Chapter 3
I burst into tears as I scanned the silver-haired man and his sky-blue eyes.
Crazy.
Who on earth is this guy?
No matter how I look at it, he’s neither a doctor nor a nurse from Korea University Hospital, nor even our mom.
Yet, he doesn’t seem like any other patient either. If such a handsome patient, even a foreigner, had been admitted, rumors would have spread long ago.
I cried like a child right there. It had been so long since I cried like that.
The handsome silver-haired man comforted me while I couldn’t stop crying.
After some time passed, I found out. He’s none other than the Duke of Croftport.
Yeah. That’s the guy from the novel I once enjoyed reading, “I’m Really Your Daughter.”
When I realized that I hadn’t just entered another world but the world of a novel, I can’t even begin to describe how bewildered I was.
“Okay. So what if this is like a scene from a novel? There must be a way to get back home.”
And thus, it’s been two days since I realized I hadn’t been trapped in a dream but rather possessed.
I was walking down the hallway in the middle of the night when suddenly I dashed into a wall.
I think anyone who has watched a few movies in their childhood would understand my actions.
I imagined passing through the wall and returning home just like that.
The actual result… unfortunately, it was different from my imagination.
“Eek! Miss!”
The sound of a bang brushed against my ears, and consciousness faded. When I opened my eyes again, I was surrounded by several people.
That was the first time I saw the Croft Triad in one space.
Who are the Croft Triad, you ask?
They are the Marquess of Croft and his two sons, Ethan and Kylid Mar.
Anyway, the important thing is not who the Croft Triad are but the fact that I still couldn’t go home.
I tried twice to go back home but failed.
But I am Princess Ahn.
Nationality: Republic of Korea.
After all, there’s a famous saying among Koreans: “Try three times.”
After banging into the wall and getting a big bump on my head, a week later…
I jumped from the second-floor terrace to the ground below.
…
And perfectly executed a rolling breakfall as I landed on the ground.
I blinked. I had learned Taekwondo throughout my elementary school years.
There might still be a black belt in Taekwondo in my wardrobe back at our house in Korea.
‘’Oh, Miss….”
The maid who witnessed my landing seemed impressed, but anyway, my actions that day were classified as (naturally) extremely risky, and ‘Elisa Croft’s’ bedroom was moved from the second floor to the first.
And after moving the bedroom like that, I hesitated for a moment and then jumped into the sponsored pond….
“Sigh.”
I sighed, covering my face.
Not once, not twice, but four times. Four times in a row I threw myself in various ways but couldn’t get home.
“…I should probably find another way.”
Suddenly, the words left by Kylid Croft, the second son of this house, who left a few days ago, came to mind.
‘Would Father and Ethan just stand by and indulge in your crazy antics all your life?’
…The tone might be a mess, but the content is worth remembering.
Will the Croft Duke and Ethan Croft keep ‘worrying’ about their daughter’s exploits forever?
Perhaps by now the two of them are discussing it. Whether to put their daughter, whose mind has been wavering lately, in a monastery.
‘Being trapped in a place like a monastery would be the end.’
Even if it’s not a monastery, the moment I’m trapped somewhere is the end. I’ll be thoroughly monitored from then on and won’t be able to do anything.
If I can’t do anything, I can’t find a way home. It’s obvious.
‘I should stop throwing myself around.’
I briefly thought about being run over by a carriage instead of a truck, but that seemed more likely to result in death before being trapped, so let’s not do that either.
Wait, death…?
“If I die, can I go home?”
I murmured without realizing it and shook my head quickly.
What am I thinking?
And what if there’s a game over ending?
This isn’t a first-person perspective game. Once you die, there’s no saying ‘Oops. Let’s start over.’ and going back to the beginning.
If it were a game in the first place, I’d be clicking on the ‘Exit’ or ‘Quit’ button like crazy…
I got up from the bed where I had been sitting.
The faster you hurry, the further you’ll go back.
With a proverb engraved in my mind, brimming with the wisdom and enlightenment of our ancestors, I left my bed behind and headed towards the desk.
Soon, seated at the desk, I took out a pen and paper and began a task.
After a while,
I made two identical notes.
Just a moment ago, I closed my eyes and shuffled the notes randomly, not knowing which note contained what message.
Taking a deep breath, I slowly opened my mouth.
“Let’s choose one. Let’s try to guess….”
Ding dong dang.
My finger, pointing back and forth between the two notes laid side by side on the desk, stopped in front of the left note.
Carefully, I picked the chosen note and unfolded it. I confirmed the words written on the crumpled paper.
“….Alright.”
Decision made.
What I need to do right away is to embroider and find enlightenment.
Bella has only a year left to live.
I learned this fact yesterday. Since Bella recently celebrated her nineteenth birthday, I only found out yesterday.
Bella dies at the age of twenty.
“Because that’s when the real Elisa returns……”
The protagonist of “My Daughter” is Elisa.
The protagonist always wins.
Elisa also regains her true identity in the middle to late stages of the novel.
And there’s another law as natural as the protagonist winning.
The antagonist must pay for their sins.
Bella is no exception. In “My Daughter,” Bella fulfills her role as the antagonist to the bitter end.
On the other hand, Elisa seemed like a protagonist, and one of her protagonist-like qualities was none other than “compassion.”
After meeting Bella again, Elisa forgave Bella, who had stolen her identity for a whopping ten years.
“The problem is that the men around Elisa never forgave Bella… But even so, it’s pointless to insult those men as disgusting when Bella’s actions in the novel were unforgivable even in my eyes.’’
After Elisa returns to Croft Court as the Duchess.
Instead of repenting for her wrongdoing, Bella tries to kill Elisa.
Here, one might wonder. Since everything is already revealed, what does Bella gain by killing Elisa?
Well… There’s a reason behind Bella’s actions, and the revelation of Elisa’s identity doesn’t occur right after Elisa appears at Croft Court.
When she first returns to the Court, Elisa had black hair instead of silver.
The reason Elisa suddenly had black hair is because she mistakenly drank a failed potion during an alchemical experiment… Yes, Elisa had learned alchemy.
In fact, at twenty, Elisa was an exceptional alchemist, magician, spirit-talker, and healer.
Is it too much for one person to achieve? Well, it’s because she’s the protagonist.
Anyway, the people at Croft Court, including the wealthy, besides Kyrid, who happened to be absent, all see Elisa with black hair and feel a sense of familiarity but fail to recognize her true identity, unlike Bella, who recognizes Elisa at first glance.
It’s only natural. Except for Elisa herself, Bella was the only one who knew that there was a separate ‘real Elisa’ among the people at the Court.
However, although Bella recognized Elisa as Elisa, she didn’t know that Elisa had become an exceptional alchemist… (omission)…
This is why it’s dangerous to know only one thing.
Bella, knowing that she would truly become Elisa if she could just get rid of Elisa, comes up with a truly villainous idea to assassinate Elisa. However, the exceptional… (omission)… Elisa naturally does not fall victim to the poison.
After Bella’s assassination attempt fails, the hidden truth eventually comes to light, and Bella, after being imprisoned and then escaping from prison—remarkable Bella—meets her end while being pursued.
As I recall Bella’s final moments, I stop in the middle of the corridor.
“…It’s okay. No problem. I’m going to act differently from Bella.”
I will never become a villain who sticks to villainy until the end.
My goal is to be a villain who ‘reflects, repents, and earns forgiveness from those around me.’
‘’By that point, I might not even be a villain anymore. I would be an ex-villain.”
