Episode 1. Three Envelopes

Though no fire had been started, black smoke was rising from the red-brick house.

What had once been a beautiful home, proudly displaying its glossy red bricks, now stood scorched and buried in ash.

This was due to the fire that occurred just yesterday.

Anyone would be shocked to see a nine-year-old child walking out of such a house.

“…!”

That’s probably why the neighbor man looked at me like that when he saw me.

“Hello.”

The man, passing by in front of the house, trembled. He was the only person I could call a “neighbor” in this rural area where the spaces between houses were wide. His gaze upon me seemed notably different from usual.

“Uh… uh, yeah. Cheska.”

He couldn’t hide his surprise and froze, hastily taking off his hat. His face was flushed, looking as though he had a fever.

“So… you doing okay?”

Realizing he had made a mistake, he frantically brushed his disheveled hair aside.

“…”

I stood there on the doorstep covered in ash, biting my lip.

I had lived in this house for nine years, and it had been five years since I started exchanging greetings with the man, yet for the first time, I couldn’t easily nod in response to his “Are you okay?”

“I… I saw the news. I’m sorry about your mom.”

So the man saw the news too. That wasn’t surprising.

Lately, fires had been spreading rapidly, and our house was the fifth incident.

It wasn’t even the dry winter season, but green summer was when fires seemed to strike continuously at homes, drawing the attention of the entire empire.

It had become one of the biggest topics in recent days, so the misfortune my mom and I experienced quickly spread throughout the continent through news articles and gossip.

Like wildfire, my misfortune, especially mine, spread.

I had grown up hearing that my red hair was as beautiful as a rose or that my green eyes resembled the blessed sea, but overnight, I had become a poor child who had lost her house and mother in an accident.

“But…”

Mom wasn’t dead.

She went missing after rushing out when the fire engulfed the house.

People in the village casually said she must have fallen to her death or been attacked by an animal in the night. After all, such things were common in these rural areas.

But that’s what ordinary people thought.

my mom was different.

Just as I was about to say that, an unexpected sound interrupted me.

Grrrrrrk!

“Ah!”

I placed my hand on my flat stomach.

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t eaten anything all day.

“Ugh, ahem!”

The neighbor man, whose eyes met mine, quickly turned away as if he hadn’t heard the sound.

Was he worried I was going to ask for food?

I hadn’t planned to, though.

I didn’t need food; I needed news. News that the investigation bureau had found my mom. That’s why I had come out to check the mailbox as soon as the sun came up.

I moved toward the charred yard.

As the distance between us narrowed, the man seemed to break into a cold sweat, looking visibly tense.

I reached out with my small hand as innocently as possible.

“Hey, sir. Could I ask a favor?”

“Ah! No!”

The man, easily twice my size, jumped back as if he were avoiding me.

“I… I don’t know anything! I’m not in a position to help someone like you! I don’t have any food to give you!”

“It’s not that…”

“Ugh, why did I even say anything…”

He seemed to shiver, as if something had latched onto him, brushing his arms and legs in disgust.

I heard his muttering as he hastily walked away.

“Ugh, what a cursed town. I need to move out soon! Ugh, almost ended up with a troublesome kid.”

I lowered my awkward hand and mumbled to myself.

“That’s not it. I just wanted help getting the mail.”

I turned my head and looked up at the high mailbox.

I stood on my tiptoes, but still couldn’t reach it.

Let me make it clear: it wasn’t that I was small, but that the mailbox was high.

It wasn’t a standard size either; it was one my mom had built herself, so it was unconventional.

“Mom, sorry!”

If Mom were here, she would scold me for being reckless, but there was no other way. I climbed onto the fence and peered inside the mailbox.

“What’s this?”

Along with a newspaper, there were three envelopes that looked like letters.

Let’s take all of them for now.

After pulling them all out, I paused for a moment before climbing down from the fence.

Something caught my eye: there was an inscription on the wooden surface of the mailbox, the paint slightly worn off.

It was something I had written in a sloppy hand when I could barely hold a pen.

Monati House.

When I was younger… no, even younger than now, I clearly remembered Mom putting me on her shoulders and handing me the brush to write it.

• “We should show off our little heaven, Monati House, to everyone. Go ahead, write it: ‘Monati House,’ like this.”
• “Monati…”
• “Mo, na, ti… that’s it! Good job, Cheska! How is it that you write so adorably?”

She always said my writing was cute, but never that it was good.

Looking at it now, my handwriting was a mess, and no one would be able to read it.

That must have been why Mom had later rewritten the same words in elegant calligraphy.

Monati House.

I reached out to trace the graceful strokes above my childish writing. As I felt the lines with my fingertips, the thought of Mom made my eyes water.

“…I don’t have time to cry.”

If the investigation bureau had found any trace of Mom, it should have been in today’s newspaper.

I had to check the long-awaited news.

Back home, I passed through the chaotic living room and entered my room.

The only place unaffected by the flames was my room. Miraculously, while the outside had been completely burned, this room remained untouched.

Click. I closed the door behind me and dumped the mail onto the maroon rug.

I pushed the letters aside to check later, then dragged over the awkwardly crafted, tall chair Mom had made for me and placed it by the window.

Climbing up, I flung open the curtains, letting the bright sunlight pour onto the rug.

“Okay, it’s done.”

I hopped down and sat on the rug.

I untied the string that bound the newspaper, and the thin paper unfurled with a crisp sound.

The first thing that caught my eye was the large, fancy serif font at the top of the page: The Daily Carrot.

“Please let it be good news,” I whispered in prayer as I searched for the article.

[Breaking News] Another large fire in a residential area… Victim ‘Lorelei Monati’ dead!

On the 7th, the fifth fire in the capital’s suburbs has drawn attention. Last night, the investigation bureau announced they had located the missing 33-year-old woman, Lorelei Monati. A single shoe belonging to the victim was found near a river. The bureau chief stated, “The shoe was likely dropped by the victim before she jumped into the river to extinguish the flames on her body. Given that no further trace was found, it is believed she was swept away by the current and drowned.”

A black-and-white photo of Mom’s shoe was printed beneath the article.

I traced the ink with my fingertips and let out a faint smile.

“She was alive after all.”

Even though the investigation bureau had declared her dead, I didn’t believe it.

They didn’t know, but I knew something they didn’t.

“There’s no way ‘Lorelei Monati’ drowned in that river.”

My smile grew brighter.

Now, I should probably explain the secret between Mom and me.

First, I’m living my second life.

Around the age of 24 months, I regained the memories of my previous life, where I had lived as an ordinary high school student in Korea.

And the clearest memory I have is from the story titled The Red-Haired Girl and the Three Men.

In my past life, I died at the age of eighteen. I couldn’t read it myself since it was an R-rated story, but I knew all about it.

The Hollywood film industry had bought the rights to the Korean fantasy novel, and the series became a worldwide hit. It even reached the number one spot in global rankings on streaming services, sparking a global phenomenon.

With all the buzz surrounding it, even though I was a minor, I couldn’t help but pay attention.

I clearly remember watching the review video on YouTube.

It was a 30-minute and 12-second video with spoilers, including the ending.