Grete, oh Grete. You unfortunate woman, born as Gregor’s sister.
A blond-haired man prayed fervently in his heart.
His hair was disheveled, and his eyes were bloodshot red.
His flushed complexion, as though he had been steeped in alcohol, made it obvious that he was thoroughly drunk.
The man shook his head, muttering that something like this could not possibly happen, that it must never happen, before slamming his head onto the table.
THUD.
His head should have hurt, but the alcohol left him feeling nothing.
He let out a weary sigh and stared at the floor with hollow eyes.
Grete, why did you accept such an ordeal? When your own brother became a lowly creature overnight, transformed into a cockroach destined to crawl across the ground and twitch its antennae, how could you possibly accept such a trial?
The blond-haired man—or rather, I—had no confidence that I could say anything about this godforsaken situation without first drowning myself in alcohol.
Grete, the younger sister of Gregor Samsa, who transformed into a cockroach in Franz Kafka’s [The Metamorphosis].
Ironically enough, I could now understand exactly how she must have felt.
Because every single one of the countless maids standing before me and looking at me with worried eyes—
looked like a cockroach.
***
ROOOOOAR……
A torrential downpour had descended with an untimely rainy season. Beneath the gloomy blanket of dark clouds, a sudden wind sprang up and flipped back the umbrellas of pedestrians.
CREEEAK.
A servant stepped down from a carriage and opened an umbrella.
A woman wearing a mature black coat then stepped beneath the umbrella he held out for her.
“I shall escort you.”
As though that went without saying, the woman did not answer.
Whenever the wind drove rain beneath the umbrella, the servant tightened his grip, but there was no way for him to completely stop the determined droplets from blowing inside.
What unpleasant rain.
It was not even cool despite the downpour. It merely felt damp and clinging.
The woman apparently felt the same way, for her expression had stiffened with displeasure.
She wiped the raindrops from her cheek and strode along the waterlogged road.
Her short-cropped hair was simple, as though she had cut away anything that might become an inconvenience, and she wore none of the ornaments one would ordinarily expect.
It gave her an oddly colorless impression.
“M-my lady, you are walking too quickly.”
Unable to keep pace with her, the servant sucked in a ragged breath.
The woman paid him no heed and continued striding forward.
It was only when the steps finally entered her field of vision that she stopped and took in the scene before her.
To put it another way, until that moment, she had been so agitated that she had not even noticed the gloomy mansion looming ahead of her.
The elderly servant belatedly caught up with her, still holding the umbrella.
He gazed upon the same sight as the motionless woman and released a long, heavy sigh.
“My lady, might you reconsider this one more time? Even so, the Young Lord……”
“That is enough. Gilbert, we already finished that conversation. I have every reason to meet him. More than enough.”
Had anyone heard that a young woman was so determined to meet a particular man, they might have imagined the beginning of some bittersweet romance.
Contrary to such expectations, however, cold fury seethed in the woman’s eyes.
The maids guarding the main entrance drew startled breaths at the unexpected visitor.
“W-well, the Young Lord ordered us not to admit anyone……”
“Shut up and open it. I had to force time into my schedule and come all the way here in this weather because of that bastard.”
At her growl, the maids fidgeted uneasily before all turning their heads toward the same person.
She was a seasoned-looking maid.
The maid closed her eyes and quietly exhaled.
After a moment, she stepped aside.
The young woman gave a brief nod of thanks for the tacit concession, then headed toward the room where the master of the mansion resided.
The interior of the mansion lay submerged in gloom.
The candles that should have illuminated the halls had all been extinguished, leaving the mansion dependent upon only the bare minimum of light. Even that was insufficient to illuminate the corridors in full, forcing anyone walking through them to carry a lamp in one hand.
Silence.
Within that silence, a dank, oppressive atmosphere slowly crept over them.
Apparently disliking it, the woman drew in a sharp breath.
“Come out! You idiot!”
Her shout thundered through the mansion.
The maids let out startled shrieks at the woman’s sudden outburst.
“M-my lady?”
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused me? You……!!”
She unleashed a torrent of vicious curses before huffing with barely restrained fury.
The horrified servants hurried to stop her, but that lasted only a moment.
When the door she had pounded on answered with an almost unnatural silence, the woman finally lost her temper and kicked it down.
BANG!
The finely crafted door toppled over along with its hinges.
The dislodged nails rolled pitifully across the floor, and beyond them stood the man whom the woman had been so desperate to see.
He appeared somewhat displeased that his cherished silence had been shattered.
However, the sight of him sitting at his desk and tipping back a glass of alcohol made him look every bit like a ruined man.
“Hey, you piece of trash.”
“You are too loud. My head is ringing, so shut up.”
“Shut up? Why should I shut up? You seriously…! No. You… Haah……”
The woman drew several sharp breaths, looking as though she would die happy if she could only punch him once.
“Charlotte, you have become rather brazen since I last saw you. Breaking into my mansion without so much as my permission. Are you truly confident that you can handle the consequences of behaving so recklessly……”
“Consequences? Consequeeeences? You? You are threatening me with consequences?”
The woman called Charlotte glared at him in utter disbelief.
“Then are you confident that you can handle the consequences of neglecting every single one of your official duties? You are supposed to be the next head of the house, remember!?”
“Do not speak to me. I feel as though I am going to vomit.”
Charlotte opened and closed her mouth wordlessly at the sight of the man, who apparently had no idea what he had done wrong.
A moment later, her disbelief erupted into a tremendous exclamation.
“Haah, seriously.”
“I am afflicted with an illness. You call yourself my younger sister, yet instead of offering me comfort, you behave this shamelessly. Search your conscience……”
“Illness, my ass. I knew that personality of yours would cause trouble someday. I just knew it.”
Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut and demanded to know how any of this made sense.
“What do you mean, you find people so disgusting that you cannot even talk to them?”
“I mean exactly what I said. They are revolting.”
Charlotte looked at the blond-haired man in his disheveled state.
Platinum-blond hair and blue eyes.
A man of peerless beauty, as though he had been carved from stone.
His eyes, deep and solemn like sapphires, had once gleamed with intelligence. Now, however, that brilliance had been buried beneath the same darkness that shrouded this mansion.
His name was Aiden, the second son of the Peacevolt Ducal House.
His full name was Toscantana Aiden Peacevolt.
Following the death of the eldest son, he had become first in the line of succession.
He was a direct descendant of the ducal house that possessed the Empire’s sole Grand Duchy, a member of one of the most distinguished noble families in the realm, and the future head of the house.
He was also a genius with the rapier.
But all of that belonged to the past now.
Aiden’s period of seclusion had finally stretched beyond half a year.
By now, people did little more than cast suspicious glances in Aiden’s direction while spreading countless rumors and speculations.
The aloof, proud genius who had possessed an unshakable ego and absolute conviction in his beliefs was nowhere to be found.
All that remained was an idle wastrel who drowned himself in alcohol every single day.
Charlotte shook her head as she looked at her brother.
“All this… over such a ridiculous reason……”
She could have understood if he had been cursed or fallen into a terrible slump.
But Aiden suffered from neither of those things.
‘Misanthropy.’
Apparently, people looked like cockroaches to him.
People.
Charlotte inhaled sharply, dumbfounded by the sheer absurdity of it all.
She had spent her entire life buried beneath the shadow of a genius, struggling in the hope that she might defeat him even once.
She had never imagined that her wish would be fulfilled like this.
The downfall of a genius?
It would have been one thing if Aiden had finally reached the limits of his talent, unable to climb any higher after encountering an insurmountable wall.
If Aiden had stagnated like that, Charlotte could have worked herself to the bone, surpassed him, and climbed ahead of him.
Experiencing that satisfaction had been Charlotte’s greatest goal and the task to which she had devoted her life.
Yet now, that goal had been achieved almost by accident.
And for such an utterly ridiculous reason.
Charlotte gave him a briefly pitying look before sighing.
He had fallen apart so completely that even when she wanted to snap at him, pity left her unable to find the words.
“Haah… Then are you saying that I look hideous to you too?”
She had asked the question in an attempt to comfort him.
It was also born from her confidence that there was no possible way his one and only blood relative could appear to him as something so repulsive.
If Aiden denied it, she had imagined a touching scene in which she would tell him that they could overcome the problem together, one step at a time.
‘There is no way he sees his one and only little sister like that, right?’
Aiden opened his mouth.
“You understand quite well. Get your face out of my sight. You make me sick.”
As though thoroughly drunk, he hiccuped and waved his hand, urging her to move away.
Trust was made to be betrayed…
Charlotte froze.
The servants standing behind her might have frozen as well.
One thing was certain.
Every single person filling the enormous bedchamber had fallen silent.
For a brief moment, complete silence descended upon the room.
A vein bulged on Charlotte’s forehead.
“YOU BASTARD!!!”
Unable to endure it any longer, Charlotte finally punched Aiden squarely in the jaw and sent his head snapping sideways.
“M-my lady, stop!”
“T-the Young Lord!? Check the Young Lord’s condition……!”
“Lady Charlotte, breathe from your diaphragm! From your diaphragm!”
“Huff, huff, huff, huff, huff.”
Haaaaaaaah.
Only after taking an enormous breath and expelling every last bit of air from her lungs did Charlotte finally manage to calm herself.
Her impulsive temperament was still there, but compared to how she had once been ready to settle everything once and for all on any given day, she had improved considerably.
Charlotte pressed hard against her temples as a headache throbbed through her skull and spat out the words as though grinding them between her teeth.
“Father—the Head of the House—has decided that you need drastic treatment. You are going to the Imperial University, commonly known as Le Sete Academy, as a Chair Professor.”
Apparently pressing her temples was not enough, because she dragged a hand down her forehead and rubbed her face wearily.
“You can teach the children there and fix that abrasive personality of yours while you are at it.”
With a long sigh, she glanced at Aiden, whose jaw was now turned to the side.
She could not tell whether he was listening or unconscious, but one thing was certain.
They had to somehow turn that thing back into a functioning human being.
‘That is what the shock treatment is for.’
Haah……
Pathetic though he might look now, he was still the third Transcendent ever born in the Empire.
He was one of the Masters recognized by the Council of Elders of Sword Peak, a supranational organization.
He was far too valuable a man to be allowed to waste away like this.
Charlotte looked utterly exhausted, as though she had aged several years simply from setting foot inside the mansion.
“…Cheer up.”
Leaving those words behind, Charlotte turned away, casting one last glance at her troublesome younger brother.
After Charlotte departed, the blond-haired man silently turned the name Aiden over in his mind.
Then he raised a hand to cover his face and squeezed his eyes shut.
‘Aiden, huh?’
The maids who lived in the mansion had gathered around me to check on my condition.
They were there because they were worried about me, but when I showed no intention of getting up and instead remained half sprawled on the floor, they appeared more than a little flustered.
One woman calmed the restless maids, stepped out from among them, and looked down at me.
She was the maid who had remained at the very center of the commotion.
She appeared to be somewhere in her mid-thirties.
I could not describe her exact appearance because she looked like a cockroach to me.
Rizef, the future Head Maid, finally broke her silence with a quiet sigh.
“Young Lord Aiden, are you all right?”
“I am fine.”
“In that case, as soon as dinner is prepared……”
“No need. I shall rest like this.”
“…Then I shall escort you to the dressing room.”
She kept pressing the matter.
Growing annoyed, I turned my head and met her gaze.
“Rizef, that will be enough. Withdraw.”
At the warning in my voice, Rizef swallowed a groan and bowed at the waist.
“As you command, Young Lord. His Lordship says that he is tired, so let us withdraw.”
“Understood. Then, we wish you a good night.”
The maids withdrew, extinguishing the room’s lights as they left.
Charlotte had kicked the door hard enough to tear it from its hinges, so there was no way anyone could repair it immediately. I had no desire to spend the night in a guest room either, which meant I would have to sleep with the entrance to my room gaping wide open.
I turned the name Aiden over in my mind once more and closed my eyes.
“I am not Aiden.”
Still lying there, I opened my hand and stretched it toward the ceiling.
But the gesture was as futile as trying to seize a star from the night sky. After grasping uselessly at empty air several times, my hand dropped back down.
I was not Aiden.
Naturally, Aiden was not my name.
‘I am Kim Seong-ha.’
I was the developer who had created this game, as well as its director—the man who had worked himself to death just before its release……
And, out of all the countless characters I could have ended up as, I was the unfortunate man who had somehow found himself in the body of Aiden, the character everyone had called insufferable.
I closed my eyes and slowly began retracing my memories, trying to remember how I had ended up like this.