My name is now the terminally ill older sister of my favorite character. This body was weak. How weak? I would have a severe coughing fit dozens of times an hour.
“Cough-!”
My hand, which I used to cover my mouth, was soaked with blood. A healer in a white robe rushed to my side and muttered something. As soon as the healer finished, a white light appeared, stopping the blood from my throat.
Is this the miracle of ‘magic’? I watched the white light slowly dissipate, a little amazed. Meanwhile, the man standing next to me was nervously tapping the floor with a cane.
“I called you a long time ago, so why are you only arriving now?”
“My, my apologies. I, I just came via warp-”
“Will you give that excuse when my daughter is dying?!”
Tap-!
The cane, which had been tapping the ground, was now forcefully jabbed into the floor.
On the surface, he looked like an overly doting father who loved his daughter. However, I knew the truth about this ‘father.’
“How much longer does my daughter have to live?”
“A year, at most.”
This ‘father’ wasn’t worried about me. He was worried about something else.
“…Please leave us to be alone.”
“My apologies, Count.”
The door closed, and the healer left. The room, as vast as a hall, was filled with expensive, luxurious items. In the room with only my father and I left, he scanned me. It was the look of someone checking if a product was in good condition, rather than a father concerned for his daughter’s health.
The father who was checking my condition—Count Elias—muttered in an emotionless tone.
“A year is enough time for a marriage.”
“Marriage?”
“That’s not exactly surprising news, is it? You’re already engaged to the young Marquis Malek.”
I lowered my head to hide my crooked smile. From the beginning, this man, my father, didn’t care about my reaction.
“You must marry the young Marquis Malek and give birth to a mage. To restore the Elias family.”
Only the family mattered. What was so great about a family that was just four letters? Soon, my father left the room.
Left alone, I got out of the bed I was lying on. I stood in front of the mirror with my skinny feet and legs. Reflected in the mirror was a woman with a frail appearance, long white hair, and white eyes. The woman with the last name Elias smiled at my will.
Because the terminally ill Lady Elias was me, and I was the terminally ill Lady Elias.
“The start is good.”
I had been transmigrated into a terminally ill lady in a novel.
I died. To be exact, I was hit by a car and died on my way home after buying a revised edition of a novel. The name of the novel I bought was Happy Ending Nonetheless.
Despite the novel’s hopeful title, the ending of my life was frustratingly meaningless. Was the novel so incredibly interesting that I couldn’t even see a car coming? To be honest, no.
As a long-time fan of the novel, the plot of Happy Ending Nonetheless flowed as per the clichés. The story of a heroine born with the destiny of a saintess, who awakens her power, breaks the curse on the crown prince, and saves the empire from disaster, didn’t feel particularly unique to me.
There was only one thing I especially cherished and liked in that novel. It was the final villainess of the novel, ‘Adin,’ with silver hair and red eyes. She was born as an illegitimate child, was abused for having red eyes, which are called the color of a demon in the empire, and was used as a tool of disaster to kill people by a brainwashing ability user, despite her great magical talent.
Despite all that, by the end of the story when the brainwashing was undone with the help of the heroine, Adin herself did not run away from the evil deeds she had committed. Even though the evil deeds were not done by her own will, Adin considered everything she had done to be her own sin. In the end, she gathered all the destructive magic into her own body and deliberately allowed Ernst to stab her with a sword.
And so, I came to love this pitiful and noble character. Then, an update was posted on the author’s social media, saying that a revised edition of the novel would include a story from my favorite character, ‘Adin’s,’ perspective?
Naturally, as a fan, I had to buy the revised edition that contained my favorite character’s story. I didn’t even get to read the revised edition on my way home before I died. But after I died, when I opened my eyes again, a new world was spread out before me.
I woke up wearing a white nightgown with lace. The surroundings were filled with luxurious furniture inlaid with gold, and a woman in a maid’s uniform was right next to me. In this completely new world, I, with my fragile body, barely got up and asked the woman in the maid’s uniform, “So… where is this?”
“This is the Elias family mansion in the Licht Empire.”
Licht Empire. The Elias family. These two words were from the novel Happy Ending Nonetheless. I asked the maid again, just in case. “Then, what about me…?”
“Amila Matias Elias. You are the eldest daughter of the Elias family.”
The answer that came back was that I was a terminally ill extra who only got a few lines of description in the novel Happy Ending Nonetheless. Of course, at first, I thought it was a hidden camera prank on me. In my previous life, I had worked as a TV producer, and on variety shows, we would often try hidden camera pranks on producers.
Then, a week later, I realized the reality. I mean, I had coughed up blood and checked my reflection in the mirror dozens of times a day for a week. This wasn’t a hidden camera prank. It wasn’t a dream either. I had truly been transmigrated into a character from a novel.
So, how did I feel after fully realizing the reality?
It was incredibly great. Even though the body I transmigrated into was terminally ill.
I was a reader who had finished the novel, and my status was a noble. I had no debt, I was well-fed, and the furniture around me was all high-class. My face was a bit sickly, but it had a pure look, so it was acceptable. Anyway, in my previous life, I had been burned by people. The only person I had loved had already passed away. I didn’t have much attachment to that life.
On top of that, Amila Elias was the older sister of my ‘favorite’ character.
“Cough!”
Oops, there goes another cough. Even though the basic setting was good, this weak body was a bit of a letdown. Moreover, all the family members of the Elias family were rotten to the core, except for my favorite character.
“Oh, sister.”
Ah, here comes Rotten Person 1. Unlike me, the woman with gorgeous platinum blonde hair and a dazzling face put on a pitying expression, but I knew. That woman was pretending to pity me while looking down on me. Look. She can’t even hide the twitching corner of her mouth.
“You don’t look well, do you? Why don’t you go back to your room and rest?”
It was still fine. Compared to the spectrum of humanity I had seen as a TV producer in my past life, a lady who couldn’t even hide her expressions was nothing. Compared to senior producers who smiled while trying to keep me in check and performers who thought popularity was power, she was just a fierce cat.
“Hey, Liselotte. What if she really goes, huh?”
“Robide, you’re so silly. If she’s sick, she should rest. It’s not right for her to join a family gathering like this.”
Liselotte, Rotten Person 1, and Robide, Rotten Person 2, teamed up to pick a fight with me. For your information, the two siblings who were giving me a hard time were Amila’s younger sister, ‘Liselotte Elias,’ and her older brother, ‘Robide Elias.’ Amila’s mother died giving birth to Liselotte and wasn’t around, and as for my father, well.
“Stop it. What’s all this commotion during a family meal?”
He was ‘Count Elias,’ who treated his children like tools. I scanned my new family with indifferent eyes and made a note. They’re a mess.
Meanwhile, Count Elias went around and evaluated each of his children.
“Liselotte, you seem to have gained a bit of weight. Are you diligently preparing to look good for the Crown Prince?”
“I… was a bit angry lately. I’ll work hard to manage myself from now on.”
He wanted to raise Liselotte Elias, who had the most beautiful face in the family, to be the Crown Princess.
“Robide, your law tutor said your grades have been slipping lately. You must work harder from now on.”
“Y-yes, I’ll keep that in mind, Father.”
He wanted to raise Robide Elias, the eldest son of the family, to be the successor to the Count.
Then what was my purpose, Amila Elias?
“Amila, how is your relationship with your fiancé, the young Marquis Malek?”
“We are still exchanging letters.”
“Only letters?”
The answer could be seen in my father’s frown. My purpose was to connect with the Marquis Malek, a mage family, and give birth to a ‘mage.’ But I was acting like a block of wood, so in the past, my father had told me to use a love potion or whatever it took. Ah, the source of this memory was the original Amila Elias. My father was telling me to somehow get close to the young Marquis to connect with his mage family, with the sole purpose of giving birth to a ‘mage.’ Ah, again, the source of this memory was the original Amila Elias.
This family is a living hell. I need to get out of here quickly.
However, there were two reasons why I was still staying here. One was because I was a terminally ill person who still needed care. And the other was that she would soon appear.
Just in time, Liselotte Elias clapped her hands.
“The mood has become so dull. To liven things up, would you like to see the gift I prepared, Father?”
“What gift are you talking about?”
“You entrusted me with the education of that ‘lowly one’ from the family’s clock tower, remember? I want to show you the results. Would that be alright?”
“Let’s see it.”
“Thank you, Father. Hey, bring the thing by the door inside.”
With Count Elias’s approval, Liselotte gestured with her finger as if she were the lady of the house. The two male servants near the door immediately opened it and roughly brought a girl inside the dining room.
She was a girl with silver hair and red eyes. She was wearing a shabby, worn-out white one-piece dress, and her hands and feet were covered in dirt, but… This girl was the other reason I was staying in this hell.
This girl was my ‘favorite’ character, Adin.
I plan to make my favorite character the happiest person in this world.
