A room with a muddy ceiling, a bed made of wood with a small knitted blanket, and a cramped room with overused items. A room lit up by a single candle. I blinked my eyes once more and tried to get up. However, it seems that my body is in a bad condition as I seem to be unable to move without pain.

I hear footsteps so I turn my head to the left. A woman enters, she seems to be around 50 with brown hair that hides some grey hairs. Her clothing was a dress that seems to have been worn for a long time as it shows age and has many patches on it. She faces me and smiles, "I see you woke up? How are you feeling?"

I opened my mouth to respond but all I could do was cough. I look towards the woman with a face full of panic. What is going on...?

The woman seems alerted and passes to me a bowl of water which I proceed to gulp down to wet my dry throat. After I drink it all and cough a few more times, the irritating dryness soon disappears. “Where am I? Who are you?”, I ask the woman despite my voice sounding very rough.

The woman takes the bowl from me, places it down on the chair next to the bed and takes my hands gently, explaining “My husband was going to sea this morning when he found you washed ashore. He brought you back and asked me to look after you. What is your name? Where are your parents?”

My mind blanks. Parents? “My name is Milya… I-I don’t remember anything about my parents…” Rather, I don’t remember anything about my past! All I remember is my death. Right. I have not died, I’m alive – I’ve been given another chance at life! I can get reve…nge? Revenge? Why do I need revenge? “Urgh!”

My head splits with pain as I put my hands against my head to get rid of the pain when all of a sudden, my head clears. Right, I made a pact with him… The sea monster, my saviour. I slowly let go of my head and realise I’d thrown the woman’s hand away, yet not only did she not get further away from me; she’s hugging me – what? When did this happen?

She gently stroked my back as if I was dear to her then realised that I’ve calmed down, she said whispering gently like a mother, “It’s okay, don’t panic. I am your mother, baby don’t worry… This time mum will take care of you. I won’t let you be taken away again…”

Slowly, I hear quiet sobbing from the woman, and it seems that it is now my turn to pat her back. Although I do not remember much, for sure I know I am not her daughter by any means. How… confusing.

Time passes, she slowly stops crying and does not look me in the eyes. Looking at the ground she says, “Right, baby must be hungry! Mum will cook for you.” With quick movements she turns and walks away, I suppose it is to the kitchen?

I get off the bed and wobble a bit before finally getting a hold of my balance. It is quite painful to walk, but curiosity makes me wander around. I walk out of the room and find myself in a hallway. It seems that the woman has went to the left – I suppose that is where the kitchen is. Walking to the right, I find a door made of wood. I slowly breathed in and opened it.

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The outside was dark and dimly lit with streetlamps seemingly made of mana stones. The sky was littered with stars and the two crescent moons shine brightly. I look around and find that there are rows of mud huts in a similar shape, filed in neat rows as if they’d been built around the same time by the same builders. Below the door was a step that held a mat saying ‘Smisthe'. Is this the family name of this household?

Unknown to me, a man walks up towards the front yard. “You… are awake?”

I looked up with surprise, I see a man dressed in fishing gear – this must be the woman’s husband. The person who found me and brought me here. I give a small nod to him to show my agreement.

He smiles tiredly and gestures me to enter and I do so. I go back to the original room and sit there awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

“When I found you, you were holding tightly onto the mana stone, it must be important right?” He goes to a shelf and takes out a clothed item and hands it to me.

I open the cloth, this… it seems to be the mana stone on top of the coffin. The evidence I was saved by the sea monster.

I thank the man for keeping it for me, albeit surprised this poor couple didn’t sell it. This is clearly a top-notch mana stone that wizards would pay millions of gold for.

The air suddenly had a aromatic scent, it smelled delicious. The wife had brought in a dish and put it on the table along with wooden tableware. “You’re back? I made our daughter’s favourite! Oh right, we ran out of bread. I will go ask the Ellens next door for some. I’ll be back.”

As she left the room to go to the Ellens, he said quietly, “You look like our daughter. The same straight brown hair, green eyes that are limpid and dimples, almost identical. She was taken away from us when she was just 14. Just a child, kidnapped by nobles to wed. Insane, huh? Bastards they were.” Laughing mockingly, he continued, “1 year ago they came back and gave her back – but she’d contracted a disease too expensive for the nobles to spend on her. They threw us 1 gold coin and left. 1 gold coin in exchange for the life of our baby.” He gently placed both hands on his wrinkled face and continued to tell me the past, “My wife… She believed that our baby would get better, wake up, and call her mother again. But she just wouldn’t wake up, and a few weeks ago… we finally buried her. My wife had lied to us saying she was alive. She was dead for a while; we don’t even know when. Only my wife knows yet she refuses to acknowledge it. When we buried her, she went crazy!”

He choked on his tears while speaking, “Only after our son came back from his post was she stabilised, but she stopped moving out of her bed, she stopped being a person, as if she had no soul in her… Until I found you and brought you back.” He looked at me with his wet eyes, as if having so much to say but couldn’t. As if he wanted to beg me but couldn’t.

I look like their daughter. I see. So that’s why the woman has been confused when she heard I couldn’t remember – she’s so pitiful, unable to get over the grief she decided to pretend her baby is still alive… “In exchange for you saving my life, I can be your daughter.”

He looks up in surprise and asks, “W-what about your family?”. I replied to him with a smile, “I don’t remember anything but my name. Having a family would be nice, especially an identity to live here. Do you think this is a fair deal?”

The man looks at me suddenly breaks out into laughter, “WHY WOULDN’T IT BE?! THE COURT GIVES NO JUSTIC!?” Quietening down he says, “As long as my Emily becomes normal again, anything is okay…Please.”