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"You are a disgrace to our family! How dare you harm the emperor of this empire?! I am disappointed in you!" my father shouts.

I tried to hold onto his hand but I ended up getting pushed instead.

"Father! No!" I begged.

"Arin, you have no right to step foot in this place anymore. From now on, you shall stay in the dungeons until the date of your execution is decided," he declares.

My eyes goggled and hopelessly, I kneeled and hugged his leg, showering kisses on his boot.

"F—Father please don't leave me! I didn't do it! I was just...I was just manipulated! I didn't know... Father, please believe me! I would never hurt the future crown prince!"

But even when I acted like dirty rat, he never looked back. The guards immediately restrained me and pulled me outside of the room.

I watch my father's back as he walk proudly...away from me.

I open my eyes and pant so hard. That memory...

"So it was just a dream... Ugh!"

Ahh...I'm already in the afterlife, right. Why am I dreaming about my gruesome life back then?

Ah...no. I'm not dead yet. How could I forget that man who claimed to be my father?

"Argh!" I mess my hair to try and calm myself down. Once done, I assess my surrounding since it looks different from the one I woke up from before.

This one has huge windows with flowers scattered as decorations. It looks like a room from a fairytale but I can't seem to understand why all the things here appear to be different from the usual things we have in the palace.

I don't really understand.

"I guess it's not bad to get lost...and stay in a place like this..."

Curiously, I stand up to look around the room only to end up seeing a reflection of me in a huge mirror in the corner.

Huh?

"Just...what..."

Why am I a child?!

I try to clear up my eyes just in case but my reflection tells me that I really am a child! Even my face and hair are different! What happened?!

"Why are my hair and my eyes black?!"

What did they do to me?! I know about magicians but they are just folktales?! So how is this possible?! My eyes should be clear white and my hair should be golden honey! It is a symbol of the royal family!

Just then, someone hastily opens the door and a boy in a suit enters with a smug look.

"I wondered what was the commotion yesterday and it appears that a rat entered the house."

A r—rat?! Me? Is he talking about me?

I was told many names even by my own family before but never have I ever been called a rat!

"Excuse me, sir, but if your eyes are working properly, you can obviously differentiate a human from a rat," I say, annoyed.

I am already thinking about a lot things. I don't want to argue with a boy now.

I thought he'd shout at me and leave after that but surprisingly, he stays there while watching me look at my own reflection.

A few seconds passed before he moves closer to me.

"Alright. I accept you as my sister. Not anyone can just say that in front of me. You have the guts of a Kim and that necklace you're wearing is obviously the symbol of our family," he says while pointing at the necklace through my reflection on the mirror.

Frowning, I touch the thin silver chain around my neck. It's small but if you look closely enough, you can see coin-like metal with a simplified fox form.

I gasp.

I don't remember wearing this... Wait, this is a different body. Get a hold of yourself, Arin! You have to think carefully first. Something weird is really going on in this place.

But did he just say he accepts me as his sister?

"What...do you mean by sister?" I ask cautiously.

"Did father not tell you everything?" he asks, a bit dumbfounded.

I frown before looking away.

"He must have not want to shock you since you just came here."

A bit exhausted, I sit on the bed and he follows to sit on the chair near me.

"Fine. Let me explain it to you. You are the lost daughter of the Kim family. You're mother was kidnapped while she's pregnant with you and we never found her."

My mother was kidnapped while she was having me?! But I am the royal princess...and my mother left me in the palace all alone.

"Five years later, we found an evidence that she had you and that you're still alive somewhere. Unfortunately, it took us three years to pinpoint your location and save you. And thus, you are here now."

Okay, this is too much to understand. Why is he saying that I was in my mother's womb eight years ago? Is this really not the afterlife?

Perhaps, was I...given a new life instead because I was executed in my past life?

Confused, I tried to ask again that one simple question again.

"So...you're saying that this is not the afterlife?"

He then frowns.

"I know you were an orphan and you were mistreated but was it that...gruesome for you to think that you died?" he asks, his lips twisting as if he's getting mad.

I was never an orphan. Ugh! Should...I tell him my life? No, I can't just trust anyone. I still don't know him. More importantly, I'm in an unknown place.

Annoyed, he leaves my room without another word. On the contrary, I am left staring at my own reflection...and the necklace.

If...I was just here now and...I don't remember any of Jisoo Kim's past life then maybe...I reincarnated into her body? If so...then where is the real Jisoo? I know in myself that I died in the execution. So...is it possible that she died at the same time and I was able to take on her body? But if she died and I am here...does that mean that she's in my body instead? Was she able to continue living in my body?

Ugh! This is making me crazy!

That doesn't make any sense at all...but that's my only hunch as of the moment.

I am clearly no match with my brother, the emperor, but I am not dumb. This is the only reasonable thing that I can come up with.

I've read a story before in the royal library. There's that one book that contained a really weird content. It was located at the deepest corner of the Girnoine library.

The story supposedly happened decades ago about the third empress who came from another world. It said there that she woke up in the palace saying weird things. She would even do and perform unimaginable things that slowly captured the heart of the emperor.

It was a taboo fantasy noble but the author used our royal ancestors as the main characters. Some said that it's the real history of the Rotiellienne Empire but some also claimed that it's just a fantasy love story made out of a whimsical mind.

Before, I would've just thought that it was absolutely made up but now, I can't help but believe that it wasn't just a baseless story at all.

Did I really take on...Serra Kim's body?

~*~