I was sat on the sofa and was 'happily' munching on a banana. There were multiple servants around me, a surprising number of them were confused. They seemingly had no idea that I had even existed. Even though I was 'happily' eating, on truth I was rather annoyed. The plot had already, changed, in the original novel the servants knew of Valier and Irene knew of me as well. But, by the looks of it Irene didn't know who I was and neither did the servants.
But now that I thought about it, it was fairly plausible that some of the servants didn't know who I was. I lived on the far end of the mansion, and it's a part of the mansion that no seems to go near except a few servants. But even then, the plot shouldn't deviate. However, I do have two theories, one being that this is only a world similar to the book, a parallel reality of sorts. Or the author rewrote this book at some point, and I'm in the rewrite rather than the original.
Bringing me out of my thoughts I felt a sharp pain in my head, it felt like my brain was splitting open. The hand holding the banana twitched slightly, but the pain soon wore off. I had been feeling waves of pain like this every so often, sometimes in my limbs but most often I felt these sharp headaches. I was guessing that it was to do with my reincarnation, this was likely why I wasn't able to think as logically as before.
I heard several pairs of footsteps enter the room, all the servants bowed before the people who came into the room and promptly left without wasting any time. I looked at the trio who had entered the room, first was Irene who I met not too long ago. Then there was a little girl who had blonde hair and jade green eyes like Iris, she was adorable and gave off this vibe of innocence. She was Iris Pendragon. And last but not least, there was a beautiful woman, she was tall and had what many would consider to be an alluring body.
She had soft blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, she seemed to be in her late 20s or early 30s. A few of my previous acquaintances of mine would've killed to talk to a woman like her. Some may have called her... what was the word again? It was a four letter word that was an abbreviation for something...
Well whatever, the point is that she's attractive. I made eye contact with her, she had a look of sorrow on her face but that only lasted for a moment.
They sat themselves on the couch opposite me, the one who seemed to be their mother spoke first.
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Cecillia Pendragon. The current Archduchess of the Empire. You are... the 'adopted' child, yes?"
I took a deep breath, and then relaxed before speaking.
"Yes, I am Valier Pendragon. I've not met any of you before today, but father passed away recently so... I-"
Before I finished speaking, I allowed a 'pained' face to appear. But it dissapeared soon after I noticed that they all caught a glimpse of it.
"I wanted to get acquainted to you, I don't mind if you choose to ignore me after today. But, I'd at least like to mourn for my father with you guys, his actual family."
I was making myself seem pitiful, these guys aren't emotionally stable right now. So, it's the perfect time to lodge myself in their hearts, I've been slowly recovering my personality over the course of the day. And right now, I'm practically emotionless. I experienced emotions earlier today but they're minimal as of right now, I say they're minimal because I do feel some guilt about this. Lying to these people, and pretending that I'm one of them, and that I actually care about the late Archduke.
Pulling me out my thoughts the Archduchess spoke.
"Well, you do indeed have the same eyes and hair as that concubine, and apparently you've been residing in a part of the mansion that's rather... abnormal. You see, under ordinary circumstances it'd be impossible for any of us to not know of your existence, but you reside in an area of the mansion that can only be accessed with a special key. The personal maids of my husband have been the ones 'taking care' of you, and apparently they were ordered to not tell us of your existence but I'm guessing they're lying. My husband didn't hide anything from us, so I won't stop believing in him even if he's passed on."
'What? This... never happened in the original plot? What the fuck? Maybe the author didn't want the heroines to look like jerks, so they probably rewrote some parts to make them seem innocent. Well, that's just a guess.'
Irene was the first to get up, she walked over to me and sat beside me. She was taller than I was by a rather large margin, today was the first of January and the year was 1000. So, she should have been around 9, and Iris should have been 7? I wasn't sure as to how old I was, but even then, I shouldn't have been this much shorter than her.
"You don't look like you're doing very well."
Iris bore a blank expression, she reached her hand forward and placed her hand on my forehead.
"You've got a fever."
I only then realised that I was breathing heavily, I felt beads of sweat roll down my forehead. My heart rate felt slow, I felt dizzy and dehydrated. My eyes started to feel like they were about to force themselves shut. I felt something roll down and into my mouth, I tasted blood, I had a nose bleed.
Irene's eyes widened and although I couldn't hear her properly, it sounded like she was shouting for a doctor. I then blacked out.