IPHW 02

“Shana!”

A voice calling someone was desperate and affectionate. It sounded like a mother searching for a lost child.

“Shana, you’re safe! Oh, God, thank you! Thank you….”

I didn’t realize they were talking about me.

“Her lips are completely blue. Oh my… how could something like this happen….”

Someone lifted me up and placed me into the arms of a sobbing woman. Being picked up by another person felt like riding a amusement attraction.

Like a brief ride on a Viking ship. A chill ran down my spine, and my toes curled up on their own.

In short—it was scary.

But I held it in. I still had dignity as an adult; I couldn’t just cry easily!

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again. In front of me was a woman’s face covered in tears and mucus. She looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties.

With bright blonde hair, a slender face, and striking green eyes—she was a beauty.

She looked foreign at first glance, no matter how you looked at her. What should I do? I’m not confident in English conversation. Hello, hi…

‘Ah, right… I can understand what they’re saying…’

This annoying English anxiety.

She looked like a beautiful actress, but she was so red-eyed and swollen from crying that she didn’t look elegant at all. She looked like someone whose world had ended.

She looked at me, then squeezed her eyes shut again as tears welled up.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m sorry….”

Nope, this won’t work.

“Waaah….”

It was embarrassing to make sounds, but I had no choice if I wanted to comfort her.

As soon as I made a sound, she widened her eyes. It was kind of cute—and satisfying. I reached out toward her startled face.

Yes, I have arms and legs! They’re just short!

“Shana… you… you’re trying to comfort me….”

Yes! Yes! You got it exactly right!

“I’m sorry… Mommy is sorry….”

Ah. So she really was my mother.

It felt strange. The woman in front of me looked to be only slightly older than I had been before I died.

“I fell asleep… so you almost died….”

“That’s not your fault.”

“But if I had been awake, Shana wouldn’t have been kidnapped!”

“You just fell asleep. The one at fault is that woman. Who could have imagined that your former nanny would kidnap a child and abandon her?”

I turned my gaze from my mother’s arms toward the side. A man who also looked to be in his late twenties stood there.

‘Judging by the conversation… he’s probably my father?’

As soon as I looked at the man who was likely my father, I genuinely wanted to see a mirror.

‘Are they both actors?’

Damn… he’s insanely handsome.

Both parents were so ridiculously good-looking that I started to wonder what my own face looked like, which I had never even seen. If those were the raw materials, even a bad combination would still be insane…

“Stop blaming yourself, Anaïs.”

“But Shana was abandoned in a hunting ground! If His Highness the Prince hadn’t found her by chance, Shana would have….”

“That’s enough.”

“Look, she’s still pale….”

So that’s what happened. I was kidnapped.

‘She said hunting ground… so that blond kid must be a prince…’

A prince is basically like a royal, right? I moved my eyes quietly, trying to assess the situation.

‘So this isn’t Korea… and it doesn’t seem like the modern world either.’

Well, wolves don’t exactly show up in Korea.

The wolf had quietly left. I was left alone with a ridiculously handsome child I had never seen before. I had wondered what would happen to me, but fortunately, that child brought me to a group of people.

First, they warmed my body in warm water. While that happened, things around me grew noisy.

And the one who rushed in was this person.

Probably my mother.

‘So they didn’t abandon me.’

I thought I had no parental luck this life either, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

My mother looked like she was on the verge of collapsing from crying. My father wasn’t much better.

I understood they were my parents, but it didn’t feel real.

Of course it didn’t. I still couldn’t even accept that I had become a baby.

But humans are simple. Once the freezing cold was gone and safety was secured, everything else stopped mattering.

My tense, frozen body melted, and being held felt warm and stable. The embrace was comforting.

I hadn’t been held by anyone since my parents died in my previous life. I had always been the one comforting and holding my younger sister.

‘So this is what it feels like to be held…’

It naturally made me feel safe. My chest felt warm.

‘My body’s small, so I didn’t even do anything and I’m already tired…’

And I’m hungry…

As soon as I thought that, a loud sound echoed.

Grrrrowl!

Wow, I thought that was thunder.

‘Did… they hear that?’

Even though I now knew these were my parents, I had just met them. I was still shy. It was loud, but they might not have heard since they were talking…

“My goodness. Shana must be hungry. She must have gone hours without eating…”

The mother muttered.

Ah, right—I’m a baby!

‘I’m not hungry! I’m not hungry! I won’t be hungry!’

No way. I had just opened my eyes in this new life, and even if survival was important…

Ugh.

“Eat well, Shana. I promise we will never lose you again. Trust us.”

“Yes. We will never make such a mistake again. I will protect you.”

It was delicious…

Reason was swept away by instinct like sand in a wave. Feeding didn’t matter. Survival was sacred.

Yes, adult or baby—food is life. Slurp.

***

Humans are simple creatures.

‘I didn’t want to realize it like this.’

My body, once frozen from the cold, warmed up. As I regained feeling in my limbs, I realized I was hungry.

And once my stomach was filled after that thunder-like sound, sleep came rushing in.

‘So embarrassing… so humiliating… I’m completely driven by instinct…’

Even worse, I felt strangely clean down there, which I really shouldn’t think about. Preserving my dignity requires not thinking about it.

I must have fallen asleep while being fed by my mother.

I say “must have” because I don’t remember it.

But since I’m now lying in a dim room, carefully placed down, it must be true. I didn’t even say thank you.

‘Well, I couldn’t speak anyway.’

My father always said to greet people properly no matter what. I even taught my younger sister the same.

‘Stop running away from reality…’

Time to think properly, Han Yeon-ah.

In the snowy field, I was too cold to think. But now I was warm and full, my mind clear.

First.

‘Did I really die?’

What if I didn’t?

It felt similar to when I fainted from overwork, but also slightly different.

I sometimes collapsed from overwork, but this felt like falling into a much deeper place. My intuition said: this is death.

…If I’m wrong, that would be extremely embarrassing.

But if I didn’t die, there was no way to explain why I’m now a baby.

So I must have died and been reborn.

‘Is this what they call reincarnation?’

No matter what you call it, this definitely isn’t normal.

In theory, people shouldn’t remember their past life after death… I blinked. In the dark, my eyes adjusted, and vague shapes became visible.

I could clearly see my new parents’ faces when they came close. And that blond child too. My vision must still be poor.

‘If my eyesight is this bad, I’m probably around 100 days old?’

Not sure, but definitely not a newborn.

I must have regained my past-life memories after nearly dying in the snowy field.

Wow. This is fantasy. Pure fantasy.

My younger sister would probably love this. She always argued that reading novels helps comprehension.

‘She’s become like me now.’

Just like I lost my parents at twenty, she also lost her guardian at twenty.

But I was too exhausted to continue. I could almost hear her blaming me, so I closed my eyes.

‘Fine. I’ll accept I died and was reborn. But where is this?’

Not Korea, not modern Earth—then where?

The language my parents spoke was completely unfamiliar. And the setting felt like something out of a medieval fantasy world.

‘The hunting ground, the prince kid… and the clothes… definitely not modern.’

If not modern, then past? Europe in the past?

Maybe a historical drama… or time slip… but I can’t pinpoint the era.

Everything is too unclear, except for one thing: everyone is insanely good-looking.

“Eek…!”

No! I was trying to make a grunting sound! Not something embarrassing like that!

I tried to move my body, but all I managed was flailing. The blanket slipped off.

“Uuuh… ah! Ah!”

“You’re awake and not sleeping.”

“Huh?”

A blond kid.