Chapter 03
‘It hurts.’
The first sensation she recognized was pain. Then came discomfort and cold.
‘It’s cold. And sticky.’
After pain and touch came thirst.
‘Someone come here.’
Serena naturally gestured for someone to come. Since being reborn, it was only natural to call for someone when thirsty or hungry.
Her hand waved elegantly through the air, but no answer came.
‘Right, the earthquake.’
It was dark, as if the world had become night. Then Serena realized she had her eyes closed.
Serena carefully opened her eyes. Her vision was still blurry, and she couldn’t see her surroundings well.
The air smelled slightly damp and musty. It was an environment Serena had never experienced in this life, having been delicately raised. Thanks to memories from her previous life, she could determine that it smelled somewhat like earth.
As she kept blinking, her blurry vision cleared a little.
‘It’s dark…’
It wasn’t so dark that she couldn’t see an inch ahead. A pale light was coming in from not too far away.
Serena slowly opened and closed her eyes wide to secure her vision. Not that it mattered much—lying face down, all she could see was the dirt floor.
Serena pushed herself up off the ground with difficulty. She seemed to have fallen endlessly from a great height, yet surprisingly, her body was intact. Her whole body ached, but there were no visible wounds.
Serena checked her body for any unseen injuries while simultaneously surveying her surroundings.
The place she’d woken up in looked like a cave. Moss grew on the walls, and the walls and floor were rough. A thin layer of dirt and moss covered the floor, but hard stone lay beneath.
“It’s a cave.”
Serena frowned. She searched her memory.
‘A sinkhole or something opened up and I fell in.’
It was a massive sinkhole large enough to swallow not only Serena and Philia but also the surrounding buildings.
Or perhaps an earthquake had cracked the earth open.
Either way, it was no ordinary occurrence.
‘Was there a space like this under Hujichen? Even 1000 years ago, it would have been common sense that the capital’s foundation needed to be solid.’
Originally, they would have reinforced the ground when building the castle. If there had been a cave, they would have discovered it. Yet Serena had woken up in a cave that seemed quite large.
‘Perhaps it’s a cave at a great depth? And the earthquake caused that section to rise…’
If Serena had fallen from a great depth, her body wouldn’t be intact, so it was more plausible that the cave had risen up.
‘Ah, this wasn’t the castle, it was near the shop. So this would be an expansion area…’
Huji’s capital, Hujichen, had been expanding gradually as the population grew. It was possible that the ground in the expanded areas was riddled with holes.
Serena frowned and looked around. The hole she’d fallen through was clearly visible.
“It’s blocked.”
The hole she’d likely fallen through was tightly sealed by massive rocks and debris. Serena tapped the rock half-heartedly. There was no need to tap it—it was obviously incredibly solid.
“Hah. Well, at least I wasn’t crushed.”
If she’d been crushed by these rocks or debris, Serena would have been an unrecognizable corpse.
If even a part of her body had been pinned, she would have suffered serious injuries. Just not being crushed anywhere was a blessing.
While feeling relieved, Serena remembered her lady-in-waiting who had fallen with her. Her heart suddenly sank.
“Philia!”
Since they’d fallen holding hands, she couldn’t be far. Serena quickly looked under the rocks. They were so tightly packed she couldn’t see anything.
“Surely she’s not crushed under here… No, it can’t be.”
The end of Huji Kingdom’s proud beauty couldn’t be so gruesome.
Still, just in case, she sniffed the air. The smell of wet earth was strong. There was no smell of blood.
“Philia!”
Serena called her lady-in-waiting’s name again. No answer came back.
“Damn.”
Serena adjusted her shoes. Oil, dirt, and dust had mixed and caked on, making even a single step a chore. The dirt getting in felt gritty.
Serena shuddered. Having lived as a princess her whole life, the current situation felt unfamiliar and frightening. Truly horrendous.
“Pull yourself together, Serena. It’s better than being barefoot. And thank goodness the heels are low.”
If she’d been wearing her usual high heels on this uneven ground, she’d have had to break off the heels or walk barefoot.
Serena fixed her thinking toward the positive.
‘Staying here won’t accomplish anything.’
It was an unknown cave, but the path within sight was a straight line with no branches. Since one side was blocked, the way out was determined.
‘Light is coming in from over there, so it must be connected to the outside.’
Serena gathered her long dress hem and walked carefully, then broke into a run, clutching it with both hands. She’d spotted a pale object lying on the ground.
“Philia! Oh my goodness! Thank you!”
Thankfully, Philia hadn’t been crushed by the rocks.
Serena rushed to her lady-in-waiting in a single breath. Even as she gave thanks to all the various gods in this world, a small anxiety lingered.
‘What if she died from the impact of the fall… No, no. Let’s not think unlucky thoughts.’
“Philia!”
Serena sat beside her and checked her pulse first. Her skin was soft and warm, and her pulse was strong. Her breathing was also steady.
“Thank you, truly! Thank you!”
Serena offered her thanks once more to the countless gods of this world she’d never believed in before.
“Philia. Can you hear me? Philia! Wake up!”
“Hmm.”
After several desperate calls, Philia groaned and woke up.
Serena stopped her lady-in-waiting from trying to get up. Like Serena, she appeared fine on the outside, but just in case.
“Don’t move, stay still. Do you have any pain? How many fingers am I holding up? Can you hear me clearly? Your eyes, ears, nose—everything seems to be working, right?”
Philia seemed confused, rolling her jewel-like eyes around, then suddenly sat up. Serena tried to push her back down, but she was overpowered and pulled into an embrace.
“Oh my goodness! Serena! Are you alright?”
Awakened, Philia clung to Serena, holding her tight. Serena sighed.
A beauty’s crying face is beautiful too, but Philia’s face, having woken up collapsed on the floor, was smeared with tears, sweat, dust, moss, and dirt—a complete mess.
‘Still pretty. Amazing.’
She’d hired her for her looks, and it was truly worth it. Her beauty never faded, not for a single day or hour. It was amazing.
“Boo-hoo, I thought I was going to die.”
“Philia, calm down. Stop crying. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, sob.”
“Don’t just answer offhand. Check carefully. You might not notice an injury while you’re excited.”
Philia sniffled and released Serena from her embrace.
She bent and stretched her fingers, as delicately carved as if by a master craftsman, slowly stood up, and even rose on her tiptoes.
Serena stood up with her and snapped her fingers near Philia’s ear. Fortunately, like Serena, Philia seemed to have no injuries.
“Can I hug you now?”
“No.”
As her mistress refused, Philia’s eyes welled up again. Serena ignored the beauty’s tears and asked about her memory.
“The earthquake suddenly happened, and I held your hand tight, thinking we’d die together… Huh!”
“Why?”
“I was definitely holding your hand tightly, so why were we apart? I had no intention of letting go even if I died!”
“You must have lost strength when you fainted.”
“Even if I faint, even if I die, I won’t let go of Serena’s hand.”
“Then you might as well say you’ll be buried in the same coffin.”
“If it’s with Serena, I’d be happy to be buried alive with you.”
“What a horrible thing to say.”
It was an unwelcome joke in a situation where they might actually die if there was no exit from this cave.
“Let’s go this way for now. The other way is blocked.”
“In this situation, shouldn’t we wait for people to come? Serena always says that when something happens, we should stay put.”
‘That was only for you.’
She’d told her overly beautiful, trouble-maker of a lady-in-waiting to stay put so she wouldn’t cause bigger problems.
Now was a different situation.
“Normally that would be right, but the earthquake was quite large.”
Serena swallowed dryly with a heavy heart. It had been an earthquake strong enough to bounce adults off the ground, collapse buildings, and split the earth.
Not only that, it happened in the nation’s capital—she couldn’t even imagine the scale of the damage. Just thinking about it made her dizzy and gave her chills.
‘The entire capital must have been affected. How many died? Is Seraph okay?’
Serena recalled footage of earthquake damage she’d seen in her past life and shuddered.
An earthquake in the capital during the commemorative 1000th Foundation Day festival. It felt like a curse.
‘Wait a minute.’
Serena furrowed her brows seriously. She also pursed her lips.
‘Could it really be a curse?’
In her past life, she would have scoffed at such a thought, but this was a different world.
Reborn as a fantasy world princess. A world with gods, magic, monsters, and even labyrinths.
Look at the Tragedy of Huji from 18 years ago. Though the location was different, an earthquake had been the cause then too.
On the pretext of visiting the royal tombs before the 1000th anniversary, all the royal family members, including collateral lines, had gone together—and all but the king had died.
Thanks to that, her father, who had been disliked by the king and excluded from the tomb visit, became the Crown Prince.
‘No. Calling it a curse is too far-fetched. Could this area actually be on a fault line?’
The topography was oddly closed off—maybe it was actually an earthquake zone? What if the high, rugged mountain ranges surrounding the country were actually formed by colliding tectonic plates?
“If you’re founding a country, you should do it somewhere stable, not on a fault line.”
Serena grumbled without thinking.
“Serena?”
“It’s nothing.”
“If you’re cold, please take my cloak.”
Assuming Serena was shivering from cold, Philia took off her cloak. Serena returned it to her loyal lady-in-waiting.
“I wasn’t shivering from cold, so you wear it. You get cold easily.”
“I’m not cold at all!”
“This isn’t the time to waste, so just wear it.”
“Yes.”
Curse or fault line—survival was the top priority. The disaster that struck Hujichen could be worried about after they got out.
“The other side is brighter, so there must be something. Let’s move while we’re still not too exhausted.”
“Understood.”
They’d been moving along the wall for less than three minutes by her estimate when something that shouldn’t exist in a natural cave appeared.
A stone statue.
The light illuminating the cave came from the space behind the statue. The cave’s low ceiling and the statue obscured the view, but at a glance, it appeared artificial.
As they got closer, the area behind the statue clearly showed signs of human hands. After a short stone passage, there was an open space. There was even something like a fountain in the center.
‘A fountain?’
Serena decided to examine the statue first, hoping it might provide information about the space behind the cave.
‘It’s ugly.’
It was about chest-high on Serena. It looked crude, as if someone unskilled had attempted to carve extremely hard stone and given up.
Still, the reason she could recognize it as a depiction of a person was because of the vermilion eyes that retained faint traces of paint. Without that, she might have thought someone was trying to make a stone tumbler toy.
‘I can’t tell what material it’s made of.’
As Serena placed her hand on the statue’s head to check its texture, Philia spoke.
“There are people over there!”
“Be quiet.”
Serena immediately covered Philia’s mouth and crouched down, hiding behind the statue.
As Philia said, two people appeared and lingered near the fountain.
“Where is this place? Sir soldier, are you Ashu?”
“…”
“If you don’t know, just say you don’t know, do I have to die to get an answer?”
“…”
“I’m going crazy.”
The two who appeared in the plaza were the city guard and the street vendor Serena had seen just before she fell.
Philia brightened at the sight of the soldier and tried to go out. Serena immediately grabbed her and covered her mouth.
“Shh.”
“Mmuh?”
“He’s armed.”
The guard, as a guard should be, was armed. There was no guarantee the spear in his hand wouldn’t be pointed at Serena or Philia. Though not visible from their current position, he likely also wore a sword at his waist.
But he’s a soldier even if armed—why be wary?
Philia, whose soul was purely noble, was puzzled, but Serena, whose soul had a high commoner content, disagreed. Caution never hurt.
“Can I go get my cart?”
“You must not act alone!”
“That’s all my possessions.”
The soldier seemed startled by the sudden situation and was on edge.
The street vendor, in contrast to the soldier, appeared relaxed. Whether he was truly relaxed or just hadn’t grasped the situation was unclear.
‘Where did those two come from? Ah, there’s a passageway behind them.’
There was a passage directly in front of Serena’s direction. She hadn’t noticed it earlier because the fountain had blocked her view. The two seemed to have come from there.
“A, a person!”
Another person appeared in the plaza. Someone emerged from the shadows of the passage Serena had belatedly spotted.
“Sir Soldier? That’s the capital guard uniform, right?”
The voice sounded familiar—it was the masseuse from Vieta who had massaged Serena just ten minutes ago.
Serena didn’t step out immediately but watched the soldier and the vendor’s reactions.
“What’s going on here? Do you know, Sir Soldier?”
Lavenda hurriedly ran to the soldier.
“Halt! Who are you!”
The soldier aimed his spear at the masseuse. Startled by the lethal aura, Lavenda stopped in her tracks.
“I’m not a suspicious person, I—”
“Who are you! If you’re not suspicious, identify yourself!”
“I’m just a masseuse! I’m from Vieta! I have my passport here, I’m not a suspicious person! Vieta is too competitive, but the owner said with my skills I could make a fortune in Hujichen and lured me here! It’s true! Even the princess comes to my shop! She came today too!”
Lavenda, apparently quite frightened, spilled everything without being asked. She frantically waved the passport she’d pulled from her inner pocket.
“I closed the shop early and went to my lodging behind it, and then the ground shook! When I opened my eyes I was in a strange place, and I was so startled. I came looking for people.”
Lavenda’s desperate waving of her passport paid off. The soldier lowered his spear and gestured.
“Come this way.”
“Yes!”
The soldier’s tone was still odd. Lavenda didn’t seem to mind and walked quickly.
‘They say Vieta has good public order. She trusts the soldier quite a bit.’
Philia trusted the soldier too, so perhaps Serena was just overly suspicious.
“Where is this place?”
The soldier didn’t answer.
“It’s no use. You’ll only get an answer when you’re dead.”
“Eh? Um, that way leads out, doesn’t it?”
Lavenda pointed toward where Serena and Philia were hiding.
“Haven’t been that way yet.”
“Lead the way.”
The soldier turned as if performing a drill. He walked with his knees bent at 90 degrees, clearly highly tense.
‘At this rate, he’ll accidentally stab someone with his spear out of fright.’
Now that she’d spotted familiar faces, it was time to come out.
Serena stepped out from behind the statue.
“That won’t be necessary. I’ve already checked this place.”
“Who are you! Identify yourself!”
Once again, the soldier let out a startled gasp and pointed his spear at her.
