Chapter 2

“Are you saying I can stop now?”

“That’s the finished product!”

“The finished product?”

“…Probably!”

At Erin’s words, Ash reflexively looked back at the beaker. Inside the glass, a sticky pink liquid swirled.

Ash’s eyes held a strange look as he watched the small vortex forming in the potion.

“This is the finished product?”

“Yes!”

“The very one Duke Aston requested?”

“That’s right! That’s it!”

Erin nodded vigorously.

‘Finally!’

The long, arduous experiment was over.

‘It really was long.’

As she recalled the past, Erin felt tears prick her eyes. Her mind automatically drifted to the moment she first realized she had reincarnated.

‘Haah. Of all things.’

Several years ago—

Just before graduating top of her alchemy department, Erin had been climbing a ladder in the academy library, searching for materials for the Imperial Certified Alchemist exam.

She’d been struggling to reach something high up when the ladder suddenly slipped. Erin fell backward, hitting her head on the bookshelf and crashing to the floor.

She thought she was surely dead, having fallen from such a height, but surprisingly—

Along with a splitting headache, the memories of her previous life returned.

And then she realized.

‘…Isn’t reincarnating into a 19+ tragedy novel a bit cliché?’

What kind of world she’d ended up in.

Her last memory from her previous life was succumbing to overtime stress, seeking out spicy food, and eventually reading a spicy, tragic romance novel.

The pharmaceutical company Erin worked for in her previous life was a major corporation, but had a reputation for grinding up researchers.

That night, after another all-nighter, she’d read a very famous, dramatic, and spicy 19+ novel—this novel, in fact—on her commute home…

‘Got hit by a truck… That’s cliché too.’

She wasn’t even that surprised. Stories about dying in an accident and reincarnating into the novel you were reading were so common.

Besides, even if this novel was a famous 19+ tragedy—

‘I’m just a background character, so I should be fine…’

Erin Leshamur, daughter of Baron Leshamur. Top of the academy’s alchemy department, and a former pharmaceutical researcher in her previous life…

She was a complete background character, not even mentioned by name in the original story.

‘This is definitely the academy the heroine attends, though.’

In the story, the poor commoner heroine studies hard and enters the Imperial Academy as a scholarship student.

The academy, which supposedly recruited talent regardless of class, was actually infamous for behind-the-scenes power struggles and the nobles’ politics and mischief.

Here, the heroine meets the cruel Crown Prince male lead, and after a series of events, they become entangled in a love-hate relationship.

The heroine, after building up love and hatred with the Crown Prince at the academy, is eventually forcibly violated by him and becomes a broken flower—this was the main plot.

No matter how much Erin recalled the original’s notorious sadistic and expl*cit content, her own name never appeared. In fact—

‘They’re even in a different department and building.’

Erin wasn’t even a student in the magic or swordsmanship department where the protagonists clashed. She was just the top scholarship student in the alchemy department, which was the safest route to a stable job after graduation.

She’d planned to graduate with honors, become an Imperial Certified Alchemist, receive grants and research funds, and make money—especially since she was the eldest daughter of a debt-ridden family.

In that situation, remembering her previous life as a pharmaceutical researcher made Erin feel invincible.

If she revived her experiences and memories, she could reference modern medicines and become a pioneer by creating all sorts of potions!

All that remained was to work herself to the bone, pay off her family’s debts, and gain freedom.

‘Good. I’ll just live quietly.’

She didn’t mind being insignificant in the original story. In fact, she was glad not to have anything to worry about.

‘If I’d been the heroine or the villainess, I’d have been wracking my brain trying to survive.’

Having reassured herself, she resolved to live quietly as a mere extra.

‘Danger!’

The day after she realized her reincarnation—

Erin, late for her Imperial Certified Alchemist exam, was running without looking ahead when a sudden hand startled her. Someone shouted “danger!” and pushed her aside.

Bang!

A loud crash followed. Erin quickly grasped the situation.

She’d carelessly crossed the street and nearly been hit by a carriage, but someone saved her and was hit instead.

That someone was a small girl.

‘Hey! Are you okay?’

‘Are you hurt?’

‘You’re the one who got hit! There’s blood! Your leg is bleeding!’

Fortunately, the carriage wasn’t going fast, so the girl wasn’t badly hurt. Up close, she was stunningly beautiful, delicate, and pitiful-looking, and Erin was momentarily mesmerized.

‘What’s all this commotion?’

Even the boy who got out of the carriage looked excessively beautiful, as if annoyed. Erin, dazed, heard the coachman’s voice.

‘Your Highness the Crown Prince, um…’

‘What? This was the Crown Prince’s carriage…?’

Erin was appalled.

‘…So I’m that kind of extra!’

The character who nearly gets run over and is saved by the heroine, only to utter a single line—“Are you okay?”—and then disappears, unnamed, from the story.

…So insignificant, yet the one who brings the heroine and male lead together!

Right after Erin realized her role—

Between the heroine and male lead, sparks were clearly flying.

Erin clamped her mouth shut, feeling guilty. She already knew the endless suffering that awaited the fairy-like heroine.

‘I can’t exactly say, “Don’t meet that man!”’

Erin was about to graduate and leave the academy, while the heroine was just arriving, entering the dormitory.

In short, there was no further connection between them.

‘…Get on. It’s a hassle, but I’ll have to show you to the palace anyway.’

‘Your Highness, I…’

‘I said get on.’

‘Uh, uh? Wait, just a minute!’

While Erin fretted and stomped her feet, the male lead had already taken the heroine away in his carriage. Erin couldn’t do a thing.

‘Wow. What do I do!’

She tried to reassure herself that things would follow the original plot and she needn’t worry…

But meeting the heroine in person was different. The girl who had saved her was a living, breathing person, a fairy-like girl who’d bled in Erin’s place.

That day, Erin was so distracted by the heroine that she ruined her alchemist exam.

What filled her mind wasn’t the alchemy symbols and formulas she’d memorized, but the dramatic, tragic route awaiting the heroine in the story.

After recalling the entire ending of the original, Erin left the exam hall, clutching her head and muttering.

‘…This is all because she didn’t use contraception.’

There was a reason for such a conclusion.

The heroine, who started off in a forced relationship and then fell for the male lead’s charms, eventually experienced unwanted pregnancy and childbirth—classic for a tragic romance heroine.

And in the process…

‘Her body and mind become so weak she dies.’

Having spent all her strength on the stress of unwanted pregnancy, she exhausted herself during childbirth.

To make matters worse, the male lead only learned about the pregnancy late.

When the heroine hinted at having his child, he replied, “A child with you? Of course I’d get rid of it.” So she ran away.

Tragic romance male leads always said things they didn’t mean.

‘He’ll regret it terribly later anyway.’

Afterward, the male lead desperately tries to find the heroine, only to discover her corpse, driving him mad.

Later, as Emperor, he keeps only women who resemble the heroine, but ends up k*lling them all and becoming a tyrant, finally executed at the guillotine, while the Crown Prince’s aide bitterly reminisces about their tragic love—the end of the original.

‘…If only she’d used contraception!’

Then the heroine wouldn’t have suffered unwanted pregnancy or half the tragedy. No dead lookalikes, no tyrant.

The male lead would realize his love as soon as the heroine ran away, so she didn’t even need to get pregnant—just hinting at it would have sufficed.

‘Should I just buy her some birth control pills?’

But the world’s contraceptives were unreliable. Even the expensive ones were hit-or-miss. The so-called condoms were easily infected animal intestines.

Unless there was a major breakthrough in the next few years, birth control would be useless…

‘…Should I try?’

Muttering to herself, Erin felt maybe she could do it.

She had the memories of a pharmaceutical researcher.

And as a top student in alchemy, with a bit more effort, she felt she could develop a perfect contraceptive.

‘…There’s definitely demand.’

This was a 19+ tragic romance world.

A place where women suffered unwanted pregnancies and died trying to abort in unsanitary ways—on the streets, even among high-society ladies.

And medicine, especially anything related to pregnancy and childbirth, was uniquely backward. Maybe it was designed that way for the “pregnancy escape” storyline.