"We died together in February 2nd of 2025, when a truck hit us while we were crossing the street, and we transmigrated to this world of the sick novel we have read half of together. When we woke up here, you were the 19-year-old Diana and I was the healer of your home."
I did my best not to show how fucking shocked I am. "I... I don't remember exactly, but I do remember our world, Earth, I remember the trash story, and... what was going on in there, but I don't... I don't remember our lives... I..." I pressed my hands at the sides of my forehead, genuinely feeling like crying. "Did someone... did someone deliberately attack my memories, Ary?"
Panic bloomed in his eyes, "You did act like a horrible bitch here, it was the only way for them not to suspect us from having gone through alchemy of souls, which is how we both called soul magic swapping, because of our favorite,"
"Drama?" I blinked and he nodded hopeful, which is good, since this was one of the last Korean dramas I watched in my life, before I died.
"Yes, do you remember it?" He beamed.
I nodded, "I do."
His eyes darkened, "Someone must have attacked you mentally, sister."
Sister? "Sister?"
"You're my older sister, I'm two years younger than you, Dia," he said, conflicted, sadness blooming in his eyes.
Just how many people here are transmigrated? "Sorry, I don't remember. What was our names?"
"You were Hong Yeji and I was Hong Yejun," he caressed my hands. "Our parents were Song Yeri and Hong Jiwoon."
This is madness. This is absolute madness. I must be going insane. "Did..." I swallowed, "did we had any paternal aunt overseas?"
Hope bloomed in his eyes again, "Hong Jiah, yes! Well, we were never close to her. She went to the US to attend Harvard, then she moved to Stanford for a master degree and met her husband there, we used to call him Persian Prince, we met him like, five times," he chuckled self-deprecatingly. "Three of the five times in funerals. He was filthy rich, she stayed there and rarely came to see dad, our grandparents moved to the US to be around her because of her money. Later they all died, I think only their middle daughter was alive when we died."
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I am actually related to Diana and... Arwel? What the fuck? What in the actual fuck? Why were we all transmigrated here? What... I don't understand. All the madness that happened in my life in the past years, ever since we were 19... where Diana was involved, it was actually Hong Yeji acting like Diana? My... distant cousin?
"You remember them?" He asked, hopeful again.
Gulping, I nodded, "I do. Hong Jiah, Khosrow Haghighi, Alexey Hong Haghighi, Alina Hong Haghighi, Alisa Hong Haghighi, and their paternal aunt Soraya Haghighi."
He sat down on the ground, relieved, "Seems like whoever targeted you and your memories did it to block the essentials of yourself. Your family and close loved ones. Isn't that what's missing? You don't remember your family here, nor ours back on South Korea, right?"
I nodded, profoundly grateful that I found a way to go on with this without being suspicious, while also gaining crucial information. I'm still profoundly shaken about who they are, their actual connection with me. Which means that Diana was attacked together with me, by whoever swapped our souls, but why?
How many people around us got transmigrated? I was clearly transmigrated later than them, but far to the past in here, I've lived more of this world than they have. Now, how? What's the connection? Why target us? Was it just us?
"But wouldn't they need to be a powerful mage, possibly from the Mage's Tower or from the Academy, to do that?" I asked.
Ary pressed his lips together, "Yes. But many of those powerful people you just mentioned, do hate you, Dia," sigh. "Come on, let me help your pain go away," he raised his hands and in a second his refreshing healing magic was cloaking my entire body.
"How far into the novel did... we read, Ary?" I need to know how much he knows.
"We paused on chapter 2800, last chapter of the 14th part of the novel, it had 28 parts with 200 chapters each, while the 29th and last part had 198 chapter," they weren't even half into the novel, he is clueless about how bad it gets. "We dropped when the novel grew annoying and the author went on a 10-months-long hiatus."
I pressed my lips together, "I think I lied to you."
"Lied?" He narrowed his eyes.
"I remember the novel... way past chapter 2800."
His jaw dropped, "Dia! Gods, I knew you lied when you told you me that you were also dropping it. Ugh, and you didn't even tell me. You remember the ending?"
"Everybody dies in the end. It all starts to get worse when," I clenched my jaw, "Eleanor dies. It was different in the novel, Eleanor didn't do the things she did in here, it's like she... was different. You... you think she also... transmigrated like we did?" Think with me, Ary.
His eyes widened, "I wondered about that, but you always disagreed with me. She was acting strage, you ended up around that horrible fake Sofiya because of her acting out of script. Maximilianos also should have been obsessed with Sofiya, not with Eleanor, and Eleanor got engaged to him as a kid, while he should have been Sofiya's fiancee."
I snapped my fingers, profoundly glad that he is smart, "Exactly. If we... popped up here, what guarantees that more people didn't either? Did anyone else act out of character like Eleanor?" Did you see something I didn't?
"Everyone who acted strange, did so as a consequence of actions that Eleanor took. She cut ties with Sofiya, got engaged to Maximilianos as a kid, and she became reclusive while she used to be a bubbly social pushover. I don't think anyone swapped souls with her. Like, when we came here, you woke up as Diana after she had thrown herself of the third floor of the castle, which should have killed her, and probably did kill the real Diana, which is a change in the story. Or did Diana die in the novel by suicide?"
I shook my head, "No, it was far in the future actually, in fact, Eleanor was not supposed to die now at all."