I Refuse To Be A Character In A Novel - Chapter 1

Author – Cherry_Blossom

“….dam”

“…Madam”

When she didn’t respond, Rose’s hand carefully tapped her shoulder.

“Madam”

“Oh! What is it?”

‘Rose, was it?’

Rose was the one to attend the Duchess when her personal maid, Mielle, would be running her errands.

“The master is waiting for you.”

‘The master. The Grand Duke of Argentine …My husband.’

How did this happen?

I’m back!

After 8 long years, I’m actually back in my original body.

Was it only a dream after all? I can’t even remember correctly.

I, Erna Tersia Heissentein, now Erna Argentine, have always lived a sheltered, happy life.

In the winter of my 16th year, I got terribly sick.

It wasn’t the first time that would happen, but it felt ominously different.

Very few people in this world were born with mana, and I was one of them.

My mana wasn’t strong enough for me to become a wizard or a knight, but it was sufficient to perform a spell by myself.

The thought of that alone made me enthusiastic.

If only my body could withstand it.

Unfortunately, my frail body only kept on getting weaker as my mana grew.

It was a rare condition called mana intolerance.

When I turned 13, the side effects subsided and my health gradually got better.

I believed that my body had finally accepted the mana flowing in it and that I could finally use it, so I slowly started learning how to use my ability.

I succeeded on my very first attempt to make a magic circle, or at least I thought I did.

The light that ignited from the symbols of the circle was blindingly beautiful to call it a failure, but my body didn’t tolerate it.

Within seconds, my entire body felt as if it were on fire.

Unable to faint nor stay fully conscious, I could only groan in pain.

Doctors and priests alike were in and out of the mansion, attempting to control the mana that had become unstable in my body.

The fever persisted for days as my whole body ached with pain and I finally lost consciousness.

The last thing I saw was my mother’s crying face.

‘I shouldn’t have done that’, but it was too late.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in a different world.

The Doctors said that I had been in a car accident.

The fear that I felt was greater than the pain that was all over my body.

I missed my mother and brothers, but I had no way to return.

As time passed, I learnt to adjust to my life as Charlotte, ignoring the constant fear that ate at me.

It was fear that I was insane, fear that Erna wasn’t real, and it was all a fairy-tale I made up in order to escape the lonely life of Charlotte.

Nonetheless, Charlotte’s world had a lot of opportunities, and I fully used them.

I worked hard and graduated from one of the best colleges in Berlin, and immediately got employed as a teacher.

My life was stable.

But a few weeks ago, I somehow returned back to my original world.

The world that turned out to be a novel, where I was the second male lead’s mother who died in childbirth when he was 8 years old.

『8 months pregnant, The Duchess went into an early labor.

The doctors agreed that unless she was able to deliver the baby by that night, her life as well as the child’s, would be at risk.

However, due to complications, she ended up dying along with her unborn child.』

I never dwelled on the fact that the novel had a similar world setting to my original world, after all, there were a lot of novels of the same genre.

I only came to realize it after returning to my body.

I was that Erna.

『The Duchess was frail and sickly, and the only reason she had a second child was to tighten the shackles around her husband, who was barely ever home.』

I felt nauseous, recalling the description.

Other than what was mentioned in the novel, my memories were hazy and fragmented, but after piecing them together,

I could think that Charlotte was in my body while I was in hers.

That was the only way to explain the fact that my body had been alive and moving for the last 8 years.

“…Madam, is something wrong?”

I swapped bodies with another person for 8 years and came back to my original body, who apparently is a character in a novel.

Yes, a lot of things are wrong.

“No, I’ll be down in a bit.”

Rose quietly left, leaving a formal greeting.

✰✰✰✰✰

“What took you so long?”

Asked Zachary as soon as she entered the dining room.

It was a voice that sounded neither curious nor cold.

Including his wife, everyone around the Duke knew him to be blunt and polite, but no one could truly tell what goes on his mind.

A man who maintained the same attitude regardless of the situation and the person he was interacting with.

“You wouldn’t want me to come down half dressed, would you?”

Zachary lifted his eyes at his wife’s sarcastic tone.

She walked into the dinning room wearing a carefree smile as if she hadn’t kept them waiting for what came close to an hour.

Ever since she returned to her body, for a few weeks now, Erna had been trying to avoid the Duke.

Fortunately, the only time they had to see each other was during dinner.

Even though Erna tried to imitate Charlotte’s behavior, She still feared that the Duke would notice that something was different.

Contrary to her expectations, Zachary didn’t show any signs of suspicion, possibly because he was away for too long, or maybe he just didn’t care. Either way, Erna was relieved to be free of concern.

Somewhere in her heart she bore a little resentment towards the husband who didn’t even realize his wife was no longer the same person.

‘I don’t want to live the kind of life Charlotte lived in my body nor the ending Erna met in the novel.’

She still did him the bare minimum of courtesy, because no matter the reason, he was now her husband.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t intend to make you wait.”

Said Erna in a voice that didn’t sound the least apologetic, and without waiting for an answer, she then gave Jonas a kiss on his cheek from behind his chair, before moving to sit on hers.

Zachary sighed as he signaled for the servants to serve their dinner.

He didn’t start eating until she came down, even though it was past time.