The Lost Chronicles of a Villainess

ARC ONE | Don't Blame a Daydreamer

Naomi grimaced to herself the moment the memories slowly trickled into a stop.

The book was highly recommended because of its cheesy, romantic (read: cliché) scenes, and the Duke's rather dashing appearance. Of course, no woman could resist the allure of a man who was loyal and sweet to them, but cold and curt to everyone else. It was the biggest selling point of the novel.

Naomi would be lying if she said she hated it because she did enjoy reading the book. Living in it though, was a total nightmare.

"Glad that's done and over with," Naomi muttered to herself, wiping her face with the palm of her hand.

Clearing the Eleventh circle had been a pain to deal with, but it was worth clearing it to reach the Twelfth circle.

Eleven—eleven lives she had to live, eleven bodies she had to take, and eleven identities she had to play.

Naomi thought she'd gotten used to being a Traveler—a being capable of entering into the world of novels and becoming one of its characters.

She hadn't always been this way. She used to be an untethered soul, an existence without a body and without a world to tether herself to. It made her a phantom with the ability to wander through countless of different realities and different times, neither dying nor living—just existing for the mere sake of it.

She did not know how she came to be or why she had been created this way. She did not even know what she was until the System popped into existence.

"Compute the rewards of the Eleventh circle, please," Naomi called out, yawning tiredly.

"Computing the Reward Points in the Eleventh circle for the Host," the System complied to Naomi's request.

The System was fair and generous; it awarded her points for every circle she cleared, and gave her penalties for the rules she broke. It gave her missions and tasks to complete. After completing said tasks, it even gave her the option to live through a world until the body she inhabited died a natural death.

A series of flashing words and numbers popped up in front of her, shining brightly like neon signs. Naomi squinted her eyes as she read the following statements.

[MAIN MISSION: Seduce the Male Lead (NOAH CALLISTO) and stop the engagement between him and the Female Lead (AURORA NELLIS) | COMPLETE: 50,000 REWARD POINTS]

Naomi's grimace dug deep as a series of unnamed emotions surged up within her, making her heart swell uncomfortably inside her chest. She closed her eyes and attempted to steady her breathing, painstakingly ripping those emotions apart to throw them behind a wall she erected firmly around herself.

It took a moment for her to recover from the sudden onslaught of feelings, and remember everything in an objective lens.

In the book, she transmigrated into the body of the Crown Prince's younger sister, the princess named Naomi Constance.

For some reason, Naomi only transmigrated into the bodies of novel characters who had the same name as she did. She called them the Original, referring to their original character designs. It was a way for her to separate herself from them, since upon transmigration in the circles, she would not only be able to inhabit their bodies but also inherit their memories as well, as if the bodies and identities were her own.

Naomi didn't want to confuse herself with the original character written in the books. She was herself before she transmigrated. She would remain as such afterwards. She wasn't some ordinary human or character in the circles, she was a Traveler. There was a difference.

It was also out of respect for the original characters—the original Naomi in the novels—as they, too were their own persons before she entered the circles, possessed their bodies, and "stole" their identities.