SPRFG 09

Chapter 9

Koreatown of the Ilgentavita Empire (2)

However, just like in the other world, this world did not let her sleep.

She thought she heard footsteps and voices, and then someone suddenly pulled away her blanket.

Hwanhee curled up her body and shoved her head under the pillow. Of course, it did not help much. Someone else took the pillow away, and bright sunlight pierced through her closed eyes.

Hwanhee had no choice but to open her eyes.

She tried to convey through her eyes, I’m so sleepy I could die, Please don’t disturb me, and Just let me sleep.

A woman forcibly made her sit up.

She was a beautiful woman with pearl-colored hair. Her hair was silver, but there was not a single wrinkle on her face. Still, the firmness and maturity in her eyes could not be hidden.

She was probably the mother of the pink-haired girl in this dream, who had been given an excessively detailed setting.

“My daughter, Aiolia, did you sleep well?”

The woman hugged Hwanhee.

Hwanhee wondered whether she should hug her back or ask her to move away because, from her point of view, this was a strange middle-aged woman she had never met.

In the end, she missed the chance to do either.

The woman smiled and stroked Hwanhee’s hair—or rather, Aiolia’s hair.

Hwanhee simply let the woman do as she pleased and answered awkwardly.

“Huh? Yes. Um, but I want to sleep a little longer.”

“Oh my, my daughter suddenly became so polite. What happened? You never used honorifics before.”

The Duchess said that with a smile.

Judging by the fact that she had a daughter this age, she must have been at least forty, but she looked no more than thirty and was extremely beautiful.

She was an aristocratic lady overflowing with dignity and charm.

Besides, she seemed to love her daughter very much. Deep affection and concern could be felt in every gentle pat of her hand on Hwanhee’s.

Hwanhee blinked in surprise.

Had she ever received this much love?

She did not think so.

Did she deserve this kind of treatment?

She did not think that either.

She had no idea what was happening.

“I guess it really is time for you to get married. We need to find a good husband for you soon. Our daughter has already become such a proper young lady. While Mother was busy recovering and could not pay attention to finding you a match, our Aiolia has already grown up.”

“Yes…… yes?”

What? Marriage? Me? Here?

Hwanhee was so shocked that she could not say anything.

The Duchess had no idea that Aiolia had disappeared and that the soul of a Korean woman had entered her daughter’s body.

Not only was Hwanhee being mistaken for her daughter, but marriage had suddenly become part of the conversation.

Hwanhee had never dated anyone in her entire life.

For twenty-seven years, she had not even held hands with someone, let alone dated.

She had had crushes, but the objects of those crushes had always been characters from shounen manga or fantasy novels.

And now they were talking about marriage?

“No, Duchess. Our daughter is still young. She needs to stay with us a little longer. There is still so much she needs to learn if she wants to become a lady respected in high society……”

A man interrupted while saying this.

He was sitting at the foot of her bed. He looked to be in his forties, and his hair was pink as well.

Hwanhee realized that this man’s face looked very similar to the face of the girl she had seen in the mirror.

Ah, this man must be her father.

It was her first time seeing a man who actually looked good with pink hair.

Hwanhee’s mouth fell open.

He had a sharp jawline and charismatic eyes……

Such a handsome middle-aged man was smiling at her while calling her his daughter.

“Did you have some strange dream?”

“No? I didn’t dream. I slept really well without even dreaming…… I slept well!”

Hwanhee answered carelessly.

For now, she thought she should get these people out of the room as quickly as possible.

Then she could think about why this dream was so unnecessarily detailed and realistic, and what exactly had happened the night before that seemed to have been something important.

Whenever she wanted to concentrate on her thoughts, she always wanted to be alone.

She later learned that these two were the Duke and Duchess of Almadelcore.

The Duke smiled warmly as he straightened Hwanhee’s blanket, while the Duchess playfully pinched her cheek once, though not hard enough to hurt.

The sensation was so vivid that it sent chills down Hwanhee’s spine.

Hwanhee put a hand on her cheek—strictly speaking, Aiolia’s cheek—and fell into thought.

The Duke turned around and said,

“Why did you call me? You said something was wrong with Aiolia?”

Hwanhee decided to think of the woman standing straight behind the Duke, the woman who had first discovered her, as a maid of this mansion.

The maid answered.

“The young lady spoke in a language that was not the Imperial language. I could not understand what she was saying.”

What did I do?

Hwanhee felt goosebumps rise on the back of her neck.

The maid seemed to be talking about the Korean word hello that she had spoken earlier.

Wasn’t Korea at least somewhat known these days?

Besides, the word Empire bothered her.

As far as Hwanhee knew, there were not many countries on Earth that called themselves an empire.

It was especially difficult to find a place where people lived while wearing clothing that looked like something from eighteenth- or nineteenth-century Western Europe.

Unless this was a movie or drama set……

“Really? It must have been sleep-talking. Aiolia, what did you say?”

“Uh…… I don’t know. I didn’t say anything. Maybe you heard wrong?”

Hwanhee lied without even bothering to hide it.

She looked at the maid with wide eyes.

The maid widened her eyes as if she were being treated unfairly, but she did not dare contradict her.

Is there some problem with speaking a language other than the Imperial language?

Hwanhee puffed out her cheeks as she thought.

Just as the Duchess was about to get up from the bed—

“Um…… and the young lady…… as you can see, she is using honorifics.”

This time, both the Duke and Duchess took it seriously.

The married couple and the maid stared intently at Hwanhee.

Hwanhee simply sat there.

It seemed that the young lady Aiolia they knew was someone who did not use honorifics.

She probably spoke casually and acted spoiled with her parents, while giving orders casually to the servants.

Their wild and unruly daughter had gone to sleep and suddenly woken up as a polite young lady.

How would her parents react?

They won’t immediately realize that I’m not their daughter, will they—

They did not realize it.

“I see. Well, perhaps.”

“Honey, our daughter has always been a fickle child.”

Hwanhee felt guilty about deceiving them.

At this point, it also seemed strange that she had not woken up yet.

There was no alarm ringing.

Hwanhee hesitantly opened her mouth.

“Um…… I’m sorry, but I’m not Aiolia. Where is this place?”

“Hm? What did you say, Aiolia?”

The Duke asked back with a smile.

Hwanhee tried her best to explain.

“I’m just…… a full-time teaching assistant in the Department of Physics at Korea University. I have to be at work by nine, so I think I’ll probably wake up soon. This is the strangest dream I’ve ever had, so I don’t know what’s going on…… After I fall asleep, won’t that girl called Aiolia, or Aliolio, or whatever her name is, come back? So please don’t worry too much. I don’t know what happened either, but for now, I just want to sleep a little longer……”

The atmosphere became awkward.

Hwanhee said whatever came to mind.

“Wow, your house is really nice.”

She thought complimenting them would improve the atmosphere.

It did not.

The Duke and Duchess looked at Hwanhee with serious expressions.

Hwanhee desperately tried to think.

Now I think I understand what’s happening.

This isn’t a dream.

I’ve possessed the body of a character in a romance-fantasy novel.

This was even worse news for her.

If it were a dream, at least she could wake up.

But according to the web novel trends of the late 2010s that Hwanhee knew, there was no way for someone who possessed a character in a romance-fantasy novel to return to their original world.

“Haha! Our daughter has become so polite, and now she even knows how to joke!”

“I know, honey. I think she got her sense of humor from you.”

The Duke laughed, and the Duchess responded with an awkward smile.

The two of them firmly believed that Hwanhee was their daughter, Aiolia.

No.

Perhaps they wanted to believe it.

If the daughter they had cherished suddenly disappeared without leaving even a trace, and some strange being whose name and face they did not know took over their daughter’s body, how terrifying would that be?

They would be so frightened and heartbroken that even if that strange being had not done it intentionally, they might end up hating her.

Hwanhee decided that she should do her best to pretend to be Aiolia.

“Oh, come to think of it, I think my head hurts a little. Please call a doctor.”

“Rather than a doctor, I think it would be better to call Great Magician Caromio Ben. I heard that Caromio Ben is a magician who transcends the world. He will surely be able to give Master an answer.”

The maid interrupted and spoke to the Duke.

Hwanhee swallowed hard in surprise.

Great Magician!

That meant magic existed in this world.

And if someone had the title Great Magician in front of their name rather than simply being called a magician, they must be quite an extraordinary person.

Hwanhee became curious about what kind of person he was.

Are magicians common in this world?

But when she looked at the furniture in the room and the scenery outside the window, she did not see any useful devices that seemed like they could only have been created through magic.

From that, she guessed that magicians were probably rare and that magic had not been commercialized.

If magic could be used easily and quickly, wouldn’t there at least be a refrigerator in the room?

Magic must be something very expensive and precious in this world.

“I do not seek wisdom from a commoner. And isn’t he from the Dolcheardor Province?”

Hwanhee diligently memorized the new information she was learning.

First of all, it was clear that there was a class system.

Nobles and commoners did not mix, like oil and water.

In a world with nobles who firmly held onto all the privileges, Hwanhee wondered how extraordinary someone must be to become famous despite being born a commoner.

She wanted to meet him and talk to him at least once.

And the unfamiliar place name, Dolcheardor Province, seemed to be regarded as a serious disgrace or flaw in this empire for some reason.

Is Dolcheardor Province a colony of the Empire?

“Anyway, Aiolia, Father has a hunting gathering to attend, so I have to go. Mother was also invited to Lady Almaviva’s tea party today, so she needs to leave soon. Get up, get dressed, and eat at least a simple breakfast. If any guests come, shouldn’t you and Adriano greet them?”

“Adriano?”

“Your brother.”

“Oh, ah, yes, right. Yes. I was just wondering if my brother…… was home.”

Hwanhee lied again.

Even if she insisted that she was not Aiolia but Heo Hwanhee, that she had no older brother, and that she had a younger brother instead, they probably would not listen to her.

The maid gave a small bow and left the room.

The Duke and Duchess also smoothed out the wrinkles in her blanket once before preparing to leave the room.

When the tall Duke moved away from the window, sunlight suddenly poured into the room.

It hurt her eyes.

“You have suddenly been going out a lot lately…… but I don’t think you said you were going out today. If you get bored, ask your brother to play with you. You always used to have fun with your brother, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes. Goodbye, I mean…… I’ll see you later.”

While Hwanhee rubbed her eyes as if she were sleepy, they left the room.

The door closed.

Her eyes were still dazzled by the light.

That brightness did not feel like a dream, an illusion, or a lie.

An ominous feeling came over her.

She had definitely possessed a character in a romance-fantasy novel.