As the Archduke left the room, Michelle remained sitting in place, her calm eyes slowly closing in thought. The reason why she decided to tell the Archduke was because of how doting and spoiling he was towards his daughter.
Because no matter how good at acting she was and how much she could imitate the way the original Michelle acted, some things couldn't be imitated. Things like subconscious actions, taste in food, or way of dressing.
If the Archduke was an indifferent father, Michelle wouldn't need to worry about him finding out, since she could just say that after a near-death experience of falling off the cliff, she decided to change, but since the archduke was a doting father, that excuse would be able to fool him only for a while as he would slowly notice the small details.
Rather than being found out later and being exposed to his anger and wrath, Michelle liked more the idea of revealing the situation straight away to make her future life easier. Of course, if the Archduke didn't accept her explanation, she could just run away or straight up kill him, but she didn't want to do that, since that was bothersome.
When she told the Archduke about the death of his daughter, she had expected a few reactions from him, of which one he did. Her first guess was that he would blow up in anger and blame her, the second one was that he would break down and cry, and the third was what he did, hide his pain and go seek loneliness to slowly accept the news.
After a while, Michelle was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a knock on her door. "Enter!" she answered calmly, putting a bit of arrogance into her voice to sound like the original Michelle, to fulfill what the Archduke requested from her, to not let the servants know about what happened, in other words, act like his daughter for a while.
The door opened, and the young maid entered with the doctor again. "My Lady, His Excellence, asked the doctor to check on you, to see if you are fully recovered." The maid bowed her head respectfully as she spoke.
"I see..." Michelle nodded with a bit of arrogance. "Since daddy said so!" she shrugged lazily, acting perfectly like the original Michelle.
Seeing that Michelle was acting as "usual", the maid and the doctor sighed in relief. Though they didn't know why, when Michelle was acting so calmly before and even called the Archduke by his title instead of daddy, they felt instinctively terrified.
The doctor proceeded to examine Michelle's health, making it as quick as possible because he remembered that "Michelle" never liked long health check-ups. He was pleasantly surprised that at the moment, Michelle never once complained, making the check-up much shorter than usually.
What he didn't know was that Michelle didn't complain because as a doctor from her past life she hated complaining patients the most, so no matter how much she wanted to act like the original Michelle, she refused to give trouble to doctors.
After the doctor was done, he left, and Michelle was alone with the maid. "You need anything?" Michelle asked arrogantly with a hint of laziness as she leaned back in her seat, looking languid and arrogant, just like the original Michelle.
The maid gulped nervously before falling to her knees. "My Lady, I'm sorry!" she said loudly with tears streaming down her face.
Michelle lifted a brow at her. "What are you apologizing for?" she asked with an air of arrogance.
Hearing that Michelle's tone didn't change in any way, the maid felt a bit relieved since that meant that Michelle didn't get angry just yet. "My Lady, I'm really sorry for not being with you when you needed it!" the maid lowered her head even more as she kept on kneeling.
Seeing that Michelle narrowed her eyes a bit. "Stand up, will you?" She waved her hand lazily as she spoke.
The maid hesitantly stood up. "Thank you, My Lady!" she bowed her head thankfully for not being punished.
Michelle only nodded her head a bit. "Leave me alone!" she said after a while as she lazily closed her eyes. The maid then bowed her head and left the room.
After that, Michelle lived pretending to be the Archduke's daughter for a whole week before he called her into his office. Michelle entered the office and looked at the Archduke calmly after closing the door behind her. "Did you think it through, Your Excellence?"
The Archduke only nodded a bit, remaining silent for a long while. When he finally spoke, his eyes were cold and serious. "I've decided to take your deal," he said heavily. "You will help me bring down the bastard who killed my daughter, and I'll give you her identity so you can live here. You don't need to act like my daughter acted, just come up with a reason to explain to others the *sudden change* in your behavior. I won't restrict you in any way, but if you dare do anything that will tarnish my daughter's honor, I'll make you pay."
Hearing that, Michelle nodded her head a bit and started discussing with her "father" about how they should get rid of the Crown Prince. Finally, they decided to act on the upcoming Harvest Festival Ball hosted by the Imperial family which will be in about a month.
Until then, Michelle wouldn't make any public appearances and the Archduke would spread the news that she lost her memory due to being seriously injured.
Coming to that conclusion, Michelle left the Archduke's office and headed towards the training grounds. Even if the original Michelle was lazy and incompetent fool, she was very talented in martial arts and her body was well-trained, but Michelle wanted to get used to it and train it a bit more, so she decided to go spar with the knights.
The knights weren't surprised to see Michelle since she had always come to spar with them, even more so after she had woken up after falling off the cliff. At the moment, the only one who was skilled enough to spar with Michelle was the knight's commander.
Every time they sparred, Michelle used a different weapon. The first time they sparred, she used a double handed sword, then, she switched to a dagger, from dagger to a spear, from spear to a whip, from whip to a fan, from a fan to a bow, and today, she was using the combination of all which she had a blacksmith craft for her.
She was in a world completely different from her old world. Spirit energy, monsters, demons and spirit beasts existed, humans were much stronger, and weapons could shift shapes if you put spirit stones into them.
In the place she was in, only a few rare people cultivated spirit energy, but nearly everyone had spiritual objects made using spirit stones. What Michelle didn't know just yet was that she was just in the lowest ranked part of the world, and that in higher ranked places, anyone who didn't cultivate was considered a cripple or a trash.
After finishing her spar with the knight's commander, Michelle went to change her clothes into something inconspicuous, and, using a spiritual tool mask, she changed her appearance into that of a plain girl with black hair and brown eyes. Then, she left the mansion and entered the city.
In a practiced manner, she used her own technique of footwork, which she came up with in her past life and improved while sparring with the knights, to quickly get around the city, with her body turning into a blur of movements which barely anyone could notice.
Michelle mapped the whole city in her mind, taking in every single dead end, shortcut and dark alley. Naturally, she also checked the blind spots where the patrol knights didn't check.
As the city was huge, it took her till the nightfall to map out the whole city, but Michelle didn't mind. Quite the opposite, she was waiting for the night. She had already reported to the Archduke that she wouldn't return till the next day, so she was quite excited to blend in with the night and start her plan.
Concealing her breath, Michelle, as one of the rare people who cultivated, added spirit energy into her footwork to speed up, and, like a shadow, she entered the Imperial Palace through an open window.