Chapter 2
2
A pale hand, smeared with blood, groped up Simone's body and soon pressed down on her shoulder.
A faint stench wafted around her, and a chilling laughter echoed in her ear.
Haa...
Broken, rotten fingernails dug into Simone's tender flesh. Covered in blood, she took a deep, long breath and whispered incessantly in a metallic voice.
Die.
Fall.
Go up and fall.
Die die die die die die die die die die.
At that, Simone, or rather Seo Hyun-jeong, thought.
'Ah, I want to eat eojuk (fish porridge)...'
I don't even like fish.
But right now, I feel like I could bear to eat that disgusting thing.
It had been three days since she escaped from where she had been staying.
Simone was honestly so hungry right now that she felt like crying.
Fall, die.
Die.
"I won't die... I don't want to die."
Even if I die, I want to live as much as I can and go peacefully, not starve to death.
Even as Simone muttered sincerely, the blood-covered woman, whose arms were easily over nine feet long, simply rested her chin on Simone's shoulder, cracking her neck and ceaselessly chattering.
Eventually, Simone gave up and left her alone.
"Do as you please."
She couldn't help but sigh at her own state.
The woman was a ghost who had been attached to Simone since she first came to this world, and she would occasionally curse Simone whenever she was bored.
Simone, who had somewhat given up and was listening to the nine-foot woman's curse, sighed deeply once more and looked ahead. Then, frowning, she said.
"Ah, please be quiet! Is this the time for you to be talking? Look at your senior in front of you!"
That 300-year-old giant monster!
In the first place, why did this woman even follow me here?
Simone, venting her anger as much as she could, looked up at the large mansion in front of her, or rather, the dark red branches that coiled and writhed around the entire mansion.
"Oh, how did I end up in this situation."
She's practically advertising, 'I'm cursed.'
It was such a gruesome sight that looking up at it made her mouth shut tight at its majesty.
"Ha."
Seeing something I'd only read about in novels right in front of me is honestly a little scary...
Simone clenched her fist tightly.
"I'm nervous."
Still, she rationalized that it was much better than a death ending by sacrifice.
From now on, Simone was going to pass through this disgusting mass of trees and enter the mysterious Illestone Mansion.
The situation when she first set foot in this world was quite hardcore.
"...Heok!"
'W-what is this!'
"S-she, she really j-jumped! Everyone, t-to the right! No! To the left!"
When she opened her eyes, she was falling from a three-story roof, and below were people holding out blankets, looking at her in shock.
"Save me-heok! Heok!"
Seo Hyun-jeong cried desperately and fell into the blanket, and at that moment, information about this damned situation began to fill her head.
She couldn't know all the details, but she knew roughly that the name of this skinny girl who had now become her body was 'Simone,' her age, and a simple overview of the situation.
'Simone, who sees ghosts.'
That was the nickname of this child, Simone, in the orphanage.
And Simone could actually see ghosts. Rather than being able to see them, she saw them whether she wanted to or not.
It was a Necromancer's innate ability, but Simone didn't know how to properly control this Power of Death, so it was impossible to regulate.
Fortunately or unfortunately, thanks to the fact that Seo Hyun-jeong had received some of Simone's memories, she was able to remain surprisingly calm even when she saw a ghost for the first time.
Seo Hyun-jeong became certain of what situation she was in based on a few facts.
'It's a relief that I read the original work to the end.'
This place was the world inside the mass-produced fantasy novel [I Opened My Eyes and I Was Hiding My Power] that she had read a while ago.
She had possessed Simone, a Necromancer who was a companion of the protagonist who appeared in the early part of the story.
'But why Simone of all people...'
I'm already confused to death because I don't even know why I'm in someone else's body.
Simone bit her lip in frustration.
She recalled a scene from the novel about Simone.
"Simone!"
Abel screamed.
Simone was slowly disappearing into the darkness she had emitted herself, along with countless enemies.
But Simone smiled.
"Thank you, everyone."
Only seventeen years old. Small and timid, she endured the pain of her flesh burning and smiled calmly.
To her, Abel and his party were the first warm sunlight and salvation she had ever encountered.
That was why she sincerely wanted them to achieve their goal.
Even if she couldn't be with them.
"Move forward."
She was happy.
For the first time, she felt that her Power of Death was noble because she could burn herself with it and sacrifice herself for her companions.
I hope my life was worth something to my light.』
Seo Hyun-jeong had a fairly clear memory of her end in the novel.
Black hair and red eyes, the characteristics of a Necromancer. Simone had been abandoned by her parents because she was born with them.
The orphanage director, who reluctantly took Simone in, abused her, calling her a disaster that would bring misfortune, and eventually sold her to an occult society called a cult.
The occult society was famous for kidnapping people for research and conducting very unethical and cruel experiments.
"This child is that Necromancer."
"Oh! So a Necromancer was born in Luan as well?"
"It's a rare thing, the only one in the Empire. Look at this. Since ancient times, black hair has been said to be the ominous energy of those who have made a contract with the god of death, right? Wouldn't it be helpful for the society's research?"
When Simone, who happened to overhear the director and the society's leader talking, decided to kill herself by jumping off the roof rather than being tortured to death by them, Seo Hyun-jeong possessed her at that time.
Of course, she failed, so she was now packing her bags to be sold.
According to the original story, she would soon become a research subject of the society, undergo all sorts of experiments, lose her voice from the shock, and only wait for the day she would die.
Then, with the help of the protagonist she met there, she would escape and join him on his journey, sacrificing her life.
"Seriously."
'Taking a mere seventeen-year-old and tormenting her like that is a good thing to do!'
Simone thought, packing her bags with a look on her face as if she had seen everything in the world.
It had been roughly a month since she had possessed Simone. While being harassed by the director and the ghost, she had accepted that she would not be able to return to reality. But.
'No matter how I think about it, being sold to the society is absolutely not an option.'
Seo Hyun-jeong recalled the description of when the protagonist Abel first saw Simone in the occult society episode.
And she shuddered.
'Ugh, creepy...'
『It was a place where torture-like experiments had been carried out for many years.
Abel found a young girl there.
"Orcan, there's a survivor here."
Numerous injection marks and whip marks remained intact, covered in bloodstains.
If Abel hadn't found her, she would have been thought of as just one of many corpses.』
She absolutely hated to go through such hardship.
"Damn it, damn it, bullshit, ah, I'm screwed... Ah, the more I think about it, the more angry I get. Director, you son of a-"
Simone cursed incessantly and thought about how to avoid her miserable death.
1. Endure it at the orphanage: Endure it and what? I'll be harassed by the director and beaten to death or starve to death.
2. Occult Society: Not even worth thinking about.
3. Find the protagonist: If Simone doesn't sacrifice herself, just like in the original story, everyone in the party will die.
4. Run away: Where to? In the first place, because of my black hair, I might get stoned if I pass by, or if I'm unlucky, I might get dragged away and die. More than anything, I can't work, so I'll starve to death.
5. Then should I get rid of my black hair? Shave it all off?: I can hide my hair, but I can't hide my red eyes. Plus, if I shave my head with this skinny body, people might think I'm a runaway slave and report me. In the end, I'll probably come back to the orphanage and be handed over to the occult society.
'There's no way out?'
It was truly a dilemma.
Even after thinking of various solutions, there were no options left after filtering them out.
It seemed that the damn author had designed Simone as a character who had no choice but to die from the beginning.
"This is driving me crazy..."
At least in other novels, I'd be possessed by a high-ranking noble lady who was about to be executed, but if I did some good deeds, I'd find a way out. What am I supposed to do, being possessed by this body and seeing ghosts?
'What did I do so wrong?'
Was it so wrong to work overtime, get angry, have a can of beer, and read a novel?
"Yeah. Well, I'm not the protagonist of the novel. This is reality... Reality? What am I saying? Am I crazy? To call this reality. Damn it."
Seo Hyun-jeong looked back on her life and continued packing her bags.
"Let me be possessed by the body of a high-ranking noble lady, too-"
Even if I'm scheduled to be executed, it's okay-
She was humming a song like a Korean person who had reached a state of enlightenment and was looking for socks, and the luggage she was secretly packing was the director's clothes that were decent enough to wear.
Would I be crazy enough to pack my bags to go to the occult society?
She was now stealing the director's clothes without guilt, trying to run away from home.
"Ihijen- where should I go-"
However, an idea suddenly came to her from within her rambling song of lament.
'High-ranking noble!'
"Heol."
A smile appeared on Simone's lips.
'Maybe I can live.'
