I’m All Out of Health!

Chapter 1

The Overarching Plot

Ninenya Seiah.

Her misfortune started before she was even born.

Her mother, Ropenia, couldn’t afford to care about the baby she was pregnant with. Her paternal family, House Sashrott, was accused of treason and subsequently executed.

Ropenia couldn’t even take care of herself, much less her child. She went into early labor because of the shock and stress, and she died giving birth to the firstborn daughter of House Seiah.

The baby was half the size of any other newborn, and her arms and legs were thin. Her breathing was frail, and her heart was weak. She could have died any moment, and no one would have been surprised.

To make matters worse, there was a man who wanted her to die. The baby had the blood of traitors through her mother and therefore was a thorn in the side of House Seiah.

At the time, her father, Rubenio, was the duke’s eldest son, but he was no duke himself. If Rubenio succeeded his father and Ninenya succeeded him in turn, then House Seiah would have a woman with the blood of traitors as its head.

Soon, they began to say the baby should have died with her mother, and Rubenio found himself in a precarious position.

His followers begged him with tears in their eyes.

“You must disown your daughter!”

She had been born too weak—there was no telling whether she would even survive. Nevertheless, Rubenio couldn’t bring himself to abandon his firstborn child. Ninenya was his baby, and she was all that was left of the woman he had dearly loved. Sadly, he couldn’t defend her against his father. He had to make a decision.

“My daughter has no mother. I am her only parent.”

Though it pained him, Rubenio denounced Ropenia. Disowned in death, she became Ropenia Sashrott again. After that, Ninenya became Rubenio’s daughter, who had nothing to do with Ropenia.

He had saved his daughter by disavowing his wife, yet that wasn’t enough for the duke, who kept pressing him.

“You fool, you’ve been driven mad by your love for that dead girl!”

The duke threatened to take away Rubenio’s status as his heir and even said he would banish him from the house.

Duke Seiah was a greedy, ambitious man, and he wasn’t above being cruel to his own blood. Nevertheless, he couldn’t discard Rubenio so easily. He was the smartest and most handsome of the duke’s three sons, and he took much pride in having such a man as his heir.

So, the duke used a carrot-and-stick approach.

“I told you not to let your emotions get the better of you! I’ll be watching you, Rubenio. If you do well, I will let the girl live. But if you disappoint me, she will die!”

Rubenio was only eighteen years old when Ninenya was born. At the time, he was no match for his father. He realized that if his family threw him out, he would no longer be able to protect his daughter.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Forget about that wretched girl until you have safely succeeded me. If you go to see her behind my back, both of you will face my wrath!”

The duke thought that Ninenya wouldn’t live that long. He believed that if he sent her far away from his son, the useless, weak baby would soon die on her own. Rubenio knew his father was counting on that, but in order to protect his daughter from him, he had no choice but to send her away. So, the baby who never got to hug her mother never got to know her father either.

Yet Rubenio didn’t cry. Instead, he clenched his teeth and stood up.

“I will give the world to you, my baby. So please… Just wait for me.”

The father had to ask his baby to be patient and wait, even though she was far too little to understand what he was saying. His heart was torn into a million pieces, and as he held his baby’s hand, those pieces dried black like a dying tree.

“Please live.”

And so Ninenya and Rubenio were separated. She could not remember that moment, but he could not forget it.

Sadly, Ninenya turned out to be a poor, pitiful girl. She failed to wait for her father. When Rubenio finally saw her again, she was already a cold corpse. Being reunited was the only thing he had ever wanted, but they never got to meet again. In the end, it was Meya who brought Ninenya’s corpse to Rubenio, and everything that should have been Ninenya’s was given to her.

It wasn’t like Rubenio loved Meya as his own, but he didn’t mistreat her either. He was grateful for her. After he lost his daughter, who had been the purpose of his life, he wanted to do everything for Meya. He gave her all the things he never had the chance to give to his daughter. Because of this, Meya was able to begin a new life as Duke Rubenio’s daughter. She was no longer a slave.

And when Meya got her happy ending, Rubenio killed himself, as though he no longer had any reason to live.

The end.

* * *

Haha. The end! Yes, it should have been the end, but…

“So who am I again?”

“Mas—”

“I meant my name! What is my name?”

“You are Ninenya Seiah, Master.”

I’d heard that several times already, but I was shocked nonetheless.

I had just become Ninenya. I wasn’t used to this weak body yet, so I fell on the bed.

“Master!”

The slave who’d been summoned while mopping the hallway quickly grabbed me and looked around. Upon my request, the physician and the maids who were always there were absent for once.

The slave helped me lie down and turned to run outside, but I stopped him before he could.

“And you are?” I asked.

My hand was fearfully pale and bony as I clutched the boy’s wrist.

He looked down at my snow-white hand and replied nervously, “I am Mayer.”

It was the third time we were having this conversation, but I still found it hard to believe. I was flustered, and that made me pant like I was out of breath.

Stupid, feeble body!

I hit the bed out of anger.

“Ugh!”

“M-Master! Are you okay?”

Now my hand was slightly red. Mayer held it and checked on me. Ninenya—the real one—usually didn’t let a slave touch her, but I couldn’t care less about that at the moment.

“Ninenya… So I’m Ninenya?”

“Yes…”

“And you’re Mayer?”

“Yes. My name is Mayer.”

You’re lying!

The slave’s name was Meya, not Mayer. I knew that. How? Because I’d read about it. And there was another tragic fact I knew: Ninenya wasn’t going to live a long life—she was going to die soon.

But now, I was Ninenya.

“I’m going to die before long, aren’t I?”

I ended up fainting less than an hour after I woke up.