1

“Sister, how are you feeling? Try eating this.”

I stared absentmindedly at the thin soup in the wooden bowl. Beside me, a girl full of innocent sweetness was tidying the bed I was lying on. When I turned my head, the long-haired girl—whose appearance I couldn’t get used to—was reflected in the small mirror on the bedside table.

“This can’t be happening…”

At first I thought it was a dream. But I didn’t wake up even after several days. My sense of taste, smell, and touch were still painfully vivid.

My life had finally been about to fall into place. After losing my family in a car accident, I’d tried everything from part-time jobs to contract work and freelancing. Desperate for stability, I kept working and changing jobs over and over.

There was no time to rest. Even grief felt like a luxury.

After contract positions and stints at small and mid-sized companies, at 34 I finally succeeded in moving to a large corporation. It was a dream company with a stellar reputation—almost a 4.8 out of 5.

Dreaming of a future with less debt, I even celebrated with a 2-night, 3-day trip to Japan—the first since the accident. My salary had gone up a lot too. It felt satisfying to hand a resignation to the awful team leader.

But when I opened my eyes, I was here. It was supposed to be my first day at the new job.

“Coco—sister, does it taste… bad?”

Faced with Juliana’s anxious eyes—she who was supposedly this body’s younger sister—I silently scooped a spoonful of soup. There wasn’t much in it, so it was bland. But as soon as I put something in my mouth, the girl’s expression brightened.

“Juli…ana? I’ll say it again—I am not your sister. I’m not Cornelia.”

It wasn’t true, but her warm familial care made my stomach churn, and in anger I told her the truth. I said another person’s soul had entered this body. The reason was simple. It felt like a betrayal of my real family. I couldn’t go on living a lie.

“You’ve seen me for days now, so you should know—I’m nothing like this Cornelia you talk about.”

Would she kick me out of the house? I could barely beg her to let me stay until I found somewhere else, but now I didn’t care what happened. I didn’t want to do anything. I felt as if everything had burned down to a handful of ash.

Yet Juliana’s expression remained calm.

“Don’t worry, sister. It’s just that your memory hasn’t come back yet. The doctor said that a high fever can temporarily cause memory loss or confusion!”

This reaction again. No matter how many times I shouted that I was someone else, the people in this house wouldn’t listen. Instead, she was busy comforting me and telling me not to worry. Damn it…

“You’ll come back to being yourself soon. Every time you forget, I’ll explain everything again!”

Ridiculously, a famous movie scene popped into my head amid this serious situation.

Juliana kindly explained who this body belonged to and where this place was.

I had possessed the body of a twenty-year-old fallen noble girl named ‘Cornelia.’

And this place was a Western fantasy world where swordsmanship and magic prevailed. She said the parents were dead and that aside from the eldest, Olgard, who had gone abroad to study, the four siblings lived together: second-born Marcella, third-born Cornelia, fourth Juliana, and the youngest, Rio.

‘This can’t happen for no reason.’

After Juliana took away the empty soup bowl, I gathered whatever scrap of motivation I had, stitch by stitch, with renewed energy. The first thing I did was sift through the web novels I’d read on the commuter subway. Unfortunately, I couldn’t recall any novel featuring a character named ‘Cornelia.’

‘So much for profiting off future knowledge.’

I scanned my surroundings and shouted internally.

‘Status Window!’

“…”

But nothing happened.

‘Item Window!’

“…”

I shouted several times, but the only result was Juliana turning pale and trying to stop me from calling the doctor again. Yet I had a hard time accepting this reality.

“Ha, so I just randomly possessed someone?”

I spent the whole day searching memories and shouting activation words, but there was no reaction.

“No. Right, this is a fantasy world. Maybe I have a talent. Maybe there’s some mission to do. Right? It has to be, it has to be…”

Otherwise, there was no reason for a salaried worker like me to end up in another world. If gods exist, they wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake.

Judging by the gaunt body, it didn’t look like swordsmanship fit, so I tried a few magic spells and stretched out my arm.

“Fireball!”

“Dragon Slave!”

“Expelliarmus!”

As expected, nothing happened. I heard murmuring from outside.

“My sister’s acting strange. She keeps shouting weird things and staring at the air like something’s there. Brother, what should we do?”

“…”

I felt my strength drain away. I flopped back onto the bed. Staring at the ceiling with no focus, a curse slipped out of me without meaning to.

“My first day at the big company… damn…”

As my reason returned, memories of my real life surfaced. Right—this was why I felt so listless. How much I’d suffered working and preparing to switch jobs. To end up in this absurd world before even stepping over the company’s threshold.

“And I’m not even a noble lady!”

People always said beds felt cozy when you woke up—my back ached like mad.

Sigh, even transmigration reflects reality, huh.

I lay there listlessly, blankly picturing the acceptance email from Company 00 flickering before my eyes. Even if I returned now, I’d probably be fired for absence without leave…

Just then, the second brother Marcella made his presence known.

“Hey, come eat dinner.”

A small boy was nestled in his arms. It was the youngest sibling, Rio. I had no strength to get up, so I only turned my unfocused eyes.

“I don’t feel like it.”

He stood still, studying me for a moment, then spoke.

“You said your mind’s out but your body’s fine. How long are you going to make Juliana wait on you? At least come out and eat.”

He was a rough-tongued fellow as big and unruly as he looked. Still, thinking of Juliana who had fussed over everything all day, I forced myself up.

On the table were bread that looked hard as a rock and the soup they’d had for lunch. I’d often gone hungry when times were bad, so I sat without complaint and chewed the bread in silence.

“Cough cough.”

Rio coughed with a grating, worrying sound. Marcella picked Rio up and rubbed his back while Juliana hurriedly brought a packet of medicine and water. There was only one pill left, which felt ominous.

“Brother will do whatever he can, Juliana, so don’t worry.”

The words that followed only amplified my unease.

The place they lived was a wooden house hardly different from a shanty. An empty house with nothing to leave behind. Honestly, how well could children who lost their parents possibly live?

I could barely look after myself. Yet there were four of them here even without the one who’d gone abroad. It would be a heavy burden for that small older brother to bear.

Then Marcella, who had been calming Rio, seemed to remember something and spoke to me.

“The shop said if you don’t come in tomorrow they’ll fire you—what do you want to do?”

“…What?”

I found myself asking back without meaning to.

‘Was I a working person?’

“You’d recently found a job to help with Rio’s medicine and living expenses. A small shop run near the market front. You were happy to be hired as an apprentice.”

He stared at me for a moment then shook his head.

“Rest until your body recovers. Just think about that.”

There wasn’t a hint of reproach in his eyes. That made me even more uncomfortable.

On the other hand, their situation didn’t look so different from my original life. I too had been busy living without parents.

I suddenly felt irritated. The thought of them scrabbling to live together without parents annoyed me.

Rio’s cough sounded especially loud and piercing today. Why does one of them have to be sick too?

“Ha… this is driving me crazy.”

If there was no way to go back right now…

I put myself under a self-hypnosis.

Alright, think of it as a transfer to this place. Pretend I just came to this world for a short part-time job.

It’s an experience you couldn’t buy with money. Experience.

“Which shop is it?”

Right. I’ll just work enough to earn my meals and leave.

Leaving the Cornelia family’s worries behind, I went to the shop for my shift.

“Assemble!”

At the voice of a man who seemed to be the boss, the shop staff lined up in neat formation. I felt their gazes on me. I had thought I looked fairly pretty in the mirror—apparently I’m quite popular.

‘Yes, a little buff like this makes life livable.’

The boss called out employees’ names for attendance and briefly briefed today’s schedule. Just when I thought it was over—

“Oh, Cornelia. You actually arrived on time today for once.”

“…Yes?”

What is this about?

“You were late every time so I expected the same today, but you came on time… surprising. For your brother’s sake, I’ll give you one more chance. We’ll see how much you can make up for your mistakes. No—please, just don’t cause any trouble here.”

At his warning, I heard sharp looks and snickers from around me.

“What the hell is this…”

Only later did I find out that the original occupant, Cornelia, had more late days than on-time workdays. The excuse notes said she overslept because she was a heavy sleeper.

As a seasoned office worker, I couldn’t imagine not knowing this.

“Wha—am I the dead weight?”