Did her efforts to fit in with nobles her age work? Several haughty-looking women approached, showing interest in her dress. She stammered in response to the question from a noble who seemed to be her age.

“Ahaha! Who, who was the designer?! Louis? Louis Vuitton? I meet so many designers that I can’t tell who’s who.”

She felt she had to pretend to be sophisticated somehow, so she blurted out luxury brand names she had never even touched in her previous life as designer names.

“It’s a name I’ve never heard before, but it must be very traditional?”

“What?”

“No, I thought it was a dress you inherited from your grandmother. I don’t know where that place is, but it doesn’t seem to be my taste, haha!”

“Oh my, you’re being mean too. If it’s not your taste, why bother asking for the designer’s name? It’s rude to that unknown lady.”

It turned out they had approached to mock her. They did everything among themselves, then burst into laughter while pushing past her!

‘Ah…… really. I lost face.’

Maybe it was her imagination, but it seemed like other nobles around were also chuckling at her dress. Unfortunately, the baroness’s secret weapon was nothing more than a shabby, outdated dress.

‘Far from finding Marquis Schradin, I can’t even properly talk to anyone? Ha…… I just want to go home.’

She looked at her reflection in the window and hung her head in despair. Even to her own eyes, her appearance in the dress looked like she was buried in a sack. The dress with excessive lace hanging all over looked burdensome and heavy.

‘Mother, what kind of youth did you have……?’

The baroness’s words about it being her most precious dress flashed through her mind.

‘Making friends with women is hopeless…… Then, what about men?’

She turned her body slightly and looked toward the young men. Several men who had been glancing her way were sending suspicious smiles and giggling.

‘Right, Marina was written to be pretty in the original……’

She hadn’t noticed at all when she was in the gloomy Enchester family mansion, but she was startled when she saw her face reflected in the mirror full of lights in the banquet hall. Even she herself gasped when she saw her appearance in the mirror.

“Wow…… really pretty.”

Even the nobles who had been sneering at her outfit turned around to look at her face again. Long platinum hair and sparkling green eyes. A straight nose and red lips made for a very enchanting appearance.

‘There’s a reason villainesses in dramas are pretty. No matter how mean they act, they’d be forgiven, right?’

Since she was a villainess and nominally the female protagonist of a ruined romance fantasy, her beauty was naturally guaranteed. Even the baggy dress that didn’t fit her body couldn’t hide Marina’s appearance. However, no one approached to talk to her.

‘Nothing’s working…… Ugh. She must have had her debutante ball, I thought I’d at least meet nobles who knew the original Marina?!’

How could she make connections when no one was approaching? Left alone, she was lost in thought.

Then she suddenly had a question. The Empire’s Founding Day was one of the empire’s major events, but she couldn’t see the hide nor hair of the princes. She had even resolved to absolutely not get involved with characters from the original to avoid the burning execution ending, but it was puzzling that the characters couldn’t be seen.

‘Wait, come to think of it, when was it that Felix went berserk?’

Was it the calm before the storm? As the novel’s protagonists were too quiet, anxiety suddenly arose. She scratched her head and recalled the original content. In the original, it was definitely written that Felix went berserk due to Kervic’s conspiracy and caused an explosion accident.

‘In the end, when the explosion accident happened would be the key…… It couldn’t be today, could it?’

— Crash

— Clatter

“!”

She was startled by a sharp sound coming from nearby. A dull sound echoing on the floor followed. It was an ominous sound. She was far from the center of the hall where people had gathered in groups, so there was no one around.

“What in the world is happening……”

She reflexively moved toward where the sound came from. Following the short, dark corridor that continued, she spotted the entrance to a huge terrace. And there, a man was rolling on the floor with glass fragments.

“Sir, are you alright?!”

Ah, the habit from her patrol officer days popped out without her knowing. Her body reacted first with the thought that it was best to save people who needed help first. Moreover, the words she used when dealing with drunkards stuck to her mouth, so she ended up calling the other person ‘sir.’

“Ugh……”

The man had no time to respond and was just groaning and moaning.

“Are you alright? If it’s hard to get up, I’ll help support you……”

“Go, go away……”

The man firmly refused her help. But she couldn’t leave him suffering.

“Don’t do that, my hand……”

She reached out her hand to support him as he was tensing his whole body.

‘Ah……?’

At that moment, she hesitated upon seeing his notably splendid uniform and his face. Black hair softly covering his forehead, dark red eyes that seemed to see through anything……

‘……Felix?’

The moment she saw his face, which was handsome at first glance, she could easily deduce who he was. The protagonist of the original novel and the man who would execute her by burning.

A red light went on in her head. She wanted to immediately leave him and run away to distance herself from the terrifying burning execution ending.

However……

‘Ah…… wouldn’t he die if I leave him like that?’

Since she had transmigrated into a novel, the novel was no longer just text. It was her reality. She knew in her head that he was the character who would give her a brutal death ending. But when she actually saw a vividly living person suffering as if he might die right now, her steps instinctively wouldn’t move.

“Kugh, huff, huk……”

Felix was having trouble breathing with bulging veins. Seeing that, she felt like her breath was also being cut off.

“Your Highness the Second Prince, what’s wrong? Where are you uncomfortable?”

She carefully approached Felix and cautiously opened her mouth. He was gritting his teeth while barely supporting the floor with one hand.

“In the glass…… kugh……”

“Glass?”

She frowned while looking at the debris of the broken wine glass. Red liquid was scattered near the fragments. Heat was rising around Felix.

The air was hot and heat waves shimmered on the floor.

‘Huh, could this be him unable to control the sun power……?! Wait, could it be that he’s going berserk?’

She looked back and forth between the red liquid and Felix, racking her brain. Suddenly, reasonable suspicion began to arise. Could the method Kervic used to make Felix go berserk be…… putting something in this glass?

‘Is he going berserk now? The original didn’t mention in detail when it happened…… Could it have happened on such a big banquet day?’

She tried to deny the current situation, but…… circumstantially, it clearly seemed like he’s going berserk.

‘I need to run away right now! At this rate, I’ll get caught up in the original! I hate being burned at the stake.’

‘What are you talking about, whether it’s going berserk or whatever, you have to save a dying person?!’

Reason and emotion were fighting within her. Those two voices began to tangle and fight each other in her head. The heat inside the terrace grew stronger and stronger. Seeing Felix suffering so much, eventually one of the two voices dominated her mind.

‘I…… I’m the proud public servant of the Republic of Korea……!’

The overwhelming emotion when she was commissioned as a new police officer, the heart she had solemnly engraved while looking in the mirror during her patrol officer life……

‘This person needs my help right now.’

The face of the woman who had desperately asked for help while drowning flashed by from the last moment of her previous life. The power that had made her jump into the rapids even when her own life was in danger was surging up now.

‘I absolutely must save him.’

Now he was nothing more than a pitiful being who needed others’ help, before being the twisted protagonist from the tragedy of the original.

‘Burning execution is burning execution, and saving people is saving people. Let’s help briefly and pretend not to know.’

After rationalizing that helping briefly wouldn’t create a situation where they’d be deeply involved, she acted quickly. She closed the terrace door and looked back. He was barely raising his upper body and leaning against the railing wall, seemingly barely suppressing the sun power.

She didn’t hesitate anymore and jumped into Felix’s arms.

“Kugh, wha, what……?!”

“Just for a moment.”

Felix made a flustered sound at her sudden action, but she didn’t care and made ‘contact’ with him. To be precise, she buried her face in his exposed nape and clasped hands with him.

‘Ah, hot! His body is incredibly ho, hot……!’

She was surprised by the intense heat flowing from Felix’s body.

‘He’s definitely about to go berserk.’

Becoming desperate, she reached out and randomly grabbed the front of Felix’s shirt. Several buttons popped off and his bare skin was revealed through the gap in his clothes. She placed her hand on his exposed chest.

“Kugh, who…… who are you, what are you doing……?!”

“You’re too hot. We need to cool your body down quickly……!”

And just like mothers wiping down babies burning with fever using wet towels, she continuously stroked Felix’s chest with her hands.