Light streamed from behind white flowy curtains. The sounds of birds chirping and branches rustling could be heard in the distance.
Yunho stirred on the bed. He felt oddly light and full of energy. It was completely unlike the endless fatigue he'd been feeling the past years. The youth's eyes fluttered open, and he groped at the soft blanket on top of him. It was...thick and clearly of high quality. Did the nurse change it out during the night? His vision grew clear and his eyes immediately widened as he took in his surroundings.
The room he was in was bigger than any bedroom he'd ever seen before. It was spacious with arc windows on the outside-facing wall. The room was furnished with a white drawer with fine engravings of birds and flowers, a soft-looking rug on the floor, and a desk and chair by the window.
Yunho had to remember to close his mouth. How did he get here? Was this a room in the hospital he just hadn't seen before? The hospital wasn't poor or dingy by any means, but this level of extravagance seemed out of their budget. But how else could this be explained? The hospital security was quite good. They had people on shift 24/7, and it was always busy. Emergencies don't wait for anybody's good night's rest, after all. It was close to impossible that he could just be plucked from his bed and taken to some mansion in the dead of night without anyone knowing.
Yunho sat up on the bed and looked around once again, feeling the mattress below him. The bed was huge, and the pillowcases seemed to be silk. The youth looked down at his legs which felt quite comfortable. He was wearing white nightwear he was sure he wasn't before.
"What is this...?" Yunho couldn't help asking aloud. He was afraid. What if he had gotten kidnapped? Even though the hospital security was good, some things could always slip past.
Yunho pushed himself off the large bed and thumped onto the soft carpet. The sun illuminated the beautiful room. Rays of light hit the gems on the border of a mirror.
Rainbow fragments of the light scattered throughout out the room. The youth looked in awe for a moment and hesitantly got onto his feet. Nothing about his center of balance seemed to be too off, but his hands looked more...tender than he remembered them looking. He stared at them for some time before going on to inspect the room further.
The room had zero outlets or lights besides a candle on the drawer and an oil lamp on the wall. The desk also had a quill and bottle of ink on it with a messy stack of blank parchment. Maybe his kidnapper was one of those history reenactment fanatics that liked pretending it was still olden times. Yunho reached the wall with windows and peeked through the curtains. He let out a small gasp at what he saw. There was an extensive garden with dotted reds, blues, yellows, and whites from blooming flowers outside. And past that, you could see rolling green hills and few women in maid uniforms commuting with baskets. Birds fluttered past, singing sweetly and building nests. The youth let go of the curtain and faced the room again.
He was already 99% sure this wasn't the hospital, but that just made it 100. His city was quite urbanized. A large expanse of land like this without even a glimpse of a skyscraper on the horizon was practically non-existent. Yunho then laid eyes on the mirror in the corner. It was a silver full-length mirror with gems on the border of the glass. Yunho approached it to get a better look at it, his feet threading through the fur fibres of the rug under him. He was a few steps from it when he caught his reflection.
In the mirror stood a boy with gem-like blue eyes and feathery silver hair that reached the nape. His face was soft with the last years of youth, but his eyes were keen. The boy was quite beautiful but unfamiliar. If it hadn't been for the fact that the boy was perfectly matching his movements and expressions and was wearing the same clothes as him, Yunho may have thought that he was looking at a portal instead of a mirror.
But no. That was a mirror, and that boy was him.
There was a scream as the youth fell to the ground, bottom first.
Had he gotten surgery in his sleep? But he wasn't sore and neither were there any scars on his body.
But how\...?
The door slammed open.
"Young Master! This servant heard a scream! Are you alright?" A woman wearing a maid's uniform appeared at the doorway. She let out a breath when she saw the youth uninjured.
"The physician said it'd be best that young master remain in bed. You're still ill from your training in the rain," the woman helped the shocked silent youth back to the bed. She looked concerned when she saw his expression.
"Does young master need this servant to get him anything?" The woman asked, looking at the still youth on the bed.
"Where...what...how," The youth stuttered, discombobulated.
He looked up at the maid and asked with a slight tremor in his voice:
"Where am I?"
***
Yunho sat on the bed, staring blankly in front of him. His mind was still reeling from what the maid had told him.
...
"Where am I?"
The maid paused and gave him a confused look.
"Well, young master at his parents' estate. This is your bedroom?" The woman looked concerned and added, "did the fever addle you a bit? I guess that can't be helped."
"My parents' estate...by parents, who do you mean?" Yunho timidly asked. He had to know. He'd go crazy without any answers.
The maid now looked very alarmed.
"You've forgotten even this? I knew young master was quite ill, but this..." the woman paused, "It's probably nothing but momentary memory loss...but if you really can't remember, by parents I meant Count Damien and Lady Rosetta de Evastine? Your father and mother?"
The maid looked expectantly at the youth on the bed, searching for recognition on his face.
The boy did seem to recall the names and froze. He stiffly looked back up at the woman, searching for a sign of dishonesty in her eyes.
"D-Did you say Evastine? Like House Evastine? Of the South?" Yunho's voice shook as he asked the questions in rapid succession.
The maid didn't notice how distressed the youth was and nodded.
"So young master hasn't forgotten everything! It must just be spotty memory from the fever," The older woman said, clasping her hands together.
Yunho wasn't listening to her and was drowning in his own thoughts. It couldn't possibly be...
"And my name?" The youth asked. A small flame of hope ignited in his heart as he prayed he was wrong.
The woman stopped her happy musings to herself and turned to face him again. She raised an eyebrow and frowned.
"Young master's name? It's Iris, of course," the woman answered, adding, "and you ought to rest. Your memory's gone all fuzzy if you can't even remember your own name."
The maid placed the blanket back on Yunho and left the room with that. There were sounds of quiet chatter and departing footsteps outside the door. It sounded like multiple people, possibly other staff wanting to know what the issue was.
Yunho, though, was silent as he sat up on the bed, murmuring to himself.
"Evastine...I'm Iris de Evastine?"
There were three explanations for this bizzare situation.
One, he'd gone crazy, and this was one big hallucination.
Two, someone had abducted him, performed overnight surgery on him, and was now forcing him to live in this elaborate set.
Or three, he had somehow transmigrated into "The Mistreated High Priestess Is Now a Princess" and taken the role of the villainous younger brother doomed to banishment and ruin!
***
End of chapter 2