“Milady, please, this is incredibly dangerous!”

“Calm down, Gretchen. Look, I’m standing here perfectly fine!”

Honestly, that maid of mine was far too worrisome for her own good. While I understood it was her job to fuss over me, all I was doing was walking on the railing of the second floor of our manse! Perfectly safe. I turned around to wave at Gretchen, with an angelic smile on my face. She frowned, and started walking over. I guess she decided my safety overrode propriety, and had come to get me. 

Of course, that was when I slipped.

“MILADY!”

———————————————————————————————————————

“-some real Koreaboo shit, sis-“

“-so proud of you, dear. We knew you’d-“

“Just shut up. I’m sick of your lies.”

“-this party. You shouldn’t be cooped up in your dorm all day.”

“-sure you’re fine getting back by yourself?”

My head felt stuffed of cotton, but I felt better than I had in a long time. I really had some good friends, dragging me out of moping all day. I hummed to myself as I drove back to campus. Maybe stuff really was going to get better. 

Of course, that was when I veered off the road and wrapped the car around a tree.

And then it all went dark.

———————————————————————————————————————

I could hear voices, as if from quite far away.

“-ady!”

“Milady!

Hmm, on second thought, they were quite close, actually.

I opened my eyes, just to see a familiar face peeking over. Looks like she has tears in her eyes. I wasn’t quite sure why. After all, while Gretchen was prone to being rather emotional when it involved me, I was just waking up, right?

And then I realized that I had a splitting headache, and a dull pain in my right arm. I shook my head a bit to try and clear the fuzz. I pulled off the blankets to see my arm was wrapped was wrapped in some kind of cast. I reached up to feel that there was some sort of bandage wrapped around my head. Yep, definitely something bad had happened.

I glanced over, to see that my loyal maid was still crying silently. I guess I really had done something to worry her, this time. I smiled at her, trying to be reassuring.

“Milady… you…”

“YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!”

My eyes widened at her sudden exclamation.

“What in the name of the Three Flames were you thinking? Didn’t I warn you a hundred times that that reckless attitude of yours would get you hurt? Do you know how worried the lord and the madam were, not to mention your loving sister? And what about me, hmm? Don’t you…”

Oh dear. It seems I really set her off. Let’s just leave her to continue her tirade, hmm? She’ll feel better after letting it all out. Besides, I have something a little more concerning at hand. My head felt overstuffed with memories and thoughts. I needed a second to try and get everything straight.

Alright, let’s see…Hmm…Oh. Ohhhhhhh. Huh. That’s…Okay. I think I’ve got a handle on everything right now.

I’ll try and start over. Pardon the late introduction. My name is Dahlia Regisberg. I am the first daughter of Baron Regisberg, in the Kingdom of Grador. It’s a pleasure to meet you. It seems that I had been playing on the railing of the second floor of our mansion, when I fell and hit my head hard, and probably broke my arm.

And when I hit my head, I realized something.

This was not my first life.

I had been Melissa Barnett, a 22-year-old college student, studying mechanical engineering. I had been driving back from a party where I had a bit too much to drink, and ended up crashing my car. And that’s how my life ended there. And it doesn’t end there.

Melissa Barnett knew Dahlia Regisberg. She knew this kingdom. Why?

Because this was the setting of a manhwa I had been reading at the time, “The Villainess’s Redemption.” It was a story about a Korean college student, Park Si-yeon, who was run over by a car, only to find that she then woke up as a character in the novel, White Heart, she had been reading. Specifically, as the female villain, Rosalia von Krakel who was desperately in love with the male lead, and so was viciously jealous of the female lead who had captured the male lead’s heart, leading Rosalia to try and kill the female lead, unsuccessfully, and so was executed. If you’ve read this genre of villainess isekai, the story is pretty predictable: Si-yeon wakes up, realizes who she is, tries to avoid her death ending by not being such a bitch, ends up unknowingly causing the male lead to fall for her, etc. etc. etc.

Dahlia Regisberg was a supporting character in the manhwa (and also the novel, I think). She gets involved in the plot as someone that Si-yeon/Rosalia befriends to try and make allies, as Dahlia’s family was part of the noveau riche, and her father had gained noble status thanks to his prodigious shipping business, whereas Rosalia was from old nobility, but from a house that was failing. While Dahlia was able to perceive that Rosalia’s motives were somewhat self-serving, the two did genuinely become friends. And that’s as far as I got into the manhwa’s translation.

So, uh, let me make sure I’ve got this totally correct.

I was reincarnated…into a “I’ve been reincarnated into a novel I was reading!” comic that I was reading?

Isn’t this a little too meta?!