Thud.

A black spear forged from dark sorcery pierced straight through my heart.

The impact sent a gush of dark-red blood surging from my mouth.

Ah… so this is how I die in the end.

I had transmigrated into the body of someone destined for a gruesome death and fought tooth and nail to escape that fate somehow. Yet in the end, I was going to meet the very ending I had desperately tried to avoid—dying in the place of the man I loved while saving him.

“Theor… run…”

With my mouth filling with blood, I could barely speak.

My breathing grew increasingly labored, and my vision began to darken.

Yet even then, one voice remained strangely clear amid the chaos—the voice of Perioje unni, screaming my name in despair.

“Ellie! Stay with me! Ellie! No!”

Unni…

When I first transmigrated into this body, my plan had been simple: seduce the older sister who would eventually kill me, avoid my gruesome ending, and enjoy a peaceful life in this world.

Throughout the entire original novel, Lady Perioje—the charismatic villainess who always had a reason behind her actions—had been my absolute favorite. I wanted to become close to her, avoid my gruesome death, and spend a happy life with my beloved favorite character.

But… how did things end up like this?

I suppose it was because I had fallen in love with a man I had never expected to love.

Theor.

At first, I was interested in him because he was the only person who possessed the darkness attribute, which was remarkably similar to my dark magic.

Just as dark magic had been shunned in my original world because it was considered an evil form of sorcery, the darkness attribute here was also rejected as an impure power because it stood opposite to the light attribute.

That common ground was all that initially drew my attention to him.

But before I knew it, I had fallen in love with him.

Through my fading vision, I looked at my beloved Perioje unni, her face drenched in tears, and Theor, staring at me with a stunned expression.

In the end, I couldn’t protect either my favorite character or the person I wanted to protect until the very end… Is this really how it ends?

As my consciousness slowly sank into a dark abyss, I desperately prayed one final time.

Please… let it end with just me. Unni, Theor… please, don’t let anyone else die.

And then, all the light in my world completely disappeared.

At that moment, my world should have truly come to an end.

I transmigrated.

I was now inside the novel [Caroline’s Lover], the very novel I had read before I died.

Smack!

A sharp burst of pain jolted me fully awake, and stars exploded before my eyes.

Before I even had time to process what was happening, the scene that entered my sideways vision was completely unfamiliar.

People dressed in extravagant gowns and overly formal suits resembling tuxedos, adorned with sparkling jewels.

All of them were young-looking, either newly of age or not yet adults, and they were staring directly at me.

Then—

“Do you really think a young lady like you has the right to stand in my way?”

A voice rang in my ears.

It was cold and elegant, yet strangely captivating.

I instinctively turned my head.

What filled my vision was a woman with dazzling red hair and ruby-like eyes.

…Huh?

Even though I was certain I had never seen her face before, there was something incredibly familiar about her. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

Then another woman’s voice came from beside me.

“Please, stop, Lady Perioje!”

She had crystal-clear emerald eyes and snow-white hair.

Huh?

This woman was also someone I had never seen before, yet her appearance felt strangely familiar.

I desperately racked my brain, trying to understand the situation as quickly as possible.

Familiar faces. Clothes I’ve never seen before. A place I’ve never seen before. And Lady Perioje…

Gasp!

My eyes widened so much they practically bulged out.

Holy crap! Who am I looking at right now?! Wait, no way! Am I actually looking at the real-life version of my favorite character, Lady Perioje?!

My heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was about to explode.

“WOOOOAH!”

A strange sound somewhere between a scream and an exclamation of awe burst from my mouth.

Instantly, everyone’s attention turned toward me.

I finally understood exactly what was happening.

I was inside [Caroline’s Lover], the novel I had read before I died.

Of course I was.

I had literally just died.

To explain, I had originally been the strongest dark mage in a country called Odelon.

Although I had lived an unjust life being condemned for using supposedly impure magic that required human souls as its material, I eventually died in the most ridiculous way possible—I tripped on a staircase.

And before you misunderstand, let me make this clear: there is absolutely no such thing as magic that uses human souls as material in modern society, nor should there be.

The simplest way to describe my pre-transmigration self would be:

“I was born with dark magical power and could use dark magic, and among all those capable of using it, I was exceptionally talented. So I ended up dying as the representative of the profession.”

Anyway, there was no doubt about it.

I had transmigrated into the novel <Caroline’s Lover>, the novel my roommate had recommended to me in my original world because it was supposedly fun.

How could I be certain?

Because the person who had just slapped me across the face without mercy was none other than Perioje McKenzie, my favorite character and the strongest villainess in the entire novel.

Her skin was as white as snow, while her intense hair looked as though flames themselves had come alive.

She was so cool and beautiful that I couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that someone like this could actually exist in real life.

“Lady Caroline. Did you just tell me to stop? A young lady from a baron’s family dares speak that way to a duchess?”

“No, that’s not what I meant! It’s just that you slapped my innocent friend, Elenea…”

“Gasp…!”

At that moment, everyone simultaneously turned toward me because of the exclamation that escaped my mouth.

Wait… Elenea?! Of all people, I had to transmigrate into her?!

Elenea Brencia.

The character who gets brutally murdered by an assassin sent by Perioje early in the original story.

I forced myself to keep my face from twisting in despair.

The novel was a romance fantasy story about Caroline—the only person born with the light attribute—who joined forces with people possessing other attributes to save the empire from monsters and villains while falling in love, experiencing jealousy, and having various romantic adventures.

The novel had been incredibly popular in my dormitory, so everyone was obsessed with talking about it. I eventually became hooked too after my roommate recommended it to me.

Of course, I became obsessed with the villainess rather than the female lead.

While everyone else was shouting, “Poor Caroline!”

I was the one yelling, “Villainess unni is the best!”

So naturally, seeing my favorite character standing alive and breathing right in front of me was enough to make me produce another bizarre sound.

“Wha—what’s wrong?”

“Elenea, are you okay?!”

I was very much not okay.

And yet, somehow, I was also perfectly okay.

My favorite character was standing right in front of me.

Unfortunately, I had transmigrated into the person who was destined to be killed by her.

It was such a bizarre situation that I wanted to thank the god who had saved me and sent me here while simultaneously cursing them.

“So don’t recklessly get in my way again, young lady.”

At that moment, I looked at the villainess unni, who was glaring at me like an angry cat with its fur standing on end, and made a decision.

Let’s change the original story.

I’ll change the story, avoid my gruesome ending, change the villainess unni’s tragic fate, and become her one and only best friend.

I’ll meet my favorite villainess every day, laugh with her, chat with her, and have fun together.

That was what I decided.

And then, just like the person I had always been before transmigrating, my actions came rushing out before my brain had a chance to filter them.

I grabbed both of Perioje’s hands and shouted—

“You’re my favorite character, Lady Perioje unni!”

In the end, everyone decided that getting slapped had knocked something loose in my head.

The tea party, which hadn’t even properly begun, came to an early end because of me.

The unnamed count’s daughter who had hosted the tea party glared resentfully at Caroline and me, but there was nothing we could do about it.

How was I supposed to know that after dying and transmigrating, I’d wake up at the exact moment my favorite character slapped me across the face?

Anyway, on the way home in the carriage, I excitedly exclaimed, “Oh! I like carriages!” before finally taking the time to properly recall the original story.

I had a fairly good memory, so I could remember the parts of the novel I’d enjoyed reading surprisingly well.

First of all, in this world, all nobles possessed an elemental attribute.

The main attributes were fire, wind, water, and earth.

Light and darkness, however, were extremely rare attributes. In each generation, only one person—or sometimes no one at all—would be born with either of them.

In this generation, Caroline had been born with the light attribute, while Theor, the Grand Duke of the North, possessed the darkness attribute.

The Crown Prince also secretly possessed the light attribute, a fact known only to the Emperor and the Crown Prince’s late mother.

The reason the Crown Prince’s light attribute was kept secret was because, in this world, the authority of the Grand Temple, which worshipped God, was roughly equal to that of the imperial family.

Anyway, that meant every noble had their own attribute…

“…Huh?! I don’t have one!”

I shouted without meaning to.

Damn it.

Elenea Brencia had no attribute.

The Brencia family had originally been commoners who became enormously wealthy through the port business and literally bought their viscountcy.

As a result, in a world where only nobles possessed elemental abilities, Elenea was frequently subjected to ridicule and the disdainful gazes of other nobles.

Caroline, being the kind-hearted girl she was, had protected Elenea from that treatment, and the two had eventually become friends.

Of all people, I had transmigrated not only into the character destined to be killed by my favorite…

I had also transmigrated into an ordinary human with no elemental ability whatsoever.

For some reason, I felt incredibly miserable about it.

But then—

I widened my eyes when I saw the dark magic I’d instinctively activated flowing from the fingers of my new body.

Wait! I can use dark magic?!

Inside the carriage, I created one of the most basic abilities of dark magic: the Mana Hollow.

A Mana Hollow was a defensive spell that appeared in front of the caster’s body and swallowed attacks like a barrier.

It seemed fairly useful since any attack aimed at the caster would be sucked into the hollow.

The problem was that the barrier could only be deployed directly in front of the caster.

So attacks coming from the side or behind couldn’t be blocked at all.

It was, in a way, a rather useless and utterly ridiculous spell.

Vzzzz—

A black hollow formed in front of me.

It worked.

So… what does it matter if I don’t have an elemental ability?

I can survive just fine without one, can’t I?

…Probably.