Selene did not scream. That was the first proof that she was still herself.
The second was the way her mind, even while spinning in pain, began sorting the impossible situation into manageable pieces.
She was alive. She was in a different body. And by some absurd miracle, or curse, she had become the villainess of a novel she had once read on a flight and half-forgotten after one boring evening.
Selene sat rigidly in bed, one hand pressed to her temple as fragments of Seraphina Valemont's memories continued to flood in like broken glass.
The banquet hall, the humiliation, the rain, the cliff, and the fall.
Her breathing slowed.
So the original Seraphina had not merely been rejected. She had been pushed into despair until she chose death.
Pathetic.
Selene's lips curled faintly, though the expression carried no warmth. Not because the original Seraphina deserved mockery. But because the story itself was unbearably foolish.
A woman born in a ducal house, raised with every privilege, reduced to a lovesick shell because a man looked at her with disdain? No. That kind of ending might satisfy a romance novel, but it was not a fate Selene intended to inherit.
The door opened softly. A young maid entered carrying a silver tray, and when she saw Selene awake, her eyes widened with relief.
"Lady Seraphina! You have awakened!" The girl nearly dropped the tray in her haste to kneel. "Thank the Moon Goddess, thank the Moon Goddess…"
Selene studied her.
Small frame, plain uniform, red-rimmed eyes, loyal, and frightened.
In an instant, she could tell this maid had likely stayed by Seraphina's bedside through the night.
"What is your name?" Selene asked.
The maid froze. "M-My name is Lila, my lady."
"Lila," Selene repeated, tasting the name in the air. "How long have I been unconscious?"
Lila looked startled by the calm tone, but answered quickly. "Two days, my lady. After you… after you fell from the garden cliff, everyone believed you would not survive."
Selene's gaze sharpened.
So this body had truly nearly died.
She reached for the glass of water on the tray and drank slowly, ignoring the slight tremor in her hand. Her throat burned, and only then did she notice how weak this body felt. Thin, cold, and overworked by grief, perhaps.
She would fix that.
"Who has been here?" Selene asked.
Lila hesitated. "The duke ordered the physicians to remain on standby. The duchess visited once, but… she did not stay long. As for His Highness the Crown Prince…"
Selene's fingers paused on the glass.
Lila's voice grew smaller. "He carried you back personally, my lady. There are rumors in the palace already."
"Rumors," Selene said flatly.
"Yes, my lady. Some say His Highness has taken an interest in you."
Selene set the glass down. "And Lucien Everhart?"
Lila flinched at the name.
"He has not visited," the maid said carefully. "Not even once."
A quiet, cold certainty settled in Selene's chest.
Of course, he had not come.
Men like Lucien always knew how to perform morality when it benefited them, but when consequences arrived, they preferred to hide behind propriety. He had already cut Seraphina loose in front of everyone. Coming now would only complicate the narrative.
She looked at the window.
Outside, the morning sky was pale and washed in silver. It had the stillness of a world that believed nothing had changed.
But everything had changed.
Selene swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Lila gasped. "My lady, you should rest!"
"I have rested enough."
The maid rushed forward. "Please, your injuries--"
"I said enough."
The sharpness in Selene's tone silenced her.
For a moment, Lila only stared. There was something unsettling about the lady in front of her. Though her face was still Seraphina's, the expression in her crimson eyes was different. They were clearer and colder as if the weak and fragile woman who used to inhabit this body had been replaced by someone else entirely.
Selene noticed the change in the maid's expression and immediately softened her voice by a fraction.
"Prepare me a bath," she said. "And bring all the mirrors in this room closer."
Lila blinked. "Pardon?"
"I need to see exactly what I'm working with."
A pause.
Then Lila hurried away, still confused but too disciplined to question her further.
Selene rose and walked slowly to the mirror across the room. The figure staring back at her made her breath catch, even if only for a second.
Seraphina Valemont was devastatingly beautiful.
Long black hair that fell in soft waves down her back. Pale skin touched with a natural blush. Sharp crimson eyes that seemed almost unnatural in this world. A waist so narrow it looked fragile enough to break. Beauty that was not gentle, but dangerous.
No wonder she had become a target.
No wonder the story had hated her.
Selene tilted her chin slightly, examining the bloodless lips and the faint bruising at the corner of her temple.
The original Seraphina had lived her life trying to cling to a man who never wanted her. But Selene had never wasted energy on unnecessary attachments. She believed in assets, liabilities, and leverage. And right now, this body was her greatest asset.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Enter," she said.
An older maid stepped in with a folded letter on a tray. Her expression was carefully neutral, but her eyes avoided Selene's face. "This arrived this morning, my lady."
Selene took the letter. The seal was the Everhart crest. Her mouth went very still.
She already knew what it contained before she opened it. She had lived through enough boardroom betrayals to recognize the shape of a severance notice when it was wrapped in silk. She broke the seal and unfolded the page.
The handwriting was elegant and emotionless.
[Lady Seraphina Valemont,
After long consideration, I believe our engagement was a mistake from the beginning. Your previous conduct has caused irreparable damage to my reputation and to the harmony of the academy. For the sake of all parties involved, I hereby request a complete dissolution of our betrothal.
I wish you peace in the future.
Lucien Everhart]
Peace...
Selene read the letter once, then a second time.
Then she laughed.
It was not loud. It was not dramatic. It was quiet, low, and deeply amused.
The maids in the room stiffened.
Lila, who had returned with towels, nearly dropped them in shock. "My lady?"
Selene folded the letter with precise, controlled movements and set it on the table.
So this was the man who had pushed Seraphina to her death. Not a villain, perhaps. At least not in the usual sense. Just a coward.
A polished coward with a scholar's title and a nobleman's arrogance. He had rejected Seraphina, then sent a letter after she almost died, as if etiquette could wash away cruelty.
Selene turned to the women in the room. "Bring me paper, ink, and my wardrobe records."
Everyone blinked.
"My lady?" Lila asked faintly.
"And summon the head maid," Selene continued. "Then send word to my father that I will be receiving visitors this afternoon."
The room went silent.
The older maid recovered first. "Your father, my lady?"
"Yes."
"But…" The woman hesitated. "The duke is currently in the north. He is expected to return in five days."
Selene's gaze did not waver. "Then send him a message anyway."
There was a strange pressure in the air when she spoke. It was not magic. It was a heavy command. The maids hurried to obey.
Within an hour, Selene had bathed, changed, and sat before an entire table of Seraphina's possessions.
Jewels, dresses, letters, and official documents. Ledgers of household expenditures. Invitations from noble families. Academy correspondence from Lucien. Even private notes from Seraphina's own hand, filled with emotionally unstable declarations that made Selene wince.
She skimmed them with swift, efficient eyes.
Weak. Naive. Obsessed. Predictable.
No wonder people had used her.
But beneath the emotional mess, Selene noticed something useful.
House Valemont was powerful.
Very powerful...
Its land holdings were vast. Its military influence was strong. Its name carried weight in the noble circles of the empire. Seraphina herself had been terrible at using that power, but the power still existed.
Which meant one thing.
She was not starting from nothing.
She was starting with a fortune.
A knock sounded again.
This time, it was not a maid.
The door opened and a tall figure stepped into the room, his expression grave.
Selene looked up.
He was middle-aged, broad-shouldered, and carrying the unmistakable authority of someone used to being obeyed. The servants in the hallway bowed instantly.
The duke of Valemont.
Seraphina's father.
For a brief moment, Selene felt the body's memories stir uneasily. A buried instinct of fear. Not affection or warmth.
Fear...?
The duke's gaze swept over her once, then narrowed slightly. "You are awake."
Selene stood slowly. "Father."
The room became painfully still.
The duke's eyes sharpened at her tone. Seraphina was supposed to greet him tearfully, apologetically, perhaps even weakly. Instead, his daughter stood before him calm, composed, and unnervingly direct.
He placed a sealed document on the table. "The Everhart family sent word that they want the engagement dissolved."
Selene almost smiled. "So I heard."
"Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
There it was.
Not concern or relief that she had survived.
An interrogation.
Selene met her father's gaze without flinching.
"Yes," she said. "They may dissolve it."
The duke's brows lifted slightly.
Selene continued, "But not under the conditions they want."
A flicker of interest crossed his face. For the first time, the man seemed to truly see her. Selene picked up Lucien's letter and held it between two fingers.
"From this moment onward, Seraphina Valemont will no longer beg for anyone's affection." Her voice was quiet, but it carried like steel. "If Lucien Everhart wants to break this engagement, he will do so publicly, properly, and with consequences."
The duke stared at her in silence.
Lila and the other maids looked as though they had forgotten how to breathe.
Selene set the letter down and lifted her chin.
"And if anyone thinks House Valemont will continue being humiliated by a man born from an ordinary noble line…"
She smiled, cold and sharp.
"Then they have badly underestimated me."
For the first time since waking in this body, Selene felt it.
A thrill.
Not fear.
Not despair.
Challenge.
Then, from outside the room, came the sound of hurried footsteps.
A servant burst through the doorway, pale with panic.
"My lord! My lady! The Crown Prince has arrived at the duchy gates."
The room froze.
Selene slowly turned her head.
Kael Draven had come personally?
And for some reason, that made her think the next phase of her life had just begun.