3 The Incipient Stage

  A little bit about me.

Jieum and I weren't always good friends. 5 years ago, when I moved to Incheon with none but my siblings, I found it especially tough to conflate with the city people. All my life I had lived in a tiny apartment in Daegu with my family of 6 which included my mother, my 3 elder sisters and one little brother called Juwon. As a kid with a fiery personality, I was usually never on good terms with my family, except for my little brother who was my sole reason to keep on living.

Often on gloomy days, when things weren't so well in the apartment and everyone was yelling at each other due to constant stress because of unpaid bills piling up, I'd bolt from the apartment with my little brother in tow to avoid getting bashed at. My mother didn't really care all that much for her kids as she was usually busy worrying about her continuously wrinkling face and bulging figure. "It's all because of you kids!" she'd say. "I wish I never had the lot of you. I used to look so lovely before I ever met your father. And to believe he did a runner on us, that bastard!"

None of us ever went to school. Why? Because we couldn't afford it. Juwon and I studied together at home from books my elder sisters begged off of their fellow friends who were throwing them away. Juwon didn't care, though. He was a quiet and timid boy from birth and didn't pay much attention to the battered up books I tried to teach him from. Sometimes I even wondered if he was dyslexic, though I never looked into it much further.

But then one day, all of our lives were turned upside down when my eldest sister who used to work in a restaurant won the lottery. It was much more of a big deal than we all had expected it to be. It was enough for us to move to a nice house somewhere pleasant and for me and Juwon to go to school for at least one term, though Mom demanded that all the money should be given to her. This ordeal followed with a huge fight where I again had to flee with Juwon to prevent getting caught up in it.

The following night I eventually went back home hand-in-hand with Juwon who was busy sucking on a lollipop that I had got him with a coin that I found on the pavement in front of our apartment complex. As I approached the door to our apartment, I heard yelling and wailing. I cautiously turned the door handle, gripping Juwon's hand tighter and what I saw in front of me was a sight I'd never forget.

"S-sisters...what happened here?"

Mom was lying, back first on the floor with her eyelids shut tight and face a chalky white. Without even confirming it, I knew she was dead. The atmosphere of the room confirmed my ruling. "How did this happen?"

"She had a heart attack," said my eldest sister who seemed to be the only one not affected by this situation. The other two were in tears. "And good riddance."

I didn't cry, not even at her funeral. Nor did Juwon as he was too young to understand what happened.

After that day, my siblings and I moved to Incheon using the lottery money in order to live a better life. We got a nice apartment and Juwon and I were enrolled into a nearby school. I felt like my life was finally on par with everyone else's.

It was in this school that I met Jieum. At first she was really cautious of me and didn't stop other girls when they made fun of me being an orphan. But gradually, we became fond of each other due to our shared interests in sports and our similar personalities, and we've been like glue ever since.

.....

Now back to the present.

✿

"Out! Everybody leave," an old lady who stood right in front of the foot of my grand bed, called out. "Her Highness needs her rest." Soon, she had managed to usher out every single person from the room and closed the large. freakin' door. "Now," she started. "I will attend to your needs. Is there anything you would like for me to get you?"

This lady, who looked like she was in her late fifties and was wore an outfit and carried the authority that relayed to me that she might be the head maid. And she was asking me if I needed something. Yes. I needed to go back to my world, but I doubted that she'd know how. "Could you get me a glass of water and something to eat?" I was starving.

The lady nodded and curtseyed, and with that, she disappeared out the door. Finally, I had some time to assemble my thoughts and figure out some sort of plan to get through this.

Now, all the isekai manhwas that I had read in the course of my first limited lifetime implied that a girl from the modern world gets thrown into the world of a novel that she's just recently finished. The problem with that was that I'm not really into novels, and there are certainly none that I've recently read, except for Moby Dick that we read in English class last term and had to do a report on it.

Think, Seonhee, think! Was there any novel that I ever saw and thought, "Hey! I wish I lived in that world." Not really. None that came to mind…

…..

Hold up. I remembered something. Oh shit, no.

There was a novel Jieum always talked about. She raved on and on about it everyday for a short period of time. If my memory serves right, then the novel was called "The Blessing of Wisteria".

I never really paid that much attention to Jieum when she was in her babbling-mode but I do remember some specific significant details from it. The main female lead was called something like Cindy or Canthia or something and the only thing I remember about her was that she dies at the end. Yeah. She dies.

Also, I remember her saying how sad she was that the princess is killed even though she benefited all her people. And I responded by saying, "If I was her, I would've never benefitted all those greedy fools if I was to be killed at the end."

And look where it got me.

Okay so. I didn't know how much into the novel I was at the moment and how long it would be before my scheduled death was due. If only Jieum was here, she'd know.

But she wasn't here. So I needed to think up something myself. I glanced all around the room I was currently in to get some sort of inspiration or a useful weapon for future self-defense.

The Crown Princess's square shaped room was quite large. Very large. Just a tad bit smaller than our school auditorium. Against one wall, in the very middle was the bed I was currently sitting on. Besides the bed were two nightstands apparently made with carved gold, similar to the bed. Underneath that, a plush royal purple rug covered the entire floor.

On the wall directly in front of the bed, was a large mural. A mural of a fairy and the moon. Though it was only a painting, it looked incredibly real. Compliments to the painter. I quickly hopped off of the large queen-sized bed and skittered along the carpet floor to the large balcony on the wall adjacent to the right of the wall with the bed.

I threw open the large floor-to ceiling glass doors and stepped out on the stone pavement. The wind instantly hit my face and several lilac strands of hair hit my face. "Ugh, ew," I sputtered as I spit the hair out of my mouth. To my surprise the hair tasted very faintly of strawberries. I wonder what shampoo this princess uses.

"Seonhee, focus!" My brain yelled at me. I quickly re-gathered my thoughts. I didn't have any time to waste. I set my eyes upon what was beyond the balcony. Upon a close inspection of the view that stood before me, I uncovered several things.

1. Yes, I was totally isekai'd.

2. The general architectural design of the Empire was very pleasing to the eye.

3. I was f****ed.

I was totally lost. After realizing that, I started panicking. What if I never get back to my world? What's going to happen to me now? I had no ally in this place. I had no knowledge regarding the customs and traditions of this world. What if everyone in this palace notices that I'm not the princess and then they instantly decide to execute me? Then what???

Pacing on the balcony wasn't gonna help. I needed to formulate a solid plan.

Click. The door opened.

"Your Highness? What're you doing outside? Come back in, you just woke up." It was the old, maid-lady again. "You'll get sick once anew."

I didn't want to cause any problems on my first day in this place. Gotta be cautious.

"I'll be right over," I answered meekly as I was still getting used to my new language. I closed the glass doors behind me as I stepped back into the purple carpet and walked on over to what the Maid had for me.

"Hey..." I started as I glanced at the tray of food that the Maid placed gently on my bed. "What am I supposed to call you, again?"

The maid looked at me as if I was talking about something absolutely queer. At that moment I knew, I messed up. I had to try and not give away my real identity at all costs. Trying to provide an explanation to support my statement, I blurted out, "It's because I was sick for a bit so my memory is still a bit, uh...fuzzy."

The maid still looked quite suspicious. "Martha," she sighed eventually. "You may call me Martha."

Alright so this Martha lady was very frightening and I do not feel bad to admit that I was indeed scared of her. She looked like a modern day school principal, if you get my meaning. Her face was creased with wrinkles but she still seemed as efficient and sharp as a gladiator in killing. Her thin, nimble hands were quick and so were her legs. She wore a uniform which included a black blouse, an apron over a long black skirt sewn into her top and a frilly white head wrap thingy which went around her tied up brown hair. She was the definition of a strict, Victorian picture book maid.

Though I wasn't so sure about her personality.

"Martha."

"At your assistance, My Lady," Martha answered almost instantly.

"Er...no, I was just testing your name." I blushed. Seonhee you fool, just stuff your face.

Martha had generously piled up the tray with random assortments of food. I picked up what appeared to be a raspberry tart and started nibbling on it. Martha who was now taking out something out of a closet that was located on the wall to the right side of the bed, a few feet besides the grand bedroom door, looked up when she heard a moan escape my lips. I tried to hide my tomato red face behind my hair. Yes, the tart was that good. Martha just went back to doing whatever she was in the closet but as soon as she did so, I accidentally spilled a glob of raspberry cream on the Princess's pink, silk nightdress.

I gasped and Martha's face went back to looking at me suspiciously. "Martha, I'm sorry I-"

Martha tutted. "Your Highness, you needn't apologize for such a trivial thing," she sighed and came over to me so she could wipe off the stain with a napkin she produced from the pocket stitched on her apron. "And to a mere maid, nonetheless. I hope you haven't forgotten your status as the blessed crown princess."

It was incredibly awkward, staying still as Martha cleaned me up as if I was a kindergartener. On a closer glance, she didn't seem as strict as I thought her to be. Her expression was soft and her hands touched tender as she wiped me off. "Even your habits can be compared to Madame Irabella," she muttered under her breath. I wonder who that was?

She stood back and inspected me. "Alright, that's nicely done," she gave a tight-lipped smile. "After eating, I'd advise you to accompany me to the water closet so we can get you washed up and clean. After all, you've been bedridden for the past 4 days."

Oh, so that's why everyone was fretting about my state before. The Crown Princess being bedridden for 4 days must have kept the whole empire on its toes. Come to think of it, how did I even get here? I had a strange headache at school, and then I was taken to the infirmary by Jieum and then I ingested some sort of sickly, bitter medicine. Or was it medicine?

I was in deep thought when Martha interrupted me again. "We don't know if you're completely cured yet, so I'll go call the royal physician. Just in case." And with that I was once alone left alone in this bedroom.