Victoria winced as she felt a sharp pain stabbing her through her hip, gastrointestinal complaints on in her stomach. Her eyes are glued shut together, the rush of drowsiness hit her mental state violently like a wild animal. She finds it hard to concentrate on her pain, she feels severely nauseous even with her eyes closed.
Had she drunk too much alcohol last night? She couldn't quite remember any gits in her memory. Perhaps she had forgotten about them? Though it's still peculiar, she is a dignified duchess. She certainly would never drink to the state of blacking out like a peasant. She would have lost her nobility at that point.
She tried to pick herself up in a sitting position, hand patting the wooden table next to her, searching for a viable source of water that would maybe turn her into the right mind. There was nothing to be found, but a single piece of curvy smoking pipe that has a very foul smell of tobacco.
She does not smoke, she finds it unpleasant for her throat unless needed. How did it get here?
"Ya' up so soon?" A high pitched, aggressive voice cooed beside her. An arm resting just above the abdomen, she squirmed in terror as the cold skin-to-skin contact hit her. Victoria yelped, dragging the blanket open and shoved it across the room.
Her face fell in horror as she sees a girl that seemed to be in her youth, in her undergarments that seems nearly naked. Victoria can even see her breasts when she moves even by a little. Bluish black hair, greenish-blue eyes and freckled smooth tanned skin, facial features as those of a northerner.
The girl's face scowled, as if offended by Victoria's rude and sudden actions, she crossed her arm as she sat herself up with a pout, "Ya tryna' fight with me pal?! If ya wasn't that well last night, that's gonna be an extra 2 silver coins will ya!"
Victoria flinched, she's quite loud for a female, and her northern accent is very noticeable. She never understood the Yorkshire language and accent that well, therefore she had no idea what the girl had said.
Besides that, where is this place? The decoration reminded her too much of a brothel. Overly exaggerated in wooden materials, not too much for Victoria's taste, she prefers something less... extravagant.
"Ya' off your head?" The girl spoke easily, with a distinguishing mocking tone in her voice, as if taking Victoria as a delirious woman. She waved her hands that seemed to be full of hunting scars, declaring bright as a day that she's a hunter.
Victoria finds herself unable to speak towards the question, as she is in a state of confusion also. She wouldn't be able to even simply respond with an adequate answer if she opens her mouth!
The duchess growled in annoyance, threading her fingers into her hair as she lets out an exasperated sigh, releasing her pain in one breath. Victoria stopped as soon as she grasps her hair, a faint feeling of a spike, her hair strands seemed less soft than usual. Had it always been this short?
Victoria trails her fingers towards the nape of her neck, feeling the end of her hair. Hold on, the end of her hair? The last time she remembered, she one of the longest hair in the empire, this can't be possible. No matter how much the maids hated her, they wouldn't dare to even harm a single strand on her hair. Especially one of a duchess's.
"Ya in that coo coo' head now are ya?" The chirpy voice brought itself back again, snapping Victoria out of her thoughts almost immediately.
The duchess brings her hand and extends it towards the girl's face rudely, as in commanding her to stand down, "You, who are you?" she asked roughly, a voice came out hoarse and sharp, the liquor must've dealt quite a lot to her vocal cords.
'That... was strange.' had her voice sounded this deep before? It almost matches that of a man's! Should this be taken as one of the side effects of the one that's called a 'hangover'?
The girl's face grimaced even further, she drags her finger down to Victoria's chest and scowls harshly, "Hah?! Have you got beef? Ya' gave a nice fuck and ya' suddenly off ya' mind now?!"
Shouldn't Victoria ask her that? She had woken up in bling without a single clue that would explain anything at all. It's a surprise she hadn't freaked out at all, perhaps from too many assassination attempts she had come to be more controlled and calm in these situations.
'God... She's loud.'
Victoria wasn't sober enough to make up the girl's words correctly, she's dizzy and tired. Her body is extremely fatigued, she can barely find her voice to talk back.
"Who sent you?" Victoria retorted in the end. If she was an assassin, Victoria will gladly give her life, it's quite shitty anyway, her husband left her, her son doesn't even love her, and she deserves it.
The girl looked at her, disbelief.
'Son...' Victoria snapped her thoughts awake, she felt as if she's missing something. She vividly remembers her child talking to her harshly and coldly, though she's not sure what those words were.
Thinking back, what happened last night?
[Waiting for synchronisation, Please hold...]
'Agh...!' Victoria bit her lips, a sudden burst of headache hits her, 'it's... Those voices!' she thought desperately as she covers her ears with both of her hands.
A flash of memories went inside of her in a snap, the pain hits worse than being stabbed by her child! Whispers and banging voiced over the memories like a broken record. All the holes that she's been asking all this time find their answers inside the memories.
'Didn't... Didn't I die?!' She believed she died, as she felt the last of her moments taking her oxygen away fast.
[System's starting...
1...2...3... finished verification of player.]
'It's them again!' She shouted inside as soon as the unknown voice popped up, those voices sound the same as that of an inhumane person!
"Are ya listenin' to me?!"
Victoria snapped her gaze unto the girl, sharp and simple, flaring blaze eyes fell upon the northerner's face. She can't seem to shut her mouth.
"Tell me where I am!" She raised her voice, only to realize it doesn't sound like it belonged to her. Victoria fell conscious of her odd voice, she grasps her neck, a slide bump can be felt.
She gasps, pushing herself back out of shock, eyes trailing the veins and muscles on her arms, she whined, terrified at the size of her fingers. She looks down, she could almost scream when she saw her uncovered body that isn't even one that can be considered a female's.
"Flippin' heck! Chekin' ya self out ain't ya'?!"
[Assumed of player's awaken in the server, chapters have been locked. Unlocking shall proceed through the storyline process.]
Oh how Victoria wants to cut her tongue and her loud voice, she's panicking as well here.
"You, am I a male or a female?"
Shit, stupid question, either Victoria's drank too much booze or she's witnessing sorcery in herself right now.
The girl whom she doesn't even know the name of looks at her with a dead-panned expression. Instead of answering her, she gets up from the bed, took her purse and coverage and went straight out of the door.
"HE'S A LUNATIC!" a distant scream can be heard after the door was slammed shut.
'I, for once agree with you.' Victoria isn't sure which is reality and which is the result of her hallucinations.
[Chapter one unlocked! Saving progress...]
That voice again!
"Hello?! Pardon me, can you hear me?!"
[Loading... A special host has been deployed.]
'A special... Host?'
[" Hello, Victoria Gainsborough. "]
"How do you know my name?!"
[" Hello, David Gainsborough." ]
"?!" Do they know who David is? Perhaps one of his underlings that participated in the coup d'etat? She thought David has finished her off, how is she alive?
Victoria narrows her eyes, she couldn't be kidnapped. Moreover, she's in a body that doesn't belong to her, if they had gone as far as to curse her by hiring a witch that'd be simply childish of them.
[" Hello, Vi- ••••••••••••• "]
A floating black box appears in front of her, instinctively, she slapped it, but her hand flew right through as if there's nothing there. Victoria waves her hand through and through, it only went by.
There were words on it, words that are fading, perhaps matching the box's see-through frame.
[•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••]
'There... Are only dots.' All the words from before mentioning her name vanished to thin air, replaced by white dots repeating themselves and fitting the whole space of the box.
[An error has been detected, the system will now reboot for redeployment || 2%]
Her breath hitches, eyes widening as her airway cuts off, she couldn't exhale nor inhale, stuck in a state where she's unable to breathe, a dire situation yet unpleasant familiar.
Victoria tried to move her (his?) hand to grasp her neck but it's stuck, she couldn't budge a single millimetre.
[15%]
She can still move her eyes, she scans the room, dust and particles stayed in the air as if there's no single gravity. Had time stopped?
[27%]
Victoria tried every inch of her strength to even lift a finger, none of them worked well. A human can only hold their breath for so long.
Veins popped on her neck, displaying her clear struggle to breathe in any oxygen, her face pales as if someone drained the blood out of her.
'Someone!'
If time had stopped, it's useless for her to expect any of them to regain their consciousness and notice her in need of help when not one of them can move!
[56%]
She eyed the floating box, the percentage is gradually speeding up and increasing. She doesn't know what it is, but she knows it has to do with the time stop and the air.
[65%]
She guesses if that reaches 100%, she'll either due or live, that is if she doesn't pass out before it even makes it to 90.
Victoria's face turned bluish-purple, one of the signs when you run out of oxygen in your body. She couldn't let out her voice, her vision fazed, eyes tearing up.
[91%]
'?!' It sped up!
[98%]
'Please!'
[99%]
Victoria cursed mentally, begging the number to increase quickly.
[100%]
A bang occurred, her eyes blinded by the lights coming from the floating box.
[Welcome to (The massacre of the Gainsborough family) Player Two!]