episode_0002

“…I will toll the bell and hold the funeral of Her Majesty the Second Queen Vivian Lirienne Sol.”

Dang-dang-

The solemn sound of the bell rang out as if it were tearing through my ears. I involuntarily furrowed my brow at the sudden sound while I was still in bed. Who in the world is ringing a bell outside the house?

“One by one, come forward to bid your final farewell to Her Majesty the Queen-”

Amidst the booming voice that filled the hall, there were murmuring voices as well. It felt like multiple voices were tickling my ears, whispering like rustling leaves.

“In the end, His Majesty did not participate in the Queen’s funeral. Still, His Majesty-”

“I’ve never seen such a pitiful royal funeral. If someone ignorant were to witness this, they’d think it was the funeral of some local noble, not the Queen’s. All because of the rumor that the Queen was a witch-”

Whisper, whisper.

As consciousness slowly returned amidst the tolling and voices, a sudden feeling of suffocation gripped me. It felt like my nose and throat were submerged in water, making it impossible to breathe properly.

Gasp, cough. As I tried to take a deep breath, a sound of water entering my lungs burst forth from my mouth. As consciousness fully returned, the first thing I felt was an unbearable agony.

“Cough! Gasp!”

Water had entered through my mouth and nose, causing distress.

Choking agony.

The water flooding into my lungs beyond my prayers was excruciating. Just waking up, the sudden onset of pain made me realize that if I didn’t get up right now, I might drown.

“Ugh, ugh! Cough! Cough!”

As I retched, expelling every bodily fluid, water mixed with a bitter smell gushed out of my mouth. Did I get hit by a deluge while sleeping? Or was I subjected to water torture?

After purging all the water and the pain subsided a bit, I recognized the smell in my mouth. For some reason, I knew what it was, even though I couldn’t fathom why. It smelled like the stench of a lake, the scent of decaying earth.

“Huk, sniff…!”

What on earth? This question didn’t linger for long. Just as I was about to ponder what in the world was happening to me, a murmuring sound came from around me.

Raising my head to identify the murmuring sound, through tear-blurred vision, I saw the face of a young girl. She appeared to be around 5 to 7 years old.

The young girl with black hair and crimson eyes trembled as she gazed at me. She was clad entirely in black dress and tightly held a lily in one hand.

“Uh…?”

Yes, just like a child at a funeral.

“Waaaah!!”

“Kyaaaah!!”

“What, what’s… going on?!”

As I uttered foolish words, screams erupted around me. People dressed in black robes, without exception, scrambled to flee when I turned away from the girl. There was pushing, shoving, and chaos. I looked around, feeling an unbearable pain.

A church?

A cathedral?

The interior of the building, possessing a religious architectural feel, was adorned with black cloths and white lilies, exuding an unmistakable funeral atmosphere.

Particularly where I had been lying.

It felt even more so.

Like a wooden box shaped like a hexagon, resembling a coffin. Inside this wooden box were plenty of white lilies and items that seemed to have belonged to the deceased.

“…No, it’s really not a bed, it’s a coffin, isn’t it…?”

…No matter how much I thought about it, none of this situation made sense.

The bitter taste in my mouth, the attire of the people screaming and leaving, the attire of the trembling girl staring at me, the appearance of the building—none of it made any sense.

“What on earth… is this?!”

*

At first, I simply thought it was a dream.

Having heard about dreams where one can experience pain from time to time, I was certain that all of this was a dream. I convinced myself that the pain I felt was due to being too engrossed in the dream.

However, as time passed, the sensations became even more vivid. I could taste food and even catch the scent of people’s perfumes.

“Seems like a short-term memory loss due to trauma. As you recover, your memory should gradually—”

I sat on the bed, absentmindedly listening to the middle-aged man in a white coat. Glancing around the room, I noticed a large full-length mirror hanging on the wall.

Reflected in the mirror was a vaguely familiar face. I blinked slowly and waved at the person in the mirror, who waved back at me. No matter how much I blinked or waved, the person in the mirror responded in kind.

She seemed slightly aloof, yet even that aloofness felt remarkably beautiful. She was a stunning beauty with hair that seemed spun from gold and eyes that held the essence of jade.

…Undoubtedly, she was a familiar face.

“Ahem!”

As I stared blankly at the mirror, the middle-aged man, who had been earnestly explaining about memory loss, cleared his throat as if to regain my attention.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave. If you happen to remember even the smallest thing, feel free to call for me anytime.”

“…Alright.”

With those words, the middle-aged man in the white coat nodded once and briskly exited the room. He made such a fuss about my memory loss, only to end it with a few explanations.

“I’m not suffering from memory loss, though.”

I mean, I can even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. Rising from the oversized bed, big enough for five adult men, I glanced around the room.

The room was so luxurious that calling it “lavish” would be an understatement. Well, considering where I am right now, this level of luxury was to be expected.

The armrest of the sofa, the frame of the painting—every little detail was gilded. Even the candlestick by the bed sparkled as if it were made of gold.

“Really… extravagant.”

Even the nightgown I had changed into felt unbelievably soft, almost as if I couldn’t feel it at all. Judging by my appearance, it seemed like I held quite a high position here.

“…I guess I have to admit it now.”

As much as I didn’t want to acknowledge this surreal and illogical situation, a hypothesis that I could no longer deny crept into my mind.

A story that might come from a web novel or webtoon.

“Transmigration…”

I stretched my cheeks with both hands. Tears welled up as I pulled so hard that my cheeks seemed to sag. It wasn’t a dream after all.

Accepting that this was reality, a sense of injustice surged within me. Slowly, I moved towards the large full-length mirror I had glanced at earlier.

Standing in front of the mirror, a woman with sharp features glared back at me. It wasn’t an intentional glare; this woman’s default expression seemed to be one of disdain.

Disdainful eyes like a venomous snake, a straight nose, and a sharp jawline. Already possessing sharp features, her pallid skin seemed to accentuate the severity of her countenance even more.

Somehow, she looked familiar, and upon closer inspection, I became certain.

Why on earth?

Why did I end up in the body of this woman of all people?

I raised my irises to meet the woman reflected in the mirror. So imposing was her visage that for a moment, I involuntarily swallowed dryly at the sight of my own face in the mirror.

“Wow, this is insane.”

A fallen kingdom abandoned even by its king.

A narcissist who fiercely loves herself.

One of only 13 “witches” in this world.

“Why her?”

And…

An antagonist destined for “death” in the ending of a game or fairy tale, like Snow White.

“Why her of all people? In a typical ‘child-rearing simulation game,’ they usually let the player transmigrate into the king, don’t they?”

I threw myself onto the bed in despair, rolling back and forth. I kicked the bed with my feet, screamed into my pillow after flipping it over.

Even screaming until my throat was raw didn’t dispel the despair. Instead, it felt like my sore, constricted throat was mocking me, saying, “This is reality, give up.”

Frustrated, I began to feel exhausted, my eyes slowly closing. If only I could sleep and wake up to find that all of this had been a dream.

So, silently, I prayed, even calling out the names of gods I never believed in, pleading to return to my original male body when I opened my eyes.

*

Are there no gods?

Or have they ignored my prayers?

As I woke to the chirping of birds, I was still Vivian Liriensol, a nobody in this kingdom.

After sighing and waking up, my chilled mind began to adapt to reality. To live as Vivian Liriensol from now on, I needed someone’s help without question.

In most web novels or webtoons, the memories of the person being possessed usually remain, but for some reason, I couldn’t access Vivian’s memories.

So, I desperately needed someone to help me.

“Phew…”

If this world truly belonged to the parenting simulation game “Snow White,” there was only one person who could help Vivian.

Should I call her a person?

Well, isn’t she?

The assistant of the witch, present even in fairy tales.

I got up from the bed and walked back to the mirror I had been staring at yesterday. The mirror still reflected Vivian Liriensol, who seemed to have become a living person.

“Ahem!”

Clearing my throat, I whispered the one line everyone knows, looking at the mirror. There’s only one line the witch in “Snow White” says while looking at the mirror.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”

…

However, the mirror remained silent.

Feeling a flush of embarrassment, I was certain it was the “mirror.” There was only one full-length mirror in Vivian’s room.

I cleared my throat and called out to the mirror in a trembling voice, “Mirror, mirror, who is the fairest of them all?”

At that moment, the surface of the mirror began to ripple, as if a droplet had fallen into still water, creating ripples. As the rippling surface subsided, the mirror underwent a transformation.

While it’s natural for mirrors to reflect objects and mimic their appearances, Vivian’s “mirror” was different. As the ripples faded, the reflection of “Vivian Lirienne Sol” in the mirror began to move on its own.

Slowly, the figure of Vivian inside the mirror opened her eyes, met mine, and spoke.

– Ugh.

“…Huh?”

The Vivian in the mirror suddenly feigned nausea, as if she couldn’t bear to hear anything, plugged her ears, and scowled at me, venting her frustration.

“What?! What’s the matter?! Seriously?! Is this new Vivian also a crazy woman obsessed with narcissism?! Are you going to make me repeat the same answer to you all day like the previous Vivian did?! Do I have to tell you hundreds of times a day that ‘the most beautiful person in the world is you’ just to satisfy your insane ego?!”

“…..? Uh, hey, M-Mirror?”

– No! I can’t! I can’t live like this anymore! I thought Vivian was finally dead, but now some strange person has taken over Vivian’s body and is trying to do the same things as her! If that’s the case, just kill me!!

Uncontrollably, I found myself sweating profusely as I watched the figure of Vivian inside the mirror collapse to the ground, wailing as if suffering from PTSD. What on earth had Vivian done to make the mirror react this way?

I decided to sit on the edge of the bed and wait until the mirror’s fit subsided. I considered covering the mirror with a blanket, but I couldn’t afford to provoke it.

And the mirror clearly spoke to me while looking at me.

The new Vivian.

This mirror… You do know that I’m possessing someone, right?