Episode 1
The child rubbed their sleepy eyes with their chubby, maple-leaf-like hands.
The five-year-old child had abundant golden curly hair and sea-blue eyes, looking just like an angel.
Another child approached this angelic child.
“Ellie, are you sleepy?”
Seria, who was seven years old with pink hair and eyes, asked Elimas, who had golden hair. Elimas nodded.
“Yeah, I’m sleepy.”
“Okay, then sleep.”
At Seria’s words, Elimas nodded and headed towards the bed.
But at that moment.
“Oops!”
Elimas tripped over their own feet and fell.
Thud!
Backwards, no less!
“Oh! Ellie! Are you okay?!”
Seria cried out and rushed over. Elimas couldn’t open their eyes, as if they had lost consciousness. Just as tears welled up in Seria’s eyes.
Elimas’s eyes snapped open.
Along with a vulgar curse!
I was originally a twenty-seven-year-old office worker. I was a typical Korean office worker, stressed out every day at work, just waiting for the weekend. That was me.
But now, I’m ‘Elimas’.
That’s right.
After dying in a car accident, I was reincarnated into the world of a novel.
To add to that, my past life’s memories came flooding back just now, when I fell backward.
Funnily enough, they blended so well with my current life’s memories that I was able to adapt quickly without much confusion.
Elimas, currently five years old.
An orphan abandoned by her parents, but a child with an angelic appearance.
That’s me, but…
My current situation isn’t great.
My current situation isn’t great.
Seria, a seven-year-old child with pink hair and matching eyes, asked worriedly, looking at me, “E-E-Ellie? Are you okay?”
I vaguely nodded and looked at the scenery behind Seria.
Through my dim vision, I could see iron bars.
When I cursed again, Seria flinched. But I didn’t even pay attention.
In my past life, I used to read web novels as a hobby during my commute.
I read all sorts of genres like romance-fantasy, fantasy, and martial arts. A common cliché in such web novels was ‘transmigrating or reincarnating as a character in a web novel you read as a hobby.’
And now, combining my past and present life memories, I realized that I had, as per the cliché, reincarnated as a character in a web novel.
So, I, who was a K-office worker in reality, am a romance-fantasy heroine in another world?!
It could have been a great situation, but unfortunately, it was far from it.
The world I reincarnated into was the world of an R-rated dark novel.
‘And I’m just an extra, a saintess character who sacrifices herself for the heroine in the early part of the story.’
I bowed my head and sighed.
The novel that formed the basis of the world I reincarnated into was called “Flowers Bloom Even on Ruined Roads,” or ‘Muggilkkoch’ for short.
Here’s a simple summary of “Muggilkkoch”‘s plot:
Seria, a saintess who was only ever used by the temple, one day escapes the temple. The male lead, Teron, finds her, injured.
The two meet and heal each other’s wounds, and it’s a novel that makes people bloom with high-intensity scenes.
However, the background setting of the two characters was so dark that it developed into an R-rated dark story.
And I, Elimas, in ‘Muggilkkoch,’ am a supporting character who sacrifices herself in place of Seria, helping her escape the temple, and then dies.
When Seria turns twenty, they both try to escape together. But they can’t escape the High Priest’s pursuit, so Elimas gets caught instead, helping Seria escape.
‘And Elimas was stabbed to death by the High Priest…’
Anyway, I, the character Elimas, was fated to die that way.
As I muttered a curse, I saw Seria flinch again, looking dumbfounded.
I shifted my gaze from Seria and looked up at the ceiling.
The place where Seria and I are currently imprisoned is the underground of a temple dedicated to ‘Talianb,’ one of the gods of this world.
Following the K-romance-fantasy trend, most temples in this world were thoroughly corrupt.
Following the K-romance-fantasy trend, most temples in this world were thoroughly corrupt.
This temple, in particular, was completely rotten, especially since it was a place the female protagonist of this world had to go through.
The priests of the Talianb Temple kidnapped orphans and children from the slums who had no divine power, making them saintesses or priests and treating them like slaves.
“I can’t keep living in a place like this.”
However, the problem was that I was too young.
My current age is five.
‘I’m just a baby.’
Being cute only goes so far.
There was almost nothing I could do with this small, fragile body. Moreover, escaping the temple itself was a difficult task.
In other words, I was screwed.
I cursed again without realizing it, and suddenly something was held out in front of me.
I looked up and saw a piece of bread held in a small hand. The bread was only about the size of a child’s fist.
And the one who offered it was Seria, the protagonist of this world, still just a child.
‘What? Why is she giving this to me?’
I clearly remembered eating all the bread I received for dinner before regaining my past life memories.
This bread was definitely Seria’s, saved from her own portion that she hadn’t eaten.
The priests only distributed one hard piece of bread for meals. So Seria, sharing her bread with me, must be hungry.
“Ellie, eat this.”
“Why?”
I replied, slightly narrowing my brows. Seria smiled brightly.
“Ellie’s feeling down right now. So eat this and cheer up.”
Just like a female protagonist, really.
Seria was too kind.
‘I’m here scheming how to survive on my own.’
According to the original plot, I’m supposed to save Seria and die. But I had no intention of ending things that way.
‘I don’t care about the original story.’
However, I couldn’t refuse Seria’s kindness. How could I ignore this innocent and kind child?
“Thank you.”
I answered softly and took the bread, eating it. As I chewed on the hard bread for a long time, Seria smiled again and looked at me.
‘Looking at me with those eyes,’
‘Looking at me with those eyes.’
I can’t be cold to her.
Having already read the entire original story, I knew well what kind of person Seria was.
Kind to everyone, sweet, and sometimes even a pushover.
A woman who suited the title of saintess more than anyone.
“Huh? Ellie? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
Seria, eating the remaining bread she had shared, had a bewildered look on her face. I sighed repeatedly to myself.
Only Seria and I were confined in this underground space.
Officially, we were both saintesses of the Talianb Temple. Usually, a temple only had one saintess, but the Talianb Temple was different.
Moreover, according to the original story, if both saintesses became adults, one had to reside permanently in the temple. The other would travel to promote the temple under the guise of a pilgrimage.
The priests kept us imprisoned here, using the excuse that ‘saintesses must be free of selfish desires.’
In the underground prison where we were confined, there was only one single bed and a dirty, cramped, and curtainless bathroom.
On top of that, we were only given breakfast and dinner, and even then, it was just one stale, hard piece of bread, served as if it were a favor.
We were trapped behind prison-like bars and couldn’t even go outside.
‘Those priests, all talk and no substance.’
At least they didn’t use violence, which was a relief, but… instead, we were forced to do certain things.
Soon after, ‘that day’ came.
The day Seria and I could leave this prison was only one day a week, and even then, only one person could go out.
And on that day, we could wash our bodies thoroughly and wear clean clothes instead of rags.
That day was when the devotees came to the temple for worship.
And today was that very day, and of course, it had to be my turn to go out.
‘Damn it.’
I barely managed to swallow the curse that wanted to escape my lips.
The female priests, who came at dawn, roughly carried me to the washroom.
They roughly scrubbed my body with their hands and quickly dried my wet body.
And as they combed my curly hair, they grumbled.
“It’s so curly, it’s too much work, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Seria is easier than this child, but the High Priest is so compassionate, he won’t let us switch them.”
It wasn’t my fault my hair was curly, but…
It was so sad that I couldn’t even talk back while listening to such things.
‘If only I had power…’
The priests hadn’t used violence so far, but I suppressed my erupting anger, afraid of being hit if I got on their bad side.
After my hair was done, a pure white silk dress was placed on my body. My thin arms and legs were exposed, but the soft, gentle texture was amazing.
After being dressed, I was again taken by the priests into the temple.
“Saintess Elimas, entering!”
With the resounding shout of the priest, I stood before a crowd of devotees. As the devotees gave me pitying looks, the High Priest standing beside me muttered with a gloomy face.
“Our Saintess always undergoes hardships to communicate with Lord Talianb on our behalf. Please pray for such a Saintess.”
The High Priest, Valleo, was a middle-aged man whose greed was clearly visible on his face.
As I looked up at Valleo, he bent down and poked my side, whispering just loud enough for me to hear. He hadn’t used violence before!
“Now, Saintess! Show your tears immediately! Only then will the devotees show their sincerity!”
That’s right.
This temple was making Seria and me perform a charade.
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