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Chapter 2
Warm air filled her lungs.
‘Ah… is this the afterlife?’
But could the afterlife truly feel this vivid?
Vanessa blinked slowly. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, but reality still felt hazy.
A dark room.
Moonlight reflected across the marble floor.
Outside the window, golden butterflies shimmered softly.
‘Glowing butterflies… they look just like the stained glass from the temple.’
The butterflies lingered for a few seconds as though observing Vanessa before fluttering far away.
And once she was left alone in the room—
Crackle. Pop.
From somewhere in the distance came the sound of firewood burning in the fireplace. The faint warmth drifting from it quickly made her body feel heavy and sluggish.
‘Wait.’
If she could feel warmth, then this was not the afterlife.
Did that mean she had miraculously survived?
Otherwise—
‘Is this a dream?’
Vanessa hurriedly tried to rise from her seat.
Or rather, she tried to.
“Ah—cold!”
Right before her feet touched the damp floor.
The unfamiliar cry that escaped her lips made her shoulders jerk.
This voice was not hers.
Nor was the white hair cascading over her shoulders the familiar golden-blonde she knew.
“What is this?”
Her spine chilled at the horrifying situation.
Vanessa hurried toward the mirror.
Her eyes widened at the sight of silky white hair flowing down smoothly.
Then she noticed crimson eyes as beautiful as camellia flowers.
Large upturned eyes like a cat’s.
Soft full lips.
And finally—
“……!”
Blood stains trailing around her mouth.
Unable to believe what she was seeing, she frantically examined her body.
“Ugh.”
What was this?
Her body seemed completely unharmed.
But—
“Come to think of it, it’s not just my mouth.”
There was blood all over her palms and nightclothes as well.
What on earth had happened to this woman?
If Vanessa were to make a guess—
‘Did this woman get murdered like I did? No… maybe I’m overthinking.’
No.
She was not imagining things.
Judging from the blood around the mouth and hands, it was not impossible at all.
And seeing the shattered teacup nearby, the theory that this woman had been poisoned seemed very plausible.
‘B-But…’
If the woman had truly been poisoned, then why was this body perfectly fine?
Her hands and feet moved normally.
Even though the poison should have damaged her throat, swallowing caused no pain whatsoever.
‘Did something change because I entered this body?’
It was not entirely impossible.
When Vanessa was young, she had once received a blessing from the temple.
—As long as the butterfly’s movement does not cease, Lady, you will always be given a chance to set things right.
‘I had forgotten because it happened when I was so young.’
The high priest who bestowed the blessing had once said that divine blessings were engraved not upon the body, but upon the soul.
‘I never understood the meaning behind the prophecy that came with the blessing.’
But if her current theory was correct, then everything made sense.
When the blessing activated, divine power must have wrapped around her soul.
As a result, the woman’s body had likely been healed as well.
‘But why this body instead of my own?’
Vanessa closed her eyes and tried harder to remember the high priest from that day.
—I have two things to tell you privately, my lady.
The high priest had whispered softly to her.
—First, no one besides you must ever know about this blessing.
And then the second and final thing.
—Sadly, I do not fully understand the will of the gods. But please remember this: what you have received is less a blessing and more divine protection.
Protection.
That meant the moment had come when she needed to be protected.
‘Protection…? But I committed suicide.’
Protected from what, exactly?
‘To the point of borrowing a dead person’s body…’
Vanessa tilted her head in confusion.
Just then—
“Careful. Those clothes are white. If you stain them, you’re finished.”
“I know. Where do we have to go after this again?”
“Ella in the kitchen asked for help. Come on, hurry.”
Voices approached from outside.
…Maids?
The hurried footsteps gradually drew closer to Vanessa.
‘If it’s them, maybe they know who this body belongs to.’
“H-Hey, wait a moment!”
Vanessa quickly grabbed the doorknob and stepped out into the hallway.
The passing maids turned toward her obediently.
Then the moment they saw her, both women froze and collapsed to the floor in shock.
“M-My goodness! Wh-What happened to you?”
“Y-Your clothes! Is that blood on your mouth?!”
Ah.
Vanessa hurriedly wiped her lips with her sleeve.
“Th-This is… well… wine.”
Fortunately, the hastily made lie fooled them easily enough.
“You startled us! Why are you like this?”
“You really have a talent for scaring people. See? I’m sweating cold sweat right now. I thought I was going to die.”
‘But these girls both look familiar.’
That was only natural.
Before Vanessa died, she had personally selected both maids from the orphanage herself.
“Chaicy, people don’t die that easily.”
The brown-haired one was Olive.
“It’s just an expression.”
And the one currently pouting must be Chaicy.
‘Wait.’
Then that means—
‘This is the Garden Ducal Estate?’
The very estate where Vanessa had lived before her death?
She quickly looked around the hallway.
It had felt strangely familiar, but to think this was the Garden estate…
‘Something’s strange.’
Since when had the estate become this modest?
Could it really change this much in only a single day?
If this were truly the hallway she remembered, then there should have been a painting on this wall—
‘Come to think of it, that’s not the only strange thing.’
The maids themselves looked different somehow.
The youthful innocence Vanessa remembered was gone.
They seemed far more mature now.
“Anyway, you really scared us! Um… what was your name again?”
“It’s Lady Melia. How many times are you going to forget, Chaicy?”
‘Melia?’
So this woman’s name was Melia.
More importantly, they clearly knew the owner of this body.
‘Could it be… after I died, did Royden take another wife?’
She looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties, so it was not impossible.
‘Well, if not for these plain clothes.’
“Were you drinking wine this early in the evening? You should’ve just had a warm glass of milk instead…”
“Should we bring some from the kitchen?”
Chaicy and Olive approached Vanessa from either side.
“It’s alright. I appreciate the thought.”
But there was something else Vanessa wanted to ask them.
“W-Wasn’t there originally a painting hanging on this wall?”
She remembered how much Royden treasured it during his days as the young duke. It had supposedly been a hidden masterpiece by his favorite painter.
He once said he would never lose that painting no matter what happened.
“Oh my, how did you know?”
Both maids widened their eyes.
“Did you notice from the marks on the wall? But they cleaned it completely…”
As Chaicy panicked, Olive answered instead.
“That painting was taken six years ago, about a month after the young lady was born—”
“By the witch!”
Chaicy excitedly interrupted.
“That damned witch demanded half the ducal family’s fortune as part of the divorce settlement!”
A witch?
A divorce?
Did that mean Royden had remarried once?
More importantly…
Six years ago?
‘It’s been six years since I died?’
While Vanessa struggled to process everything, Chaicy and Olive continued talking.
“How can someone say things like that with a straight face? Then again, someone who went insane years ago wouldn’t speak rationally anyway!”
“Chaicy, that’s too harsh.”
“What’s harsh about it? I’m just telling the truth.”
Chaicy puffed out her lips.
“If that’s not madness, then what is? She abused her own child—”
“Hey!”
Olive gasped in horror and quickly pressed a finger to her lips.
“Watch your mouth. Witch? Crazy? Did you already forget?”
After glancing around cautiously, Olive whispered:
“No matter how much you hate her, the lord ordered everyone to preserve at least a minimum amount of respect for her.”
Then—
“She’s still the young lady’s biological mother…!”
The moment those words left Olive’s mouth, Vanessa’s thoughts froze completely.
Biological mother.
If they meant the biological mother…
‘That’s me.’
If what they were saying was true—
Then…
‘Didn’t I die?’
Her trembling fingertips no longer felt real.
‘My body is alive?’
Vanessa, trapped inside Melia’s body, stared down at her shaking hands.
Between the unfamiliar white fingers, she could still see Olive and Chaicy.
This strange body clearly proved her own death.
‘I definitely died.’
The man she loved abandoned her.
So how could her body still be alive—
—I know.
At that moment—
—I know the terrible things you will do to my daughter.
Royden’s voice echoed chillingly through her ears.
‘Ah.’
Instinctively, Vanessa understood.
That woman was not her.
The “Vanessa” Royden spoke of was clearly someone else occupying her body.
‘Because…’
The real Vanessa was trapped inside the body of an unknown woman named Melia.
