My Soul, to Thee.

It was a romance fantasy novel set in a fictional medieval world.

It was the very novel Lilliana had been reading in her previous life until the moment she died.

And now…

It was her reality.

Blending a traditional fantasy setting with the author’s own unique worldbuilding, the novel had gained considerable popularity on an amateur fiction site.

Lilliana had loved that world.

Cero.

Uno.

Dos.

Tres.

Cuatro.

These words, all representing numbers, were the names used to classify humanity according to the strength of one’s power and abilities.

In the beginning, all people had been ordinary.

But over the course of several centuries, some individuals began developing the ability to absorb mana from the earth and the air.

They accumulated mana within their bodies, and as time passed, they came to possess strength far beyond that of ordinary humans.

Having acquired abilities that surpassed everyone else’s, they called themselves “Uno.”

Using their power, the Uno easily rose to become the ruling class.

Unlike the Uno, the Dos did not possess overwhelming strength.

However, they were still capable of wielding mana.

The Tres, on the other hand, were no different from ordinary people.

They were simply nobles who had accumulated great wealth over generations and adopted the title to distinguish themselves from commoners.

And making up seventy percent of humanity were the Cuatro.

They were completely ordinary people with no special abilities whatsoever.

That was the foundation upon which the novel began.

The male protagonist was an Uno and the prince of the Kingdom of Verona.

Although the Uno possessed tremendous power, they suffered from one fatal weakness.

Every time they used their abilities, their lifespan grew shorter.

Ever since birth, the prince had spent his life strengthening the royal family’s authority and fighting on the battlefield.

With every battle…

He inched closer to death.

Yet he had never been attached to his own lifespan.

His only wish was to strengthen the royal family before he died.

Then, as if by fate, he met the heroine.

She was a Cero.

A being even rarer than an Uno.

Someone who appeared perhaps once every hundred years in the entire kingdom.

Yet despite their rarity, most Cero possessed even less mana than a Dos, let alone an Uno.

However, a Cero’s true power only awakened upon meeting their destined Uno.

The Cero were a race born solely to meet the Uno fated to them.

Once they found their destined partner, both of them gained extraordinary power.

Nor was that power limited to the Cero alone.

A Cero could extend the short lifespan that was the Uno’s one fatal flaw.

Not only that, they could greatly amplify the Uno’s innate abilities.

Because of that, Uno who journeyed alongside a Cero became far stronger than any other Uno and earned widespread renown.

The novel’s two protagonists were destined for one another.

After meeting by chance, they gradually fell in love.

Together, with their newfound strength, they defeated the enemies threatening the kingdom, both from within and without.

Along the way, they endured countless hardships and suffered greatly at the hands of the villain.

But in the end…

They reached their happily ever after.

“The problem is…”

Lilliana murmured quietly.

“…I’m inside that novel.”

Her small hand traced the crimson crescent moon mark just below her collarbone.

“…And of all people…”

“…my fated partner just had to be that ruthless villain.”

A bitter laugh escaped her lips.

Unlike the Uno and the Dos, who knew what they were from the moment they were born, the Cero did not.

It wasn’t until their eighteenth birthday, the day they came of age, that the mark appearing on their body revealed their true identity.

A few days earlier, on Lilliana’s birthday, the crimson crescent moon, the mark of a Cero, had appeared on her body.

At first, she had been happy.

She was someone special.

Rarer than anyone else.

But the joy was short-lived.

The moment she remembered that her hometown was the same as the heroine’s…

She broke down in tears.

Not every Uno had a destined Cero.

But every Cero had a destined Uno.

Lilliana’s destined partner…

Was Rajes Eberhardt, the villain of the novel.

More than ten years had passed since she’d been reborn into this world, and many of the novel’s finer details had faded from her memory.

Even so, there were a few things she still remembered.

One of them…

Was the villain’s fate.

Rajes Eberhardt was an Uno.

And not just any Uno.

He was a man who despised having a Cero by his side so much that he devoured his own Cero’s soul, absorbing only her power.

There had been one scene in which the heroine’s inner thoughts revealed the truth.

<Goodness… So Rajes’s destined partner was a Cero from Eden, just like me. That poor girl…>

The heroine remembered that the incredibly rare Cero had been the same age as her and had come from the same village.

And because Lilliana had loved the novel’s worldbuilding so much…

She had never forgotten that brief passage.

“Why did I have to be Rajes’s destined partner…?”

That was the truth.

Lilliana wasn’t the heroine.

She wasn’t even a supporting character.

She was a nameless extra remembered by neither Rajes nor the heroine.

A pitiful Cero whose soul would be completely devoured by her own destined partner.

That was Lilliana.

She stared blankly at the mirror.

Reflected in its cloudy surface stood a thin, frail girl.

Her untidy black hair reached all the way to her waist.

The golden eyes she had once thought resembled stars now lay sunken beneath dark shadows.

After living such a miserable life within the Parvane household…

The only thing waiting for her was an even more miserable death.

“…”

Lilliana let out a long breath as she rubbed her face with both hands before stepping away from the mirror.

She couldn’t afford to wallow in despair forever.

Ever since discovering she was a Cero, her emotions had changed dozens of times a day.

She would sink into despair over her circumstances and her tragic fate…

Then feel a little better whenever she thought about the plan she had painstakingly come up with.

It wasn’t a perfect plan.

But it offered a small chance to change her fate.

She was afraid it might fail, just as it had before.

Even so…

Lilliana had no intention of giving up.

After all, she was the only person who could save her

Casting aside her gloomy thoughts, Lilliana shook out the freshly washed clothes.

One by one, she hung them on the makeshift clothesline she’d strung across one corner of her tiny room.

Thankfully… ever since I became a Cero, the way they treat me has changed a little.

It hadn’t taken long for her family to learn she was a Cero.

Tartan had discovered the mark while trying to beat her mercilessly on her birthday.

After that, her treatment within the household changed.

She still wasn’t allowed to use hot water.

She still had to do all the chores.

But the backbreaking labor and the beatings had stopped.

Compared to the life she’d lived before, even that much was a blessing.

However…

There was another reason their attitude toward her had changed so drastically.

“Hey, you pest!”

Just as she finished hanging the last of the laundry, the shout of the one person she least wanted to see echoed through the room.

A series of violent knocks followed, as though the door might be smashed off its hinges.

Her mood sank in an instant.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Lilliana walked over and opened the door.

“Didn’t I tell you not to lock your door?”

A figure twice her size loomed over her.

Lilliana instinctively took a step back before quietly asking,

“…What do you want?”

“Eat.”

Tartan tossed a baguette at her.

It landed on the floor with a dull thud.

It was only about the size of a palm, as though someone had already eaten the rest.

Even so, Lilliana picked up the stale bread.

Compared to the portions she’d been given until now, this was generous.

“Looks like life’s treating a little pest like you pretty well now, huh? You’re so damn lazy you couldn’t even come downstairs by this hour? Do I have to bring your food to you too? Huh?”

Leaning carelessly against the wall, Tartan mocked her without restraint.

Lilliana said nothing.

She simply bit into the bread.

It was so hard she could barely chew it.

All she could taste was dry flour.

As she reached for some water to wash away the dryness in her mouth, a powerful hand suddenly seized her forearm.

The overwhelming grip yanked her to her feet.

Bang!

A violent impact slammed into her back.

Tartan had shoved her against the wall.

Even then, Lilliana didn’t scream.

She simply glared at him.

The cold, emotionless look in her eyes made the corner of Tartan’s mouth curl upward.

“A worthless little thing like you dares to look down on me? You should be begging instead. What, you haven’t been beaten for a few days and you’ve already forgotten your place?”

His thick, calloused hand grabbed her by the collar.

At first, she could still endure it.

But as his grip tightened, breathing became harder and harder.

Only then did Lilliana manage to force the words out.

“L-Let go…

I…

I’m a Cero.”

Cero.

The moment those two syllables left her lips, Tartan loosened his grip.

He released the pressure…

But he didn’t let her go.

Keeping her pinned against the wall, he spoke through gritted teeth.

“If you weren’t a Cero, you would’ve become my slave a long time ago. If I wanted to, ruining you would be easy.”

Contempt filled Tartan’s black eyes.

Lilliana could barely bear to meet his gaze.

He had always looked at her as though she were nothing more than an insect…

Before mercilessly beating her.

More than once, she’d wondered whether she’d end up dying at his hands.

But now that her identity as a Cero had been revealed…

Tartan could no longer lay a finger on her.

“But if I damaged you, your value as merchandise would drop, so I don’t have much choice. Still, don’t forget this.

You’re still worth less than a bug in this house.”

Throwing one last vicious glare at her, Tartan turned and left the room.

The moment he disappeared…

The strength left Lilliana’s legs.

The piece of bread slipped from her fingers as she collapsed onto the floor.

“Hic…”

The tears she’d been desperately holding back finally spilled over.

Her entire body trembled with rage and humiliation.

Pulling her knees tightly to her chest, Lilliana buried her face against them.

Her cotton trousers gradually became damp with tears.

Yet she couldn’t stop crying.

Even so…

At times like this, she was grateful to be a Cero.

The only reason her life had improved…

The only reason the beatings and the backbreaking labor had stopped…

Was because, as a Cero, she had become valuable merchandise.

Three days from now, Lilliana was to be sold to House Eberhardt.

Before that happened…

She intended to run away.