Chapter 2
* * *
Splash!
Icy water jolted her awake.
“Uselessly weak! With a body like that, dark magic won’t flow through you. I told you to train!” A badger-like, middle-aged man with a white beard poked her with the end of his cane, his voice sharp with displeasure. Judging by the water flask in his other hand, he was clearly the culprit behind the impromptu ice bath.
Blinking, Jei struggled to make sense of the situation. She was in an unfamiliar room with bare wooden walls and a single, filthy bed.
‘What kind of dream is this? So dirty. I’d rather have a poop dream so I could at least buy a lottery ticket. And why does this badger keep poking me?’
Jei swatted the cane away irritably. “Hey, what are you doing, old man?”
The badger’s eyes widened in surprise, his face turning crimson. He stammered, “Wh-what! Old…?!”
“Where am I? What kind of a messed-up dream is this? And why is it so wet?” Jei wiped the water from her face and sat up.
A sharp pain shot through her.
‘Wait… It hurts. How can a dream hurt like this?’
Jei examined her body. As a graduate of Security Management and a club guard at Hera, one of the top three clubs, she recognized the bruises on her skin as cane-inflicted.
“You… you… you’ve finally lost your mind…!!”
Thwack!
Jei effortlessly caught the cane as the badger raised it, yelling. His murky green eyes glittered dangerously.
‘What’s with the creepy contacts? And what’s that smell? Not exactly foul, but disturbingly unpleasant…’
It was a scent she had never encountered before. Jei, still convinced this was a bizarre and unsettling dream, pushed the cane back towards the badger.
However, her weakened grip delivered only half her usual force, and the badger, who should have toppled over, remained standing. Instead, the cane swung back, striking her forearm hard.
“Ow!” The pain was real.
“Ow! Sh*t! What the—? This isn’t a dream?!” She shielded herself from the continuing blows, then her head turned, and her eyes landed on a mirror. They widened in disbelief.
“Whaaaaaat?!”
The woman in the mirror wasn’t her. Or rather, she was too beautiful to be her. Of course, she considered herself reasonably attractive, but the woman in the mirror… even in her disheveled state, she was breathtaking. Shining silver hair, mystical teal eyes that put any women to shame, and a slender, almost gaunt frame. That’s who stood reflected back at her.
“What is this…?” Jei murmured, her hand cupping her cheek, utterly bewildered.
“She’s finally lost it. Useless thing. We need to send her to the Imperial Palace quickly. Tsk! Mary!”
As the badger’s irritated voice rang out, the closed door swung open, revealing a ginger-haired girl dressed in what Jei had only ever seen in movies—a proper maid’s uniform.
“Yes, Master?”
“Summon Tovan to treat her wounds. Her entrance to the Palace is imminent, so ensure they’re properly healed.”
“Yes, Master.”
The badger clicked its tongue and exited, leaving the maid to gently dry Jei’s damp body with a soft towel. “What’s the use of healing? You just injure yourself again every day…” she muttered.
Jei, still utterly confused by the situation, remained silent, her gaze fixed on the mirror.
“Lady Lysei, are you alright? What happened to you today?” The ginger-haired girl, who called her Lysei, wore a worried expression.
Lysei?
The name felt familiar… strangely so.
Suddenly, Jei’s eyes widened.
Of course, it was familiar. It was the name of a character from a novel she’d recently read.
* * *
Jei had been working as a club bouncer when she took a knife to the side, meant for his boss. Stuck in the hospital for weeks, boredom gnawed at her until a visiting friend recommended a web novel. It was a spicy, dark, reverse harem story with a unique premise: omegaverse. The beta heroine, a Nyxna, becomes a human sleeping aid, entangled with the emperor and various other men, enduring obsession and hardship in a narrative dominated by explicit scenes.
Lysei was clearly an early extra. The illegitimate daughter of Baron Orphe, she was forced against her will to become the emperor’s Nyxna, an omega tragically bound to serve. An omega, audacious enough to mask her pheromones with a beta scent, posing as a Nyxna within the imperial palace. And at her father’s behest, no less.
The problem was, far from bearing the emperor’s child as her weasel of a father had schemed, she was exposed as an omega by the empress and executed on her orders. All this before the actual heroine even appeared, early in the novel. Lysei was clearly a tool to highlight the empress’s cruelty.
‘No, this can’t be happening.’
‘Why her, of all people?’
She wasn’t sure how she’d ended up possessing this godforsaken character, but if this wasn’t a dream, if this was truly possession, then she was utterly screwed. She could just barely recall being in the hospital, recovering well, when a sudden, inexplicable complication sent her to the ICU. She must have died there. That’s why she was in this body.
‘Oh… I’m so, so screwed.’
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.