Chapter 2: CH 1

Someone said this phrase.

‘Out of the blue.’

That’s right. Literally just ‘out of the blue,’ Reina recalled her past life.

It had been one stormy night when someone unconsciously said this phrase, and it caught her off guard, and she was prompted to really recall her past life ‘suddenly’.

“Please, let me be reborn as a diamond spoon who earns money just by breathing.”

The bitter words rang in her ears, and at the same time, a name slipped out of her pale pink lips.

“Han… Jaehee.”

The outpour of memories made her head throb.

The fork being held by her long, slender fingers fell on the plate below it.

Clang!

And the old woman, who was sitting in the middle of the table, wrenched one eyebrow up as she clucked her tongue at the main culprit of the table’s disturbance.

“You really don’t get tired of this, do you.”

The Marquis of Chantra—actually, Reina’s grandmother. As she shook her head, the maids moved forward to arrange the dishes in a restrained manner.

“What is it this time.”

Prompted by the older woman’s voice, Reina slowly scanned the room.

Observing the crown molding made out of oak bordering the dark blue wallpaper on the walls, she looked up at the ornate patterns on the high ceiling, where a chandelier was hanging to show off its presence to the fullest…

Nothing was making sense.

“……”

Why.

Why was this place so unfamiliar even though she had been here so many times before?

“Reina. Grandmother asked you a question.”

As she turned her head towards the source of that displeased voice, she saw a boy dressed in European clothes that would date back to around the eighteenth or nineteenth century.

‘Wait a minute… ‘Europe’? Where is that place…?’

She blinked her dazed purple eyes, and what’s reflected in them was the peculiarity she was feeling at this sudden realization.

“Haa… Are you starting again? You couldn’t stay still and finally broke off your engagement, what is it this time—what else do you not like.”

The marquis made an expression that said she was terribly sick and tired of it. Then Noah—the boy sitting next to Reina who was her older brother—muttered under his breath and tapped the table underneath.

“Reina, don’t be rude to…”

“Enough, Noah. Reina, how could you be like this for a day, even two days. It makes me wonder if you’ve truly inherited the blood of Chantra, tsk.”

After the scalding sermon, Marquis Chantra¹ stood up from her seat. Watching the scene unfold with anxious eyes, Noah caught Reina by the collar.

Hurry up and apologize.

The look in his eyes expressed this, but Reina wasn’t in the right mind at this moment.

‘…This isn’t my house. The place I live in is a studio apartment…’

Why was she here? No, but? Wasn’t this home?

But… come to think of it…

‘Who am I?’

Everything was unfamiliar to her. Noah looked much younger than ‘herself’, but she recognized him as her older brother. Apart from that, the clothes this child was wearing, this situation where she was being treated like a huge nuisance, and the old woman’s cold voice, which never failed to make her sad.

Everything in this room was so detached from reality as she knew it that it was like a scene in a novel.

“But who am I, why… Ack!”

Then suddenly, a mysterious message appeared in front of her.

[ Han Jaehee has been reincarnated into the world of the novel, 「 Not there, Count! 」. Congratulations. ]

“Novel…? Reincarnated…?”

What’s there to congratulate?

“What is th… aaack!”

Before she could even finish the sentence, an overwhelming amount of words poured before her eyes.

Along with the pain akin to her eyes being pulled out with someone’s fingers, she began to recognize each sentence.

[ Main Characters = Lehman Karr, Jeremy Venzen

Reina Chantra: The youngest child of House Chantra, a founding family of the country. She is a bit weak in the head… (etc.)…

The family’s pain in the neck. Diamond spoon. ]

It was a series of incomprehensible words, but strangely enough, the name that appeared at the top of the message was familiar. Han Jaehee.

As though she herself truly was Han Jaehee, not Reina.

* * *

This is going to be a bit cliché, but Han Jaehee grew up without parents.

“There’s some nuance to it though…”

Well, her mother ran away as soon as she was born, and her father, who was left alone with the child, died in an accident, so it was no different than having no parents.

Ah, but don’t pity her right away. She had been rather happy. How could she ever be sad when she was given so much love that no other parent could match it?

“How smart you are, my little puppy. Because of you, puppy, this grandfather of yours can still live longer, hoho.”

Although they were poor, she lived a precious life that she wouldn’t exchange for a thing. It was only due to her grandfather, who lost one leg in the Vietnam War, that she survived.

That’s why even if her reality was something that she didn’t not welcome with open arms, she lived through it with great happiness.

As though she was numb to the pain of anguish, she ran hard on this road called life.

As though she had never experienced showing her worst self to others and had the misfortune of being laughed at, she smiled broadly.

However, life, which had not been easy even from the very moment of her birth, was especially harsh on Han Jaehee.

“Grandpa is sorry. Sorry I couldn’t do much for you, my puppy.”

With a common stomach cancer that just about everyone survived these days, this illness came to her grandfather. It was just around the time she entered university with a scholarship that she worked hard for, and she was given full support for tuition and living expenses.

“Just because you’re focused on your studies, don’t skip meals… Go and meet many friends… You must live happily, my puppy.”

Her grandfather couldn’t receive proper treatment because they didn’t have money, and a little over a year after he was diagnosed with his illness, he passed away.

Perhaps it was then. This was what made Han Jaehee start to prioritize ‘money’. She never wanted to lose anyone precious to her ever again just because she had no money.

“But while I had been so focused on money that I went all the way overseas for it, who would’ve thought I’d get shot dead right then.”

This was because she had gotten caught up with the ‘don’t ask shootings’.

Reina stood in front of a mirror, a broken smile on her lips. Rather than having a healthy glow to her alabaster complexion, she looked as white as a sheet.

“How pretty.”

The stranger’s face in the mirror gave her a sense of disparity. It felt like her memories while living this life as Reina had vanished in an instant.

¹ Reina’s grandmother really is a marquis and not a marchioness, meaning that she’s the head of the household

t/n: extra special shoutout to a dear reader who reached out and sent me the raws for this novel, i can’t thank you enough~! ❤