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"I never asked to be born twice. But if the stars were listening that night, maybe... just maybe, they heard me beg for a different ending."
The world she knew was dim and distant, fading like the last light of dusk.
In her past life, Karli was not a hero, a princess, or a chosen one. She was just a girl, another tired soul buried under routine and quiet sorrow. Days blurred together — long lectures, quiet rooms, a hospital bed that smelled too much like antiseptic and too little like life.
But even then, she believed in stories.
In those lonely hours, books became her companions, and manga — her escape. She read them all: fantasy epics, villainess redemption arcs, hidden identity tales. The kind where the unwanted girl defied fate and rewrote her ending.
Among her favorites was a little-known series: "The Prince and the Saintess will save the world🌍." A brutal, beautiful fantasy about demons, nobles, and prophecies that left readers gasping for hope. She didn't love it for the heroine — no. It was the world, the tangled lines of fate, the way every side character fought to matter in a cruel universe.
And one of those characters... a barely-named noble child who died offscreen, unnoticed by even the main cast... had left a quiet ache in her heart.
That night — the last one in her old life — she remembered that manga again. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe it was something more.
"If I could go there... even just once... I wouldn't go along with fate, I will change that so called fate."
And then—
Darkness. Cold. Silence.
But not death.
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Her eyes snapped open.
The world around her was unfamiliar — the scent of moss, the whisper of leaves, the distant call of a nightbird. No hospital beeps. No buzzing lights. Just raw, breathing nature.
She sat up, heart pounding in her ears.
Her hands were smaller, dirt-smudged. Her hair fell into her eyes — shorter than before. And her clothes… they weren't hers. Rough boots. A cloak. A loose shirt tied at the neck. All made for a boy.
Confusion hit first. Then the wave of clarity followed.
This forest. This air. This body.
This wasn't her world.
And deep in her gut, memory stirred — not of her own, but of something she'd once read.
The name of the village nearby. The wild stretch of cursed woods. The time of year. All details pulled from a manga panel, now brought to living, terrifying life.
"No way…" she whispered, voice trembling. "I… I'm in the story."
Not as the heroine. Not even as a side character.
But as that forgotten noble child — the one who vanished in the background. The one who died quietly, before the story even truly began.
A cruel joke from fate. Or a chance to change everything.
Karli didn't cry. She didn't scream. She just stood — fists clenched, eyes blazing with something she hadn't felt in a long time.
Will.
"If this is my second life... then I'm rewriting the script."
Her voice dropped to a whisper, a vow in the night:
"Even if this world wants me dead… I'll live. And not as a girl in the background. I'll be the secret no one will sees coming."
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