Chapter 1- Reborn
Vani was a soft-hearted, hardworking, and incredibly kind twenty-four-year-old girl.
She worked as a doctor at one of the city's largest hospitals. She had always been extremely serious about her profession. No matter how poor a patient was, Vani never treated anyone differently.
The other doctors at the hospital often asked her—
“Vani, why do you worry so much about every patient? You’re only human too. How can you possibly help everyone?”
Vani would always smile and reply—
“If I have the ability to save someone’s life, then what’s wrong with trying?”
That one habit was what made her different from everyone else.
She was happy in her own little world.
Going to the hospital every morning...
Treating patients throughout the day...
Returning home in the evening...
And preparing for the next day before going to bed.
Her life was simple.
Ordinary.
Peaceful.
But Vani had no idea that her ordinary life...
was about to change forever.
That day was no different.
Vani had just finished her shift at the hospital and was on her way home.
Night was beginning to fall.
The traffic on the road had already thinned out. Vani stood at the roadside, waiting to cross.
She looked to her right.
Then to her left.
The road was almost empty.
Vani stepped forward.
And then—
SCREEEEEECH!
A speeding car suddenly came rushing toward her.
Before Vani could even understand what was happening—
CRASH!
The car slammed into her with tremendous force.
Her body was thrown onto the road.
People nearby began screaming.
“Hurry!”
“Call an ambulance!”
“Get a doctor!”
But Vani couldn't hear them properly anymore.
Her voice became trapped in her throat.
Everything before her eyes began to blur.
The sky...
The road...
The people...
The headlights of the cars...
Everything slowly began fading away.
She tried to open her eyes one last time.
And then...
darkness swallowed everything.
Vani had no idea how much time had passed.
Maybe a few hours.
Maybe a few days.
Or perhaps...
something far beyond that.
Slowly, she began to feel a faint movement in her body.
Her fingers twitched.
Then her eyelids slowly opened.
“Am... I alive?”
She tried to sit up.
But the moment she looked around, she froze.
Her eyes widened in shock.
This wasn't a hospital.
She was lying inside a gigantic room.
The walls were decorated like those of a royal palace, covered in intricate golden carvings. The ceiling was so high that Vani had to tilt her head all the way back just to see it.
In the center of the room stood an enormous bed, where she had been lying.
Heavy velvet curtains covered the windows.
But the strangest thing of all...
There wasn't a single electric light in the room.
Instead, small crystals embedded in the walls were glowing on their own, filling the room with a soft, mysterious light.
Vani stared at them for several moments.
“What kind of place is this?”
She slowly climbed down from the bed.
Then her eyes fell upon her clothes.
She wasn't wearing her hospital uniform.
Instead, she was dressed in a simple, old-fashioned outfit.
Vani immediately looked at her hands.
No bandages.
No wounds.
Nothing.
That only made her more frightened.
“I was in an accident...”
She held her head.
“Then why don't I have any injuries?”
Nothing made sense.
Absolutely nothing.
Suddenly—
Knock! Knock!
Someone knocked on the door.
Before Vani could respond, the door opened.
A middle-aged woman hurried into the room.
The moment she saw Vani standing there, the concern on her face quickly turned into anger.
“What are you doing standing here?”
Vani stared at her in confusion.
“Excuse me?”
The woman looked her up and down.
“The Princess's room still hasn't been cleaned, and you're standing here resting?”
Vani blinked.
“The Princess?”
The woman frowned.
“Don't you remember anything?”
Vani slowly shook her head.
“No...”
The woman stared at her for a few moments.
Then she sighed.
“It seems you must have injured your head.”
Vani immediately thought about the accident.
Maybe she's right.
Maybe I really did hit my head.
The woman picked up a piece of cloth from the table and handed it to her.
“Here. Take this and get back to work.”
Vani took the cloth hesitantly.
“But I—”
Before she could finish, the woman interrupted her.
“And don't forget your Rank.”
Vani stopped.
“My... Rank?”
The woman stared at her as if she'd just asked the strangest question in the world.
“You don't even remember your Rank?”
Vani shook her head.
The woman let out a deep sigh.
“Every person in this world has a Rank. Your Rank determines your position in society.”
Vani listened carefully.
“People with higher Ranks are respected. Members of the royal family belong to the highest Ranks. Below them are warriors, mages, officials, and other members of the upper class.”
The woman paused.
Then she looked directly at Vani.
“And at the very bottom...”
Her voice became colder.
“...are people like you.”
The cloth nearly slipped from Vani's hands.
“Me?”
“Yes. Your Rank is the lowest in the entire kingdom.”
Disbelief was written all over Vani's face.
The lowest Rank?
In her old life, she had been a doctor.
People had respected her.
Patients had come to her for help.
And here...
she was nothing more than a servant with the lowest Rank.
After the woman left, Vani remained standing there for several moments.
Only one question kept repeating inside her mind.
How did I get here?
She walked toward the window and looked outside.
And the sight before her...
made her breath catch.
There was a massive garden outside the palace.
But it was nothing like an ordinary garden.
Tiny glowing creatures were flying through the air.
The leaves of the trees gave off a faint blue glow.
Some flowers were floating in midair.
And in the distance...
something enormous was flying across the sky.
Vani narrowed her eyes.
At first, she thought they were giant birds.
But as they came closer...
the color drained from her face.
They were dragons.
Massive dragons.
Their enormous wings stretched across the sky.
One dragon had brilliant blue scales covering its body.
Another radiated a fiery red glow.
And then she saw one...
completely black.
Its eyes glowed even from a distance.
Vani stumbled backward from the window in fear.
“Are... are they real?”
A voice suddenly came from behind her.
“Yes.”
Vani spun around.
The same woman was standing in the doorway.
Vani hurriedly asked—
“What kind of place is this?”
The woman stared at her for a few moments.
“You really have forgotten everything.”
Vani remained silent.
The woman slowly said—
“This isn't the human world.”
Vani's heart began pounding faster.
“Then... what is it?”
The woman turned her gaze toward the world outside the window.
“This is the magical empire of Aryavart.”
Vani couldn't say a word.
A world like this...
was something she had never even believed could exist in her old life.
There was magic here.
There were strange creatures.
There were dragons.
And every human had a Rank.
But of everything in this strange world...
the dragons seemed to be the most terrifying.
The woman lowered her voice.
“But you should stay away from those dragons.”
Vani looked at her.
“Why?”
The woman's expression suddenly became serious.
“Because not every dragon is a friend of humans.”
Vani glanced outside again.
“And the black one?”
The woman fell silent for several seconds.
Then she said quietly—
“Don't say its name.”
Vani stared at her in confusion.
“Why?”
The woman closed the door.
And before leaving, she said only one thing—
“Because in this empire, even speaking that dragon's name is believed to be like inviting death itself.”
Click.
The door shut.
Vani remained standing there.
An unfamiliar fear had already begun taking root inside her heart.
She didn't know why she had come to this world.
She didn't know whether she would ever be able to return to her old one.
And she certainly didn't know...
that her greatest identity in this world would not be that of a doctor.
Instead...
she would become nothing more than an ordinary servant with the lowest Rank.
But fate had already written something entirely different for her.
She just didn't know it yet.
Because her story...
had only just begun.
