Guilty ontill death

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"Hara, you have committed a great evil. Hara, you are hereby sentenced to execution for collaborating with the outcast Wolfs and causing the deaths of students at Silvercrest Academy. All the evidence points to you, so your execution is inevitable."

"No... please! I didn't kill anyone! Spare me! Someone must have framed me!" Hara shouted, her voice shaking as she desperately pleaded for mercy. "I can't be executed like this. I'm innocent."

The keys they found in her room...

She didn't remember ever keeping those keys there. She didn't remember at all.

The academy had descended into chaos. Rogue werewolves had broken into Silvercrest Academy, shifting into their wolf forms as they rampaged through the grounds, attacking students and destroying everything in their path.

The powerful Alpha students fought fiercely against the rogue wolves, battling with everything they had until they finally defeated them.

Omegas like Hara could only run and hide. With her chubby body, she didn't even know how she had managed to find a safe place to hide. Even so, many Beta and Omega students had still lost their lives during the attack.

After the chaos ended, the academy launched an investigation. They discovered that someone from within the academy had secretly collaborated with the rogue wolves by opening an unsecured gate and giving them access to the school.

Now, Hara had become the one accused of handing over the key.

She was completely innocent.

"Put the rag in her mouth. Make her keep quiet. She's talked enough."

That was it.

A rough rag was shoved into Hara's mouth. She struggled to speak, but only muffled sounds escaped her lips.

Declan, her fiancé, walked over and stopped in front of her.

"Hara, you're disgusting," he said coldly. "I regret ever having you as my fiancée."

Hara shook her head violently as tears streamed down her face.

No...

She knew Declan had never liked her, but she had never imagined his hatred ran this deep.

Deep enough to watch her execution without hesitation.

She knew she was fat. Chubby. Her appearance wasn't attractive compared to the other girls at the academy.

But she also knew Declan didn't hate her simply because of her body.

So what had she done...

What could she possibly have done for him to hate her this much?

The executioner's sword flashed.

Then it sliced across her neck.

Death filled her vision.

She could still see Declan standing there.

She wanted to speak.

She couldn't.

Out of the corner of her fading vision, she caught sight of Viana, her stepsister, watching silently with an expressionless face.

Her breathing grew weaker.

In this life...

If she had to die...

She wished she could go somewhere she would finally be accepted.

A place where she would never have to meet these people again.

✦ ✦ ✦

Hara snapped the book shut before immediately opening it again and flipping through the pages furiously, as though the author might somehow rewrite the story if she glared hard enough.

"Why?" she shouted. "What kind of stupid plot is this?"

She tossed the novel onto the bed before pacing around her room.

"What kind of stupid plot is this?" she muttered again.

Hara didn't deserve any of that.

It wasn't because the female lead happened to share the same name as her.

No.

What had Hara ever done besides being a little chubby?

Every single day, no matter what she did, Viana always looked at her as though she had committed some unforgivable crime.

Then, when the biggest incident happened, she was framed.

They found a key in her room and immediately declared her guilty.

Nobody bothered to investigate further.

Nobody questioned anything.

Just like that...

She was sentenced to death.

"What a stupid plot."

Still grumbling to herself, Hara got up and walked into the kitchen.

She grabbed a glass from the counter, picked up a transparent glass jar, and began pouring herself some water.

Her thoughts drifted back to the novel.

The story she had spent two whole weeks reading.

A million-word novel.

Two weeks of sleepless nights.

Two weeks of doing almost nothing except reading.

Only to end with something so frustrating.

She understood that protagonists were usually written to make readers love them.

But for some reason...

She just couldn't bring herself to like the protagonist.

She hated her.

Lost in thought, Hara failed to notice that the glass had already filled to the brim.

Water spilled over the rim and spread across the countertop before dripping onto the floor.

Only after setting the jar down did she notice the overflowing glass.

Without paying much attention to the puddle beneath her feet, she picked up the glass and turned to leave the kitchen.

The next second—

Her foot slipped.

Her body lost its balance.

She crashed hard onto the floor, her head striking the ground.

Everything went dark.

Where am I?

Hara slowly opened her eyes. A sharp ache throbbed through her head as she tried to gather her bearings. She blinked several times, attempting to clear her hazy thoughts before sitting up on the bed.

Her gaze slowly swept across the room.

It was spacious.

Fancy.

Yet the decorations were dull and bland, with very little that could be considered feminine. The room felt quiet, almost lifeless.

But that wasn't the problem.

This wasn't her room.

She couldn't remember ever coming here.

Did she book a hotel room and hook up with a stranger or something?

No.

No, no, no.

If this were a hotel room, it wouldn't be this fancy. There wouldn't be a bottle of shampoo sitting neatly on the dressing table. There wouldn't be a hairbrush placed beside it. And there certainly wouldn't be a family photograph displayed so openly.

Hara picked up the framed picture.

A man stood proudly in the middle. Beside him were two girls.

One was a chubby girl with soft, round cheeks, dressed in a pink dress.

The other was slimmer, wearing a beautiful purple dress.

Pink...

Pink was Hara's favorite color.

She already liked the chubby girl.

But then her eyes widened.

Why did that girl's face look exactly like how she had imagined the villainess from the web novel she had just finished reading?

Hara.

A terrifying thought suddenly crossed her mind.

"No way..."

She quickly jumped out of bed and rushed toward the mirror.

Standing before it was a girl with long brown hair, chubby cheeks, plump arms, thick thighs, and a soft, round figure.

Hara froze.

Then she took a deep breath.

"Hara... don't panic. Don't panic. You know how to handle this."

She inhaled deeply before slowly letting the air out.

"It's fine. There's nothing wrong with your body suddenly becoming chubby. Your mom is chubby too, so that's not the issue."

She paused.

"No... that's definitely not the issue."

Her eyes slowly widened again.

"I've become the villainess who's going to fucking die."

Her breathing became uneven.

"What point in the story did I transmigrate into? What timeline is this?"

For the first time in her life, she silently thanked God that she wasn't one of those readers who skimmed through novels without paying attention to the details.

She had read every chapter.

Every description.

Every piece of dialogue.

Every little clue.

At least...

That gave her an eighty percent chance of surviving.

"Yeah... yeah... don't panic. Don't panic."

She continued rambling to herself without stopping, speaking so quickly that she barely paused to breathe. The words poured out one after another, faster than she could catch her breath.

"I've become the villainess..."

She slowly stared at the reflection in the mirror.

Her chubby cheeks.

Her soft pink lips.

Her gentle appearance.

Who could possibly hate a face like this?

Did anyone truly hate Hara?

What had she ever done wrong?

Hara was the daughter of the Alpha of the Silent Pack.

Her mother had passed away when she was still young. Later, her father remarried a widowed Luna who already had a daughter from her previous marriage to another Alpha. Both of them had lost their mates, so the two widowers built a new family together.

But what happened to Hara, the daughter of his first Luna?

She was neglected.

She was cast aside.

Her father's attention was always on his new family, especially the children his new wife had brought with her.

Most of all...

His attention was always on his stepdaughter, Viana.

Meanwhile, the chubby Hara was left alone.

Her father couldn't even carry her in his arms because of her weight.

But Hara had been born that way.

She wasn't overweight because she overate.

She had been chubby since birth.

It wasn't because she mistreated her body.

That was simply how she was born.

"So... this is Hara's story."

Viana was the protagonist of the novel.

She was Hara's stepsister.

Warm and kind.

Golden hair.

Beautiful blue eyes.

A perfect figure.

Everything Hara wasn't.

Hara, on the other hand, had five childhood friends.

All of them were future Alpha heirs.

Because of her weight, she never fit in with the other girls. They mocked her whenever they had the chance, and they already had their own circles of friends.

Fortunately, her father had always been close to the fathers of those five Alpha heirs.

Because of that relationship, Hara naturally grew up alongside them.

They played together throughout their childhood.

She even saved one of them once.

Declan.

The very same Declan who was now her fiancé.

Back then, they had all been happy childhood friends.

Until Viana appeared.

After that...

Everything began to change.

People claimed Hara had suddenly become a bad person.

But had she really?

Hara remembered one incident.

She had carefully prepared a birthday present for Declan.

Yet when he opened the gift box, a spider jumped out.

Declan was terrified and furious.

Everyone immediately blamed Hara.

Another time, Viana had been playing on a swing.

The chain suddenly snapped.

Again, everyone claimed Hara had tampered with it.

Every single incident...

Viana somehow happened to be there.

The more Hara thought about it, the less sense everything made.

Why would a lonely child who had already lost her mother suddenly start bullying the only friends she had?

It didn't make sense.

It wasn't normal.

Viana was supposed to be the heroine of the story.

As a reader, Hara should have been paying attention to her.

Instead, all of Hara's attention had been drawn toward the so-called villainess.

Every detail.

Every accusation.

Every misunderstanding.

The more she read, the more she felt something was terribly wrong.

Could it be...

The author simply didn't know how to write a proper villainess?

Just then...

Fragments of Hara's memories suddenly rushed into her mind.

She clutched her aching head.

She couldn't remember every detail yet, but pieces of the past slowly became clearer.

The birthday gift...

Hara had genuinely prepared a present for Declan.

There had never been a spider inside the box.

Somehow, the gift had been switched before he opened it.

The swing...

Hara hadn't damaged it either.

She had only tried to help Viana push the swing.

Yet somehow, the blame had landed on her once again.

As more memories surfaced, everything became clearer.

Someone had been manipulating every incident from the shadows.

And honestly...

After reading web novels for over a decade, the answer was painfully obvious.

Viana.

It had been Viana all along.

Hara had been innocent from the very beginning.

But...

Why?

What could Viana possibly be jealous of?

She had the beauty.

She had the perfect body.

She had everyone's love and attention.

Then Hara finally understood.

Viana wasn't jealous of Hara's appearance.

She was jealous of something else.

The five future Alpha heirs.

The childhood friendships that originally belonged to Hara.

She wanted all of them.

So she slowly stole everything Hara had.

Little by little.

Secretly, Viana whispered poisonous words into Hara's ears, constantly reminding her that she was fat, that no one would ever love her, that no one would ever desire her.

Eventually...

Hara believed every single word.

She convinced herself that she was unworthy of being loved.

Even though she still hadn't found her fated mate...

She was already engaged.

That engagement had happened because the Moon Goddess had chosen Declan as her mate.

Everything had started when they were children.

Hara, Declan, and the other four future Alpha heirs had once spent their days playing together. But after Viana entered their lives, things gradually changed.

Little by little, Hara found herself unable to fit into their circle anymore.

She often stayed behind while they laughed and played with Viana.

Eventually, she stopped trying to join them.

Instead, she remained in her room, reading fiction, novels, and anything she could get her hands on. She slept, ate, and buried herself in books.

As time passed, she gained even more weight, even though her body had always been naturally chubby.

Her father hardly paid any attention to her anymore.

All his time was spent with his new family.

With Viana.

Then, when Hara turned sixteen, she finally found her fated mate.

It was Declan.

One of her childhood friends.

The future Alpha heir.

Her father wasted no time arranging their engagement.

But throughout the entire engagement ceremony, Declan wore a frown.

He didn't look happy.

Not even for a second.

Whenever he was around Viana, however, his smiles came so naturally.

Hara noticed everything.

She always noticed.

Although the rest of her childhood friends congratulated her, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Now, they all attended the same academy.

Silvercrest Academy.

A prestigious school where humans and werewolves studied together, while werewolf society remained hidden from ordinary humans.

Hara was now eighteen years old.

She was still Declan's fiancée.

Once they graduated, they were supposed to get married because they were fated mates.

At least, that was what everyone said.

Yet Declan had never kissed her.

He had never hugged her.

Whenever she got close, he hesitated as though he was afraid of touching her.

Hara had noticed that too.

Meanwhile, Viana was always surrounded by Hara's former childhood friends.

As for Hara...

She had no friends anymore.

Rumors spread throughout the academy.

People whispered that Declan liked Viana.

That Ryan liked Viana.

That the other three Alpha heirs liked Viana as well.

And Hara?

She was painted as the jealous villainess trying to ruin everyone's happiness.

No matter what she did, she somehow became the one at fault.

Every misunderstanding.

Every accusation.

Every rumor.

Everything pointed toward Hara.

Until the final scheme.

The one that ultimately led to her execution.

After putting all the pieces together, Hara finally understood.

If every previous incident had been orchestrated...

Then the final accusation must have been orchestrated as well.

It had all been Viana's doing.

Every single bit of it.

Hara folded her arms tightly across her chest.

"No."

She shook her head.

"I need to survive in this book."

The original Hara had lived a miserable life because of those five Alpha heirs.

But the biggest reason she had continued to endure everything...

...was because she loved Declan.

She truly loved him.

He was her Alpha.

Her fated mate.

The man chosen for her by the Moon Goddess.

Even though he had always been cold toward her, he had never openly insulted her or humiliated her.

Still...

That didn't matter.

Hara snorted.

"I don't care about those men."

"All I care about is surviving."

Declan was the captain of the academy's hockey team.

The other four Alpha heirs were also members of the team.

Every day, Viana fluttered around them like a butterfly.

She brought them cupcakes.

Helped them with their homework without being asked.

Cheered for them during practice.

The five of them always smiled warmly at her.

Meanwhile, Hara was completely ignored.

To make things worse, rumors spread throughout the academy almost every day.

People called Hara dirty.

Nasty.

Disgusting.

Every cruel rumor imaginable eventually found its way to her.

Hara gritted her teeth.

"That bitch, Viana..."

"I'm going to teach her a lesson."

After making up her mind, she folded her arms once again.

"I'm going to teach Viana a lesson."

"And I'm going to clear Hara's fucking name."

"I don't take shit from anybody."

"If they want a villainess..."

A determined smile slowly spread across her face.

"Then I'll clear my name the villainess way."

Just then, a knock came from outside her bedroom.

"Miss Hara," a maid voice called respectfully from beyond the door.

"Master Declan is here.”