Two days have passed since I overly excelled in playing the role of an adopted daughter.

Viola bit her lips hard.

She also tried biting her nails.

“Why is this happening?”

Why can’t I wake up from this dream?

Is this even a dream?

It’s been two whole days.

During that time, no one disturbed Viola.

There’s some magic on this wide, fluffy white bed.

Just touching it makes me feel like my body is melting, which is comforting, but my mind is uneasy.

She got up and walked towards the desk.

Pulled out the chair and sat down.

Here goes.

She was incredibly small.

Sitting on the chair, her legs didn’t even reach the ground.

‘It feels so vivid.’

At this point, Viola couldn’t help but think of ‘incarnation.’

‘Did I possess someone?’

And that someone was,

‘In the body of Princess Mancell Viola?’

She had incarnated into the protagonist who becomes Princess Mancell after the Duke of Thousand Kills, Heron Bellatu.

Mancell (萬殺).

It means killing ten thousand people.

‘No way.’

No, this can’t be happening.

I thought it was a dream.

How could I think such a ridiculous phenomenon was real?!

She tugged at her hair again.

‘It’s true that I’ve possessed someone.’

House of Blood.

House of Iron Blood.

She had become the adopted daughter of Bellatu.

‘What if I were the heroine?’

She had imagined that scenario many times, but she never thought it would actually happen.

About ten hours after two days had passed, Ah-rin finally accepted it.

Ah-rin, who lived in the 21st century, had become the adopted daughter Viola Bellatu.

Sitting at the desk, she started ruminating.

They say that even if you enter a tiger’s den, you can survive as long as you stay alert.

Phew.

She took a deep breath.

This place thoroughly demanded that she prove her abilities.

The moment Bellatu didn’t act like a Bellatu, she would be hunted down by her brothers.

Or she could be purged.

From a reader’s perspective, it was a thrilling world full of tension! But now that she was embodying a character, it felt like a mess.

‘First, I need to make the Bellatu psychos recognize me as Bellatu.’

I have to survive first and gain their acceptance.

She bit her nails.

Then, I’ll push the 1st Princess as the heir.

If Viola from the original story hadn’t been up to no good, the 1st Princess would certainly have secured the heir position without a hitch.

Once an heir is chosen, the wars among the brothers would cease.

Dangerous missions would disappear as well.

‘Right. Let’s make the 1st Princess the Duke.’

I can’t just imitate the original Viola.

To do that, I’d have to kill ten thousand people, and that’s out of the question.

I wouldn’t want to kill, nor do I want to be killed.

Viola’s expression turned serious.

As a reader, Ah-rin had felt pity for Viola.

She never intended to become a ruler but didn’t want to be a lonely and pitiful ruler either.

Fortunately, she had read this novel several times and even devoured the setting books on the author’s blog.

‘I will live differently.’

What does it mean to end up with no one by my side?

Silently, she vowed and brainwashed herself.

‘Right. This is a fanfic written with my body.’

The catch is that I could die from a mistake, but she completely acknowledged her possession.

Then it was time to do her best. With half-hearted emotions and attitudes, she couldn’t even survive in this Iron Blood house.

Ah-rin, now Viola, didn’t want to die.

Back in elementary school.

Young Ah-rin rather wanted to die.

‘Do you know? That kid’s mom is dead, and dad’s gone too.’

‘Really? How can that be?’

‘She lives in an orphanage.’

Han Ah-rin was an orphan, raised in an orphanage.

The teachers at the orphanage were warm, but they couldn’t fill the role of parents.

‘Sir, when will my dad come to pick me up?’

Dad had definitely said he’d come after sleeping for only a hundred nights.

That was when she was five.

But after one hundred nights passed, and then two hundred nights, dad never came.

Only after becoming a middle schooler did Ah-rin realize.

‘I’ve been abandoned.’

Young Ah-rin had no family.

It was miserable.

Everyone else seemed to have moms and dads, but she was the only one without them.

That empty feeling made her weary of life.

At fifteen, Ah-rin walked up to the rooftop of her school.

She stood on the railing.

Down below, she could see the hard ground.

And there she realized.

‘Still, I want to live.’

She wanted to live.

Even if she didn’t have a family to love her, that was fine.

When she grew older.

If she became a better adult and made people she loved, that would be enough.

I will not abandon my family.

I won’t create another child like me.

At fifteen, Ah-rin pledged that.

Since then, Ah-rin always did her best.

She studied hard.

By the time she graduated high school, she made many friends and even got accepted into a good university.

Her country recognized her efforts and even granted her scholarships.

The day of her university acceptance.

Her friends genuinely congratulated her.

‘Amazing. Congrats for real!’

‘Ah-rin, I knew you could do it!’

Ah-rin was accustomed to doing her best.

In her first semester of her first year in college.

She also gave it her all while preparing for midterms.

Studying hard in the library, she ended up dozing off.

When she woke up, she found herself in Viola’s body.

Now, as Viola, Ah-rin made another resolution.

‘Still.

At least there’s the existence of a father here.’

For the first time in her life, she had a family.

She felt that it was much better than having none.

At the same time, that made her a little sad.

Heron Bellatu was, in fact, a zero-point father, no, a -100 point father.

Even so, Ah-rin didn’t dislike it.

Being subjected to a brutal heir competition seemed better than being abandoned.

At least he was there beside her.

‘It’s not that I can’t understand Heron Bellatu after reading the entire novel.’

At first, she thought Heron was just a crazy guy.

But he had his own circumstances, and as a reader, Ah-rin deeply empathized with and understood him.

That’s why he could become her favorite character, but it wasn’t just her father who was here.

There were also other family members who weren’t in their right minds.

The very people she had longed for.

The road was very, very long, but at least they existed now.

‘Right. The mental breakdown is over now!’

She decided to adapt to this world.

Just like always, she would do her best and try to survive.

She recalled the contents of the novel.

“Carlton, what do you think the chances are that that child will survive in Bellatu until she becomes an adult?”

“I think it’s less than 10%.”

Viola didn’t know.

She didn’t realize Carlton would actually say this.

‘In my opinion, it’s less than 40%.’

In the novel, it was 10%.

Now that it had become reality, he mentioned 40%.

Viola kept recalling the contents of the novel.

“Attach Zenon as a temporary butler.”

“Understood.”

She was also unaware of this part.

In the novel, he was a temporary butler.

Now that it had become reality, he was a regular butler.

She didn’t know.

That she was playing the role of an adopted daughter too well.

Ah-rin closed her eyes and thought.

‘Temporary butler Zenon.

Zenon was an elite swordsman from a prestigious family.

Due to a certain incident, he annihilated over twenty high-ranking knights of the empire at once and took refuge in Bellatu.

‘A watcher and competent butler who constantly tests and observes Viola’s potential.’

Zenon initially didn’t recognize Viola.

Only in the middle of the story does he completely acknowledge Viola and solidify his position as her closest aide.

She recalled Zenon’s settings.

Purple hair.

A handsome face with a kind impression.

A warm smile.

Always impeccably neat, with a poised demeanor.

“However, he always observed Viola with inscrutable eyes.”

This was about Zenon’s description.

Knock knock.

There was a sound of knocking.

A calm voice came from outside.

“Princess Viola, may I come in? I am Zenon, assigned as your new butler.”

Viola suspected her ears.

‘Huh?’

It had slightly changed.

“Princess Viola, may I come in? I am Zenon, assigned as your new temporary butler.”

He said “butler” instead of “temporary butler.”

Viola stood up.

She walked toward the door and opened it herself.

‘Why is the doorknob so high?’

Is it because it’s a fantasy world?

The doorknob was quite high.

Or it could be that seven-year-old Viola was much smaller than others her age.

She had to lift her arms high and stand on her tiptoes to reach the doorknob.

As she opened the door, Zenon’s face appeared.

‘Wow, he’s tall.’

Just as described in the story.

From his purple hair to his warm smile.

But there was something vaguely mysterious about his eyes.

He smiled and asked, squinting his eyes slightly.

“You opened the door for yourself?”

“Uh-huh.”

“From now on, you just need to give orders. The one to open the door is the butler, not you, Princess.”

Viola smiled lightly.

She was supposed to be a character born with a killer instinct.

It wasn’t intentional on Ah-rin’s part, but a murderous intent was evident in Viola’s eyes.

“Are you lecturing me?”

She knew the character Zenon quite well.

She couldn’t let this slip by easily.

Zenon was always a character that tested Viola.

“Did you feel it as a lecture?”

“How come?”

“No, I’m sorry.”

Zenon quickly admitted his own mistake.

He thought the image of the princess opening the door herself looked foolish.

So he had relaxed a bit, but it seemed he judged poorly.

“The role of a butler is to give advice, not to lecture. Remember that.”

“I will be sure to remember.”

The way for Viola to survive as Bellatu.

It was to not lose the dignity and authority of being Bellatu.

While maintaining the prestige and authority of Bellatu, she had to win people over to her side.

In the original story, Viola also didn’t lose her prestige and authority.

She suppressed people through fear and force, only to lose everyone around her in the end.

Viola said.

“I heard that the butlers in Bellatu play an important role.”

The butlers in Bellatu are deeply involved in the succession competition.

Butlers who helped heirs who were eliminated from the competition could end up purged or expelled.

On the other hand, butlers who helped the chosen heir wield unprecedented power.

“I wanted to see the face of my butler myself.”

“I see.”

“The fact that I personally opened the door was meant to signify that.”

“I didn’t realize such meaning was hidden there. I’m sorry.”

Zenon knelt on one knee.

He locked eyes with Viola.

Smiling subtly, Zenon gave a beautiful smile.

“This is my face. I’m truly delighted to see how perceptive you are, Princess Viola.”

“I also liked you.”

“Even after I made a grave mistake?”

“Uh-huh.”

Han Ah-rin had been exposed to this world as a reader.

She seemed to understand how to win the hearts of the characters.

How to thrive splendidly in this place.

“Still, you’re a butler who can speak to me respectfully. A princess personally opening the door is not very Bellatu-like.

You correctly identified the problem.”

As a true reader of this work, she had pinpointed the essence.

“What bothered me wasn’t what you said. It was your attitude.”

Zenon stared at Viola’s eyes for a long time.

He seemed slightly taken aback.

That statement was correct.

‘Does that purple eye… sometimes turn red?’

They said very few people born with the killer instinct showed such a transformation.

Someone with a killer instinct since birth.

But she didn’t feel that killer intent now.

It meant that she was skillfully concealing it.

‘Seems like the princess has remarkable qualities beyond expectations to have become a Bellatu.’

Viola said.

“Zenon, I’m going to give you your first order.”

Zenon had to stifle a laugh internally.

Originally, he intended to briefly introduce himself today and explain Bellatu.

The situation the Princess Viola found herself in now.

What she should do going forward.

Such things, he planned to summarize in a quick briefing.

On their first meeting, he hadn’t expected to receive an official first order in less than ten minutes.

It was far beyond his expectations.

Without any explanations given, this young princess seemed to have a solid grasp of her role.

Zenon grinned and replied.

“Yes, please give me your first order.”