Chapter 0 : Prologue – Titania

My adoptive mother was a bit of an eccentric.

“Titania.”
“Yes?”
“Someday, someone will love you.”
“When will that be?”
“Hmm. When the wind dies down, and winter passes?”
“How poetic.”

She’d said something so out of the blue, and I’d sarcastically replied as such. What was her response again?

I don’t quite remember.
Nor do I want to.

Years have passed since then.

“…”

I still couldn’t decide.

Whether what was bestowed upon me after death was a blessing from God,
Or a curse from the Devil.

Lately, I’ve been leaning towards the latter.

Reincarnation or transmigration, being reborn into another life, fine, whatever.
Being reborn into another world, not Earth, not even Korea, but some cheap cliché fantasy world, fine, whatever.
But ending up living a life no different from my previous one? That’s where I draw the line.

Well, not entirely the same.
My s*x changed, for one.

But the cold, the hunger, the loneliness, the depression, all the same.

Like a worm eating away at an apple, the depression that plagued me daily, a brand etched deep within my soul, still controlled my actions and thoughts.

As I just said, the only thing that changed was my gender.

Still, there was no need for my unfortunate family circumstances to be identical, was there? I couldn’t help but complain.

To think I’d tread the same path again—an orphan adopted, only to lose my adoptive parent to an unfortunate accident.

How tedious.

After a long time, I thought of the one who took me in, in this world.

My now-deceased adoptive mother was a good person.

Kind, beautiful, strong-willed, yet warm and wise.

If it weren’t for my stupid mistake, she would still be by my side.
Such a shame.

Lest it sound like I’m mourning someone truly gone, she hadn’t passed away.

She was simply serving a long prison sentence.

What were the charges again?
Ah, right.

Child molestation.

“…”

This world, essentially modeled after the medieval era, had a surprisingly well-established legal system, anachronistic by Earth’s standards.

The social consensus to protect the vulnerable severely punished those who harmed women, especially young girls. It was in this context that my adoptive mother, a world-class piece of trash deserving at least a decade out of the sun, became a criminal. I guarantee my adoptive mother, while homosexual, was absolutely not a pedophile who would prey on a young girl.

The problem lay with me.

I made her that way.

Falling prey to an inexplicable condition that made me cold and lonely at night, I’d constantly whine, “Hold me.”

Thinking back, not only did “hold me” have multiple meanings, but the way I’d say it, writhing as if I couldn’t stand my developing body, sighing breathlessly… it would’ve been stranger if she hadn’t misunderstood.

It definitely started with curiosity.

After I learned that my mother was a lesbian, the curiosity growing inside me led me down that path.

Could a woman loving a woman even be possible?
And my mother, of all people?
Then, maybe, perhaps…

My personality, as I see it, is twisted.
I was secretly hoping to see how a perfect woman would react if I found her weakness and exploited it.

Ah. It was clearly my fault, no matter how you look at it.

Even more so considering I didn’t resist and willingly offered my body to a woman who lost control and pounced on me.

Well, the nights were just too cold to refuse.

Still, my adoptive mother never crossed the line.
Perhaps it was the last shred of her conscience.

I wonder what expression she’d make if she knew my virginity, miraculously preserved by her superhuman restraint, meant nothing to me.

By some miracle, I’d managed to keep it safe so far, but given my usual behavior, I didn’t think it would last much longer.

“Ugh, the smell of slutty c*m!”

The voice of one of my classmates cleaning the windowsill carried over.

I couldn’t deny the pang of guilt I felt.

Even if those words weren’t directed at the rag in her hand but were a direct insult aimed at me, I wouldn’t have been able to retort.

Wasn’t it the perfect label for someone like me, who shamelessly flirted with anyone and everyone, as long as they were a woman?

So, this is the story
Of a lascivious woman, muddying the waters of an academy overflowing with youth and romance.