He was just a normal man in his past life—ordinary, unremarkable, and far removed from the melodrama of the fantasy romance novels he used to skim through out of boredom. But one day, he wakes up in the body of a notorious villain—the cold, unloved son of a powerful Duke, hated by the nobles and fated to die.
The only thing guiding him is a mysterious System that floods his mind with the Villain's memories: a boy neglected, despised, and nearly burned alive. His family treats him with silence. His father stares through him like a stranger. When the fire happens—just as the memories warned—he becomes certain.
They want him dead.
All he wants is to avoid the original story's ending. He distances himself from the Prince, from the heroine, and from everyone who might drag him back into the bloody romance he vaguely remembers. He hides his strength, his fear, and his desire for affection behind a mask of indifference.
But things don't go as expected.
The Prince hesitates to approached him. The commoner girl who should always be close with the Prince, smiles at him. His siblings and Father send letters he doesn't read and he always saw an expression that he never thought they should have. And the System—his only source of truth—begins to say things it shouldn't.
The world around him shifts in subtle, haunting ways.
Truth and memory begin to fracture.
And deep inside him, something begins to wake.
If he was never meant to survive this story…
Then why does everyone look at him like they've already failed?
Whose memories are real? Whose lies are louder?
And most terrifying of all—what if he was never the outsider in this world to begin with?