"This life is so uneventful," the girl with long raven black hair sighed in exasperation while looking out the window of her room. It has been two days since she woke up inside a different world, and she still couldn't stomach everything that happened.

After waking up in a strange place, She got so stressed that she wasn't able to sleep; in addition to that, She was sick for two days. She let herself fall back on the bed before slowly drifting to sleep.

(two days ago)

"...dy?"

She thought she would never open her eyes again.

"...lady?"

But why is she sitting in this place?

"My lady?-"

"What do you want?" Annie retorted sharply, causing the servant who spoke to flinch in surprise. She was sitting on her bed, her palms squeezing her head in frustration, while the maid was standing on the side, nervously fiddling with her fingers.

"Can I ask why–"

"Where's Lucy?"

"P-pardon?"

"Lucy. Bring Lucy here." She looked around the room, unsure of what she needed to do. "No. Take me to Lucy." She quickly turned to run to the door, but the moment her feet touched the floor, strength left her legs, making her unable to stand up.

"BRING LUCY HERE NOW!!" she commanded, getting impatient as seconds went by. The maid was on the verge of crying, not in fear but out of worry about her mistress's state.

"B-But miss. The prince is currently at the palace."

"What?"

"I'm sorry-"

"Stop! Apologizing. I..." she trailed off when she just finally noticed something strange. She was so preoccupied that she did not pay attention to the LONG DARK RAVEN locks that have been there all along. She grabbed it fast and gave it a powerful tug to pull it off. But pain is the only thing that she felt.

"What the–?!" she exclaimed. It seems like it was attached to her scalp, and it willl hurt to take it off. Or is it her real hair?

It can't be. Even if it was dyed without her consent, she has never grew her hair. And it will take months to grow it that long.

She bit her nails, feeling the anxiety, but she was surprised to see them long and colored, and the same is true with the hair. She's always putting her projects as her first priority; any unnecessary things will just get in the way. Then why was it like that?

"Are you sure you're okay, miss? I can go out to tell the head butler that you have woken up." The maid worriedly looked at how Annie stared intently at her hands. She abruptly stood up from being seated on the floor and went in front of the mirror to confirm her suspicions.

It was not her face, nor was it her body.

"Who..."

It was a body that belonged to another person. Long seaweed-like raven black hair, porcelain white skin, sharp nose, plump lips, a beauty mark beside it, and the most unusual of them all, fierce-looking thin and sharp bloody red eyes. It was far from what she looked like the last time she checked herself in front of a mirror. Her hair used to be short brown, and her eyes were clear chocolate back then.

"Is everything okay, miss?" She ignored the maid's question and opened a small drawer in front of her to find any belongings that would tell her who the person she was seeing as herself was. She saw a small black notebook in one of the drawers, so she picked it up and opened it to see if she could find anything. Thankfully, the texts are written in English, and she was able to read and understand what was written inside.

Vin Avanaveronica Seara Arkwright, Avy

She let go of the notebook when she felt a sudden pain in her head. She dropped to her knees, trying to ease the pain by pulling her hair, but none of it helped. Familiar texts that she remembered reading on her computer screen were remembered once again.

Demi is a commoner with a pure heart who was born without an ounce of mana in her. Raised in a loving and supportive family, she never thought that she needed any of those, until one day, heaven chose someone to hold the power of devine. And she became...

The radiance.

He was a broken man with many flaws who never expected himself to love a girl who was the complete opposite of his whole being. Will he be able to heal after meeting the radiance and getting out of the dark?

As the pain worsened, a sequence of images, voices, and blurry memories flashed inside her head. No, she didn't feel like she owned those memories; it was like scenes from a movie playing simultaneously, but the weird thing was, she was able to understand which was which. And there is one thing that she confirmed: She iss inside another person's body. And that person is inside a novel portraying the role of an important character, a novel that she read before she died.

"Good morning, Sister..."

"Avy, meet Lucifer, He is the future–"

"Can you please stop? following me around?! "

"Why does the prince act? so cold towards the lady? "

"Stand proud, Avy. You are an Arkwright."

"You are our family's weakness."

"Choose a decent man to take care of you. Treat you better than we did."

"The Duke does not have any expectations for the lady."

"You are not a failure, child. We accept you for who you are."

"The lady..."

"The Lady..."

"A-annie?" Annie opened her eyes; she no longer felt the pain, or was it a dream? She saw her best friend, Lucy, sitting on the side of the road in front of her, her palm covering her mouth.

"Annie, no." She raised her brows and eyed her confusedly.

"Why are you sitting–" Her words were interrupted when Lucy suddenly stood up and ran towards her.

No.

She passed through her.

"What...?" she said, dumbfounded. She turned her head to follow where Lucy went, and her eyes widened because of the scene she saw before her.

It was herself. Lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the road.

"No, no, no. Annie, please. Annie? Wake up, please." Lucy's voice was cracking up, trying her best to hold back her tears as she held her friend's dead body in her arms.

"Help! Please!" she cried out desperately, and some people started to gather around one by one.

"Annie, open your eyes, please. I'm begging you. Wake up." The sound of the ambulance filled her ears before she was transported to another place. A dimly lit empty room with only a single bed in the middle where something covered in white sheets is lying straight.

"Annie!" the door of the room burst open, followed by a yell coming from a woman.

It was her mom. She quickly approached the corpse and slowly took off the sheet that was covering the face of that person. It was her again. Pale and lifeless.

"Oh my... Anastacia..." she broke into tears, and a man entered the room; this time it was her dad. He was stunned for a second when he saw the girl lying on the bed, but he eventually moved.

"Angel, what are you doing there? Get up," he stated with a forced smile, slowly walking towards the bed with pained eyes.

"Angel, I brought the material you asked me to get. Let's try it out," he added, kneeling beside his wife. He took out his daughter's cold hand and squeezed it tight, hoping to get a response.

"Ma fille chérie. (My darling daughter.)" Her mom cried out. She was about to come and hug her parents, but everything went black.

So she died for real. How unfortunate.

And she is in this novel called Light and Radiance, as far as she knows.

How unlucky...

And in this body too...

"Avy..."

~~~

"She suddenly disappeared, and the next thing they knew, a carriage brought her back, unconscious."

"Mariel said that she had been acting strange since she woke up. She was ordering the maid to call the prince until she collapsed."

"That is correct, Uncle. I watched her all day yesterday, but she never left her bed. She was either staring into nothing or sleeping. And I also do not think she even noticed me."

She woke up in her deep sleep when she heard a couple of familiar voices.

Annie, or currently, Avy, opened her eyes slowly. The ceiling that greeted her the second time she woke up in the different world she was currently in was the first thing she saw. She carefully looked in the direction where she heard the voices and saw five people sitting around a mini-table.

There are three young-looking men that look almost the same—a child and an old man—all with hair the color of ravens. It seemed like they noticed her gaze since they turned their attention to her, letting her meet five pairs of ice-cold, bloody red eyes.

"Sister," the child said. They stood up from being seated and approached her bed.

She shifted her eyes to the old man who sat on her bed. He has silver strands on his jet black hair and wrinkles on his face caused by old age, but these didn't mask his pressuring aura.

"Are you alright now, child? I heard you got into an accident the other day." The old man helped her sit up; although his tone was stern and firm, his eyes glowed with warmth and affection, like a normal grandfather.

It's the same as one of the voices in those memories, was her first though when she caught a glimpse of the former Duke Alcasser Arkwright before avoiding eye contact.

They look like vampires.

"I'm fine… I guess." Her voice wavered as she talked, earning more confused stares from the five men inside the room.

She studied every one of them and confirmed that they were the people inside the memories that flashed in her mind before she collapsed.

"You should have gone with her, Ciel. Look what happened." The second son of the former Duke and the Commander of the Imperial Army that guards the palace and the imperial family, Alistair Arkwright, looked at the boy standing on the side.

Ciel Arkwright, thirteen years old, and the youngest child in the house, gave her an apologetic look. "I apologize, Sister. I was busy studying at that time," he said, feeling ashamed.

"I believe I deserve an explanation why you went out without a single knight to accompany you, Avy," the man wearing a stoic expression that is in his late thirties stated. He looked awfully similar to Alistair; the only difference was their hairstyle; he was the exact copy of the latter but with a much stricter demeanor. It was her father, and the current Commander of their family's Knight and Order that specializes in keeping peace throughout the empire, the current Duke, Alton Arkwright.

"I... I don't know."

"Does the prince's refusal to your invitation have something to do with your foolishness, Avy?" a cold voice interrupted, causing her to frown and find where it came from.

And there it was—the person who was always in the limelight of the novel she was currently in but was described as a man who prefers to work in the shadows. Ashton Arkwright.

"Watch your words, Ashton," their grandfather reprimanded.

"I don't understand. It has nothing to do with anyone." What refusal? What invitation? Who's the Prince? Although confused and clueless about the things that were being discussed, Avy stayed calm and collected.

"Then you are simply saying that we need not drag the prince in this matter, is that it?" the once expressionless facade of his brother slowly crumbled, a frown making its way on his handsome face.

'What? '"It's my business, not yours."

"Your business is bringing shame to our family."

"I can sort it out on my own–"

"Enough." Their father cut her off. "Let us not go further discussing this matter."

"Your father is right. We shall retire for the night and let this lady rest," the former duke added, giving a last glance to his granddaughter before walking out, followed by Alistair.

The duke did the same after giving her a nod. Ashton did not have any choice but to follow, leaving only her and Ciel inside the room.

"I really am sorry, Sister. I should have gone with you."

"It's not your fault. Your sister is just careless; that's why." She responded with a neutral expression, referring to the owner of the body, but it sounded like a statement from a caring older sister that was reassuring her little sibling.

For someone like Ciel, who admires his sister from the bottom of his heart, he would be lying if he said he never wished to be treated that warmly, but he doubted what he heard since his sister seldom talks like that, and all of the time she did, it was either to her childhood love interest or towards the crown prince.

"Sister?"

"Hmm?" she raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"Are you still thinking about the prince's refusal?" he asked.

Avy furrowed her brows in confusion. She doesn't know how to respond since she couldn't even remember the face of the person that Ciel was talking about. She already got a hold of the situation, but answering without knowing what really happened is really difficult.

"Why do you ask?" In order to avoid answering, she returned his question with another question.

"You are acting a bit… odd."

"Like I said, it has nothing to do with anyone. I'm just tired, that's all."

Ciel displayed a saddened expression on his face, hesitating if he should go out and leave his sister alone or stay and ask her about her problem.

In the end, he chose the former.

"Then I will be going now, Sister. Please rest well." He glanced at her for the last time before walking out.

Avy silently stared into space for a couple of minutes before tears slowly dropped on her hands.

"Stupid. Don't cry," she scolded herself, wiping the tears away, but they continuously rolled down her face.

"This is not the first time, right?" she asked. 'This is not the first time you were sent to an unknown place.'

"Stupid tears. Don't make me look so weak. I'm not sad at all." The image of her crying parents flashed in her mind. For someone who acts tough all the time, her whole family knows how soft she is towards her parents and her friend. It might be the only thing that can make her wail like a toddler.

She has no time to mourn herself.

~~~

[edited]