With deft hands, she cleaned up the store, checked the stock, and even set the settlement amount. Then, she turned all the lights in the store off and locked the door, hiding her spare key under the flowerpot. She opened her umbrella and walked down on the rainy streets, heading to Goshiwon, where she lived.

[Did you finish well, Noah?]

[Yes, I put the key under the pot.]

[Yes, you’ve worked hard. Thank you always.]

But as soon as she received the text, she burst into tears. Her mother’s messages sounded as if she treated her as a part-timer, not a daughter.

Noah never thought she was living the wrong life. People around her had pointed out her pathetic lifestyle, but she merely laughed it off. Living as such was Noah’s approach to redeem her place. However, she knew it wasn’t right. Noah swallowed her sobs and consoled herself, “Because it’s hard. Yesterday and today.”

There had been many occasions when she had it harder than today. Whether it was taking college admission tests, having team misunderstandings, or being abused by the company’s senior employees, Noah had a share of it. Yet she hoped that after a little break, she would be able to come back stronger.

“There are so many people who have it harder in the world… You shouldn’t be complaining like this, Noah.”

However, each individual had bowls to capture their own hardships, and her bowl was about to collapse, barely withstanding. Noah couldn’t overcome the crushing weight of fatigue.

10:02 P.M. The last time she checked the time, she had caught a fever and her heart jumped abnormally. She lied on her stomach for a moment in an attempt to rest, but that was it.

Sudden death in one’s sleep was a situation she thought would only appear in a headline of the news, having a mere probability of 0.001%. She never thought it would happen to her.

“Oh, what a pity,” she sighed. Her soul that had slithered out of her body stared at her corpse.

It is said that there may be consequences in the process of the body and soul being separated for a long time, and in Noah’s case, memories that she thought she had almost forgotten were coming to her in the form of lucid dreams. Fortunately, the memory that had been appearing in her dreams in fragments was finally reaching its epilogue. Her dream ended with her friend in the room next discovering her sprawled body and calling 119.

Then, she wouldn’t have to dream of what would follow. She no longer wanted to be reminded of the agonizing memories of her pitiful life.

Noah could feel a hand gently shake her body. Her small room Goshiwon was gradually dimming and her mind rose to the surface of consciousness.

*

“Miss Noah, we’re here.”

When Noah returned to her senses, she saw her reflection in a pair of violet orbs. Kyle, whose fingers sweeped lightly across his disheveled hair, hesitated for a moment before placing his hand on top of Noah’s.

“We’ll get off and change to a carriage. If you wanted to sleep more, you’d have to hold it in for a while…”“I want to get up.” She squeezed his hand tightly. Kyle glanced at their connected hands for a second and lifted her up.

Noah gazed beyond the window. The distant mountain ranges that had surrounded them a while ago had disappeared without a trace. The train had stopped in a small, quiet village. At last, they were no longer in Noviscosha. Now, they had reached the beginning of Tauren.

*

Humans are adaptable animals. Less than three hours after she woke up, Noah could relate to the saying.

It had only been two years and two months since she had lived in the body of Eleonora Asil. Nevertheless, her soul, which lightly betrayed the body of Park Noah, who had lived for twenty-five years, has adapted near to perfection to the body of Eleonora. However, the moment she returned to her body, her soul instantly coalesced with it.

Noah stared at the locker with a frown. It was positioned high on the wall. She had grown accustomed to the advantages of bearing the witch’s shell. For years of living in her humble home, she had encountered no difficulty in reaching the items in the cupboard. She was tall enough.

Of the storage boxes that occupied one wall of the post office, what she had to open was the fifth from the top and the seventh from the left. The first reason they stopped by a rural village at the entrance of Tauren was to transfer to a carriage, and the second was because of the locker. She was told there were things she had to collect here.

Her eyes narrowed. “Open, sesame.” The locker was immediately wide open even at her absurd command. She attempted to concentrate her will toward the locker. Then, the luggage began to wriggle out of the locker. All right. Just a little more.

While her eyes burned in desperation, an arm stretched over her head and overhead grabbed the luggage with ease.

TN: To our dear readers, this is only the beginning 😉