I had now reached 8 years of age. I was residing in an orphanage of sorts. It was within a church. Here they housed children of various ages. From the oldest, thirteen, to the youngest, one, most children arrived here between the ages of one and 5. I was not an exception. Here children were regularly adopted by nobles, any child not adopted by fourteen years old was thrown out onto the streets. In my time here I have recalled the majority of my memories, however one spot remains blank. A seemingly ordinary memory, set in a library. Although it seemed and it sounded ordinary it felt somehow important.

I pondered what it may be as I went through my daily chores. I was by far the smallest in the orphanage at the moment, while I was eight years old, and the youngest was six, they still far surpassed me in terms of height. This was because I was small and short, my malnourished body extra tiny for my age. Not much had changed in that aspect in the past 5 years. Most children here were malnourished, but somehow, I was the most.

Nobles would often come into the orphanage, adopting children. Usually they would try and find a child with their features, to pass them off as their own. To hide the ‘smudge’ on their records. This wasn’t uncommon. Sadly, I had never been chosen, my light brown hair from my mother, common enough, but my dark blue eyes were highly unusual. I had never even seen anybody with the same colour.

I guess I'll never be adopted.

This thought appeared in my mind more than once during my stay here, I wasn’t wanted. Nothing had changed in that regard between this life and my last. My mother had forcefully abandoned me, my brother had forcefully disposed of me, and nobody wanted me. Or so I thought.

On a day like any other a man walked into the church. He had an air about him, just like my mother, he seemed important. With his unruly but neat blonde hair he scanned the room. Seemingly inspecting each and every child there. As usual, I was hiding, because ultimately, when you get in a noble's way, they will take their anger out on you. I wouldn’t risk it. The man continued to scan the room, easily spotting me beneath the table.

“You, out”,

I slowly crawled out from beneath the table, standing awkwardly in front of him. I knew better than to disobey a direct order from a noble. Looking up, I met his eyes, they widened in surprise. I too was shocked. His eyes, his eyes were the same colour as mine. We stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, each second feeling like an hour. Then he looked away suddenly, looking embarrassed.

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“Don’t you know it’s rude to raise your head in the presence of the duke? Lower your head this instant!” the orphanage director barked. I complied

“I apologise for the disrespect milord, this one will be strictly punished”, the director bowed his head, glaring at me as he did so.

“No need, I shall do it myself. I’ll be taking her”, the duke proclaimed, sticking his finger out towards me.

My eyes widened once again, this time in surprise, in fear.

“You, come”, with this offhand remark the duke strode forwards, not bothering to wait for his newest possession.

A moment later I hesitantly followed, my head still lowered as I felt the director’s glare drill into my back. Crossing the boundary of the door I was surrounded by personnel, maids, a butler, knights, the fact that this man was a duke suddenly felt real. Warily raising my head, I stepped into the carriage, freezing in place as the man’s cold stare seemed to see through my soul. Shaking his head he seemed to redirect his gaze out of the window with only a nod towards the other seat in the carriage. I sat down, nervous, the carriage began to move and the man’s stare bore into me once again.

“You, what is your name?” he asked, making no obvious effort to be polite. Instinctively, I replied.

“My name is Aretta, my lord”, remembering the director's words I had added ‘my lord’ onto the end of the sentence in an effort to be polite.

The duke gave me a disapproving look before murmuring to himself.

“She’ll need tutors, many of them.”

Once again he aimed his words towards me.

“Your name shall now be Alice Downbringer, you have always been my daughter and always will be my daughter. You may refer to me as ‘father’.

I blinked, trying to process his words, Alice Downbringer he had said. It finally came to me. That was the blank spot in my memory. A book I had once read. It contained this exact scene as the backstory to a young girl by the name of Alice Downbringer, the deceased daughter of the duke. I was in a book from my past life, the book was titled ‘The misdeeds of Catherine Shanler’. My memories had finally returned completely, I remembered everything up until a certain point in the book. From the synopsis to the fate of the girl, Alice Downbringer, to my fate.

“You shall be educated as a noble lady and you shall make your debut after your seventh birthday. I will likely not see you again until then. In this time, you must study and listen to your maids, they will believe that you are Alice, and you shall not inform them otherwise. Understood?”

The duke had continued speaking as I, who was now Alice, came to the realisation. I snapped out of it after realizing what he had said.

“But I am already eight?”

“Oh, in that case, you are now six, you will turn seven on the 12th of August, your baptism and debut shall be on the 31st of August”.

Not waiting for a reply, the duke left the carriage, leaving me all alone in this strange place.