IBDML 01

Chapter 1

01. Did You Lose Your Memory From Getting Hit on the Palm?

Swish!

A bamboo switch sliced through the air.

Before I could even react to the sharp sound, a stinging pain spread across my palm.

Without even understanding the situation, I let out a loud scream first.

“AAAH!”

“EEK!”

The woman holding the switch was so startled by my sudden shouting that she lost her balance and fell backward onto the floor.

I stared blankly at the woman sprawled out in an undignified heap.

At my gaze, her face flushed bright red with anger.

“Lopez, you…!”

Blue eyes. Orange hair. Exotic features that didn’t look East Asian at all.

And on top of that, she wore wide-sleeved clothes that looked straight out of a medieval Western setting.

The ill-tempered woman, dressed in every possible way unfamiliar to me, jumped to her feet and stood towering in front of me.

“How dare you make a fool of your teacher?!”

I stared at the furious woman in front of me with unfocused eyes while my mind worked furiously.

The angry woman wasn’t the real problem.

The problem was me.

Did I transmigrate into another body?

Because of the enraged woman, I was locked inside solitary confinement.

My struck palm throbbed painfully.

I pressed my burning hand against the cold floor to cool it down and sank deep into thought.

Why am I here?

And why had I been getting hit on the palm by some woman I didn’t even know?

As I slowly looked around, the memories that had blurred in my panic gradually became clearer.

Once I roughly grasped the situation, a small sigh escaped me.

Ah… my inheritance.

Not long ago, a man I had never seen before came to me claiming to be a lawyer.

He told me that, despite growing up an orphan, I actually had a mother—and that she had searched for me all her life.

And apparently, she was incredibly rich.

But according to him, my mother had recently died from illness.

Before the DNA test results even came out.

The lawyer said that as soon as the test confirmed I was her daughter after her death, he immediately came to find me.

To help me inherit the fortune she had left behind.

Honestly, I couldn’t even resent her.

He said she had lost me in a crowded square when I was little and had searched for me every single day afterward.

With his help, I inherited an enormous amount of wealth, including the grand mansion where my mother had lived.

Since I was the only remaining family member she had, despite never even seeing my face once, her will was also handed over to me.

And then what did I do afterward?

I definitely remembered falling asleep hugging my mother’s will inside the huge house I had inherited.

Nothing strange happened. I just went to sleep…

But when I woke up, I was a child.

And judging by the appearance of the woman with the switch, this wasn’t even the Earth I used to live on.

I didn’t even get to enjoy spending all that money, and now I’m in another world?

This couldn’t be happening.

On top of that, I still hadn’t read the will my mother left me.

The stiff white envelope containing her final words floated through my mind.

The lawyer had said there was even a personal letter addressed to me inside.

…I need to go back.

I couldn’t just stay here like this.

First, I need to understand the situation.

Most people would probably have panicked, but I accepted things relatively easily.

Maybe because an enormous inheritance and an unread will were on the line, my mind was working with terrifying calmness.

Well, my personality had always been pretty levelheaded to begin with.

First, this body.

When I moved my fingers, a tiny little hand wriggled before my eyes.

I was twenty years old.

And now I had become a child.

“…This isn’t really a dream, right?”

I pinched my cheek hard and groaned briefly at the sharp pain.

The pain feels real, so it’s definitely not a dream.

Next, I inspected my hair.

I stared intently at the long blue hair cascading all the way down to my hips.

It shimmered with a mysterious shade of blue like the deep sea—so vivid no dye could possibly imitate it.

At the same time, I realized this child had remarkably smooth, silky straight hair.

But that was all I learned.

To understand more, I needed to see the appearance of the child whose body I had inhabited.

“Isn’t there a mirror?”

As I looked around the cell, I noticed a handheld mirror tucked away in a corner.

I picked it up and looked at my reflection, letting out a small gasp without realizing it.

“…Oh.”

It was my first time seeing such mystical violet eyes.

Combined with slightly upturned eyes, pale skin, and soft full lips—

This child’s appearance was stunning enough to leave me speechless.

I quietly admired the face while studying it carefully.

Judging by the youthful features, the child looked around ten to twelve years old.

With hair and eyes this blue, this definitely isn’t any world I know.

I had no idea where this place was or who this child might be.

I had never seen anyone like her before. She wasn’t someone I recognized either.

Is this a place I’ve never heard of…?

No matter how much I thought about it, nothing came to mind.

…Well, there was no point obsessing over a problem with no answer.

My appearance wasn’t the only clue I had about whose body I’d possessed or what world this was.

“Lopez.”

The name the woman had called this child earlier.

Honestly, the moment I heard it, it felt like something was about to click—

…but my stinging palm made it impossible to focus properly.

“If I could just figure out the people around me or what’s happening outside, I think I’d be able to piece things together.”

Unfortunately, the only person I could meet while trapped in solitary confinement was the orange-haired woman.

In the end, without learning anything, my first night in this strange place passed by.

It had already been three days since I transmigrated.

While staring at the woman who relentlessly struck a small child’s palm with a switch every day, I finally asked,

“Um… may I ask who you are? I can’t seem to remember anything lately.”

Including who exactly you are, the unreasonable person hitting children with sticks.

Did this world not even have the concept of child abuse?

The woman glared at me sharply before shouting in a shrill voice,

“You should be reflecting on your actions, not making jokes! Fine then—five extra hits!”

Watching the teacher enthusiastically add to my punishment, I felt wronged.

Seriously, who even are you?

Five days after being locked up.

The woman who struck children’s palms with a switch every single day still refused to believe I had lost my memory.

But I couldn’t continue like this forever.

I wanted information about this world, but there was only so much I could learn while trapped in solitary confinement.

Besides, I couldn’t just sit back and watch children being abused under the excuse of “discipline.”

“Next, Lopez.”

As I stepped forward, I looked at her and asked,

“Do you realize this counts as abuse?”

“…What?”

Her expression immediately turned ugly.

Well, suddenly accusing someone with “You’re abusing children” would naturally make them furious.

But I didn’t stop there. I deliberately provoked her further.

Since I genuinely remembered nothing, I needed her to understand I could act this arrogantly without fear.

And if possible, I also wanted her to stop hitting the children.

“I don’t know what exactly I did wrong, but judging by the looks of it, there are several children locked up here too. You do realize this could be reported, right?”

“…”

“No matter what a child did wrong, this kind of discipline isn’t acceptable.”

I fired the words at her one after another without giving her a chance to respond.

Her face twisted in outrage, then confusion, before finally hardening into seriousness.

Slowly lowering the raised switch, she scanned me as though trying to assess me.

Looks like she’d finally noticed I wasn’t acting like usual.

“Did you truly just say that to me?”

“Yes.”

Meeting her eyes without flinching, I answered firmly.

The woman silently studied me for a long moment while maintaining eye contact.

Then suddenly, leaving both me and the children behind, she turned and disappeared.

So… does she believe I lost my memory or not?

Couldn’t she at least give me a clear answer before leaving?

As I sat there blankly, a girl named Lisa, who had been punished alongside me, spoke up.

“Lopez, if you talk back to the teacher, you’ll only get yourself into more trouble.”

“I’m already getting hit anyway.”

“You dummy! You’ll get hit even more!”

“Why were you locked up?”

“I pulled another girl’s hair!”

“Why?”

You shouldn’t yank the hair of growing children.

“She looked down on me because she’s in Class One!”

“Class One?”

“Lopez, are you stupid? You’re in Class One too.”

I quietly grabbed my own head.

Lisa giggled when she saw me.

“You didn’t make fun of me, Lopez, so I won’t pull your hair!”

“…Don’t you think that’s unfair?”

I wondered if the word might be too difficult for a child, but Lisa was smarter than I expected.

Tucking her vanilla-colored hair behind her ear, she answered calmly,

“Even if it’s unfair, what can you do? We still have to survive.”

Her brown eyes looked strangely detached as she said it.

Those weren’t words you’d expect from such a cute, gentle-looking child.

“Um… do you know what transmigration is?”

“What’s that?”

So she wasn’t another transmigrator. She was really just a child…

Lisa smiled brightly and asked,

“Lopez, you got locked up for falsely accusing someone, didn’t you? So why are you complaining?”

“…I don’t remember.”

The girl beside us, Sally, snorted.

“You’re obviously trying to use that as an excuse, so stop babbling already. If we get punished more because of you, are you going to take responsibility?”

Sally was a child overflowing with anger, just like her fiery red hair.

Her sharp, upturned eyes matched her prickly personality perfectly.

“Stop it, Sally! Lopez is a good person.”

“Did you forget how arrogant she acted outside?!”

“Did you just yell at me?!”

Lisa, who had seemed so calm moments ago, suddenly exploded and lunged at Sally.

Sally’s pink eyes widened in shock, but she immediately reached back toward Lisa as if nothing had happened.

“Wait, calm down—ah, ow!”

Girls, stop fighting.

This is my fault.

While trying to break them apart, I ended up getting my hair yanked from both sides by the overexcited Lisa and Sally.