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Human Impersonation is Hard Work, Even Today – Episode 2
I, Dana Ripeon, was an imperial princess.
My standing was ambiguous—the second princess, the fourth child among the emperor’s offspring. Being a woman, I was far from the line of succession, a blessed birth that could have lived my entire life like a flower in a greenhouse.
If only I hadn’t been born with cursed eyes.
‘It’s a curse! A curse has descended!’
From birth, I had deep indigo hair and yellow eyes. These were opposite to the platinum hair and blue eyes that symbolized the imperial family, because of which priests and royals alike pointed at me, calling me a cursed birth.
If it had just been my unusual appearance, the persecution might have ended briefly. But my ensuing childhood was a continuous streak of misfortune, as if I truly had a god’s curse upon me.
‘Did you hear? The princess’s nursemaid hanged herself!’
‘At her debutante… a chandelier fell…’
‘Her playmate was found in the palace garden lake! In water too deep for a child to reach!’
‘For such misfortunes to keep happening… she really must be the devil’s reincarnation!’
Unexplained tragedies always hovered around me. At first, I protested that it wasn’t my fault, but I stopped that by the time I was over ten. Because the attendants who would listen to me began dying one by one, or left my side, unable to overcome their fear.
By the time my last confidant—my playmate—died, I couldn’t even cry anymore.
It seemed the curse even affected my health, as I grew gaunter by the day.
Finally, before reaching adulthood, the curse robbed me of my ability to walk.
Around the time rumors about me spread throughout the empire, my father… the emperor, abandoned me.
‘How disgraceful. Never show your face before me again.’
He sent me to a distant villa to “recuperate.” It was called recuperation, but it was no different from exile.
The emperor who abandoned me, the empress who treated me as non-existent, and siblings who averted their eyes.
Young as I was, I was left to live alone in the villa, leaving all of that behind.
‘What a terrible life.’
When I had no choice but to attend imperial events in a wheelchair, I was ignored like a weed on the wall and had to endure insulting remarks. As this repeated, even the villa’s servants began to disregard me.
‘Maybe it would be better to die quickly.’ By adulthood, even the will to live on had vanished.
‘It seems everyone wants me to die soon.’
At some point, I noticed poison in my meals. After over a decade of observation, it was obvious who the culprit was. I felt betrayed, but only briefly.
I quietly accepted the sweet poison disguised with various spices.
‘If I don’t eat it, I’ll starve anyway. I have no choice.’
Time passed, and one day when I couldn’t even leave my bed alone, let alone go out…
‘This is really the end now.’
I sensed the poison in the meal was more potent than before. It seemed those wishing for my death had finally decided on my cause.
“…Thank you for the meal.”
I swallowed my anger and resentment along with the food.
Afterwards, I put on my cleanest nightgown, applied scented oil to my hair for the first time in ages, and lay down in bed. Hoping at least the person who would clean my corpse wouldn’t be cursed, I even prayed devoutly before sleep.
Thus, I closed my eyes and cast my fading consciousness far into the swamp of death.
Just as I thought this wretched, hopeless life was finally ending…
[Really?]
A whisper was heard.
[Do you really have no regrets?]
I, who was dying… no, I who was dead, couldn’t answer, of course. But some voice began arbitrarily speaking my heart’s words.
[I don’t like it. It’s too horrible for a human who should be happy to die so unhappily. And to give up so powerlessly… that’s not like you.]
The voice let out a peculiar laugh and said.
[It can’t end like this, Dana. You, I, we don’t want such an ending, do we? Don’t you actually want to live more? To be happy?]
What person wants to die?
It was a question that needed no answer.
[I want to live more. I don’t want to give up being human. I like humans, you see.]
The conversation was disjointed. That voice seemed to listen to my soul’s cry and speak, yet it arbitrarily changed topics. Its tone was strange too. Like a being from another world who had just learned human speech.
[So let’s seize another chance. It’s okay, I’m here.]
Did it mean to help me? Or take over my body?
I thought I disliked that, but once again the voice answered on its own.
[No, you misunderstood. You and I are one, so this isn’t about helping.]
Then what is it?
[It’s about remembering. The memories of when you were me. The memories of when human Dana was the demon Asmo-Dina. The time when I, a demon, loved humans.]
At that moment, I opened my eyes.
…!
The first thing I felt upon opening my eyes was that they felt gritty, as if sprinkled with sand.
I blinked desperately, trying to produce tears, and only then belatedly noticed the change in my sluggish body.
‘My God… it doesn’t hurt.’
The constant sting in my stomach as if I’d swallowed thorns, the lungs and throat that struggled with every labored breath, the limbs heavy as if weighed down—they all felt light.
I couldn’t remember the last time I felt no pain; it felt strange now.
But the joy was brief. Dizzy from the decades, centuries of memories flooding my mind, I tightly shut my eyes again.
‘Asmo-Dina.’
The name of the voice that spoke to me at death’s door… no, my name from a past life.
Only then did I realize all these memories were from a previous incarnation.
The daughter of the Demon King, the vanguard commander who seized victory in dozens of wars, and the demonic heretic who loved humans.
‘Good heavens… so I really was the devil’s reincarnation.’
The delusion of being the “devil’s reincarnation,” which I had vehemently denied as a false rumor, was becoming reality in this moment.
I couldn’t collect myself from the sudden deluge of past-life memories.
It wasn’t that my sense of self wavered—our personalities were quite similar.
The problem was the sheer volume of memories. It felt like being forced to memorize dozens, hundreds of books.
Her peculiar tastes were especially problematic.
‘My past self really liked humans, didn’t she?’
Perhaps being a heretic born in a demon world devoid of individualism, she adored human stories.
Human heroes, romance transcending status, artists overcoming adversity… she even talked about marrying a human someday.
It was a past ill-suited to Dana’s life of betrayal by humans.
But since both were me, Asmo-Dina’s love for humans mixed with Dana’s unpleasant experiences, making me nauseous.
It was a complex feeling of fondness coupled with a desire to hate.
Just as I was trying to suppress the past emotions and calm my mind…
“…I said!”
“Ah!”
An irritating noise assaulted my ears.
‘Who’s in the bedchamber?’
I wanted to focus on sorting my memories, but the noise was too loud to ignore.
Even if I was a disregarded princess, what were they doing in someone else’s bedroom?
Finally unable to contain my anger, I spoke.
“Be quiet.”
The words I uttered for the first time in ages flowed out more smoothly and comfortably than I expected.
I was glad speaking didn’t hurt my chest, but I didn’t show it and sat up.
I wanted to see with my own eyes what was causing such a racket.
“What is this commotion in someone else’s bedchamber?”
Then I was confronted with an unexpected scene and flustered.
A familiar man and woman were tangled together.
One was Hans, an attendant I occasionally saw outside the window, and the other was Lilibel, a maid who cleaned my room.
‘A lovers’ quarrel… probably not.’
Seeing Lilibel struggling with her collar grabbed and Hans seething with murderous intent, it didn’t seem like a trivial situation.
“I… impossible! You should be dead!”
Soon, Hans began muttering incomprehensibly. My mind was still chaotic, unable to easily understand, so I waved my hand and said.
“I don’t know the situation… but could you let go of her collar first?”
“So you’re in on it too!”
But it seemed to incense Hans further. He swung a dagger toward Lilibel.
Startled, I reflexively thrust my right hand forward.
It was an unconscious act, but the demonic magic residing in my body faithfully accomplished what its master desired.
[Shadow.]
I thought I heard my past self’s voice from behind me.
Simultaneously, the shadows on the bedroom floor transformed like awls and pierced Hans’s arm.
“Ah!”
Hans writhed on the floor.
As I stared at him blankly, the freed Lilibel looked at me with a dazed expression and said,
“B-black magic?”
‘Oops.’
I should have used magic that wouldn’t be noticed!
I hurriedly tried to explain, but Lilibel was faster.
“Whoa, that’s so cool!”
It was a pure admiration, like a boy catching his first beetle.
Stunned by the unexpected reaction, I blinked blankly.
