Thud.

“Here’s the final budget summary for the second-half waterway construction project you requested!”

“Leave it there.”

Thump.

“Here’s the final revised budget for next year’s slum welfare program you asked me to modify!”

“Leave it there.”

Bang!

“Here’s the draft budget for next year’s Imperial Knights operations!”

“Leave it there.”

New stacks of documents piled on top of the thick bundles of papers that already completely covered the wide desk.

While watching this, I mechanically continued working, making corrections with red ink on the document I had been reviewing until just now. I looked up and gazed through the window at the already darkening outside.

Despite nightfall, the streets visible in the distance through the window were filled with bright lights.

The New Year was just a week away. The Empire’s year-end festival, celebrating the end of a difficult year and praying for blessings in the coming one, was starting today.

When everyone else is enjoying a festival, someone has to work their bones off. And usually, the person thinking this thought is that “someone”—just like me.

I couldn’t even remember how many days it had been since I’d last gone home.

Outside, snowflakes had already begun to fall gracefully.

I stared at the people who had come out to celebrate the first day of the year-end festival, strolling through the capital’s center. Then, thinking about my home somewhere in that scenery, I sighed.

Turning my gaze to the mountains of paperwork piled up, I couldn’t help but lament my situation.

“Life is truly sh*t.”

“Life is what?”

Oops. I spoke too loudly.

Looking up at the man sitting in front of a desk similarly buried under mountains of documents, mechanically moving his pen, I smiled brightly as if nothing had happened and said:

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

“Just now, I thought I heard something quite vulgar.”

“Surely not. You must have misheard, Your Highness.”

“Right? There’s no way my one and only aide, Ilena, would say such vulgar things.”

“……”

“But it seems my one and only aide has some free time on her hands.”

“Pardon?”

“Looking out the window, sighing, even chatting like this. Meanwhile, I’m buried in paperwork.”

As he said this with a slight smile, I had to bow my head meekly before my employer and superior, First Prince Ian Ricard.

‘If it weren’t for the original novel, I would have quit this job long ago!’

***

Ilena Weiana.

The eldest daughter of the Weiana Count family.

This was the name and status of my second life. Second life, you ask?

Anyone who heard this might think I was crazy, but until a year ago, I wasn’t living in this Ricard Empire but was a civil servant in South Korea.

The joy of securing a stable job was short-lived. Regular work hours, on-time departure, guaranteed holidays and retirement were just dreams.

In reality, overtime beyond the maximum allowed limit was standard, not to mention unpaid night work.

After various taxes were deducted from my salary paid with taxpayers’ money, I became an ordinary civil servant crying out, “I just want to be paid fairly for my work.”

My only healing in this harsh life was reading romance fantasy novels while lying in bed after work.

It was the only hobby I’d maintained since high school, and I spent money generously on it.

I read so many that I eagerly counted the days until new releases, becoming a heavy reader.

I covered all genres indiscriminately—healing stories, child-raising stories, knight stories, etc.—but I avoided depressing stories.

Reality was depressing enough.

Never did I dream that I, who had only seen it in novels, would actually experience “waking up one day to find myself transmigrated into the body of a protagonist or extra.” And ever since learning my name was Ilena Weiana, I’ve been thinking:

‘My life is truly ruined.’

This was because overnight I had transmigrated into a depressing novel titled «We Were Nothing But Substitutes». And it was the first novel I encountered before becoming a heavy romance fantasy reader.

«We Were Nothing But Substitutes» was the only novel I had DNFed¹T/N: did not finish without seeing its conclusion during my long reading life.

Naturally, to survive in the original story, I needed to avoid the male and female leads.

The male lead of the original story, Second Prince Callian Ricard, born of the First Imperial Consort, was in a position where he could never succeed to the throne, overshadowed by First Prince Ian Ricard, the Crown Prince born of the Empress. But one day, Crown Prince Ian suddenly disappeared with the reason that he “lost interest in the Imperial throne,” and Callian inevitably took the position of Crown Prince.

From childhood, Callian had been constantly compared to Crown Prince Ian by the Empress, who played the role of the villainess in the original story, and was severely brainwashed and abused with the notion that he was merely a substitute for Crown Prince Ian in case of emergency. After Ian disappeared, ironically, Callian’s unresolved obsession turned toward Lady Fleur, who was originally Crown Prince Ian’s fiancée.

‘I was nothing but a substitute for my brother. So now that my brother has disappeared and the substitute has become the real thing, I should also have you, who should have belonged to my brother.’

‘You’re just as pitiful as I am, choosing to abandon your own worth and living the life of a substitute.’

‘If that serves as revenge against the Empress who not only took my mother’s life but also forced me to live my entire life as a substitute for the Crown Prince, I’ll gladly do it.’

Like Callian who went mad from abuse and brainwashing, Fleur had been rigorously educated from birth with the sole purpose of becoming the Crown Princess.

These two insane protagonists, who had never once lived according to their own will, began a bloody revenge against the Empire that had oppressed them after gaining power.

Their goal was the destruction of the Empire that had made them so miserable.

Despite inheriting the Crown Prince position, Callian staged a rebellion, brutally murdering the Emperor and Empress, and cruelly purging the nobility. After sitting on the blood-soaked throne, he launched a war of conquest, plunging the peaceful Empire into the terror of conflict where death bloomed—this was the last part of the original story that I had read.

I couldn’t understand the narrative of the insane male and female leads, and it was too heavy and desperate, so I eventually dropped the novel.

Among these characters, Ilena Weiana, whom I had transmigrated into, was the eldest daughter of the long-established Weiana Count family and Callian’s aide.

In the original story, Ilena continued working as Callian’s aide after he became Crown Prince, but when she realized Callian was not in his right mind and tried to escape, she became the first extra to die.

The existence that became the catalyst awakening the madness sleeping within the male lead Callian by being the first to die at his hands—that was me.

My preference had clearly been for cute, soft healing stories or child-raising stories, or power fantasies with strong female leads who efficiently solved problems. If I had to transmigrate, I should have ended up in one of those novels! Instead, I transmigrated into a depressing novel that I had dropped!

After somewhat adapting to Ilena’s body, I naturally fell into deep contemplation about how to twist the original fate of dying at Callian’s hands and triggering his madness.

In these transmigration stories, it was natural to twist the original plot to save one’s life.

Of course, if the genre of the novel I had transmigrated into had been a soft romance fantasy, what needed saving would have been the male lead or the family rather than my life, but now I had entered a depressing novel that I had dropped, and having read the original so long ago, I couldn’t remember any major events from it to use—that was the problem.

Then I suddenly realized that all the misfortune in this novel began after Crown Prince Ian disappeared.

If Ian hadn’t suddenly abandoned his position as Crown Prince and fled the palace in search of happiness, Callian would never have become Crown Prince, and Fleur wouldn’t have been strategically tied to such a Callian, right? Then perhaps I could survive too?

After thinking this through, my goal became solely to prevent Ian’s unexpected escape. And like other romance fantasy protagonists who had transmigrated into novels, I made a bold choice to change my fate.

«Looking For: First Aide for the Crown Prince’s Office»

Although that bold choice was nothing more than becoming Ian’s aide rather than Callian’s.

‘Wait for me, Crown Prince! I’ll make sure you never escape from the original story!’

When the interview notice from the Crown Prince’s palace arrived in less than a week, I was so happy that I cheered, believing I could finally survive this insane original story.

Looking back now, I wonder why Ian, the First Prince born of the Empress with overflowing legitimacy and destined to become the Emperor of the super-powerful Ricard Empire just by staying put, suddenly threw away his Crown Prince position and fled;

“Please come in, Miss Ilena.”

Why there wasn’t a single aide, let alone an administrator, in the Crown Prince’s office when I went for the interview, so Crown Prince Ian himself conducted the interview;

“Actually, this interview is just a formality, and I wish to discuss your work conditions, so please don’t be nervous.”

Why he mentioned my acceptance before the interview even began, his hands trembling anxiously;

“These are the conditions I would like to offer Miss Ilena.”

«1. Basic monthly salary of 1000 gold with an additional 50 gold for maintaining dignity.»

Why the salary was higher than that of most mid-level Imperial palace officials and the basic salary for a novice aide;

«2. No time limit on overtime allowance.»

Why there was no time limit on overtime allowance;

«3. Double compensation per hour for extended work.»

Why extended work compensation was applied at double the rate;

«4. Work hours from 8 AM to 6 PM. 2 hours provided for lunch and rest periods, resulting in 8 actual working hours.»

Why he emphasized 8 actual working hours when it didn’t need to be emphasized;

«5. Provision of a mansion near the Imperial Palace with a resident maid. Provision of a commuting carriage.»

Why a mansion in the Imperial Palace vicinity—an incredibly expensive prime location—as well as a resident maid and commuting carriage were provided;

«6. Provision of three meals a day or meal allowance.»

Why three meals a day or meal allowance were provided when work hours were from 8 AM to 6 PM;

«7. Separate retirement allowance after working for more than 1 year.»

And why retirement allowance, a concept almost non-existent in this novel’s world, was written down. And why it specifically had the prerequisite condition of more than 1 year.

“That’s about it. What do you think, Miss Ilena?”

Although I had been a civil servant in my past life, here I was a 20-year-old job seeker who had just graduated from the academy and entered the job market. Not knowing any better at the time, my eyes widened at such generous treatment.

In this world where the concept of an employment contract didn’t exist, these were exceptionally good conditions. So I missed the fact that nowhere was there any mention of a guaranteed vacation—a right that should naturally be included for any employee.

At that time, I was only thinking about preventing Ian from leaving the original story to preserve my life, so without hesitation, I signed my name, Ilena Weiana, in neat block letters.

And now I think:

“Ilena?”

“Yes… Yes! I wasn’t dozing off, Your Highness!”

“If you’re sleepy, go to the duty room and get some sleep. It’s only 1 AM.”

“……”

“What would you like for breakfast tomorrow… no, this morning?”

Perhaps the reason Crown Prince Ian fled in the original story, and why Callian, who succeeded him, was consumed by madness, wasn’t for any other reason but because they went mad from excessive workload.