VOLUME ONE: PROLOGUE

The darkness suffocated me—cold, endless like the very life was being drained from my soul. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. My body was trapped, but my mind? It was wide awake.

I remembered everything.

The last thing I felt was the searing pain of a blade sinking into my chest. Blood. Gasping for air, struggling to survive, until everything went black.

And then... nothing. A vast, consuming void.

I had been Hyewol, a nineteen-year-old university student in Korea—ordinary, invisible, and alone. The weight of tragedy had defined my life. I had a twin brother, Jinwol. We were inseparable until he was taken from me in an instant. A cruel, unexpected fire stole him from my side when we were just sixteen. The doctors couldn’t save him. And neither could I.

I remember my father’s cold stare as he blamed me for his death. "It should have been you."

That guilt shattered me. He rejected me, cast me aside as the unwanted survivor, the reminder of what he had lost. My mother withdrew into grief. My life became a hollow echo of what it once was—grief and loneliness, punctuated only by the brief solace I found in books.

It was one of those stories that would change my life forever.

A Webnovel, a tale of a ruthless Emperor and his children, each vying for the throne—where only the strongest survived. I read it with a detached fascination, particularly the tragic tale of Rubia Jane Easlathia, the only daughter of the Emperor. A princess bound by blood and fate, destined to die young, her life nothing more than a stepping stone for her siblings.

I remember thinking how hopeless, how tragic her life was. Little did I know—her fate would become mine.

I had been pulled into that very world. An Empire of power, blood, and betrayal. I had not just died—I had reincarnated as Princess Rubia Jane Easlathia, the helpless, doomed child in an empire that saw her life as expendable.

But no. I wouldn’t follow her path.

I will rewrite the story.

In this new life, I was trapped in a tiny, fragile body, but my mind was sharp. The horrors I had faced in my past life—the loss of Jinwol, the coldness of my father, the crushing weight of grief—came rushing back. I had been powerless before, but now, I had a second chance.

The Emperor—the man behind Rubia's death—is a tyrant. A monster. A heartless being who will not hesitate to kill his own blood. His many wives are just equally as evil. And his children? They would fight over each other, destroy one another, and try to eliminate me, all to sit on top of a bloody throne.

But I would not be their pawn. I would rise, I would survive, and I would rewrite my fate. Even if it meant becoming the villainess. Even if it meant stepping over anyone who dared to stand in my way. The throne that they all so desperately sought? It would be mine.

I had been given a second chance at life, and I would take it. I refuse to live my second life as my first. I will not be afraid of my father, and most importantly I will save my twin brother in this life. Brought back from the dead--we both were given a second chance. 

This time, the story would be mine.

The end of one life. The beginning of another. And when I rise from the ashes of my past, no one would dare to cast me aside again.

I would shape this world. And it would bend to my will.

The stage is set. The players are in motion. And soon, everyone will learn that the villainess isn’t the one to be feared—it’s the one who rises from the ashes, rewriting the rules of the game.

This is my second chance.

And I’m taking it.