The thing that woke me from a deep sleep was a neat knocking sound from outside the room.
“Ughhh…”
Thinking it was just another patient call, I instinctively sat up.
‘Why knock so loudly? They could’ve just approached me…’
Still half-asleep, I slowly opened my eyes and blinked a few times.
“…?”
They say you’re too shocked to speak when something unbelievable happens.
The moment I came to my senses, I was met with an unfamiliar room filled with antique, fancy decorations.
And at that moment, I realized something had gone very, very wrong.
‘What the hell is going on…?’
Looking around the room, I lowered my gaze to examine myself.
That’s when I saw a frilly dress I would never wear in my life.
“Is this… disorientation?”
(Disorientation = confusion about time, place, and identity.)
I quickly tried to recall all the medical knowledge I had to figure out for a diagnosis, but my head was a mess, like a tangled thread.
I took a deep breath to calm myself.
Right. I may be a rookie doctor, but I still have a medical license.
‘Get it together, Do Ha-min. This is all just sleep fatigue from working three night shifts in a row.’
I slapped my cheeks loudly and shook my head to snap out of it.
Then came another knock on the door, a bit more urgent this time.
“Yes, yes! I’m coming!”
Whatever was happening, the knocking was starting to get on my nerves, so I went to open the door first.
And right when I opened the door wide—
There stood a woman dressed like a maid, holding a tray.
The moment she saw me, her jaw dropped like it was about to fall off.
“…My lady?”
She dropped the tray with food and dishes, crashing loudly to the floor.
‘My lady?’
Wait—was she talking to me?
“Waaaaaah! My lady!”
The woman ran toward me with tears of joy and hugged me tightly.
Of course, I had no idea how to react to this dramatic greeting and just froze.
‘What in the world is going on?!’
***
“I’m telling you, I’m not from this world.”
“Yes, yes, I understand, my lady. But you still need to eat this. You’ve barely eaten anything lately. And to think you actually opened the door today—did something change your mind?”
The maid, who introduced herself as Annie, kept dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief while I spoke.
Sigh…
‘A change of heart?’
Sure, I had a change of heart. More like three thousand mental breakdowns.
And the cause of all that is the patient in Room 406, who summoned me constantly and now has somehow put me inside her body.
Cotton candy pink hair, rose-tinted eyes, and skin so pale the nurses used to talk about it.
There was no denying it—I was now in the body of the mixed-race psychiatric patient from Room 406.
“Heh… hehe…”
Even as my thoughts tried to make sense of everything, I started laughing like a madwoman.
Seriously, this was ridiculous.
I slumped back in my chair.
But honestly, becoming 406 wasn’t even the biggest issue.
‘After my father failed to treat the duke’s daughter and died, our family fell apart. My mother died of illness two years later…’
‘And then, disasters and incidents kept happening around the nobility and royal family. The entire country started to fall apart…’
No, the real problem was this: I was now inside a novel… that was doomed to fall apart completely.
‘No way… This has gone way too far.’
Just as anger was starting to boil inside me, Annie cautiously asked:
“Are you still upset with the Viscount?”
That question made me stop halfway and look at her curiously.
‘Huh? But 406 seemed to love her family deeply…’
As if answering my thoughts, Annie continued:
“But you know your father only did it for your sake… Being a doctor is such a hard job.”
‘Ah.’
That triggered a memory.
‘Didn’t 406 once complain that she wanted to be her dad’s assistant, but he didn’t let her? She vented to me about that a lot.’
Maybe that led to lingering tension between them.
Still, that wasn’t what I needed to worry about now.
“No, it’s not about that… I just have a few questions. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, my lady.”
Annie smiled brightly and nodded.
I rolled my eyes around and asked cautiously:
“Um… how old am I this year?”
“…Pardon?”
Annie blinked in confusion, then hesitantly replied:
“You’re seventeen this year… right?”
Her rising tone made it clear she wasn’t confident, but I ignored it.
Embarrassment wasn’t my priority right now—my uncertain future was.
‘Okay… She said the dad dies when I’m eighteen… So there’s still a year left.’
I quickly stored that info in my brain.
‘Dad, still alive.’
“Hmmm, and what about my mom? How is she doing?”
“She’s… about the same.”
Annie’s expression turned sympathetic. I gulped without realizing it.
“About the same, meaning…?”
“She’s still quarantined in the annex because of her illness. Still barely eating anything. Maybe it’s time for a pilgrimage…”
“Wait… pilgrimage?”
(Pilgrimage means:
A journey to a sacred or religious place for spiritual reasons—often as an act of devotion, healing, or penance.)
I frowned deeply. Send a sick person where, exactly?
“Yes. In these long-term illnesses, people often go on pilgrimages. Since illness is a punishment from the gods, only they can heal it…”
Wait, what?
I couldn’t even close my mouth from the shock.
“Hang on, Annie. This pilgrimage… is it what I’m thinking? Like, people gather to pray, eat food together and stuff…?”
“Yes! That’s exactly it!”
“HUH?”
This world was insane.
When people are sick, the first thing to worry about is hygiene! But you’re telling me they gather together and share food?
I sighed heavily. Annie tried to comfort me.
“Are you worried about the madam? Don’t be. The Viscount is a famous doctor. He’ll develop a cure someday, and she’ll return from the annex soon…”
“Well, that too, but…”
When I read the book, the medical state already seemed bad—but now that I was hearing it firsthand, it was even worse.
Feeling uneasy, I asked Annie a few more questions, and though she looked puzzled, she answered them all sincerely.
Only after that did I finally understand how terrible the medical system in this world was.
‘This is worse than remote parts of Africa…’
Basically, people here barely even understood the concept of treating an illness.
To put it simply, they used a handful of herbal mixtures to treat everything.
Even “medicine” here meant mostly herbal tea made by boiling plants.
I clutched my head.
“Oh god.”
At this rate, even the director of a top hospital wouldn’t be able to treat the duke’s daughter.
“Are you okay, my lady…?”
Annie looked worried as I held my forehead and trembled.
But I didn’t have the time to answer her.
Because if this world followed the plot of the novel, there would soon be endless wars and a pandemic sweeping through the land.
‘And in a world with this poor healthcare… I could die horribly too…’
Sirens blared in my mind.
Danger. Danger. DANGER.
