Chapter 1: The Villain I Never Wrote

A web novel author who dies after being hit by a truck and then possesses a character in a novel—it’s something that could easily happen.

Because that’s a cliché.

If this monologue is being written as a novel and read by someone, I’m sure you readers are nodding in agreement with me.

These days, ‘Regression, Possession, Reincarnation’ are very common tropes in fantasy novels.

They’re so common, in fact, that they’ve been lumped together and called ‘Re-Poss-Reinc’.

As someone writing fantasy novels in this era, I was able to quickly accept this fantastical situation of ‘possessing a character in a novel’.

But there was one thing I simply couldn’t accept.

“Let me ask once more. Who did you say I am, and from which family?”

“You are the third son of the Austri Ducal Family, Young Master Karvald Austri.”

Karvald Austri.

There’s no character with that name in my novels.

Yet, even so, I do know of a character with that name.

One of the villains in 《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》 is ‘Karvald Austri’.

And this 《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》 is not a novel I wrote.

It’s someone else’s novel.

That’s the part I simply can’t accept.

‘Don’t authors usually possess characters in their own novels?’

They use hidden settings only they know to gain various advantages, or conversely, they sweat bullets trying to fix the half-baked settings they wrote.

As far as I know, ‘author possession’ stories are fun to read precisely because of those kinds of scenes.

In other words, there’s no reason for me, who is the author of another novel, to be possessed in this story.

If it’s not about my novel, then I’m nothing more than a reader.

‘Wouldn’t it have been better to possess someone else? Surely there was at least one reader out there with specialized knowledge that could be put to use in a fantasy world? If not, they could’ve just put the original author of this novel in here.’

《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》 is a novel that lives up to its name.

As the title suggests, perhaps to make the protagonist the only SSS-Class in the world, every character connected to the protagonist ends up dead.

It doesn’t matter whether their connection is good or bad; there are no exceptions.

Of course, the character I’ve possessed, ‘Karvald’, is no different.

‘No matter how I think about it, shouldn’t the original author be the one possessing this character? That way, they’d struggle desperately to save the other characters, regret treating their lives as trivial, and reflect on their actions. Isn’t that the cliché?’

There must have been a mistake.

I’ve been writing light-hearted Healing Novels for three works in a row, so why on earth did I end up possessing a character in this kind of crazy killing novel?

No matter how hard I think about it, I can’t find any reasonable explanation.

I never even left a comment in the story’s comment section complaining about the plot development, let alone anything else.

I’ve never even had the arrogant thought, ‘If it were me, I’d have made this plot so much more interesting!’ And the last novel I read before I died wasn’t even 《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》.

I avoided all those clichés, ‘so why on earth did I end up possessed in someone else’s novel?’

‘Isn’t it about time for some god or whatever to show up, apologize for the mistake, and transfer me into one of the Healing Novels I wrote…’

Even though I hoped for it, no transcendent being appeared.

Right now, all I can see are a middle-aged man and a boy, and they just introduced themselves as the Head Physician and an attendant of the Austri Ducal Family a moment ago.

It would be nice if they suddenly changed their story and said, “Actually, we’re God and an angel.”

“Do you truly remember nothing? Not even who you are?”

The middle-aged man in a white robe shattered my hopes with his serious expression and question.

By the way, he was the one who answered when I asked who I was earlier.

Since he gave me something, it’s only right that I answer his question in return.

“No, I don’t remember anything at all.”

When you end up possessing someone else’s body, there are usually two answers you can choose from.

Either claim you have amnesia, or just pretend to be the body’s original owner and act natural.

But in my case, I didn’t choose the amnesia option of my own will.

‘Not a single memory is coming to mind.’

The ‘memory’ mentioned here isn’t mine.

It’s the memory of Karvald—the body I’ve possessed.

The timing for the original owner’s memories to flood my head along with a headache has long since passed, yet no synchronization of memories has occurred at all.

Therefore, I have no idea at what point in the original story I’ve possessed this body, or why the Head Physician was waiting in Karvald’s bedroom, and so on.

I’m completely in the dark about all the information I should know.

Yet, the reason I’m able to communicate with the Head Physician is very simple.

It’s not because I’ve received the typical language patch benefit for transmigrators.

It’s just that they’re speaking Korean.

Not just that it sounds like Korean to me—it’s actually Korean.

‘There’s really no need for the world to prove it’s a novel like this…’

《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》 is rare these days in that it doesn’t have any ‘Re-Poss-Reinc’ elements.

There are no possessors or reincarnators, so there’s no statement like, ‘The language here doesn’t exist in the modern world.’

The original author never needed to bother with language settings at all.

Because of that, I guess the author’s native language has been directly reflected as the language of this world.

“Young Master, a few days ago you returned to the ducal residence for the vacation, and that very night you attempted Poison Ingestion. If the attendant here hadn’t come to wake you early in the morning, by now, Young Master…”

Once it was confirmed that I had no memories, the Head Physician started providing information he thought I might be curious about.

From that statement, I learned that my possessed body is still a student at the academy.

And also, that I nearly died from poison just a few days ago.

“Who on earth made me ingest poison?”

“Well… hmm…”

“Don’t tell me you still haven’t caught the culprit? This is a major incident where a ducal heir almost died!”

“There is a likely suspect. However, it’s just that, well…”

“By the way, you said I’m the ‘third son,’ right? Does that mean my older siblings…”

“No, that’s not it.”

When I hinted at the possibility, the Head Physician calmly shook his head, not even looking surprised.

As if to say, ‘With no memories, it’s only natural you’d think that way.’

《I Alone Am SSS-Class Einheri》.

Also known as 《Nas-e》, according to the story, this possessed body did not inherit the family’s unique abilities.

Because of that, he wasn’t treated as a son by his father and was excluded from the succession race.

Even if left alone, he’s no threat, and if someone tried to kill him and got caught, they’d only end up with a penalty.

So Karvald’s older sister and brother have no reason to poison this body.

Even knowing that, I kept a suspicious expression and pretended to study the Head Physician’s face.

It was a kind of threat.

If he didn’t want me going around saying, ‘One of my siblings poisoned me!’, he’d better hurry up and reveal the suspect.

I felt bad for the Head Physician, who was sweating nervously with a troubled look, but I had no choice.

According to 《Nas-e》, this body only dies after graduating from the academy.

But I’m not the ‘real’ Karvald.

I might not be able to avoid the dangers he did.

So I had to find out who made this body ingest poison, no matter what.

‘After dying from getting hit by a truck and waking up in someone else’s body, to be killed again so soon—wouldn’t that be the worst?’

Suddenly, the memory of the moment I died flashed through my mind.

Before I knew it, I was gripping the blanket tightly, and the Head Physician finally opened his mouth.

“…It was you, Young Master.”

“The Duke?”

“No, no! Young Master Karvald, it was you. You purchased the poison on your way home, and once you were alone late at night, you ingested it yourself.”

An unexpected answer made me blurt out, “Huh?”

Who would’ve thought Karvald attempted suicide by Poison Ingestion.

That never happened in the original story.

For a moment, I suspected the Head Physician might be lying, but it didn’t seem like that was the case.

“That doesn’t mean your life is filled only with misfortune, so there’s no need to worry.”

He seemed to think that Karvald might try to end his life again.

It was probably meant as comfort, but it also sounded like, ‘Why would someone living a good life in a good environment do something like that?’

Either way, it was pointless commentary.

I have no intention of dying again, and in the original story, Karvald’s cause of death wasn’t suicide.

‘It’s not like I stole the body of someone with loving family, or took away someone’s precious life. At least I don’t have to feel guilty about that…’

‘Do I really have to live in this world of 《Nas-e》?’

Who the hell came up with the diabolical idea of making a Healing Novel specialist possess a grimdark novel character?’

As I was tormented by such thoughts, the door suddenly burst open without so much as a knock.

A middle-aged man entered, accompanied by a lion.

Here, the ‘lion’ isn’t a messenger (使者), but an actual lion (獅子), a big cat among predators.

It was an absurdly sudden entrance, but no one in the room seemed surprised or alarmed.

That White Lion with violet eyes was the beast companion of the head of this house, ‘Hard Austri.’

Since a beast companion had appeared, it would be the author’s duty to explain what that was.

But unfortunately, now was not the time for that.

Because something just as absurd as the White Lion’s appearance happened next.

***

Smack!!

The man who appeared with the White Lion—the one who was unmistakably the father of this possessed body—struck my cheek with his palm.

You might have guessed from the sound effect, but it was not a gentle touch.

It was a blow strong enough to snap my head to the side.

Being struck out of nowhere, I couldn’t help but feel anger well up.

I reflexively glared up at Hard, but then just looked up at him normally.

Because right in front of me, a white-furred beast was exhaling its breath.

‘Why is this lion so close to me…?’

The top priority for most protagonists in villain-possession novels is ‘survival.’

That was my goal as well, so I couldn’t dare to confront the lion’s master with a beast right in front of me.

If the beast’s paw touched my cheek, it wouldn’t just be my head turning this time.

Still, my pride wouldn’t let me show I was scared.

So I pretended to be as calm as possible and carefully studied Hard’s face.

He looked more than indifferent—he looked downright annoyed.

No matter how I looked at him, he didn’t seem like someone so worried about his son’s safety that he lost his temper and struck me out of anger at my suicide attempt.

If that were the case, he would’ve at least flinched or looked flustered without realizing it.

‘He hit me on purpose.’

As if he was just doing what needed to be done.

Seeing that indifferent expression, I felt like I understood why this body attempted suicide by Poison Ingestion.

No, the only reason Karvald would do something like that is this man right in front of me.

Because in the original story, this character was always lonely and anxious because of his father’s indifference.