In the sky, countless stars float. The old man pointed to the one star that shone brightest among them.
“Among many stars, this is the brightest.”
The little girl clung tightly to the old man’s waist and gazed at a single star with her wide eyes.
Sirius. [Σείριος]
“That’s your name,” he said.
A glimmer of light sparked in the girl’s once lifeless eyes.
“To live the brightest life.”
The warmth of the old man’s gentle caress was incredibly comforting to the girl.
On a rainy day, the thick mud mixes with the rain to form dirty puddles.
Plodding through the back alleys, the girl stumbles weakly and falls.
Plop. Her body lands in the muddy water.
Through hollow eyes, she gazes at the barren back alley’s filthy ground.
Her torn shoes. A half-used tissue. An umbrella missing its cover. A lump of scrap metal that was once part of something. A trash can. And a rat rummaging through it.
The alley rat bites into its meal from the trash can and heads toward the sewer.
The girl envied that rat.
A rat that doesn’t get a stomachache from eating rotten food.A rat that doesn’t vomit after drinking sewer water.A rat that, even when starving, finds plenty to eat by just digging through a trash can.
She envied that rat so much.
Humans were weak.Even when they put something slightly dirty in their mouths, their bodies rejected it all.
Even though she had stuffed herself with moldy bread while clutching her growling stomach, she ended up hungry again after a few dry heaves.Drinking rainwater didn’t quench her thirst.
Humans were such fragile creatures.And the girl was no different.
Born in the filth of the back alleys as an orphan without family, she wandered aimlessly without living properly, destined to die.
It wasn’t just her; this was the life and death, the foretold fate, of those born here.
Truly a wretched existence.Nothing could change it.
Having missed out on countless things she should’ve learned simply by being born.
She didn’t know what adults were talking about or what those long sticks used to write letters were.
She wanted to speak but knew no words.
The only sounds she made were moans when shopkeepers caught her loitering in front of stores and beat her repeatedly.
If anything else, it was probably the sound she made when vomiting.
Still, the girl was lucky compared to others.Among orphans born in the sewers, she’d survived quite a long time—already fourteen years.Considering how orphans who never reached awareness died young, she was lucky.
Of course, that was relative to other orphans living like trash in the sewers.
Tap tap—
Raindrops fall onto the fallen girl’s face.
Tap tap—
Endlessly battered by the rain, she couldn’t move her body despite trying.
She lacked strength.
Only then did the girl realize.
That she was dying now.
She didn’t feel sad. She’d never learned such emotions.She didn’t feel angry. She’d never learned such emotions.
Such feelings were far too extravagant for her.
The girl accepted death as natural.
Because others in similar situations met death this way.Since she had somewhat expected it, knowing she’d end up like them.
I’m dying… I’m really dying…
Just that simple expression.The girl’s death was nothing special, an everyday occurrence in the sewers.
Slowly her eyes closed,and eventually, her breath ceased.
The girl died. But she was dreaming.A sweet dream.
Warm and comfortable.Things she’d never had existed in the dream.
Home. Family. Food. Clothes.And countless other things she’d never heard of before.
Bed. TV. Games. School. Uniforms. Flowers. Sea. Mountains. Winter. Summer. Roads. Glasses. Desks. Pencils. Pens. Windows. Glass. Cars. Wheels. Playgrounds. Friends. Bicycles. Cups. Socks. Necklaces. Watches. Rings. Air conditioners. Refrigerators. Snacks. Jelly. Bags. Hats. Subways. Trains. Companies. Buildings. Apartments.
Among these unfamiliar things, there was one she recognized.
Books. Called novels.
The boy was reading a book. Though the girl couldn’t read the letters of her world, for some reason, she could read the text.
Sewer. Rats. Filth. Mud. Fog. Rainwater. Back alleys. Trash.
The novel contained things the girl knew, but on the next page, there were also unfamiliar terms.
Empire. Emperor. Gold. Coins. Sword. Magic. Knights. Scholars. Heroes. Pope. Believers. Lords.
The girl stared endlessly at the novel the boy was reading.From beginning to end, she absorbed the world within the novel with her own eyes.
When the boy closed the book,
Tap tap—
Rain hit the girl’s eyes as they opened again.
The girl was special. More precisely, she became special after dreaming.
Knowing the future of the world she lived in, she possessed enough knowledge to change her predetermined life.
Information. Knowledge. Future.
These were more than enough to change the girl’s life, provided she could utilize them.
“Hack…”
She threw up the rotten egg she ate last night. It had been exactly a month since her dream.Despite knowing the future, there was nothing she could change in the sewer.
She still couldn’t read the language of the world she lived in.She still couldn’t understand the meaning behind others’ words.
The spark of hope gradually faded into the dry dirt pile of the sewer.
Still, something had changed.The girl now knew about the beautiful world beyond the sewer where she lived.
Empire. Emperor. Gold. Coins. Sword. Magic. Knights. Scholars. Heroes. Pope. Believers. Lords.
She knew about the splendid and radiant things that existed.That alone was enough to change her future.
For days, the girl stuffed a few pieces of hidden bread into her pocket.Then she headed toward the sewer drain.
A foul smell wafted from the drain. Despite the horrid odor that naturally wrinkled her nose, the girl’s expression remained unchanged.
Because there was no difference.Rotten food or drain stench—it was all the same.
Breathing was painful as she walked through the drain.She coughed several times along the way.
Still, the girl’s steps didn’t falter.
Because she wanted to see.The world beyond this place. The beautiful things spread outside.
It was the wish of a girl walking through the sewer.
Eventually, the girl stopped at a point in the sewer passage.
Whoosh!
Through a small hole, the waste churned violently.The girl knew that if she entered this hole, she could escape the sewer.
But she might die.No one knew how long the passage would be.
Unseen information from the novel.
Perhaps she might meet her end suffocated in the waste.
Had it been anyone else, they might have trembled with fear and given up.But the girl unhesitatingly squeezed her body into the passage.
Waste covered her body.The sticky liquid fiercely assaulted her eyes.
The girl clamped her mouth shut, tightly closed her eyes, and entrusted her body to the flow of waste.
How much time passed? The girl swallowed waste inside the passage.
“Cough!”
The breath she had been holding reflexively escaped, but instead of oxygen, she inhaled a mass of waste.
She spat it out again, but needed to breathe, so she took another breath.Naturally, another mass of waste came in.
That’s how the girl met her end by suffocation in the sewer passage.
The girl’s corpse was carried through the pipes and eventually floated into another sewer.
How much time had passed? The dead girl’s eyes opened again.
“Haa…”
Struggling to rise, the girl wore an expression filled with happiness.
She didn’t realize she had died and come back to life.She thought it was just unconsciousness.
Clunk clunk.The girl stepped forward in the new sewer.
An ancient sewer. Not long after, a bit of light shone in her eyes.
It was an exit.
Following the light, the girl slowly moved her steps.Eventually, she arrived at a green field where a stream flowed in the middle.
Something seen in the novel. The girl immediately approached the stream.Though not as clear and transparent as written, it was the cleanest water the girl, who usually drank muddy water, had ever seen.
Gulp gulp—
The sweet taste. The girl drank the stream water again and again.By the time her starving stomach was filled with water, she began to look around.
Emperor. Empire. City. Prosperity.
None of these were visible.
The girl wasn’t disappointed. Knowing she had escaped the sewer meant her life would change greatly.
The girl took out a piece of bread from her pocket.Moldy bread soaked in sewage. After dipping it a few times in the stream, she shoved it into her mouth.
It wasn’t filling, but better than starving and gasping.
The girl moved her steps into the forest behind the stream.As seen in the novel, she believed someone she knew would be in the forest.
Heroes called adventurers.Strange people who freely lent a hand to the powerless and poor.
The girl thought she would meet them by walking through the forest.
However, the novel was fragmented.
As the sun set and the monsters lurking in the forest emerged to hunt,the girl, who looked weak even from the outside, was perfect prey.
Crunch!
First the legs. Then the thighs, waist, shoulders, wrists, and neck.Several wolf-like monsters tore into the girl happily.
The girl’s screams echoed several times through the dense forest,but the heroes from the novel didn’t appear.
That’s how the girl met her third death.
When the girl opened her eyes again, fortunately, the monsters had left after satisfying their hunger.
Only then did the girl notice something strange about her body.Clearly, her limbs had been torn off, yet her body was intact.
The girl realized she was a special existence.However, she didn’t know how extraordinary it truly was.
Rather, if she could make bread, create clean water, or wield great physical power,wouldn’t it have been nice to possess abilities like magic and swords seen in the novel?
The girl wandered aimlessly.Not only was it her first time on this path, but she failed to recognize the well-paved forest trail as artificial.
Instead, she often avoided it, mistaking it for traces left by monsters.Naturally, the girl encountered more monsters.
She was torn apart multiple times, screamed repeatedly, and experienced death over and over.Three months. During this time, the girl experienced life and death numerous times.
In the midst of it, she discovered she no longer needed to worry about thirst or hunger.Though pain accompanied her, dying and coming back to life meant it was all over once she revived.
The girl’s mind grew weary.Because the pain of death didn’t disappear even after reviving.
With no idea when she’d escape the forest,to the girl, the forest was a terrifying place.
It was far too different from the beautiful and splendid forest she’d seen in the novel.
The girl walked endlessly through the forest.Until a knight who would take her in appeared.
Even when attacked by monsters, the girl no longer screamed.
Pain. Injury. Hurt.It wasn’t that she couldn’t feel them; rather, she had adapted.
The girl was like a living zombie.
Her gait, weakened by hunger, staggered drunkenly,and the blood she lost during monster attacks dyed her clothes red.
She almost resembled a monster herself.
Still, she kept walking.To find someone who would reach out to her someday.
As time passed, on a stormy night,the girl, having just revived, stumbled upon a flickering light.
A red flame.It wasn’t from a monster.
The girl thought it was a knight’s magic.Given the rain, she assumed fire couldn’t burn without magic.
The girl quickened her pace.Little by little, she approached the flame.
Eventually, reaching the flame, an old man stood beyond the fence, looking startled.
“W-What is this…?”
Though the old man said something, the girl couldn’t possibly understand him.
“Haa… Haa…”
Was it because she ran too fast?Even after reviving moments ago, her head spun.
Her frail body collapsed outside the fence with a thud.
The girl stretched her hand toward the old man with every ounce of remaining consciousness.
Then she pleaded.Please, don’t push away my hand.
Like a knight extending a helping hand, please grab mine.
Gradually, the consciousness she clung to slipped away,and the girl met her thirty-ninth death.
