Wish thought that if she ever got a second chance at life, she would at least wake up in a better story.

A spoiled princess.
A doomed villainess on the path to redemption.
A heroine adored by powerful husbands.

Anything would have been fine. That's how stories were supposed to work.
Instead, fate—and whatever twisted cosmic editor writes destinies—casts her in the one role she should never have been reborn into: the fat, ugly, unwanted maiden chosen for sacrifice.

She awakens in a body mocked by her tribe, pitied by her parents, and avoided by every man. In a world where beast forms define worth, hers is a joke—a puff-fluff fox, a useless cotton cloud that couldn't frighten a butterfly.

Worse still, she is the doomed extra whose sole purpose was to die during the Mating Moon Ritual—her death the trigger that allowed the real female lead, a beautiful, weak princess, to earn the devotion of the four almighty beast deities.

The Wind Deity—hot-headed, wild, and dangerously unpredictable.
The Solar Deity—arrogant, playful, and impossibly radiant.
The Sky Deity—silent, calm, and shrouded in mystery.
The Night Deity—cold, calculating, and merciless.

Except Wish doesn't die.

And her survival breaks everything.
The plot stutters. Events twist. Characters act wrong. The world itself seems to notice her refusal to disappear—and begins trying to correct the mistake.

Now hunted by fate and trapped in a society where beauty is worshipped, mating marks define destiny, and the weak are meant to be sacrificed, Wish is given one impossible condition for survival:

She must derail the story completely.

The only way to do that is to draw the attention of the four beings the world revolves around—creatures meant to be untouchable, distant, and divine. 
One is bound to her by a ritual that should have killed her. 
One meets her with hostility instead of fate. One sees her existence as a threat that must be erased. 
One should be incapable of feeling anything at all.

They were never meant to notice her.

The story was never meant to let her live.
So how is she supposed to survive a world that measures worth by beauty and power, when she is fat, unwanted, powerless—and armed with nothing but a useless fluffy fox?

Can she break the story that wants her dead?
Or will she die exactly as the plot demands?

Wish stood frozen in Hyrin's arms as the arena erupted in shocked whispers. His hand still gripped her waist possessively, the kiss still burning on her lips. The Blood Moon pulsed overhead, painting them both in crimson light.


An older man stepped onto the arena floor—the Hunt Master, judging by the elaborate ceremonial armor he wore. His fox ears were grayed with age, his tail twitching with barely contained excitement as he raised both arms for silence.


"Hunters and anchors!" His voice boomed across the space. "Welcome to this year's Blood Moon Hunt!"


The crowd settled, though the murmuring didn't stop completely. Too many shocked eyes kept finding Wish, held captive in Hyrin's arms.


"The rules are simple." The Hunt Master paced the arena floor with practiced showmanship. "This year, twelve Crimson Stags have been spotted in the Whispering Woods. Twelve beasts of legend, blessed and cursed by the Blood Moon itself."


Chapter 40 - The Whispering Woods.