The chief secretary handed over the syringe and then rushed down to a reservoir by the roadside, claiming he needed to pee. The fake brother, holding Erica’s hair, refused to release his grip, so he pulled the cap off the syringe with his mouth and spat it out. In the moonlight, the glimmering needle of the syringe pointed towards her neck.
“Be gentle… be gentle…”
“Not a chance.”
Erica slammed the guy’s forehead with her own head.
“Ouch!”
“Ow!”
A scream came out of Erica’s mouth at the same time as the bastard screamed. The moment stars twinkled before her eyes, she corrected the term for the thing hanging on his neck from a bird head to a stone head.
The moment when the man’s grip on her hair loosened as he staggered, Erica didn’t miss it. Slipping out of his grasp, she balled her bound hands into fists and swung them at his face.
“Ouch!”
“Ack!”
Yup, his face was definitely made of stone.
The bastard collapsed onto the dirt ground. Because of that, the syringe he had dropped flew through the air in a parabolic arc and landed in the dark bushes.
Despite winning the fight against a man much larger in stature, Erica felt even more anxious. Her hands and feet were still bound. Attempting to escape in this state would only get her caught again after a few steps. In this condition, she couldn’t take the car and drive away.
“Hey, you still don’t get it, do you…?”
So she decided to try persuading him.
“I’ve already sent the results of the paternity test to my father via text message.”
Her fake brother, who had been trying to stand up, froze in place.
“Now, in this situation, who do you think will be the prime suspect if I don’t return safely, looking unharmed? If my father realizes I’ve been kidnapped and calls the police before you let me go, you’ll face the worst-case scenario…”
The imposter was clearly overwhelmed by anger. He didn’t even accept a kind offer from Erica, who was leading him to safety road. Instead, he refused to take the breadcrumbs of her goodwill. His eyes turned wild, and he lunged at her.
“It doesn’t matter!”
The deluded man was muttering the same words obsessively as he brutally grabbed herby the throat with his ruthless hands.
“As long as you’re gone, that’s all that matters. Without you, I’ll be the king of this group.”
Erica soon went limp and stopped breathing. Her feigned unconsciousness worked, and the hand around her throat fell away.
“Hey, hey, hey, wake up.”
This man didn’t even have the basic common sense to check her pulse. After tapping her cheek a few times and seeing no response, he removed his hands, looking distraught as he stood over her.
“Ugh, he told me not to kill her. If she dies, we’re all in trouble…”
The man hastily pushed Erica into the trunk of the car when he heard approaching footsteps from the reservoir area. His hands were shaking intensely.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Oh, um, nothing.”
“Has she quieted down?”
“Yes? Yes.”
“Then let’s go quickly before she wakes up again. It’s urgent, right now. The old man is searching for her like crazy.”
“That… that’s what she said.”
Only belatedly did the guy relay her words to the secretary general.
“What? Damn it… Hey, what did you do instead of stopping that?”
“How, how could I stop it? Surveillance isn’t my job, it’s Director Kim’s…”
“Are you backtalking me, you little brat? I treated you like a young master, and now you’re showing your true colors?”
The secretary, after venting his frustration on his son, forcefully closed the trunk.
“Hey, drive the car quickly. What are you waiting for? Hurry!”
“Yes, yes.”
Erica finally exhaled and caught her breath in the darkness. As the car door slammed shut, and the engine roared to life, she began to gather her thoughts.
‘The secretary still has a brain, so he’ll keep me alive to use me as a bargaining chip.’
…That calculation, of course, went awry because of the trembling hands of the man who had just taken the wheel.
“Yikes!”
The car accelerated frighteningly, tilting downward as it rushed somewhere.
Bam!
As the loud crash echoed, cold water rushed in through the gap in the trunk. The car had plunged into a reservoir.
“What the fuck!”
Erica cursed the person that had issued this stonehead a driver’s license who was obviously confused between the brake and the accelerator due to panic. She pushed the trunk door with all her might, but it didn’t budge, perhaps due to the water pressure.
“Ugh…”
The cramped trunk quickly filled with water. There wasn’t even an air pocket, and Erica held her breath as she struggled to maintain her will to live.
‘Do they think I’m going to die like this? No way! I won’t die until I get revenge on those bastards!’
It was a moment of desperation when she exerted all her strength and slammed her body against the trunk, causing the door to creak open, and she was pushed out.
Suddenly, she could breathe freely. Had she already emerged from the water? Her entire body was soaked, but at least she could breathe.
“Waaah!”
Waaah?
But why was her voice like that? Startled, she opened her mouth, and someone began to carry her. Were these rescue workers?
“It’s a healthy baby girl.”
The unexpected voice that broke her expectations was that of a middle-aged woman.
‘A healthy baby girl? Who’s her mother? Did I get transferred to the emergency room already?’
She sensed the light and blinked her eyes open. In that moment, she met her own reflection in the mirror.
“Huh? But why is my hair so pinkish-blonde?”
Her face also appeared younger than she remembered. About 30 years or so.
‘Wait a minute, this situation…’
It seemed like she hadn’t survived the car accident but had died and been reborn. In a world of pink-haired girls, spirits, and dragons.
‘Shouldn’t I have been reincarnated if I died? Why did I end up in a random world like this? What happened to my revenge? Did my father see the results of the paternity test? Is the one who killed me alive or dead? If they’re alive, did they go to prison? Can you at least tell me that? Oh, dear god, does my life now end in a cliffhanger, or what?’
However, no matter how much she screamed at the top of her lungs, all that came out of her mouth was…
“Waaah! Waaah! Waaah!”
“Erica, why are you crying again? You just had your milk.”
The first year of her life was like a never-ending stream of tears. Her new parents must have thought she was a difficult child, but she was just an unjustly treated baby.
Then one day, like a flash of lightning, liberation came to her.
‘Maybe it’s not a regression, it’s a possession, and maybe it’s God’s way of telling me that I should be done with my unjust previous life and start anew.’
Perhaps this impulsive thought was the aftermath of a full stomach and a long nap. She was happier now that she was eating well and sleeping soundly than she had been in her previous life when she had been studying and working day and night to please her father.
Anyway, from that day forward, Erica made a decision.
‘Thick and short lives are tiring. Let’s make this life thin and long.’
The place she was born this time was a remote village on the outskirts of a kingdom. Her name was Erica. No last name. She was the daughter of a poor farmer who didn’t even own a wooden spoon, let alone a silver spoon.
Could there be a more perfect place to pursue an ordinary life as an ordinary woman?
‘Alright. The genre of this life is not a crazy cliffhanger drama but a calm healing story.’
At first, everything was going according to plan. Her life flowed calmly, so calm that it was almost boring. However, her life was once again swept into the turbulent current of events, in spring when she had just turned twenty.
Baaa
One sunny day, on a green hill below rugged mountains, where the sound of sheep occasionally echoes, a flock of sheep peacefully nibbles on grass.
The young shepherdess, inhaling the fragrance of wildflowers carried by the mountain breeze, speaks words that diverge from her surroundings.
“This reminds me of Mount Kumgang.”
Uncovering the cloth covering the basket; a delightful aroma wafts through the air.
Today’s lunch was a sandwich made with mashed potatoes, boiled eggs, chopped onions, butter, salt, and more, all mixed well and placed on freshly baked oat bread in the morning. As Erica took a big bite, a sunshine-like smile graced her face.
“This is happiness.”
And so again today, she was alone and peacefully enjoying a simple lunch.
Rustle.
Although the peace was short-lived.
“It’s a wolf!”
A gray wolf poked his head out of the bushes.
The wolf, drooling, its yellow eyes fixed on the mother sheep and her lamb grazing near the bushes.
“No!”
These sheep didn’t belong to Erica; they were the property of the lord. That meant if they were killed, Erica would have to pay for the sheep.
Erica immediately dropped the bread and grabbed the shepherd’s cane. Wielding the long cane vigorously ahead of her, she ran toward the wolf, shouting loudly. Her determined action was no different from any other determined shepherd.
“Get the fuck out of here right now!”
Baa!
However, what actually got scared away were the bewildered mother sheep and lamb.
“Huh? Why isn’t the wolf running away?”
Normally, when this happens, the wolf would be frightened by the person and run away. But this wolf was running toward Erica instead. His hungry eyes were clearly targeting her now.
“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!”
Erica did a 360-degree turn and ran with her feet on fire.
‘If the lord’s sheep die, I’ll have to pay for it, but if I die, nobody’s going to pay for my life!’
The vibrations from heavy footsteps pounding the ground behind her reverberated beneath Erica’s feet. Soon, the rough breathing of the beast running toward her could be heard up close.
‘I-is it going to attack me like this?’
