Our apartment was on the rooftop and the place I happened to stop at, not by choice, was at the edge of the roof.
Whoosh…!
My long hair swung violently from the wintry wind.
"Why must you make this difficult, you little bitch? Just give it to me. I won't hurt you if you do."
"I really don't have any…"
The only thing I had was 20,000 won, the only thing I had to survive for the next 2 weeks 'till the next paycheck. If this was gone, I'd have no money to purchase groceries. I would starve.
"If you don't have any, little bitch, then why are you running away? Stop lying to me, and just hand it to me before you piss me off even more!"
Father picked up his feet and moved a step closer to me, cursing angrily while he was at it. I took a step backward. Behind me was the edge. Any closer would mean my death.
Father's large, bloodshot eyes was menacing.
"Why you little…"
Before his large hands landed…
"!"
I felt my body floating in the air. In the time it had taken me to blink, father's silhouette grew smaller by the moment. His bewildered eyes staring back at me was a sight to see. I wondered if there would be a probable chance that I'd survive from falling off of a 5-story building. But… if I did, I would not be able to keep on living. The medical bills were not something I could afford.
I had lived my whole life stubbornly and coldly, and now my life ends in this terribly tragic way. Maybe it's what I deserve. Well… there's no point dwelling over the matter. All the things I worked hard to attain all my life was blown away like a dust in the wind.
Because of this family…
A happy and loving family, a family that cared and watched out for each other's back was not something I deserved.
It's alright… I don't need anything from now on…'
That's why…
"That's why… let this darkness take me in the comfort of the abyss…'
And then… darkness came…
***
"Mabel."
A deep, low voice muttered as I felt my body float in midair. Unfamiliar hands enveloped my body and brought me to his chest. He cradled me.
"Mabel… Mabel…"
The unfamiliar voice repeated 'Mabel' twice. I presumed it to be a name of some sort.
"Ah… you little cutie."
He laughed, his finger running over the corner of my lips. It was a foreign language, the first I heard of it, but strangely, it felt familiar to me.
'What is happening…?'
My fluttering eyes opened, trying to comprehend my current situation, but I could not see properly. I could only make out a faint light and darkness. I tried to blink, but all was futile. I grew tired and fell asleep.
***
Mabel's thoughts kept breaking apart and scattering away. She could not hold out her thoughts long enough to ponder over what had occured. She knew someone was holding her in their arms and cradling her back and forth. She could not do anything but shift her head. She had no energy to do anything else.
"A few days has passed and she's grown quite a lot."
"Yes, bless the heavens… it makes me glad Her Highness has grown up healthy and without problems."
A voice of a man and woman could be heard.
Perhaps… she was born again…
'They are my parents…?'
For some odd reason, a tear slipped out from the corner of her eyes. It was not out of happiness but from the thought that she had a loving family. She recalled her alcoholic and abusive father looking at her once with great happiness and her mother abandoning her…
She felt tired knowing she would have to live through a repeated cycle of unhappiness.
***
It had taken me a month long to realize that I passed through another world. After I reincarnated, I came to know that I retained the memories of my past life. I was shocked that tears suddenly began to fall.
"Waah!"
"Oh my. It's not time to eat yet. What wrong, Your Highness? There, there."
Yes, that's right. I reincarnated… as the princess of a nation. When I first heard her call me princess, I merely thought it was that of a parent calling their daughter princess. But this was not the case. I was a princess. A real life royalty.
I was in a hurry to deny the truth and reality, but as the days progressed, the same occurence kept repeating and I was left without a choice but to accept this current reality.
'Mabel Gardenia Ermano.'
This was the name given to me. Hearing the word Mabel repeated far too many times before I was able to think properly made me feel like I was being… brainwashed. And also, the nation I was in was the Great Empire Ermano – the Ermano Kingdom.
'I know that being born into a rich family was better than living a destitute life, but this, this was too much of a wide gap.'
Remembering that the me that was Yun Gyeo-Ul died for a measly 20,000 won left me dejected. But in any case, it was time to lay down my past and live as the second child of the Ermano royal family.
As for my situation… based on the novels I've read, the father would grow bitter and angry at the death of his wife and turn to the child, blaming her for the murder of his wife. I wonder if the king was the same.
'Well, I wouldn't mind being neglected.'
I did hear a man's voice calling out to me far too many times before I was able to think coherently, but I was not sure whether it was a dream or reality.
The woman who I thought was my mother turned out to be a nanny and so I assumed that the man who called out to me back then was not my father, but someone else.
The thought that I reincarnated inside an infant's body while retaining the mind of an adult horrified me. It scared me and sent chills down my back, but why am I so sleepy when I had not done anything? There was nothing I could do but to eat and sleep all day.
After a period of cries and tears I fell asleep only to awake from the touch of someone's hand pressed on my cheek.
"…..?"
"Look at her, madam. It's like she's staring at me. Oh, I think our eyes met!"
The first view I saw were a deep, blue eyes staring down at me. Seeing an unfamiliar face for the first time, I froze in place.
"It seems that Her Highness is starting to recognize her father. She used to cry so much before this, but now she's all calm, as if it was all a lie."
The nanny's words confused me.
'So… this man… is my father…?'