap perched snugly on their head.

It’s a bit late for a child to be out and about, Yoonhwa thought.

She guessed the family was from a dual-income household. Perhaps the mother had just picked up the child from a babysitter or a relative, maybe even her own parents or in-laws. The mother, appearing used to the routine, purchased a steamed bun, cooled it slightly, and handed it to the child, who began eating it with delight.

“Ah, the good old days,” Yoonhwa mused.

Watching the child enjoy the bun made her crave one too. She chastised herself—she couldn’t even bring herself to splurge on the cup noodles she wanted, so what was the point of longing for a steamed bun? But watching the child eat so happily stirred something in her.

Setting her chopsticks down, she stood up and walked to the counter.

“I’ll have a steamed bun too. The same one that child’s eating…”

Before she could finish her sentence, bright lights flooded through the convenience store’s glass windows.

A car had veered off the street, climbing onto the sidewalk and hurtling toward the store.

Yoonhwa barely had time to process what was happening. The child’s mother had wandered off a short distance, perhaps to grab a few other necessities for the way home. That left Yoonhwa alone next to the child holding the steamed bun.

Why had she done it? At the very moment when she should have run, Yoonhwa pushed the child with all her strength.

That decision cost her the chance to escape. Instead, the car struck her head-on, pinning her beneath its weight.

An unbearable pain crushed her body. Before she could even scream, her life ended. Her skull shattered, and her spine was pulverized.

The child’s mother, her face frozen in shock, screamed as she scooped up her child. Fortunately, the child had only sustained minor scratches from shards of glass.

Beneath the car, blood and brain matter spilled from Yoonhwa’s broken body. The mother, trembling, shielded the child’s eyes as she glanced at Yoonhwa.

Her pupils were unresponsive. She was clearly dead. Still, the mother, just in case, brought her shaking hand to Yoonhwa’s nose and checked for a pulse.

There was none. In this condition, even CPR was impossible.

Clutching the child tightly in one arm, the mother wept as she pulled out her phone to call an ambulance.

“Thank you…”

When the car had crashed through the window, the mother’s first instinct was to look at her child. That was why she saw Yoonhwa push the child out of harm’s way.

“Thank you…”

The words, too heavy with guilt to be spoken aloud, repeated in the mother’s mind as she sobbed.

While she was lost in her grief, she failed to notice the child in her arms turning their head quietly to look at Yoonhwa.

In the child’s clear, black eyes, a mysterious light shimmered.

＊ ＊ ＊

At the moment the car hit her, Yoonhwa was filled with regret.

Her first thought wasn’t about the pain or the danger—it was about the hospital bills. How much would they be? What about surgery costs? Would there be lingering complications or permanent disabilities? She was terrified—not just of the pain but of the crushing financial burden that surgery, rehabilitation, and recovery would impose.

Why did I even do it? What was I thinking?

If she had been some extraordinary person, she might have swept the child into her arms and shielded them with her body in one heroic leap.

But all she managed to do was push the child away. She hadn’t even been able to save herself. How pitiful. Now, she’d only become a burden to her family. The thought filled her with a bone-deep regret.

In the brief instant of impact, these thoughts rushed through her mind. And as the car pinned her to the ground, a soul-crushing fear consumed her. She realized she was about to die.

Her life, a life of endless struggle, would end here in such a senseless, unremarkable way. She had no clever tricks, no sharp instincts—just a clumsy body that couldn’t even protect itself.

Die? Just like this?

As a child, her only goal had been to escape poverty. She had studied relentlessly, but her efforts fell short; her grades were never good enough to secure scholarships. She scraped her way into college, but it came with a mountain of debt. Her parents weren’t in any position to help her.

It’s not fair. I want to live! I want to be happy!

Yoonhwa was never the cherished child in her family. She had an older brother and a younger one, and she was always an afterthought.

A shadow. Someone who existed to clean up after her brothers.

“You’ll get married eventually anyway,” her mother would say dismissively.

With that attitude, her mother gave whatever might have been Yoonhwa’s share to her brothers instead. It got to the point where Yoonhwa wondered if she was even their biological child.

She moved out early because of this. Even the money she earned from part-time jobs was nearly used to cover her older brother Yoonhyung’s tuition.

Mom was right, wasn’t she? I’ve never paid anyone back for anything.

She hadn’t even started to blossom before she withered away.

But they’ll be fine without me. Mom and Dad still have their precious sons. They never even asked me if I’d eaten.

Her funeral expenses would be covered by her apartment’s deposit money. Maybe there’d even be some left over.

That thought chilled Yoonhwa’s heart. Was this all her life amounted to? She couldn’t accept it. It was too cruel.

Her gaze caught on her phone, lying cracked on the floor from the impact of the crash. Despite the shattered screen, the web novel she had been reading still glowed faintly, its words hauntingly clear:

Why…

If this was how she would die, Yoonhwa found herself wishing she could at least transmigrate into a book. Like the countless protagonists in the novels she had read, starting life anew in a different world.

I know I’m not the main character of my own life! she thought bitterly. I’ve spent my entire life as a servant to my older brother and younger brother! But even so… just once…

The world was cruel and arbitrary. If she had known things would end like this, she wouldn’t have struggled so desperately. She would have treated herself better, bought the food she wanted, worn the clothes she liked. She’d missed out on so many simple joys, and yet it seemed the universe had only singled her out for suffering.

【Is that your wish?】

A voice suddenly echoed through her mind, crystal-clear and melodic.

Was this because she was dead? Yoonhwa instinctively knew the voice didn’t belong to any living being.

【I’ll grant your wish. You’ve done something worthy of it.】

In that instant, heat coursed through Yoonhwa’s entire being—not her body, but her soul. Her spirit, now surrounded by radiant light, was drawn into the phone lying shattered on the floor. No, it wasn’t just the phone; she was pulled into the very world of the web novel she had been reading.

The divine being gazed down at Yoonhwa’s lifeless body and murmured softly.

【So… becoming part of the book and its protagonist is what you wanted, right?】

But what Yoonhwa had imagined wasn’t becoming the protagonist herself. It was inhabiting someone near the main character and changing the story from the sidelines.

Though the novel was BL, it didn’t matter. Albert, after enduring endless suffering, had eventually accepted the seme Cassion’s love—but he had never truly loved Cassion back. He had merely resigned himself to the situation.

【It’s fine to change the protagonist. Albert only grew more miserable after accepting Cassion’s love, anyway…】

The divine being altered the novel’s genre as well. From a dark, angsty BL to a romantic fantasy. Such transformations were common in transmigration tales.

【And your memories… Keeping all your current memories as you relive your childhood would be too overwhelming.】

To make it easier, the divine being decided to seal Yoonhwa’s memories until the novel’s starting point: Lavinia’s 23rd spring. It was a tedious process, but the divine being completed the work with satisfaction.

As the task was finished, the mysterious light faded from the child’s eyes. Their ordinary dark pupils returned, innocent and free from any trace of the extraordinary events that had just unfolded. The divine being gently patted the child’s head.

Children, untainted by the world’s corruption, sometimes became vessels for divine will. This was one such instance.

【You won’t remember any of this. Just hold onto the fact that someone saved you.】

With a soft kiss to the child’s forehead, the divine being ensured the memory would fade. The child’s eyelids fluttered shut.

The faint sound of sirens grew louder as firefighters entered the shattered convenience store. The child’s mother pointed frantically to Yoonhwa’s body and the store clerk lying behind the counter. The clerk was still alive.

A tiny, firefly-like glow emerged from the child’s forehead and drifted upward, outside the store. One of the firefighters briefly noticed the light but dismissed it—saving the living took priority.

＊ ＊ ＊

The young girl climbed down from her bed and approached the window. Her silk nightgown swayed lightly against her legs.

In the room, her nanny was fast asleep. Lavinia, careful not to wake the woman she cherished, tiptoed to the window.

That was a frightening dream, she thought.

Her nanny had always assured her she could wake her if she had a nightmare, but Lavinia didn’t want to. The dream, while terrifying, carried an inexplicable sense of longing.

What a strange dream, she mused.

A world where iron soared through the skies, and voiceless metal carriages raced along terrifying streets. In the dream, Lavinia struggled daily in that grim world, only to be struck and killed by one of those carriages.

I’m so fortunate to have been born into the Wendell duchy.

And not just any duchy—this Wendell duchy. Of the eight ducal families that once existed in the Adalaxus Empire, only Wendell remained.

The reason was simple: the current emperor had exterminated all other royal bloodlines.

Cassion Anais.

A tyrant who embodied the term—a mere 14-year-old boy who had killed the former emperor, Kylon Anais, to claim the throne.

Cassion was the illegitimate child of Kylon’s older brother, Caius. Thus, while Kylon was Cassion’s uncle, Cassion had no legitimate claim to the throne.

Cassion was renowned for his beauty. Kylon, unable to bring himself to kill him, enslaved him instead, keeping him close as a mockery until he reached the “right age” to suit Kylon’s twisted tastes.

But when Cassion awakened as a transcendent, he exacted his vengeance by slaughtering every royal who had participated in his humiliation.

Only the Wendell duchy survived.

The Wendells had been established by an imperial adoptee, meaning they bore no Anais blood. They posed no threat to Cassion’s claim to the throne, so he spared them.

Lavinia parted the curtains slightly, gazing out at the bright moonlit night. She thought she saw something small, like a firefly, flitting through the sky.

Watching the flickering light for a moment, Lavinia knelt by the window and prayed. She prayed for her family’s safety and for an end to the suffering of the innocent.

【You haven’t changed a bit, have you?】

A voice, soft and pleased, seemed to echo around her. Startled, Lavinia glanced about, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary—just her nanny snoring lightly in her sleep.

Shrugging it off, she restored the curtains and returned to bed. It was another peaceful night for the Wendell duchy’s only daughter.