The First Realization of Life

 

To properly start this story, one has to mention Valentin’s first realization in life. Without it, the story cannot progress.

 

For Valentin, the huge first realization of life came when he was younger and more tender at the age of 15. 

 

‘I am a reincarnated person, and this place right now is inside a book I read in my previous life.’

 

This realization was found in the worst possible way, in front of the worst possible person.

 

*

 

Valentin was having a regular tea time with the 3rd prince, who was his fiancé due to a verbal agreement between their families, and at that moment, his mouth was fully filled with strongly steeped Earl Grey tea.

 

“Pffffff!”

 

And so, the Earl Grey tea that filled Valentin’s mouth was sprayed very evenly on the 3rd prince’s face and clothes, along with the sudden realization that came.

 

Valentin, who generally never thought he had bad luck in life, became convinced that he was going downhill starting from the moment he gained this huge realization.

 

If not that, then right at this moment! 

 

In front of the person he least wanted to see!

 

Moreover, in front of the person who hated and disliked him, he couldn’t show such a worst appearance.

 

The 3rd prince who received the baptism of tea mixed with saliva…. It was because he was too shocked by the sudden realization of reincarnation. The tea even landed very fairly on his handsome face without missing any spot.

 

He, who already disliked and treated Valentin coldly, threw the dirty handkerchief he used to wipe his face with an even more unpleasant expression than usual. And he left his seat without even the minimum greeting or manners.

 

However, for Valentin who faced the tremendous situation of realizing his reincarnation, the 3rd prince getting angry and leaving wasn’t the problem. Not even the fact that he was the fiancé Valentin used to like.

 

The real problem was something else.

 

‘I’m screwed.’

 

The impression of this first realization was the same as the second time.

 

It had to be.

 

Valentin was a villain in the novel he read in his previous life. 

 

A fiancé who hated and interfered with the 3rd prince, the protagonist, and his delicate omega lover to death, and in the end when his evil deeds were revealed, he faced the downfall of his family and a miserable death. 

 

As soon as Valentin got home with the realization, he wrapped his head like a Korean grandmother and laid down.

 

And he started thinking hard enough for his head to explode in order to solve this problem.

 

*

 

In his previous life, Valentin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Western painting from the best university in Korea, and following the teachings of his seniors that art should be learned in its homeland, he went to study abroad.

 

However, the excitement from the new environment, paintings of various foundations, excellent teaching methods, and colorful attempts he saw for the first time was short-lived. Before even a year passed, a slump hit him, and starting with homesickness, symptoms like depression also began to appear.

 

To him in that state, his roommate who came together from Korea handed him a book.

 

[What’s this?]

 

[Since you’re so depressed. Read this and cheer up at least.]

 

The book the roommate gave was a web novel that was so easy for anyone to read published into a paper book.

 

[It was a hugely popular book.]

 

The body that was sprawled out not wanting to do anything due to depression gradually regained energy as it was met with Korean, the letters that were at least welcome.

 

The content of the book was a really simple cliché.

 

Clifton Leopold, the 3rd prince of the Sonover dynasty with beautiful red hair that burned like a sunset.

 

A typical hard-working protagonist who overcomes the complex of being an alpha close to recessive and wins the throne succession battle. He had someone he loved. Evener from the Luwin Viscount family who had been with him since childhood. He was also a recessive omega, always a devoted lover who encouraged the 3rd prince he loved to overcome the limitations of his trait.

 

However, a crisis found them too. It would be disappointing if there was no crisis in a novel. But that crisis was such a simple cliché, with developments through the villainous supporting character that it was ridiculous.

 

The Wiche Viscount family was not a noble family boasting the nobility and tradition of blue blood. Two generations ago, they put their name at the tail end of the great nobility, and growing into a family with a lot of capital thanks to greatly expanding their business in line with the era of change when industrialization took place.

 

Valentin, the only son of that family, was born with the very rare trait of a dominant omega. So the Hedderfield ducal family, the 3rd prince’s maternal family, and his mother, Empress Beatrice, wanted to make Valentin Wiche’s fiancé.

 

From honor and status to traits and financial aspects, it was clear their political marriage would be a win-win for both sides.

 

However, the 3rd prince who had a childhood friend he loved dearly did not welcome this fact. Valentin, whose engagement he thought was his own was met with the cold treatment of the person he loved and an unrequited love, got his pride hurt and started committing evil deeds to recover it.

 

Starting from trivial things like spilling tea on the clothes of Evener Luwin, the prince’s lover, it later escalated to pouring poison on his face. The evil deeds out of jealousy to separate the two lovers gradually became crimes.

 

And as the story unfolded, the incidents were cliché but gradually took the form of virtue being rewarded and vice being punished.

 

Valentin’s evil deeds brought people’s condemnation, and for some reason, his family began to crumble little by little starting from the engagement. In contrast, the protagonist 3rd prince and Evener succeeded in everything they did and had luck in all matters. As that situation repeated, Valentin became more and more villainous. 

 

In the end, the gradually intensifying evil deeds led him to destruction.

 

In the latter part of the novel, all his evil deeds and his family’s corruption were also revealed in detail.

 

Valentin, who was a vicious supporting character, disappeared from the story by taking his own life, and the protagonist couple met a happy ending. It was a story where the protagonists became more and more filled with light while the villain fell into darkness, as if all stories were divided into good and evil.

 

It was a novel with a simple storyline, but the staircase-style growth story of the protagonist like a boys’ comic was worth watching. Was it thanks to the author placing various incidents and three-dimensional supporting characters in the right places? The story was fun enough.

 

But I thought as I closed the book.

 

‘How mediocre.’

 

Somehow, rather than empathizing with the prince’s lover who was also a recessive omega, thoughts about Valentin, the trivial villainous supporting dominant omega character, didn’t leave my head.

 

Was it because I recently went through a breakup, unable to overcome the limitations of a recessive omega?

 

‘To be born as a dominant omega from a wealthy and good family, live receiving all sorts of praise from people with beautiful looks, yet in the end, obsess over the one thing you can’t have and drive your life to ruin. How pathetic.’

 

I don’t know how he lived after that, but the last memory was throwing the closed book on the floor and lying back down on the bed.

 

And I was living well as that Valentin, but suddenly the memories of my previous life revived at the age of 15….

 

I really don’t know why or how this supernatural event occurred, but what’s important is not the past or the cause, but what will happen in the future.

 

Valentin, who was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling like in his previous life, started thinking hard enough for his head to burst.

 

‘How can I live this life smoothly unlike in the novel from now on?’

 

The solution was simple.

 

Avoid the 3rd prince, don’t harm that couple at all, rather support their love, and live as an unrelated third party not involved with them at all.

 

‘Live a free life not entangled with anyone.’

 

This seemed to be the perfect solution, and with this, I thought I could live without dying.

 

Like that, with a simple solution in mind gained through the experience of reading a novel about being reborn in the previous life, I fell asleep peacefully, but that short peace was shattered the next morning while having a conversation with my parents during breakfast.

 

“What? You’re saying the engagement can’t be broken?”

 

Valentin asked with a sharp scream.

 

He was so startled and screamed that the viscount pitifully burst the yolk of the egg he was eating well, waves hit inside the viscountess’s teacup, and the young uncle dropped his fork. 

 

“You didn’t really think the marriage talks going back and forth with the imperial family was as simple as exchanging goods at a store, did you…?”

 

Viscount Wiche said with a concerned expression while looking at his beloved only son. His hand had already put down the spoon he was using to scoop the eggs.

 

I don’t think I raised you to be such a stupid son…. The son who seemed to be out of his mind these days was worrisome.

 

“Still, we haven’t exchanged the engagement papers yet…!”

 

Right? Father? Please say that’s right. Please say you didn’t exchange them secretly without me knowing while I was out of my mind these past few days.

 

Valentin was desperate. This was a matter of life and death.

 

If things went wrong from here, it would really be the end. It would be like getting an express ticket to greatly complicating matters and heading towards death flags. Valentin made a sad face recalling that in the original work, all misfortunes began starting with the engagement between Valentin and the 3rd prince.

 

“Of course, engagement papers haven’t been officially exchanged yet.”

 

As he said that, the viscount completely put down the dishes.

 

Even while sighing in relief with a ‘phew’, Valentin swallowed his saliva seeing his father’s gesture that seemed like he would start talking in earnest – bringing his clasped hands to the tip of his chin. It was clear there was more to say.

 

“But a verbal contract is also a contract.”

 

The brows of the viscount who had a teenage son came together to have a serious conversation.

 

“Honey. Do you have to bring that up at the dining table on Monday morning…?”

 

Seeing her son whose face was gradually turning blue as if he lost all hope in the world, the viscountess dissuaded her husband.

 

“Valentin is all grown up too. He needs to know about this kind of talk.”

 

Moreover, all the more so if it’s a matter related to himself. The viscount added in a small voice.

 

As he said that and signaled with his eyes to the servant standing behind, he quickly approached soundlessly and cleared the viscount’s plate, and the butler filled the viscount’s cup with strong coffee.