Master Villainess the Invincible!

Chapter 1

I am a fantasy romance author, otherwise known as an FR author.

To be more precise, I’m a failed FR author.

“Fantasy martial arts stories are all the rage! You should make the jump! How long are you going to tolerate royalties that are less than a month’s worth of part-time work? You’re a full-time author! Didn’t you say that you’re months behind in rent payments?”

Another fellow author friend of mine had recently bragged that they moved from renting a place to leasing after jumping to the fantasy martial arts genre.

And so I decided to make the jump as well. I sat down and tried to write a martial arts story.

“I’m more interested in the martial arts aspect than fantasy. But I don’t know much about the genre...”

After spending years writing stories with medieval fantasy settings full of dresses and aristocrats, I had no knowledge on martial arts stories. Everything from the setting, vocabulary, and power systems were alien to me.

“First, read the most popular story and study it!” my author friend said before they lent me an apparently legendary book in the martial arts genre.

“The Heir to the Namgung Clan? What kind of title is this?”

According to my colleague, this story had more than ten reprints or something...

With a sigh, I turned the first page.

And I immediately got absorbed.

“I hate to admit it, but it’s a good story...”

It had been a best seller for years for good reason. Despite being a genre story, the author was able to craft a believable world, compelling characters, and a story that had plenty of satisfying plot resolutions dotted throughout.

“I want to write a story like this too...”

That had been my main thought after reading the book. I wanted to write stories where the protagonist could do amazing things regardless of money or fame.

But perhaps god had misinterpreted that wish of mine.

After becoming a victim of a hit-and-run during a rainy night on my way home with this book in hand, I woke up only to learn that I had become Haewon Tang, the betrothed of the leader of the Namgung Clan and protagonist, Jiha Namgung.

In other words, I had become the extraordinary villainess of the story. The same villainess that had murdered Jiha Namgung’s first love, manipulated the Five Great Clans, and brought the Demonic Sect into power.

I was literally inside of The Heir to the Namgun Clan.

“I said I wanted to write a story like this, not that I wanted to be inside of it!”

* * *

I remember the unfamiliar scent of herbs assaulting my sense of smell as I woke up.

The scent, somehow both faint and strong enough to make me want to plug my nose, belonged to...

Herbal medicine?

As my vision came back into focus, I noticed the glamorously decorated interior of a room.

Is this a set for a historical show?

Right as I tilted my head, confused at the surroundings I had no connection to, I was surprised to see a man looking at me from where he stood at the foot of the bed.

“Are you finally awake?” The man, looking to be in his early forties, glared as he handed me something.

“This is an herbal infusion that should calm the nerves. I made this by boiling it down day and night for you miss, so please take it.”

The herbal scent that was making my head spin seemed to be coming from that decoction in his hand. After staring blankly at the deep dark liquid, I hurriedly gulped it down, pressured by the man’s continued glares.

He didn’t take his eyes off of me even for a moment as I drank it.

“The entire family has been thrown into disarray because of you. Are you even aware of what you have done?” His voice held barely contained rage. I could hear him grind his teeth.

As I continued to listen to him blankly, I noticed a confectionery placed on a small plate next to the herbal infusion.

Involuntarily, I reached for it and placed it in my mouth. It was licorice covered with sugar, and it neutralized the bitter flavor of the infusion I had just drank.

That was when the man erupted in anger.

“It is already difficult enough to survive in this world with one of the Five Great Clans as an enemy, but you have managed to make not one clan, but two, into your enemies! How is it that you are still able to eat as if everything is all right?!”

The cold energy emanating from the man weighed down on my shoulders.

“Wh-What the…?” I could feel something tighten around my throat, preventing my breathing.

I writhed around, choking, but the man didn’t stop glaring at me.

“Hee Zhuge was the most beloved daughter of Ming Zhuge and the daughter of Lady Xishan. It may have just been an attempt but you still fully intended to poison her, and Ming Zhuge demanded a payment of 4000 silver for the price of not pursuing the matter any further.”

I coughed, but he ignored it.

“The Namgung Clan has already delivered a letter breaking their engagement with you. The partnership that the clan head was hoping to establish with the Namgung Clan has also been called off. Do you understand the gravity of what you have done?!”

No. I didn’t understand a single thing.

When the man noticed my face turning blue, he finally released his energy.

I coughed as I tried to catch my breath. “I don’t... understand a single thing… that you’re trying to tell me...” I said after a moment, still coughing in between words.

As soon as I finished, a stream of memories flooded my brain, and a splitting headache assaulted my skull.

An almost panoramic view of memories played like one video after another.

A woman picking up a cup of tea that I handed to her. The woman falling to the floor as a man blasted me off my feet and carried her, a step mother, a father, a younger sibling... a lonely and harsh childhood...

Haewon Tang.

These weren’t my memories. Yet the memories belonged to me somehow.

“Haewon Tang? I’m Haewon Tang?”

“Indeed you are, my lady. Indeed you are!” The man yelled as if imploring me to accept it, but all it did was confuse me further.

Haewon Tang was the villainess that appeared in The Heir to the Namgung Clan.

Such was her love for Jiha Namgung that she used her family, the Sichuan Tang Clan, to enter an engagement with him even though she failed to earn his love.

Haewon Tang’s one-sided love had turned into something more sinister. If she couldn’t have him, then no one else could.

After multiple attempts, Haewon Tang had successfully poisoned his lover Hee Zhuge, and she used her own beauty to seduce and sow chaos between the future heirs of the Five Great Clans.

She was the main villain of the story that paved the way for the Demonic Sect to take over the world by singlehandedly breaking the storied alliances between the clans.

“It hurts...” Pain continued to stab at my head. No doubt due to my original memories getting mixed up with Haewon Tang’s.

My nose started to bleed and droplets of blood fell onto the white bed sheets.

I finally came to a realization as the memories settled on top of the name, Haewon Tang; this was a martial arts story, and that I had become its chief antagonist.

“My lady!”

The man caught me as I fell forward, but I had already fainted.