Heavy rain was clearly visible outside the window at this moment. Inside the room, the scent of antiseptic liquid mingled with the cold air from the air conditioner, creating a silent and lonely atmosphere.

Lyra Martha, a woman who had just entered her thirties, sat on the hospital bed, her fingers clutching a piece of paper that had suddenly shattered her life.

That paper was a divorce decree.

Her hands trembled as she read the piece of paper, her gaze blank. Her husband, who had lived with her for five years, suddenly sued her for divorce without letting her explain a single word.

But she did not want to dwell in this sadness, or rather, she must not. Because the only strength that made her endure the strained relationship in the last few years was the small life inside her body.

The child she had longed for. The fetus inside her body was the reason she had endured all this time. Not long after, the room door opened and a nurse appeared, carrying a small tray containing several new IV bags.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Lyra. I'll change your IV first, okay?" the nurse said with a friendly smile.

The nurse then removed the IV tube and replaced it with a new one, while Lyra could only stare at her in silence and hold back a thought in her chest.

"Just a minor bump on the head..." the nurse said while checking Lyra's blood pressure. "You can go home after the doctor's previous examination, Mrs. Lyra."

However, there was no news about the one thing Lyra most wanted to hear. The nurse then finished all the work she was doing by cleaning the medical tools she had brought earlier.

"Nurse," Lyra finally said in a hoarse voice, "can I ask you something...?"

The nurse then turned and still smiled kindly, "Yes?"

Lyra then swallowed her saliva before continuing her words, "What about my pregnancy... is everything alright?"

The nurse's face became confused for a moment, her forehead furrowed at this moment. "Pregnancy...?" she repeated.

Lyra only responded with a slight nod, while her heart pounded waiting for confirmation from her. The nurse then re-examined the patient's file in her hand, she opened a few sheets then looked at Lyra hesitantly.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but you are not pregnant."

After the nurse's words, the world seemed to stop for a moment.

"Maybe there was a misdiagnosis before?" the nurse added in a flat voice, "It doesn't say here that you are pregnant."

Lyra was silent for a moment, she couldn't say anything, while the nurse slowly left the ward after finishing her work. Lyra then reflexively looked down, staring at her still flat stomach and then her tears just fell.

Her husband abandoned her, the child she had even longed for turned out to be a mere misdiagnosis. She felt betrayed by the world.

Her hand gripping the divorce papers tightened, crumpling the paper slightly. The pain in her chest was so suffocating that it was difficult to breathe.

What am I living for right now? There's no point in me living now, why is this happening to me?

Those were the questions that haunted her for months. After leaving the hospital after the previous incident, Lyra lost the will to live, many times she wanted to end her life with a sharp object, but her efforts were stopped by someone.

That was Atika, her best friend. The only person who cared about her at this moment.

"Lyra, stop! You're not alone!" Atika exclaimed one night when she found Lyra with bleeding wrists in the bathroom. Her hands trembled as she snatched the sharp object from Lyra's grasp.

But Lyra only stared at her blankly. "Then what should I do? I have no reason to live, Atika..."

Atika burst into tears right then and there. She hugged Lyra, and that night they went through a deep sadness.

The next morning, Atika thought of taking her friend to a mental hospital to heal her mind. She needed professional help right now.

Lyra could only surrender as her friend held her hand tightly, leading her into a white building that felt so alien to her.

Atika's voice trembled at the end of her sentence. Her hand, still holding Lyra's, felt warm, as if trying to assure her that this world had not completely fallen apart for her.

However, Lyra only looked down. She wanted to believe, wanted to reach for the hand extended to her. But could she truly return? Could she truly continue living after all this?

Time kept ticking, it had been about a year since Atika took Lyra to the mental hospital. The day the first therapy began was filled with blank stares, but slowly, small changes began to appear. She began to respond to greetings, then began to respond to the doctor, even if only a few words, and when Atika occasionally visited her, Lyra began to show better condition than before.

Somehow, day by day passed. She no longer tried to harm herself, had started to talk and laugh like before.

Until finally, the doctor treating her stated that Lyra was slowly recovering from her depression.

This morning, before the final examination, a knock suddenly sounded and the door slowly opened.

"Good morning, Mrs. Lyra," a young nurse said while opening the room door. In her hand was a large and seemingly heavy cardboard box. "I brought some books from the community room. Some are donations from patients' families, some belong to patients who have already gone home."

The nurse then placed the box on a small table beside Lyra's bed.

"We thought, maybe Mrs. Lyra would like to read them. There are short story books, novels, and even coloring books if you like," the nurse said with a wide smile.

Lyra only looked at the box hesitantly, she hadn't even read any books for a year, other than hearing stories from the nurse. But, her hand moved then reached for a book that caught her attention.

She picked up the novel, then caressed it. Without thinking twice, she opened the novel and read it. The nurse who brought the novel smiled, then she walked out of the treatment room and let Lyra get lost in the novel she was reading.

The deeper she delved into the story, the more she felt connected to the main character—Keith Hale, a Marquis who lost everything because he couldn't forget his old love. His broken heart led him down a path of betrayal, destruction, and a tragic death.

For the first time in a long time, Lyra cried not for herself, but for someone else. She knew it was a fictional story, but the more she read it, the more she felt she was similar to the main character in the novel.

Lyra and the main character of the novel were the same.

Both betrayed. Both lost something they loved.

Tears fell again from Lyra's eyes, wetting the novel she was reading, she bit her lip, her fingers squeezing the novel pages as if wanting to reach out to the wounded Keith Hale inside.

"You fool. Why can't you let go?" she whispered softly, as if speaking directly to the man in the story. "Why do you keep choosing the same path even though you know it will only lead to destruction?"

After finishing the novel in one day, Lyra's eyes were swollen from crying while reading the novel. Until night fell without her realizing it, she closed the novel then leaned her body against the bed, staring at the hospital ceiling at this moment.

Her mind was still filled with Keith Hale's tragic story. Sympathy and frustration mixed into one. She really wanted to shake the man, yell at him to stop hurting himself. But what was the point? He was just a character in a novel.

Lyra sighed deeply, trying to calm her mind. The cold night air entered through the window crack, gently touching her skin. Her eyes felt heavy, her body tired, and her mind was still spinning in a whirlpool of emotions that wouldn't subside.

Unconsciously, her eyelids slowly closed.

At that moment, her body felt strange, it felt like it was floating and being dragged by something. Lyra wanted to open her eyes, but for some reason, her eyes felt heavy at this moment.

When she opened her eyes, everything in her sight was suddenly different.

Lyra blinked, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing at this moment. The bed she was sleeping on.

With a pounding heart, she turned to the side of the room and saw a large mirror standing in the corner. Her steps faltered as she approached. When she saw her reflection in the mirror, her eyes widened.

Long, wavy, milky white hair fell around her waist. Deep burgundy eyes, like dark red wine, stared back from the mirror with a sharp gaze she had never possessed before. Her skin was pale as porcelain, with facial features so graceful and perfect, far from the Lyra she knew.

She held her cheek at this moment, her eyes wide, still not believing the reflection she saw in the mirror now. Her fingers trembled as she held a strand of her hair.

"This... isn't me..." She whispered softly.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door of her room, Lyra flinched for a moment. She hadn't had time to process what was happening, and now someone else was looking for her?

 Click—

 The door opened slowly, revealing a woman in a black and white maid uniform. Her calm face looked slightly anxious as she bowed politely.

 "Excuse me, Lady Celestia, are you awake now?" her soft voice filled the room.

 Lyra, or whoever was in that body at this moment, could only remain silent. Her eyes turned to the maid, she raised her eyebrows.

 Celestia? Who is that?