I lived an ordinary life and died an ordinary death.

And of all things, I possessed the body of Alexa, the heroine of the novel I had been reading. That was three months ago.

“My lady, it’s cold out. Please put on your fur before you go. Another fever would be terrible.”

Matilda, her lady’s maid, helped her into a thick fur coat. Matilda was Alexa’s attendant, and later, when Alexa entered the imperial palace, she would follow and become head lady’s maid.

“It snowed yesterday, so the paths are slippery. Please keep your walk to the inner courtyard.”

The reason Matilda fussed over Alexa so much was because, three months ago, Alexa had fallen into a fever so severe that her life had hung in the balance.

“Where… am I…?”

At first, there had been no room to even notice that she had become Alexa. All that had been vivid was the headlights bearing down on her, and then she had been thrown, as if out of nowhere, into a strange and elegant space.

“It seems that Lady Alexa, having suffered such a high fever, has lost a portion of her memories.”

Only at the physician’s words had she been able to grasp that she had become Alexa. She could be certain of it, even, since it was a novel she had been reading right up until the moment of her death.

“My lady, please don’t worry about a thing. Memories can come back. I truly thought you were going to…”

Matilda had burst into tears and pulled Alexa into her arms.

After that, she, who had become Alexa, learned from Matilda what were supposedly her lost memories. By the time three months had passed, Alexa had managed to carry herself much as she once had.

Yet Matilda’s overprotectiveness did not let up. Part of it was genuine worry for Alexa, but part of it was also the fact that Alexa had already been designated the future empress.

“The fact that there was ever anything wrong with Alexa must not leave this house.”

Duke Taira said it with grave authority.

He had long wanted to seize power within the imperial palace, but unfortunately he had no daughter of his own. So he had taken Alexa from the Blanc marquisate, which served under him, and adopted her as his daughter. She was, in every sense, a daughter adopted for the sole purpose of making her empress.

“The Empress Dowager will soon move to arrange the imperial marriage, so there must be not even the slightest hint of trouble.”

The current Empress Dowager was Duke Taira’s sister. The Taira ducal house had adopted Alexa because it could not afford to lose its standing as the maternal relative faction.

Of course, adoption for the sake of political marriage was not unheard of among noble families.

But Alexa’s married life was unhappy. The young emperor Enoch, twenty-five years of age, despised the maternal relative faction, and so he never spared so much as a glance for Empress Alexa, who had been fashioned for that very faction’s benefit.

“Between us, there is only duty.”

On their wedding night, Alexa had to hear her cold husband’s words cut into her like a blade.

“Furthermore, you have no rights whatsoever.”

Enoch never laid a finger on Alexa.

“Never forget those two things.”

That was how the wedding night ended.

And in the years that followed, nothing between them changed. Enoch sought Alexa out only when her presence as empress was required, and he never once offered her even the smallest scrap of his attention.

“It has been ten years since the imperial marriage, yet there is still no news from the Empress’s chambers.”

“For the sake of the imperial succession, Your Majesty must depose the Empress.”

“The matter of an heir can no longer be overlooked. If you truly cannot bring yourself to depose her, then by the customs of old, you must take a secondary consort.”

Ten years of living as strangers.

The fault was not hers alone, yet every arrow of blame flew straight at Alexa. She had already been without a foothold in the imperial palace, living quietly within the Empress’s quarters, and now she was being pushed closer and closer to the edge.

Even so, Enoch kept his silence and did not protect her. As he had said, Alexa had no rights. That was simply how it was.

“Please depose me.”

In the end, Alexa came to wish for her own removal.

“I told you that you have a duty.”

Enoch would not grant her that request. Even after ten years, his face remained as cold as ever.

More years passed. By then, Alexa had already been worn down to nothing.

The entire country was calling for her deposition for failing to bear a child, and wearing the crown of empress left her with nothing but pain.

‘Of all things, even in possession, to end up in a role like this…’

She could not remember what her name had been in her former life, nor what she had done.

But she remembered reading this book. She hadn’t finished it, yet she knew enough: that Alexa would wither away and meet a lonely death, and that a new empress named Claire would take her place.

‘But I can’t change the course of things at this point.’

The preparations for the imperial marriage had already begun.

As Enoch’s famous words went, the current Alexa had only duty and no rights. That meant the fate of becoming empress was inescapable.

‘Even so, I can’t spend ten years slowly withering away.’

She didn’t know how or why she had come to possess Alexa. But one thing was certain: it was not to repeat the same suffering.

“My lady, the Duke is asking for you. Are… are you all right?”

When Alexa had first risen after overcoming the fever, she had forgotten even the most basic etiquette. Fortunately, through Matilda’s devoted care, she had spent the past three months learning everything she needed to know.

“I’m fine.”

Alexa took hold of her skirt with graceful fingers and turned. She was heading toward the Duke’s study.

* * *

“I greet my father.”

As Alexa paid her respects to the Duke, Archer Taira gave a satisfied nod.

“You show no sign of illness anymore.”

“Yes, thanks to everyone’s care.”

Archer’s gaze settled on Alexa.

Her shimmering platinum hair, eyes as blue as a lake, and refined features were pure and elegant. It was one of the reasons Alexa had been chosen from among many candidates.

“For a time, I feared that sudden fever would be the end of things, but seeing you recovered puts my mind at ease.”

The Duke was the current Empress Dowager’s elder brother. In other words, the Taira ducal house had been the maternal relative faction since the previous generation.

Alexa was the adopted daughter he had taken in because he could not bear to relinquish that power. A truly relentless hunger for it.

“The imperial marriage preparations will proceed in the traditional manner, under the care of the Empress Dowager, after you have entered the palace.”

Come to think of it, she seemed to recall something like that at the beginning.

“If you wish, I will arrange for you to see your birth parents one last time.”

“That’s all right.”

Alexa’s birth parents had been blinded by the estate and money the Duke had offered them and had let their own daughter go. There would be little point in meeting them now.

“A composed attitude. Yes, that is precisely the bearing of an empress.”

Archer reaffirmed to himself that his choice had been the right one.

Alexa was barely twenty, yet she gave off a strangely mature air. And having overcome such a terrible illness, he felt certain she could endure whatever hardships awaited her in the imperial palace.

“Your entry into the palace has been set for ten days from now.”

As expected, this course of events could not be changed.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

Well, she had read a fair portion of the original work. And over the past three months, she had tried various things, only to realize that the broad current of events would not shift.

“From this point on, erase the name Blanc entirely. You are my daughter, Alexa Taira, and you will become the empress of this Dias Empire.”

She felt sorry for the original Alexa, but she could understand why Enoch had kept his distance from her.

The previous generation had seen a daughter of the Tairas made empress and elevated to Empress Dowager, and now, through adoption no less, the Taira name was being placed on the empress’s seat once more. It was a remarkable obsession.

“Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

If the course of events could not be changed, then for now there was nothing to do but go along with it.

“Marquis Blanc raised a truly fine daughter.”

The empress the Duke wanted was someone who would be loyal to the current Empress Dowager and the Taira family, and who would solidify the standing of the maternal relative faction.

“But from now on, you are a daughter of the Tairas until the day you die.”

That meant: even after the imperial marriage, be not a woman of Dias, but a daughter of the Tairas.

No wonder the emperor’s heart had grown cold.

To him, Alexa must have appeared as nothing more than the embodiment of the maternal relative faction’s relentless ambition, and their instrument.

“Yes. I understand.”

Her docile, doll-like manner was more than enough to satisfy the Duke.

“Go to my wife. She is busy rushing your preparations for the palace.”

“Yes.”

Alexa paid her respects and left the Duke’s study. Now it was time to go to the Duchess’s chambers.

Fortunately, the Duchess was a warm-hearted woman.

“Alexa, why are you dressed so lightly in this cold?”

Violet looked at Alexa, who was already wearing a fur coat, and still worried she might catch another fever.

“I’m perfectly fine.”

Violet took both of Alexa’s hands firmly in hers and led her toward the sofa.

“You’ll have heard from the Duke, but your entry into the palace has been set for ten days from now.”

“Yes…”

“I’ll have your trousseau prepared perfectly, so don’t you worry about a thing.”

That perfect trousseau had worn Enoch’s patience thin. The more flawless it was, the more it revealed the wealth and power of the Taira ducal house, blinded as it was by its hunger for influence.

But there was no way to say any of that to the Duchess now.