I was the first human to set foot on this land. I was also the being that God created with the most care.

Born beautiful in every way, I was loved by many beings.

The love I received overflowed enough to fill dry rivers and embroider the sky.

The color of love that filled the world was truly beautiful.

At first, I was content just looking at it, but suddenly I had this thought:

‘What if I gathered all those dazzling things together?’

I figured it didn’t matter since it was love I had received anyway. So I collected the love from others and stored it neatly in a treasure chest.

The ‘love’ that emitted various colors was tempting, but I also hated sharing it with others.

After about half a year had passed, the love I received ‘was enough to fill the treasure chest and more’.

Yet I still didn’t share love with anyone.

Those who gave me love began to fight among themselves to receive my love.

It was around that time when the light that had been shining brightly on the world disappeared and eternal night came.

Then one day, God, who had been watching us from outside the world, came down to earth.

“Why do you collect love without sharing it?”

God asked me a truly simple question.

“Because I like it.”

That’s how I answered.

However, my answer to God at that time was not sincere. I just packaged it nicely to speak well in front of God.

And God seemed to know that I had not told the truth.

“How pitiful.”

God wore a regretful expression at my answer. Moreover, as he took away the box where I had been collecting love for the past half year, he said this:

“From now on, I will give you a question. If you speak the correct answer, I will return this box to you.”

At that time, I was flustered when God said he would take the box away, so I gave several answers. But none of them were correct.

“I shall wait until you find the answer. It doesn’t matter how long it takes.”

Meanwhile, when I kept giving wrong answers, God immediately ascended to heaven.

Taking all beings except me, that is.

Thanks to that, I was the only one left on the land God had created.

When I was left alone after always receiving love from many beings, I learned the emotion of ‘loneliness’ for the first time.

And as I spent several years alone like that, I began to resent God.

In a world with nothing, I gradually withered away.

At first, I thought I would just die like this. But frustratingly, the indefinite years showed no sign of ending.

So, to end this boring and lonely life, I wandered in search of the answer to the question God had posed.

Not knowing that the ‘shackles’ of ‘eternal life’ had been placed on me.

* * *

How many lives had it been?

Once, a child I met on earth said something like this:

‘Sis, living is like an apple falling from an apple tree.’

At that time, I looked at the 7-year-old kid with an incredulous expression.

I was only 10 years old then, but thanks to the memories of my past life, I was like an old soul inside.

Anyway, that kid wasn’t in the same situation as me, and was quite profound for a 7-year-old.

He said our lives can never choose their beginning, and when we open our eyes, we’re just in the world.

Comparing philosophical principles to an apple, he must have been no ordinary kid.

Indeed, living was exactly as that child had said.

Whether it was the life of a beggar whose home was the street, or the life of a dazzling lady, I could never choose the starting point even once.

“Mmm.”

And on a day when the sunlight flowed warmly into my eyes, I slowly opened them.

‘It stings.’

The first sensation I felt was ‘pain’.

I don’t know how many times I closed and opened my eyes because they were stinging so much. Judging by the brightness around, it seemed to be daytime, and the warm wind felt like spring. However, for some reason, the pleasant sunshine pricked my skin like the scorching sun of summer.

‘My vision is strange.’

Why can’t I see well? It was dim as if the lights had just been turned on after being off, making it difficult to distinguish objects.

Blink, blink.

I just blinked my eyes again. Then, as things gradually became visible properly, I slowly opened my mouth.

Ughh-.

As I tried to make a sound experimentally, only strange, muffled pronunciations kept coming out.

‘Hmm, is this a body that hasn’t been used for a long time?’

The first thing that caught my eye was a fence.

‘A fence?’

Thinking it was strange, I tried to reach out. But my body wouldn’t move as I wanted. It was as if I was tied up with ropes.

‘What could it be? A prison or a slave market?’

I soon tried to shake my head, but it wouldn’t move as I wished.

‘If I’m really tied up, this could be troublesome.’

Eventually, I fell into serious contemplation and recalled the lives I had lived.

I had repeated countless lives.

Sometimes I was a beggar, sometimes an ordinary person, once a knight, and at times a noble duke’s daughter.

These lives had a rule, which was that I never knew when or where I would open my eyes.

I considered this phenomenon ‘reincarnation’, and as proof, I experienced countless deaths and births.

At first, it was just unfamiliar, and I wondered what it could be, but through a conversation with a scholar I met in my 12th life, I came to know that this phenomenon was indeed ‘reincarnation’.

Tap tap.

While I was briefly lost in thought, a dull sound was heard near the fence. I carefully listened, but no more sounds were heard.

‘Who could it be? It sounds like human footsteps.’

I became unnecessarily tense and sensitive.

It was difficult to determine whether the approaching person would be friendly to me or an assassin coming to kill me.

‘It would be disappointing to die right after regaining consciousness.’

I inwardly clicked my tongue and recalled my curse and ability.

The condition of reincarnation where I only open my eyes in a body that has breathed its last.

As long as it was just a body that had taken its last breath, I could be reborn as a child, an old person, or a middle-aged body.

Sometimes, if I’m unlucky, I’m born into a body that’s been dead for about 3 days, which is horrific. At such times, I go through the worst period, and even if I somehow manage to survive after much struggle, I soon die again. Such cases rarely led to longevity, so every time I opened my eyes in a new body, I first assessed the situation.

Fortunately, the body I had opened my eyes in now was difficult to move, but there was no unpleasant smell.

At least it wasn’t a body that had been dead for a long time.

Or maybe I had awakened in the body of someone who had been in a coma, almost crossing the boundary of death.

Swish-.

Before long, I felt someone picking me up. Strangely, it felt like my neck and back were gently cradled. I think I was held like this when I was born as a dog.

‘Don’t tell me I’ve been born as an animal again?’

A bad thought suddenly occurred to me, but I quickly shook it off. Cases of being born as an animal were so rare that they could be counted on one hand.

“Oh my, how pretty!”

A voice was heard from above my head.

‘Wait, that’s the same thing I heard when I was a dog kept by a young master’s family!’

Am I… really born as an animal?

Usually, I was only born as an animal when I had committed a great wrong in my previous life.

‘Did I commit a sin in my previous life?’

I tried to swallow the confusing emotions. Then I slowly recalled my immediately previous life.

“Uuugh……”

In my immediately previous life, I was…..

None other than a ‘king’.

Not just any king, but an emperor who turned the country into an empire.

In other words, a conqueror emperor.

There’s a bit of a sad story behind this.

In the two most recent lives of my many reincarnations, I had a friend who learned about my circumstances…..

‘What? You die and come back to life?’

That friend’s name was Ulrika.

She was also a human who had become king by killing all her siblings through a bloody purge.

‘This is perfect timing! I don’t have a daughter!’

Seeing me die as a knight and reincarnate as a young noble lady, she couldn’t hide her joy.

She even tried to make me her heir, saying she had neither a husband nor a child, so that says it all.

‘So, won’t you become king?’

‘No.’

I had a riddle given to me by God. How could I be a king when dedicating my entire life to solving that problem wouldn’t be enough?

I rejected my friend’s request more than dozens of times like that.

‘You should have a child, Ulrika.’

‘You know, I’m married to the country.’

‘I understand your sincere feelings and request.’

‘Then?’

‘I’ll politely refuse again today!’

Yes, I definitely refused.

‘Long live the new lord! Long live!’

Yet I ended up becoming the king that my friend sang about every day.

All because of one will!

Cruelly, at that time, I was born into the body of a noble lady with no connections, so there was no way to escape the duties of a king. In the first place, Ulrika was vouching for my identity, so it was even more so.

Of course, in a country that adhered to an absolute monarchy, when the king dies, it’s right for it to be inherited by their bloodline, but Ulrika was someone who had invested everything in her country, so she never even had a child.

The less than five collateral relatives had long ago been demoted or assassinated for sucking the blood of the people, trusting only Ulrika who had become king, so one way or another, there was no one to pass the throne to even if I refused.

In such a situation, the will passing the throne to me was not only personally written, but also notarized by Duke Thebern, who was considered the second-in-command in the country and was a loyal old man who could become a corpse at Ulrika’s word as her right-hand man.

What could I do?

In the end, I sat on the throne, succeeding my friend who had gone to the battlefield when others were dating.

At first, I thought about running away saying, “Anyone can be king!” but when I quietly thought about it, I wondered if becoming king might make it easier to find the answer to the question God had given me.

‘I can just use my power to gather knowledgeable scholars and make them find the answer.’

However, my expectations were completely off the mark.

‘Damn, being a king is too busy!’

In fairytales, it seemed like kings just ordered their subjects around, but indeed, fairytales were just fairytales.

The king, being the highest authority, was so busy looking after the people, dealing with diplomacy and foreign invasions, there was absolutely no time to leisurely enjoy free time.

At this, I realized anew how amazing Ulrika was, and gave up looking for ways to live comfortably.

‘The foreign invasions and diplomatic issues are because there are many countries, right?’

Instead, I neatly crushed the surrounding kingdoms.

‘Long live the victorious lord!’

Until many countries became one.

‘Long live the Emperor!’

And what do you know, the country I ruled became an empire. By this point, I thought I might be able to find the answer God had given… but I grew old and fell ill.

“You’ve lived your whole life for the country.”

I looked up at the ceiling in vain.

‘Damn it. This life is ruined. It’s over.’

It was the first time I had a life where I just worked tirelessly until death.

So in my next life, I’ll definitely focus only on my mission and find the answer.

“Duke Piccadilly.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

The eyes of my loyal subject, a strong and faithful servant, wavered like reeds. I smiled weakly.

If Ulrika had the cunning loyal subject Duke Thebern, I, who had become emperor, had Duke Piccadilly. He was a genius I had discovered, a boy I had picked up from an abandoned kingdom, and now he had become the strongest man in his vibrant 30s, watching as the candle of my life slowly extinguished.

‘I’ve decided. It’s you.’

Sadly, I was too busy living to have not only a child, but not even a husband, just like Ulrika. I did find some very distant relatives, but they all died during the war.

Ulrika and I, we lived exactly the same kind of life.

“I will pass the throne to you.”

At my words, Duke Piccadilly wore a bewildered expression.

“Pardon? Your, Your Majesty?”

Are you surprised?

I had the same reaction when I heard that Ulrika had abdicated to me.

‘But what can you do.’

Won’t there be chaos if the country has no leader?

“I entrust the empire to you…”

Just as I was about to tell him not to run away saying he absolutely won’t be emperor,

“Your Majesty!”

My previous life.

That is, my life as a conqueror emperor ended with the cries of astonished loyal subjects, especially the cry of the strong and young duke, as my requiem.

* * *

As I was recalling my previous life, I suddenly had a realization.

In the process of creating an empire, wars were incessant, and I suddenly remembered the saying that if you take life on earth, you’ll be reborn as an animal in your next life. Some said it was superstition, but there’s no harm in being careful, so I had achieved victory with threats, a bit of force, and minimal sacrifice!

“Aboo!”

It’s unfair!

“Bbaaa!”

I’m ruined!

No wonder my voice seemed muffled, was it an animal’s cry?

Incomprehensible sounds continued to flow from my mouth. With this, I reached one conclusion:

‘It seems I’ve been born as a dog in this life!’