*cough cough*
"Where the hell am I?" she mumbled to herself as she found herself suddenly standing in the middle of a small cramped room with stacks of papers and books, stacked on the floor.
"Oh? Well, you are up miss? Good morning." Said a tired voice who came from the far end of the room from what looked like a desk with piled-up work.
The light in the room was dim, and there was no window, thus no advantage of any air.
"Well, this is indeed a bad place to work at." She mumbled to herself as she was trying to find her way through the mess on the floor.
"Miss? Miss!" said the same voice who suddenly came and stood right in front of her.
She looked up.
"Shit, who are you? Are you a gangster? What's up with all the hip hop style?" She asked the man, who currently stood in front of her.
"Well, you see, I love devilish things and hip hop is kinda my favorite genre so..", he explained.
"Oh?" she scanned him up and down multiple times while judging his outfit.
"Hey don't judge me, you dead woman." He yelled at her with shy embarrassment.
"Yay ok. Wait… dead woman? What is happening? Where the hell am I?" she asked anxiously.
He snapped his fingers and suddenly his tiny, cramped room, upgraded to an exclusive version of an executive office.
The paper flew and got restacked on the desk and there was a sudden appearance of all high-class amenities. Even a bottle of wine and two glasses came out of nowhere. And also he changed into a glamorous suit.
"Wai… wait! What's happening?" She asked him in the midst of all the upgradation.
"Yeah just give me a second, and done.", he proudly showed his abilities.
But there stood Janice without getting impressed just one bit.
He still stood there a few moments to receive appreciation.
But no.
"Ah ok anyways, you are not the type to get easily impressed, as I can see." He said as he approached his chair to settle down.
Even Janice pulled out a chair to sit down.
"So, you are dead." He stated while pouring the glass of wine.
"Huh? Huh????" she was flabbergasted.
"Hmm yeah it's true.", he casually said as he picked up his wine glass, poured the wine, and started to swirl the glass.
She was still all clueless but now she was even more confused.
"Is this some kind of a stupid prank mister?" she asked with max-level hostility.
"Ok, first let me introduce myself first." He said as he placed his glass down on the table and fixed his tie with confidence.
"I am Grim, The Reaper Bob. I've worked as a grim reaper since forever and I have always been a top employee. I have also received the 'Employee of the Month' recognition from the DEVIL himself last month." He was proudly stating his own identity.
But there was again Janice with the least amount of interest. "Are you perhaps hired to spout nonsense crap?" she said with an expression screaming, 'DON'T WASTE MY TIME.'
"Ahem, anyway, allow me to explain the full situation to you, ma'am." He said as he got up from his chair.
He walked a little and snapped his fingers. Suddenly a presentation screen appeared.
But Janice got used to this as she thought it was just something highly advanced technology.
(She is probably too smart, that sometimes she is just dumb.)
"So, your accident occurred on the way to your home, but there were many things that you had to pay for and also many things that you had to do.
But since the timing messed up you are now almost 80% dead, your body is in a coma in the hospital.
But since it was my mistake and if any more time is wasted, the balance of the present, past, and future might get disturbed. So I will allow you to live your life once more." He said with a beaming face.
There was a silence of a few seconds and then Janice said,
"Well it's not like I am desperate to live and all, but also it's not that I don't want to. Everything that you just said is too much to take in and understand all at once. But I do remember the accident. Maybe you are not even real but I am thankful for your help for giving me life once more." With utmost sincerity.
"But I am real." He thought to himself.
"Well anyways you don't have much time so I'll send you quickly." He said in a hurry. "Just close your eyes."
She did close her eyes and within a mere second, the office went back to how it was initially. She disappeared without any traces, just like that.
"Ah, damn, I work so much, I should just get paid extra." He said while stretching and cracking his neck and spine, after all the supposed hard work.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, the clock was ticking in his office, and suddenly he realized.
"I didn't give her any specifications about how she will live? Where she will live? What will be her life like? I messed up a big time. "He said letting out a stressed sigh.
"I need to write a letter to her first explaining everything. I'm such a nice guy, but this always seems to be happening only with me." He said as he was sympathizing with himself.
And the next day.
"Where the hell am I?" said Janice Green to herself in utter disbelief.
She had no option but to stare at everything around her to grasp the situation.
A big room, enough to fit in two more beds other than hers.
An exquisite and surely expensive set of wardrobe and couch.
And the most important a view that she could've never imagined, not even as the CEO of W&K. Unnecessarily large crowd of people, standing in as servants.
Their clothes, their style, everything seems so foreign.
"Who the hell are they?" she had too many thoughts rushing through her mind as soon as she opened her eyes.
And among the crowd of 7-8 servants, all bowing their heads to her, a maid stepped forward and said,
"Good morning Duchess, I am Cindy your head lady-in-waiting." She said with a beaming smile.
"You had some bad food a few days ago and thus you were given medicines to sleep. You slept for two days straight." She explained in a perfectly eloquent way.
"She is suspicious." She quickly understood Cindy's intentions.
"Wait? What did she call me? A duchess? Have I transmigrated or something? That Bob Bastard, I thought I was returning to my normal lifestyle. He dares to trick me and play this kind of prank with me. I knew I shouldn't have trusted that bastard from the very start, I even gave him a sincere, heartfelt thank you. But still..", and that's how her mind was totally messed up, yet again.
"Anyways I have to at least sort the things at hand first. All the other things, I'll think about them later on." She finally came to a conclusion.
"Ok, I don't need everyone here right now. Only Cindy and Mary will stay." She ordered as she got down from her bed.
It was a fine morning, and also everything around her seemed luxurious. But there were still many things to worry about for here.
She was too engrossed while pondering over things as she sat in the bathtub. And suddenly a thought grabbed all her attention.
"I don't know a single person here. And these servants do seem very high class.
But one thing that is bothering me is, I am a duchess and also the madam of this house as I can conclude, so why is none of the servants happy to see their master awake.
Did the owner of this body always harass the servants or something?
But everything aside, why didn't the duke, my supposed husband came to see me? Is their relationship bad? And if not, then what else?" she was just thinking and thinking.
"Ma'am shall we go ahead and dress you up if you are done with the bath?" asked Cindy, who was tending her.
Janice nodded.
All the other maids gathered too and Janice sat down in front of the mirror.
"Wow her face is pretty. Golden-hazel eyes, flowing golden locks, and pure glowing skin that was like jade. No doubt she is an aristocrat." She thought to herself in a few moments until Janice spoke.
"Madam?" she was nervous to ask.
"So are you attending the ball tonight?" she proceeded.
"hmm? What ball?" asked Janice.
"The one Marquis Pease is hosting." She added.
There was the silence of a brief moment, but the hands of the servants didn't stop from working.
"I will tell you later in the afternoon. I don't have a lot to prepare so there won't be any problems." Janice said with a calm and straight face.
To these sentences of Janice, all the ladies in the room were shocked. They couldn't believe their eyes and ears.
"Is this truly Duchess Janice Tyler???" was what they all thought in unison.
"Anyways if everyone is done, leave. I want to have some time alone." She said as she was getting up.
All the servant ladies quickly dashed out of the room.
"What is this shit that's happening with me?", these were here thoughts which were currently, totally out of character.
"I did manage to survive the morning today, but how will I survive further?" she was having all of her life's insecurities at once.
"No, I should get myself on the line and think properly." She said slapping her face to get back to reality.
And at the same time, there was a * ding *.
A bright golden and red-letter scroll suddenly appeared on her study table, as she was absorbing her reality.
"Huh? Now what's this?" she mumbled with the least bit of interest.
"What does it say?" she still picked up the scroll.
"Hello Janice, this is from Bob, the grim reaper. LOL. ", her rage meter was rising, she still opened it to read it.
It read as –
'I am sorry that I couldn't tell this to you earlier, but now I'll specify everything in this letter.'
"Ok, at least he knows his mistake and is sorry." She said with a sigh and continued reading.
' Firstly, you have entered the body of a woman named Janice Tyler. It's not too different from your original name. Now, are you feeling thankful, huh?'
"Damn. Is this bastard just plain stupid? I will never ever trust him, he just always spouts nonsense only." Her rage meter was rising again but still, she continued.
'So anyway, now you are the duchess of the Gilbert Duchy.
The duke, Noah Gilbert, doesn't have a very good relationship with Janice, and a few days back she and her husband, the duke, went together on a trip to the summer house.
Later she was sent back alone and after that, she fainted from eating something. The duke didn't return nor send any attendant with her.
Someone poisoned her in the residence itself and she died, but no one knew since the doctor prescribed her sleeping pills.
She died in her sleep.
You have to live like this for the next two years, however, you want, but you have to make a good relationship with Duke Gilbert since it was the last wish of Janice Tyler.
And to make this entire process simpler, I have also sent an accomplice with you from your world. Now your job is to find him or her and go ahead with your relationship with Duke Gilbert.
See you next time, Bye.'
She read through the entire later and was shocked and angry at the same time.
"This is it? What the hell is the use of this information to me now?" Her rage meter reached its last limit.
"You should have cleared up the thing about the accomplice at least you idiot." And now she was just cursing him.
This is how Janice Green, the CEO of W&K became Janice Tyler, the duchess of Gilbert Duchy, in one night.