Apharoia (ep.1)

A sharp pain hit Isadora after her words ended as if a trigger was pulled inside her brain. She held her head as naturally as possible and lowered it. 

Memories and pain attacked her relentlessly, one wave after another without allowing her to breathe.

However, despite that all, Isadora forced herself to appear normal. She dug her nails deep into her palm and silently chewed on her lower lip. 

'Ugh, this pain... What is wrong with me? Darn it.'

Isadora was gritting her teeth against each other to the point that she was afraid to lift her head up, lest some blood come from her mouth. 

Allowing these two traders to notice her condition was not something she could afford. 

Slowly, the memories settled in and the pain was subdued. It was not an easy task to accomplish, but Isadora managed to do it even when she felt as if her whole body was ringing with pain. 

'Ah. Now I get it,' she moaned softly in pain at the realization. 

Looking at how the man was trembling in fear after her words, Isadora realized that the pain she felt lasted barely a few seconds.

'Good,' she nodded to herself and swallowed the sweet taste in her mouth, 'That means they had no way of knowing what just happened.'

She let out a soft chuckle as she lowered her head, and a soft smile of relief crept to her face. However, she quickly hid that.

'I shouldn't allow these two to know anything about me.'

Isadora looked at her hands, her flushed skin was littered with various burns. 

The smile she just had immediately faded once she compared this sight to the one in her memories. 

'How pathetic.'

Her condition was not only pathetic but also dreadful. The two men who were observing her silently and warily only made her feel worse about this all. 

She mused to herself, 'The traders of this world are nothing but small fries it seems.'

'This world'.

Isadora came to this world from another one that was completely different. There was almost nothing she could recognize from her world in this primitive desert. 

In her world, the slave traders were gutsier. During the 26 years she had lived, Isadora had never met a slave trader who would be trembling in fear due to the gaze of a simple slave. 

'I don't think they are the main culprit behind my current situation then. Given my status, these two men are too cowardly to touch me.'

The princess was already dead and Isadora had taken over her body. But how did the princess die? Her death, according to the hazy memories Isadora had, was nothing but a mistake. 

'Dying accidentally is such a pitiful fate.'

If her theory was remotely close to the truth, Princess Isadora had died accidentally because of Muran. 

Although it would have been more logical to say it was not an accident, once she looked keenly at the slave trader, she could not help but question that possibility. 

After a few more seconds, Ox woke up from his shock and aggressively shook Muran, "Just what?"

His eyes almost fell out of their sockets as he questioned his brother. 

"What do you mean? How can you take a princess, a darn princess, from the enemy's territory without even having a proper guide and guards?! Did the sun overcook your brain?"

Ox's face was pale, he gulped again and threw a quick glance over Isadora. Her hands and feet were covered by the white robe, but the rustle beneath the robe whenever she moved indicated her situation. 

"Even if you tried to restrain her with those chains, are you not afraid, brother Muran? What would happen if someone discovered her here?"

To his shock, Muran just smiled before waving him off. The joke from before terrified him, but now he called down. The concern Ox brought up was nothing of his. 

"Brother Ox, do you think your brother is stupid? Even if I met a golden camel, I would not touch it before making sure of my safety."

Isadora, who was carefully listening to them, perked up at that. Her memories were hazy and unclear about this despite having a general idea about Princess Isadora's life. 

Thus, she wanted to know what kind of secret deal this man may have had and with whom. 

Just a few hours ago, Isadora found herself lying down on the warm sand. A white robe was thrown on top of her. 

Her dry throat ached as she attempted to speak, and every fiber of her body was stinging her with the slightest movement. 

Isadora wondered what caused her body to be like that, she felt as if a haze was covering a part of her memory.

The only thing she recalled was the sight of her sick mother sprawled on the bed before her. She, who was sitting on a chair right next to the sick woman, was crying without tears. 

'My mother was sick, and we were lacking money. I was sitting there and wondering what I could do. I even thought about going with some backdoor methods, huh.'

Isadora could not recall anything aside from that, which was useless as a piece of information to help her understand where she was and what was happening. 

Isadora felt her skin sizzling with each touch to the sand. As she tried to stand up, her gaze met the Sun. That was when it happened. 

A wave of memories hit me in the face. That was the first wave, telling her about the basis of this world. 

Isadora, who was trying to stand up, staggered to the side. A groan escaped past her lips as she wrapped herself in the robe tightly. 

Instinctively, she felt the sun was her enemy. 

The other slaves tried to help her out of sympathy, but Muran ordered them to go back to their places. 

After that, with an expression that was a mixture of fear and anger, he personally dragged Isadora by a rope around her robed body. 

Despite that, his attitude was reserved. He even offered her some water to drink. Isadora, who just remembered that, scoffed internally. 

'No wonder this man did not attack me and even gave me a luxury that no other slave could dream of. There was a deal behind it after all.'

"Then how? Explain, brother, I don't think I understand," asked Ox with his eyebrows furrowed. 

"Her brother, the current Pharaoh, had sold her to me."

"Huh?"

'What?'

Muran laughed at Ox's shocked face as he gently explained, unaware of the woman who was staring at him blankly from beneath the white robe. 

"A typical royal family. The brother is afraid of his sister being a thorn in his side. Aside from having a chance to become the Pharaoh, her spouse also may fight him, as you know."

Everything made sense after that simple explanation. The memories of Princess Isadora may have been incomplete, but what Muran said was the truth. 

Even if the brother in her memory was kind and gentle, the royalty were always hypocrites even amongst themselves. 

Isadora felt like whining in her head, but that was not how she usually acted. No matter how much she wanted to whine and complain about this situation as well, there was no way for her to reverse what happened.

Especially because she had no idea about the reason. 

[You cannot reverse something that you have no idea about.]

Similarly, 

[You must not lower your neck and wait to be slaughtered.]

The words Isadora heard before echoed in her head, her irises gleamed as she made a decision. 

'Even though I have no idea why I am here, and how my mother is doing... I must survive this situation first and then start to search for a way out of this.'