I had a terrible nightmare.
One where I struggled to get out of the water, deeper than my feet could reach, but couldn’t, and eventually drowned to death.
“Have you woken up now?”
“Mmhm, mmhm.”
I stretched my tense neck. My back was still slick with sweat, as if I had just had a nightmare.
I twitched my fingers.
After having a body like porcelain, I started to twitch my fingers when I woke up in the morning. My whole body would start to hurt like it was about to break if I made any sudden movements.
“Anyways…No matter what you say, you should get up now—”
Other than Annie’s voice interrupting my thoughts from time to time, my mind was clear.
Has it ever been this good in these last few years? My head was as clear as I had always wanted it to be.
Other than a bit of cold sweat, my chest which normally seemed as if it was on fire just by breathing, seemed fine.
“Are you even listening to me?”
But was Annie’s voice always so old-fashioned?
As if my whole body was submerged in water, I shut my heavy eyelids that I had just opened a while ago.
Contrary to my clear mind, my whole body ached as if it had just been beaten.
“Lady Blair!”
“…”
All of a sudden.
“Ah!”
As I was about to fall asleep again, a tremendous force lifted my body up from the bed in an instant.
There was no smell of bitter herbs that greeted my nose every morning. Instead, all I could smell was the scent of red roses, wafting through the room.
“Annie, just why did you…”
“The Grand Duchess is dead.”
“…Annie.”
And now, I hear the voice of Annie talking to me about my death…No, wait a minute.
“Annie?”
“Just who is this Annie that you are looking for?”
The middle-aged woman’s grumbling voice was unfamiliar to me since it was a really strange voice.
Furthermore my voice, which was always stuffy due to frequent coughing, was normal.
“W-What were you saying earlier?”
“What?”
“The Grand Duchess…The Grand Duchess is dead? What grand duchess?”
Were there any other grand duchesses in this empire besides me?
It was then that I noticed the decorations in the room which I had never seen before.
Unlike my room which was all green, this room was filled with the white and pink that made me feel exhausted.
I felt the goosebumps rise all over my body in an instant.
Ignoring the bewildered woman reaching out to me, I rushed hurriedly to the mirror.
“Haaa.”
A sigh of relief.
Light green eyes and golden eyelashes glistened in the sunlight.
The person in the mirror was one that I had seen enough of.
It was a little unfamiliar to me as the rosy cheeks and healthy complexion were different from my normally pale and gaunt face due to the morning fevers that I usually got.
“D-Did I collapse again yesterday?”
Normally, I couldn’t make any loud noises due to my sore throat, but somehow I felt as if I could sing today.
Hang on. Did I just get out of bed and run to the mirror by myself?
My stiff legs suddenly trembled for no reason.
“What are you talking about? You were idle all day yesterday as well, and only once the sun has well and truly risen at noon, only then do you wake up…”
“I did…?”
I was a bit dazed because of my strangely healthy and firm body, but the woman made a strange noise.
Although I was sick all day yesterday and my body was weak, did people describe it as ‘lounging’?
The middle-aged woman whom I had never seen before in my life shot me a condescending look and cleaned the bed I had just woken up in.
There was a sense of absurdity as I noticed discrepancies in everything that I saw and heard, the biggest difference being my body which remained standing without the need of anything in my hands.
“Madam.”
“…”
A servant, who should’ve respectfully called me ‘Grand Duchess’, casually entered my bedroom.
And the middle aged woman, without doing anything, just watched as he did so.
Was this not the Grand Duke’s residence, but a large hospital somewhere in the capital?
Unfortunately, these impolite actions were also the only parts that coincided with her normal situation, which she felt no sense of dissonance from.
“His Highness the Grand Duke Trovica, has asked if you would like to attend his wife’s funeral ceremony.”
“…My husband?”
Pfft.
At that moment, a burst of laughter erupted from the woman’s mouth after she had cleaned the futon.
I immediately escaped the clutches of drowsiness and completely woke up, as everything in this room approached me with a sense of absurdity, the sound of her laughter making my body stiffen as if it had been splashed by cold water.
“Well, he could be your husband now, my lady. Since Grand Duchess Trovica has now dead, wouldn’t it make some very interesting gossip if the person who took that spot next was Blair, who was her husband’s mistress?”
“G-Grand Duchess Trovica is dead?”
Only then did I flounder in the memories that rushed in like a flooding tide.
It wasn’t a nightmare.
The doors on both sides of the bedroom which had always been firmly closed were opened wide. The faces of the normally sarcastic maids turning deathly pale with fright.
The seizures that were so severe they had even Annie, who had always harassed me, run away.
Her body which was shaking so much that she hadn’t even cared about the herbal scent that was strong enough to make her nose sting.
On a snowy night, the nightmare that had come the moment I had smiled while thinking about a hot kiss with Novian.
No, rather it was reality.
The rough hands that tried to make me swallow the terrible tasting medicine that was given every time I had a seizure.
I had struggled because I couldn’t handle the water that was poured into my mouth, then not being able to breathe and my vision gradually turning white…
“Ack!”
“Ms Blair!”
“My lady!”
Mindlessly pushing aside the two pairs of hands that reached out to me, I rushed to the mirror that I was looking into earlier.
My light green eyes, glittering gold eyelashes, nose and mouth that people had praised for being beautiful.
Although everything was the same, both my name and identity were different. Just why…wait a minute.
Like a person possessed, I untied the ponytail that was tied loosely behind.
At the same time, I took off the bonnet that was on my head.
The hair that poured down my back was black like my husband’s, not my usual shiny blonde. The naturally wavy hair was thick and exuded a sensual vibe.
It was definitely my face, but it wasn’t me.
“What, What in the world…!”
Bewildered, I staggered back, leaning onto a vanity filled with cosmetics.
I reached out to a bunch of papers that caught my eye.
Rather than the ‘Empire Daily‘ which I usually read, there was ‘The Back Alley‘, a gossip magazine full of all kinds of scandals.
“Grand Duchess Trovica, why was the body found cold at dawn? The short life and scandals of the young Grand Duchess.”
“Ahh…”
I shook my head and stumbled. The strong middle aged woman clicked her tongue and held onto me firmly.
“Do you think passing out is that great?”
Adrienne Trovica. The very name of me, who died last night.
That painful and strange sensation was not a dream, but a reality.
“If you wanted to attend the funeral ceremony of the Grand Duchess, it’s only possible for you to attend in the afternoon.”
And according to the maid’s words, I was reincarnated into the body of the mistress my husband had met.
[ / / / ]
The table was set with an exorbitant amount of food.
I stared at it blankly.
None of it seemed real.
In the luxurious dining room, which must have been decorated according to the tastes of the mansion’s hostess, various types of artwork were hung all around as if they were rags.
As if she had liked things to be filled, the gaps between the frames were crammed with vases with artificial flowers the size of a human being.
It was as if I was sitting and eating in the studio of a mad artist.
Right, as long as one was sane, they’d immediately get that feeling.
The breakfast course, which started with a salad with brie cheese, only ended after a piping hot lamb stew was served in front of me.
“Is it not to your taste?”
The middle aged woman who used a huge fork to shred the lamb from the bone into the stew spoke up.
“Y-You, what’s your name?”
“…Just what kind of game are you playing at again?”
“I asked what your name was.”
The woman put down the fork she was holding and examined my face with a serious expression.
It was as if she was examining a lunatic.
“…I’m offended.”
“Have you really gone crazy?”
Oh my god.
No matter how hated I was as the hostess, to be insulting me to my face like this was crossing the line.
This ‘Blair’, who was for some reason called my husband’s mistress, was the owner of the body I had entered.
A blunt, but adequate treatment.
But this woman, who looked like a maid, wouldn’t be in a position to treat her like this.
As I was speechless at her rude treatment, she merely looked at me and clicked her tongue, calling herself ‘Marge’.
“I was locked up in my room for a few days, laughing and crying and then went into a really bad rage, then suddenly got up when you heard the news that the Grand Duchess had died, then suddenly, even your name…”
And then straight out of Marge’s mouth, “If you want to go crazy, at least go crazy gracefully.”
As soon as I heard those words come out, I lost my appetite.
If that’s the reaction I’d get just from asking one name, if I say that I’m actually the Grand Duchess Adrienne, I’ll definitely be treated like a crazy person.
I only drank a cup of cold water.
“Countess Blair Acacia.”
The servant who had entered my bedroom had called me that name, all the way until I had reached the dining room.
I had never heard of the name ‘Blair’, but I was familiar with title of Count Acacia, a name I often heard.
Count Acacia was a vassal of our Grand Duchy, but did not hold an important position in the center.
He was old enough to have grey hair, so even if he died right now, it wouldn’t be regarded as a suspicious death.
She seemed pitiful as she was part of a lowly household, stuck running errands for her husband’s estate.
I was told he had a young and beautiful wife, but since I was ill at the time, I couldn’t attend their wedding.
Of course, there was no way a person who had the standing of a grand duchess could attend the wedding ceremony of a humble vassal household, even if they were vassals.
There is no way I would have dared to covet the wife of the master I serve, and live in search of a woman who looked like this.
I had seen his face many times, but he was the one who did not look up at me, the Grand Duchess, but instead kept his eyes lowered.
After all, after my marriage, I was only able to attend one of two parties due to my weakened body, so it was difficult for me to recognise the face of not only the Count but also any other nobleman.
‘Although it’s a coincidence, I feel very uncomfortable.’
Other than the colour of her hair and her temperament, this woman was a complete carbon copy of me.
Although the appearance of a woman can be changed by a feather hat over her head or the colour of her lips…How is it possible for me not know of a woman who resembles me this much, and who has a face I so often see in the mirror?
“You’re eating well.”
As I continuously put food into my mouth while thinking, Marge smiled and continued to hold out the plate of food.
Despite her blunt words, she didn’t seem like a bad person.
Was she someone like a nanny from Blair’s family? Ah, that seemed to be the case…
‘I wonder how much it costs to eat with my own hands…?’
Blair’s body seemed very hungry so there also never seemed to be a sense of fullness.
I had been shovelling food into my mouth as if I was a starving person who hadn’t eaten for several days.
It wasn’t wrong though.
Due to the childish bullying I had experienced in the Grand Duke’s residence, it had been a long time since I had eaten proper food.
Munch, munch.
At first, I had been distracted by the different surroundings and strange place around me and had eaten the food robotically, but at some point in time, eating with my own hands had become so intriguing that I had no choice but to keep eating.
Although Blair’s hands were just as pale and slender as mine, they possessed a completely different amount of strength.
Even though my body still ached, compared to my previous body, this was a ‘healthiness that I would never see again’.
“Excuse me, madam. What should I tell His Grace…?”
The servant who was sent from the Grand Duke’s residence stood by the dining table restlessly.
Waiting for my answer.
Waiting for my answer to ‘whether I was going to attend the funeral ceremony of Grand Duchess Adrienne’.
Is this ‘Blair’, really my husband’s secret mistress?
I had a terrible nightmare.
One where I struggled to get out of the water, deeper than my feet could reach, but couldn’t, and eventually drowned to death.
“Have you woken up now?”
“Mmhm, mmhm.”
I stretched my tense neck. My back was still slick with sweat, as if I had just had a nightmare.
I twitched my fingers.
After having a body like porcelain, I started to twitch my fingers when I woke up in the morning. My whole body would start to hurt like it was about to break if I made any sudden movements.
“Anyways…No matter what you say, you should get up now—”
Other than Annie’s voice interrupting my thoughts from time to time, my mind was clear.
Has it ever been this good in these last few years? My head was as clear as I had always wanted it to be.
Other than a bit of cold sweat, my chest which normally seemed as if it was on fire just by breathing, seemed fine.
“Are you even listening to me?”
But was Annie’s voice always so old-fashioned?
As if my whole body was submerged in water, I shut my heavy eyelids that I had just opened a while ago.
Contrary to my clear mind, my whole body ached as if it had just been beaten.
“Lady Blair!”
“…”
All of a sudden.
“Ah!”
As I was about to fall asleep again, a tremendous force lifted my body up from the bed in an instant.
There was no smell of bitter herbs that greeted my nose every morning. Instead, all I could smell was the scent of red roses, wafting through the room.
“Annie, just why did you…”
“The Grand Duchess is dead.”
“…Annie.”
And now, I hear the voice of Annie talking to me about my death…No, wait a minute.
“Annie?”
“Just who is this Annie that you are looking for?”
The middle-aged woman’s grumbling voice was unfamiliar to me since it was a really strange voice.
Furthermore my voice, which was always stuffy due to frequent coughing, was normal.
“W-What were you saying earlier?”
“What?”
“The Grand Duchess…The Grand Duchess is dead? What grand duchess?”
Were there any other grand duchesses in this empire besides me?
It was then that I noticed the decorations in the room which I had never seen before.
Unlike my room which was all green, this room was filled with the white and pink that made me feel exhausted.
I felt the goosebumps rise all over my body in an instant.
Ignoring the bewildered woman reaching out to me, I rushed hurriedly to the mirror.
“Haaa.”
A sigh of relief.
Light green eyes and golden eyelashes glistened in the sunlight.
The person in the mirror was one that I had seen enough of.
It was a little unfamiliar to me as the rosy cheeks and healthy complexion were different from my normally pale and gaunt face due to the morning fevers that I usually got.
“D-Did I collapse again yesterday?”
Normally, I couldn’t make any loud noises due to my sore throat, but somehow I felt as if I could sing today.
Hang on. Did I just get out of bed and run to the mirror by myself?
My stiff legs suddenly trembled for no reason.
“What are you talking about? You were idle all day yesterday as well, and only once the sun has well and truly risen at noon, only then do you wake up…”
“I did…?”
I was a bit dazed because of my strangely healthy and firm body, but the woman made a strange noise.
Although I was sick all day yesterday and my body was weak, did people describe it as ‘lounging’?
The middle-aged woman whom I had never seen before in my life shot me a condescending look and cleaned the bed I had just woken up in.
There was a sense of absurdity as I noticed discrepancies in everything that I saw and heard, the biggest difference being my body which remained standing without the need of anything in my hands.
“Madam.”
“…”
A servant, who should’ve respectfully called me ‘Grand Duchess’, casually entered my bedroom.
And the middle aged woman, without doing anything, just watched as he did so.
Was this not the Grand Duke’s residence, but a large hospital somewhere in the capital?
Unfortunately, these impolite actions were also the only parts that coincided with her normal situation, which she felt no sense of dissonance from.
“His Highness the Grand Duke Trovica, has asked if you would like to attend his wife’s funeral ceremony.”
“…My husband?”
Pfft.
At that moment, a burst of laughter erupted from the woman’s mouth after she had cleaned the futon.
I immediately escaped the clutches of drowsiness and completely woke up, as everything in this room approached me with a sense of absurdity, the sound of her laughter making my body stiffen as if it had been splashed by cold water.
“Well, he could be your husband now, my lady. Since Grand Duchess Trovica has now dead, wouldn’t it make some very interesting gossip if the person who took that spot next was Blair, who was her husband’s mistress?”
“G-Grand Duchess Trovica is dead?”
Only then did I flounder in the memories that rushed in like a flooding tide.
It wasn’t a nightmare.
The doors on both sides of the bedroom which had always been firmly closed were opened wide. The faces of the normally sarcastic maids turning deathly pale with fright.
The seizures that were so severe they had even Annie, who had always harassed me, run away.
Her body which was shaking so much that she hadn’t even cared about the herbal scent that was strong enough to make her nose sting.
On a snowy night, the nightmare that had come the moment I had smiled while thinking about a hot kiss with Novian.
No, rather it was reality.
The rough hands that tried to make me swallow the terrible tasting medicine that was given every time I had a seizure.
I had struggled because I couldn’t handle the water that was poured into my mouth, then not being able to breathe and my vision gradually turning white…
“Ack!”
“Ms Blair!”
“My lady!”
Mindlessly pushing aside the two pairs of hands that reached out to me, I rushed to the mirror that I was looking into earlier.
My light green eyes, glittering gold eyelashes, nose and mouth that people had praised for being beautiful.
Although everything was the same, both my name and identity were different. Just why…wait a minute.
Like a person possessed, I untied the ponytail that was tied loosely behind.
At the same time, I took off the bonnet that was on my head.
The hair that poured down my back was black like my husband’s, not my usual shiny blonde. The naturally wavy hair was thick and exuded a sensual vibe.
It was definitely my face, but it wasn’t me.
“What, What in the world…!”
Bewildered, I staggered back, leaning onto a vanity filled with cosmetics.
I reached out to a bunch of papers that caught my eye.
Rather than the ‘Empire Daily‘ which I usually read, there was ‘The Back Alley‘, a gossip magazine full of all kinds of scandals.
“Grand Duchess Trovica, why was the body found cold at dawn? The short life and scandals of the young Grand Duchess.”
“Ahh…”
I shook my head and stumbled. The strong middle aged woman clicked her tongue and held onto me firmly.
“Do you think passing out is that great?”
Adrienne Trovica. The very name of me, who died last night.
That painful and strange sensation was not a dream, but a reality.
“If you wanted to attend the funeral ceremony of the Grand Duchess, it’s only possible for you to attend in the afternoon.”
And according to the maid’s words, I was reincarnated into the body of the mistress my husband had met.
[ / / / ]
The table was set with an exorbitant amount of food.
I stared at it blankly.
None of it seemed real.
In the luxurious dining room, which must have been decorated according to the tastes of the mansion’s hostess, various types of artwork were hung all around as if they were rags.
As if she had liked things to be filled, the gaps between the frames were crammed with vases with artificial flowers the size of a human being.
It was as if I was sitting and eating in the studio of a mad artist.
Right, as long as one was sane, they’d immediately get that feeling.
The breakfast course, which started with a salad with brie cheese, only ended after a piping hot lamb stew was served in front of me.
“Is it not to your taste?”
The middle aged woman who used a huge fork to shred the lamb from the bone into the stew spoke up.
“Y-You, what’s your name?”
“…Just what kind of game are you playing at again?”
“I asked what your name was.”
The woman put down the fork she was holding and examined my face with a serious expression.
It was as if she was examining a lunatic.
“…I’m offended.”
“Have you really gone crazy?”
Oh my god.
No matter how hated I was as the hostess, to be insulting me to my face like this was crossing the line.
This ‘Blair’, who was for some reason called my husband’s mistress, was the owner of the body I had entered.
A blunt, but adequate treatment.
But this woman, who looked like a maid, wouldn’t be in a position to treat her like this.
As I was speechless at her rude treatment, she merely looked at me and clicked her tongue, calling herself ‘Marge’.
“I was locked up in my room for a few days, laughing and crying and then went into a really bad rage, then suddenly got up when you heard the news that the Grand Duchess had died, then suddenly, even your name…”
And then straight out of Marge’s mouth, “If you want to go crazy, at least go crazy gracefully.”
As soon as I heard those words come out, I lost my appetite.
If that’s the reaction I’d get just from asking one name, if I say that I’m actually the Grand Duchess Adrienne, I’ll definitely be treated like a crazy person.
I only drank a cup of cold water.
“Countess Blair Acacia.”
The servant who had entered my bedroom had called me that name, all the way until I had reached the dining room.
I had never heard of the name ‘Blair’, but I was familiar with title of Count Acacia, a name I often heard.
Count Acacia was a vassal of our Grand Duchy, but did not hold an important position in the center.
He was old enough to have grey hair, so even if he died right now, it wouldn’t be regarded as a suspicious death.
She seemed pitiful as she was part of a lowly household, stuck running errands for her husband’s estate.
I was told he had a young and beautiful wife, but since I was ill at the time, I couldn’t attend their wedding.
Of course, there was no way a person who had the standing of a grand duchess could attend the wedding ceremony of a humble vassal household, even if they were vassals.
There is no way I would have dared to covet the wife of the master I serve, and live in search of a woman who looked like this.
I had seen his face many times, but he was the one who did not look up at me, the Grand Duchess, but instead kept his eyes lowered.
After all, after my marriage, I was only able to attend one of two parties due to my weakened body, so it was difficult for me to recognise the face of not only the Count but also any other nobleman.
‘Although it’s a coincidence, I feel very uncomfortable.’
Other than the colour of her hair and her temperament, this woman was a complete carbon copy of me.
Although the appearance of a woman can be changed by a feather hat over her head or the colour of her lips…How is it possible for me not know of a woman who resembles me this much, and who has a face I so often see in the mirror?
“You’re eating well.”
As I continuously put food into my mouth while thinking, Marge smiled and continued to hold out the plate of food.
Despite her blunt words, she didn’t seem like a bad person.
Was she someone like a nanny from Blair’s family? Ah, that seemed to be the case…
‘I wonder how much it costs to eat with my own hands…?’
Blair’s body seemed very hungry so there also never seemed to be a sense of fullness.
I had been shovelling food into my mouth as if I was a starving person who hadn’t eaten for several days.
It wasn’t wrong though.
Due to the childish bullying I had experienced in the Grand Duke’s residence, it had been a long time since I had eaten proper food.
Munch, munch.
At first, I had been distracted by the different surroundings and strange place around me and had eaten the food robotically, but at some point in time, eating with my own hands had become so intriguing that I had no choice but to keep eating.
Although Blair’s hands were just as pale and slender as mine, they possessed a completely different amount of strength.
Even though my body still ached, compared to my previous body, this was a ‘healthiness that I would never see again’.
“Excuse me, madam. What should I tell His Grace…?”
The servant who was sent from the Grand Duke’s residence stood by the dining table restlessly.
Waiting for my answer.
Waiting for my answer to ‘whether I was going to attend the funeral ceremony of Grand Duchess Adrienne’.
Is this ‘Blair’, really my husband’s secret mistress?
