2 Rebirth of the Usurper Queen

Aside from the servants in the House of Cloud Moon, no one had noticed the changes in the General residence's eldest young miss.

No surprise. Despite being the only true legitimate daughter, Jiang Ming Yue was treated even more carelessly than her concubine born sisters. Her mother, the only daughter of the Ruan family, had died giving birth to a stillborn baby boy when Ming Yue was six years old. Her father was a celebrated general, whose marriage to Ruan Mei Xiang had been arranged by the Empress Dowager herself.

After Mei Xiang's death, Jiang Lei had raised his favored concubine to the position of Second Madam. By that time, the Second Madam already had two children of her own. The household's second young miss, Jiang Li Ling, and the eldest son, Jiang Li Wei. Aside from the Second Madam and her children, Jiang Lei also had three other daughters and an infant son born of his three other concubines.

Of them, it was obvious that the Second Madam's two offspring were the most favored, but the other concubine born children at least had their mother's to support them. Only Ming Yue was isolated, raised by the wet nurse her mother had brought to the Jiang household as part of her dowry.

Despite being the eldest daughter, Ming Yue grew up timid and eager to please. She was looked down upon by the house servants and bullied by her half siblings. The Second Madam pretended to be a loving and benevolent step mother, but secretly ruined Ming Yue's reputation till she was known in the capitol as a talentless idiot. With her social anxiety and isolationist tendencies, it was impossible for Ming Yue to correct public opinion. Moreover she was completely deceived by her step mother's false kindness. In short,

"She was an idiot."

The girl who spoke had a pair of stunning peach blossom eyes, framed by thick dark lashes. The maids closest to the eldest young miss remembered that those eyes were once clear and open as the night sky. But ever since their mistress had recovered from her recent illness, better comparisons were well water, still and fathomless, or the shadows beneath the shade of an old tree, ageless and unaltered by environment.

But they were still the same eyes. Nothing about their young miss had outwardly changed, Ruo Mei thought as she finished explaining the situation in the General's household to her mistress. After recovering from the fever that had kept her bedridden for more than a month, Jiang Ming Yue seemed to have lost all her memories from her fifteen years of life. Their young miss had not even recognized her or Ruo Lan, who had grown up beside her and served her since before the First Madam's death.

Ruo Mei had been skeptical at first, but what else could account for the dramatic changes in the eldest young miss? Gone was the shy and slightly awkward young lady she had always known. This eldest young miss before her was still as soft spoken as before, but radiated a confidence and self assertion that the former Ming Yue never possessed. Since awaking, her young miss had not spoken much, but would occasionally ask questions about the Jiang family or her own history. And, every so often, make odd observations such as the one she just had.

Ruo Mei, not for the first time in the past three days, frowned in confusion. "Young miss?"

"Never mind."

The young woman fanned both hands, pale and graceful as doves, through the air. A casual but elegant gesture completely outside the original host's repertoire.

The simple fact was, she was not Ming Yue. The eldest young miss of the Jiang family had died from the illness that had kept her bedridden for five weeks.

Her real name was Sithli Csmarich and in her world she had been known as the Ursurper Queen. Although she had began as a small concubine of the nation's sovereign lord, over a period of three years she had picked her way through the women of the harem to become the Queen, isolated her lord husband from the rest of the royal family by sowing distrust and betrayal among them, before finally deposing him and taking his throne for herself. For the next two years she had ruled with a cruel hand, executing any who opposed her and consolidating her power. All until the appearance of the last remaining royal heir.

Sithli remembered the evening that the Battle-Prince Elias had come, striding ahead of his angry mob, naked sword streaked with blood as he reclaimed the palace that had once belonged to his uncle. She remembered the emaciated hands of Elias' rebel peasants dragging her from the throne, hooking dirty nails in silk and jewelry and skin as they stripped her of her imperial raiment. The new king had let his subjects take their pound of flesh before sending her to the dungeons to await execution. She'd escaped while the castle slept and attempted to flee the region by boat, but lost consciousness due to injury and exhaustion, hoping the river would carry her far enough from danger. She remember too, waking up and seeing the face of the person who had saved her. And changed her.

Before that fateful meeting, she had always believed that the core of humanity was ugliness and evil. iPeople were at best selfish, self serving and cruel and living well meant being the cruelest and most selfish of all. That person showed her differently. They had nursed her back to health, despite knowing full well her identity. They had been the first person to laugh with her, argue with her, worry for her with sincerity. In the end, that person had even lost their life trying to protect her. And although Sithli had been finally captured and executed by Elias' men, she had looked back on the hollow-boned remnants of who she was and died regretting not being someone more worthy of that person's sacrifice.

Now it seemed like she had been given another chance; reborn into the body of this young girl in this foreign world. She could live quietly as this low-key and self contained noble lady. An ascetic life of repentance for all the blood and the tears that stained her soul.

Sithli lifted a small jade cup and let the weak, lukewarm dregs of tea wash across her tongue, eyes fixed beyond the window frame on the main building of the Jiang compound.

General. Second Madam. Let's live peacefully from now on, shall we?