The first thing she felt... was pain.

It was not a sharp, stabbing agony that tore through her flesh, but a heavy, oppressive ache as if her entire body had been submerged for too long in deep, suffocating, ink-black water. Her fingers twitched slightly.

The sensation was soft... warm... and safe.

Beep.

Beep... beep... beep...

Her eyelids fluttered, struggling to adjust. A blinding white light assaulted her vision, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut once more.

"...uh..."

Her throat felt parched, as if lined with sand. Her head was wrapped in heavy bandages. Her body felt far too heavy to move, as if every limb had been cemented to the bed.

A white ceiling. A strange scent clean, sharp, and sterile. It was not like anything she had known before; it was the scent of a world she was not sure of.

"...where... am... I...?"

Her voice emerged slow, raspy, and weak. She tried to lift her hand, but a sharp pain shot through her arm.

"Ah..."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. She turned her head slightly. Machines were emitting rhythmic beeps. A small tube was pricked into her wrist. Beside her, a large window let in bright, intense sunlight.

Her ears caught the sounds of a distant world cars passing by, footsteps, a life that felt... alien.

Her heart began to race, out of sync with the monitor beside her.

This isn’t... my rental room.

The door creaked open. Regular footsteps echoed. Someone entered. A nurse, a doctor, and an old man.

Olivia recognized the man.

She had seen him before. A neighbor at her rental house. Someone who always passed by, occasionally offering a light greeting when they met outside.

"...Oh, Uncle..." Olivia’s voice came out slowly, still too weak.

The man looked at her with a calm expression, visibly relieved.

"Thank goodness... you’ve finally woken up," he said softly.

The doctor moved to the side of the bed, checking the monitors beside her. The nurse was busy jotting something down on a clipboard. Olivia watched them all with an empty gaze. She felt no fear. She only felt... hollow.

Like someone who had just awakened from a dream too long, but remembered absolutely nothing of what she had dreamt.

Her eyes then shifted to the glass window. Outside, the world moved as usual. Cars passed, people walked with purpose. The sunlight fell on the road as if nothing bad had ever happened.

Peaceful.

But inside her chest... there was something strange. Like a vast, empty space, a hole she did not know what was supposed to fill.

"...I..." she whispered slowly, her voice nearly lost in the hum of the machines.

"...why im here, really...?"

The doctor approached Olivia. He placed a stethoscope to her chest, listening to the heartbeat that was now stabilizing. His eyes shifted to the monitor screen, nodding slowly before noting something on her patient file.

"Everything is stable," the doctor said in a professional yet warm tone.

"We will perform further scans later, but for now, rest is the most important thing." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The old man sighed in relief, his previously tense shoulders relaxing. He approached the bed, staring at Olivia with profound sympathy.

"Child... it is lucky you woke up," he said slowly, his voice seemingly trying to soothe Olivia’s still-confused soul.

"You have been in a coma in this hospital for 10 months. It just so happened that today I was visiting my child being treated in the ward next door, so I remembered to check on you, too."

He shook his head slowly, his face etched with sincere sadness.

"Sigh... I had instructed the nurse outside to call your parents or any of your relatives 10 months ago. But... not one of them picked up. Not a single person came to visit."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly turned silent, with only the sound of the monitor.

As soon as those words escaped, Olivia’s memories, previously blurry, began to sharpen.

One by one, bitter memories flooded back the relatives who had cast her out after her parents’ death, their greed, and the cruel eviction she endured before the accident.

Olivia did not cry. She only looked at the man with a very bitter smile.

"It’s okay, Uncle," Olivia said calmly, her voice raspy yet firm.

"My parents... they passed away a long time ago."

The old man was startled. His expression shifted between shock and overwhelming pity. He slowly approached the bed and sat on the side chair, then patted Olivia’s shoulder gently, as if trying to channel strength that could not be expressed in words.

"Good heavens... such a tragic fate, child," he whispered slowly.

Olivia only looked out the window, letting the man’s hand rest on her shoulder. Even though her body was in pain, the heart that felt "empty" earlier was now being filled with a cruel reality: she was truly alone in this world.

"Uncle," Olivia called out suddenly, her voice flat.

"May I know... what is today’s date?"

The doctor, who was checking records at the end of the bed, stopped moving. He looked at his colleague, then at Olivia.

"Today is June 4, 2025," the doctor answered softly.

Olivia froze. June 4, 2025.

Her mind raced. 10 months. She had been lost from this world for 10 months. Her life, her part-time jobs, her savings, all the routines she had built with such difficulty everything had vanished as if she had been erased from the map of life.

The doctor stepped to the side of the bed, staring into Olivia’s eyes with professionalism.

"Olivia, I need to ask a few questions to assess your level of consciousness. May I?"

Olivia nodded weakly.

"Full name?"

"Olivia... Olivia Virly Robert."

"Date of birth?"

"April 13."

"Parents’ names?"

Olivia paused for a moment.

"Robert Mclean and Rose Manrose Elite. They... are already gone."

The doctor nodded, jotting something down. He then paused, looking straight into Olivia’s eyes.

"Final question, Olivia. What is the last thing you remember before the accident?"

Olivia furrowed her brow. She tried to search for that memory. Something very important. Something she felt she should remember before everything went dark.

"I..." she whispered slowly.

The road?

The rain?

Headlights?

However, what appeared in her mind was only empty space. No memories of a magic world, no memories of a cursed tower, no face of Javien.

"I think... I was reading something before this."

The doctor raised his head.

"Do you remember what you read?"

"A... Novel on my phone." Olivia massaged her temples.

"No. Novel. Yes, a novel."

She was certain of it. Yet whenever she tried to remember the title or its content, a sharp pain suddenly stabbed the back of her head

"Ah..."

Her hand immediately clutched her head. The monitor beside the bed began to beep faster.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

"Olivia?"

"I... I don’t remember..." She bit her lip, her face contorting in pain.

Strange. She knew the novel was important. Very important. But every time she tried to touch that memory, everything became blurry. As if something was forcibly "erasing" the name from her mind.

The doctor and nurse exchanged glances with unreadable expressions.

"Perhaps it is the lingering trauma from such a long coma," the doctor said slowly.

Olivia only nodded weakly. Perhaps. Or perhaps there was something greater she was not meant to know.

After the doctor and nurse left, the room returned to silence. Only the old man remained, still faithfully waiting.

"Olivia."

"Hm?" Olivia looked at the old man.

"There is one thing that, until now, I still do not understand."

Olivia looked at him with an inquiring gaze.

"Do you know how you were found?"

Olivia shook her head slowly. She remembered nothing about the accident.

The man sighed, his face showing the confusion that had not faded even after months had passed.

"Ten months ago... at that time, I was just returning from the shop. Many people had gathered in the middle of the road."

He stopped for a moment, swallowing hard.

"When I went to look... you were lying in the middle of the street."

Olivia froze.

The street?

"Yes. The middle of the street. There were many cars at the time. But strangely..." The man frowned deeply.

"Not a single person saw how you could have been there. It wasn’t an accident. You weren’t hit. You didn’t fall from anywhere."

He leaned in closer, his voice whispering as if afraid of being overheard by the walls.

"You just... appeared there."

The sentence hung in the air, heavy and terrifying. Olivia felt goosebumps rise.

Appeared? How could a human appear in the middle of a busy street?

When the old man left the room, Olivia looked toward the glass window. Outside, the world moved as usual. Peaceful.

Suddenly, Olivia’s chest felt painful. Not a physical pain, but a longing that cut through her soul. She did not know who she missed, or what was lost.

"Strange..." she whispered to herself.

She held her chest, feeling her own heartbeat.

"Why do I feel like... I have lost someone?"

Outside, dark clouds began to roll in, blocking the sun, as if signaling that this peace was only temporary.