It was a chilly winter. Goosebumps ran all over my body as the sharp wind blew into my torn clothes. My bare hands and feet, red and frozen, indicated no signs of warmth, even as I continuously blew on them.
‘Will I freeze to death at this point…’
Perhaps it would be a preferred choice to freeze to death, rather than be beaten to my demise. I barely managed to raise my head as I faced the entrance of the warehouse.
“Sh*t, it’s freezing!”
“If it weren’t for the master’s order to keep that scrawny girl from escaping! Ugh…”
“Just hang in there, it’ll be over tomorrow.”
I witnessed the two rugged men standing a distance away. They were stationed to guard me. No, to be exact, they were currently here to prevent me from running away.
Gurgle-
As I crouched down to avoid the cold wind even for a bit, my stomach howled pathetically. It was already the fourth day of this hell, and all I earned were a few sips of water.
Now that I think about it, wasn’t it better to starve to death rather than freeze?
‘Why do I have to be so ill-starred? Out of all extras, why a slave, a slave??’
The location when my second life dawned was this very place, a setting in the novel ‘War of Flowers’. In other words, it was a fantasy book I very much enjoyed reading in the past.
The thing is, it was currently a reality for me.
It all started by my soul possessing the body of a newborn child. Subsequently, as time passed by and familiar names entered my ears, I concluded that the place where I currently lived and breathed was inside a novel.
Of course, my memory as a newborn was not exactly whole.
Currently, I only recalled someone very faint in memory who loved me.
This was because all my recollections of before I became a slave at the age of six had gone.
People concluded it was due to the unbearable trauma I’ve faced that I suffered such memory loss.
At the time, I was wrapped with bandages around my head, and according to the slave owner, my parents abandoned me.
‘Then what was the point…’
I was a slave in a neighboring country that didn’t make an appearance within the novel.
The setting of the novel, the Tekkenen Empire, was the one residing next to the kingdom I awakened within. This consequently confirmed I had nothing to do whatsoever with any characters mentioned.
‘If I was going to be born an extra, I should’ve at least been filthy rich!’
For a nobleman, slaves were not human beings. They were merely valued as objects. Therefore, Count Memento, whom I served, likewise did not treat me as a person.
Until now, it was alright and bearable for me. That was, until the master began gazing at me with unfamiliar eyes and eventually called for me during the night.
Eventually, I couldn’t stand it, so I slapped him across the cheek, and as gossip started falling into his ear, I waited for my end as it was right now.
‘A dog that dares bite its owner should be thrown out.’
Count Memento spat out those words and starved me for a few days, so I could ‘set an example’. Seeing how the guards’ conversation progressed, the day I died was expected to be tomorrow.
‘What kind of life is this…’
At that moment, a cold rush of wind penetrated my bones.
“…Eishan.”
A beautiful, slender voice called my name. Not one person I knew in my life would have ever voiced my name so affectionately.
When I opened my eyes in surprise, a woman covering her face with a strange umbrella stood at the entrance of the warehouse with a man standing beside her.
“…Who.”
Could it be that the grim reaper came to meet me? My jaw fell in astonishment.
“What, Who are you?! This is not a place you should be approaching!”
“Get lost!”
Fortunately, I was not the only one testifying of their threatening behavior. As the two men assigned for the entrance cursed harshly, the man standing beside the woman swung his hand swiftly.
Bang!
He only lightly moved his hand, but the two flew backward rather violently. When I looked back in surprise, the two guards seemed to have long lost their consciousness as they collided with the wall.
What the heck is this?
“Eishan, right?”
Her well-scented, long, glossy silver hair fluttered against the wind.
The woman’s aquamarine-blue eyes remained extraordinary, while her unstained white skin seemed soft and pure.
Her lavish dress, the sparkling accessories representing the light in a dark warehouse, and her dizzyingly high heels.
All of this screamed she was no ordinary resident.
She approached my helpless figure, removed her white lace gloves, and gently swept the ruffled hair of mine behind my ears.
“…I finally found you.”
I was taken aback by her brilliant smile.
‘W-what is this…’
Her aqua-blue eyes and long silver hair.
Her face was perfectly identical to mine.