As I came to my senses, what I saw was a luxurious chandelier.

A huge chandelier that could never be hung in my tiny room no bigger than a palm.

The moment I saw it, I realized.

“...This is still that world.”

If I could, I would have cursed loudly and clearly, but even that was impossible.

Because this body was that of a three-year-old who couldn’t even pronounce curses properly!

All I could do was curl up like a steamed bun and sniffle while crying.

My name is Yoo Hyemin.

No, Erilot Astra.

I was a three-year-old who had possessed the villainess in a bleak, hardest-level novel.

“Please save me!”

Three years ago, I, an ordinary citizen in Seoul, died of illness.

The diagnosis was pancreatic cancer.

By the time I realized it, it was already too late for treatment, and I lasted only a few months before dying.

And when I opened my eyes again...

“This was the body.”

Small, round hands like flour dumplings.

A chubby body wrapped tightly in a swaddle.

A literal newborn baby who couldn’t even make a sound like “udda udda.”

No one explained it to me, but I instinctively knew.

“It’s reincarnation!”

Because such a setup was familiar to me, who once squandered my fortune on KakaoPage novels.

Because of that, I quickly grasped the situation.

“Since I reincarnated as a baby, this must be a parenting story.”

“Judging by the luxury of the room, my father is a noble.”

“Probably a duke or even an emperor.”

“You’re a cold northern duke, but warm toward your daughter, I bet.”

Since it was like this anyway, I decided to prepare properly before meeting my father.

Why not prepare to meet my mother?

Usually, in these settings, there is no mother.

And since no one came looking for the real me, it was certain there was no mother.

Anyway, until an adult came, I worked hard.

“Let’s practice not crying even when scared.”

Practiced smiling for the “A child who doesn’t cry when I look at her, amazing” scenario—

“Abba? Bappa? Papa? ...Gongjanmi?”

Worked hard on what to call him for the “Dad confused by familiar nicknames” scene.

With a pounding heart, I waited for my father...

“This is the kid?”

“Yes, Duke.”

...Who appeared was my grandfather.

“Isn’t the dad supposed to be young in parenting stories...?”

A trope variation?

Still, the Duke carried a very intimidating aura as expected.

He asked the attendant who came with him,

“So, the ability has not manifested?”

“Yes.”

“Damn it.”

“What will the young lady’s name be?”

He glanced at me and said carelessly,

“Erilot. Erilot Astra.”

The name sounded strangely familiar.

“Erilot, Erilot, Eri...lot?”

While chewing over the name, a flash of memory came.

There was definitely a character with that name in a novel I read before.

A fantasy novel serialized on a free site.

.

Shortened as Possessed.Villain.Granddaughter.

The story went like this.

I was an ordinary university student in South Korea.

I possessed an extra character in a novel I enjoyed reading.

Despite all the hardships of being an orphan, it turned out I was the granddaughter of the ultimate villain, Duke Astra?!

The Astra family, villains so scary they even pressured the emperor.

I was scared and tried to run away, but ended up becoming attached to the family.

“Since it’s come to this, I have no choice.”

I’ll carefully coax the family members into repentance.

Can I defeat the original female lead who thinks I stole everything from her and change the future?

So, am I that ‘extra who possessed the protagonist’ Erilot?

No, I’m the original female lead’s cousin.

In other words, my role was the villain who pretended to be the original female lead.

A villain destined to die miserably for tormenting the real protagonist...

“Oh, so the person who named me wasn’t my father, but my grandfather.”

Trying hard to stay calm, my heart shattered.

Possessed within a possession story.

Where else does such a messed-up situation exist?

“Also, this novel... was discontinued.”

Yes. It was a failed novel that stopped serialization.

The start wasn’t bad.

Like the saying “familiar flavors taste the sweetest,” many readers got hooked by the cliché.

But due to poor development, everyone dropped off.

The few remaining readers clicked the next episode just to see the villain Erilot suffer.

Maybe the author knew this and tormented Erilot terribly.

“To summarize my future...”

Because I don’t inherit the power my grandfather wants, I am treated like an invisible person.

My father went to war before I was born and died around my age of four.

Without a proper guardian, I am destined to suffer all kinds of abuse from the family.

I turn dark, torment the female lead out of jealousy, and get my throat slit.

The genre of my life was already decided without me knowing.

It was a bleak tragedy.

Three years later, present.

I crawled onto a chair with a gloomy face.

“I still couldn’t return to the original world this time either.”

Yesterday was the day of the lunar eclipse.

I had hoped a lot, thinking it was the last way, but this time also failed.

“Not only didn’t I go back, I stayed up all night.”

Thanks to that, sleepiness overwhelmed me, and I felt like dying.

“No, no.”

I shook my head hard and grabbed a crayon.

I was currently taking classes in the Twelfth Tower where the cadet branch children of the Astra family lived.

Although I was from the main branch, I was born on my grandfather’s bad side and had been living in this tower from birth.

If I were lazy, I’d be completely marked as useless.

Holding the crayon, I looked at the teacher.

Our table, with kids under seven, was currently learning letters.

“Okay, this time let’s try a slightly difficult word: ‘kkamaduk’ (faraway).”

I wrote the word on paper as instructed.

[까마득]

My fine motor skills weren’t developed, so the handwriting was terribly crooked.

“Hmm, good.”

Now I could roughly write in the imperial language.

Thinking that, I suddenly looked around.

I saw the letters the kids sitting nearby wrote.

[개만더]

[꺠앳득]

[너잊ㅈㅇ]

“......”

I quietly covered my paper and added letters carefully.

[깜많듟]

This was a skill I had accumulated over the past three years.

Not too bad, but not too good.

“I can’t stand out.”

Only then could I move freely.

It was because I was free that I could try various ways to return to the original world.

The teacher looked over the kids’ writings and nodded.

“A difficult word, isn’t it? ‘Kkamaduk’ uses the letters ‘wi’ and ‘lodd’ that we learned last time...”

While the lesson was in full swing,

The door opened and a servant hurried in.

“A message from the main estate. We are ordered to gather the heirs at noon tomorrow.”

“Prepare accordingly.”

No wonder it had been noisy for several days—tomorrow was the day to go to the main estate.

“The day has come already.”

The day when the main branch and cadet branch children gathered for an exam.

The exam was very important.

“The hierarchy will be decided by this.”

In the fearsome villainous Astra family, everything was decided by hierarchy.

From allowances, rooms assigned, even future official positions.

So everyone was desperate for the exam.

“Well, kids like me don’t really care.”

Kids who couldn’t even dictate wouldn’t take the exam seriously.

They just showed up to meet the numbers.

But the kids got excited.

“Will we see the main branch? Blizen, Joshua...!”

“I like Balzac best. So cool! The youngest aura user!”

For the kids, the main branch members were like celebrities.

“They don’t know how scary they really are.”

In Possessed.Villain.Granddaughter, Erilot almost died many times because of the main branch.

It was the trigger for originally timid Erilot to turn dark.

While I was thinking this, someone suddenly pushed the chair I was sitting on hard.

“Hey, mutt.”

I turned around to see a skinny boy grinning.

He was the kid who had recently started bullying me.

Since there was a rumor I was despised at the main estate, he wanted to mess with me.

He was clearly an extra.

I roughly guessed what he would say.

“Your mother is a commoner, right?”

“Your mother is a commoner, right?”

“So vulgar.”

“So vulgar.”

Since it was exactly as I expected, I froze.

The skinny boy chuckled and raised his hand.

It was time to press his fingers on my head.

I said “Wait.” and grabbed his index finger, then raised my other arm.

“Teacher, that kid is bullying me!”

Immediately, all the adults’ gazes gathered at once.

The skinny boy was extremely flustered.

Usually, the right move was to grab a skirt and shake with sobbing, but he was caught flat out, so no wonder he was embarrassed.

The teachers immediately approached.

They examined the situation and narrowed their eyes sharply.

“Bullying a classmate? That is very disappointing, Timothy.”

“This will be recorded. Reflect on your actions.”

Timothy got a serious scolding and had to write ten pages of an apology letter.

I sniffled watching the skinny boy write his apology.

I knew from when I was Yoo Hyemin that this was the best way.

“Besides, you think I haven’t done anything in these three years?”

Of course, returning to the original world was the top priority, but just in case, I had prepared a contingency.

“Are you feeling okay?”

The teachers ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) asked with extremely kind expressions.

“Yes.”

“That’s good.”

“You know, Grandpa said if we invest in Pena Trading Company, we make lots of money.”

At that, the teachers’ eyes sparkled as they took out their notebooks.

“Pena Trading Company.”

“Pena Trading Company...!”

For a kid to survive, adult help was essential.

So I captivated the teachers by sharing hot stock tips.

Thankfully, I remembered the novel’s content.

“How can she be this clever?”

“Candy. Would you like some candy?”

“Yes!”

Ah, right.

There was one thing I hadn’t introduced.

When I was Yoo Hyemin, I was a parliamentary aide.

Unfortunately, I served a trashy boss, but I learned exactly three things there:

When your faction shakes, don’t look back, just switch to another faction like a migratory bird.

How to catch opponents’ words to make them look like jerks.

Pretend to be kind to the weak, even kinder to the strong, and make yourself look like the most pitiful person in the world, like a raccoon.

I fully used the skills I learned from that trashy boss and thought,

“This is K-politics, kids.”

One day after totally failing to return to the original world, I resolved.

“Since it’s come to this, I’ll survive no matter what.”

The next day, at noon.

I arrived at the main estate with the cadet branch kids.

The children burst out as soon as they entered the estate.

An eleven-god sculpture occupying the whole wall.

Huge and beautiful stone pillars.

Luxurious banners decorated with gold thread.

An overwhelming spectacle.

“Creepy, though.”

I glanced at strange monsters chained at the gate.

They had fierce eyes and were very scary.

“This is really uncomfortable.”

Suddenly, the child’s feelings surfaced again.

Sometimes I even became a complete child.

“Maybe because I’m not the protagonist, I have a penalty.”

Kids my age were equally scared of the monsters.

I hurried past them and followed the others quickly.

My three-year-old body lacked muscle development, so no matter how hard I ran, I couldn’t keep up with the older kids.

“Oh, I’m going to die.”

I barely followed the kids into the exam hall.

One cadet branch kid who arrived first muttered with a flat expression,

“What, only us here...”

There were no main branch kids who the others had been so excited about.

“That figures.”

Main branch kids are the ‘masters.’

Cadet branch kids are the ‘servants.’

The hierarchy was clear, and it made no sense to hold the exam together.

The cadet kids would be too scared to do well.

“Even if main branch kids get good results, no one would believe it.”

So for me, a main branch kid, to take the exam with cadet kids meant my situation was the worst.

If my father dies next year too...

Just thinking about it sent chills down my spine.

“I absolutely have to get good results.”

Even without the power grandpa wants, I had to prove I was useful to the family.

The older kids seemed happy about that, but the younger ones looked gloomy.

Soon, administrators came in.

“The head of the family has arrived.”

All the kids stood up at once.

The surroundings instantly became silent.

The sound of low heels came from outside.

Then...

“Wow.”

Seeing the man enter, I took a deep breath.

He gave off a terrifying pressure as always.

A black jacket made of beast fur.

A ceremonial dress decorated with all sorts of luxuries.

But more than those, the first thing that caught the eye was his gaze.

A chilling look as if collecting all the world’s corrupt evils.

That man was the villain of this world.

My grandfather, Duke Astra.

“Amazing.”

All the kids, young and older, turned pale.

The administrators looked used to this reaction, showing no emotion.

The children and grandchildren all trembled.

One administrator said,

“We will begin the exam.”

Then others brought a trolley with a framed item.

The administrator held it up and said,

“This is an excerpt from a historical text written in ancient language.”

“...”

“We will give points to those who provide the answer closest to scholars’ interpretations.”

“Extremely difficult.”

Ancient language was an extremely hard script to interpret.

Even now, only a few characters and words had been deciphered.

“To ask children who just started learning their native language to interpret this...”

Little kids had no chance.

Even the older kids looked bewildered.

But the exam began anyway, and we had to do something.

Kids groaned while copying the excerpt on the papers they were given.

“So... this means...”

“Uh, this character is pronounced like this...”

No cadet kid would pass this test.

“Of course, me neither.”

I only finished learning imperial language last month.

I had never even seen ancient letters before.

Still, it seemed better to show some effort than to just stare blankly.

I stood on tiptoe and looked at the excerpt.

Meanwhile, I heard administrators whispering.

“The questions are indeed too difficult.”

“But the main branch kids can manage a few sentences...”

“Well, they are main branch. Ancient language is part of their curriculum.”

No one seemed hopeful.

My grandfather looked coldly at the kids, then stood up.

Apparently, he was going to leave with no results.

At that moment—

“Dragon... sleeping... land...”

I slowly read the excerpt aloud.

Everyone’s attention snapped to me.

Even my grandfather stopped walking and looked.

The administrators’ eyes grew huge.

They hurriedly opened books and started flipping pages fast.

“The interpretation ‘Dragon sleeping land’ is correct.”

“No way. How can such a young child...”

Indeed.

It was unbelievable.

“Why is ancient language Hangul...?”