Chapter 1: Alicia Cloden's Decision (1)

''Have you made up your mind?'' I looked at the man in front of me, his golden hair shone in the sun and his deep sea-blue eyes looked at me tenderly.

This man, 120 years old despite his young appearance, was my alchemy teacher. Nathaniel Faust was one of the two people in this world who knew my secret and whom I could trust.

This was because he recognized my true nature the first time he saw me, born from the memories of a previous life. He took me under his care and trained me when I was dying because of my own power.

I was the only student of the famous alchemist and I owed my life to this man who loved me like his own child and grandchild.

"Yes, I did," I said. Soon I would leave the Ingrid Empire, and the only person who knew about my decision was my master. Even though he looked at me with sad eyes, knowing why I might have made this decision, he continued to support me without opposing my decision.

"Make your final decision after you go home," he asked me one last time, and even though I knew it wouldn't change anything, I nodded my head in agreement because I didn't want to offend him.

''Alright then, you can go'' he said and I left his room. After I left his room, I looked out the window at the blue sky. With the end of spring, the summer weather was in full swing and there was joy everywhere in the empire.

The reason for this was that the founding day of the empire was approaching. At this time of year, there was a big festival to celebrate the founding of the empire. All the streets of the empire were decorated and festivities were organized. For the nobles, there was a ball at the imperial palace.

Diplomats from other countries added to the excitement. Young ladies lined up months in advance to have dresses made for them, and young lords tried to charm and impress the ladies they wanted to accompany to the festival. At this time of year, the Ingrid Empire was louder and merrier than ever.

"Good day, Lady Cloden."

"May the blessing of the goddess be upon you, Lady Cloden."

"Lady Cloden-"

As every colleague I passed greeted me, I gave them a short bow and continued on my way. Alicia Cloden, the young lady of the Duchy of Cloden and the only pupil of the famous alchemist Nathaniel.

The noblest lady in the empire and the beauty beyond magnificent, best represented by the purple orchid...

These were the things that defined me. Even from the meaning of the name and the flower it represented, I was recognized as the most noble lady.

The fact that my hair and eyes look just like purple orchids may have contributed to this. I came into this world sixteen years ago. In my previous life, I was a mechanical engineer and was killed by my obsessive ex-boyfriend on my way home from work.

It felt too unfair to die that way, so I defied the Soul Reaper who came to get me, and stayed in that world. Haunting the bastard who killed me, causing him to lose his mind, and watching everything slip away from him only stopped the hatred in me.

After ten years in my original world in the form of a spirit, I left that world with peace of mind that I had gotten my revenge. The last thing I remember at that time was the Soul Reaper smiling at me.

I didn't expect to open my eyes again and find myself in the body of a baby. Still, I assumed that my situation wasn't so bad and I was happy, thinking that I was finally in a rich and loving family. But this joy was short-lived.

I was born as the child of the main characters in the novel I had read, and the world I was in was the sequel to that novel. If I summarize the novel I read briefly, the protagonists, who have misunderstandings between each other, get together with their momentary desires, and then these two, who both love and hate each other, part ways after that night.

However, when the female character realizes that the man she hates is pregnant with her child, she wants to get rid of her baby at first, but when she fails, she does not show any love for the baby even if she gives birth to the baby.

In the meantime, the male character finds her and wants to be with her again. Even when he learns that he has a child, he is obsessed with the main female character and does not even care about his own child.

While they go through many hardships together and their love flares up, they don't even think about the child they left behind. Six months after I was born and when they reconciled and got married, they had another daughter.

This time a daughter was born out of a happy marriage, so it was inevitable that she would receive all the love. Moreover, she was as beautiful and lovely as a spring breeze. Like her mother, she had silver hair and green eyes, a beauty and gracefulness reminiscent of fairies.

The sequel to this story was a novel about this girl and her relationship with the male characters in the future, and I was the villainous female character who was consumed with bitterness and envy.

Honestly, when I was reading the novel, I always felt sorry for the original Alicia. She was not loved by her family, she was not appreciated for anything she did and she had to be constantly compared to her sister.

Even the man she loved offered his love to her sister and not her. When her emotional state collapsed and she became depressed, she could not control her strength and was driven to madness.

In her madness, she wanted to destroy the world and was destroyed by her sister Estelle Cloden and her fiancée, the First Prince Caelus Von Valencia.

Yes, this was the fate of the original owner of this body, but when I entered this body, I worked hard to do what was best for me.