Carriages were more comfortable than she'd expected them to be. Maybe it was because this one belonged to a duke, and thus was of the highest quality, or maybe it was because people exaggerated how uncomfortable they could be for long periods of time. Either way, Stella found herself sinking into the plush cushioning not unlike one would in a comfortable car seat.
Her decoding of the script had been correct—not a love letter, but a eulogy for an author—and Selene had been overjoyed that Stella recognised the name on she'd written. Stella was ready to go along with whatever Selene wanted if it meant a comfier life, especially if Selene wasn't showing signs of awakening an old god for her own desires, but Selene still proved that not everything was as predictable as one could hope. Knowing a story never, ever meant knowing an outcome. Especially when characters had more depth to them beyond words on a page.
"Your Grace, this one is like me," Selene had announced while the assistant handled Baron Clemont and his son. "An old soul from Rias reborn to prevent a great tragedy."
That hadn't been a plot in the book, Stella knew for certain.
No, scratch that—the author never hinted once at anyone from Rias, the empire that disappeared overnight thousands of years ago, had held any sort of presence in the narrative whatsoever.
She sat on her side of the carriage, head pressed against the window as she surveyed the land. Selene was kicking her legs up and down as she read a book she'd pulled seemingly from nowhere, humming all the while. Duke Gelum, a quiet and observant man, kept his eyes on Stella the entire time. The silence, unlike the carriage cushioning, was uncomfortable. Stella wasn't sure what she'd expected, but part of her had thought that the Duke would rather ride with his son and his assistant rather than two children he had no relation to. Maybe Selene, sure; she seemed to have an important role with the work he had her doing, especially if she was fluent and claiming to be an old soul reborn after thousands of years. But Stella as well? Duke Gelum knew next to nothing about her except what Selene had decided, and what Selene had decided beyond her name made absolutely no sense to her as well.
Duke Gelum would have no luck deciphering the boy with a girl's name, because she was barely able to make heads or tails of herself right now either.
The land the barony had been built upon wasn't far from the nearby villages that Baron Clemont oversaw in the west. It was a warm climate, the fields of wheat always a shimmering sea of gold during the harvest season—at least according to the book, she reasoned. Right now the farmers were preparing for a new batch, sowing seeds under the light of the sun and occasionally given shade by the clouds that passed overhead. It was the perfect weather for all manner of harvest, the western part of the kingdom graced with an almost year-long spring climate and showing much promise in its trade during the few off-season months with the nomads further west, beyond the kingdom's borders. Those were the people Stella's new body were descended from—desert dwellers who traded commerce from countries just out of reach thanks to the long strip of inhospitable dunes separating the country from the sea and its bounty.
Right now had to be that point in the year, Stella thought as the carriages began to enter more congested parts of the villages. Every so often they would pass caravans, only stopping to let those with merchandise move around them. The streets weren't small, but the number of people walking up to each parked caravan to inspect produce—flowers and meat and fish, and Stella could even smell some kind of chilli wafting through the air—definitely made it feel like the modern cities she used to live in back in her old life.
Some of the nomads at their stalls caught her gaze, and some even waved to her with warm smiles. She waved back, if only out of obligation, and quickly forgot the many faces as the carriage continued through the villages.
It was hard to judge how much time had passed with Selene reading her book and Duke Gelum watching her like a hawk, but eventually the man leaned back to call to the coachman through the small window above his head. The carriage slowed as it began to steer through the less crowded areas of the small stalls and gatherings, and Duke Gelum was quick to open the door for himself and step out of the carriage.
He threw a look at Selene—Stella could've sworn there was something in the look that even she could understand, but that was just ridiculous—before he shut the carriage door and headed over to some of the stalls that sold varying knick-knacks.
Selene dropped her book and, very much unlike the Selene of the novel, sprawled out on the bench until her head landed on Stella's lap.
"Holy fuck," she groaned, and Stella gawked—because "holy fuck" was not a phrase used at all in even the most explicit of scenes. Let alone by a child. "I knew today was gonna be a good day. I woke up and I said to myself, 'Selene, you need to stick to Remus like glue today. Shit's gonna go down'. And shit went down! I thought I was the only one here!"
Stella blinked down at her. She quickly looked out the window, searching for the Duke, and Selene wriggled on the bench.
"Don't be shy, now! It's me! I'm not gonna bite you or anything. Unless—" Selene gasped dramatically and sprang back up, the colour draining from her face. "You don't think I'll turn you into a frog like I said I'd do to Sirius, do you? I swear to God, I don't know how to do that yet! I'm just bluffing!"
"I'm having a stroke," Stella finally mumbled. She had to be. This wasn't the kind of language used in the book, not even the revised edition. And that had been padded to be more understandable for those who didn't like prose. "I'm already dead. It has to be a stroke."
Selene scoffed. "Please, if only. Sorry, sister, but you're fit as they come—minus the malnourishment, but I'll fatten you up."
This wasn't right. This definitely wasn't Selene. Someone else in Selene's body? Well, Stella wasn't the only one to commit suicide because of the book and its author, so why should she be the only one to transmigrate into it as well? Admittedly, thinking it was just her was a tad arrogant on her part. No one person involved with the book had been special, and the body she'd woken up in was just as common. She was like the people the carriage had passed—nameless and, in the context of the story, faceless. It made sense that other people had come into the story like she had.
But to become Selene Charron, of all people? That required a special kind of... special, she supposed.
Stella blinked quickly. She looked back at Selene, who had her hands raised in a placating gesture.
"Is Sirius...?"
"Oh, no, absolutely not. Trust me, I tested him too." Selene put a little bit of distance between them. She seemed to have realised she'd been too casual too quickly, overwhelming her newfound companion enough to quell her excitement for the time being. "Deep breaths. I'll, uh... Try explain some things?"
Stella would very much like that.
"But don't worry! Remus is giving us time right now. I kinda, sorta, maybe spun a little tale about why I could understand Riisian and knew so much about its culture—mostly to save my own neck, mind you. I don't know if you know the story of this place, but my death warrant is practically signed at fifteen. I'm kinda against the clock right now." Selene cleared her throat. "But anyway. I made up this ritual I said was done in the hopes of keeping the old god sealed in Rias from waking up again, and it involved the souls of those who sealed it away in the first place to be reborn when the god was close to waking up again. I didn't think I'd find anyone else here with me, but I still said that there was a chance others had been reborn like me. You following so far?"
No.
"I—"
"Great," Selene cut her off. Her talking began to get faster, almost like a chatterbox that didn't know how to stop and take a breath before passing out. "So your cover story is that you're one of those people who participated in the ritual. And since Selene Charron—that's me—woke the old god in the original storyline, I just have to not wake the old god. There! Problem solved! And we can just say we did the ritual behind closed doors and no one will be wiser."
Wait, hold on—
"Please—"
Selene didn't wait. She just kept on talking.
"But anyway, in case you didn't read the story, I'm so sorry in advance. But I think you did since you recognised the name of the author I wrote down, but I'm still sorry in advance for that too. I gotta be honest, did not expect to wake up as my own villain—I'm the author, by the way, and thank you so much for pronouncing my name right! I'm happy to just keep being Selene, though. It'd be super weird if I started going by my 'Riisian' name all of a sudden, and who knows what kind of trouble that'll bring, right? That's why you just went with being nameless, right? You didn't know this body's name? Oh! Also, was it really okay that I named you Stella?"
Selene's excitement was far from contageous. Stella's head spun and her heart hammered in her chest, far worse than it had been back at the barony. Too much. There was too much to process.
"I just sort of assumed when you got all bashful when I called you a Cinderella that you were kinda, y'know, not quite a boy, but that was probably rude of me. Sorry if it was! Maybe we can salvage this a little... Stellan might work as an alternative. But then we won't match anymore. Shit, there goes my whole matchy-matchy dynamic I wanted us to have. Friends need something in common!"
Her stomach lurched. Had she eaten anything today? No, she couldn't recall... Duke Gelum had shown up first thing this morning, and it was already nearing lunch now that they were closer to the capital.
"Oh, shit, I'm so stupid. We both have the whole transmigrating thing in common. Duh! Wow, I'm just the stupidest sometimes. But two heads are better than one, at least! We should start planning what we wanna do later down the line. It probably won't the same since it's literally a different world, but I always wanted to travel in my old life! I put a little bit of everything I could think of in the novel, so it should still be fun to do! What about you? I'm sure there's— Hey, you okay?"
Stella lunged for the door and threw it open just as she thew up, tragically projectile vomiting all over the person who'd been standing on the other side of the carriage door.
She coughed and trembled, mind reeling from the information overload Selene had dumped on her, and she barely paid any mind to just whose clothes she'd ruined with what was maybe her dinner, but most likely just bile. Her stomach churned and groaned, limbs shaking and eyes watering, and she could vaguely hear Selene panicking behind her as she coughed in an attempt to rid her throat of the burns that lingered.
Finally, after spending what felt like an eternity catching her breath, Stella collapsed to her knees inside the carriage and leaned her head against the open door. Through watery eyes, she could vaguely make out the shape of the person in front of her—small, probably a child, and Stella mumbled an apology as guilt replaced her stress. How pathetic of her, ruining someone's clothes because she couldn't handle Selene talking at light speeds, let alone the massive infodump she'd been given.
The child in front of her flicked their arms, splattering vomit onto the ground, and she could see the clothes were the kind of quality those with money could afford. Now she felt even worse, because how bad would this look for Duke Gelum if someone from one of his carriages just insulted another noble with their bodily fluids so crudely?
Selene let out a small gasp and pulled Stella back inside, dabbing at her face with a handkerchief as she glared at the boy outside.
"What do you want, Sirius?" she snapped. Stella's stomach dropped six feet under. She just threw up on the male lead? The protagonist of every action scene and, once he was of age, the absolute sex god that charmed the habit off of a saintess?
"Oh, fuck," Stella groaned.
Selene shushed her, trying to calm her down, but she was still preoccupied with trying to get Sirius to leave.
"Where's Helio? Shouldn't you be with him?"
"And since when," Sirius, in his squeaky pre-pubescent voice, growled, "was someone like you my caretaker?"
Stella coughed into the handkerchief and wiped at her face with it some more, taking it from Selene to at least free her hands in case they had to be thrown. Just from the sheer animosity both regarded each other with in this brief pause between travels, it was obvious they were bound to start a fight sooner or later—whether it stayed verbal was another thing entirely.
A scoff. She glanced in Sirius's direction, and all she was able to catch was his mop of hair before Selene crawled in front of her to block the commoner from view.
"Already casting hexes on your new toy, are we?" Sirius went on. "You're certainly getting creative with distancing yourself from any mishaps occuring to me."
"Then leave me alone! I have better things to do than inconvenience you!"
"As if I'd trust the word of a witch."
Selene stomped to the carriage door, face as red as her hair, and the same domineering presence that had downed Josiah reared its head. Sirius appeared to brace himself for a physical fight, but Selene grabbed the door and shoved him back with a rough kick of her foot.
"I am a mage," she screeched back at him, "and we're very common in this day and age, thank you very much!"
With that, Selene slammed the door shut.
It was just one thing after another with this girl. A human hurricane, through and through, even overpowering a tsunami like Sirius in one fell swoop.
Stella let out a low breath and slumped down further, almost laying on the carriage floor now. "Please," she groaned, "slow down."
Soft footfalls moved closer and closer to her. No one tried to open the door again, the two children once again given their privacy. The edge of Selene's dress entered her vision, and then Selene was kneeling down next to her with an equally exhausted sigh. When all the action wasn't coming from her, Selene also seemed to become overwhelmed quickly.
"I'm sorry," Selene mumbled. She pulled Stella closer to her, letting the brunette lean her head on her shoulder, and a small hand began to stroke her hair with the gentleness and care of a reassuring mother. "It's... been so lonely here. I don't know how other people can do it—adjust so quickly to living another person's life. To living a villain's life."
Stella closed her eyes, still trembling, but her stomach was beginning to calm itself.
"It just makes you special," Stella tried to reassure her. "Being one of your main characters."
Selene let out a hollow laugh. "I never wanted to be any of them. I was happy being me."
"So was I."
The soft petting of her head was almost enough to lull her to sleep. Selene kept the silence for as long as she needed to, careful not to fill it too often with words that would overwhelm Stella again. But when she did speak, it was always a helpful piece of advice to keep their stories straight.
Not once did Sirius attempt to enter the carriage. The door only opened again when Remus had returned from his own little task, bringing with him an update on their travels to come. Rather than head towards the capital, a messenger would be sent to report Duke Gelum's findings in the Clemont barony—that a "son" of Baron Clemont was the one deciphering the scripts as promised, and that Duke Gelum had taken him under his wing for more advanced translation in the north. Stella wasn't sure why such news made her relax even more. Maybe it was because at least some kind of explanation was given for the royal family to be satisfied with, especially when the Duke had told Baron Clemont to lay low for the time being. Maybe it was because Stella wouldn't have to go to the capital directly for this report to be made, and she could instead hide herself away in the cold frost of the north with Selene while the redhead did her duty as part of her "ritual".
Duke Gelum, for the most part, didn't seem to be in a rush to put Stella to work. At least he was letting her take her time as well.
"We'll stop at an inn overnight," Duke Gelum informed the duo. "Eat now while you have the chance to."
Stella wasn't feeling too fond of standing up right now. Selene was able to pick up on that just from the way she slumped against her.
"Stella's feeling a little unwell," she said gently. She gave the man an apologetic look. "Are they selling any bread? I noticed the wheat fields were being resown on our way through."
Duke Gelum let out a short, almost unimpressed hum. But if how he treated Selene so far was any indicator, it wasn't displeasure at Stella's state. It was more likely concern that something had caused the child to become ill, and Remus had to be wary of what he fed her in case she was sick again.
He was gone just long enough to purchase some bread, practically fresh out of the oven, and a small box of butter was provided alongside it. Stella hadn't realised how much she'd missed those late-night buttered bread binges, the kind that she would pass out from at three in the morning after waking for a glass of water. When Selene handed her a warm slice with the butter beginning to melt, she practically gobbled it all down and thanked the Duke with her mouth full, forgetting her manners in the midst of her glee. Selene forced her to wait for the next slice of bread, if only to keep from choking, and Stella slowly began to realise just what had happened right before Duke Gelum had returned.
She paused midway through her third slice of bread when she gave the Duke a pitiful glance, nervous and apologetic.
"I—I think I threw up on the... young master," she tried. Saying it out loud made her want to crawl into a hole until the old god woke up through a means other than Selene. "I'm so sorry about that."
Duke Gelum was adjusting his coat's cuffs.
"He provokes Selene too much," Duke Gelum said instead. "Always wants a reason to throw her out of the dukedom. He needs to learn to behave himself towards a lady."
Selene let out a soft giggle. "In his defense, Your Grace, I probably don't behave like a lady should in his eyes."
"Perhaps you ought to attend his lessons with him, in that case."
"Have mercy, milord!" Selene joked. "This daughter of a humble merchant couldn't possibly keep up with such studies!"
In what felt like a rare moment for the Duke, Stella watched as he smiled knowingly and turned his gaze to the open road outside the carriage.
The trip was easy to sit through after all of the rush from the initial stop. Stella had things to think about—her shared "history" with Selene as a Riisian reborn into the new era, the fact that Selene was the author of the novel itself, how her first impression with Sirius had been a nightmare and a half—and the occasional naps she was able to take were broken up with small questions she shared with Selene. She asked what the northern dukedom was like, to which the answer was, "Constantly frigid," and she couldn't help laughing at the redhead.
Before she even knew it, the sun was beginning to set and the next town they'd arrived in slowly came into view. Selene had been yawning for an hour before that point, nodding off as she tried to sit upright. The carriage came to a slow stop outside of one building, the Duke disembarking first before helping Selene out as well, and then he was shutting the carriage door behind Stella as she herself stepped outside. The towns never were described with much detail by the author, her focus being more on the people and fashion, but to Stella, they all felt homely. Not too clustered together like a modern city, but not so far apart that you had to commit to walking from one building to the other. Each street was clearly intended for a specific purpose—one for dining, another for resting, the next for clothing and jewellery—and each building within those streets were the kind of brick and stone that gave rise to the classic cottage aesthetic Stella had enjoyed in her old life.
The inn was no different, three floors high and with clay tile roofing that gave it an earthen appearance in tandem with the plants decorating the front entrance. Both carriages and their luggage were ridden around the other side of the inn, towards the back gate, and like a motel that would be where their transport was kept for the night.
Sirius had changed his clothes since the incident earlier. He was grumpy, naturally, and wouldn't even look in Stella or Selene's direction, but he was polite to everyone else and the perfect image of a young heir. It almost irked her, how much he seemed to dislike Selene for practically no reason so far, and she had to wonder just how petty this child was before he met the saintess.
Duke Gelum handed a room key to his assistant, and the words he spoke were understandable when considering that Selene was the younger sister of the red-haired man. "Helio, you and Selene will have a room together."
Going by an order of class, Stella wholly expected to be sent out to the stables or something. She was a commoner among the group of nobles and merchants, after all, and with no money to spare, how else would she compensate the Duke for a room? The horses would pull their weight quicker than she would. But Duke Gelum turned to her next, holding up his own key, and he didn't even think twice when he spoke.
"You'll be with myself and Sirius for the night, boy. Bear with it until we reach the dukedom."
So despite Selene insisting so much that Stella was a maiden at heart, Duke Gelum still only saw a scrawny young boy when he looked at Stella. She wasn't exactly disappointed or surprised, but there was still a small part of her that felt let down. These were the circumstances, she supposed, and until she found a proper way to explain it all—even with the excuse that her 'Riisian' past life had been female—she was still just... "Boy".
At least she knew the Duke didn't mean anything malicious in calling her that. In his eyes, it was probably hard for her to turn down Selene naming her Stella because of the difference in social standing, and that Duke Gelum simply wanted the unnamed boy to not feel insulted by the others.
She looked at the floor and nodded. "Thank you, Your Grace," she mumbled.