“Ah… an angel?”

When she opened her eyes and looked around, she spotted someone watching her with interest from across the way and muttered.

“Haha, an angel. This isn’t heaven, so snap out of it.”

The angel’s silver hair rippled and swayed, gleaming even in the darkness. His jade-white face, matching his white shirt, grew even more beautiful as he smiled.

She averted her gaze from the ruby-red eyes that suited his beautiful face so well, only to find someone else watching her from the side.

“Ah… the god of war?”

“Puahahaha!”

The sturdy young man with black hair and blue eyes wore something like an old military uniform. It was different from the war gods in the myths she knew.

Still, he looked military enough to recognize at first glance, with an appearance that called to mind a male deity from an old masterpiece painting.

“Oh dear, hurry up and get your bearings. Look closer. We’re both human, for starters.”

The silver-haired young man laughed heartily, seemingly amused, and urged her on. She sat up groggily from the bed, rubbed her eyes, and looked around.

To figure out who those men really were, this place was somehow…

“…A prince imprisoned with his knight escort?”

“Hahahaha—”

Wrong again, apparently, because the silver-haired young man now rolled on the bed laughing.

He seemed strange, but this place was strange too. She realized it looked like a prison. But why was she locked up here?

Had she gotten drunk last night and caused a scene in public? Then got into a fight with these foreigners and ended up locked in here?

But even for a prison, something felt off, so she got up and headed toward the iron bars. She’d never been locked up before so she wasn’t sure, but Korean prisons didn’t look like this.

Thinking it might be some kind of hidden camera show, she grabbed and shook the bars. Finally, the silver-haired young man revealed his identity.

“I’d like to give you more chances, but you seem truly confused, so let me tell you who I am right away. I’m Valide. And that soldier in the cell next door is called Killian. And you?”

Valide and Killian. Those were quite unfamiliar-sounding names. Though those two were obviously foreigners anyway.

But she had no idea why she was locked up here. Moreover, she didn’t understand why she could naturally understand and speak a foreign language.

“I’m… I’m… huh?”

She opened her mouth to say her name naturally, but the sound that came out carried no meaning and echoed strangely. It was odd that she was speaking a foreign language fluently, but she realized something more important than that.

‘…My name? What was my name?’

She recalled her last memory. She’d gone to university with friends like usual, worked her part-time job, and on the way home…

But in her memory, the faces of herself, her family, and her acquaintances had faded. The sound of them calling her name grew more and more distant.

“Um… what’s my name?”

As she stood there dumbly, spouting nonsense, the silver-haired young man Valide approached. Actually, he was locked in the cell across from her too, so even getting up and coming over just meant standing in front of the iron bars.

“This is serious. The shock must have been severe. Can you see this? How many do you see?”

“Please don’t wave your middle finger around.”

“Your eyesight is normal, at least.”

Valide put away his pointless joke, which she’d thought was concern.

“…Iette le Fleur. That’s your name. The guard told me when he brought you here unconscious.”

“What? Me? Iette?”

Wasn’t that a strange name? Even though she’d suddenly forgotten her name, she was certain Iette wasn’t it.

She tried to argue with Killian for telling her a name that clearly didn’t suit her, someone who was obviously Korean. But he just nodded indifferently and said he didn’t know anything more. 

She wanted to grab that soldier by the collar and demand answers, but both she and Killian were locked in separate cells.

In the midst of all this, Iette fell into confusion over her identity and the disconnect between herself and the name she’d been given.

“…Huh? My hair is golden.”

“Yes, you’re blonde, Iette. Your eyes are green. The prison is a bit dark, right? There should be a light in your cell too. Try turning it on.”

As Iette pulled at her hair in bewilderment, Valide chimed in again. According to him, she’d opened her eyes in a foreign body with blonde hair and green eyes, and that was her now.

She looked around, found a candle, and plopped down. Because turning on a light really meant doing it with an actual candle.

Something was very, very wrong. Her identity, lost overnight. Civilization completely different from the world she’d lived in. Unrealistic characters and languages rarely seen on Earth.

She pinched her cheek and circled the narrow cell before finally reaching a conclusion.

This was a possession story from the webnovels she’d read so much.

She didn’t know what kind of world it was, but Iette, who’d quickly grasped the situation, approached Valide. He’d been watching her confusion with great interest.

When Iette banged her forehead against the bars in her urgency, Valide found it funny and burst into another round of laughter.

“That’s why I told you to light the candle, Iette.”

“I… I don’t know how to light it.”

Having grown up in Korea, Iette didn’t know how to start a fire without a lighter. She’d never handled candles unless they were scented ones.

“Oh, I suppose that’s possible since you said you don’t even know your own name.”

Valide scrutinized her thoroughly, finding it fascinating, which suddenly made her uncomfortable. 

Still, he was the most approachable person in this prison. Killian, the soldier locked in the cell next to Valide, just watched Iette silently and indifferently.

“So… what kind of world is this? Like, is there magic and dragons flying around…”

“Puhahaha!”

Her mind was a tangled mess, but she managed to ask the question, only for Valide to burst into laughter again.

Iette tilted her head, not understanding why he was laughing. She needed to figure out what genre this world was, whether it was a world from a novel she’d read or not. But Valide just burst into laughter every time she did anything, so the conversation wasn’t progressing.

“…My head hurts. Madam, it would be better to get a good night’s sleep and talk with a clear mind tomorrow.”

Killian seemed to be treating her like a crazy person.

“Will I wake up back in Korea tomorrow?”

“I don’t know what Korea is, but your memory might return tomorrow.”

At Killian’s words, Iette felt an inexplicable sense of relief and returned to the bed. That soldier’s low, resonant voice inspired an unknown trust.

‘Right, this is a dream. Maybe I’m having such a vivid dream because there was content like this in the novel I read before bed. When I open my eyes again, I’ll be a university student in Korea and can start my ordinary daily life.’

‘Okay, let me close my eyes and fall asleep again.’

Iette fell asleep in an instant.

* * *

“Good morning, Iette.”

“…I guess it’s not a dream.”

“Your memory seems to be the same too.”

After nodding roughly at Valide and Killian, she looked around and saw the two men were eating.

A corridor ran between her cell and the two men’s cells, and at the end of it was a window. She could tell from the sunlight coming through that it was daytime.

It was definitely a north-facing, damp, and dark building, but fortunately it didn’t seem to be the worst case scenario of an underground dungeon.

“Eat breakfast first and think about it, Iette.”

Valide told her that a guard had come and left food.

“Huh, it’s just one bowl of soup.”

Iette held up the completely cold soup in disappointment. Even if she was a bad person locked in prison, how was she supposed to survive on just this one bowl?

For Iette, who’d seen criminals’ human rights carefully protected, this was disappointing at a very basic level.

“Oh my, you have ‘le’ in your name, so you really are a noble. Even this soup should be appreciated in this situation, Iette le Fleur.”

She’d only seen him smiling brightly, but Valide called her full name in a stiff voice. She’d only been in a foreign body for a short time, but her body instinctively flinched. Had she become a body that automatically felt guilty when called by her full name?

She realized she’d made some mistake, but didn’t know what it was. What was this situation anyway? She didn’t even know what kind of world this was.

“What’s the situation now? Why my name? What does it mean that my family is noble?”

She poured out questions like she knew nothing. Valide, who smiled helplessly as if he couldn’t argue with her anymore, explained.

“I don’t know much about the Fleur family either. It’s probably not an influential noble house in the capital.”

Killian, who’d been quietly observing while eating, paused for a moment, but since they were imprisoned in separate cells, no one noticed his reaction.

“And if I had to describe the current situation in one word, it’s a shitshow.”

“A shitshow?”

Iette tilted her head, repeating Valide’s words with her spoon in her mouth.

“You know our country is called Sainte-Valion, right?”

It seemed like a very common-sense question, but Iette shook her head. She’d never heard of a country called Sainte-Valion in Korea. Was it a country from a novel she’d read after all?

But because she’d read so many novels, she couldn’t figure out which story it came from. Honestly, even for masterpiece romance fantasy novels she’d loved enough to read multiple times, she couldn’t remember every country name. 

The names in romance fantasy worlds were so exotic and difficult that anything over three syllables tied her tongue and brain in knots.

“Oh dear, I’ll explain our country’s history later. Anyway, a revolution broke out in Sainte-Valion. The citizens dragged down the royal family, and not long ago, the king and queen were executed at the guillotine too. These days, the Reign of Terror has begun, and nobles, counter-revolutionaries, royalists—everyone’s getting their heads cut off.”

“…That sounds similar to the French Revolution I know.”

No one understood Iette’s mumbling with her spoon in her mouth.

She’d majored in history at a Korean university, so she knew a bit more about the French Revolution than most people.

The revolution started by citizens in the Kingdom of France in 1789, the beginning of democracy that overturned the contradictions of the old regime of European feudal monarchies. She knew it as a major event evaluated as having led the transition to modernity.

It was also similar in that the royal couple died at the hands of citizens, and Robespierre’s Reign of Terror followed in the chaotic situation after the great revolution.

“Oh, so us being in this prison right now means… we’re all about to get our heads cut off by the guillotine?”

At the suddenly terrifying conclusion, Iette dropped her spoon into the soup. Her appetite vanished completely, and she couldn’t eat anymore.

“Oh, Iette. You were a traitor to the revolution. Eat your fill before going to the guillotine. This soup is made of the citizens’ blood and sweat, so reflect while you eat.”

Valide joked even now, seemingly unafraid of the guillotine.

“I don’t know what a guillotine is, but… us being locked in this cell probably means there’s still reason to keep us alive.”

When it looked like Iette might cry if he teased her more, Killian intervened. When she asked what he meant, Valide explained in detail.

“Those imprisoned on this floor are nobles, people who need more investigation, or individuals who haven’t been confirmed guilty and require caution. Look at this cell. Isn’t this level of facility better than an inn?”

“This has good facilities?”

Iette tilted her head, now able to look around a bit thanks to the sunlight streaming through the narrow corridor. Last night it had been too dark to examine properly, and she’d just fallen asleep. 

The bed was so narrow, small, and dirty she didn’t know how she’d managed to sleep. The blanket and pillow were terribly rough, and the mattress hidden under the sheets wasn’t soft at all, whatever it was stuffed with.