After a moment of silence, he looked up to me again, "You will go to the funeral, won't you?"
I feel like I should, especially if I'm right and the soul who died is actually Hong Yeji's, my cousin, his sister, and the 2nd Diana. "I will. Will you come with me?"
He seemed shaken up, "I don't... I don't feel good in funerals, Dia, it triggers me."
Understanding him more than I wanted, I nodded, "I'll do better now, as Diana, I'll take the best out of this loss of memories. But keep it between us," a firm nod.
"Finally, Dia. Seems like you really needed to hit your head to come to your senses," he chuckled. "Memory loss aside. It's better than you don't remember either way, it'll make you acting different better, and you need to. We need to find a way to get the three remaining leads away from you, and to marry you to someone powerful, even if it's someone from another Kingdom."
I think Arwel might be the best thing that happened to my life ever since I first reincarnated in this world 17 years ago. "How old are you here if I'm 22, Ary?" I asked him.
"I'm 20," he smiled childishly. "Still younger."
"Adorable," I messed with his hair. "Can you tell me about my family here, before anyone comes in? Fill me in on what I forget."
Nod, "We are from the North, the strongest region in magic..."
✵ ✵ ✵
Diana Le Noir is the only daughter of Marquis Raoul Le Noir with Marchioness Anushka Volkov Le Noir, but their 3rd child, the youngest. She is the only granddaughter of the northern Duke Artemy Volkov with Duchess Nastasya Petrova Volkov, and the granddaughter of Lord Marquis Enzo Le Noir and Lady Charlotte Chastain Le Noir, the late Marquis and Marchioness who retired for her father take their title.
Her full name is actually Diana Nataliya Volkov Le Noir, while Ary calls her Dia, her family nickname is actually Liya, short of her middle name. She is the youngest sister of Patrick Andrey Volkov Le Noir and Pierre Kirill Volkov Le Noir, 5 and 3 years older than her, respectively.
Daughter of a born Princess, her mother is the younger sister of Milan Volkov, the heir of the Volkov northern Duchy, Diana's only maternal uncle, who's married to Magdalina Litvinova, the daughter of the Captain of the Duchy Knights, with whom he's been in love since childhood. Together they had two sons, Prince Grigory Volkov, the oldest son and future heir apparent, and Lukyan Volkov, both who are Diana's cousins, 3 and 1 year older than her. Prince Grigory is currently engaged to Manon, also her cousin, but from her paternal side.
While her father also has a sister younger than him, Rose-Coline Le Noir, who married Count Damien Moitessier, also under the northern Duchy, she then became the Moitessier Countess. They had a couple of twins together, Zacharie and Manon Moitessier, both 2 years younger than Diana, Zacharie being the oldest and heir. As Manon is engaged to the Prince Grigory, Zacharie is engaged to childhood best friend, Annie Dubuisson-Lebon, the 2nd and youngest daughter of Viscount Marc-Antoine Dubuisson-Lebon and Viscountess Lydia Veil Dubuisson-Lebon.
As for her brothers, both are single and some of the most wanted bachelors, apparently.
None of this was mentioned in the novel, none of this was even known by Eleanor, I had no idea of any of these people because they aren't part of my circle of people, nor Maximilianos'. Apparently, Marquis Le Noir and Duke Volkov both pledged loyalty to the Imperial Crown Prince, they aren't in the same side as the Archduke, since uncle and nephew apparently fight here and there and aren't in good waters with one another. The reason is unknown.
Just like everything related to the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince who insistently acted like my pen pal for years, even though I never talked back, even though I avoided him. I can't help but wonder if he'll be sad that I, as Eleanor, am dead.
It doesn't matter, not now when I'm sure he must hate Diana too. If he really cared about me, he definitely hates Diana, because of how she bullied me. I never understood why he was so fascinated with me to begin with, not when I didn't even remember ever meeting him.
Surprisingly, Diana's family doesn't hate her, which is genuinely shocking, especially when Ary told me that none of them were rotten like the og Diana was. He did tell me that she was disliked before Yeji took over as the new Diana, and that they began loving Diana through Yeji, because she was unable to mistreat her new family. That definitely lifted a weight of my shoulders, the novel and everything made me believe that she was loathed by everyone.
But again the Eleanor of the novel was the og one, the one who somehow died by drowning when I transmigrated here, just as the Diana of the novel was the og one that committed suicide 3 years ago, when Yeji and Yejun transmigrated here as Diana and Arwel.
After he told me everything, I suggested that we talked to the Marquis and the Marchioness and my new siblings, about how I was attacked last night and got part of my memories stripped from me. He seemed worried about it, but we decided that it would be for the best, especially if I was going to start changing Diana's overall behaviour, if we did that, they would be able to back up this. Besides, someone did attack me and Yeji as Diana, I should be dead and she should be alive, someone caused this, it's not entirely a lie.
An hour later he left, both to put our plan to action and tell my new family what "happened", which he would make it sound worse than it is, and to give me time to get my shit together, as well as to get ready for my own funeral... Eleanor's.