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“Miss Elizabeth?”¹

As my consciousness was stuck in a limbo between being awake and not, I heard a sound calling a name from beyond.

Since I was having a quiet rest in the silence that surrounded me, I felt slightly annoyed having the silence broken. As the voice died down, I pushed aside the feelings of annoyance.

“It’s time for your meal. Please wake up.”

The voice became clearer than before. On top of that, it was coming closer as well.

Meal? As my consciousness slowly came to the boundary of being awake, I realized that I was actually feeling quite hungry.

Grumble!

I became fully conscious at the same time my belly grumbled.

My eyes opened and a bright white ceiling came into view.² Sunlight leaked between the blinders³ that covered the windows, and whilst it was little, I still felt the warmth on my skin.

I moved my eyes and saw the face of the nurse that I recognized from the previous time. I didn’t realize it back then because I was half-conscious, but she has quite a slender facial appearance with charming beautiful eyes, an exemplary model of a young pretty western woman.⁴

Feeling worried that I may be enacting my shameful sleeping habit of leaving my mouth open while I sleep, I unconsciously started licking and wetting my dry lips in a hurry.

Speaking of which, I had done that as if it was a natural behavior. I tried to put some strength into my hand. My goodness. The previously stiff movements that I felt were now moving naturally like I always had before. As I moved my fingers around freely, I gained a sense of confidence, and with it, I moved my hand to pull off the white bedsheet that covered my body and got off the bed to stand up on my feet.

Seeing the pink-colored patient gown that I was wearing, I thought that the hospital had quite unique preferences in color.

Speaking of which, I felt that the hand that I was using to move the bedsheet was a bit too white and slender. Perhaps I had lost weight and complexion on my skin because I didn’t get any sunlight for a long time.

“You’re up now, I see. Then please enjoy your meal.”

What she showed me was a delicious looking Smoked Salmon meal. Which is considered quite rare a foreign delicacy in Korea.⁵

Seeing as how she handed me a quintessentially traditional English meal, I was able to deduce that this was England.⁶

In any case, I’m more hankering for porridge instead.⁷ Do they have any?

I summoned some courage and tried to speak out.

“Excuse me?”

Wait, what is this charming sweet voice? My voice sounded so feminine that anyone who heard it would think that I may be the ‘gay’ sort of person, which made me surprised as I heard it. On top of that, my completely fluent English pronunciation as well…

“Yes. What would you like?”

Thankfully, the nurse didn’t deem my voice as suspicious and answered my call with a gentle smile. Ah, I felt like I was going to fall for that charming smile, but thankfully I didn’t make a fool of myself.

“Cough! Cough! Do you have any ‘jook’ here?”⁸

I coughed lightly, but for some strange reason, my voice didn’t return to normal at all. It was still feminine enough to make people confuse my voice as a female one. Maybe I have a problem with my vocal cords.

“… ‘jook’?”

The nurse gave me a confused look. Damn, it looks like she doesn’t understand what I mean. So many problems are occurring all at once.

“It’s food that’s made out of rice.”
“Ah, I’m sorry but I’m not sure what you mean. If this isn’t to your taste, should I tell the cook to make another dish?”

The nurse’s face looked a little disappointed.

I thought that I probably shouldn’t cause a scene, so I shook my head.

“It’s fine. I’ll just eat it.”
“Okay! If you need anything else, then please call for us.”

After leaving a plate with a generous helping of food(?) on the table next to the bed, the nurse left the room.

Only then I started surveying my surroundings again. I was in a single patient’s room with a beautiful modern interior and personal wall mounted tv.

“Looks like I was baggage to my little sister till the end…”

As I finally returned to reality, I started to worry about my future. I had to somehow support my little sister financially again, and she may have possibly gained additional debt that I didn’t expect. To think that surviving death would feel this painful.⁹

I felt a dark future coming over to me again.

I wobbled a bit as I wore the slipper that was left on the floor. I would have worried about the fact that my feet seemed smaller than before, but instead I simply went towards the entrance of a bathroom which was situated at the corner of the room.

This was because I wanted to wash my face with cold water at the sink. Perhaps my terrible mood will improve somewhat.

As I walked, my mind was slightly distracted by strands of hair that tickled the back of my neck. Just how long was I lying on the bed that my hair grew out this long?

“Phew.”

Letting out a sigh, I turned on the water of the sink faucet. I then cupped the cold water flowing out, and washed my face.

As cold water splashed onto my face, I felt refreshed. I was finally feeling like my clouded mind was being cleared a bit.

But because my disheveled hair kept drooping in front of my face, I had to keep sweeping my hair backward, and I looked up to the mirror as I did so.

A beautiful woman with large green eyes, a pointy nose, small red lips and slightly blushing cheeks was reflected on the mirror directly before me.

Seeing that I was having even hallucinations now, I wiped away the water on the right eye with my hand again. I then looked in the mirror once more.

The young woman’s expression slowly turned to confusion and embarrassment.

She looked like a woman that is likely to appear in a western fashion model magazine, making me unconsciously open my mouth.

“Beautiful… No, wait.”

I then finally came to my senses completely. Whether the woman in my mirror was my preference or not, I am not a narcissist.

My rationality finally came to normalcy.

“What the 𝓯𝓾𝓬𝓴.”¹⁰

To think that the action I took to clear my mind would bring an even worse headache. I wobbled as I left the bathroom and sat on the corner of the bed. Only the strange and peculiar situation that I was constantly feeling started to fall into place of the puzzle. A particularly feminine voice, slender white hands that were small, the two weighty ‘mounds’ that I felt on my chest as well as my private area that was now feeling empty instead.

“Sigh…”

I let out a low sigh. I was about to just give up trying to think why this was my body.

I shook my head. With it, my long hair tickled my nape. I tilted my head towards the calendar that was hanging on the wall in the room.

“201x, March. It looks like the year is the same. I guess at least a month had passed since then.”

That was good news at least. It wasn’t like I woke up in the long past or in the far future or anything. On top of that, the gap between the time I had been unconscious was quite small. If that’s the case, the memories I retained of Korea would be mostly still useful, and I would also be able to see my lovely sister too.¹¹

“I wonder where I would have ended up if it was the other case. Probably dead? Or…”

Another worry popped into my mind. Two different outcomes came into mind. Dead, or alive. If I simply ended up dying, then my story would have just ended in a slightly sad note.

But since that wasn’t the case, the story would become messy. Ahh, I don’t even want to think about it. How would the government react if they find that it is possible to swap souls? What would the owner of this body think about having a foreign soul occupying their body? What would happen to me? And then what else? Ah, if the original soul that was in this body had been moved to my naked male body over in Korea, how would they react?

“Heheh.”

Even in this serious situation, I let out a snicker.

In any case, even if I worry about all those questions, I won’t be able to get an answer until I find it out myself. It would have been better if I just died…

Should I commit suicide? I thought about the extreme solution, but for a split moment the idea tempted me. However, I pushed away the temptation. The owner of this body may not want to die, and may even desperately want to keep living. What if I die and they lose the chance to come back to their own body? Of course, this all made no sense, but the possibility still existed.

On top of that, I didn’t want to make the parents of this person, or their close friends, to experience the shock of losing her completely again.

I know better than anyone how hard it is to handle the sadness of being left behind by your loved ones.

Let’s wait for now at least.

That was the answer to the long term questions I have right now.

— Grumble!

As my stomach grumbled with perfect timing, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

God is telling me to not worry about it and just keep eating and live, after all. On top of that, there is delicious-looking food laid out on the table in front of me. Naturally though, the food is a little too heavy for a Korean patient who’s just regained consciousness.

I did hear about the dish before but never had a chance to taste it until now. Although I probably should have taken in the unique aroma of the dish and tried to enjoy it more in the sense of smell and visuals, but I found myself just devouring it down due to my overwhelming hunger.

Even while I was eating, a strange sensation did come over me. Instead of feeling like I was eating this dish for the first time and savoring its unique flavor, I felt instead like I was eating plain old kimchi stew that’s commonly served in Korea, a sense of comforting and familiar taste. Even if my brain was not able to remember eating this dish, my body may be remembering by itself. All in all, it wasn’t a particularly bad feeling.

If the food is good for you and you’re used to eating it, all the better for the body, isn’t it? As I changed my point of view to a more optimistic one, I began to feel calmer.

As my belly began to fill up, the stress I had piling up went away and I finished the whole dish before I knew it.

I then stood up, lightly twisted my neck to relieve some of the tension and decided to have a stretching exercise. The only exercises I remember are the ones from the community group exercise routine and the other are ones from exercising daily in the army. As the most recent memories I can dig up from my mind are the ones from the army, so I had no other choice. There was no one watching me in this room anyway, so I decided to do the army training routine exercise starting from where I could remember.

Because I forgot the whole routine here and there, the order of exercises was a bit messed up but it was still great for limbering up stiff muscles. I was finishing up the routine and was stretching my intertwined fingers to the top when I heard a noise.

Knock, knock!

The sound of knocking rang out from the door.

“My lady. I’ve heard that you’ve woken up. Is it all right if I enter?”

The voice I heard from beyond the door was a man’s voice that had quite a dignified tone about it. In any case, hearing myself being called a lady got on my nerves quite a bit. Well, I know a few stories where daughters of rich households get treated like this, but I never expected to become one at all.

“Please come in.”

Whether I had a problem or not with him calling me that way, it was still the first time I was going to be seeing him so my voice came out quite politely.

“Yes ma’am. Excuse me.”

At last, the door carefully opened and an old gentleman that matched the voice quite well came in, wearing a clean and well-fitted suit. The old fashioned glasses that academics would wear matched nicely with his sharp and complex eyes as well.

Although he looked like a strict person overall, he still had a dignified look that was often seen on high ranking politicians or CEOs of a major corporation.

“Oooh… You’ve finished your meal as well. Was I being a bother perhaps?”

I just ate a single dish, yet he seemed to be deeply moved by it. Seeing him let out an exclamation of surprise and nearly looking like he’s going to tear up at any moment, the image in my mind of him being a dignified old butler was completely shattered.

“No, you’re not. I just finished eating and was having a light exercise actually. So, what is it that you wanted?”

That question came up naturally in my mind as he must have come in because he probably has a business with me for one thing or another.

“Goodness, my lady! What do you mean by that! As you’ve finally woken up, it’s obvious that I would come to you immediately to be by your side!”

The fact that he spoke excitedly like this shattered the image in my mind even further, making me think that I may have chosen the wrong word to say.

“Then… Then let me ask you again. Who are you?”
“Haha, surely you jest, my lady. I am none other than the great Duke Kent family’s only butler, am I not? But why is it that you’re suddenly asking such…”

As he answered with slight confusion in his eyes, his expression changed to a slightly worried one as he looked over me here and there. Perhaps he realized that I was different than usual?

I made a bitter smile before I spoke.

“Then who am I?”¹² “……”

The old butler wasn’t able to open his mouth.

And so, a moment of silence passed between us. I was about to become bored because of the silence, it was then the old gentleman’s unmoving eyes suddenly shook and opened wide to an unbelievable extend. Then—

“Oh my goodness, my lady! N… Nurse, bring the doctor immediately! Quickly~!!”

His voice was louder than a thunderclap, which was quite unexpected as he yelled out for the nurse. Soon, sounds of hurried footsteps came from the hallway outside.

Amnesia. Although it was a very common trope in drama stories, this was the only way for me to handle this current situation more easily than explaining everything. In any case, who would be able to deduce that I had my soul swapped with the girl in the first place? If I had told them the truth, I would end up spending my days in a mental hospital instead, so it was a middle-ground solution to the problem that I had.

1. Robinxen: Curious to know how they handle the lack of honorifics in the Korean version, or if they ignore that trait of English entirely.
2. Robinxen: “I don’t recognise this ceiling.” Oh wait….not this one?
3. Robinxen: Are they called blinders over there? They’re just “blinds” here but I dunno. American is weird sometimes.
4. [Translator’s note: Western as in the Western side of the Earth, a catch all phrase for people from America and Europe.] Silva: ehh I believe most people would catch that without the translator’s note tho xD
   Anonymouss: Ok, if it makes sense~ some people would be like, ‘west of england? west of what?’ but if you are sure, then I’ll agree~
   Robinxen: I love how in these novels everyone western is by default handsome or beautiful or cute or whatever. Like there’s no ugly people in the west apparently?
5. Robinxen: What sort of rich person hospital is this?! Oh wait…..she is supposed to be rich I guess I can let this pass.
   No wait, problem 2.
   Why are they serving that as a full meal on its own?!
6. Robinxen: Uhm I’m not really in-the-know on food but is that actually English? I get the feeling it’s a really common dish.
7. Robinxen: Now that’s a British breakfast.
8. [Translator’s note: She said ‘porridge’ in Korean, to the English speaking nurse. The Korean word for porridge is ‘Jook’, so the nurse is unable to understand.]
9. Robinxen: Such a loyal oniichan! I support you! Ganbaru!
10. Robinxen: Britishness confirmed.
11. Robinxen: I called it! Well….most of it!
    Ah I can’t wait for the reunion!
12. Robinxen: Man can you imagine showing up to someone being so nonchalant about memory loss?