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Chapter – 04
Part – 01 Hell
Chapter – 01 Return (3)
In a fleeting dream, Jang Hyeonji looked into a mirror and spoke to me.
“I feel like I’m dreaming here.”
“I was a terminal patient, and now I’ve been possessed… The world really is worth living in, isn’t it?”
A second chance granted to a woman who had been dying after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. And yet, that “chance” meant my life was being stolen.
Hyeonji’s frail body was slowly dying day by day. She waited for death inside a cramped hospital room. Every night she screamed in agony from phantom pain of the fire that had killed her family.
A girl who survived a mysterious fire at eighteen that took her entire family.
Just when she barely recovered and was about to be discharged, she was diagnosed with an incurable disease and given a terminal prognosis.
The only visitors she ever had were insurance agents, relatives eyeing the assets registered under her name and the large insurance payout, and those waiting to collect her death benefits after she died.
In exchange for my life being stolen, all I received was this sick body—and nights I could not sleep.
I couldn’t endure it. Like Hyeonji said, my life had been nothing but neglect—but it was still mine.
So why was I the one who had to endure constant death and pain?
“Thank you, you know.”
“Don’t be so resentful. If it had been you, you would’ve been dying alone in a filthy prison by now.”
Even through the agony that no painkillers could ease, Hyeonji’s voice pierced my consciousness clearly. I gritted my teeth and cursed her. Give it back. Disappear. Save me…
Oh God. If I could die and erase that woman, I would gladly offer my life.
Even if I died miserably, it was still my life. Don’t act happy after stealing what was mine.
Don’t you dare pity me.
I struggled desperately to take my body back. At night, I even tried to kill myself to escape the approaching pain. The price of having my life completely stolen was unbearable suffering and a life that led only to death.
If only I hadn’t known—then maybe it would have been easier. But even when I briefly escaped into sleep, I saw that woman living happily.
A life where I could do nothing, only receive her pity as I slowly died.
I never expected to take it back. The pain eroded even hope, and I wished only for death to come sooner.
If I had one wish, it was that she suffer as much as I did.
If revenge was possible, I would offer even this wretched soul to a demon.
Whether a demon answered my desperate wish, or whether God finally took pity on me, I did not know.
What mattered was that I finally had a chance.
I had a terrible dream.
Whenever I closed my eyes, I heard her voice. The only difference now was that she was no longer happy.
“It was mine. It’s mine now! Why are you doing this?”
“No! I’m going back! Linus, save me!”
“No…”
“…I don’t want to die…”
She had become unhappy.
That was what mattered most.
I couldn’t directly take revenge on the woman I hated most, but I wanted to ruin everything she had once possessed. I hated this world that had ignored me yet been kind to her. My layered resentment tightened around my throat.
“If you had acted wisely, Florence.”
“You should’ve just stayed quiet and smiled it off.”
“People hate it when you insist too much.”
“The world doesn’t care about your grievances.”
“You’re not exactly innocent either…”
I knew Hyeonji’s “advice” from the mirror had been right. She had proven her own words correct. But how could I accept it? How could I bury this boiling injustice? Would pretending make it disappear? Would it erase what had happened?
The family who accused me of killing my mother smiled warmly at you.
The man who never looked at me once knelt before you and confessed desperate love.
I prayed every day for magic or spirit arts, hoping that if I became useful, someone would finally look at me. But the abilities denied to me were granted to you from the start.
How could I accept this calmly as an adult?
I hated Jang Hyeonji, who stole my life—and I hated everything that loved her so easily.
Everything I once loved, but which never loved me back.
I opened my eyes. The bedroom was dim and still wrapped in darkness. Not much time had passed. I felt relief at that fact. I still needed time—to sort out the chaos in my memories and emotions, and to plan what to do next.
I couldn’t stay like this. Horrible memories were trying to crawl back up. The nausea I had barely suppressed was rising again. I need to run—otherwise…
“You’re awake, my love.”
A sweet voice rang beside my ear. I gasped and looked up.
A shadow, once hidden in darkness, became distinct under the backlight.
“I rushed here when I heard you woke up, but they said you fell back asleep, so I stayed.”
A more mature face than I remembered—but thinner, more exhausted. Long black hair like a knight’s, pale skin, refined features. He looked like a noble who had never held a sword, yet he was the youngest Sword Master, one of the strongest across the continent and the kingdom of Yulia.
This man, who suited the description of “beautiful,” was Linus Shane Lindquist.
My fiancé—and the male protagonist of this novel.
Those dark eyes that turned warm and sweet when they looked at “me” were exactly as I remembered.
Linus approached. His presence, previously unnoticed, now became sharply real. He knelt beside the bed and took my hand, pressing a kiss to its back.
“I knew you would wake up. I knew you would never leave me…”
His lips trembled as he kissed my hand again and again, tears threatening to fall.
“My love… you would never do something so cruel. Right, Hyeonji?”
“….”
“The doctors said there’s nothing wrong with you. They said you just fell asleep from exhaustion. Nothing abnormal at all. I couldn’t even call a priest in case it harmed your fragile soul. Those helpless hours… I couldn’t do anything…”
His voice broke with emotion.
“I’m sorry, Hyeonji. For not being able to do anything. And thank you… for coming back.”
Linus cried, holding my hand tightly, kissing it repeatedly like a helpless child. Those tears were real. He truly loved Jang Hyeonji. And she had loved him too. They shared a beautiful, storybook romance.
In my body.
After stealing my life.
“Thank you. I love you. I love you, Hyeonji.”
How beautiful.
Pathetic.
Not yet. I had to endure it. I needed to plan how to escape completely and how to inflict deeper wounds. But—
He knew. He knew there was another soul inside this body, yet he did not save me. He did not even look for me. It didn’t matter to him what happened to me…
It became hard to breathe.
I must not be exposed. Linus was dangerous. I didn’t know what he might do, and since I couldn’t move freely, he must not learn that “she” was gone.
“Hyeonji… Florence… my one and only flower.”
Florence, my one and only flower. I love you.
Florence.
No.
The rage I couldn’t contain surged again. That name was given by my grandmother. The only one who could call me a flower was not him. She didn’t deserve that name.
“…Hello, my love.”
A strained voice slipped out in an unfamiliar tone. The man who had been crying against my hand lifted his head.
In those black eyes that now looked at “me” through me, a cold glint appeared like shards of ice. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.
Not fear about what would come next—but anticipation. The thrill of hurting him in this moment surged ahead of everything else.
“Long time no see.”
