Reincarnating into a Beautiful Woman

Chapter 1

A long time ago, an alluring maiden who was considered the most beautiful woman in the Zionitte Empire existed. Her figure seemed to be carved by the goddess of beauty herself, but her frame wasn't the main feature that captivated the eyes of men and drove women mad with envy. No other woman possessed silvery hair as long and silky as hers. Her hair complimented her rare, porcelain skin. Her left eye was as black as the night sky with swirls of color closely resembling the finest, royal purple silk. In contrast, her right eye was as brown as honey with tints of gold. For those who witnessed her beauty claimed that these exquisite eyes sparkled even without the sun shining down on her face, and that her sleek hair was indeed very luminous. She was ethereal. No one in that universe possessed her resplendent features. The beautiful maiden was called Caelina, which means heaven.

Caelina was engaged to the Crown Prince of the great Zionitte empire.

Unfortunately, her outer appearance did not match her inner self, for she was cruel and selfish. Caelina did not know how to love and did not understand the differences between good and bad. Even Laith, the Crown Prince, didn't love her, and he abandoned Caelina for a another woman, named Zavia. This woman was not a beauty, yet she melted the hearts of the first and second tyrannical prince using her gentle and good-natured charms.

Filled with disbelief and jealousy, Caelina brought chaos into the world, and the city became engulfed with flames. The second prince pierced Caelina's heart and extinguished the fire which saved the city. The second prince himself wasn't the hero of this story and  met a tragic death after his heart turned black from murder and Zavia's rejection. He was killed by Laith himself.

Zavia then became a prosperous and benevolent Queen alongside Laith, and they lived happily ever after.

The moral lesson of this story was that looks do not matter, and one should always strive for a virtuous life.

****
2020
Somewhere in the Middle East, a woman was reading a fictional book she bought from a night bazaar. She was perched on a rock in a desert oasis and slowly reading the contents.

There was a man sitting next to her with a loving smile plastered on his face. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face and asked,

"What are you reading, Yeon-Woo?"

"A book of myths"

"Read it later when we go back to Korea and play with me" The man pouted.

The woman looked up and smiled at his childish remark.
"Sorry, husband. I just wanted to read a short story before heading out. I couldn't resist."

"How was the story?"

"Shitty"

Confused, the man didn't ask why and lead his wife to their next destination. While they walked back to their hotel, a piece of paper secretly slipped out from the book and fell to the ground until it was buried in the sand.

Maybe in another parallel universe we are together.

This was one of the last memories Yeon-Woo recalled before boarding an airplane that crashed into the ocean, inevitably killing her and her husband.

***

Yeon-Woo reincarnated in a different life and began as a baby, except her past memories were still intact. She was very upset with this situation especially since she loved her past life and lived very comfortably. She was a genius studying chemical engineering and entrepreneurship. She even experienced love and traveled the world with this man. Her heart ached whenever she thought about her husband now. She missed him dearly and spent the first few months crying as she realized she'd never see him again.

I wonder where he is and whether he reincarnated like me.

Yeon-Woo seemed to have reincarnated into the past as a middle eastern woman. Soon after she was born, she was immediately moved to a dome building filled with Indian, Persian, and Islamic influences. This was the Zion Imperial Palace, and the entrance gateway made up of marble and Persian mosaic tiles greeted her. There were multiple, golden copula towers surrounding two significantly larger dome structures made of white marble. As she came close to these architectures, she could see the beautiful lotus inlays and calligraphy that decorated the palace. This palace complex included multiple pavilions surrounded by lagoons, and exquisite works of marble fountains, statues, and pillars. As she entered one of the main dome buildings, She saw the ribbed vaults of the dome on the ceiling above and stared at the polygonal space in the center in awe.

There were men and women dressed in loose-fitted garments gawking at her in surprise and disbelief. She couldn't help but stare back at the women covered in gold jewels and rich fabrics. They looked exotic to her. The people here possessed tanned skin with well defined features. Their curly hair paired with brown eyes were different from how she looked as a Korean woman. Yeon-Woo wondered if she was as beautiful as those women.

She couldn't exactly tell which country she was in, but the only information she could gather was that she was somewhere in the middle east, and had reincarnated into the past. She safely assumed she was wealthy since she was living in this marvelous palace with servants taking care of her every day. Since she was a baby, she couldn't understand this foreign language, but she did figure out her name since the servants here continuously repeated this particular word whenever they were tending to her. They called her Caelina.

She was uncomfortable and dreading her future life since she had transitioned from a world filled with advanced technology and liberal beliefs into a conservative past filled with blood and war. Not to mention there were no toilets or showers here. She decided not to dwell on this matter, and tried her best to erase the discomfort and depressing thoughts.

She continued to live idly as a baby in the palace until she was 5 years old. As she became familiar with this world and proficiently learned the language, she received various background information and could figure out her current situation. Her mother had died giving birth to her, and her father abandoned her at the emperor's palace as the crown prince's future fiancé. Although her father's abandonment might be considered as an exaggeration, he had never paid her a visit since she was born. Currently, she was under a strict schedule from tutors who taught her how to speak eloquently and have proper etiquette before being introduced to the Emperor and Crown Prince.

Strangely enough, her world felt oddly familiar, and she was filled with suspicion and contemplating whether she was the ethereal Caelina from the book of myths she had read in her previous life. This foreboding thought was impossible and so absurd that she immediately erased this idea. Despite denying this dreadful thought, she refused to look at her own reflection and strayed away from any reflective surfaces. She was very scared, especially since she could see her silvery strands of hair from the corner of her eyes.

When Caelina was formally presented to the Emperor Michaelis I and the Crown Prince, she found out that she had indeed reincarnated into the beautiful Caelina. The Crown Prince introduced himself as her fiancé, Laith. Caelina couldn't handle the amount of stress overwhelming her tiny frame, and she fainted in front of the royal family.

I guess it wasn't a myth after all.