The day was bright and it seemed like a good day for anyone who would want to do sincere work.
But it was certainly different for Duke Noah Gilbert, who was possessed by CEO Noah Robbins.
"Why the hell am I here?" he was sitting in his office with a good garden view and a pile of papers stacked in front of him.
"Um, Duke if you may excuse me, would you mind signing these papers?" said a tall man who stood there fidgeting his fingers.
"Is he out of the character or what?" Noah thought to himself.
He let a long sigh out.
"D-du-duke, I know you are here on a vacation but this matter requires your urgent attention." Said the man as he was panicking.
"Oh right, He is Zen Belor, the chief commanding officer of the Gilbert Ducal Guards. I remember." Noah snickered a little.
"A commoner by birth but passionate and ambitious, this man might be useful." He thought to himself.
"Yes give it to me." Said Noah extending his hand. "What is this about?" he asked casually as he flipped the pages.
"The duchess was poisoned. These are the medical bills countess Brooks send." Said Zen in a low tone.
"Oh! the duchess?" he shrugged his shoulder.
A moment later of utter silence he jumped out of his seat,
"The duchess? My wife? Janice?" he panicked.
"What is up with the duke? Is the rumor about him not loving the duchess false? Well, none of my business." Thought Zen to himself.
"Shit, Bob said Janice Green is currently in the body of duchess Janice. But is that even possible? Well, I am here transmigrating myself, so who am I to doubt." He thought as he ran towards his carriage.
"Quickly, take me to the capital city." He shouted to the carriage driver.
"But master what about your vacation?" shouted the butler as the carriage went far away from the magnificent holiday mansion.
As I said, indeed a beautiful day.
"I am here for my revenge and finding answers. I need Janice for that. I can't let her die." Noah was getting nervous as he sat in the carriage.
"As I came into this body, everything feels like a dream. Everything that is happening seems so surreal. I don't even know why I am panicking and getting nervous, but I have this one chance to get my revenge. Maybe Janice was never the part of the plan…" his thoughts were getting messier.
"No, she was. She killed your mother." Whispered a voice in his ears.
"Huh? Who was that?" he searched around him.
"Maybe I am just too tired." Saying that he sighed.
"Since I came here, I got all the memories of Duke Gilbert. Even though they are a little blurry, they are enough for me to know who I am ending up with." He mumbled.
"The only thing completely unclear is 'How was his behavior with the duchess?'. Was it exceptionally good? Was it a plain contract marriage? The one without love? This is confusing, for now, I'll just go with the flow." He concluded.
"For now the only obstacle is Countess Brooks. The fake controversial girlfriend of Duke Noah." He said with a cunning look in his eyes.
Soon it was dark and they decided to stop by an inn.
Noah asked the driver to take the horse into a nearby renting stable and he himself decided to lay low in a commoner's bar. He put on his hood and went in.
It reeked of beer and fried chicken.
"Sure this place reeks of beers. Even if the times are changed, people will always remain the same." He thought as he walked into the bar.
The place was a little dull but the business seemed to be doing good. There were a lot of people who seemed like nearby farmworkers. Some men seemed like local muggles and local goons.
Noah judged the environment and settled down at the corner table.
Soon a man dressed in soiled clothes and an apron appeared.
"What would you like to have?" he asked with a gleaming smile.
Noah examined him from head to toe and said,
"I would like to have a room on the upper floor. Also, a bowl of soup will do." Noah said.
"Oh! Sure sir." Said the waiter with an extremely suspicious smile.
"Am I looking into it too much or did he really seem suspicious?" Noah thought to himself.
Soon a boy about 13 years old approached Noah and showed him the room on the top floor.
He also handed the tray with a soup bowl to him.
But he didn't say a word.
"What's up with this kid. This entire thing seems suspicious to me." He thought as he checked his toom out.
"Thank you, you may return." He said. The boy ran down swiftly.
He took his hood off and suddenly he felt a weird hunch.
"What was that?" he thought.
And just within that moment, an assassin broke the roof and came down. Noah, who trained for martial arts in his previous life, didn't find it hard to stop the sword attack of the masked assassin. But the duke's body seemed weak, so he couldn't do much other than just giving him a few punches and kicks. The assassin laid on the floor with some major wounds.
"You avoided us two times. But not anymore." The assassin mumbled. Just after that he quickly bit his tongue and killed himself.
"What is this? I have seen so many corporate spies and assassins but no one killed themselves earlier for their contractor. Who is the one behind the duke's life ?" Noah thought as he broke into a cold sweat.
And suddenly he noticed a shadow that got cast on his window as though someone was watching whatever happened.
"This is getting scarier and messier." He thought to himself.
He quickly opened the window and observed the situation outside.
All he could see was a bustling city square and a few drunkards going in and out of the bar.
"I must quickly get out of here." He left the soup as well as the dead body in the room and jumped out of the window. He landed on the gallery of the room below.
"The man who was stalking me earlier must still be nearby I must stay vigilant." He thought as he slowly made his way down and behind the bar.
"I can't tell the carriage driver, he might be one of them. I can't trust anyone right now."
Saying so he took the nearby crowded road and looked out for public transport.
He soon got on a public carriage that was headed towards the capital city.
"When will the carriage reach the capital city?" he asked a local.
"Oh! Thank you." The carriage was meant to travel for the entire night to reach the capital city.
By the next morning, they reached the capital city gates, and as usual, an inspection was going on.
He paid the driver and got down ahead of the station to not risk himself.
"I am hungry." He thought as soon as he got down.
He searched for some shops and noticed that the capital city is like metropolitan heaven.
He entered a local bakery shop and bought himself a few croissants.
"Hmm, this is heaven after that crap soup of last night." He thought to himself as he enjoyed there quietly.
Soon he heard a whispering crowd of ladies on the table beside him.
They couldn't recognize him since he was in his hood.
"Let's listen to what's going on in the market." He thought.
"Have you heard that there is a ball at the Count Brook's tonight?" asked one lady.
"I guess Countess Brooks invited Duke Gilbert, her current boyfriend." She continued.
"What? Why me?" Noah almost choked.
"I guess he will come with his wife, the duchess since the royal family is attending too." Said another lady.
"What's up with this sudden tea as soon as I got to the capital?!" he thought to himself.
"I heard the duchess was engaged to the crown prince first but later ended up marrying Duke Gilbert." She added.
"I've heard Countess Brooks hates her and she wants to grab the duchess position to herself. We can see everything in tonight's ball." Giggled another as she said this.
"I am not going to any ball tonight. I am not the original duke anyways, I only need answers from Janice and my revenge." He thought as he sipped the coffee.
"No! You have to go to the ball tonight. This is your chance to lure Janice into your trap." An evil voice whispered in his ears.