Chapter 001
Chapter 1: To the Underground City
Warm sunlight filtered through the gaps in the narrow bars. The rays pricked at my eyes as I leaned against the wall trying to sleep, forcing me to wake from my brief nap.
Seeing the orange hue of the sky outside the window, it looked as though dusk would soon fall.
“Teacher Aubert.”
Just then, a small boy in front of me gripped the hem of my clothes tightly. Despite wearing tattered and worn-out rags, his cuteness hadn’t faded in the slightest.
Though his hair was matted with grime and oil, the platinum-blonde strands still held a beautiful luster. His sparkling eyes were a clear, refreshing turquoise.
‘Teacher Aubert.’
That was my name. Astrid Aubert. It had been a week since I entered this cursed body, but no matter how many times I heard it, the name never felt familiar.
“What is it, Rodent?”
I asked the boy kindly.
Rodent. Naming a child ‘Rodent’—how cruel. I heard it was a name given to him by someone because he wandered the streets like a sewer rat.
And the boy before me with that ridiculous name was none other than the male protagonist of this novel I had entered, The Liberator of the Underground City.
“……It’s nothing.”
Rodent hesitated, his lips twitching as if he wanted to say something, before clamping his mouth shut.
At that, I closed my eyes again. I simply couldn’t keep them open because the scenery before me was too depressing.
This place, where Rodent and I were trapped alone, was the notorious prison of the Regnumia Empire. A cramped cell so small that a young boy and a small adult woman couldn’t even stretch out their legs comfortably.
As I closed my eyes, the last memories of my previous life rushed in like a tidal wave.
“Patient! Patient! Can you hear me?”
“She’s a TA (Traffic Accident) patient. Female, 27 years old. BP is continuing to drop.”
“Patient, do you know where you are?”
“Doctor, it’s V-fib!”
That was my final memory. Getting hit by a truck on my way to work and being rushed to the hospital. It was an end that felt like a scene from the medical dramas I had loved since I was a student.
Even though I had watched countless medical dramas for 15 years, I never knew that such a moment would come for me. And… that I would die.
V-fib (ventricular fibrillation). And probably ‘expired.’ I don’t remember it, but a doctor likely made a solemn declaration of death. My life of 27 years—short, if you could call it that—ended just like that.
When I opened my eyes, I was in this godforsaken prison. I was incarcerated here while possessing the memories of Astrid. Though, her memories were a bit hazy, as if shrouded in mist.
Astrid Aubert was a figure known as the ‘Angel of Aube Street.’ To put it in perspective, she was like the Mother Teresa of the world I used to live in.
‘An angel…….’
Just hearing the title made my hands and feet curl and squirm like a squid on a hot grill. But whether I liked the title or not, that was who I was now.
Astrid Aubert was twenty-seven, the same age as me. However, twenty-seven in this world was vastly different from twenty-seven in the world I came from.
In this world, women usually became adults at eighteen and were often sold off into marriages arranged by their families.
It was a society where women over twenty were pointed at and called old maids. In such a society, a woman living alone without marrying until she was twenty-seven……
‘And on top of that, she takes in poor children from the streets and treats them. She really is a saint.’
That’s right. The ten-year-old boy in front of me, Rodent, was one of the children Astrid had saved. No, he was the last child she had saved. Because she had been caught and brought to this prison along with him.
“……Rodent, what’s wrong?”
My immersion in sentiment was brief. I couldn’t concentrate on my thoughts because Rodent was acting restless. He looked incredibly anxious and uneasy.
“Teacher Aubert……”
Tears welled up in Rodent’s mint-colored eyes. Tears in a young boy’s eyes were truly heartbreaking, but…… he was unbearably cute.
Though I mostly obsessed over medical dramas, it wasn’t as if I hadn’t consumed other genres. Among them, The Liberator of the Underground City was one of the works I loved enough to re-read several times.
And now, the ten-year-old version of my favorite character was right in front of me! Moreover, he was looking up at me and crying! But as the Angel of Aube Street, Astrid shouldn’t have such irreverent thoughts in front of a crying boy.
Ahem. I cleared my throat and asked gently.
“Why are you crying, Rodent? Does somewhere hurt?”
When I asked worriedly, Rodent shook his head. Then he grabbed my sleeve tightly. Ugh, so…… so cute……
“Teacher, the guards said…… that you will be executed by hanging tomorrow…… Is it true?”
I was momentarily lost for words at the child’s question. Those guards said that in front of a ten-year-old? It was unforgivable.
Of course, the guard wasn’t wrong. Tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun rose, I was scheduled to be dragged to the execution grounds and hanged until dead.
The charge was ‘unlicensed medical practice.’
The Regnumia Empire was a place that did not allow women to hold professional jobs. Although she had inherited the hospital from her father, who was a doctor, Astrid did not possess a medical license.
Practicing medicine under those circumstances was the reason I was locked in prison now. Well, that was just an excuse; in reality, they probably just didn’t like Astrid, who was revered as an angel for helping the persecuted and marginalized.
However, according to the flow of the original work I had read many times, my death would not happen. Because tonight, someone was coming to rescue me.
“Don’t worry, Rodent. That won’t happen. It’s okay. Everything will be fine.”
I hugged the restless Rodent tightly to soothe him. Feeling my shoulder grow damp, it seemed the tears in his eyes were finally falling. The boy’s small shoulders trembled.
Astrid, who had taken in the homeless Rodent and treated him with kindness, was destined to die tomorrow. It must be a massive shock for a ten-year-old. I really should kill those guards for letting him find out……
‘Hmph. Well, they’re all dead meat in a few hours anyway.’
Before long, the ‘Liberators’ would storm this place.
The current Emperor of the Regnumia Empire, Solter III, was a man who practiced extreme tyranny.
Laughter vanished from the streets, and the Imperial Army became an object of fear for the people. If you got on the Imperial Army’s bad side, you would likely lose your life or be driven out of the castle into the monster-infested wilderness.
In such a situation, it was only natural that people began to emerge one by one to oppose the Empire.
The ‘Liberators’ were a rebel army formed by such individuals. And it was a very, very, tremendously large-scale one.
According to the original story, tonight, the Liberators would kill all the guards in this prison and rescue Astrid and Rodent.
Anticipating the upcoming ‘refreshing’ moment, I glared fiercely at the guard outside the bars. The guard flinched under my gaze. His expression seemed to say, ‘What is wrong with this crazy woman?’
While I was comforting the crying Rodent, darkness had settled outside the window. Not much time was left until the Liberators arrived.
I made a throat-slitting gesture with my hand toward the guard who was still looking at me strangely. You guys are finished, got it?
Yet, even as I did that, my heart wasn’t entirely at ease.
Regardless, I might avoid the hanging, but Astrid’s future wouldn’t be smooth sailing.
The reason the Liberators would go so far as to attack the prison to rescue Astrid was to save their dying leader.
The King of the Underground City, Jin. He was the patient I would have to take charge of.
A sigh escaped me at the thought of Jin. The way the unlicensed doctor Astrid treated the street children was simply by feeding them well and letting them sleep in a clean environment.
And what about me? In the modern world, I was just an ordinary office worker. I was merely a low-level employee in the new product development team of a confectionery company. A common citizen like me being the attending physician for a rebel leader?
In the original work, Jin dies three months from today. Once Jin dies, the Liberators scatter, and Astrid is murdered as well. That’s right. My fate was also set to end in three months.
‘……To survive, I must not go down to the Underground City, the hideout of the Liberators.’
That was the conclusion I had reached during the week of confusion after possessing this body. I had already experienced death once through hellish pain. I couldn’t feel that kind of pain again.
Just then, a commotion began to be heard from outside the prison.
‘They’re here. The Liberators.’
I gripped the hand of Rodent, who was startled by the sound of gunshots and screams.
“Block them! It’s the Liberators!”
The guards shouted. It’s no use. They were destined to die soon anyway.
Before long, a man with fluttering ash-gray hair appeared in front of the prison cell door.
“Astrid Aubert?”
He asked in a deep, reliable voice. The eyes of the sturdy man looking down at me were reminiscent of a lion’s gaze. It was exactly like the description in the novel. Long light-gray hair, pale blue eyes. A man with bold features.
With shoulders that broad, he certainly was a fine-looking specimen.
“……I’ll ask again. Are you Teacher Aubert?”
When I didn’t answer and just scanned him from head to toe, he asked again, looking a bit uncomfortable. Boy, you sure are impatient.
“That’s right. I am Astrid Aubert. Who are you?”
Of course, I knew his identity, but I threw out the question as a formality.
This man was Richard, the second-in-command of the Liberators. Jin’s loyal right hand and his one and only friend.
“There’s no time to explain. Come out for now.”
Richard pulled a bunch of keys from his coat and began searching for the one that fit the cell. Just then, a guard’s shout was heard from a distance.
“Here! The Gray Lion is here!”
‘Gray Lion’ was Richard’s nickname. Come to think of it, the man right in front of me was the fugitive with the third-highest bounty in the Regnumia Empire.
“Please wait a moment.”
Richard said in a low voice. Then, he began firing his gun at the guards rushing toward him. It was spectacular to see them drop one by one with a single bullet.
The original work emphasized that he was such a sharpshooter, and he really was incredible.
In this era, technology wasn’t very advanced, so low-quality matchlock guns were the best they had. But that revolver was said to be specially developed by the Liberators’ engineers.
Before long, the guards who had been swarming like ants all collapsed. Richard’s movements became hurried. He had to take Astrid and escape the prison before the Imperial Army arrived.
“Come out, Teacher Aubert.”
Richard opened the cell door.
Finally, an escape from this cramped prison. I was already getting tired of looking only at the sky through the tiny prison window. I stepped out of the cell with a joyful heart.
After running frantically, we soon arrived at a deserted back alley. Seeing how dead-silent the surroundings were, it seemed there were fortunately no pursuers following us.
“Mister, are you the ‘Gray Lion’?”
Rodent asked Richard, his eyes shining brightly. Richard glanced at Rodent and then gave a polite greeting to me and the boy.
“My introduction is late. I am called Richard.”
At Richard’s answer, Rodent let out an exclamation of “Wow—.”
“Can I become a Liberator too?”
Rodent’s eyes sparkled again. Lasers were practically going to shoot out of his eyes. A slight smile appeared on Richard’s stoic face.
“Of course. You come along too.”
The Liberators were good people who took in all the homeless children from the streets. It seemed Rodent was destined to join the Liberators after all, just like the original story.
“I’m late in stating my business, Teacher Aubert. We need your strength. You are our only hope. You must come with us.”
Richard spoke in a solemn voice. I mean, upon our first meeting, in such a heavy voice, saying I’m the only hope! Could a woman’s heart really stay still without fluttering when he says things like that?
“I have heard the rumors as well, but I am…… not an outstanding doctor. I don’t even have a medical license. I cannot go with you.”
The rumor that Jin, the ‘King of the Underground City,’ was dying had already spread throughout the Empire. Of course, the original Astrid was a woman who would walk into hellfire if there were a patient who needed her.
But not me. I want to live.
Jin’s death was tragic, but it wasn’t like I could do anything if I went…… If I followed Richard to the Underground City like this, my life would end in three months.
A look of bewilderment appeared on Richard’s face upon hearing my answer. What, are you flustered because the ‘Angel of Aube Street’ isn’t the angel you heard about in the rumors?
“I didn’t expect Teacher Aubert to refuse,” Richard said.
Surely he won’t say something like ‘I refuse your refusal,’ right? Hey there, sturdy brother. Please let me go. I looked at him pleadingly.
Richard let out a reluctant sigh and then opened his mouth.
“……Please excuse me, Teacher Aubert.”
Richard spoke very politely. What on earth was he excusing himself for? I stared at him with a puzzled face.
And then—
Click. Richard cocked his revolver and aimed it at my head.
“I’ll ask one more time, Teacher Aubert. Will you come with me?”
•♡━━━━━━•♡•━━━━━━♡•
I created a Telegram channel to make it easier for us to communicate and post updates [https://t.me/OpheliasUpdates] 🌷
