It had been a Monday the day that Star died had been relatively normal. She woke up early to get to her office early, patrol outside of the academy she’d been working at. She came to Seoul for a new look on life and there she was, wasting it on working so much. Even her small amounts of free time have spent either reading or researching.

At thirty she didn’t have much to her life.

She’d always been alone so her sense of community and relations was minimal at best.

To think her life wouldn’t change so suddenly the sight of a some passing the road. She didn’t want to hit them, so she swerved. Her small, compact card couldn’t withstand the impact, colliding with another car coming the down the opposite way--flipping her car over on its head.

As she sat in her seat, unable to move, she thought about her life. Why did she have to die this way? A stranger in a monolith of people who didn’t even know her outside of the name Ma’am and Teacher.

Living and teaching English in Seoul had been her way of escaping her life in the states. Being an orphan, she worked, she worked every day of her life to be able to where she was; and, dying too young makes of it seem in vain. Her small joys in her life had to immerse herself in history and teaching her students. She didn’t have a social life, no friends, no love--nothing.

No one would find her there, not until the house turned to ashes and what was left of her body would be parts set out for those who needed her organs.

She cried. She cried for the mother who abandoned her all those years ago. She cried for the time she spent trying to prove that she was better than her upbringing.

She cried, hoping to have her life back.

"Yes, there's been a terrible car accident. Yes, we're on 12th..."

....

...

She came to in the middle of a grassy, green field--however, the smell of burning wood was still apparent in the air. Smoke clouded her lung as she looked around. Where was she, and why wasn’t she dead.

And she has hands and her body so small? Not a child’s yet not an adult either?

That’s when she heard it.

The muffled sound of a child crying in the distance of the roaring fire--perishing in a fire. A terrible fate. Not even having the chance of having a long life. She didn’t want that child to suffer the same fate she did. She ran. She ran as fast as her long legs could take her until she found a temple engulfed in flames.

The front seemed to be clear, but the outer rooms seemed to be. The heart touches her body, she struggled as she-she paced herself to find the source of the child’s cries. Star felt herself stop at a small, narrow room the size of the closet. As she slowly made her way into the room, amongst the smoke and flames, she encountered a terrifying sight.

There was a child, around the age of six, bound by ropes and gagged by a strip of cloth. When she frantically removes the first, the cloth stopping him from speaking, his voice appeared to raspy, and weak...most likely from screaming for help for so long. As she removed the ropes that bound him, she saw bruises, everywhere. Ranging spots of blue to purple to ultimately a yellowish-green.

Tears welled up in her eyes from the unknown, cradling him in her arms as she searched for a way of the blazing home.

“Mother...please don’t leave me,”

How could someone treat a child like this?

If saving the child in there meant her demise, she’d surely die again.

....

....

“It seems that the concubine set the home on fire. She became the Empress Dowager, but still ended her life due to her greed. If the former emperor saw how she treated his child, he’d have her head.”

“Could it be to make her child the heir to the throne? Her son is older but she’s only a concubine nonetheless. He wasn’t entitled to it in the title of Crown Prince in the beginning.”

She realized then that she was there, in the world of ‘The Fall of A King’ A novel she had been fond of due to its historical value. It’s as if the author lived in the time period on the historical accuracy of the text and theme. It had been written in the 90s and had been the author’s only work to date.

“Shh, you two. Gossiping--you older women have no shame. The child has woken, go prepare something to drink. How are you, child?” When Star came to she was lying in a small cot of a bed. A group of maids surround her, and more specifically the man that sat in front, staring at her with a strong fascination.

A nobleman, the Third Prince, and Dal’s Uncle. A man, that despite his best intentions ends up neglecting his nephew after taking him in. He, along with his family was the first ones killed by Prince Dal during his rise to the throne. Not having a son himself contributed to his clumsy raising of Prince Dal. Instead of tending to the child, he more or less contributed to the isolation that leads him to be selfish and cruel in the novel.

Something Star would have to prevent, for the sake of her life and the lives of the people in the kingdom. Goodness. All this stress on a twelve-year-old. Hell, the poisoning and treatment he received from the previous empress rendered him skinny and weak. Then again, her mind was thirty...would that make her mature for her age?

“Such a strong looking boy...you have potential.”

They thought she was a boy...that made sense.

She always was masculine. When she was younger, she was often mistaken for a boy and even grew to be taller than some boys in her class. At the age she was now, she’d experience her first growth spurt. She could use the confusion to her advantage.

After all, she was no longer herself, right?

Being a woman during this time period was like signing a death wish. No access to education, the expectations of being virtuous and obedient. Destined to live a life serving the men in your family wasn’t something she was so keen having her life be. At most if she found out to be a woman now, she’d be sold off and god knows what would happen to her after.

“I am fine. Is the child ok?”

Her lips, her foreign lips began speaking the modern Korean language which surprised the maid beside her. For such a young child speak so eloquently, they wouldn’t believe she was a commoner or a farm hand...but they would believe she was an orphan, possibly.

“He’s...fine. That child has always been sickly, so he’s bedridden for the time being. Anyhow. You’re not from this kingdom, are you? I don’t see this dark not belonging to anything but a child of a farmer. Tell me, boy. What is your name? Where is your family?”

“I am an orphan, I was never given a name.”

“You’re very tall and stocky for your age. You have a Become big and strong, so you can watch over my nephew. If you do that, I will take in as my son I will give you a family to return.” Star froze. A family, something she longed for--something that couldn't experience during her previous life.

She couldn’t let it slip away.

“A family?” She felt her become choked up with tears, grasping the man’s hands. The older man’s

A father’s touch, a father’s embrace

“Your black eyes shine like stars in the night sky. Your name will be Byeol.” Her name--Star.

The same name her mother left her.

What a joke.

....

....

The first time Star, now more appropriately named for the time, Byeol would be seeing Dal for the first time. After thinking about her age, she realized she looked closer to how she did at the age of fourteen, which would make her two years older than the crown prince.

His Hyung.

The third prince--the princes’ uncle and her now Adoptive father were suspicious of her. Who wouldn’t be? A child who clearly didn’t look Korean from unknown origin suddenly shows up after saving the heir of the entire kingdom

“I am like his shadow, am I not? I want to take care of him.” She resigned to braiding back her curly hair, wearing a black large-sized hanbok. She sat beside the toddler, wiping down his face as he had fits, thrashing in slumber.

No one would believe that the ‘sickness’ he acquired at a young age was from a poison fed to him in his meals. The fact was found during a scene that

Initially, it had his uncle who found Dal in the novel, so she managed to change something already. The one would care for him was his older brother, Bada who continued to poison until it was revealed later on.

Bada. A survivor along with Dal. He wasn’t as cunning now since he was just a child, but she’d have to watch him. She’d have to make he wouldn’t turn on her later on, at least. She had time before Dal would ascend to the throne, which in the novel wouldn’t happen until he turned eighteen. She’d have to watch out for him in the future as well.

“You have to grow strong, So I will protect you with my life,” She mutter before getting up to fill the water basin to more water.

“Wait,” The smallness of the boy’s voice surprised her she looked back at him, and his small hand clutching her sleeve.

“Hyung, do you promise that you will never leave me?” She let out a small laugh.

She did feel sorry for him.

“I promise my life to you, and every life we may meet again. Now, calm down and let me clean you up."

Having your mother be executed on the grounds of witchcraft and nearly being killed by the same woman, she understood his anger later in life.

‘What kind of person was the author would write such a pitiful child as the villain?’

That’s why she had to nurture him. Nurture him so he won’t become a tyrant later.

“Uncle,” Star calls, catching him walking down the hallway.

“I think that D--I mean, the Crown Prince. I think he was poison by Her Majesty. Look at this water,” Star notes, pointing to the cloudy, milky white hue of it of the water.

“His sweat was this milky color, his skin has a sickly hue. That means he’s been poisoned while he’s been here as well as when he stayed with the Empress.” His eyes widened.

“She caused the fire as well, right? When I found him, he was bound up in a small room with bruises all over his body. It’s clear that has a history of abusing him and this was her attempt at ending his life.” The Third Prince of the kingdom just stood and looked at her in amazement.

“How did you--how does just a child decipher that?”

“I was never allowed to be a child,” She mutters, continuing with,

“Some things are clearer on its own, Father. Anyways, The faster he is isolated from that poison, occupied with proper meals and proper rest.”

Star began dashing back to the room to check up on Dal soo after. The boy was shivering--it was evident that the poison was leaving his body, slowly but surely. If it kept up like this, he’d be better in a few days.

She’d just have to watch out for any opposing danger. She would protect this boy's precious life with her's as long as she lived in this kingdom.