The night I received my acceptance letter from Korea University—a prestigious school not only in Korea but globally—something felt very off.
‘Where am I?’
The scenery was completely different from the hospital room where I’d spent my entire life lying in bed.
There was a golden chandelier and ivory-colored marble walls.
The gentle scent of flowers wafting through the air was nothing like the sterile hospital smell I was used to.
‘Where are the doctors? The nurses?’
Excuse me?
I tried to speak, but…
“Waaaah!”
A wail burst out of my mouth.
‘W-What? Is this a prank show?’
I blinked my eyes.
My body wouldn’t move properly.
Ugh… Ugh…
I strained and raised my hand. My arm was shockingly short.
“Waaaah!”
My throat cried out against my will. I barely managed to glance to the side and stare at my tiny, stubby arm.
It looked like a chubby sausage.
Voices echoed around me.
“It’s a girl!”
I was a bit shocked.
That wasn’t Korean.
And yet, I could understand it immediately.
As if it were my native tongue.
“Her Highness the Princess is born!”
Wow, did I reincarnate in another world?
‘Or maybe… transmigration?’
I listened to what the midwife was saying.
Then I heard sobbing.
“A girl, born into the royal family of Billotian…”
I didn’t know the details, but the woman who gave birth to me—my mother—seemed to be crying.
Apparently, she wasn’t the least bit happy about giving birth to me.
But I was happy.
‘Wait! Billotian! I know that name!’
Billotian was the name of the royal family in the novel When the Terminally Ill Villainess Dies.
It was a bloodline that revered physical strength above all and held a unique tradition: only power could determine a person’s worth.
They thought of their children not as family but as heirs in training. No female child had been born to them in over 500 years.
‘This is where the princess Isabel is born. That must be me, right?’
The swordsmanship of the Billotian royal family was developed and refined to suit the magical circuits of men.
In other words, women couldn’t learn it.
Being born a girl in Billotian, where only strength matters, was considered a curse.
‘A panicked midwife, a sobbing mother, the Billotian royal family, the first princess in 500 years. And my name is Isabel?’
No doubt about it. I had awakened inside the novel When the Terminally Ill Villainess Dies.
I had read it at least 17 times.
I knew every major character, had memorized the lore and plot.
I had spent my whole life bedridden, and my only hobbies were solving math problems and reading novels.
‘Oh my god… this must be transmigration.’
Believing it was a dream might have made more sense, but I liked the idea of transmigration better, so I decided that’s what it was.
“Waaaaah!”
Even as I cried, I was thrilled.
No joke—I loved that I had transmigrated.
‘This is way better than Korea.’
In Korea, I was an orphan.
My so-called biological father ran away before I was even born, and my mother abandoned me not long after.
I never saw either of them.
And when I was four years old, I was diagnosed with childhood cancer and began my long battle.
The media occasionally featured me as a tragic child.
Thanks to donations from strangers, I was able to stay in the hospital and survive until now.
Fortunately, I was good at studying.
[A Miracle Achieved in a Hospital Room!]
[Miracle Child Gets into Korea University]
My university acceptance even made the news.
Lots of people congratulated me and praised me.
I was grateful, but honestly, I wasn’t that happy.
‘It’s not like I’ll live much longer anyway.’
I had a clear sense of my impending death.
And I was so tired. So tired and in pain.
I lost count of how many times I wished for death just to be freed from it all.
‘Hey, people! I’m not in pain at all right now!’
Even though I was crying loudly, nothing hurt.
Usually, I would have felt a crushing pain in my chest.
Just the fact that I didn’t… made me so happy.
‘If I really transmigrated into Isabel, I’ll die at 21, right?’
Isabel was born terminally ill.
She was cursed with the “Brand of Narvidal,” a sandglass-shaped mark on her wrist.
Throughout her life, grains of sand would slowly fall from it, and once they were gone, she would die.
It was a curse present from birth.
But I didn’t care. I wasn’t in pain right now.
At least until I turned 21, I could live happily and healthily.
It was like I had been given 21 extra years of life.
‘Jackpot!’
I might be terminally ill again, but now I was healthy, beautiful Isabel.
‘Wow, I can finally eat cookies whenever I want, right?’
I had only ever eaten bland hospital food.
Never even had soda.
I tried one sip once and got scolded hard by the nurse.
‘Does this world have cola?’
Somehow, I’d become someone who cared deeply about food.
‘Probably no tteokbokki though, right?’
That’s a Korean food, so probably not.
I knew the recipe, but still—why am I thinking about tteokbokki right now?
…Even so, once the thought started, it wouldn’t stop.
‘C-Could I drink alcohol before I die?’
How good must it be if people get addicted to it?
They say it’s bitter, but I bet that’s just to keep kids away.
I really wanted to try it once before I die.
Like, being classy—sipping wine while watching the night skyline.
It was just a fantasy, but honestly, it was my one wish.
Sluuuuurp!
Even as I cried out, my mouth just let out another “Waaah!”
Another voice sounded.
“A useless thing has been born.”
Straight out of the novel.
“A useless thing has been born.”
He looked down at the newborn girl with emotionless eyes. There was no fatherly affection to be found.
I rolled my eyes toward the man who appeared.
And I instinctively blurted out,
“Waaah-gghh (So handsome)!”
I wasn’t kidding—I was genuinely shocked.
I had never seen a creature so good-looking in my life.
The novel’s description fit perfectly.
“Everyone hesitated not a moment to call him beautiful. Though he was known as an emotionless doll, many noblewomen fell in love with him and suffered love sickness.”
His black hair was cut short, and his sharp eyes and eyebrows gave him a fierce look.
His gaze was so cold and aggressive.
And yet, he was stunning.
This man, without a doubt, was my father—Ron.
‘Hehe.’
Seeing his face made me deeply regret my limited imagination.
‘Wow. You’re way more handsome than I imagined.’
He was so beautiful, I, a newborn baby, actually stopped crying.
‘Scary eyes… but you’re still beautiful.’
The way he treated me was expected in this world.
Ron adored his wife, but he had never once loved his children.
I wasn’t afraid.
In the novel, Isabel, doomed to die at 21, grew into a terrifying villainess.
‘She committed every evil deed imaginable, then died a natural death at 21.’
Fun fact: this militaristic royal family crumbles on the day she dies.
That’s when the male lead she abused as a child returns awakened and destroys Billotian.
Hence the novel’s title: When the Terminally Ill Villainess Dies.
‘Basically, it means no matter what I do, the royal family can’t touch me!’
No need to be scared.
Father turned away from me.
He didn’t spare me a single glance of affection.
It was a little sad, but as a reader who had read the book many times, I understood.
‘This is where I get diagnosed as terminal, right?’
At that moment, the midwife noticed the mark on my wrist and spoke.
“Your Majesty! She has the Brand of Narvidal!”
Children born with that mark all die at 21.
‘Now Father will say he doesn’t care and leave, right?’
His cold voice answered,
“I don’t care.”
Slam.
I heard the door close.
I didn’t feel particularly bad.
‘Twenty-one years.’
I had just gained 21 more years of life.
My mother continued to sob.
“Baby…”
She was about to apologize.
She would say she was sorry for giving birth to me.
“I’m sorry I brought you into this world…”
“Waaaah!”
No, really, I’m totally fine.
I wanted to tell her, but I couldn’t speak.
I made a promise to myself—to tell her when I could speak.
‘Even if I can’t learn swordsmanship…’
I’m pretty smart, you know?
I even know the future pretty well. I know who the strongest people in the world are going to be.
‘And there’s something like cryptocurrency here too.’
The name’s different, but it’s practically the same.
And in about 10 years, its value skyrockets thousands of times.
I even know the coin’s founder, Narmore, and the names of future famous magicians, magical engineers, and entrepreneurs.
Thinking about it, there might actually be a lot of ways to avoid that destruction ending.
‘Wow. I already have at least ten ways to live my 21 years to the fullest.’
Ugh… ugh…
I wriggled my body.
‘This really is fantasy.’
A newborn baby moved her body by will alone! A miracle!
…Not that surprising, since I transmigrated and understand speech and all.
Probably because I was born into the royal body of Billotian.
Anyway, I tried my best to move.
The midwife understood my efforts.
“She must want to go to the Empress.”
The midwife picked me up.
The sensation of floating was fun.
‘Being in a baby’s body makes everything feel amazing.’
I was laid next to my mother, Serna.
Ugh… ugh…
Like a little caterpillar, I wriggled my way into her arms.
It was the first time I had ever felt a mother’s warmth.
Serna’s body trembled.
She was crying with joy.
‘So warm… and sleepy…’
A newborn’s body needs a lot of sleep. Before I knew it, I drifted off.
Clutching my mother’s finger tightly.
And thus, a year passed.
