01.

The adopted daughter of the rural Count’s family, 23 years old, Erable Vermilion.

She was silently counting the seconds.

During the New Year’s festival.

The hall was bustling with a large crowd.

‘Good, I’m blending in well. No one’s noticing me.’

Even as she reassured herself, she didn’t let her guard down.

Her palms were sticky with cold sweat.

‘1,286… 1,285…’

Landmines were scattered throughout the ballroom.

Between the beautiful dresses, the sweet scent of wine, and the elegant music.

This place was a minefield.

Step on one, and you’re dead. At the very least, your life would be shattered.

Her life was already halfway shattered, and this time it would be completely pulverized.

So, in 1,284 seconds, she had to quietly slip away without catching anyone’s attention.

It was a difficult task.

Erable knew that their sensory range extended for hundreds of kilometers.

Hundreds of kilometers. It was easy to say… but compared to them, she could barely see clearly even if she was a hundred meters away. These monsters, spread across the hall, were an entirely different species.

So she had to be natural. She had to blend in naturally.

No one should notice her insignificant existence, just naturally fade into the background.

‘1,244…’

The timing and the location were far too coincidental.

Honestly, it felt nothing short of malicious.

‘1,243… 1,242…’

One of the landmines turned its head this way.

At that moment, Erable naturally turned her body, picking up a dessert from the table and pushing it into her mouth.

‘1,221… 1,220…’

The steadily decreasing number of seconds kept her mind grounded, preventing her from being completely swallowed by tension.

‘I need to get out of here quickly.’

Erable Vermilion.

She was currently in a state of possession within a book.

In fact, calling it possession isn’t exactly right; it’s more accurate to say she had been transported.

How did she know? Because, although there were some minor changes in the setting, this body was originally hers, and the name was just a name she had acquired while living here.

So, it means she wasn’t even a character from a novel to begin with.

Well, that wasn’t really important anyway. What mattered was that the original story wasn’t a pleasant one.

[Hellhound.]

Just as the title suggests, it was a hellish tale of slaughter, violation, and devastation…

That’s right. This was a world within a violent, R-rated, high-level novel.

A world where guns, great spirits, mythology, and planetary sci-fi were mixed together into a chaotic jumble. The convoluted world-building didn’t really matter to her.

The only advantage of this novel was that there were a lot of handsome men.

Other than that, there was no merit whatsoever.

Even that one advantage had a downside—the attractiveness of the men was directly proportional to their level of psychopathy.

‘Come to think of it, that’s not an advantage at all.’

The place was crawling with psychopaths.

‘Ah, there is one more thing.’

The fact that this book was BL (Boys’ Love).

Considering that most of the characters were psychopathic murderers who viewed love and mental illness as two sides of the same coin, there was no greater advantage than that.

But even that had a fatal flaw.

Their romance didn’t guarantee her survival.

In the end, it all boiled down to preserving her life.

If she had to end up somewhere, it would have been better if it was at least in a place where human rights were guaranteed.

The sin of reading an R-rated, dark, and destructive novel as a minor was heavy. It was all out of curiosity. She had been a bright, innocent, and oblivious youth.

It was the fault of those people who carelessly distributed R-rated files.

‘I’m not guilty. I didn’t commit a crime so serious as to deserve this massive punishment.’

Erable felt wronged.

In this novel, where murderers were the main characters, the only way to survive was to stay as far away from them as possible. And that’s exactly how she had lived for the past eight years.

For the past eight years.

She did everything she could to avoid coming to this capital, where the imperial palace was located.

The protagonist of the original novel was the 13th prince of this empire, and naturally, one of the novel’s main settings was this capital, where the imperial palace was.

In this world, where people could die by the dozens at the drop of a hat, Erable just wanted to live in peace, so she did everything she could to avoid the capital.

She even made her adoptive father clutch his head in frustration by attending an academy on a distant outer planet.

And yet, here she was. In this place. With all the characters from the novel.

Why did it have to be today?

That fact continued to nag at her.

Of all times, it had to be the New Year’s festival, when all the characters gathered in one place, in this capital, and inside the imperial palace at that.

Erable, who had been leading a life constantly plagued by divine pranks, was deeply unsettled by the situation, no matter how much she told herself it couldn’t be.

If the protagonist had been present, she would have given up right then and there.

‘1,018….’

Erable continued to move her steps.

And finally, with about 1,000 seconds left, she managed to slip out of the banquet hall.

The moment she got out, she quickly crossed the hallway.

A faint, tangled shadow appeared about ten meters ahead.

She quietly changed direction and walked into the opposite hallway.

That cost her another 80 seconds. Her anxiety grew.

‘919, 918….’

The seconds continued to tick down.

Just in case, she stopped by the women’s lounge, burning another 100 seconds.

Now there were 716 seconds left.

From here on, she would have to enter a section unrelated to the banquet.

If she got caught, she planned to say she had just exited the lounge and got lost.

As the seconds dwindled, her steps automatically quickened. Trying hard to slow down and appear composed, Erable bit down hard on her lower lip.

For the past few days, throughout the New Year’s festival, she had been coming in and out of the imperial palace every single day, all to memorize the route and ensure security.

If she had to do this one more time, her lifespan would definitely shorten by ten years.

She opened the servant’s room she had scouted in advance and slipped inside.

The owner of this room, a person responsible for the kitchen and the hall, wouldn’t be returning for at least a few more hours.

She had infiltrated earlier to check and memorize the shift schedule.

As soon as she entered, she unzipped her dress.

The feeling of undressing in someone else’s dark room was… really, it was horrible.

‘7, 702….’

Counting the seconds, she quickly kicked off her dress.

As the elegant fabric dropped to the floor, her legs, clad in a dark green middle school gym uniform, were revealed.

Tied around her waist were the matching gym jacket and bright yellow sneakers.

Maybe this wasn’t entirely necessary.

But Erable didn’t want to leave any possibility to chance. In a life constantly at the mercy of divine pranks, even a one-in-a-million chance was not a small probability.

Which, if you think about it, made the fact that she was here today in the first place…

She ignored the unsettling feeling creeping back up and untied the gym jacket she had knotted around her waist.

As soon as her sneakers hit the ground, she pulled the gym jacket over her head, kicked off her shoes, and quickly shoved her bare feet into the sneakers. In no time, she had slipped her arms into the jacket.

It was almost like she was thrashing around. She moved faster than she had ever moved in her life.

In the dark, unfamiliar room of a stranger, adrenaline surged through her body.

Now, if she got caught, there would be no room for excuses.

She grabbed the discarded dress and threw it out the window, hoping it would buy her some time before she was discovered.

‘689, 688….’

Erable perched herself on the window ledge.

Even though she had graduated from the academy with excellent grades, her physical abilities were far below average.

She almost twisted her leg just trying to climb out of a first-floor window.

‘5, 512….’

Panting, she straightened up and carefully scanned her surroundings beyond the flowerbed. Once she was sure no one was around, she started running.

‘…N…, N29, E31….’

Her breath quickly caught in her throat.

Adrenaline pushed her body forward. If she got caught here, she would die.

‘They’ll just chop my head off.’

Though panic gnawed at her, Erable calmly checked the coordinates on her handheld screen.

The restricted area of the imperial palace gardens.

It was called a garden, but this enormous greenbelt was off-limits to everyone except the royal family and a select few with permission.

As with all royal properties.

‘88 seconds, 87 seconds….’

The faster time ticked down, the more it felt like her breath was about to give out.

But soon, Erable forgot the sweat running down her body and the searing pain in her side.

She heard the sound of water flowing.

‘N29, E31….’

Erable stopped in front of the vast, quietly flowing river.

‘This is it, this is the place….’

A strange feeling of elation welled up inside her. She knew without needing to check—this was the spot.

Still, she double-checked the coordinates one last time and took a few steps back.

Far away, a shimmer began to rise.

It was definitely a sign.

‘It’s about to open. Soon…!’

She slowly stepped back, readying herself to leap.

‘7, 6, 5….’

Her heart pounded as if it would explode. She tensed her legs, her eyes locked on the surface of the water, waiting for the rift to open.

‘3, 2…!’

She leapt with all her strength.

In that instant!

‘……!!’

In that brief moment, her foot touched down.

The tip of her foot… touched the surface. Her toes sank into the shimmering, distorted space above the water.

Erable felt an overwhelming sense of joy. From the tips of her toes, she began to slowly disappear.

She was entering the rift. Now, she could go back, she could finally return home…!

Just as she thought that—