Hana sat at her study desk, surrounded by piles of thick, heavy law books. The light from her desk lamp illuminated her face, which was full of focus, though there were faint lines of exhaustion under her eyes. It was already past midnight, and she had just finished the final chapter of a law textbook she needed to study for tomorrow's class.
"Huh..." Hana let out a long sigh and closed the hefty book in front of her. The sound of the last page turning echoed in the silence of her room.
Thud.
She glanced toward the window, looking at the faint shadows of other apartment buildings outside. The streetlights cast a soft, calming glow over the city, but at the same time, made her feel distant. Despite being a smart and diligent law student, Hana felt like something was missing from her life.
On the corner of her desk, her laptop was still open, displaying the last page of the webcomic she had just finished reading. Rising Alone Hero, the title gleamed on the screen in bold font, and below it was an illustration of a character she knew all too well Damian Thornfield.
Damian, the main character of the fantasy novel she loved, was a young man whose life was filled with suffering. His mother had died when he was little, and his father remarried Duchess Vivian Thornfield, a woman notorious for her cruelty. It was no wonder that Damian eventually grew into a ruthless villain, full of anger and resentment toward the world that had treated him so poorly.
"Why does he always have to suffer?" Hana muttered to herself, sipping from the cold coffee in her mug. The bitter taste slid across her tongue, though it wasn't as bitter as the hardships Damian endured in the story. "If I were in his shoes, I'd probably feel like the world was unfair, too."
In a swift motion, Hana closed her laptop. Click. The soft blue light disappeared, and now her small room was lit only by the desk lamp and the faint glow from the outside. Her room was small, almost bare, except for a few law posters on the walls and stacks of thick books on her desk and shelves. Hana was an efficient person, but her heart was always drawn to things beyond logic and reality.
Stretching her back, stiff from hours of sitting, Hana moved toward her bed. She pulled back the thin blanket and lay down. Her eyes started to close, but her mind kept drifting back to the novel. Damian… Vivian… the world that seemed to live in her imagination.
Hana often felt that her real life lacked the grandeur or drama of the novels she read. Being a law student certainly came with its own challenges, but everything felt monotonous, structured, and rigid. There was no room for spontaneity or adventure. But in the world of Rising Alone Hero, everything was different. Political intrigue, magic, and the gripping fates of each character made that world feel more real than her own.
From outside her room, she heard the heavy footsteps of her downstairs neighbor. Thump. Thump. Thump. He was likely returning home after a long day of work. In the apartment next door, the faint sound of music drifted through the walls, coming from her classmate Jade's place, Jade often played loud music late at night.
"You never sleep, do you?" Hana thought to herself with a small smile.
Life on campus was ordinary. There was always some noise, though it rarely involved her. Hana wasn't the type to go to parties or stay up late for socializing. She preferred sitting with her books, either getting lost in the world of legal arguments or, more often, immersing herself in the fantasy worlds far removed from reality.
Hana took a deep breath. It felt so hard to fall asleep tonight. Her thoughts kept circling back to Damian and his suffering. If only there were a way to change his fate…
But life wasn't a story you could rewrite so easily. Or… was it?
Slowly, Hana felt drowsiness begin to take over. Her eyes grew heavier, and her body sank deeper into the cool pillows. Yet, in the strange liminal space between waking and sleeping, something odd happened. A soft sound, almost like a hum, started buzzing in her ears.
Hmmmmmmm.
"What is that?" she murmured, half-asleep. She tried to open her eyes, but it felt impossible. Her head felt light, and her vision started to blur.
Suddenly, the sound grew louder, like an echo approaching closer.
Hmmmmm.
BOOM!
The world around her shook, as if an explosion had gone off right behind her head. Hana felt her body being thrown, falling into a void of endless nothingness.
She tried to scream, but no sound came out. Everything went dark, and her body seemed to dissolve into the emptiness. The sensation of weightlessness and emptiness continued, until finally…
Hana woke up with a start. But what she saw wasn't the familiar ceiling of her bedroom. Instead, a red silk curtain adorned with gold trimmings hung above her. The room around her was filled with lavish furniture, tall windows with stained glass, and walls adorned with beautiful paintings.
"Where am I?" Her voice came out, but it sounded softer, more refined.
She stood still for a moment, feeling something was different about herself. Hana quickly got up from the bed, stumbling toward the large mirror in the corner of the room.
What she saw in the reflection made her freeze. Standing before her was a woman in a luxurious deep purple gown, with long golden-brown hair and a face that was elegant yet cold. A face she recognized all too well from the novel she had been reading.
"Vivian Thornfield..." she whispered in disbelief. Her heart pounded, and she took a few steps back.
"This can't be… how is this possible?!"
Her body trembled. She wasn't just in the novel's world, she had become the very character she despised, Duchess Vivian Thornfield, the stepmother of the main villain, Damian.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
A knock at the door broke her train of thought. A voice from the other side was soft but firm.
"Madame Vivian, breakfast is ready."