"Milady, it's time to wake up," a soft voice said.
I groaned slightly as I opened my eyes.
Guess who I saw.
It was Tamis, the short maid from the previous day.
In addition to being short, she had a petite frame, teal hair in pigtails and bright raspberry coloured eyes - definitely brighter than mine - along with lengthy eyelashes. If you combine that with the maid outfit, the lolicons on Earth would go crazy, I thought.
Earth.
The first time I thought about it in the last day at the time.
As I thought about it, I felt like a small arrow pierced my heart.
"My lady, is something wrong?" Tamis asked with a worried look, pulling me away from these thoughts.
"I'm well thank you," I responded while forcing a smile, "How about you?"
"I'm fine," she said, "I wanted to let you know breakfast will served in an hour. Would like to stay in your room like yesterday or have breakfast with Master and the young masters?"
"The latter," I replied.
"Should I prepare your bath and clothes?"
"No thank you."
"Should I withdraw?"
"May you stay for one more minute?" I asked, "I'd like to know if Julie notified you about the appointment I asked for."
"I almost forgot to mention," Tamis replied with a slight jolt, "Master said straight after breakfast."
"Thank you for the information," I said, "You may withdraw."
"Are you sure you don't need anything else?"
"No thank you."
"I will withdraw."
After that, Tamis left.
As soon as she did, I burst into tears - the tears that I had desperately contained. The adrenaline had disappeared. The memories of my family, coworkers and Kirarin flooded my brain. I would never see them again, maybe in dreamland but that's about it. Though we had our issues and difficulties, I knew I'd desperately miss them. And poor Kirarin, she must be in shambles knowing how she is, I thought at the time. After all, she had seen me die.
You idiot! Why did you die?! I could imagine her saying.
My elder brother Suisen looks tough, but he's actually a crybaby, so I imagined him crying for days at a time.
My little sister Himawari probably buried herself in books to escape the pain.
My parents would cry from the heavens.
Imagining this shattered my heart even more and I started crying a waterfall instead of a river.
But I knew weeping wouldn't bring them here and that if they were, they'd tell me to pull myself together. And I had a meeting that day, going with puffy eyes wasn't going to help convince anyone anything. With that spirit, I wiped my tears, sat up and started to get ready for breakfast. I hadn't completely recovered from the adrenaline crash, but I was okay enough to pretend I had.
After about 30 minutes, I was ready. I had put on a black dress with lustrous cerulean designs. It even had a sapphire brooch! To say the least, it was gorgeous. The perfect contrast between my white hair and red eyes. I let my hair down that day. That's all - that was what I thought at the time.
Just as I was about to leave the room, I realised I couldn't go barefoot. I promptly pulled on my ivory stockings from the cupboard, slipped on my shoes and left. As walked towards the staircase, I had a look at my surroundings.
An intimidatingly enormous area that happened to be the corridor.
A blue floor - probably made with the world's softest materials - with diamond like silver designs.
Paintings - they were taking up a nonsensical amount of space - of my supposed ancestors left and right.
Cluttered with gold and silver plated valuables.
Even the walls were cluttered with extravagant things.
The windows were massive - I was sure 5 Bigfoots would be able to sit on them comfortably.
In short, this corridor could fit my old home and 305 more clones of it. Also, my new parents seemed to have a gold and silver addiction of some sort.
Anyways, I slightly digress.
As I was about reach the staircase, I bumped into a maid.
" I apologise." I said - during my apology, I had to restrain my body like crazy not to bow.
"No, it's my fault, I'm sorry my lady," She said.
It was Julie.
" I was on my way to escort you downstairs," she added.
"And I was just about to go downstairs."
" I see," Julie replied, "I will withdraw then."
"Wait a second," I uttered, "I just wanted to say thank you for notifying Tamis."
" I was just doing my job my lady," she said after a slight pause, "I will withdraw."
I didn't have time to say goodbye, because Julie once again disappeared.
She's probably really busy, I thought. Thinking along those lines, I went down the spiral staircase. It was made of wood and like many things in this place, it was over polished. So much so that I hesitated going down the steps. I decided to ignore this and get this over with. No more excuses, I told myself as I went down the seemingly infinite staircase.
****
Julie Graymore speaking.
One day, Irisiez Dolth, the young lady I waited on, completely changed. She used to be very dependent on me and the rest of her maids. We would pick her clothes, dress her, bathe her and comb her hair. We would carry her down the staircase and even pick things up for her. She was also rude towards us and insulted us many times. But we knew what she was going through at the hands of the young masters and tried to make her feel better. But as I said before, there was a day that she completely changed.
The day she hit her head.
It was as if she'd aged by 20 years or so. Her posture was of a confident young lady instead of her usual meek, almost fearful one. She no longer looked at us with disregard nor disrespect, instead she looked at us like any normal person. Her eyes were with imbued with carefulness and discernment. Even the way she was talking to us, it wasn't the same as before. She talked us with in a calm almost calculated manner. Her demanding nature was nowhere to be found. It was as if she had become a different person. But it was probably because she hit her head. An injury like that can change a person, I thought. After that, we left.
Later, I was called by the young lady and her changed attitude remained. She had even shown concern towards me, which was highly unusual - I do admit I was glad.
The strangest thing was that she had combed her hair, dressed and bathed by herself! Normally she would never even think of doing such a task by herself. The most surprising thing of all was that, she did it all very well! She picked a combination of colours that perfectly matched her skin tone, eyes and hair. No button nor ribbon was crooked. Her hair in a braided low bun which was done impeccably. She smelt nice and her skin wasn't greasy. I was flabbergasted, to say the least.
We had no idea that she had these capabilities. I wanted to ask her how, but l didn't want to jump into the lion's den, so I didn't. She then asked me something quite strange and even asked for an appointment with her father. I didn't think she would even think of booking an appointment with her father. She was normally quite impulsive and would jump into things straight away. After I left the room, I went to the maid's lounge and told them all about her sudden change in attitude.
Gladis, a maid of a slightly higher position than I was, agreed with me and told me the young lady had stood up for herself earlier that day. The assailant was none other than Marvin Dolth, one of the young masters. He bullied the young lady on several occasions.
"I was passing by and heard him (Marvin) say, "Hi Empress of ****, hope you die!" ", she recounted vividly, " "Good afternoon, the poisoned mouthed resident of my home, whom happens to be my shameful excuse of a brother," she had replied. And then, "Ha, you think I care if ****'s ashamed of me?" he had retorted. Little did he what was coming! "Same for both of us then," she said with huge smirk on her face. And then he was like "Oh, uh, ah!". Then, he threatened to destroy her jaw. She didn't even waver nor flinch! "What is it, Mr. Venomous, puss filled, maggot infested ****?" she said in a provoking tone, "Go ahead, destroy it." At that point, I was ready to jump in when… he put his hand away. While all that was happening, she looked as if a bird had just passed by. "What is it, are you scared?" she mocked, "So you're scared of 5 year olds now, how pitiful." Then he muttered something and left looking quite irritated."
While she recounted this, the rest of the maids and I were left in shock. We couldn't believe our ears! She sounded very much unlike the young lady we had seen grow up. I soon left the lounge and went to see the master.
"Come in," a deep, strict voice said as I knocked on the door.
I opened the door and saw the master, buried in papers like usual. He looked just like the rest of the family or the rest of the family looked just like him, expect that he looked much older.
"Julie," He said, "Why have you come?"
"Good afternoon, master. I have come regarding Lady Irisiez."
"I'm well aware of what happened this morning," he replied almost instantly.
"It's not that master, she requested an appointment with you."
His eyes widened in extreme shock and a hint of disbelief. He too had known her to be impulsive.
"Y-you mean you proposed for her to do that, is that not so?" He asked, slightly stuttering.
"I did no such thing," I replied, "She came up with the idea herself."
"Was the fall severe?"
"It was minor, sir."
"I see, did she tell you what the appointment was about?"
"No sir, but it might be about her schedule."
"Is that so, did she exhibit any strange behaviours in the last few hours?"
I told him all about how she could dress by herself, the change in her demeanour and the incident with the young master. He was silent a few seconds and then broke out into hysterical laughter.
"Tomorrow," he said after a while.
"What is tomorrow, sir?" I asked.
"The appointment," He replied, "Right after breakfast."
"You may go, Julie."
"Have a wonderful day, sir." I said as I withdrew.
The next morning, her change in demeanour remained. Tamis had told me about how relieved she was she didn't have to do as much that morning. The young lady once again thanked me. Since I was told to notify the master's assistant immediately if it the change remained (earlier that morning), I scurried away to master's office again - his assistant is often there.
****
After a few twists and turns, I arrived at the breakfast room.
When I opened the door, here's what I saw:
A room that could fit a walking version of the Megalodon without much problems.
Note:
The room was strengthened with magic. It was able to carry or be damaged by anything up to 250 tones.
End of Note.
Purple chairs, seemingly fit for royalty.
Cluttered with all sorts of valuables, just like the corridor.
There were even 3 chandeliers (with real diamonds) in the room!
A table long and wide enough to be a 50 meter giant's bed.
A pure white sheet with bronze patterns and a plain purple sheet draped over it.
The sheets hosted an absurd amount of gold plated cutlery with overly intricate carvings.
The overly washed plates were clearly made by a ceramics expert.
All that I have just described, were placed on the table with much care and immaculacy. So much so that I was very reluctant to approach the table any further.
"What is wrong, Irisiez?"
A deep voice uttered, waking me up from my reverie.
It was Irisiez's father, Duke Nar Schwarz Dolth.
I had almost forgotten, there were countless maids along with my new family waiting for me.
"No at all, father," I replied as I walked towards the table, "Good morning. I was just looking at this table again, the chairs and the rest of this room. It made me realise that I have been an ungrateful, greedy, lazy and thoughtless little brat. I have never thanked the people working so hard to make and maintain this home of mine the way it is. They focus on everything, down to the last details. Even this table, it has been set so immaculately, for us to enjoy. While I ignored their tireless efforts and hard work, never offering to offer a helping hand. Instead, I lived lazily like some spoiled princess. The incident yesterday made realise that my life could easily slip away. I can't continue like this."
"Huh?" My brothers all cried out in confusion.
My father looked dumbfounded and didn't say a word.
"I need to take action," I continued, "Meaning now."
I decided to go to the kitchen and help the maids bring the food over.
"Where are you going?" One of my brothers said as I walked towards the back door.
It was Matthew, one of the love interests in the game. I despised him the least out of all of them. Horan had manipulated him via magic to mistreat the poor Topaz when I went down the Matthew route. Since it had been a slow process, Matthew had no idea what was happening and soon gave in to madness. Topaz had no idea either, and blamed herself. She died 5 years after the 'happy' ending. I wanted to stop this from happening and in order to do this, I had to duel Horan and kill him. He's too clever to be left alive.
Why?
He has connections from all over the world. Most of them are very powerful and influential to this world. They could easily find a way bring him back out of exile, prison or even the imperial family. I didn't want too much trouble, so duelling him to the death was easiest (though most dangerous) solution to the problem.
Anyways, I digress.
"Good morning Matthew," I said, "I'm going to help the maids serve breakfast."
"Good morning Irisiez," he replied, "Why not just sit at the table like usual. You'll just cause trouble for the maids."
"Every little helps," I said as I scurried to the kitchen.
Note:
2 years before Ajisai was reincarnated, she went to England and encountered a shop named Tesco. On their bags, it said 'every little helps'.
End of Note.
*******
This is a message from the rest of the family.
We were all very, very confused. At the time, at least. Irisiez seemed as if she had been possessed. She talked quite differently compared to the average 5 year old and quite eloquently as well. Her self reflection improved dramatically. Her usual complaints and annoying behaviours were nowhere to be found. She seemed to take action quite quickly now too. You wouldn't believe our surprise when we saw Irisiez carrying basket brimming with bread, going back to the kitchen at a very high speed, then returning with a few other things. She was even polite to the maids!
The Irisiez we previously knew talked and acted very childishly and would easily forget the promises she made. She would often procrastinate tasks. She would rarely show signs of maturity. That morning, no since the head injury, Irisiez was very different.
*******
After I helped out the maids, I sat down and had some breakfast. I don't remember the exact contents but I do remember it was delicious. However, there was one problem.
Everyone was staring at me, as if I had become some strange creature.
"Father?" I asked, as I momentarily stopped eating.
"Yes," He uttered as he looked up.
"Why is everyone staring at me?" I continued, "Do I have something on my face?"
"It's nothing," he replied, "Continue eating."
It was hard, but I pushed myself to continue. After all, you can't go to a meeting with an empty or almost empty stomach.
After a few minutes, we all finished eating and my brothers hurriedly left the table, going their separate ways.
******
"Shall we go to my office?" Father said as he stood up.
"Of course Father," I replied.
I knew he would say this, that's why I had brought a small bag with visual aids that would reinforce my points during the meeting, In other words, I was prepared.
We went though the front door (the door I came from) and made a left turn. It led to a short staircase that was wooden just like the other one. After that, we went straight ahead and arrived.
It was a Victorian style office with all sorts of trophies and awards. There was a portrait of my dead mother who looked just like the rest of the family but with a slightly lighter eye colour. There was also a giant sword on the wall, right behind the desk and chair.
Father sat down on his comfy looking chair and said, "Who are you?"
"I am your daughter, Irisiez Dolth, obviously you know that?"
"You seem like a different person."
"A head injury can change a person completely."
"But it was a minor one," he said, "Anyways, I'll ignore this and ask you why you scheduled this appointment. If you don't give me a satisfactory answer, I'll have to ask for a soul examiner. I'm sure you know for what purpose."
As I thought. I was planning to lie for a bit longer but I saw there was no point. He had already done it.
What did he do?
He used his special ability, aura detection. He read people's auras. Because of this, he can detect anything from emotions to which family you come from. According to him, each family has its own aura colour. It's mixed in with the people's normal aura. The Dolth family's is crimson red. When a soul transfer or death occurs, the family aura disappears and only a black or grey aura remains. Seeing my completely different personality, he probably wanted to check my aura just in case. In the process, he found out that I wasn't Irisiez.
"Before I do," I said with the calmest voice I could muster up, "I will tell you my true identity. I am Chuiri Ajisai, an otherworlder. Back where I came from, this world was a tragic fairytale. In the other world, I desperately wanted to save the main character. And now I have the opportunity to do, I will. In order to do so, I have to have the highest position in the empire. The ruler. Don't worry, I have no intention of harming you or your family in the process. Anyways, I have to come propose some changes in my schedule to help with my goal."
"Is that so?" He said after a slight pause, "Why not become a candidate to marry the crown prince and work hard in your current lessons?"
"I plan to do the latter," I responded, "But the crown prince idea… I'm afraid will not be possible."
"Why is that?"
"He's going to be the cause of the problem."
What did I mean by that?
I could try and make him fall for me, like all the other novels.
You might believe.
The only flaw in this is that, he only thinks of manipulating the weak or those who believe that they are his friend and those in between. If he no longer deems them to be useful or they no longer play in his hand, he will dispose of them.
Just like Topaz.
The reason why most of the love interests (4 of them) were this way, was because of Horan. When Topaz decided to go over to their side, he would apply many pressures and burdens to make their lives difficult. They ended up taking their stress out on Topaz, who had become nothing but misfortune to their eyes. But it wasn't her fault. Horan should have understood that Topaz is a person who deserves to love whoever she wants. And the rest should have blamed Horan for their hardships.
Anyways, I digress.
The point is, I don't marry manipulative people who would only marry me because I'm useful.
And do I want to disposed of any moment?
No.
Do I want to be someone's puppet?
No.
Do I want to be in someone's constant grasp?
No.
In short, absolutely not.
And plus, he's a very good actor and could probably fool me if I let my guard down for even one second. To be married with someone like that would be torture. And another plus, I despise him with all my organs and bones!
Now I've made myself clear, let's continue recounting the conversation.
"Horan Wretaiar, the 8th heir to the throne and 3rd prince."
"Tell me all of this in more detail," he demanded.
I told him all about the game and tragic endings.
"Are you sure Matthew will be involved?" He had asked.
"Unless we limit his encounters with the 3rd prince, yes."
" I see," He said while in deep thought, "So what changes would you like me to do to the schedule?"
"Here are my plans," I said as took out a few pieces of paper from my bag.
"I approve," he replied, "You clearly thought things out. I will notify your teachers. By the way, your classes will begin the day after tomorrow."
"Thank you," I said with a smile, "May I go?"
"Of course," He replied, " It was nice to meet you, Chuiri Ajisai."
"Nice to meet you too, sir."
"Please call me Father," he uttered, "What should I call you when we're alone?"
"Call me Ajisai," I replied, "I hope we will have a long lasting partnership. Good day."
After I said this, I promptly left.