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“Ugh…”
A pained moan automatically leaked through her lips.
Doah gasped heavily and closed her eyes.
She could feel that there was cold sweat on her forehead, but somehow, she couldn’t find the strength to wipe it off with her hand.
It was so painful she felt like she was about to die.
Her head was spinning so much that she couldn’t stay lucid.
Her entire body was throbbing with pain, to the extent that it felt like someone was beating her black and blue.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve gotten so sick like this…’
No matter how badly sick she’d be, no one would be there to take care of her.
She had to get up by herself and somehow get some medicine.
Bunny’s body was still young. It would be dangerous if this fever would continue.
She tried to fully wake up, but every attempt just made her consciousness slip away.
It felt like she was on fire, as though she’d been thrown to the depths of hell.
‘Somebody, please.’
Even though she knew that it was futile, she inadvertently tried to beg because who she was right now was Bunny.
When she was still Park Doah, she couldn’t even conceive the thought of asking for help. Being in a child’s body made her have the thoughts of a child’s fussing.
‘Help me.’
As a child born in the slums, being born pretty did nothing for her.
To survive, she had to choose between only two options.
Give up everything and cling to other people who were strong, or hide yourself thoroughly enough that her features wouldn’t be discovered.
Bunny chose the latter method.
It was difficult being even a beggar because of the threats of violence all around.
Surviving somehow or another.
That was Bunny’s ultimate goal in life.
Until one day, the Grand Duke of Credel miraculously appeared and reached out a helping hand to her.
“Would you like to come with me?”
How could she even dare refuse the offer.
In the olden days, the world’s central continent had been divided into four regions—east, west, north and south—and apart from that, there were dozens of kingdoms competing for supremacy over the other.
It was all due to the demonic monsters that the sorcerers and their lackeys had let loose to the world.
A fog-like mist would come in through the fissures that would split open the fabric of space, and along with it were the demonic beasts that wreaked havoc unto the land.
At that time, it wasn’t strange for entire kingdoms to fall to ruin in just a single day.
When the world was on the verge of collapsing, it was Grand Duke Credel who stepped to the plate and saved humanity.
He slaughtered the leader of the demonic beasts, and through his power, he froze and sealed the ‘core’ of the beasts, which served as their source of life.
With only a silver sword as his weapon.
He unified the north, and along with the emperor, he founded the world’s first empire.
This was the ‘Avicus Empire’.
The north was a place where the sun was up for only short periods of time and where it was cold and barren, but it was the best place to seal the demonic beasts.
The power that Grand Duke Credel had was called ‘ice manipulation’.
Thanks to this, the continent was no longer plagued by the demonic beasts, and the sorcerers were defeated or went into retreat.
Even now, there were still demonic beasts throughout the east, west and south, but because they had lost their leader, they were nothing but scattered messes.
The grand duke was truly a hero among heroes.
If the emperor was likened to the sun in the way that he carried light unto an already enlightened world, the grand duke was the moon who had brought light unto the dark world.
Accordingly, a clear, bright moon.
A blue moon.
Therefore, House Credel was known as ‘Credel of the Blue Moon’.
Not long after, Ducal Princess Ophelia was born.
Born during the beginning of the era of serenity, the guardian of the world’s daughter naturally became a ‘symbol of peace’.
With such a blessing from everyone, she was a child who was loved simply for existing.
‘Me, too. Can I also become the princess?’
These were Bunny’s thoughts at first.
That maybe, she’d have a family, too.
That maybe, she could receive love and attention, too.
It was all useless, these thoughts.
‘Me, too…’
So, too, did Park Doah once have the same thoughts.
Eagerly hoping that a ray of light would be cast upon her as she was in the deepest depths of the abyss, where she couldn’t see in front of her even one inch ahead.
Spare me.
Help me. Please, save me.
Without any words needed, please embrace me. Please adore me. Please love me.
Doah’s hands trembled as she reached out, unable to move away from her spot.
But what entered her vision was a smaller, frailer arm that did not match her image of her original body.
…What kind of foolish nonsense is this.
‘This child’s body is just so…’
The very moment her adult mind returned and she regained her rationality, she tried to lower her hand.
But at the same time, someone else held Doah’s hand.
‘Ah.’
Amidst her hazy mind, she could barely open her heavy eyelids.
With her eyes blurry with tears, it felt like she saw the face of Credel’s master for a split second.
“You are not my daughter. Even from the very beginning, you are nothing to me.”
He said that for sure.
‘Blue moon? Bullshit.’
How conceited.
In her half-asleep state, did she swallow or spit out these words, she wondered.
Tears formed on the corners of Doah’s eyes, eventually trickling down the side of her face.
The master of the blue moon looked down at her with a stiff, frozen expression.