The Heroine in The Novel Died

Chapter 1

It was a day ago.

Until then, I had only known myself as Alioth Riel, Marquis of Alioth’s eldest daughter.

I went for a walk in the downtown area to pass the time after finishing my family business.
After that, I sat down on a bench to rest for a while, and then I ran into a man who was there earlier.

I tapped his shoulder lightly.

“Oh, I apologize.”

Even at first glance, I already knew that man had a good-looking appearance.
I even thought he was an escaped statue from a nearby art museum.

Was it true that I fell in love at first sight? No.

The man who collided with me rested his head on my shoulder as if about to pass out.

Was this the start of a sweet relationship with that man? Sadly, it wasn’t that either.

The genre of this story with a man leaning against me and drooping like a piece of paper, was not a romance with fluttering petals.

Because of how much of an emergency the situation was, I thought that he was dead. 

In my previous life, this would have happened due to medical complications.

“Excuse me? Are you okay? Please wake up!”

Could you take him to the hospital with me, man in a hat over there?

Just before I made the remark, I noticed he had a calm face and was breathing evenly; he didn’t appear to be a patient.

“Are you sleeping now? If you sleep here, you will be sick.”

I was frustrated, so I shook the body of the man who was sleeping like he was dead on the bench without fear in the middle of the day, and the weather was still too cold for a homeless person.

He didn’t appear to have been drunk because his smell was soft and pleasant.
And, because he was dressed so nicely, he didn’t even seem to be a beggar.

But whoever he was, he must have been insane to droop and sleep on a bench in the downtown area.

Was I going to leave him? Yes.  Being involved with a crazy person wasn’t a good idea.
I was in a panic so I tried to get up and run away.

“Fanny, Hurry up, it’s cold.
Give me a blanket, five more minutes.”

The man who was sleep talking yanked at my clothes with all his might, attempting to make himself a blanket.

That’s my dress, not a blanket!

I tried to shake the man’s hand off, but he had such a strong grip on me that I couldn’t even get my collar out.

You punk.

Now that it turned out like this, I’ll find a way to wake you up.

“Wake up right now!”

I grabbed the man’s neck and shook it ferociously.
He slowly opened his eyes and woke up, shaken by the strength of my arms, which had been trained over a long period of time through working at the company.

“Did I just fall asleep?”

“Yes, you are dead to the world.[1] I would have assumed you were a homeless person if it weren’t for the color and style of your attire.
Now that you have woken up, then could you please let this go?”

I pointed to the man’s grip on the hem of my dress.
But he kept staring at me, as if he didn’t want to let go.

“Was it you who passed by me before I went to sleep?”

“Yes, why?”

“It’s the first time.”

“Pardon?”

I couldn’t understand what the man was saying, so I asked him again, squinting one eye.

“You are the first person to put me to sleep simply by touching me.”

Wait a minute, I believe I’ve heard this sentence before.

The memories of the unfamiliar woman’s life came flooding back as soon as I heard the man’s words, along with a headache that felt like it was going to break my head.

Those memories of the woman’s entire life flashed through my mind as quickly as a flashlight just before she died, and it seeped into me.

I remembered.
I originally lived in Korea and worked as an ordinary cosmetic store employee.
My previous life’s last memory was of reading a novel after work, feeling tired, and falling asleep.

And the words this man uttered were the lines spoken by the villain when he first met the heroine in the novel , which I was reading at the time.