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Half of the summer holidays had already passed.
My parents had just returned home and immediately noticed how often I had been going out.
They showed up on my birthday, which was next week—but their return was nothing like I had imagined.
They scolded me, nagged me for being so foolish, for making friends with someone like her.
They were going to ban me from seeing Elise. That was their answer, as always.
I felt my anger rise.
I shouted at them, too furious to hold it back anymore.
"You don't care about me!" I screamed. "You only care about your money, your image, your reputation! Nothing else!"
I criticized everything about them—their selfishness, their coldness.
And in the heat of the moment, I ran away.
---
Outside, the rain poured down, drenching everything in sight.
I didn't care. I had planned to go to Elise's house, but I couldn't today. Not in this storm.
I didn't even know why I was still running—whether it was for freedom or escape from my parents' control.
I tried to remember the route to her house, but everything seemed to blur together.
The world around me was darkening, and the cold was starting to seep into my bones.
I didn't notice the slickness of the road until I slipped.
My jeans tore when I hit the pavement, the cold biting through the fabric.
Two hours passed.
The darkness was taking over.
I couldn't find my way.
Frustration, exhaustion, and coldness clouded my mind.
I ran, stumbling through the rain.
And then—
A truck hit me.
---
The world around me seemed to vanish as I felt my body hit the ground.
Everything was cold. The rain dripped relentlessly from my soaked clothes.
And then…
I felt warmth. Slowly, gradually, I started to feel warmth, like someone had wrapped me in a blanket of comfort.
Through the haze of pain, I heard a voice—Elise's voice.
She had been searching for me.
She had been looking for me the entire time.
But I couldn't go back to her now.
I had already failed.
I wanted to thank her in my mind.
Thank you for being a real friend when no one else was.
I cried, but with each tear, I felt more miserable.
---
The pain faded… slowly, but it did.
And when I opened my eyes again, it wasn't my body I saw.
I was in the body of a five-year-old girl.
I looked around.
The room was small, humble, but warm. I was no longer in my old world.
I realized with a shock—I was no longer me.
I was the daughter of a maid who worked in the house of a wealthy noble family.
I could feel it—real love and care from the woman who had taken me in as her daughter.
The warmth was so real, so different from the coldness I had left behind.
---
My new family wasn't rich, but they had enough to survive.
We had food on the table, and my father was a knight, though he wasn't always around.
But we were happy. At least I thought so, for a while.
Then, the truth settled in.
I was not the heroine of this world.
I was not the villainess.
I was just an NPC—a side character in a novel that Elise and I had read together back then.
I thought I could live this life fully.
But I was destined to remain unnoticed, unimportant.
Just a background player in the story of others.
---
The years passed, and by the age of 11, things began to crumble.
My father died in battle, and my mother was left to pick up the pieces.
She worked tirelessly to provide for us, but the strain took its toll.
She became ill—weak, fragile, and the years of hardship wore her down.
My older brother, too tired to care, stole money from the house and ran away, leaving us behind.
We were alone.
Alone and impoverished.
I remember the days of hunger, of rags for clothes.
We had nothing. Nothing at all.
And then… my mother died.
Her illness finally took her life.
I was alone.
And I could see her regret in her last moments—regret for not living for me, for not being able to take care of me.
---
I cried for days.
I cried until there were no more tears.
And then, I was forced to beg.
To steal just to survive—because no one in this empire would hire a 12-year-old girl.
Eventually, my fate was sealed.
I was sold.
---
I became a slave, passed from one owner to another, for seven years.
Each master worse than the last.
Each day was a new torment.
I lost all will to fight, to survive.
I wanted to die. I wanted to rest in peace.
---
But life doesn't care about what you want.
It only cares about survival.
And now, I was nothing more than a hollow shell, a slave with no purpose, no hope.
I just wanted to die.
I couldn't bear the suffering anymore.
I even forgot my name..
---