1. Night Service

A sorrowful aria echoed through a performance hall in Todd, the imperial capital of the Mancus Empire.

The audience filling the seats looked at the female lead on stage with moved expressions. She was a veteran actor who had been playing leading roles in the Shariv Theater Company for a long time, and her name was Laura.

During that time, in the waiting room behind the stage, there was a woman singing along to Laura’s aria. She was a beautiful woman with platinum hair, pale blue eyes, and skin white like first snow.

She was Tessa, the youngest actor in the theater company who had been performing for about six months. Her eyes, singing along to Laura’s song, were filled with admiration and envy for Laura.

When Laura’s aria ended, thunderous applause rang out and the stage curtain fell.

“Tessa, let’s go out to greet them.”

Laura, who had exited backstage after finishing her song, affectionately took Tessa’s hand.

“Yes.”

The woman called Tessa followed Laura onto the stage and stood at the very end of the performers.

When the large curtain installed on the stage was drawn back again, the performers received enthusiastic applause from the audience and all bowed their heads together in greeting.

“Goodbye.”

“See you tomorrow. Tessa.”

After all the audience members had left, the actors who had changed clothes and removed their makeup in the waiting room came out of the performance hall and boarded carriages waiting outside to return to their respective homes.

Tessa rode together in Laura’s carriage. Laura had agreed to drop Tessa off on her way home.

“You did well today too. Tessa.”

Laura praised Tessa with a kind smile. She had a lot of scenes since she was the protagonist, so she would be exhausted by the time the performance ended, yet she never spared praise for Tessa.

“Thank you. You were the best today too, sister.”

Tessa answered with a happy face to the leading actor’s praise. Laura, who cherished Tessa very much, was fifteen years older than Tessa and had a long acting career.

Tessa respected her and practiced acting and singing diligently every day to become an excellent actor like her.

“I envy you. Your voice and appearance are far superior to mine. If you keep working hard, you’ll be able to take on good roles soon. Practice hard so you can be prepared to do well when opportunities come. Opportunities will definitely come.”

Laura looked at Tessa with affectionate eyes while speaking. She said that one day, while she was experiencing a long period of obscurity, an opportunity to stand on stage suddenly came. Thanks to practicing hard regularly, she was able to seize that opportunity and even become a protagonist.

“Thank you for saying that. Laura.”

Tears welled up in Tessa’s eyes that resembled a clear sky. She was truly grateful to Laura, who always encouraged her.

“Don’t mention it. When I look at you, it’s like seeing my younger self.”

Laura shrugged her shoulders while answering. Tessa looked at her with respectful eyes. Even such simple gestures looked incredibly elegant when she did them.

While they were conversing, the carriage had arrived in front of Tessa’s house before they knew it. Since their houses were in the same direction, Laura always took her home in her carriage on performance days.

“See you tomorrow. Tessa.”

“Yes, sister.”

After the carriage came to a complete stop, Laura gave Tessa a light hug. When Tessa got off, the carriage that had been standing for a moment quietly departed again.

Outside the carriage, the sky was dark and gloomy. It couldn’t be helped since the performance ended late at night.

Tessa entered a shabby building located at the end of a narrow alley. She trudged up the stairs and entered the room at the end of the third floor, then sat down heavily on the bed with a tired face. The old bed made a creaking sound.

Her real name was Liana.

Tessa was a stage name, and her name from her previous life was Rahee.

She had transmigrated into the world she was currently living in a year ago.

She was an ordinary college student who loved musicals. Spending money earned from various part-time jobs on watching musical performances was about the only joy in her life.

One evening, she suddenly lost consciousness while watching a musical performance. When she woke up, she was lying on a bed in an unfamiliar room wearing unfamiliar clothes.

When she looked in the mirror hanging on the wall in surprise, a beautiful woman she had never seen before was making a bewildered expression toward her.

She thought she was having a strange dream, but it wasn’t a dream. The person she had possessed was a woman named Liana who lived alone with her mother, who had been a former theater actor.

She was scared and afraid of the unfamiliar world. But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why she had possessed someone, and even after going to the temple library and reading all kinds of books, she couldn’t find a way to return to the real world. So she had no choice but to live as Liana.

Fortunately, the mother she met after transmigrating didn’t find it strange that she acted unnaturally and cherished and loved her.

‘How should I live here?’

One day, while sitting by the window worrying about the future, she hummed a musical song she had loved in her previous life with a gloomy heart. But the song came out smoothly and she could hit high notes well.

‘……!’

The Liana she had possessed had talent in singing, taking after her mother.

In the Mancus Empire where she came to live, performances combining acting and singing were popular. Since she had loved musicals when living in the real world and realized she currently had talent in singing, she decided to become a theater actor like her mother.

When she said she wanted to become a theater actor, her mother was delighted and taught her acting and singing.

About six months after she had transmigrated, her mother passed away from illness.

Liana, who had washed herself in the small bathroom in one corner of the room and changed into pajamas, drank rye tea that was said to be good for insomnia. Since becoming alone after her mother passed away six months ago, she had been suffering from insomnia. So she always had rye tea on hand.

“Mom……”

She looked at her mother’s portrait hanging on the wall and called out softly. She missed both her mother from the real world and the mother she had met in this unfamiliar world. She had no family now.

‘I should sleep. Otherwise my voice won’t come out tomorrow.’

Thinking of her families from her previous and current lives and shedding tears, she lay down on the bed and forced herself to try to sleep.

Ding-dong—, ding-dong—.

It was around dawn. A loud doorbell sound could be faintly heard from somewhere. Liana ignored the sound that seemed like an auditory hallucination and continued sleeping. Since there was no one who would come looking for her, she thought it was a sound she heard in a dream.

But the doorbell sound didn’t stop. Moreover, she could hear someone noisily knocking on the door.

“Mmm……”

She forced herself to lift her heavy eyelids. It was truly painful to open her eyes, like stones had settled on them.

Who is it, really, during this time.

She had gone to bed late again yesterday morning because she couldn’t fall asleep. Although she struggled with insomnia, she tended to sleep deeply once she did doze off. It had been a long time since she’d slept so soundly, but being woken by an unwelcome visitor made irritation rise sharply.

But the person outside the door must have pressed the doorbell dozens of times. They were probably knocking on the door now because their patience had reached its limit.

“Are you there?”

When she didn’t make any sound, an unfamiliar man’s anxious voice was heard from outside the door. Normally someone would think no one was inside and just go back after doing that much, but he was a persistent person.

The sound of knocking was getting louder and louder.

‘Is it someone related to the theater company?’

She thought that might be possible. If she didn’t open the door, he would continue knocking noisily and the neighbors would complain. The place she lived was a shabby apartment building, so there were several neighbors.

“Sigh……”

She sighed and slowly got up from the bed, putting on a long robe over her pajamas. Then she went to the window and looked outside. Strange carriages and knights dressed in black were standing at the entrance of the narrow alley.

‘Why did knights come here?’

The uniforms of Mancus Empire knights were blue. Looking more closely, not only the color but also the uniform design was different.

Liana approached the front door with a puzzled expression. She spoke toward the outside in a small voice.

“Who is it?”

A hoarse voice came from her throat. She often caught colds due to the low temperature in the room. Since singing was her profession, she shouldn’t catch throat colds, but she always had minor colds because she didn’t have money to buy firewood.

In that condition, she couldn’t rest even a day and strained herself singing, so the condition of her throat only got worse.

“Ahem, hmm.”

She cleared her throat with fake coughs and cracked the door open slightly.

“Lady Liana Brian. I am Aaron Bart.”

The brown-haired man standing outside the door introduced himself with an urgent tone. He looked worried that she might close the door again.