Chapter 2

I slowly gained consciousness. I felt myself lying on something soft, I opened my eyes and saw myself in a dark room with only one light source. There was a lamp on the bedside table and my bag right beside me.

"Ugh." I held my aching head and quickly opened my bag to see if anything was missing. Thankfully nothing was. I looked outside the window, the sun has set down and it was dark already. I sat on the bed and opened my phone and looked at the time.

'It's already at 7 o'clock.'

I started scrolling on my phone to see if there were any signals or available wifi. And as expected, there was nothing. I was in a place abundant in trees, probably in a mountain somewhere. I didn't know if I wanted to pass time or what, but I started messing with the apps.

'That's weird.' I always use an English dictionary, especially when writing my research papers. I didn't know it had an update. It says that there's a new language here.

"คɭﻮгเкคภץคภ?" I clicked the new tab that popped up and it changed the setting.

"You're already awake?" I hear a knock on the door and the old man came in asking me.

"Yes." Wait, what? When did I understand him? I was sure that we weren't speaking English or any other language I'm familiar with.

'That's...odd'

"So you can speak Kanian?" I can speak Kanian? How am I understanding him?

"Uh...uhm yeah?" It was more of a question rather than an answer. The word Kanian was familiar, though I'm not sure where I've heard it.

"You have hit your head very hard, Do you feel any pain?" I pointed at my head and my back. He gave me syrup and water for the pain. I recognized the smell of the medicine so I drank it.

"Do you remember who you are? do you remember anything?" That must be it...amnesia. The last thing I remember was being in the library and falling asleep.

"I...was in the library," I said.

"Library? The royal library in the capital?" The royal what? Where the hell have I gone to? There's no such thing as the royal library.

"Do you remember your name? You must be an aristocrat." He said as he sat on the chair at the foot of the bed.

"There aren't any black-haired aristocrat as far as I know, hell, there isn't anyone with black hair and eyes at all!" I stayed still as I listened to him. No one with black hair at all? How is that possible? I must be somewhere in Europe.

"Wh-where are we?" I asked

"We're in Riono province at my pharmacy."

'R-riono?' I froze at my place. Alrikanian, Kanian, Riono? Hold up.

"What...what era are we in?"

"Year 760; Kingdom of Alrikania; De Veganian era." I lost all meaning and logic in my head and blanked out. 'D-d-de Vega?' I don't know if I'm dreaming, hallucinating, on heroin, meth, cocaine, or what but what I know is the Kingdom of Alrikania doesn't exist. I made that up! How is that even possible? I tried to keep my calm and was successful. Now, what the hell do I do?

"Bleach...Do you have Hydrogen Peroxide or p-phenylenediamine?" I asked the old man. I unconsciously touched my black hair, 'I'd also need an alkaline solution'. I need to change my hair color.

"W-why do you need hydrogen peroxide for?" The old man asked.

"My hair," I stood up and faced him.

"Wait, wait a minute, for your hair? what do you mean?" From his reaction, it looks like they still weren't open to the idea of hair dying and hair bleaching.

"I wouldn't walk out of this town alive with this hair," I said.

"What do those chemicals have to do with your hair?" He asked

"Change it." With those words, the old man became flabbergasted.

"A-are you a mage?!"

"Nope."

"Th-then ho-"

"To change one's hair color, you need an alkaline and oxidizing agent." I started explaining how hair bleach works to him.

"How does that work dear? Isn't hydrogen peroxide dangerous?"

"That's why you need an alkaline solution to keep your hair's pH level the same."

"You normally use a small amount of hydrogen peroxide as antiseptic."

"It can also be used for cleaning when used in very small amounts," I said for a fact. We were on the second floor of his pharmacy and he led me towards the storage room which was kept cool by a cooling crystal.

"I always have to pay monthly for these crystals." He held a palm-sized blue crystal that was used to keep some materials cool. He brought me what I asked for and watched me do my thing.

'Medical technology wasn't as advance huh?' I thought to myself. I didn't really think deeply enough about the technology in this book, I wrote it with fantasy in mind. I slowly got to know the old man as I was applying the solution to my hair.

The man's name was Mercurio, he was 56 and was a local pharmacist. He had a pharmacy just below his home and he was the only store that focuses on selling medicine and treating local diseases. Pharmacists during this time was a jack of all trades. They knew the basics of dental, Cardio, and etc. He had a family, a son and a wife. When his wife died 20 years ago his son, having too much ambition, left his old father to take care of himself. He had been doing all the work in the pharmacy for 15 years. He started it 5 years after his wife's death to support his son. Seeing all the things around the pharmacy, a lot of medical types of equipment are not properly stored as well as ingredients for medicine. But I'd give him a six out of ten, he figured out the basics just by observing how plants grew and how to keep the store clean.

By the time the bleach finished taking my hair's pigment away, I already knew of my situation. I'm Estella Avianna Stuyvesant, the "cursed daughter" of Duke Stuyvesant. I'm inside a story I have created, a realm that only existed in my imagination, everything I have written and thought of, every creature and plants, landscapes, and places...this was "her" story, the girl I have always wanted to become...Lilith Mariella Browne.

Lilith, a woman who grew up loved and adored, a woman who shone not only in appearance but personality as well. She was taken care of like a rare priceless flower. She was given everything she needed and wanted, she was loved. Lilith was everything I hoped I was. If I really reincarnated or transmigrated, I'm not really familiar with the term but, why Stella? I wouldn't call Stella "that" villainous and evil, she was just part of a plot that the true "Villainess" made. She was a duke's daughter that was hated. Because of her weird pitch-black hair and white skin, she looked dead, she was the only woman in the whole kingdom that didn't receive "god's gift". She was a disposable character that only appeared when the Villainess Rebbeca Rutherford used her as a scapegoat. When Stella was 15, she tried to go back to Marquess's house and was only thrown back out. She was unrecognizable from the 7-year-old Stella, she was haggard and thin to the bones. She originally didn't know that she was the daughter of a Duke. Rebecca made one of her people fetch Stella and whispered words to her, that her father wanted to see her and missed her dearly. A carriage was sent for her to ride, but she wasn't taken to the Marquess mansion, she was taken to Count Browne's mansion. She caused a ruckus which didn't end in a good way. The prince was visiting Lilith during that time and because of the disturbance, he had her head cut off and her body dumped in the forest for animals to eat.

shuddered at the thought. She was only writing to pass time, she didn't really think about details regarding her book characters. My real name was Reece Williams, the daughter of a surgeon and a novelist. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that the world I created, became my own reality.

Since then, I helped Mercurio tend to the pharmacy, and with the help of my knowledge in modern medicine, the pharmacy flourished and we started expanding and hiring reliable people. Mercurio introduced me as Alex, his niece that lived in the north. This explained why my skin was as white as snow. I dyed hair my hair blonde which hid my identity.

Mercurio's health began to decline when he reached his sixties, I extended his life as much as I can and came up with different types of medicine in the process. But I don't hold people's fate, we all die eventually, it's just a matter of who dies first. After his death, I became the sole owner of the pharmacy, the brothel on the next street took a liking to me and wanted to recruit me, especially a woman named Sylvia, she had a fetish for beautiful and sly-looking women, she was the owner of the brothel that was popular locally. She was sexually harassing me at first but when it reached my limit, I snapped at her and since then, she was only subtlety commenting on me. She wasn't a bad woman, she's just too greedy.

I planned on not encountering my "creations" at all, I'm still not sure if I want to find a way back...if there was something to go back to that is.