To my luck, I opened my eyes to see the ceiling of the manor and was still alive. So far, my day was off to a great start.

Looking to the clock above the fireplace that I had seen before, I am pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t slept in and that it was roughly half past eight. Getting up out of bed, I head to the bathroom to do my morning routine.

Of course, I had to change it slightly as I no longer had a need to shave, or put my hair up either. Stepping into the shower, I start to plan out my day. Not knowing entirely what my… parents, were planning, I chop up my plan into blocks in case I need to set aside time.

Feels off putting to call them that, but it’s the simplest and most practical thing to label them as. Besides, whos child wouldn’t want to call their parents their parents? Actually, don’t answer that.

Moving briskly along, I clean my face and move to the concerningly large walk in closet to pick what it was I should wear. Looking through the selection of clothes I’m reminded once again that I had to treat my social life as an act, seeing no clothes that really suited my tastes.

Trying my best to guess what this body had worn before, I throw together a lighter colour oriented set, much to my reserved and preferably missable fashion sense.

Looking into a standing mirror to make sure that I didn’t look completely stupid, I notice a scar that I had missed on my stomach. It was a thin line just below the left side of my ribcage. Looking closely, I quickly check the rest of my body to see if there were any others and found one that lined up with the one on my stomach on my back.

Most concerningly, both of them matched where I was stabbed by Norsin. There's no way that an injury from another body would carry over, right? Not knowing what to do, I begrudgingly dismissing it and go back to choosing clothes.

One of these days I’m going to be crushed alive by all the things I put off…

As I was about to leave my room and head back to the library, a knock comes from the door as I put my hand on its handle. Letting out a deep sigh, I put on a light smile and open the door only to come face to, given my height, stomach with a middle aged man in a jacketless suit in golden brown colouring.

Acting caught off guard, I stumble back a bit and look up to the man. He stands there for a moment with a look of surprise before getting himself together and presenting himself, “My apologies young master, I came to help you prepare for the day.” He says.

Giving him another look, I realise that he must be an attendant of mine. “No worries! I already cleaned myself up. See?” I say, pointing to my hair while also adding to a newly forming list of embarrassments the entire interaction that was unfolding.

“Ah, I see. Well done young master. Would you like me to take you to your parents now?” he asks. Tripping over his words a bit almost as if he hadn't expected me to respond that way.

Feeling a hint of concern that I may have acted in a way that wasn’t normal, I try to divert his attention by answering his question. “No thanks. I’m going to go to the library again.” Now the man had an even more confused look on his face that he was failing miserably to hide. Giving up on trying to be subtle during the interaction, I pivot to acting like I had found something fascinating that I wanted to read.

“I found this really cool book, and I wanted to continue reading it so I’m going to the library.” Seemingly successful in my attempt, the man collects himself before saying, “But you always have breakfast with your parents. Do you not wish to today?”

Aaaannndd there goes all of my confidence that I had put on a convincing display. Not entirely knowing what to do, I full send on wanting to read the book. “I’m not hungry. And besides, I can eat with them later.”

Not wanting to continue the conversation, I step forward and out of my room to head to the library. Intending to not leave it until dinner so I could gather as much as I could about this place.

The man just watched me leave before I rounded a corner and disappeared from his sight. Not knowing what to make of the interaction, he heads to the dining room to inform my parents about my decision.

The day passed by without much event, with me only breaking from the library to eat dinner and head to bed. Still not confident in my own safety, I spent my days moving and thinking with apprehension and paranoia.

Though the only thing to happen that brought me away from reading was the arrival of private tutors on the sixth day.

I had spent most of my time so far learning the common knowledge and etiquette of this new land, that coupled with my mental age left me confident in being able to hide myself among people and only refining what I had learned through social repetition, much to my dismay.

Aside from that, I was taught basic things such as mathematics, geography, and other such similar topics. Though I found most myself enjoying the practical lessons such as learning about and then seeing the topography of forests and general midland biomes.

Days turned into weeks, and from there months. All following the same routine, wake up, head to the library, partake in any lessons for that day, have dinner and then go to bed. Of course, I was forced to have more than one meal a day whether that be by having snacks or being brought to lunch or breakfast to converse with my family.

I slowly lost track of time and before long, I had experienced almost seven months without even realising. I had come to know the place to be called the continent of Nichon, Empire of Valuer, County of Avilair.

My parents had tried to treat me like their child, but no matter what they did, it always left either a bitter taste or a sense of estrangement with all of us. And you can only imagine how much I absolutely loved being treated as a miserable little child.

Of course, I could only hide away from both people and my feelings by studying for so long before something happened. Though I was not expecting that something to be meeting my fiance.

Apparently there was a political marriage that had been established between my family and another from the neighbouring kingdom. It makes sense when I stop and think about it, but even still I’m just more annoyed that I wasn’t told about it.

You’d think that it would be an important piece of information, which it is, so why and how was I not told about it? Either way, I can’t really escape meeting her, I just hope that they aren't incredibly naggy or clingy. That would be a nightmare… Though I'd still prefer that over what I had experienced in my last life and on my way to death.

Speaking of, I strayed slightly away from the writing of the sane to see if I could find anything talked about reincarnation or the afterlife during my time in the library. I wasn’t expecting to really find anything, and I didn’t, but it was worth a shot.

Getting back on track, I was able to change my perceived personality slightly over time, meaning that I could wear things more fitting to my tastes instead of always walking around in pure white or robin’s egg blue all the time.

I quite like robin's egg, but the colour doesn't suit clothes in my opinion. With the day of the meeting drawing close, I tried to find information about my fiance without it seeming like I knew nothing about her.

Luckily, I was able to talk to my mother a bit and get a general idea for who she was. Also to my luck, she seemed to be fairly quiet and composed, meaning that I wouldn’t have to put up with someone annoying for the rest of my life.

It was going to be a loveless relationship anyway, my moral conscience wouldn’t let me find someone so young attractive in any regard, but it would be better for my mental health if she didn’t cause me to have a migraine every time I so much as looked at her.

I woke up a bit later than usual on the day of, but I wasn’t meeting her until early evening so I had plenty of time. Getting myself ready for the day, I decide to have breakfast with my parents for once in a long time by my own choice.

Arriving at the dining room, I enter to the surprised looks of my parents, not to my surprise. The last time I had come to eat with them of my own volition that wasn’t dinner time had been almost two months ago… I think it was two months at least, I'm not sure.

Sitting down at the table I see my main attendant, the man I had bumped into at my door on my first day, perk up and smile before leaving the room to get a serving for me.

“We weren't expecting you to come to breakfast today. Is it because you are meeting your fiance?” My mother says. Over my time here, I had come to enjoy her company. We had a similar sense of humour, and she was willing to put up with my ignorance with an enviable amount of patience.

My father on the other hand… He had been supportive and fairly understanding, but I could tell that he was uncomfortable around me. I had tried to be respectful to him in that regard by not trying to force him to spend time with me, but we did have to meet from time to time so as to not draw too much suspicion to the fact I wasn’t who I was pretending to be.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

We had both come to a silent agreement that we would slowly spend less time with each other so it would seem more natural then just refusing to see so much as the others face straight off the bat.

But recently he had started to seem more and more distant. I didn’t really pay it much mind because I was trying to do the same, but I couldn’t say that something didn’t seem off about him.

“Among a few other things. I want to spend the day somewhat more leisurely so that when I meet Oriana I won’t seem like a stick in the mud.” I respond. Oriana of house Krevkic was the woman I’m engaged to.

Her house and house Semarik had a shared region due to the two families' history together. With the house I belong to being married into theirs, the three combined would be able to benefit each other like a feedback loop due to my family owning the main banking industry, Krevkic owning a major port and shipping company, and Semarik having a stake in several different markets, namely agricultural work. Making everyone involved stronger while also improving relations between the empire and the kingdom.

For reference's sake because even I pretty much completely forgot, house Semarik was the family that the woman and two children who I had seen when I initially arrived here belong to. The two kids being siblings of Oriana while the woman was their attendant and overseer for their trip into our territory.

They had come to our territory to improve relations while also handing over several pieces of paperwork and information to my father. The only reason Oriana wasn’t present was because she was set to take over ownership of her family's port once her father died and was unable to come over due to being educated on everything she needed to be competent once the time arrived.

Over the six month period, I had been successful in setting a good pace of switching my perceived personality, letting me be more confident. But that didn’t mean I had completely changed myself to who I am and not who my body was, leaving me in a position where I couldn’t be truthful and as such making things more annoying.

One of the main offenders of this was general interactions. Think about it, aside from the fact I can’t act my age, I can’t act how I would have preferred. Whether that was my way of speaking or how I moved, it left me feeling stifled.

The reason I bring this up is because meeting Oriana required me to not feel those things. While I’m confident I could bluff my way through things with the servants, I doubt I would be able to do so with her.

Things would have been a nightmare if I had to try and deceive my parents as well. My only hope was that I would be able to take advantage of her mental age and the amount of time since I had last seen her.

Considering our age’s and what her education is, she most likely has the mentality of roughly a twelve year old. I know nearly nothing about her aside from what people have told me, so I can only hope that I don’t fumble and screw over all of my work so far.

Finishing up breakfast in a timely manner while chatting with my mother, I head to the back garden to try and destress. As much is riding precariously on this interaction, a equal if not even bigger amount of nervousness seemed to weigh down the otherside of the scale.

I didn’t entirely know what I was supposed to do while I waited, so with nothing better I headed to a tree that I had come to like that was snuggled over on the far wall of the garden. I hadn’t been able to figure out what family of tree it belonged to, and none of the gardeners remembered where it had come from, but I guess I could compare it to a willow tree that had its vines pointing upwards instead of down.

Almost as if someone had turned a tree on its head and let its roots grow through the air. Anytime I sat beneath it, a sense of calm claimed my mind, almost as if it was someone I had known my entire life that had been there and supported me in my times of need.

Its bark bathed a rough grey hue almost like an acacia, and while I had never seen its actual wood, I imagined it to be some sort of lighter birch or pine colour. I stopped counting how many times I had come to the tree when I started to break down somewhere after the thirtieth time.

Yet every time, that feeling of clarity and peace would always return to cradle me. One other thing I had noticed was what its truth was. For whatever reason my ability to see ‘reality’ had followed me into this world, and I had somewhat grasped how to restrain it so it wasn’t burning my mind every second of the day.

Yet I had only found two things that didn’t change when I used them, the eyes themself when I looked in a mirror, and the tree. For whatever reason, whenever I looked at the tree, it seemingly didn’t change. Yet it always felt like it was wrapping itself around me to try and comfort my worries when I did.

Approaching the tree, I come to a stop a fair ways away to admire its splendour. Gazing at the tree and admiring how satisfying it was to look at, I found myself at its trunk and reaching out to place a hand on it.

Yet when I did, the feeling of calm wasn’t there. I knew it was just a simple tree that couldn’t actually cause my emotions to change, but for some reason the lack of warmth felt like an omen, and a burden.

I let my eyes relax and open to see it, yet when I did it looked darker. Its bark hand changed several shades darker and had gained a blue tint to it. I hadn’t looked at a dying tree before, so I wondered if it was nearing the end of its lifespan before I felt something tap the top of my head.

It felt like a raindrop had landed squarely on my skull. Yet it felt like it seeped into my skin and disappeared. Looking up to see if it was rain, or something else, a feeling of horror pierced through me as I watched its branches splinter and reform. All while dropping some sort of liquid everytime they broke.

I had seen far worse with my eyes before, but the reason I felt so horrified was because I could have sworn that it was blood that was dropping onto me. Standing there in fear, I watch it silently create and destroy its branches, before seeing in the corner of my eye one of its lower branches start to bend and move towards me.

Yet as I see it creep towards me in my periphery, I couldn’t get myself to move in the slightest, not even blink. Just as it reached the halfway point between me and itself, more of its branches started to tremble and bend themselves to move towards me.

Yet still I couldn’t move. It was a similar kind of feeling I had when I met that god and also when I had seen the false king of Devorial. Yet for whatever reason, the horror I felt was mixed with a sense of concern, but it wasn’t my own.

It almost felt as if someone was trying to warn me of something, yet all I could do was stand and watch. I watched as the branches all started to gather around me, all of them stopping mere millimetres from my skin, yet none of them obscured my vision.

Moments passed as I could only wait for all of the branches to stop moving. Moments turned into minutes and minutes turned into what felt like hours, and then days to weeks, to months to years. And only after I felt like I had waited for an eternity did all but one of the branches stop.

It moved forward towards my face, and just as it started to press into the skin of my forehead did it stop. As it stopped, a feeling of understanding pushed itself past me and a word reverberated in my head.

“Find”

The word seems to snap me out of my reverie and I force my eyes closed. Just as quickly as it appeared, everything vanished as if it never happened. The only confirmation that the event had ever occurred in the first place was my memories of it, and a single bead of red sap making its way down the trunk of the tree from where my hand had touched it.

Not wanting to experience another round of manipulation and betrayal from beings that made me feel what I had just experienced, I stumbled back and briskly made my way back to the manor.

Rushing through the building in a mad dash to get somewhere secluded, I pushed past several servants who were mulling about, earning me confused and concerned looks. My mind racing just as much as my heart, I entered my room and locked the door.

Leaning against the door frame, I try to catch my breath. Seconds pass before I get my breathing under wraps to a not as worrying level and I move to the couch to sit down. As I walked over, I passed the wardrobe and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror at the back of it.

Stopping a moment, I look into the mirror and see a young boy with dirty blond dishevelled hair, smooth skin and a clean suit, panting wildly with a single line of red that had dripped down from his forehead, and eyes that looked like a broken kaleidoscope with gold iris and no pupil that seemed like it was bordered by a thin purple hue that looked like the ring of a galaxy and with a cracked void filling all of what was left.

Aside from the fact that my eyes had changed, the most worrying thing was the trickle of blood. This was the first time that I had been physically affected and able to interact with the illusions I saw when I opened my eyes.

I lose myself in my reflection trying to decipher what had just happened and what it meant. ‘If I can be affected by truths, does that mean I can be killed by them? And if so, am I even able to do anything about it?’ My mind starts to spiral again, leading me back to the path I had fallen down into when I had learned that my mind had been tampered with.

I feel my legs start to lose strength, and before I could force myself to the couch I collapsed to the floor. On my knees, my arms loosely hanging at my sides and staring at nothing with my head hung low, I fail to hear the knock at my door.

When I arrived at the manor of the Avilair family, I started to feel giddy about seeing Moravi after so long. I hadn’t been able to write back to him because of all my classes and wasn’t able to check if he was okay.

The last I had heard of him was six months ago when the Semarik family's twins had visited them, and from them I heard he was injured. I tried to get in contact with him, but my teacher was so strict that she didn’t let me have even an hour break to write to him.

The carriage comes to a stop at their doors and I glance out to see Moravi’s personal attendant standing at attention. I smile knowing that he must care for me enough to send his own attendant to see me.

Stepping out of the carriage and onto the path to the house, my attendants step off the carriage and stand behind me, ready to be of assistance. Walking forward, Moravi’s attendant approaches me with a light smile and greets me.

“Good evening young Lady Krevkic. It's been a while since your last visit, would you like me to escort you to your room first?” He asks, It probably would be a better idea to go to my room first before going to see Moravi, but it had been so long that I wanted to go to him first.

“If possible, I would like to see Moravi first. Would that be fine?” I respond, hoping that he wouldn’t refuse my request.

He gives a genuine smile of understanding and says, “Young master Moravi should be in the back garden. Would you like me to bring you to him?” I feel myself light up and I nod to him. Following the attendant into the house, excitement washes over me as I enter and see the familiar house.

As we walked through the entrance hall, we headed to the back garden by going through one of the side rooms. Just as we were about to round the corner leading to the back garden, we heard a bang like someone threw open a door, and from the direction of the sound, I see Moravi briskly moving past us and down another hall leading to his room.

“Moravi!” I call out to get his attention, yet he doesn't even show any sign that he heard me. Just as he turned down the hall away from us, I catch a glimpse of his face and freeze. His hair was chaos and he was covered in sweat, his forehead seemed to be bleeding. And most terrifying of all, his eyes seemed to defy reality and looked nothing like anything I had ever seen.