‘Rich and…… no, couldn’t I transmigrate into a female lead who at least lives in a warm house?! Why didn’t I read child-rearing stories and read this kind of dark romance story? Isn’t this too much for a result based on taste?’

It was infuriating to think about again. She was lamenting her completely ruined transmigration while wearing an old blanket that had almost lost its warming ability.

“The imperial palace…… an invitation from the imperial palace has arrived!”

“What?! What invitation?”

“A grand banquet to commemorate the empire’s founding day! All nobles with titles must attend……”

Lecia, the only remaining maid in this mansion, came trembling into the mansion holding an invitation.

The Enchester couple, who were actually qualified to attend the banquet, had a lukewarm reaction. As their family fortunes declined, they had completely cut ties with high society and kept quiet about their poverty, let alone attending banquets.

‘If it’s the empire’s founding day commemoration banquet…… the protagonist Felix or the original villain, Kervic, will appear. They’re princes after all.’

To avoid the burning execution ending, she mustn’t get involved with them. She knew this clearly, but…… the invitation Lecia delivered to her looked like her only hope.

— Grumble

Her stomach rumbled as if keeping time with her opinion.

‘Ha, I’m hungry…… I haven’t eaten anything proper here except watery soup without ingredients.’

As she clutched her empty stomach, survival instincts began to surge.

She raised her head. The scene before her eyes was miserable even on second look. The baron couple covered together with a large cloth were skin and bones, and their eyes were sunken. The family’s only maid, Lecia, had blue fingertips as if she had frostbite.

— Whoooosh

The sharp winter wind swept through the mansion once. Everyone’s bodies shrank greatly. The light of the shabby brazier gradually lost its vitality.

“The brazier…… the fire……!!”

“If this fire goes out, our family will be finished before we can even get through tonight…… quickly revive the embers, Lecia!”

“But, but there’s not enough firewood, master.”

“That thing in your hand! It’s paper so it should burn well.”

“What? This is an invitation to a ball. Besides, it’s from the imperial palace so I can’t just burn it……”

At Lecia’s words, Robert Enchester’s mouth quickly shut.

As if recalling the great ancestor—Fort Enchester’s family motto that they should bow down and die toward the imperial palace even if they freeze to death, he cleared his throat and muttered.

“Ahem, we can’t carelessly burn something from the imperial palace.”

“If we attend the banquet instead, our backs would be warm and we’d solve the food problem too……”

At Lecia’s muttering, the couple jumped up saying it was a good idea, but only briefly.

“Still, how could we attend a ball……”

Perhaps intimidated by their unseemly appearance that couldn’t be called noble, the couple waved their hands dismissively.

“But I can’t live like this!!”

Finally, she shouted and jumped up from her seat. The baron couple were momentarily flustered by her sudden action, but they seemed to think she still wasn’t in her right mind.

“Child, does your head still hurt?”

“My mind is perfectly fine. I just thought I really can’t live like this!”

She glared at the drafty window. If it was uncomfortable, it had to be changed. If she couldn’t reverse her transmigration, she had to at least do what she could do now. That was Lee Su-jeong’s nature itself. Passion, effort! With just these two things, anything can be solved!

‘I can’t keep living only in front of the brazier like this.’

She retraced the romance fantasy novels she had read. Ways to survive in this world. Marry a promising noble or work from the bottom up to become an overpowered female lead.

The fallen family’s honor or wealth…… no, she didn’t hope for much. She knew the content of 「The Villainess Defiles the Sun」 well. And why Marina meets a brutal death ending too. If she didn’t want to take that route, she just had to make completely different choices and actions from the original Marina.

‘Honestly, wouldn’t it work if I just don’t move according to the original?’

She’d starve or freeze to death if she stayed still anyway. Rather than living with her back broken between two princes, wouldn’t it work to catch the eye of neutral nobles! It was a precious life she gained again after dying by drowning in the first place.

‘Right! Whether I marry or enter another family to work as a maid, there are many ways. For now, let’s somehow build up the family to a normal level.’

Was it thanks to reading the original diligently? She could vaguely remember the name of one neutral noble family not involved with the two princes.

‘I think it was the Marquis Schradin family…… First, I need to go to the banquet and look for people who might help me. And I need to figure out what point I transmigrated into……’

Finding a means of livelihood to escape poverty was the top priority. But to avoid the original content, she also needed to figure out what point in time she was in.

Shivering from cold, she finally decided to enter the tiger’s den with her own feet.

“I’ll attend the banquet as our representative.”

At her words, the Enchester couple’s immediate reaction was cold.

“Marina, what would you do there? You’re still not feeling well.”

“Right. Even if we go, we’ll just become a laughingstock, so stay quietly at home.”

“But at this rate, we’ll really become fallen nobles!”

Heated by the pessimistic attitude of the couple, she clenched her fists.

“Ah, Miss…… We’re already no different from fallen nobles……”

Lecia muttered from the side, then shut her mouth upon seeing her fiery gaze. She too had sensed it. The fact that she had to step forward to escape this wretched situation!

“Nothing will be solved by staying quietly at home like this. I’ll go to the banquet and at least eavesdrop. What we should eat to live, how we should earn money!”

Surprised by her fervent will, Baroness Enchester made a troubled expression for a moment, then opened her mouth as if she had decided something.

“Marina, if that’s truly your will……”

The baroness went into the room with Lecia. After a while, the baroness came out carrying an armful of dress. Tears were welling up in the baroness’s eyes as she held the dress.

“Marina. This is my most precious dress that I brought when I got married.”

“No, that dress has been here all this time……? If we sold the decorations attached to it, we wouldn’t be hungry for several meals……!”

“Be quiet!”

The baroness blocked the tactless baron’s mouth and wiped away tears while holding the dress up to her body. Although it was obviously a worn-out dress at first glance, it clearly seemed to be the only lifeline that would help her attend the imperial palace ball.

“Marina…… You’ll have to attend the ball alone without a fiancé or close relatives, will you be alright?”

She nodded quietly. The Enchester family was so poor that they had no loyalty or backbone, and had already lost the trust of surrounding relatives. The only hope in this family’s bleak future was this body, Marina Enchester alone.

“Just trust me.”

After that day, Baron Enchester, unable to resist his wife’s nagging, wrote a long letter asking to borrow a carriage from a relative he hadn’t contacted in over 10 years. Lecia helped with her grooming with all her heart and soul.

And finally…… it was the Empire’s Founding Day.

‘Let’s just avoid the original. I just need to not meet the protagonist who’s a dangerous element. Yeah, that’s right!’

She muttered to herself and walked confidently.

She took a carriage and arrived at the imperial palace. Standing in front of the majestic palace, she glared at it. She clenched both fists tightly.

‘Right, wherever this is, I have to eat and live.’

Could there be a problem more important than survival, whether in reality or in a novel? Marina joined hands with the villain, Kervic, gradually coveted greater wealth, and eventually lost her life, but she was different.

Her goal was to grasp moderate connections without great greed and live moderately well. If the family fell like this, she would starve to death.

“This is the only way. We don’t even have enough money to buy food now!”

If she couldn’t grasp connections at this banquet, it wouldn’t be a burning execution ending but a starvation ending.

⁕⁕⁕

However, thoughts and reality were completely different. Inside the magnificent imperial palace, among the haughty nobles, there was no place for her.

‘For someone as shabby as me to be in such a precious place……’

She knew noble society wasn’t easy, but she didn’t know it would be this hard to even strike up a conversation. She surveyed the inside of the huge banquet hall with a dejected face. The firm resolution she had made in front of the imperial palace was gradually crumbling.

“Oh my, madam. That dress really suits you well.”

“Hoho. I had it tailored at a boutique recommended by the marchioness at the salon. Shall I tell you about it too?”

Gorgeously dressed nobles were having leisurely conversations with elegant smiles. Among them were those like her who were looking for opportunities from behind, trying to at least strike up a conversation.

‘I’m completely invisible here……’

No one came to talk to her in her old dress. Whenever she tried to quickly join conversations and strike up a talk, they would whisper among themselves and subtly avoid her.

“Oh my, who’s the designer who made that dress?”