***
But no one listened to my screams. Sob.
A year later. After I had been a tree and then left unattended until I withered and died, I possessed all sorts of things until I was practically sick with motion sickness.
A water strider, a pet jellyfish, a canary in a glass greenhouse, and so on…….
Whenever I died, I would possess another living creature, but not once had I ever become a human. Nor had I ever lived for very long.
‘It was a fair and cold-hearted possession with no such thing as a possession privilege…….’
After all the hardships and adversities, on my seventh possession.
Finally, when I became a beastkin, I felt so moved that I could have danced a dance of madness.
The problem was that I had ended up in a clanking, prison-like state.
I was currently trapped inside a large cage.
“Phew.”
I let out a deep sigh and looked down at my tiny front paws. They were white and fluffy, looking just like strands of honey candy. I wondered if they would taste good if I nibbled on them……?
I was so hungry that I actually tried putting one in my mouth. That’s a secret.
Then I gave my fluffy tail a quick swish.
Wow, I’m adorable.
With two round ears and a plump little backside, no matter how you looked at me, I was a white marten. And not just any marten—a baby marten!
Of course, I was a little grimy now because I had ash all over me……. But my reflection in the mirror on the other side was pretty cute.
‘Sure. I’m glad I finally became a beastkin. I really am. But…….’
Why, after all that, do I still have to be an extra?!
Sniffling, I glared up at the shabby ceiling.
‘Honestly, at this point, shouldn’t you let me be born as the daughter of some wealthy family or something?!’
Oh, my miserable fate.
I thumped the bars with my tiny fist, then quietly pulled it back because it hurt.
Yeah, let’s just stay calm. Getting angry will only make me hungrier, so I’m the only one losing here.
‘……But I’m angry!’
And understandably so, because this white marten beastkin I had possessed was truly nothing at all.
Whenever I possessed someone, I inherited their memories.
But after excitedly digging through the memories in a hurry, all I could do was let out a hollow laugh.
‘I could be a villainess too. Or, if not that, someone suited to the protagonist’s position! I’m a possessed soul with a prepared résumé and plenty of experience!’
Why am I Chimney Sweep No. 1?!
Thud.
I collapsed into despair and tore at my hair.
The 『Fallen Saintess and Beasts of Madness』, the novel I had been repeatedly possessing, was a habanero-pepper-flavored novel boasting a Scoville rating of 350,000 SHU.
The female protagonist was Rahin, a washed-up youth-drama star who had always remained a supporting character back in Korea.
One day, she gets into a plane crash, but due to a mistake by a god, she crosses into another dimension.
When Rahin is deeply shocked upon learning that she cannot return, the god promises to grant her three wishes, no matter what they may be.
‘And for her first wish, Rahin asks to become the ‘Saintess’ of this world.’
In fact, because she had read countless romance-fantasy novels, she knew what profession would make it easiest to survive after crossing dimensions.
‘She’s pretty smart.’
After becoming a saint, Rahin discovers that this beastkin world is filled with men who are exactly her type, and soon decides to stay here instead of returning. Her adaptability was truly on par with Robinson CrXsoe.
Enjoying unparalleled popularity and a reverse harem surrounded by countless people who adored her, Rahin becomes the biggest star in the Holy Empire.
But one day, after even that becomes boring, Rahin falls into a forbidden love at a meeting place with the Magic Empire…….
The world’s first black magician tower master, known by the nickname ‘Demon’s Contractee.’
The one who defies the natural order!
The moment she meets Kiraxus Driblyane, she falls in love with him at first sight.
However, her love is not easy. Ariadne, Kiraxus’s younger sister and the heir to the family, not only interferes with
Rahin at every turn but also picks fights with her constantly.
Though she had been hurt, Rahin’s feelings were sincere, so she tried to confess her love on the final night of the meeting.
Then Kiraxus tells her to bring him the ‘Dice,’ a sacred relic of the religious order, and Rahin takes the Dice to prove her love.
But all of it was merely Kiraxus’s scheme to obtain the Dice.
The moment Kiraxus gets the Dice, he says that he had already taken a vow of chastity when he entered the Magic
Tower and therefore cannot accept her feelings!
Afterward, the priests realize that the Dice has gone missing and come chasing after her, and exhausted by loving someone whose heart will never return her feelings, Rahin tells Kiraxus that if he does not love her, she will turn this world into winter.
‘And here is where the villain Kiraxus……!’
Told her to do it.
‘More precisely, I think he said, “Go ahead if you want. I have no intention of indulging your childish whims.”’
Deeply shocked, Rahin makes her second wish at that very moment. She wishes for every season except winter to disappear completely.
For that sin, Rahin is sealed away, and the Holy Empire searches desperately for a saint with the same power as Rahin. They believe that if there is another saint, they will be able to restore the seasons.
‘But there’s no way there could be two saintesses.’
After all, Rahin became a saint in the first place because of her wish.
Nine years pass like that, and the world becomes terribly desolate.
The Holy Empire and the Magic Empire, which had always been on bad terms, are now at war to obtain more water and food.
During that war, Ariadne, the villainess and heir of the Driblyane family, dies, but before that, the villainess had already left behind three sons, each with a different father.
‘Why are these sons important? Well…… because this novel isn’t just a complete dumpster fire.’
Then, one day, spring miraculously returns for no reason, and the war comes to an end.
Even more years pass, and the religious order once again needs the existence of a ‘Saintess,’ so they release Rahin from her seal.
But Rahin, upon being released, immediately makes her third wish……!
‘This was the part that made me lose my mind.’
She wishes to be woven into the Driblyane family as though she had always existed there.
Because she had been sealed away, Rahin had not felt the passage of time, and her appearance remained unchanged.
Thus, she reunites with Kiraxus, the 19th family head, who has since become a mature middle-aged man. And then there are Ariadne’s grown sons. In other words, she once again becomes entangled in a dangerous obsessive romance among the three heirs of Driblyane.
But there was one problem: Driblyane already had a 20th lady of the house designated according to tradition.
‘She was the woman destined to marry one of the heirs who would become the 20th family head.’
But after Rahin appears, the lady of the house gradually has her very existence erased, until she eventually dies alone, unhappy and lonely.
In the end, the Driblyane heirs who fall in love with Rahin start fighting over her, and the Driblyane family is utterly destroyed. They try to kill one another and end up bringing the entire family to ruin.
Kiraxus, who watched all of this pitifully, entered the Magic Tower and never came out again…….
Rahin never obtains the love she desperately wanted in the end. A suffocating, miserable story where even those who love Rahin cannot have her exclusively!
A doomed, utterly chaotic novel where none of the characters were happy, but the readers alone were happy!
……Now, figure out how to survive as the chimney sweep of the villain’s family. (10 points)
***
“Haa.”
I let out a sigh deep enough to make the earth sink.
As you could tell from the fact that I had been trapped here without eating anything for two days, I was poorly treated even among the maids.
Some of the maids relieved their stress by locking me up and tormenting me. The reason was that I wasn’t merely an animal with white fur…… I was an albino.
‘Maybe because these memories are mine now, I can’t help but feel emotional.’
Chimney sweeping was the dirtiest and most difficult job, requiring one to transform into an animal and enter long chimneys filled with layers upon layers of ash to clean them.
Albinos were treated as oddities in this world, so being a chimney sweep was a job that suited me perfectly. Difficult, suffocating, painful…….
But that’s not all?
‘This kind of useless and excessive information wasn’t necessary…….’
Actually…… this person…… well…….
Was a spy.
‘Crazy. Why does this character have to do everything?’
After possessing the body and receiving its memories, I desperately tried to deny the information I had learned.
The Holy Empire and the Magic Empire had waged countless wars, and now they had even begun sending children as spies…… yes, apparently, that was me. Waah.
Apparently, my role was to wander around here and there under the pretext of chimney sweeping and collecting information. No matter how I looked at it, I didn’t seem destined for a long life.
‘……Ah, should I just die quickly and start over?’
After spending two sleepless nights imagining my miserable future, I came to a conclusion.
‘No. Let’s just put down roots in this white marten.’
If I kept waiting for a better possession and went through several more rounds, I might end up as a dung beetle.
At least white martens are cute. Looks are a form of competitiveness, too.
‘And maybe…… I might have a father out there who is searching for his lost daughter, too.’
I am a beastkin, after all?
Wouldn’t a poor little beastkin child in such a miserable situation get at least one chance to be happy?
Hearing what sounded like laughter mocking my hope from somewhere, I dejectedly let my marten whiskers droop.
‘Whatever. Enough thinking. Let’s just find a way out of here.’
After about 48 hours of being a child whose age I didn’t even know, the original body’s personality and ‘my’ sense of self had fused together, and now I had become something like a clever child.
Perhaps because of that, even things that should have made me only a little sad felt terribly sorrowful, and things that should have felt only slightly unfair felt unbearably unjust.
“P pwwess save mme…… (P-please save me).”
Shivering from the cold, I hugged my white tail tightly.
“Save the marten….”
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