Chapter 04

Escape from Another World with a Possessor (4)

1. Families Collapse, Society Collapses, the Empire Collapses (2)

Hearing the words made Selena’s heart happy, and she rolled the Korean language off her tongue naturally.

“I’m Korean. Even though I was born here and my body is from another world, my soul is Korean.”

The past five years locked away in the Magic Tower, when she sometimes summoned Goose Flyday or Romantic Puppy out of boredom, had finally paid off. Korean came out naturally.

The Empress seemed relieved at Selena’s answer, tears welling in her eyes.

“I’m Korean too. I woke up in this body ten years ago.”

“Wait… you’re a possessor too?”

“Yes. Since you said you were born here, that means you were reincarnated, right?”

Selena nodded happily.

A possessor from the original dimension!

This meant the one thing missing from the dimensional transfer magic circle—a person who could act as a coordinate—was now here. It was a gift from the heavens.

Selena held the Empress’s hands tightly.

“I’m sorry to say this so soon, less than ten minutes after meeting, but don’t you want to go home? I made a dimensional transfer magic circle with a lot of effort. If you use it, you can return to Earth!”

“Really? I want to go!”

The Empress’s quick agreement in under three seconds surprised Selena. She was pleased but also a little curious.

Despite the Emperor’s insane command, the Empress, a former noble daughter, should have had everything she wanted—good food, comfort, luxury. Yet she agreed to leave without hesitation.

And ten years had passed. Most people would have grown attached.

Yet she was so eager to leave. Unexpected.

“Let’s go now! Earth! Korea! Sweet home!”

Seeing the Empress jump with excitement and expectation, Selena held back her questions and calmed her down.

“Not yet. It’s hard to make a large-scale magic circle inside the Empire, so I made it in the Starry Desert. We have to get there first. I’ll also need some magic stones to reactivate it.”

“Ah…”

A shadow of disappointment appeared on the face of the most beautiful woman in this world, and Selena felt a little sorry.

“It’s fine. If we teleport while preparing, it won’t take long.”

“But you’ll need the magic stones… Since the Empire will chase you because of me, buying them now will be impossible.”

“I was planning to escape anyway because the Empire annoyed me. Don’t apologize. And the magic stones? I already found a hidden mine, so don’t worry.”

Selena had located a hidden magic stone mine in the Frost Mountains to avoid suspicion of making war weapons. She almost died searching, but success was what mattered.

The Empress marveled at Selena’s illegal treasure.

“You hid a magic stone mine? You’d be executed if caught!”

“Haha, one illegal mine isn’t a problem. Do you think I’d be the youngest Archmage for no reason? I can handle it.”

“Amazing.”

“Anyway, let’s not waste time. Let’s go inside. We have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes!”

The villa’s parlor showed signs of long disuse but wasn’t dusty. The manager must be doing a good job. Paying well had been a good decision.

Selena happily sat with the Empress at the parlor’s tea table.

“Would you like some tea?”

“Hmm… do you have wine?”

She knew a thing or two. Selena felt not just happiness at meeting a fellow Korean but a personal fondness too, and she brought out two bottles of wine she had carefully stored.

They clinked the large wine glasses joyfully and finally began sharing the stories they had kept hidden from everyone.

“What’s your real name?”

“Kim Selena. Selena Kim is my Korean name. I was an orphan, so I didn’t have a name anyway. I just made one myself.”

“I’m… Aria Roderfel… Elsaik…”

The Empress trailed off, then corrected herself with a serious expression.

“You can forget this world’s name. Call me Geum Ga-yeon, or just Gayeon.”

“Alright. I’ll call you Selena. It’s from my real name anyway, and I’m used to it.”

Geum Ga-yeon. Gayeon. Beautiful. Selena practiced saying it in her mind and then asked:

“I didn’t know you were a possessor. The timing is slightly different from when I was most active.”

According to Selena’s memory, Ga-yeon was 23 now.

She said she became a possessor ten years ago. At that time, the noble girl would have been just 13.

Selena was 23 then, fully focused on the dimensional transfer magic circle.

By the time Ga-yeon could attend the academy and do outside activities—around five years ago, when she was 18—Selena had realized she lacked a coordinate for the dimension transfer magic and had secluded herself in the Magic Tower.

Their timings had missed each other perfectly.

Even if Selena hadn’t been in the tower, the possessor in the academy would never have met her. There was no connection unless it had been a minor noble like Roderfel. Even then, they wouldn’t know each other’s true identities.

“Yes. I was surprised too. There was a card gacha, but I accepted it because I heard it was made by an Archmage.”

“Eh? Why an Archmage?”

“Well… Archmages have this image of doing strange, unique things. Kind of eccentric.”

Ga-yeon scratched her head, embarrassed.

Influence from web novels. Selena immediately understood.

In fact, Selena herself had accepted reincarnation and possession so quickly because of the web novels she had read in her previous life.

“That’s right. Archmages are usually eccentric geniuses who are beautiful too.”

They smiled at each other, understanding instantly.

This was empathy. Familiarity from shared culture and thought. Selena felt a long-forgotten emotion, and for a moment, she was genuinely happy.

“When I first reincarnated, it was interesting, but this world was terrible. I couldn’t grow attached. I had a lot of regrets. It was so boring here. That’s why I tried to use magic to cross dimensions.”

“So that’s why you tried to move dimensions?”

“Yes. But why do you want to go back? I thought you might have attachments since you got married, but you agreed immediately.”

“Well… hmm. I’d better explain from the beginning.”

Ga-yeon sighed deeply and began her story.

“I was an orphan, had no friends, just did part-time work, so I didn’t really want to go back. I didn’t possess this body to begin with, and I didn’t know how to return. I decided to adapt and live as best I could.”

Selena didn’t blame Ga-yeon.

She didn’t enter this body willingly, and she had no way to return, so deciding to live was reasonable.

At least Ga-yeon had the title of a noble daughter, which was just luck.

If she had possessed a body without support, like young Selena, she could have died or suffered worse. Selena shivered at the thought.

She was lucky to possess a noble daughter.

Even so, being a successful noble’s daughter had its hardships.

“At first, I just tried to live well… but the family of this body… they’re trash!”

“What? Really? I heard the Roderfel family was strict but upright.”

Ga-yeon ground her teeth.

“Not upright, mean! You know the noble girl was sick since childhood, right?”

Ga-yeon gulped wine in one shot, slammed the glass down, and pouted.

“Because she was sick, they treated her cruelly! They hated her! If Aria had hurt a servant, that might have been different!”

The Empress, Aria Elsaik—or former noble Aria Roderfel—now back as Ga-yeon, finally vented the anger she had kept hidden.

“I wanted to treat her well since I took her body without meaning to.”

Her bright blue eyes flashed fiercely.

“But because she was sick and whiny, they yelled at me the moment we met, asking why I was weak and why someone like me was born! I almost shouted back! Luckily, I couldn’t speak this language yet!”

Roderfel minor noble… not what Selena expected. Looks and skill aren’t everything.

Selena shook her head, realizing appearances can be deceiving.

She had met the Roderfel minor noble and his younger brother before, before she secluded herself. They looked good and were talked about as fair knights. She thought they were rare nobles whose looks matched their character.

Yet they bullied a precious fellow Korean, the person with the ticket back to Earth.

Selena silently vowed to punish them with magic if she ever met them again.

“You went through a lot. Those guys are bad.”

“Huhu… but they were nobles, unnie…”