For the Young Villain’s Happy Ending - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 1

A city vanished from the map overnight.
Erased by an eighteen-year-old Grand Mage of commoner birth.

“Sir Person, do you think Lady Raina Hart still lives?”

The weather had turned bitterly cold, caught between late autumn and early winter.
A search party of eight, dispatched by the Betuzhenia Empire, rode toward the vanished city.
Person, the knight leading the procession on horseback, answered in a hollow voice.

“She couldn’t possibly be alive.”

The Betuzhenia Empire and the Tunterra Empire.
The war between these two nations, fought to claim an entire continent, had ended after seventy years.
Victory belonged to the Betuzhenia Empire.
It was the result of Grand Mage Raina Hart’s self-sacrifice.

“You said it was magic that consumed life force. That’s what made it so powerful.”

Powerful enough to destroy both the enemy forces and an entire city in a single spell, cast from within enemy territory.
No Grand Mage, no matter how formidable, could have survived unleashing such magic.

“Indeed….”

A heavy silence settled among the knights.
Only the thunderous hoofbeats and the razor-sharp whistle of the wind filled the air around them.
In the distance, a black speck appeared where the horizon met the earth.
Three days ago, that place had been a city of brilliant civilization.
Tunchar, the capital of the fallen Tunterra Empire.
Raina Hart must have perished along with it.

The search party’s mission was to confirm whether she lived or died, yet the knights anticipated her death.
What they were now riding to verify was the noble sacrifice of a hero.
One that would be remembered throughout the history of the Betuzhenia Empire….

“Wait—look there!”

After riding for some time, a knight with keen eyesight broke the silence with his voice.
The knights’ gazes converged upon the point his finger indicated.
A colossal chasm—vast as the vanished city itself.
At its edge, a single violet flower bloomed. As the distance narrowed, the flower grew more vivid.
No—not a flower. A person standing motionless. And hair of pale violet hue cascading down to her waist.

“…Raina Hart.”

It was Person, who had always guarded Raina Hart’s back on the battlefield.
At the sight of that familiar silhouette, Person was the first to dismount and gallop forward.

“Raina Hart!”

He called out to her with urgency in his voice.
Raina Hart turned around. Her large, elongated silver eyes gleamed like dewdrops. Slightly drooping at the corners, they were framed by luxuriant lashes above flawless, luminous skin and perfectly harmonious features.
That cold, expressionless countenance remained unchanged.
She bore not a single wound—her appearance was immaculate.
Person dismounted and stood before her.
The city had vanished two days ago, so she had been here for two days then.

“….”

Raina Hart’s pupils trembled slightly as she gazed at Person.

“Are you… are you all right?”

Alarmed by her unsettled appearance, Person asked in surprise.
The Raina Hart I knew always maintained an unwavering expression, never revealing her emotions to the world.
Raina Hart moved her lips slowly. As if hesitating to speak, she parted them several times without sound.

“Am I….”

A voice tinged with resignation flowed from between Raina Hart’s lips like a whisper to herself.

“Really Raina Hart…?”

This place is inside a novel?
Raina Hart—the eighteen-year-old Arch Mage.
Ando Hwa, who had possessed her body, could only accept that this present situation was indeed a “possession into a book.”

***

【The Garden of Betuzhenia】
The novel I had been reading just before Ando Hwa’s possession.
Absurdly, I remembered nothing beyond my own name and the story’s contents.
Trivial, fragmented moments of daily life came back to me—walking down a street, buying ice cream—but the crucial details eluded me.
It was as though someone had deliberately sealed them away.

What did surface in my mind was this:
Just before I entered the novel, I had agreed to fulfill someone’s request.

[Please protect ….]

The problem was that even this memory wasn’t entirely clear.
Ando Hwa picked up her pen and stared at the paper before her.
The mind map she had started to organize the situation had been frozen on the three characters spelling “Ando Hwa” for thirty minutes now.

“I really don’t understand any of this. And why, of all people, Raina Hart?”

Raina Hart.
A war hero of the Betuzhenia Empire mentioned only by name in the novel.
In that war, the capital of the Tunterra Empire—the male protagonist’s homeland—had been erased by Raina’s magic.
And Raina herself should have died then.

‘Is the body of Raina, who should have died, alive because I possessed it?’

Ando Hwa recalled the moment she first opened her eyes in this world.
Lying at the bottom of a vast Sinkhole, gazing up at the blue sky. Someone’s memories piercing into her mind like needles.
Only after enduring the headache until sunset did the flood of memories cease.
That was when Ando Hwa realized it was eighteen years of Raina Hart’s life.

“So they’re telling me to live as Raina? What is this?”

Raina’s memories were far more vivid than my own.
So vivid that I could wield magic and cast spells using those memories without any difficulty.
Because of this, after escaping the Sinkhole through magic, I had to seriously contemplate whether I was Ando Hwa or Raina Hart.
It was only when a knight—unfamiliar yet somehow familiar—called out to me that I finally understood.
That I was inside a novel.

Knight Commander Person found the lost city every year.
Before the towering memorial, he placed a pale purple bouquet resembling her and paid his respects to Raina Hart.
This was already the fourteenth commemoration.

As if introducing a character, a translucent window materialized beside the knight.
It was content she had read from “The Garden of Betuzhenia.”

“I never dreamed that ‘book possession’ would become a keyword in my life.”

Ando Hwa—or rather, Raina, as it felt more natural now that I had assumed Raina Hart’s life.
I tilted my head back against the chair’s backrest.
My long pale purple hair flowed gently along the contours of the backrest.
The brilliant chandelier lights of the Imperial Palace reflected in my clear silver eyes.
I found myself thinking that even the lighting seemed like a fantasy, and I pondered what lay ahead.
What was I supposed to do in this novel?

“Was I asked to protect the ending? Since the novel’s serialization was halted.”

An indefinite hiatus right before the finale, no less.
In the comments of the latest chapter, there had even been rumors of the author’s death.
If someone had pulled me into this novel and asked me to protect something.
The most plausible request in this situation would be something like “protect the ending.”

“Let me recall what happened before the serialization stopped.”

I retraced the latter half of the novel I had read.
The main villain, the tyrant of the Betuzhenia Empire, dies at the hands of the male protagonist, and the female protagonist and male protagonist confirm their feelings for each other.

“It seems the serialization cut off just before the dragon awakened and the capital of the Tunterra Empire, which Raina Hart had sent flying, returned to its original place.”

I shifted my gaze beyond the window to the blue sky.
The capital of the Tunterra Empire, which the great archmage was said to have destroyed, was actually floating high in the sky with time frozen in place.
Raina Hart, who had even sacrificed her own life to lift the Tunterra capital into the heavens.
Why she, the great archmage of the Betuzhenia Empire, made such a choice.
That reason, known only to herself, was mentioned in the latter half of the original work.

Deep beneath the earth lay a dragon’s lair unknown to mankind.
The Tunterra Empire had built its capital upon it.
Centuries later, no one suspected the dragon within would ever awaken.
When the dragon stirred, a colossal city collapsed upon it.
The dragon shook itself free and soared into the boundless sky.
Obliterating half of the Tan continent and the Tunterra Archipelago in the process.
This was the scene Raina Hart had witnessed through her premonition the night before.

In short, a dragon simply shaking itself clean would annihilate half a continent.
Raina Hart had attempted to prevent this catastrophe.
She had advised the Tunterra Emperor to abandon his capital, but as her enemy, he would never heed her words.
Seeing no other choice, Raina Hart lifted the archipelago that suppressed the dragon’s lair into the sky and breathed her last within the Sinkhole.

‘It was an early decision, but.’

Raina Hart had calculated that the dragon would awaken around this time, but in truth, the dragon’s awakening was scheduled for fourteen years from now—when the original story would begin.
Until then, the Tunterra Archipelago would remain suspended in the sky, frozen in time, hidden within towering, dense clouds.
Raina imagined the colossal city floating in the heavens and turned her thoughts once more to the original story’s ending.

‘Once I restore the Tunterra Archipelago to its original state, Tiernan—the male lead—will become emperor, won’t he? He was the only member of the royal family who escaped Raina Hart’s magic.’

Tiernan Fargan, the last prince of the fallen Tunterra Empire.
He had fled in disguise and was captured by slave traders, enduring years of bondage.
Yet in the end, he gathered the surviving Tunterra knights and led an army that crushed the Betuzhenia Empire.
The female protagonist, a princess of Betuzhenia, also overthrew her father—who had viewed her merely as a political tool—and claimed the position of family head.

“A happy ending, truly a happy ending.”

Raina murmured to herself.
No matter how serialized the story was, there was no way it wouldn’t have a happy ending once it had progressed this far.
The protagonists had overcome all hardships and adversities; all that remained was for them to live together in blissful contentment.
It was predictable without even looking.
Then what was she supposed to do to bring about that ending?

“…Is there anything I need to do in this novel right now?”

This was long before the original story began.
The protagonists were each building their childhood narratives in their respective places.
Since the original Raina Hart was already deceased, there was no need to interfere with that narrative.
Rather, my existence in Raina Hart’s body had become the variable.

“Hmm.”

Raina Hart, who had been contemplating with her brow furrowed between her cleanly arched eyebrows, reached a conclusion.
Whether it’s the ending or anything else, if my role is to protect something, then I should let the future unfold as I know it will.
In that case, I shouldn’t interfere with this world any more than necessary until the original story begins.
Especially not regarding the original’s established settings.

‘I’ll just need to verify that things proceed according to the novel’s progression.’

If the ending seems like it might go awry, then I can step in and play the role of a supporter.
Fortunately, Raina Hart possessed a small rural territory called Hibei.
Though she was a commoner, it was land granted to her by the Emperor along with the Hart Barony in recognition of her past accomplishments.

‘I’ll have to hole up there until the original story begins.’

Raina Hart hummed a little tune.
Separate from protecting the ending, her heart felt light.
A grand welcome banquet that had lasted a week, bestowed upon a war hero who had returned alive.
And two weeks of Imperial Palace mage training—something the previous Raina Hart had promised the Emperor to undertake.
During those three weeks trapped in the Imperial Palace, I had come to understand something.

‘Being alone is the best.’

With Raina Hart’s memories, there were no problems with noble etiquette or progressing through the magic lessons.
But I had felt my stamina drain in real time every time I dealt with people.

“It was a month-long education, so I have two weeks left.”

Raina Hart tapped the armrest lightly.
Having resolved to minimize my involvement, I couldn’t let my guard down even in the Imperial Palace.
There was a high possibility of encountering two key figures from the original story within the palace.
One was Duke Asperada, the Female Protagonist’s father, and the other was the Fourth Prince.

‘I need to be especially careful with the Fourth Prince.’

After all, he was growing into the main villain of the original story.
Right now, he was likely enduring the typical misfortunes that befell antagonists somewhere in a detached palace within the Imperial Palace.

‘What does it matter to me?’

What concern was it of mine?
That was simply how the original story was written.
Raina Hart thought to herself.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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