I’m All Out of Health!

Chapter 2

* * *

I had gone to sleep in my bed as usual, only to wake up in a strange, unfamiliar place. Looking around in surprise, I found that I was in a luxurious room that seemed to be a replica of seventeenth-century European royal quarters.

Well, that much was fine. I could have insisted my playful roomie was throwing me a surprise party, even though it made zero sense. But then I realized my body wasn’t, well, mine. My skin was paler than usual.

I sprang up in shock, and strangers who were in the room all came to me and shouted a strange name.

“Lady Ninenya!”

They were dressed in white, like doctors. It creeped the hell out of me.

At first, I thought I’d been abducted and experimented on by a crazy cult. I had a good reason to believe so: Every part of my body ached. The moment I sat up, I started to get nauseous, and my hands and feet shook uncontrollably. I feared that I might be having a severe allergic reaction to something, but it turned out it was far worse than that. The only explanation that made sense was that I was now in the book I’d been reading before I had gone to sleep.

I mean, who on earth would have believed that? Yet I had no choice but to admit it was really happening. All the pain I was feeling was just too real for it to be a dream. I tried to deny the harsh reality, but after I woke up and fainted a few times in a row, I grew to accept it. I missed my home and felt so lost in this unfamiliar world, but I didn’t even have time to dwell on that. Death was already consuming me.

“Why this body of all—”

I was so mad that I forgot all about my frail new body and shouted angrily, but my dry throat couldn’t handle it. I immediately burst into a series of painful coughs. My white face turned red, but I couldn’t stop. I coughed like that for a long time, and afterward, I was too weak to move.

“Ugh…”

“Lady Ninenya!”

I went limp on the bed, and the maids hurriedly put a wet cloth to my lips.

“Lady Ninenya, you need to eat something! I fear your condition will worsen if you don’t!”

I know that! And it’s not like I don’t want to eat.

I swallowed back tears and looked sadly at the steaming, tasty-looking soup before me. It wasn’t like I was on a hunger strike or anything. I hated being in this body, of course, but I hated the extreme hunger even more. I wasn’t refusing to eat—I was incapable of eating. I could not swallow anything because the sensation of food going down my throat was just too disgusting. Until this point, I had lived to eat, so this was basically my worst nightmare.

“Lady Ninenya…”

The maids pleaded, but my throat was so sore that I couldn’t explain myself.

“Please, just one spoonful. This soup doesn’t have a strong smell, we made sure of it.”

An older maid grew impatient and started coaxing me as if I were a little girl.

Oh… This is unbearable.

I knew they were all worried about me, but in my condition, even her hushed voice stung.

“Lady Ninenya…”

The silver lining was that the maids didn’t notice that I had taken over their lady’s body. They had always been with her, but Ninenya had spent most of her time lying in bed as I was doing now. All I could do was groan in pain, so they didn’t realize they were now serving a different soul.

At least I don’t have to care about such small details in this pain. It gives me some relief… But I don’t want any relief! Just get me out of this body now!

“Ugh.”

I coughed again.

“Oh! Lady Ninenya!”

Stupid body! I can’t even get angry in my own head?

I had to repress my rage for a long time before I could stop coughing. I knew that I needed to eat something to gather my strength.

“Just one bite…” I managed to say between unsteady breaths. I had to force my vocal cords to say that much, and yet my voice was so beautiful.

One maid wiped away a tear from her face while the others weren’t looking. She then complimented me and tidied up my damp hair.

“That’s good,” she said.

She poured a little soup into my mouth with a baby spoon. It was so watery that I didn’t have to chew, and it tasted good. But… I’m going to die. This is killing me!

“Blagh!”

“Ah! Lady Ninenya!”

That day, I threw up until I got too tired and fell asleep.

* * *

In the book, Ninenya could rarely leave her bed. For that reason, her room was full of all kinds of splendid items. New flowers and trinkets came and went every day in an attempt to make her feel better.

Being inside her body now, a shiny golden statue of a goddess caught my eyes. Rubenio had sent it in secret, praying for Ninenya’s health and well-being, even though the girl was never aware of it. But to me, it was nothing more than a statue.

Goddess, tell me. What have I done to deserve this?

The goddess sparkled in all her glory with her eyes closed and her hands pressed together, but she gave me no answer. I didn’t expect it to speak or anything, of course, but I was so sick that I started to plead with it in my mind.

I owe a little money to my country, but it’s a student loan—everyone has those. And I’ll pay back that debt in full once I graduate. If you send me back, I’ll be good. I’ll make lots of donations and do charity work too. If you remember how I used to complain about my body, please forget about that. From now on, I will love my body as it is. Please?

I could see why people became short-tempered when they fell ill. I wanted to blame everyone and everything—even the unresponsive goddess.

“Send me back to my— Ugh!”

I wanted to jump to my feet to make my point, but I ended up falling. My chest protested, aching from the sudden movement. This body was as fragile as the soft fur of a newly hatched baby bird and had to be treated accordingly.

I would rather be a newborn. I was sure a newborn would be much more capable than Ninenya—at least babies could have milk. This body couldn’t even handle a spoonful of soup. It was a miracle she hadn’t died already.

I thought becoming a fictional character only went two ways: Either you survive by avoiding the original characters, or you survive by helping one of the original characters. But how am I supposed to survive like this?

I didn’t have the luxury of thinking about anything else. At this moment, staying alive was all that mattered to me.

In the story, Ninenya was destined to wither away and die in the coming winter at the age of twenty. I’d asked the maids, and according to them, Ninenya was now twenty years old, and it was autumn.

In other words, I was going to die in about three months.

That’s too soon! I was put in this body to live for three months and then die?

I wanted to do whatever it took to survive, but there seemed to be no chance. Why? Because Ninenya’s death was no one’s fault. It was a miracle she lived as long as she did, and her body just couldn’t withstand that particularly harsh winter.

Should I go someplace warm?

But that wasn’t a good solution. I was certain I would die if I tried anything stupid like traveling in this body.

The truth was that the cold wasn’t what killed her. It did weaken her, but it wasn’t the main cause. Ninenya died because of her frail body. She had been barely surviving by taking all kinds of medicine and eating healthy foods, but by the time she was twenty, her body had reached its limits, and she couldn’t even walk on her own. The severe winter might have brought forth her death, but it wasn’t the real problem.

What should I do, then?

Agonizing about the problem wasn’t going to do me any good. In order to survive, there was only one thing I needed.

Health! I have to get healthy!

For starters, I needed to strengthen the body that refused even the slightest movement. It wasn’t like it had any real illness, so the solution was simple: I had to eat well, exercise whenever I could, and avoid stress.

Well, I guess the avoiding stress part won’t be easy…

I’d woken up in this body right after Ninenya had come down with a nasty cold, so the body’s condition had been bad to begin with. Then I’d been seriously shocked about the change and asked Meya about this and that. After all that, I was in very bad shape. On top of that, I’d always enjoyed being active. Being forced to stay in bed was painful enough for me.

However, I had a resilient spirit, and I never relented when there was something to be done.

I’ve heard about terminally ill cancer patients who saved themselves after the doctors gave up on them. They went into the mountains for clean air and healthy meals. I can do that too, right? I want to live.

Health: It was seemingly difficult to achieve, yet it was actually quite simple. I just needed to give up a few simple human pleasures.

I can survive. I will. Even in this place, even in this body… I will make it.

I was in a completely different world, I was never going to see my loved ones again, and the body I was in was useless. Those facts brought me immense grief, but I pushed them away. My mind was gloomy, but I filled it with other thoughts.

Don’t think about anything else. Just focus on food and eating!