One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten!
"FIVE HUNDRED BILLION!!!!"
Thud!
The muted sound of a smartphone hitting the polished floor echoed in the otherwise silent hospital ward. Just moments before, I'd been aimlessly scrolling through the device – Mia's smartphone, I reminded myself. Messages, Instagram, WeChat – nothing particularly revealing. Mia didn't seem to have many close connections, just a handful of missed calls and a series of increasingly frantic and threatening messages from his scumbag fiancè —Lucas, demanding to know her whereabouts. But then—ding—a new notification popped up. It appeared to be from a bank.
"Dear Valued Customer, please remember to settle your credit card balance of two million five hundred thousand Velmarian Vel [VML] before the end of this month. Thank you."
"Two…two million five hundred thousand!?" I blinked hard, rubbed my eyes and shoved the phone closer to my face, desperate to have misread that staggering amount. But the number remained stubbornly the same. What even was this currency? Velmarian Vel?
WHAT EVEN IS A VELMARIAN VEL?!
"I'm gonna pass out," I whispered to no one.
Oh my god! This is only my third day since transmigrating into this world, and already drowning in trouble! Did I possess any means to settle such a colossal debt? Even in my original life, I had never encountered such an astronomical sum.
Dismissing the message interface, I navigated the expensive smartphone, searching for a banking application. Perhaps there was some indication of funds, even just a little money. There it was:
The Royal Bank of Velmaria
(Velmarian: Banque Royale de Velmaria)
Even the bank's name exuded an air of exorbitant wealth. Utilizing the phone's pupil recognition to access the application, I scrolled through the interface, a knot of anxiety tightening in my stomach. The feeling of being trapped by poverty and debt was intimately familiar, a constant shadow throughout my previous life.
Please, just a little money! Don't let me be burdened by destitution again in this life!
VML 503,000,000,000.00
(Five hundred and three billion Velmarian Vel).
"W-What the—"
And that is how I stumbled upon a reality that shattered my initial assumptions. Mia Isabella was not some impoverished debtor; she was the heiress to a billionaire family.
***
Five hundred and three billion!
My heart nearly stopped. My thumb hovered over the screen, trembling, as I reread the numbers for the tenth time. Billion. Not million. Billion! With a capital B.
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe. I was a poor girl who used to count coins to decide whether I could afford rice or bread for dinner. And now—this?
I sat frozen on the pristine hospital bed, my eyes wide, chest rising and falling in disbelief. My brain couldn't even wrap itself around that kind of number. Five hundred and three billion Velmarian Vel. How many lifetimes would it take to earn that much in my old world? I didn't even know how much one Velmarian Vel was worth—but with this number? It didn't matter. Even if one Vel can only buy a candy, I'd still be rich.
A dizzy rush bloomed behind my eyes. Maybe I could buy a hundred houses. No—castles or nations! I could build a luxury mall in every town I'd ever dreamed of visiting. I could open a lot of cafe's franchise that I have been working as a part-timer in my last life.
Maybe I could start an animal shelter. Or ten. And adopted as many stray cats as I could. I'd name them all ridiculous things like Sir Meowsalot and Duchess Tuna.
I could finally take a walk into a luxury mall and high-end boutique without worrying about the amount in my bank account. Try on a gown that I can only see but cannot touch. And the best part?
I wouldn't have to work another day in my life!
My fingers clutched the phone tighter, as if someone might snatch it away.
"HAHAHAHAHAH—" I burst out laughing, kicking my legs in the air like a kid rolling in a ball pit of diamonds. It was ridiculous, it was overwhelming, it was...
"Erm… miss, are you okay?"
I jolted upright, the sound of the nurse's voice dragging me back to reality. She stood awkwardly at the doorway, trying to hide the stunned look on her face. My face burned with embarrassment.
"I—I'm fine!" I scrambled to sit straight, turning off the phone screen and patting down my already tangled hair.
She nodded, professionalism barely holding. "Sorry for interrupting. There's someone who wishes to see you."
My heart sank. No, not Lucas again… please. Maybe it's one of the other older brothers? I don't know. Either way, I need to find out who it is this time.
"Huh? Now? Uh... okay," I stammered, blinking rapidly.
She gave a polite smile and stepped away.
I inhaled sharply and tried to calm my nerves. Whatever was about to walk through that door, I prayed he or she was not Mia's other enemy.
A deep, velvet voice floated in. "Hello, Miss Ceneric."
A man stepped through the door, tall and sinfully elegant in a black coat that clung to his broad shoulders, light-ivory skin stretched over a sculpted frame, he brought with him the scent of something expensive and cold—like rain over steel. His ash-blond hair was windswept, framing a face so sharply handsome it seemed drawn from the pages of a forbidden novel. A chiseled jaw, a cruelly perfect mouth, and eyes—gods, his eyes. Sea-glass green, glinting under the sterile hospital lights, alive with unreadable depth and slow-burning intensity.
He didn't smile—not yet—but his lips curled ever so slightly.
Beautiful! For a second, I forgot how to blink.
"Hi… hello," I managed, my voice cracking. "Can you tell me who you are? Sorry, I lost my memory… I have a hard time remembering anyone."
He tilted his head slightly. "Memory loss?" he repeated, his voice lined with curiosity.
"I'm sorry to hear that," he said, stepping closer. "I'm Caspian Aurelius. You may not remember me... but we were both in the same car accident."