Caius turned his head in time to see a small figure freeze in the doorway of the bathroom.
A young girl stood there holding a porcelain bowl with both hands. She looked about twelve or thirteen, dressed in a pretty neat knee length dress embroidered at the collar. Her dark hair was tied into two low ponytails with ribbon, but her sharp eyes didn't match the cute features.
She took in the sight in front of her: Caius staring at his reflection in the mirror, while admiring his own face.
Her expression darkened immediately: "Oh, so you have strength to admire your own face," she said coldly: "It seems Father really didn't beat you enough."
Caius stared at her, unable to react fast enough. Why does everyone want him to be beaten more?
The girl walked over, set the bowl down with a sharp clink on the sink counter, and grabbed his wrist.
Her grip was surprisingly strong and he couldn't break out.
Ignoring his protest, she dragged him bodily out of the bathroom and toward the bed.
"Wait–"
"Sit still and don't move!" she ordered.
He was shoved onto the mattress. The force made him suck in a breath, but that was not the point. No matter how hurt he might be, how can a child's strength surpass his own?
The girl stood over him, hands on her hips, glaring like a tiny general.
"If you have time to preen, you have time to get beaten again." She sighed: "Are you a masochist, brother? Do you like seeing Father angry?"
Brother? What do you mean?
Caius blinked, dazed. "...Who are you?"
Her mouth fell open and she just stared, as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard.
After taking eternity to process his words, she raised her hand and slapped him on the back of his head.
Caius let out a hiss of pain as the movement jolted his already throbbing skull.
"You really did get hit on the head," she said, clicking her tongue: "Your brain's been shaken so much that you've become stupid. Don't tell me you're going to look at me with those blank eyes and say you've transmigrated like in those cheap webnovels you read behind Father's back?"
Caius's breath caught: Little girl, you're not far from the truth.
The girl snorted, sharp and unimpressed: "Let me warn you now, if you say that in front of Father, he'll hit you until you 'transmigrate' straight to the afterlife."
She picked up the bowl again, sat down beside him, and scooped up a spoonful of the contents. A thick bitter medicine smell hit his nose.
She shoved the spoon toward his mouth.
Caius instinctively leaned back. "Wait, you can't just give me that."
"Why not?" she snapped. "Open your mouth."
He stared at the dark liquid and grimaced. "It smells like poison."
She arched her brow: "You've been beaten half to death and you're afraid of medicine? This is the only way to get better, come on, open up."
Caius wasn't sure whether that was the only way, but that medicine looks bitter. He refused to open his mouth.
She pinched his chin with one hand, and surprisingly forced the spoon between his lips.
The unpleasant taste exploded on his tongue and he wanted to throw up.
"How can you be so delicate? No wonder father is hard on you."
Caius coughed twice, managing to force the mouthful down. His whole face twisted in misery, not only did he wake up in this weak body, he was even being bullied by a little girl.
The girl's expression softened a little at the sight, but her voice stayed firm. "That's what you get for making Father angry. If you had just shut your mouth and stayed still at the academy, you'd been enjoying your noble campus life right now instead of clutching your ribs."
She scooped another spoonful.
Caius closed his eyes and drank the medicine: "How old are you."
"What does that have to do with anything?" she frowned.
She didn't question why her brother didn't know her age, after all, in this house they were more of strangers than family.
"You talk like an old woman who had a lot on her head." Caius muttered.
The spoon went into his mouth right at that moment. He choked it down again, tears threatening at the corners of his eyes.
"I'm thirteen, but unlike you, I used my brain. So stop talking nonsense and drink."
When he finally drank the last drop, he slumped back against the pillows, exhausted and betrayed by his own body.
The girl set the empty bowl aside with a satisfied nod.
"Good," she said. "At least you're not completely useless."
Caius's lips twitched. "Are you always this outspoken?"
"Otherwise, am I delicate like you?"
He considered that and decided she meant it.
He studied her more carefully now that he wasn't too busy dying from bitterness. There was a resemblance between them around the eyes and eyebrows. Her aura was sharp and steady, not like a spoiled young miss but more like someone used to walking on the edge of a knife.
Her eyes flashed with something like anger when she said it, quickly hidden under her usual mocking expression.
"Caius Veyne, I'm warning you, you better not be thinking about doing something stupid! I told you previously not to use that stupid weapon. But you didn't listen and you wouldn't say what happened either."
"What did you just call me?"
He rolled the name over in his mind. It fit her.
She watched him, searching for something in his expression. "Do you really not remember? Or are you trying out a new way to make me feel guilty?
Caius lowered his gaze. It would be easy to say, I bumped my head and forgot everything. It would also be exactly the kind of excuse that got transmigration characters in stories killed faster.
So he swallowed the impulse: "Forget it."
She moved toward the door, then paused and looked back over her shoulder: "One more thing, your suspension is almost over, if you want to return to Noble Academy, you should avoid angering father.
Chapter
The door closed behind her, and the room fell silent again.
Caius lay there, staring at the ceiling, the words echoing in his head.
The little sister who talked too much for her age. The strange phone call from a girl he had never met. The pain that laced his every movement. The luxurious room flooded with pink.
He could not ignore any of it.
No matter how absurd it sounded, no matter how unreal it felt, he had really transmigrated into a rich boy.
The only problem was, which story had he fallen into?
🪷🪷🪷
He lay there for a while, staring at the ceiling. The smell of bitter medicine clung to his tongue.
His name was Caius.
That part had not bothered him at first. Lots of people shared names with novels and games characters. Caius was not that rare. Authors were too lazy nowadays to come up with new names.
What bothered him the most were the other names mentioned.
A duke for a father, a friend named Mara, a younger sister and most importantly, a school name Noble Academy, and Caius Veyne… those sound very familiar, but he couldn't wrap his hands around it.
Why They Fall…
Caius blinked and pushed himself up on his elbows, ignoring the stab of pain in his ribs. He stared ahead blankly as he had lost his soul.
"Why They Fall…" was a dating sim game set in a rather interesting world.
A smart and lovely female lead, along with multiple handsome male leads who have tragic pasts and complicated personalities. An academy setting game where relationships were built through choices, gifts, and affection points.
He'd watch his friend play it, because he wouldn't shut up about it, Caius who was dragged along every time eventually remembered the story.
The villain in that game is called "Caius Veyne!"
Caius' mouth went dry.
Every connection he made went in the same direction, there's no coincidence here.
In the game, Caius Veyne was the villain everyone hated.
He was engaged to the female lead, Seraphina, from birth. In public, he was possessive and obsessive, always clinging to her, blocking other people, snapping at anyone who got too close to her. He threw his family's name around and used his status to suppress others.
His methods of "love" were cruel. He repeatedly interferes with the male leads' events so he could force Seraphina to rely on him.
Red flags hung around his neck in every route.
In the neutral ending, the villain was humiliated and exiled. In the bad endings, he was broken, imprisoned, or executed when the truth of his crimes was revealed. Most male leads had at least one route where Caius ended up suffering in every ending.
The game version of Caius was a reckless, arrogant, and sadistic young master who seemed to enjoy stepping on every landmine available.
Meanwhile, the current Caius who now occupied his body was timid by nature, terrified of trouble, and had a lifelong habit of crossing the street to avoid conflict.
He almost felt his soul leave his body just from remembering some bad ending.
How did a coward like him transmigrate into a villain who already had so many enemies?
He swallowed hard, already looking for escape routes.