ETVEWHF 1

Chapter 1

I woke up with a strange warmth running through me.

“Ugh, mm….”

I tried to get a word out, but the sound just echoed in my mouth and refused to escape. It didn’t take long to figure out why: I was locking lips with some man. My whole body shuddered at the feeling of his mouth moving so intimately against mine.

…Hold on. We’re kissing?

I could barely move. Half-lying on a two-seater sofa, I was trapped in his arms and taking his kiss. I tried to resist, but my muscles just wouldn’t cooperate.

Then, the man pulled back slightly. He was still way too close, and my blurred vision made it hard to get a good look at his thick-skinned face as he forced himself on me. The only thing I could make out was that he had blonde hair.

As I paused to catch my breath, his hand started fiddling with the top button of my blouse.

Wait a minute, this isn’t right!

Panic set in, and I was just about to scream when he spoke.

“Winnie Blewit.”

In an instant, a harsh wave of reality hit me, as if I’d just snapped out of a dream. My vision cleared up, my hearing sharpened, and the strength surged back into my limbs.

With everything I had, I shoved the man off me and rolled away.

“Ah, damn it.”

I tumbled off the sofa awkwardly, but that was the least of my concerns right now. Scrambling to my feet, I dashed toward the window, putting as much distance between us as possible.

Meanwhile, the man picked up a pair of glasses sitting on the side table. On high alert that he might pounce on me again, I spat out through gritted teeth, “You crazy bastard.”

My mind was a complete mess, and my memories were hazy. But one thing was for sure: this guy was neither my lover nor my husband.

Wait. Then where was my husband? Where was I, and who was I, anyway?

Just then, he took a step toward me.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“Calm down, Rowina!”

Hearing that name cleared the fog in my head, and my memories instantly fell into place.

I was Rowina. Well, to be precise, Rowina was the owner of this body.

Howard Blackwood was the male lead of the novel Sidecliff.

I’d read it a long time ago, so I didn’t remember all the details, but I definitely remembered how Rowina met her end.

Howard falls in love with his former fiancée after reuniting with her on the battlefield. Wanting to stand proud before her, he demands a divorce from his wife. Rowina refuses, but she gets pushed out anyway. She ends up wandering the streets until she falls off a bridge and dies.

To be fair, Rowina wasn’t a great wife by any stretch. She had dragged Howard into trouble more times than anyone could count.

And to top it off, the man who was just kissing Rowina—or rather, me—was Howard’s younger brother, Nigel!

Our little affair was abruptly cut short by a knock on the door.

“It’s Morgan. May I come in?”

With a scandalous affair between a sister-in-law and brother-in-law about to be exposed, Nigel answered nonchalantly, “Give us a moment.”

He didn’t act at all like a guy who had just been craving his brother’s wife. I glared at him as he calmly wiped the red makeup off his lips with a tissue and straightened his tie.

“Rowina, are you trying to announce to the whole world that you had an affair with your husband’s brother?”

I turned my head and looked at my reflection in the mirror. My wheat-blonde hair was a messy nest, and my lipstick was smeared all over.

I had no clue what was going on, but I had to clean up this mess. I wiped away the smudged makeup, searched my memory to find where the cosmetics were stored, and reapplied them.

After running a comb through my hair, I looked neat and respectable again. Nigel then had me sit down and let the man named Morgan inside.

Who was Morgan again?

The moment I saw the moustachioed face entering the room, the answer clicked. He was the family’s personal physician.

“Well then, I’ll leave my sister-in-law in your capable hands, Doctor.”

“Don’t you worry, Nigel.”

As they exchanged a few words, I went back to digging through my memories. I gathered the basics: I was in the absurd situation of having become a character in a book I read as a kid.

“My Lady, does your head still hurt?”

I hadn’t thought much of it until now, but as I tried to process this overwhelming, surreal scenario, a genuine headache started pounding.

“A little.”

“How strange… I’ve been giving you your medication continuously.”

I zoned out, letting Dr. Morgan’s words drift past me while I sank deeper into my thoughts.

“If it’s stress-induced, well, there’s no reason for you to be stressed.”

Maybe this was all just a dream. If I fell back asleep, I’d wake up as my real self again.

“It seems My Lady might just be a bit sensitive. Ha-ha.”

“……”

“You should step outside, meet people, get some sun while taking a walk. The Dowager Lady was actually complaining to me about how lazy the Young Lady is—”

“Dr. Morgan, what is my name?”

The disorienting situation and the unfamiliar name made the question slip out before I could stop myself. But his reaction was completely unexpected.

“Ah, well, that is…”

Dr. Morgan’s face turned ghost-white in a split second. He muttered under his breath, avoiding my eyes. I stared at him silently, waiting for an answer.

“You are Rowina Blackwood, My Lady.”

“…….”

“I-I am so sorry. I spoke out of turn, My Lady.”

“Ah.”

I hadn’t intended to scold him, but given Rowina’s reputation around here, he must have taken it that way. Rowina was usually pushover-soft when it came to subtle slights that tested her nerves, which probably explained his extreme reaction.

As I kept staring at Dr. Morgan while lost in thought, he suddenly fell to his knees with a thud.

“Young Lady!”

What is wrong with him all of a sudden?

“I am supposed to work in this mansion until the end of this year, so please, do not mention this to Lord Howard…”

“Why?”

“Pardon?”

“Why do you have to work here until the end of the year?”

Morgan bit his lip nervously before continuing. “The late master promised that if I served as the family doctor until the end of this year, he would grant me the position of hospital director…”

“Ah.”

Dr. Morgan was simply a man driven by worldly ambitions.

“I see.”

If that was all it was, then whatever.

“Thank you, My Lady!”

By the time Dr. Morgan finished my examination, it was late in the evening. Left alone in my room, I traced back my memories—or rather, Rowina Blackwood’s memories.

It was fascinating. I could recall Rowina’s memories as naturally as if they were my own. Although I couldn’t feel her thoughts, intentions, or emotions, I had full access to her sensory information like sight and sound.

Wait, it makes sense that I don’t know her emotions, right?

Rowina Blackwood had difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions—a condition she had lived with since childhood. Now that her parents had passed away, no one else was left alive who knew about her illness.

Wait, something doesn’t add up.

If she didn’t understand emotions or love, why was she kissing Nigel? Affairs were usually driven by people who couldn’t control their own desires.

I recalled Nigel—kissing me without hesitation, nonchalantly fixing his clothes, and putting his glasses back on. Remembering the sharp, piercing intensity of his passion and desire, a shocking realization hit me.

I have no memories… of the last three days.

It wasn’t that strange to forget distant memories from Rowina’s childhood, since people naturally forget things as time passes. But losing the last three days—especially the moments right before I woke up in this body—was no light matter.

And up until three days ago, Rowina had never been involved in an inappropriate relationship with Nigel.

Tracing my memories back even further, I realized that both she and I belonged to the country of Rudelheim. I knew the author had pulled real-world geographic settings and historical events for Sidecliff, but it still gave me an eerie feeling.

Wait, then what happened to my original body?

A sudden throbbing pain hit my head at the thought, but I quickly shook it off.

Even if the story used a real country as its background, the characters didn’t exist in reality. Even if Rowina crossed the border into Rudelheim, my real self or my family wouldn’t be there.

I pulled the call bell. A servant girl entered shortly after.

“My Lady, did you call for something?”

“Did anything happen three days ago, by any chance?” I asked, requesting a cup of tea and warming my hands on the warm teacup.

“Three days ago, My Lady?”

“Yes. I feel like something important happened, but I suddenly can’t recall it.”

The maid answered cautiously. “If you mean three days ago, that was when the telegram arrived announcing Lord Howard’s return.”

“…..”

“The war ended a while ago, but he couldn’t be discharged immediately due to administrative procedures.”

“Ah, right.”

“And… that evening, you collapsed, Young Lady.”

‘Young Lady’ was how the servants referred to Rowina.

“…I did?”

“Is your memory not fully back? Should I fetch Dr. Morgan again…?”

“No, I remember. I was just a bit confused.”

Rowina passed out, lost her memories, and then her soul was swapped.

I spent the late hours of the night tossing and turning over these thoughts before finally falling asleep, hoping that everything would be back to normal tomorrow.

“You lazy thing, sleeping in until this hour!”

When I opened my eyes, I was still Rowina.

Woken up by the loud voice, I looked up through my sleepy eyes at a middle-aged noblewoman glaring daggers at me.

“Why are you…”

“I heard you didn’t even bother to come pay your morning respects and were just sleeping, so I came to check on you myself!”

Kristine Blackwood. Rowina’s mother-in-law was glaring down at me as if she was ready to strike me with the cane in her hand at any second.

Expert translation.

Chapter 1

I woke up with a strange warmth running through me.

“Ugh, mm….”

I tried to get a word out, but the sound just echoed in my mouth and refused to escape. It didn’t take long to figure out why: I was locking lips with some man. My whole body shuddered at the feeling of his mouth moving so intimately against mine.

…Hold on. We’re kissing?

I could barely move. Half-lying on a two-seater sofa, I was trapped in his arms and taking his kiss. I tried to resist, but my muscles just wouldn’t cooperate.

Then, the man pulled back slightly. He was still way too close, and my blurred vision made it hard to get a good look at his thick-skinned face as he forced himself on me. The only thing I could make out was that he had blonde hair.

As I paused to catch my breath, his hand started fiddling with the top button of my blouse.

Wait a minute, this isn’t right!

Panic set in, and I was just about to scream when he spoke.

“Winnie Blewit.”

In an instant, a harsh wave of reality hit me, as if I’d just snapped out of a dream. My vision cleared up, my hearing sharpened, and the strength surged back into my limbs.

With everything I had, I shoved the man off me and rolled away.

“Ah, damn it.”

I tumbled off the sofa awkwardly, but that was the least of my concerns right now. Scrambling to my feet, I dashed toward the window, putting as much distance between us as possible.

Meanwhile, the man picked up a pair of glasses sitting on the side table. On high alert that he might pounce on me again, I spat out through gritted teeth, “You crazy bastard.”

My mind was a complete mess, and my memories were hazy. But one thing was for sure: this guy was neither my lover nor my husband.

Wait. Then where was my husband? Where was I, and who was I, anyway?

Just then, he took a step toward me.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“Calm down, Rowina!”

Hearing that name cleared the fog in my head, and my memories instantly fell into place.

I was Rowina. Well, to be precise, Rowina was the owner of this body.

Howard Blackwood was the male lead of the novel Sidecliff.

I’d read it a long time ago, so I didn’t remember all the details, but I definitely remembered how Rowina met her end.

Howard falls in love with his former fiancée after reuniting with her on the battlefield. Wanting to stand proud before her, he demands a divorce from his wife. Rowina refuses, but she gets pushed out anyway. She ends up wandering the streets until she falls off a bridge and dies.

To be fair, Rowina wasn’t a great wife by any stretch. She had dragged Howard into trouble more times than anyone could count.

And to top it off, the man who was just kissing Rowina—or rather, me—was Howard’s younger brother, Nigel!

Our little affair was abruptly cut short by a knock on the door.

“It’s Morgan. May I come in?”

With a scandalous affair between a sister-in-law and brother-in-law about to be exposed, Nigel answered nonchalantly, “Give us a moment.”

He didn’t act at all like a guy who had just been craving his brother’s wife. I glared at him as he calmly wiped the red makeup off his lips with a tissue and straightened his tie.

“Rowina, are you trying to announce to the whole world that you had an affair with your husband’s brother?”

I turned my head and looked at my reflection in the mirror. My wheat-blonde hair was a messy nest, and my lipstick was smeared all over.

I had no clue what was going on, but I had to clean up this mess. I wiped away the smudged makeup, searched my memory to find where the cosmetics were stored, and reapplied them.

After running a comb through my hair, I looked neat and respectable again. Nigel then had me sit down and let the man named Morgan inside.

Who was Morgan again?

The moment I saw the moustachioed face entering the room, the answer clicked. He was the family’s personal physician.

“Well then, I’ll leave my sister-in-law in your capable hands, Doctor.”

“Don’t you worry, Nigel.”

As they exchanged a few words, I went back to digging through my memories. I gathered the basics: I was in the absurd situation of having become a character in a book I read as a kid.

“My Lady, does your head still hurt?”

I hadn’t thought much of it until now, but as I tried to process this overwhelming, surreal scenario, a genuine headache started pounding.

“A little.”

“How strange… I’ve been giving you your medication continuously.”

I zoned out, letting Dr. Morgan’s words drift past me while I sank deeper into my thoughts.

“If it’s stress-induced, well, there’s no reason for you to be stressed.”

Maybe this was all just a dream. If I fell back asleep, I’d wake up as my real self again.

“It seems My Lady might just be a bit sensitive. Ha-ha.”

“……”

“You should step outside, meet people, get some sun while taking a walk. The Dowager Lady was actually complaining to me about how lazy the Young Lady is—”

“Dr. Morgan, what is my name?”

The disorienting situation and the unfamiliar name made the question slip out before I could stop myself. But his reaction was completely unexpected.

“Ah, well, that is…”

Dr. Morgan’s face turned ghost-white in a split second. He muttered under his breath, avoiding my eyes. I stared at him silently, waiting for an answer.

“You are Rowina Blackwood, My Lady.”

“…….”

“I-I am so sorry. I spoke out of turn, My Lady.”

“Ah.”

I hadn’t intended to scold him, but given Rowina’s reputation around here, he must have taken it that way. Rowina was usually pushover-soft when it came to subtle slights that tested her nerves, which probably explained his extreme reaction.

As I kept staring at Dr. Morgan while lost in thought, he suddenly fell to his knees with a thud.

“Young Lady!”

What is wrong with him all of a sudden?

“I am supposed to work in this mansion until the end of this year, so please, do not mention this to Lord Howard…”

“Why?”

“Pardon?”

“Why do you have to work here until the end of the year?”

Morgan bit his lip nervously before continuing. “The late master promised that if I served as the family doctor until the end of this year, he would grant me the position of hospital director…”

“Ah.”

Dr. Morgan was simply a man driven by worldly ambitions.

“I see.”

If that was all it was, then whatever.

“Thank you, My Lady!”

By the time Dr. Morgan finished my examination, it was late in the evening. Left alone in my room, I traced back my memories—or rather, Rowina Blackwood’s memories.

It was fascinating. I could recall Rowina’s memories as naturally as if they were my own. Although I couldn’t feel her thoughts, intentions, or emotions, I had full access to her sensory information like sight and sound.

Wait, it makes sense that I don’t know her emotions, right?

Rowina Blackwood had difficulty recognizing and expressing emotions—a condition she had lived with since childhood. Now that her parents had passed away, no one else was left alive who knew about her illness.

Wait, something doesn’t add up.

If she didn’t understand emotions or love, why was she kissing Nigel? Affairs were usually driven by people who couldn’t control their own desires.

I recalled Nigel—kissing me without hesitation, nonchalantly fixing his clothes, and putting his glasses back on. Remembering the sharp, piercing intensity of his passion and desire, a shocking realization hit me.

I have no memories… of the last three days.

It wasn’t that strange to forget distant memories from Rowina’s childhood, since people naturally forget things as time passes. But losing the last three days—especially the moments right before I woke up in this body—was no light matter.

And up until three days ago, Rowina had never been involved in an inappropriate relationship with Nigel.

Tracing my memories back even further, I realized that both she and I belonged to the country of Rudelheim. I knew the author had pulled real-world geographic settings and historical events for Sidecliff, but it still gave me an eerie feeling.

Wait, then what happened to my original body?

A sudden throbbing pain hit my head at the thought, but I quickly shook it off.

Even if the story used a real country as its background, the characters didn’t exist in reality. Even if Rowina crossed the border into Rudelheim, my real self or my family wouldn’t be there.

I pulled the call bell. A servant girl entered shortly after.

“My Lady, did you call for something?”

“Did anything happen three days ago, by any chance?” I asked, requesting a cup of tea and warming my hands on the warm teacup.

“Three days ago, My Lady?”

“Yes. I feel like something important happened, but I suddenly can’t recall it.”

The maid answered cautiously. “If you mean three days ago, that was when the telegram arrived announcing Lord Howard’s return.”

“…..”

“The war ended a while ago, but he couldn’t be discharged immediately due to administrative procedures.”

“Ah, right.”

“And… that evening, you collapsed, Young Lady.”

‘Young Lady’ was how the servants referred to Rowina.

“…I did?”

“Is your memory not fully back? Should I fetch Dr. Morgan again…?”

“No, I remember. I was just a bit confused.”

Rowina passed out, lost her memories, and then her soul was swapped.

I spent the late hours of the night tossing and turning over these thoughts before finally falling asleep, hoping that everything would be back to normal tomorrow.

“You lazy thing, sleeping in until this hour!”

When I opened my eyes, I was still Rowina.

Woken up by the loud voice, I looked up through my sleepy eyes at a middle-aged noblewoman glaring daggers at me.

“Why are you…”

“I heard you didn’t even bother to come pay your morning respects and were just sleeping, so I came to check on you myself!”

Kristine Blackwood. Rowina’s mother-in-law was glaring down at me as if she was ready to strike me with the cane in her hand at any second.