After I have reached my old bedroom, exhaustion finally swep over me and I immediately wanted to wash myself up without the help of the maids. Waiting for them won't do anymore, since I believed that I would probably fall right on the spot. So I rushed to my washroom as fast as I could.
Before I knew it, I felt the soft bed on my face. I turned my back around and covered myself with my blanket. At this very moment I just blankly looked at my ceiling, which was simple covered with different shades of blue and white. In comparison to the room in the Evergarden mansion, this one was rather moderate, but for me I still loved it very much. Why ?
Because I felt like…
" I'm really at home." ,I murmured. Even though I knew that I returned to the Ainsworths, it was still unreal for me, but now I felt it. I shortly looked at my desk that was on the right side of my bed. There lay a small notebook which I started since my return. Before I went to bed, I immediately wrote down today's information. Although the missing pieces of this mystery were slowly reduced, I couldn't help but asked myself, " How could just a mere side character have such a complex background story ? To top it off, it wasn't even mentioned anywhere in the story back at home in my modern world."
If I recalled correctly, the story would be only written in the perspective of the female lead. No wonder everything in this book was too cute. It was a romance novel in the first place. Just this thought frustrated me, because the history of my family which was dark as well as f*cking complicated couldn't possible fit in this simple written story.
Nonetheless how could an author who personally developed this script described such many details about a villainess' family, including some other character's life such as of Alisa LaBelle ? Not to mention, most of them weren't even shown in the book from the beginning.
It meant that my life, everything that happened around me as well as my family's history should be already thought out by the author personally, since it was HIS fantasy that was written down on paper or was probably still in the process to develop. The complexity of my problem, the cause for my death, was simply "printed" as me being an evil in the story at first, but here in this world I found out that it was more complicated than expected. The author couldn't think this much already, right ? Was it really a book, just as I thought ?
… No, it was the story which followed until my divorce papers. Even if it was written in the female's point of view, chapters of other people's perspectives sometimes happened in this book with the intention to further proceed the story. They were obstacles to their happy ending that they had to overcome.
Similar to my divorce which should't already happen. This crucial point was completely destroyed by me.
…Oh man! Come on, I knew that in almost all reincarnation books the story itself was more complicated than how they normally appeared in the book. But how the hell could this be possible ? I had many how's now….
"AH…..Never mind, I should just accept it, that everything will be very complicated ad dramatic for sure. I'm already afraid ", I thought.
Since I changed my path now, I shouldn't rely on the storyline and past life memories anymore, not as much as before.
For my further preparation in this unknown future, I promised myself to go to our library and research about the royal family tomorrow morning.
As soon as this thought passed my mind, I widened my eyes. " Tomorrow..", I said quietly. Suddenly I felt relief and happiness filled me. I unconsciously smiled slightly thinking about the meaning behind my word. After that I just closed my eyes and sank myself into the blanket, where you could only see the upper half of my face. I sniffed on my fresh and nostalgic smell of my blanket and thought,
"Yeah… Tomorrow will be a new day, a new start in life and beginning for my second chance as Rosy Ainsworth."
I remembered my time in the previous mansion, where I sometimes felt empty, whenever I woke up in the duchess' bedroom. After the start of my marriage, maids who helped me to prepare wouldn't even glanced at me and hid their dislike towards me. Over time they soon became more arrogant and openly showed their true feelings. Disgust and coldness surrounded me. Every times this happened, I lost the warmth I once knew and soon became scared of the "tomorrow". Now that I was at "home"I could feel safe now.
I yawned all of sudden.
"This is my sign to stop my thought and I should sleep now." , I said to myself.
———————————————————————————————————————————
Tomorrow
" How…how could you do this to me, mom?, I asked my mother with tears in my eyes, while looking outside the window of the carriage. Only trees after trees passed my sight.
" You knew, we had to do this anyway. We didn't have a choice…", she answered pitifully.
" No choice ?! You had a choice, why could you do this to your own daughter", I said desperately. At this moment I couldn't look at her eyes anymore and clenched my fist.
" Please trust me, it will be alright." , she responded with worry on her face. The guards around us observed us attentively.
" No I can't trust you anymore.", I cried out loudly.
"Come on, my child….It is just shopping for your dresses. I noticed that you had nothing decent in your luggage, befitting to your title", my mother pouted, obviously angry about how Cedric handled me. By her mentioning of my bags I could only sigh. Before my return here I only brought my old stuff and clothes which I personally payed for. The dresses my ex-husband bought me were only there for social gatherings. As one of the Evergarden family's representative I shouldn't show any disgrace was his response. Just an obligation, no affection put into them at all. Why should I bring such clothes with me ?
" Yeah, correct. I was also angry, as soon as I saw your clothes. How could this guy do something like this ? ", my personal maid agreed. I could only sigh to her response of one of my best friends, Marie Kimrin.
At the moment I was sitting in our carriage with my mother, my personal maid and three guards. We were on our way to the second biggest city of the kingdom. The journey began when my mother suddenly suggested a shopping trip with me at our breakfast. At first I was against this, because I wanted to go to the library. As I told my actual plans for today to my mother and the rest of the family, they all became shocked. They immediately argued that I should use this time to go out a lot instead of staying at home. Due to my previous lifestyle at the royal capital I didn't have much time for myself as well as fun, so they wanted me to enjoy my time as young lady.
However shouldn't I rather stay at home since I couldn't see my people for a very long time ? I became suspicious and further asked.
My mother soon confessed why they insisted me to go out so much, because my mother discovered my clothes I brought with me. She was shocked from the few dresses I possessed. Then I explained the cause for this, but instead of understanding my intention I received rather fury faces from them. They were even more angry at the Archduke…. So without any protest on my part, I was forced…oh, no I meant brought to the carriage for shopping.
You know, why should I need so many dresses anyway ?
It wasn't like I changed into one everyday. But knowing the mind of nobles in the aristocracy society, clothes and accessories symbolised your status and wealth. Not only that, but it also showed your relationship with your married partner or friend. That's why I couldn't possible change their opinion due to their way of thinking at the moment. Even if they thought similar like me, they still had to follow a few norms to survive this society. The fact that women in my family were almost on equal terms with men were already such a disgrace to some people. Going further more would cause conflicts with us. As a consequence we should learn from it and use this to our advantage. An open mind couldn't be find everywhere unfortunately.
While I was lost in my thoughts and my eyes still glued to the outside scenario, the people in the carriage enthusiastically talked with each other, including the guards.
Suddenly I saw a father with small child wandering around in the forest.
"They probably collected mushrooms right now", I thought.
When I saw this scene before me, it reminded me of the conversation from yesterday.
Many questions surrounded me. Many things didn't make sense at all. Many answers caused more questions to form.One of them immediately came up again.
"If this what my father said was true, then why would Cedric kill us in the near future according to the book. Our kingdom would die, as long as we didn't release Apollo. Only with our family's help was it possible, so why …why taking away this chance ? Could it be that he didn't know ? Then why did the whole royal family let it happen ? ",I contemplated. As much as I really liked to run to the library and search for clues, I also wanted to enjoy our mother-daughter day ( plus guards and personal maid) since long. It would be disrespectfully towards my mother who anticipated for such a day.
When I remembered my mom,I now turned my head to this lovely woman who seemed even more excited than I expected. I smiled warmly at her.
I missed my family so much. Only my childhood memories kept me on and helped me to get through this difficult time. Just seeing the bad times in my head made me sigh.
My sigh seemed to be loud enough for my guard to notice and therefore he asked me worriedly ,
" Are you okay, Rosie ?" .
I only nodded and spoke to the man who sat next to me," I'm fine. Thank you for your concern.". Even though I said this, I indeed was slightly exhausted due to many factors. This naturally showed itself on my face. That's why I could see a frown forming on his forehead. He still didn't believe me entirely, but fortunately let it be and turned his head to the front looking at the happy group. I was thankful for his consideration. He must have been worried for me after probably knowing my life in the royal capital. Come to think of it, everyone in our mansion knew about my life there. As I walked through the corridor in the morning, the servants suddenly complimented me in every aspect out of the blue. It didn't take me long to notice the change and so tried to spy them a bit. When I suddenly overheard them speaking angrily, I soon found out that they all knew about my life as archduchess. This happened everything in the morning.
It somehow scared me, but at the same time impressed me by the speed.
By the way, this particular guard who was fortunately the only one noticing my fatigue was my previous personal knight and sword teacher. His name was Maximilian Perus and he was an amazing sword master. I was juts 6 years old, when I first met him. At that time he was still a young and strong man and just became the right arm of my father. Dad trusted him and so he even entrusted me to Maximillian as my teacher in swordsmanship as well as my personal guard. Because of our relationship Maximillian knew me so well, that it became hard to hide my feelings from him. Now he became 32 years old, was already married and had two small children. My time with him was enjoyable. He was like an old brother to me.
Before he became more like an older brother to me, I remembered that he was my very first childish crush. Not only was he a such a good looking man, even in this late thirties… no more like especially in his late thirties due to his now more masculine appearance…cough^ cough^ …, he also had a warmhearted and calm personality. I felt always comfortable around him. I liked to rely on him, but wished him to depend on me more too.
I looked at my personal guard for a while until a thought crossed my mind which I immediately got rid off. " I shouldn't think like that.", I convinced myself and became flustered a bit.
…If I told him, my family and friends about the novel and the near future, I would already see myself in the psychic clinic.
I lived as a Korean commoner who drives to my university with my car, a modern vehicle driven by electronic.
Then I returned to my home to read a book until 4 am and just when I fell asleep , I miraculously came back to my past life. To top it off, we were all characters of a novel I read before.
Yeah, their faces would fall off at this rate. Even I wouldn't believe such ridiculous thing without any evidence.
I wished to prove them, similar to some other books about reincarnation. The main protagonist could foretell the future and his friends noticed this. In the end the main lead had to confess everything and Tada …they believed him, since the predicted events really happened.
Yeah ,I wished I could do it as well, because it was so hard to hide these things from my precious family and friends, you know ? I just wanted to tell them, so we could fight together against this future, but NO … the f*cking author had to write this d*mn book in Lady Luciana's perceptive, where most events happened in the royal capital, where I momentarily wasn't there anymore. In addition to that, I probably changed the plot completely. If I wanted to prove this, I had to follow Luciana like a stalker. My family would be shocked by my action for sure.
Are you f*cking kidding ?
At first I thought because of my 'evil deeds' they also executed my family, however the novel precisely explained the reason was treason.
Besides my execution should only lower their reputation, nothing more and less. What could a mere reputation caused them to die.
However when looking into the laws from Zeus the people shouldn't be allowed to execute someone, especially someone innocent. The civilians knew of it, but who changed their minds ?
Okay, Rosie… organise your thoughts:
So far as I knew the main events mostly happened in the royal capital . BAD…..
The hidden background information how it came to these rumours. Not many, but some found . But this just resulted into more questions instead…..WORSE…..
My warnings towards Luciana were interpreted as complete evil. THE WORST ...
Should the novel still try to correct the original path, everything what I did and will do in the future could be used against me ! Like seeing it as evil acts towards Luciana.
Before I knew it, we just arrived our destination, a boutique my mother liked to shop. It wasn't as fancy as other stores next to it, but I knew my mother well.
When we went in, I stood there dazedly. Clothes and dresses with strong colours and decorations were hung in every corner, some even were dressed by mannequins and a variety of accessories and many different types of hats displayed on the cupboards. The dresses seemed simple designed, however if you looked more closely, the ornaments and decorations were very detailed and fine. It showed many different fashion styles, proving the good taste of the store. Unique, yet simple. Two different words who shouldn't fit together. But these people could effortlessly showed me it otherwise.
From the outside this place looked rather small and moderate, but once you entered, everything practically shone and became bigger. It tricked his customers and caused them to be more attracted to this store. Pleasing light colours covered the walls which contrasted to the strong colour of the dresses.
If you could describe this appearance of this shop in only short words, that would be tea room.
It gave you feelings of being at home. A Heartwarming and comfortable atmosphere filled the room, away from the usual strong aristocratic society. A perfect secluded place where you wouldn't be judged by the observant eyes. That was one of the reason why my mother loved this place. It had many designs, was also moderate in decoration in contrast to other stores and the most important part you felt a bit more free since it wasn't visited by other nobles most of the time. The aristocrats preferred bigger and fancy stores over small boutiques. Mom used this to her advantage and secretly sneaked into this small boutique while hiding her real identity. To not attract any suspect, we dressed rather moderate and still stylish. It showed that we were still aristocrats, but rather from a smaller noble house. This way it became easier to be labelled as unimportant by other higher nobles, so they wouldn't take note of us and It made it easier to befriend with a few commoners and merchants.
"Whoah, not bad." , was my thought, when I went around the store looking through the dresses. The guards just sat on the wide and white sofa which was in the middle of the room, while my personal maid looked at some hats.
The assistants of the store knew my mom, so they happily chatted with each other like good friends and looked at some new fashion trends.
All dresses had strong colours, thus let my skin and hair colour stand out more. As expected my mother knew what fit me the best.
Well, I just hoped that my mom won't doll me up, as I remembered the seven hours of hell changing clothes.
Suddenly my mother called out to me breaking me out of my thoughts and I slowly walked to her direction. When my mom saw me coming closer, I believed my mother's smile became wider by each step. When I finally stood before her, she happily proclaimed,
" Rosie, I was so excited that you would come, so I already prepared all the clothes I would like to do…dress you."
I thought that she clearly wanted to say doll me up ….
Then I looked desperately to the assistant who stood next to my mother, but she looked excited as well. Probably because she could sell her stuff, she would naturally join her in this.
Oh, sh*t !
As I tried to find a way out of here, I suddenly remembered our other companions. "Surely my guards will be on my side ,right ? I could take one of the guards and make an excuse that I wanted to buy something in a different store." , I believed strongly. So with this plan I hopefully turned my head to my possible saviours. But my guards weren't sitting on the sofa anymore….
"Where are they ?!", I cried out in my mind. All of sudden I was poked behind, I naturally looked for the cause. What came into view left me frozen.
"Why…why are my guards standing there with hats and dresses in their arms ?" , I thought absentmindedly.
Behind the two guards who hold the clothes I saw Maximilian. "Did I see correctly ?", I asked myself and blinked my eyes several times.
Right now, my personal knight spoke happily with an assistant while showing some dresses to her. The lady pointed at the one and suddenly he smiled from ear to ear. To this the woman became flustered by this sight and blushed.
When he noticed my stare, he finally came to me and enthusiastically declared," I just talked to the young lady and she also said that this dress would look very good on you as this colour make your skin shine. "
Oh… no ! Please don't convert to the dark side Max, please !
After that my mother also joined enthusiastically and explained the variety of clothes which would fit me perfectly. The other guards who hold the clothes also attentively listened to my mother with curious eyes.
"Mom….what did you do to your guards during my absence ?", I murmured quietly.
I staggered at the show in front of me. One guard hold one yellow dress in the hand, the other took some accessories and hold it over the yellow dress. Max looked satisfied at the combination. Other guards and my mother also nodded in approval.
I just watched it with a blank look on my face. Are they really the same strong and cold knights who should protect me and mom ? … I questioned the selection now …
Soon even my last possible saviour took part in this by bringing the "perfect" hat.
"Now should I just give up ?", I asked at myself.
When I saw my companions who looked at me with shining eyes and expectation openly showed on their faces, I just sighed and lowered head. Finally I spoke with a weak voice,
" Mom, ….I would like to wear a yellow dress with …complement accessories as a start ?"
Overjoyed by my answer, my mother secretly high-fived with the assistant behind her.
Did you think I wouldn't notice this ?….
On the other hand , the guard looked like puppies who finally got their reward.
"Let's get this over !", I thought to myself.