KFBRV Ch 1

[Count] "Tsk. It seems one cannot hide such lowly blood."

At the sound of that familiar, cold voice, her eyes flew open as if waking from a nightmare. At that exact moment—

[Odette] "Cough! Cough—!"

A surge of blood erupted from her throat. Her white hand instinctively flew to her mouth, only to be instantly stained with dark, crimson liquid.

Odette stared blankly at her palm before slowly scanning her surroundings. The room was both hauntingly familiar and strangely distant. This place was—

...The Albrecht Estate.

It was the very place where she had lived like a prisoner until two years ago.

Why am I here? Just a moment ago, I was...

Her hands moved frantically to her throat. To her disbelief, her neck was perfectly intact.

Was this a hallucination? Or perhaps a final flash of memory before the end?

Neither seemed possible. She struggled to organize her fractured thoughts until a preposterous hypothesis took hold of her mind.

...Don't tell me, I've returned?

Odette felt her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She slowly raised her head and met the eyes of the man looking down at her with pure disdain.

Her suspicion hardened into certainty. This was no hallucination; the surroundings were too vivid, and the throbbing pain throughout her body was far too real.

The Count, assuming the pain dazed her, barked an order to the butler.

[Count] "Lock this girl in the attic again and do not give her a single drop of water. Ensure she never acts this cunningly again."

[Butler] "Yes, My Lord. Do not worry. I will inform the disciplinary maid in the morning to begin her etiquette training immediately."

He nodded at the butler's firm reply and turned his back on her.

Bang!

Odette was dragged away and thrown into the empty attic, where she was left alone. She stared at the dusty floor with a vacant expression.

[Odette] "How could this happen...?"

She startled at the sound of her own voice. Her tongue was still there. But that was nothing compared to the gravity of her situation.

[Odette] "...I was supposed to be dead."

Yes, she had died. Betrayed by her family and locked away in a cell, she had eventually met a gruesome end as an axe severed her head from her shoulders.

She vividly remembered the sensation of her breath stopping and the thick, heavy darkness of death pulling her under.

And with that death, she had remembered everything. She was originally a modern person named Han Suwan, and this world was actually an R-rated, tragic reverse harem game titled The One and Only Savior.

Odette Lina von Albrecht.

In that game, she was the villainess who posed as a fake Purifier. She had died for that crime, yet—

[Odette] "Why... why am I back?"

She was alone in the attic; no one was there to answer. Still, she couldn't help but speak the question aloud. She was overwhelmed by the sheer absurdity of the miracle that had occurred.

And then.

[Odette] "Ha... Hahaha!"

A laugh escaped her lips. She wasn't losing her mind. It was a laugh born of pure, unadulterated joy because she finally understood exactly why she had been sent back.

The Albrecht family had made her writhe in agony her entire life. They were the ones who had forced her to wear the mask of the Empire's worst villainess, leading to her cruel execution under the curses of the entire populace. They had played her for a fool, but now, a new opportunity had been granted.

[Odette] "Odette, you foolish, pathetic girl. You were blinded because it was the first time you had ever felt loved..."

Ah, how sweet the word "family" had once tasted. They were the ones who had plucked her from an orphanage and made her a lady of a Count's house. But her one-sided love for them was no different from a beggar pleading for scraps. To the Albrechts, Odette was merely a pretty, mindless doll to be used and discarded.

She slowly closed her eyes, letting the memories of her previous life wash over her.

---

[Ferdinand] "Mother. For my awakening gift, I want a pretty little sister."

At fifteen, Ferdinand Maximilian von Albrecht had awakened as a D-class Transcendent. The precious only son of the Count requested a sister as his reward.

Driven by her obsessive love for her son, the Countess visited every orphanage in the slums to find a girl that suited his tastes.

[Ferdinand] "That one looks the most promising. She's delicate."

Standing among dozens of orphan girls lined up in a row, Ferdinand pointed a finger at one of them. It was as if he were picking out a piece of furniture.

Among all the children, she was uniquely beautiful, possessing a face like a fairy—large eyes, snow-white skin, a fragile frame, Shimmering platinum hair, and stunning teal eyes.

She was Odette, the perfect match for Ferdinand's preferences.

[Countess] "From this day forward, you must live for your brother. Now that you are his sister, make sure you maintain his pride!"

From that day on, the newly titled Lady Odette lived solely for her brother's sake. She molded both her appearance and her personality to satisfy Ferdinand's every whim.

[Odette] "Is... is this how I should smile, Brother?"

At six years old, young Odette was genuinely happy just to have a family. Therefore, she did whatever they asked of her. She wore girlish dresses and spoke in a high, clear tone.

She was forbidden from speaking intelligently. To maintain a frail figure, she was forced to wear a metal corset even while she slept, and she had to smile like a simpleton. Odette followed every rule with a smile, never uttering a word of complaint.

She lived as her adoptive brother's pretty doll, confined within the Count's estate for nine years.

Then, in the year Odette turned fifteen, "that incident" happened.

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