Chapter 1

Lia woke up in the middle of a small clearing. The woods encircled around her as the leaves rustled every time the wind blew. She remained sprawled on the ground, the grass tickling. She watched the overcast sky. Staring off in space, doing nothing, feeling nothing. It was peace she always longed.

But it was a misplaced peace. Lia slowly sat up and glanced around. An unfamiliar place. She brought her hand to her forehead and massaged her temples. Her last memories were definitely not here.

She was going to buy food in a convenience store across their house. Her mom left early for work. She was usually busy so Lia was to handle the housework. But she was not in the mood to cook. Blame it to a frustrating novel that kept her up the night before.

She spent the last few days trudging through a novel where her namesake died because she decided to play the fool in love. Lia was so frustrated by her actions but at the same time felt sad for her when she was executed. It was one of those period stories where everyone was against the path of the main couple doing everything they could just to hinder their relationship and the success of the careers of the male and female lead.

The Lia from the novel was a cannon fodder, who after giving her everything to the protagonist, was discarded once he met the beautiful female lead because everyone just had to bow down to her beauty and wit.

But the novel Lia was also beautiful. That was how she caught the attention of the protagonist. First, her beauty, second her brains for helping him for his siege, and finally her heart for relentlessly taking care of him whenever he was on the brink of dying. She was such an angel!

That was the thing. Novel Lia was too beautiful yet also too naive.

After the main leads met, she was cast aside, doing menial jobs in the harem. A girl with only her looks and no family to back her up was like a food dangling in the lion’s den. Her once pure heart was slowly filled with malice. Once it was full to a brim, just a slight push in the wrong direction and she was down to the dark path, leading up to her death.

Just by thinking about it, Lia felt her frustration and anger rising again. How could she let herself be fooled by that!? Don’t just believe any guy who tells you that you were beautiful! He must be lying! They would cast you aside once they see someone prettier.

Despite that, she quite liked the story. Still, that was not important right now.

Lia chewed on her inner cheek and shut her eyes. Her last moments…

Did she not die? She remembered crossing the street when a speeding sports car drove right into her. She barely had the time to grasp what happened before everything went black. Then there was silence.

When she opened her eyes, she was here, in the woods, in the middle of nowhere. The place was exactly how she imagined the novel Lia would have played at before she encountered all of the love dramas and palace politics. Lia chuckled at the thought.

She snapped her eyes open.

It could not be…

She glanced down at her body and realized her long black hair. The longest she could manage was until the mid part of her back but her hair looked like a bird’s nest than an actual hair in the morning. But now, It was long and shiny and had big curls, something she never managed to have before. And definitely, something that would not appear overnight.

Her eyes traveled to her dress. A dress. She never wore dresses. Much less a floral dress. No wonder her legs felt cold since earlier.

Everything about her felt wrong, but at the same time, also felt right, familiar.

“No way.” she murmured.