[Yifia’s Original Route Ending:]

Yifia once had a happy, complete family. Her carefree life ended when her father fell into gambling. After that came endless fights between her parents, screaming and blows, while every valuable thing in the house disappeared one by one.

In the end, they couldn’t even keep the house.

Worse, as Yifia grew prettier and prettier, her father, crazed by gambling, wanted to use her as a stake.

Just one more round, and he’d win!

He’d win back everything he’d lost, and even more money on top of that. Then their family of three would surely live a rich life.

Convinced he could win, her father spent a long time trying to persuade Yifia.

They only had to endure for a little while.

But Yifia wasn’t a child anymore. She understood what he meant. He wanted to sell her to those terrifying merchants, to have her treated like a slave with no rights at all.

She didn’t want that!

Seeing Yifia’s reddened eyes from crying, her father didn’t feel heartache like he used to. Instead, he was deeply annoyed, thinking his obedient daughter had changed.

Why couldn’t she be a little more sensible?

He’d already said it. Just one last round, and he’d win.

On the night her father finally ran out of patience, Yifia still refused to give in. But before she could run out and hide, her mother had already grabbed an iron hammer and smashed it into her father’s head, crushing it to pieces.

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere. Yifia was terrified, but she didn’t move a single step.

With tears shimmering in her eyes, she looked at her mother’s strained smile and begged her to run away together. But her mother only shook her head, gently stroked Yifia’s hair, and whispered softly to her, “Yifia, run. Don’t let them catch you.”

Yifia refused. Her mother found the last few coins in the house and stuffed them into her pocket, then firmly shut the door.

That night, Yifia’s home was swallowed by flames. Her parents’ bodies were burned into charred remains.

She became homeless.

After spending all the money on her, Yifia disguised herself and moved into the slums. She sank into despair for a while, but in the end, a fire still burned in her heart. She wanted to crawl out of the mire.

She wanted to live like a normal person.

So she applied for Pris Academy’s special admissions for exceptional commoners, and the results came quickly.

She succeeded!

But even though Pris Academy waived tuition for commoner students, the other fees couldn’t be exempted. All the scattered expenses added together came to one gold coin.

And that was only for the first semester.

Yet Yifia couldn’t even dig out a single copper coin from her whole body.

The hardship and despair of life left her dazed and broken, making her feel like her life had already reached its end.

She thought she would die uselessly in the slums.

However, one night, when a dark, skinny man slipped into her room and held out a silver coin, she silently allowed what might happen next.

Afterward, once she had earned enough money, Yifia entered Pris Academy as she had wished. She buried those humiliations and wanted to study hard, then after graduation, get a well-paying job and start life over.

But a beautiful woman with no background was the weaker party anywhere.

Most students at Pris Academy were nobles. Next came exchange students from other countries. Commoners were last, and very few in number. That formed a complete chain of contempt. Commoner students were at the very bottom of the academy, and the group most severely bullied and oppressed.

Powerless to protect herself, Yifia was toyed with by noble young masters. In the end, she died miserably, bringing her pitiful life of drifting and helplessness to a close.

...

[System, is Yifia just a background passerby in this book?]

[No. She’s a supporting character, an important foil to the heroine.]

It took quite a while for Yifia to recover from the original body’s tragic ending. She took a deep breath and felt she needed to pry more information out of the system.

She absolutely had to stop that horrific ending from happening to herself.

[A foil? What’s that supposed to mean?]

[In the book, both the heroine and Yifia are special-admission commoner students at Pris Academy. They are the same age and gender, both have black hair and black eyes, and are even in the same class and dorm. So they are constantly compared. The more miserable Yifia is, the more it highlights the heroine’s good fortune.]

[...]

Fine then!

That was even worse than being a nameless background extra.

Looks like she and the heroine couldn’t peacefully coexist after all.

If one of them had to be unlucky, it definitely couldn’t be her, Yifia!

[Oh right, I forgot to ask. System, you’re not going to force me down the original plot route, are you? If that’s the case, I’ll go find a rope and hang myself right now, and you can hurry up and switch to your next host! ￣へ￣]

Still shaken by that original ending, Yifia hurriedly raised the question.

There was no way she wanted some disgusting man touching her!

If something like that really happened, then she’d just kick his junk apart and drag everyone down with her.

[Host, when you were lying flat and doing nothing, the system never forced you to complete tasks... Host does not need to follow the original plot route. You only need to save the world. Everything else is up to you.]

[I already told you, I can’t save it, so give up!]

Ignoring the system’s talk about saving the world, Yifia finally let out a full sigh of relief after getting the answer she wanted.

If she were being forced to follow the plot, she might as well keep lying flat.

Still, after reviewing the original plot, Yifia was shocked to realize... if she hadn’t met Amelia and received those two gold coins, then tonight would have been the night that dark, skinny man broke into her room.

Damn it!

Stupid system, why didn’t you say something this important?!

It was like squeezing toothpaste. If she didn’t ask, it wouldn’t say a word.

Now that she knew she didn’t have to follow the plot, the weight in her heart finally lifted. Yifia lay back down on the bed, hugged the soft blanket, and rolled once across it. Then, just as she lifted a leg and pinned it under herself, a new question suddenly came to mind.

[System, Amelia is so gentle and considerate. Why is she a Villainess Heiress?]

To keep from losing the pearl, Yifia had specially bought a tiny cloth pouch and hung it around her neck. Now, feeling the pearl’s round shape through the fabric, she felt that someone as good as Amelia shouldn’t be a Villainess Heiress.

Could the system have gotten it wrong?

Amelia was beautiful and gentle, and her violet eyes were utterly captivating.

No matter how she looked at it, Amelia didn’t seem like a bad person!

[System refuses to answer. Please explore on your own, Host.]

Same old formula. Same old taste.

Yifia rolled her eyes speechlessly. She knew the system was unreliable. She’d better start planning for herself as soon as possible.

Getting into Pris Academy was already a done deal.

So besides becoming Amelia’s friend, she also had to guard against the evil hands of the nobles.

Yifia raised a hand and pinched the muscle on her arm. It was soft and squishy, like dough. With combat power barely worth five, she could maybe bully little kids... There was no helping it. She could only rely on tools.

And so, after mysteriously tinkering around for two days, Yifia finally carried her luggage and went to report to the academy.

As the top choice for noble children, Pris Academy had the best teachers, the best landscaping, and the best buildings. Even the dorms were luxurious single rooms.

But commoner special-admission students couldn’t enjoy that benefit. They had to share a room with one other person.

Although Pris Academy was backed by the Church and therefore advocated equality for all, some of the details made it obvious that it wasn’t truly an organization of equal rights.

Yifia had already gone through the hunger and cold of the slums. The memories of her former rich-third-generation luxury had long since blurred. So now, she had no complaints at all. In fact, she was extremely satisfied.

As long as the place could keep out the wind and rain, it was enough.

Sigh, she was so easy to satisfy now~

“Hello, I’m Yifia. I’ll be in your care from now on.”

She knocked politely on the door. After waiting for it to open, Yifia introduced herself.

The moment her words fell, the system’s alert rang out.

[Heroine, Eileen, has appeared!]