After an unknown amount of time, I slowly regained my senses and my thoughts.
Then I opened my eyes.
'…What? I didn't die? But why?'
'I was sure what I felt was death. Or was that sudden agony nothing more than a surge of pain before I lost consciousness?'
As my awareness returned, embarrassment followed right after.
'Ugh, why did I have to react so dramatically? I'd probably die of embarrassment if anyone had heard what I was thinking back then.'
'So much for dying a tragic, dramatic death.'
Only after confirming I could still see, breathe, and think did the embarrassment settle in.
As I took in my surroundings, I immediately noticed they were different from the ever-familiar hospital room.
The ceiling was higher, and the room itself was several times larger than the one I knew.
The walls and ceiling gave the place a faintly luxurious atmosphere.
'Was I moved to another room because my condition suddenly worsened?'
I tried to check my physical state, but something felt… different.
'I don't feel any pain. And strangely, I feel like I could move my entire body if I tried.'
'Am I under a heavy dose of anesthetics?'
To understand my situation, I tried to look around this unfamiliar room.
It was clean and orderly, and the furniture looked like antiques.
A few paintings of unfamiliar figures hung on the walls.
The room was dimly lit, making it a bit difficult to discern all the details, but from what I could see, there were no medical devices anywhere.
In fact, I couldn't find a single electronic or electrical appliance at all.
'This doesn't resemble a hospital room at all. It looks more like the kind of house you'd imagine for someone who is both rich and old-fashioned.'
If anything, this room really did feel like the bedroom of someone's home rather than a hospital room.
'I've never seen the inside of a house in person, but I've watched plenty of home videos on the internet, so my imagination can't be that far off.'
As I continued observing the room, something caught my attention—something that nearly made my heart stop.
I wasn't the only one here.
Someone else was inside this room with me.
It was a woman, sitting on a chair a few steps away, positioned at an angle that made her hard to notice at first glance.
The woman had pinkish-purple hair and violet eyes that seemed to glow faintly in the dimly lit room.
'What the hell?! That scared me! Can't you sit somewhere noticeable or at least make your presence known a bit more?!'
Her face was both elegant and cute, with a soft smile on her lips and eyes filled with warmth and affection as she looked at me.
When she noticed me staring at her, her smile turned playful, and a hint of amusement flickered in her eyes.
She leaned closer toward me and spoke in a soft, caring voice.
"Have you finally woken up, my baby?"
I couldn't understand the words that left her mouth, even though I heard them clearly.
'What did she say? Was that a foreign language? And who is this woman anyway?'
I tried to study her outfit to guess her identity, but her clothing only confused me further.
Her attire resembled the elegant outfits worn by female leads in fantasy anime.
In fact, it looked exactly like the noble-lady dresses from fantasy worlds.
'Is she a cosplayer?'
She rose from the antique chair she'd been sitting on and walked toward me.
With both hands, she lifted my body and gently held me in her arms with surprising ease.
'Huh? How is she lifting me up so easily?'
My body shouldn't be light enough for someone so delicate-looking to carry me without the slightest sign of strain or discomfort.
'That saying about being as light as a feather is only an analogy, after all.'
Holding me securely, the woman began walking toward a large rectangular antique mirror.
When she stopped in front of it, the reflection inside the mirror became unmistakably clear.
And that reflection—
My mind froze the instant I saw it.
The woman in the reflection was the same.
But the one she was holding wasn't me—
It was a baby, so small and fragile it looked only recently born.
That baby had pinkish-purple hair and violet eyes softly glowing in the dim room.
Just like the woman.
My mind went blank, incapable of forming a single thought.
All existing thoughts evaporated from my mind, and new ones refused to take shape.
I genuinely wanted to think and understand the situation, but my mind refused to work, leaving me with no choice but to blankly stare at the baby inside the mirror.
The woman holding me smiled as she watched me silently staring at that reflection.
Then suddenly, she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my forehead.
When she pulled back from that long yet brief kiss, she smiled at me lovingly.
That smile of hers held so much warmth and affection that it felt endless.
I… didn't understand anything about this situation.
My mind was still frozen and incapable of thought.
Yet seeing her holding the baby in the mirror stirred something deep within me—
a strange, unfamiliar emotion I had no words for.
'What… is this feeling?'
As I carried that question within my mind, time continued to pass.
And just like that, five years passed.
******
Evangeline's POV
It has been five years since that day, and now I'm five years old.
Yes, your guess is correct… I've been reincarnated.
In the beginning, everything was confusing, but as my situation slowly sank in, the truth became clearer.
It seems I really did die in that hospital room and was reborn.
And the place I reincarnated into is an entirely different world from Earth.
A fantasy world.
Oh! And did I mention that the family I was reborn into happens to be a noble family in this new world?
Real, actual nobles.
So when I grow up, I'll become a noble lady!!!
This is so cool!
'At this point, it almost feels like someone is compensating me for those sixteen years of suffering.'
I've read about reincarnation in stories countless times, but experiencing it myself feels entirely different.
To me, it doesn't matter why or how I was reincarnated.
What matters is that I can finally live life like everyone else—just like I always wanted.
In this new life, my name is Evangeline.
'Yes, I know—it totally sounds like the name of a female lead.'
I'm actually really happy with this name.
Climbing off the bed, I slowly walked towards the familiar rectangular full-body mirror.
Stopping in front of it, I gazed at my reflection—an action that has become something of a habit now.
But unlike that day, the reflection no longer showed a tiny baby.
What appeared in the mirror was a girl who looked about five years old.
She had pinkish-purple hair reaching past her shoulders and beautiful violet eyes with a mysterious glow.
She was so cute that even I wanted to protect her.
Yes, the girl in the mirror was me.
But her appearance often made me wonder whether someone that cute can really be me.
A cute girl, a noble family, and a fantasy world…
All these things have aligned perfectly for me.
Almost too perfectly, if you really think about it.
'It used to be only a fantasy back then, you could even call it escapism.
But that never made it any less meaningful to me.'
It was only a fantasy back then because it was impossible for it to become anything more.
'But now… it doesn't have to stay a fantasy anymore.'
I suffered for sixteen years without ever taking a single step out of that room.
If this is compensation… then I'll accept it fully.
That's why I have decided.
I am going to become the female lead of this world.