Chapter 1

The woman turned off the screen of her phone and gripped her phone so tightly that her veins are showing up.

It was the novel that she had read many times to check on the villainess’s ending. It was heart breaking to read because she foolishly pursued the ultimate power but, in the end, it was all in vain. Even if she had placed all effort in the world, she still wasn’t able to beat the halo of the male lead.

She sighed. She was a fan of the fierce and intimidating beauty of Zylla. She really likes the hard-working personality of the villainess and the fact that she likes to show off her achievements to other people is really endearing!

She was really dissatisfied that her favorite villainess was defeated one-sidedly and was killed. Had the finale of the story was simply about the fight of between the main lead, Yannis and the ultimate villainess, Zylla then you will really hear not a single complaint from her.

Zylla being killed by Yannis was one thing. It was understandable, she was the villainess after all. But exterminating her clan and using them as a material to create powerful charms was way out of her bottom line.

That’s why she was so angry at the spiteful comments about the villainess family. She had been enduring it for a long time now. But she will not tolerate this no more, she will also post a comment after a comment.

She wouldn’t have been satisfied even if she had spammed the comments section ten times over. She really didn’t care even if her account was banned for spamming, she can always create a new one. Hah! Take that!

In hindsight though, if she would have known that she would end up in the similar place. She might have regretted her actions that day.

“Manager, don’t you have a meeting?” Asked her aide.

She nodded. “I’m going there now. See you later.”

Even during work, she can’t stop thinking about the novel. She can’t help but empathize with the villainess. She was getting a strange sense of déjà vu.

“Are you going to leave early today?”

She rarely left early, but her aide had asked because she had already cleaned up her desk and packed her things. Without a word, she nodded and left for the elevator.

“Manager, the elevator is under maintenance. Try the stairs!” Her aide shouted at the back. She turned around and waved her hand.

“Wait a moment.”

It was Manager Seo.

“Let’s go down together.”

“You’re leaving early today,” he said.

“…”

“I saw your performance at the quarterly review. It was good. You should not have waited for Manager Chris to arrive and just grab all the merit for that project. If not for that goody two shoes personality of yours, you might have been promoted all the way to a director. What a pity.”

He placed his hand at her shoulders. It felt like bugs were crawling all over her body.

“Thanks to you, that brat became the youngest team manager.” He said darkly. His hand was gripping her shoulder forcefully.

She glanced at the man and raised her eyebrow.

“Don’t beat around the bush. You’re saying this because?”

“The higher ups don’t like the nosy brat. How about you and I team up? We can bring down that bastard at his - ”

She slapped his hand that was still on her shoulder. “There’s really no need to team up. Did you really think that my team and I will lose to him? Think again.” She laughed mockingly.

“I can go down by myself. There’s no need to see me out.” She flipped her hair and started climbing down the stairs.

That was when it happened.

“You ungrateful bitch - ”

The man rushed up to her and pushed her while she was climbing down the stairs. She tried to grab the railings but one of stiletto heels broke. Oh no! She lost her balance. She rolled down the stairs like a broken doll and hit her head several times.

Is this how I die?

That was the last thought that she had after she had lost her consciousness.

|•|•|•|•|

Her head was pounding and she was thirsty. She tried to stand up but she felt chains locking her body in one place.

“Ugh…”

She glared hard to see her surroundings but everything is blurry.

“The little girl is still alive!”

“She’s breathing!”

“C’mon let’s remove these bindings! Move it!”

She cracked open her eyes. Someone’s voice was coming closer. She tried to move her hands but found herself hanging in a middle of room with numerous chains. There was also a complicated seal drawn on the floor that was shining with blood red light that occupied the whole room.

What happened? She knew that she fell from the stairs and broke a few bones here and there. But she never remembered signing up with this kind of weird play with chains and the likes.

“Young miss, can you understand us?”

She could feel the nervous energy of the people rushing around her. She squinted her eyes into focus.

An old-fashioned woman—a foreigner—was looking at her anxiously. Strangely, the woman felt like she had seen her before.

After this group of people appeared, they help her removed the chains from her body and lay her down on some type of a stretcher.

Then, the door opened, and another person came in.

It was a man with a black hair paired with startling blue eyes. He narrowed the distance between them in an instant.

“How is Zylla?”

The man held her hand and she opened her eyes in shock. W-What did this man called her?

How, h-how can this be?

The next moment…

Buzz!

A mind-boggling pain that seemed to split her head went through her, eliciting a pained moan.

Gaaah!

A groan burst out from her. The voice that came out from her mouth wasn’t familiar to her own ears.

It was a torment like any other.

“Oh shit! It’s s-starting again!”

“Nooo! Don’t undo the chains!”

“Keep her down! Activate the seals and the barrier!”

The person who kept talking next to had begun to cursed in shock. Hot liquid overflowed from her mouth and mouth and she could barely open her eyes. Her body trembled uncontrollably. It feels as if she was experiencing an epileptic seizure first hand.

She begun to struggle but the chains kept her body in one place.

“Ahhh!”

The memories of someone other than herself, were mixing out of order and kept on replaying in her head. Countless scenes flashed by her. However, before she could recognize each one, the memories ran away and were being replaced by a new one. She couldn’t even begin to comprehend the memory, as a heavy rain of memories struck and trampled her brain.

Just as water poured out of a broken jar, memories of the past that had been buried suddenly popped up. She was no longer an orphan, she was with her family. Zylla. They call her Zylla.

She remembered her daily leisure life of lying outside in the green grass and playing with her dog. And then, one late night, a bright glittering light swallowed the night sky and it heralded the start of the tragedy.