Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Chapter 253 Samsara? Part 1

On the screen, Mira watched as the fetus grew and grew until it reached a point where it was time for it to be born.

What's weird was Mira knew that this body was hers, but she had no control over it. She could only sit in this room and watch it from a third-person point of view. If she were to try and explain how she's currently feeling, she'd say that it's like she's like an extra soul that's been sealed in this baby's body.

She has no control over the body's thoughts or movements, but she can feel everything that the body feels, know everything that crosses this body's mind, and shares the experiences that this body has to go through.

She felt like a passenger in someone else's life. Except this 'someone' is her.

Not only that, but time seemed to go by extremely fast. The 9 months that she was a fetus felt like a few minutes. Actually, it did only take a few minutes for those 9 months to go by, it's just time goes by at a different rate in the place her soul is sitting versus the body she's 'residing' in.

A few seconds later and the 'fake Mira' was born. She was born as an incredibly cute little baby. So pure and innocent, completely untainted by the darkness of the world.

However, Mira felt nothing watching this scene even if the baby she was watching is actually her. She can understand why people think those that have the heart to kill children are monsters, but such a thought is not something Mira has ever had the luxury to care about. The pure, innocent, and naivety of childhood is what makes children terrifying.

Mira wasn't allowed much time to ponder this as she watched the baby grew up at an extremely fast rate.

She learned that the 'current' Mira was born in a world that was similar to Earth in the 1600-1800s. Wars were fought with swords, spears, and other similar weapons. Nobility was prevalent during this time and commoners were essentially nothing more than glorified slaves.

This Mira grew up in a commoner household. She had loving parents, 2 older brothers who loved her dearly, and was able to eat a decent meal 2 times a day. The only reason for this was because Mira's parents were bakers and her brothers worked in the mines. So they were able to eat a bit more than your average commoner household.

As time went on, Mira was able to experience a satisfying childhood, free from worries, and got to enjoy playing with a few friends she made around town. She didn't get to spend much time with her parents or brothers, but that was fine because she understood that they were working hard for their families. She knew her family loved her and that's all that mattered.

However, after Mira turned 7, disaster struck the family as her mother died from an illness. Mira's father went into depression and his bakery business started deteriorating because he couldn't handle the workload.

Her brothers had to work harder in order to take care of their family, but this only made things worse as they not only had to work more, but they only made enough money to eat once a day.

It seems Mira's mother was the pillar of support the family had…

That's not exactly true. Every member was a pillar of the family and things would've gone south if anything happened to any of them.

Mira, seeing her family's situation getting worse by the day, decided to spend all of her time learning a skill that she could support her family with. She was too weak to be a guard. She hadn't received a formal education so being a scholar was out of the question and she didn't have the energy to be a baker like her father.

That's when she saw an old lady sewing. She immediately knew this was the best way for her to make some money for her family.

She stopped playing with the kids around town and turned all of her attention into being a seamstress.

From that day on, Mira went around the neighborhood learning everything she could about what it takes to be a seamstress. She would watch old ladies from afar, study various articles of clothing, and even sneak in to watch professional seamstresses work.

After a few hours of studying, she would go home and work on her skills. It was difficult to practice because her family barely had enough money to eat, much less buy stuff so Mira can learn to sew. But Mira made it work.

A year later, Mira realized she didn't have much talent, but that didn't stop her as she could feel herself getting better every day. By the time she reaches adulthood, 14 years old, she'll be able to make ordinary clothes for commoners relatively quickly.

Mira did nothing else but practice her skills from then on. She was determined to become the best seamstress in her town and then she'll keep working on her skills and become the best seamstress in her country! Maybe, if she works hard enough, she'll be the best in the entire world!

With her goals set, Mira spent every waking hour practicing her skills. Other than eating, sleeping, and spending what little time she has with her family, she spent the rest of her time practicing.

Her Father and Brothers were aware of what she was doing and tried to get her to spend some time with her friends, but Mira adamantly refused. She knew her family probably wouldn't live much longer with their way of life. They ate very little food, worked for more than 16 hours per day, and weren't able to get much sleep. They'd be lucky if they lived until Mira's 14th birthday!

The years passed by and Mira turned 12 years old. By this time, Mira was already able to sell some of her products and lift some of the burdens off of her family.

Now her family only had to work 12 hours per day and were able to have 2 meals per day.

A few more years went by and Mira became an adult (14 years old). Now she was renowned in her village for producing high quality for a cheap price. Her clothes didn't rip as easily and carried more warmth during winter than other clothes so almost everyone in the town had at least one article of her clothing.

Now, her family was able to eat a full 3 meals per day while only working 10 hours per day all thanks to Mira.

However, Mira wasn't proud of her achievements. Sure, she was the best seamstress in her town, but she's still only working with low-quality goods so the things she can make are only of low quality even if they are much better than those around her.

Mira's father wanted Mira to take it easy now that they were living a decent life. He wanted Mira to go out and find a husband she can settle down and have children.

What her father didn't expect was for Mira to almost spit in his face after hearing his words.

Husband? Children? Settle down? She doesn't have time for that shit! Hell, they'd just be a burden at this point! She barely makes enough to help support her family right now! If she leaves the family or worse, adds more people into it then things will only go downhill again. Their shitty life will return and her children will have to eat nothing but a few pieces of bread in a bowl of water every day.

Even now, they are only able to have 3 meals a day mainly because it's bread and rice. They don't even get to eat any meat!

Mira adamantly refused to have a husband and children until she earned enough that they could at least eat decent food every day without worry.

That day, her relationship with her family was a bit strained as her Father and Brothers were constantly trying to push her into a relationship. In order to avoid them, Mira dove into her work and did everything in her ability to push her skills to the next level so she can start selling to a different audience.

So most of her time was spent improving her skills and looking for ways to sell her products to those in the middle and upper class.

6 years passed by in a flash and Mira was now 20. Her father had already died at the ripe old age of 40. It wasn't due to an illness or anything. It could be said that he died due to old age. It also wasn't strange for people, especially commoners, to die at this age because of their poor living environments.

Mira missed her Father and was sad to see him die, but she was mentally prepared for this. Her Father hardly took care of himself after losing her Mother and Mira knew he wouldn't last long. However, her Father's death only strengthened her resolve. She would make sure to become the best seamstress this world has ever seen!

At this point, Mira was basically on her own. Her brothers each had their own families to take care of and she no longer needed any help. Still, she provided as much money as she could to her Brothers because they need it more than she does. She didn't want her Brothers dying before their kids could even grow up.

The years went by as Mira's name started to become more known among the middle and upper class. She was often seen with disdain due to her origins, but nobody could deny her ambition.

When one thinks of a seamstress, people tend to think of a very nice, loving, and gentle lady, but not Mira. She was like a fierce tigress! If there was a way to improve her skills or make more money, she would find it! If you got in her way, she'd trample you and devour everything you had!

Many people hated her because she was taking away their business, but her customers loved her. It didn't matter if they were men or women, they loved her clothes. Men loved her because she made things that would make them look better in front of the ladies. Ladies loved her because her clothes would help them seduce rich and powerful men. They might even catch the attention of nobility with her clothes!

When Mira reached this point, her popularity started to skyrocket as she was producing better and better clothes now that she was making more money.

By the time she reached 25, her clothes were already popular amongst the nobles and even royalty! Nobody could deny her now and since she was a seamstress, there weren't any people after her head. On the contrary, most people wanted to protect her since the quality of her clothes were always top notch.

When she reached 28, Mira was invited to become a seamstress at the Royal Palace and Mira accepted with a condition. Her condition was to be able to make and sell clothes to the public while also being able to experiment with various materials in order to promote her skills.

The King didn't think much of it and agreed to her condition so long as the quality of her products she sells to the public is below those of royalty. Mira didn't have a problem with that so she agreed.

With that, Mira moved into the Royal Palace to continue her work there. She was now able to eat good food every day, 3 times per day. Live in a nice clean place and was able to practice her skills on a daily basis.

She also received numerous marriage proposals, but she denied all of them. She truly had no care or desire in having a husband or children. She didn't particularly care about passing down her bloodline and she certainly didn't want to be used as some sort of trophy wife to satisfy some man's ego.

Her pride just wouldn't allow her to do such a thing. By now, she was less of a tiger and more of a Phoenix. How can a Phoenix settle with these idiots who laze around all day in their wealth that's earned by the common folk? Even the King didn't have the right to marry her! He was just a lazy fat man who only got the crown because he was born into royalty! Pathetic!

That guy even tried to force himself on her one night, but luckily Mira always carried needles on her. Some might think this was normal since she was a seamstress, but Mira was also worried about this idiot King.

So when the King tried to force himself on her, she sent a needle into his p*nis! Then as he was screaming in pain, she jabbed a needle into his ear, puncturing his brain. The King died before he could even think about what was going on.

Naturally, blood leaked out of his ears and penis, but Mira cleaned it up. Then she removed the needles and started screaming in horror, yelling "The king is dead! The king is dead!".

The royal guards and physicians showed up quickly and surrounded the place. Mira was captured for further investigation, but people weren't too suspicious of her. The King looked perfectly fine. In fact, there wasn't a scratch on him.

The royal physicians did an autopsy to see if they would find any poison, but they found nothing and just said that he died from a heart attack due to his old age and terrible lifestyle.

With that, Mira was let go and free to improve her skills. However, what she didn't know was that the Queen knew what happened that night. Although she didn't know the exact situation, she knew that the King was visiting Mira to r*pe her and that he was perfectly fine earlier that day.

When she saw Mira being taken away, she noticed the smirk and look of disdain she held whenever she looked at the King.

However, she didn't say anything because she hated the King, but lacked the guts to do something about it.

She swore that day that she wouldn't make an enemy out of Mira. For her to be able to kill the King in his own house without anyone knowing… she only had one word to describe that: terrifying.

She didn't want to mess with someone who could kill the King without batting an eyelash. She could only warn her children not to mess with her for fear that they might suffer the same fate.

Mira, on the other hand, felt nothing when she killed the King. In fact, she felt more like herself in that moment when she killed him. At that moment, she was enlightened and instantly knew that the thing she'd be best at is killing. She was absolutely sure that if she put in some effort, she could become a killer that was feared by the world. She even had a sudden urge to kill a few more people, but she held back.

She was over 30 at this point so it was a little too late to get into the business of killing. Not to mention she put in decades of hard work to become the best seamstress in the world. Mira still hasn't achieved that so she continued working hard, but she also added one more thing to her agenda.

Practicing her hidden weapon, or needle, skills. She wanted to practice using her needles as a weapon. Mainly throwing and stabbing, but she also made a few holsters to store her needles in case of an emergency. Luckily, she was a seamstress! Hehe~

So the decades went by and Mira was able to live until the age of 52 before her life eventually gave out due to old age.

By that time, her works were known throughout the world and she was regarded as the best seamstress in history and sparked a revolution in the clothing department. Commoners, Royalty, and everything in between saw a drastic improvement in clothes which not only allowed for peoples armies to become stronger, but the average person lived longer thanks to being able to survive the harsh climates.

In total, Mira's clothing was a catalyst to push the world into a perpetual state of growth.

At the end of her life, Mira never married or had any children. She also never accepted an apprentice and never made any friends. People wanted her to have children or at least take in an apprentice to pass down her skills to, but Mira refused! She worked her entire life to reach this point, why the hell should she pass down her effort to some shitty brat who didn't deserve any of it?!

Plus, she didn't give a fuck about the world, the country, or the people. She wanted to become the best seamstress because that's what she decided on doing. At first, she did it for the money but that was merely secondary. She needed money to eat. She needed money to make better clothes. She needed money to live in a better environment, but that's it. If she could get those things without spending any money, then she wouldn't care about making money.

She merely wanted her name to be written in textbooks and spread throughout the world! That's the only way she'll be regarded as the best!

However, even when she became the best, she never stopped improving. She didn't only want to be the best in the past and present, but also the future. Sure, she wasn't so naive to think that better products won't be made after she dies, but that doesn't mean they are better than her. She wanted to be known as the Ancestor or Founder of sewing! So she came up with all different types of sewing skills and different ways to make clothes all in hopes of being the first and number one seamstress!

When she was on her deathbed, she had no regrets. She knew, from the bottom of her heart, that she will forever be the best seamstress this world has ever seen!

When everything went black, the real Mira who was watching everything from a third person perspective, was astounded by what she just experienced. Mira's entire life took no longer than an hour for the real Mira to experience, but the latter felt like she became a pro at making clothes. At least by mortal standards. Naturally, she would need to put this knowledge into practice, but this information was already crammed into her brain.

"Is that the end? What did I just watch? Was that really me? Or I suppose another me? Is this place showing me and making me experience previous iterations of myself? Or am I watching me in a parallel universe? So many questions… So little answers. I suppose all I can do is wait at this point. Hopefully, everything will become clear by the end of this whole ordeal."

As Mira was mumbling this, the screen changed and showed another unborn fetus.

"Here we go again."