Chapter 2
Spring had finally reached Winter, the northernmost region of the Empire. The sunlight carried a fairly warm feeling.
Of course, it could not even be compared to the central, eastern, or southern regions.
Eliana closed the book she had been reading and walked toward the window. She opened it.
The sun was falling toward the ground, giving off a faint golden light. The clouds were clear, and the sky was high.
Eliana slowly closed her eyes and breathed in.
Her chest rose and then fell.
The cool air entered through her nose and traveled up to her head. She liked the refreshing sensation of the cold air gathering at the top of her head.
As expected, the air at high altitudes was refreshing.
‘Is it because it’s cleaner since it’s higher?’
She opened her eyes again while having a slightly strange thought.
It had already been one month and ten mornings since she entered the body of ‘Eliana’ and had lived as her.
She was still unable to move freely outside her room because of the need for absolute rest, but she needed information in order to accept Eliana’s life and adapt to this world.
While being served by the maids, she had carefully observed the people around her. In the end, she managed to persuade one maid who seemed to have considerable goodwill toward her and also seemed to be the type who talked a lot.
When Eliana asked about herself, the maid looked shocked for a moment before saying,
“Ah, so you don’t remember what happened back then.”
Then she kindly explained everything.
To summarize the maid’s story, the original owner of this body, ‘Eliana,’ had gone horseback riding with her younger siblings about a year ago after being persuaded by them.
However, she had fallen from her horse in an accident and had never opened her eyes since.
Perhaps because of that, her body was in terrible condition, just as expected from a patient who had spent an entire year unconscious and bedridden.
Her muscles and strength were practically gone.
It was difficult to simply call it a naturally thin body. Her body was so frail and skinny that Eliana worried whether she could even survive properly.
Eliana’s personal physician repeatedly warned her that she must first restore her body’s strength and slowly begin rehabilitation.
Of course, since she was genuinely worried about the survival of this body, she obediently followed the medical expert’s words and did not step outside her room even once.
“Big sister!”
“Older sister!”
Bang!
Her door suddenly opened.
Eliana turned her head at the two voices she was still not used to.
Standing there were a little girl with snow-white hair and blue eyes, just like her, and a young boy with pale wheat-colored hair and blue eyes.
“Hello, Hestin. Elena.”
Eliana welcomed them with a gentle smile.
The children ran toward her with bright smiles like sunlight and sat at the tea table with movements that were clearly familiar.
Watching the innocent children, Eliana’s eyebrows slightly tightened.
As expected, it was not a dream.
This was the world of the romance fantasy web novel she had read during her school days, 《How to Tame the Blue Lion of Winter》.
And she had entered the body of Eliana la Winter, the eldest daughter of the Grand Duke’s family, a character who was already dead when the novel began.
《How to Tame the Blue Lion of Winter》
(Hereafter referred to as Winter Lion)
Who was Eliana in Winter Lion, and why did it make her angry?
Winter Lion was a story about healing, growth, and love between a boy and a girl who had suffered painful lives.
The story began when Lucilla, an apprentice priestess at a temple in a poor region of the Kingdom of Camilon, a minor country on the continent, was on her way to send a letter to her older brother, who worked as a physician in the Empire.
On the road, she discovered a white-haired boy covered in blood.
She secretly brought him into the temple and treated him.
That blood-covered white-haired boy was the male protagonist, Hestin le Winter.
In other words, he was the young boy sitting at her tea table right now, looking at her with an innocent expression.
He was the one who had his rightful position as Grand Duke taken away by his uncle and was forced to flee the land where he had lived his entire life.
His uncle had tried to kill Hestin for the sake of gaining power.
Following the dying words of his beloved older sister, Hestin left Winter while unable to even stay by her side during her final moments.
The pursuers and assassins sent by his uncle chased after him.
After countless hardships, Hestin managed to survive.
However, his body had already been damaged beyond repair from his long escape and repeated attacks.
His heart was exhausted as well.
At the moment when he stood between life and death, he remembered his sister’s words telling him never to give up on life.
But he blamed himself, thinking that he was not a wise and strong person like his sister.
He began to think that he would rather give up everything and go to his sister’s side.
When despair began to consume his entire body, a small temple entered Hestin’s sight.
He dragged his broken body toward the temple because he wanted to see the statue of the goddess Erlates, which resembled his sister.
He barely reached the temple, but his strength ran out.
He collapsed unconscious in front of the door used by apprentice priests when they went in and out.
Lucilla discovered him and secretly brought Hestin into her room to treat him.
The two shared the painful lives they had lived and the wounds those lives had left behind.
By relying on each other, they grew together.
And the owner of the body she had entered, Eliana, was the cousin older sister of the male protagonist Hestin.
She was the person who had left him the final words:
“Even in the most desperate moment, never give up on life.”
Eliana was the eldest daughter of the Grand Duke of Winter.
She had been the most legitimate successor, but because she was born with a weak body, she had to hand over the right of succession to her cousin younger brother, Hestin.
Despite her illness, she remained in the North until the end because she wanted to protect her younger siblings.
And most importantly—
Eliana was already dead when the story began.
Hestin’s cousin sister, Eliana, was the character who was poisoned and killed by her uncle Arenta Baron, who wanted the position of Grand Duke, before Winter Lion even began.
‘If I don’t do anything, I might end up dying the same way.’
Damn it.
Eliana clenched her teeth.
At the same time, she tightly clenched her fist.
Veins appeared on the back of her thin white hand.
Some people were unlucky enough to have bad luck follow them in this way.
Out of all the novels she had ever read, why did she have to end up in Winter Lion?
They said, “Those who are meant to succeed will succeed, and those who are unlucky will remain unlucky.”
But wasn’t this too much?
Of course, complaining would not change her current situation.
After dying once in her previous life and being reborn into another life, she could not believe even this life was not going to be easy.
‘Seriously, my luck is unbelievably terrible.’
She wondered if she had taken all the bad luck in the world for herself.
She had survived a near-death situation and luckily obtained another body, only to discover that this body was also destined to die.
She seriously wondered if she had unknowingly eaten the money of some god of fate who had disguised himself as a human and run away.
She had entered the body of a character from a novel.
There was no guarantee that this world’s version of fate could not enter her previous world either.
Of course, that thought remained only a thought.
She could not claim that she had lived a perfectly righteous life without a single mistake.
But she had never committed a crime.
Taking someone else’s money and running away was fraud, which was a crime.
She swore to the heavens—
No, even to the great mother goddess Erlates who created this world—
she had never done such a thing.
She was simply unlucky.
Very slightly.
No, actually, extremely unlucky.
‘For now… I guess I have to live?’
She had no intention of dying young in both her previous and current lives.
She wanted to live.
She wanted to continue living.
Even after realizing that she was living inside someone else’s body, she was relieved that she was still alive.
She had died at the age of twenty-seven in her previous life.
The Eliana from Winter Lion also died before seeing the male protagonist Hestin become an adult.
Both she and Eliana had lived far too short lives.
There were still so many things she wanted to do, learn, and challenge herself with.
Even though she had temporarily put aside her dreams and desires because she had to take responsibility for her younger siblings, she had never abandoned them.
Of course, she died before she could start again.
‘I don’t want to just stay still and get poisoned to death. And I don’t want to spend my life cleaning up after someone else’s younger siblings either.’
As the eldest daughter of a family, and especially as the older sibling who had to bear all responsibility and pressure, twenty-seven years of that was enough.
Even if she was living with someone else’s body and name, she wanted to live her own life.
‘Sorry, but…’
Eliana looked at the children who were still sitting at the table and looking at her with innocent expressions.
Their sparkling eyes directed at her made her feel pressured.
Their completely honest and pure faces reminded her of her own younger sibling from her previous life, who used to follow behind her saying “Sister, sister.”
She almost let out a small laugh.
‘No. Get a hold of yourself.’
Eliana shook her head.
The children tilted their heads, wondering why their sister seemed strange today, but they did not think much about it.
These children were not her siblings.
They were the siblings of ‘Eliana.’
‘First, I have to survive.’
She had nearly died once.
She did not want to take another risk for someone else’s family.
She loosened her clenched fist and nodded.
It was not that she had no attachment or longing for her previous life.
But her current situation was too dangerous to ignore reality while only thinking about the past.
‘First, to do that…’
Eliana rested her chin on her hand and fell into thought.
“Big sister?”
“Hm?”
Eliana met eyes with Elena, who was holding her arm and shaking it while looking up at her.
If the sea were turned into a jewel, perhaps it would have this color.
Those blue eyes stared at her.
Eliana removed the hand supporting her chin and leaned her head toward Elena.
“Yes? What book did you come to read today?”
At her question, the two children smiled brightly and held up the books they had brought right in front of her face.
“Alright, alright. If you hold them like that, how am I supposed to know what books they are?”
Eliana laughed as she pretended to push the books away with her open palm.
“Can you show them to me one at a time?”
“Yes!”
“Okay!”
The children nodded.
‘Wow, seriously…’
Eliana almost lost herself while looking at their beauty.
She had never seen children with such beautiful and adorable appearances in her entire life.
Their angel-like appearances would remain even after they grew into adults.
She could say that with confidence because the novel often described Eliana, Elena, and Hestin as exceptionally beautiful people.
“Alright, then today, should we read the book Elena brought first? Yesterday, we read the one Hestin brought first.”
“Yes!”
“Okay!”
The two children answered at the same time while enthusiastically nodding.
Seeing them give way to each other without fighting like modern siblings somehow made her heart feel warm.
Eliana smiled and opened the book Elena had brought.
The situation was annoying, but the children had done nothing wrong.
That was right.
Children were never at fault.
