LOGINThree days passed far too quickly.
For Elara, they disappeared beneath a blur of preparations, questions, and uncomfortable discoveries.
She had spent most of the first day exploring her new memories, trying to separate what belonged to her from what belonged to the original Elara Veyne.
It was harder than she expected.
She knew how to play the piano.
She knew the names of the servants.
She knew which flowers grew in the eastern garden.
She knew that her mother hated thunderstorms and that her father drank his tea without sugar.
But those memories didn't feel like hers.
They were fragments.
Pieces of someone else's life placed inside her mind.
And that frightened her more than anything else.
On the morning of their departure, Elara stood before the mirror while a maid fastened the final clasp of her traveling cloak.
The dress beneath it was simple by noble standards, made from dark blue fabric with silver embroidery along the sleeves.
She looked elegant.
Too elegant for someone who was desperately trying not to die.
"How much longer until we arrive?" Elara asked.
The maid smiled.
"Approximately two days, my lady."
Elara sighed.
Two days inside a carriage.
Two days closer to the capital.
Two days closer to the plot.
She turned toward the window.
Beyond the estate, several carriages waited in the courtyard. Horses stamped impatiently against the stone while servants loaded luggage.
Her father had decided that the entire family would travel together.
Apparently, refusing the Crown Prince's invitation wasn't an option.
Elara still wasn't convinced this was a coincidence.
The original Elara had never been invited to the capital.
Not once.
So why had the invitation arrived now?
She touched the faint silver mark on her wrist.
It had appeared the morning after her transmigration.
A small symbol resembling a crescent moon surrounded by tiny stars.
Whenever she touched it, she felt warmth beneath her skin.
She hadn't told anyone about it.
Something inside her warned her not to.
"Lady Elara."
She turned.
Her mother stood in the doorway.
"You'll catch a chill."
Elara smiled faintly.
"I'm coming."
Her mother approached and gently adjusted her cloak.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then the older woman whispered,
"Be careful in the capital."
Elara's smile disappeared.
There was something strange in her mother's expression.
Fear.
Not ordinary worry.
Fear.
"Why?"
Her mother hesitated.
"Because the capital isn't as safe as people believe."
Before Elara could ask what she meant, her mother stepped away.
"Your father is waiting."
Elara watched her leave.
A cold feeling settled in her stomach.
Something was wrong.
She just didn't know what.
The journey began beneath a gray sky.
Their carriage rolled away from the estate, its wheels crunching over gravel before joining the ancient road leading toward the Imperial Capital.
Elara sat beside the window.
For the first several hours, she simply watched the landscape.
Elarion was breathtaking.
Forests stretched endlessly across the horizon, their leaves glowing faintly with magical light.
Rivers shimmered beneath the sunlight.
Occasionally, strange creatures appeared between the trees.
Some resembled deer.
Others looked nothing like anything Elara had ever seen.
Once, a creature with enormous silver wings flew overhead.
Elara pressed her face closer to the window.
"Beautiful."
Her father glanced at her.
"You've always liked magical beasts."
She turned.
"Really?"
Cedric raised an eyebrow.
"You don't remember?"
Elara's heart skipped.
She quickly looked outside.
"I was just distracted."
He studied her for a moment but said nothing.
That was becoming a problem.
The more time she spent around people who had known the original Elara, the more likely they were to notice something was different.
She needed to be careful.
Very careful.
That evening, they stopped at an inn near the edge of the Blackwood Forest.
Elara stepped outside while the servants unloaded their belongings.
The forest stood several hundred meters away.
Tall black trees rose toward the sky.
Mist curled between their roots.
She remembered this place.
Not from the novel's main storyline.
From a side chapter.
The Blackwood Forest was considered one of the safest magical forests in the empire.
At least during the day.
At night, however, things changed.
A strange sound came from between the trees.
Elara froze.
A low growl.
She slowly turned.
Nothing.
Then another sound.
Closer.
Her hand instinctively moved toward the small dagger attached to her belt.
A pair of golden eyes appeared in the darkness.
Elara stopped breathing.
A creature stepped from the trees.
It looked like a wolf.
But it was much larger.
Its black fur shimmered with blue magical markings.
A Moonfang.
Elara knew what it was.
A high-level magical beast.
It should not have been anywhere near the road.
The creature lowered its head.
Its eyes locked onto hers.
Elara's heart pounded.
She reached for her dagger.
The Moonfang growled.
Then suddenly—
It collapsed.
Elara stared.
The beast trembled on the ground.
Black veins spread across its neck.
Mental corruption.
Her eyes widened.
That was impossible.
Magical beasts could become corrupted, but rarely.
The creature's spiritual energy surged violently.
Elara felt something inside her respond.
Warmth spread through her chest.
The silver mark on her wrist began glowing.
She stepped forward before she could stop herself.
"Easy."
The Moonfang snarled.
Elara slowly extended her hand.
"I won't hurt you."
The creature's body shook.
Then her fingers touched its forehead.
A wave of warmth exploded between them.
The corruption disappeared.
The Moonfang went completely still.
Elara stared.
She could feel its emotions.
Fear.
Pain.
Confusion.
And beneath all of it—
Relief.
She slowly withdrew her hand.
The Moonfang opened its eyes.
For several seconds, they stared at each other.
Then the creature lowered its head.
Almost like a bow.
Elara's breath caught.
Behind her, a voice suddenly spoke.
"Interesting."
She spun around.
No one stood there.
Only the dark forest.
Her pulse quickened.
She looked back at the Moonfang.
It was gone.
Only footprints remained in the dirt.
Elara stared into the darkness.
Someone had been watching.
Someone who had witnessed everything.
She slowly tightened her grip around her dagger.
The journey to the capital had barely begun.
And already, the story was changing.
Chapter 150: And So, She LivedOn the morning Elara decided that her story had finally become a life, she burned the breakfast.It was not a dramatic disaster.No ancient magic escaped from the stove. No mysterious door appeared in the kitchen. No voice from beyond the boundaries of existence announced that the destruction of breakfast had somehow threatened the balance of the universe.She simply forgot the bread in the pan while listening to Elias explain why the kitchen shelf had become a matter of personal honor.By the time she remembered it, the bread had turned black on one side.Elara stared at it.Elias stared at it.The little house Mira had made sat on the windowsill, its crooked roof catching the morning sunlight.Then Elias said, with the solemnity of a man delivering a final judgment, “I believe we have created charcoal.”Elara covered her face.“Please don't.”“I only wanted to acknowledge your achievement.”“I am going to throw this at you.”“Then I shall acknowledge y
Chapter 149: The Name We Choose for TomorrowThe letter arrived on a morning when nothing unusual happened.Elara considered that a good sign.The sun rose over the eastern hills, the garden needed watering, and the kitchen shelf continued to lean despite Elias's promise that he would repair it properly after breakfast. Somewhere down the road, Ael was arguing with a fruit seller about the meaning of a fair price. Lumi had discovered that dew collected on flower petals and was attempting to gather enough of it to fill a cup.Dawn was helping.Or, more accurately, Dawn was watching Lumi attempt to gather dew while asking questions that made the process considerably slower.“Why does the water stay on the flower?”“Because it is a droplet,” Lumi explained.“Why does it not fall?”“Because it is small.”“Would it fall if it were bigger?”“Probably.”“Can we make it bigger?”Lumi stared at the flower.“I don't know.”Dawn smiled.They had both learned to appreciate those three words.Elar
Chapter 148: The Things We Leave UnfinishedThe first thing Elara discovered about having a nearly finished house was that everyone suddenly had an opinion about how it should be decorated.The second thing she discovered was that nobody respected the word nearly.“The curtains should be blue,” Lumi announced.“Green,” said Dawn.“Neither,” Yun replied from the doorway. “The windows should remain uncovered until we know how much sunlight the room receives.”Ael, who had arrived carrying a bundle of fabric he claimed to have acquired through entirely legitimate means, spread his arms.“You are all thinking too small. We need something magnificent. Something that will make visitors stop in the doorway and understand immediately that they have entered a place of extraordinary importance.”Elara looked up from the wooden shelf Elias was helping her install.“It is a house.”“Exactly. A house with vision.”“A house with curtains, Ael.”“Curtains can have vision.”Elias stopped hammering lo
Chapter 147: The Door That Finally OpenedThe roof survived its first morning.This was considered a victory.It was also, according to Ael, a personal achievement worthy of celebration, although Elara suspected that the roof's survival had more to do with Elias checking every beam twice than with anything Ael had contributed.“You are all overlooking my most important contribution,” Ael declared, standing beneath the newly placed wooden rafters with his hands on his hips.Elara looked up from the basket of nails she was sorting.“What contribution?”“Morale.”Yun, who had returned from the village with a bundle of cloth for the windows, did not even look at him.“If morale means distracting everyone while you nearly fall off a ladder, then yes. Your contribution has been extraordinary.”Ael pointed at her.“This is why I sometimes wonder whether you people appreciate me.”“We do,” Elias said, securing the last beam. “We appreciate you from a safe distance.”Lumi laughed.It had learn
Chapter 146: The House They Chose to BuildThe first problem with building a house was that nobody could agree on where the front door should go.The second problem was Ael.The third problem, which Elara discovered approximately twenty minutes after arriving at the chosen building site, was that the person who had drawn three kitchens into the original plan had apparently taken the rejection of his ideas as a personal insult and decided to demonstrate that one kitchen could be made to work for an entire village.Unfortunately, that demonstration had involved fire.“Elara,” Elias said quietly, standing beside her at the edge of the clearing. “Before you look at the kitchen, I would like you to remember that I love you.”She turned her head slowly.“Why?”“Because I suspect you are about to become very angry.”A cloud of smoke rose behind the unfinished wooden frame.Ael emerged from it carrying a blackened pot in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. His hair stood in several dire
Chapter 145: The Life She Had Never ChosenElara dreamed that she was standing in a room full of doors.There were doors made of white stone, doors covered in silver patterns, doors that seemed to have been carved from the trunks of ancient trees, and doors so transparent that she could see the worlds waiting behind them.Some were familiar.Behind one, she saw the first village she had ever created. Its little houses stood beneath a golden sky, and the river ran through the center of the settlement exactly as she remembered it.Behind another, she saw the academy where she had hidden her identity, pretending to be an ordinary student while the most dangerous people in the world unknowingly gathered around her.Behind a third, she saw the worlds she had crossed, the people she had met, and the versions of herself she had become along the way.Every door contained a life.Every life contained a choice.And at the end of the room stood a final door.It was smaller than the others, made







