Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Bernadette, Rufus, this is Liliana. She will be living with us from now on. Rufus, she will be your younger sister. I am counting on you to take care of her."

The Marquis introduced me to a tall and elegant lady and a young boy not much older than myself. The lady, Bernadette, Marchioness of Sever, is impeccably dressed in a dark blue velvet dress that matches her eyes and her golden hair arrainged in a sophisticated coiffure without a strand intact. The boy at his side, clearly his son, shares her eyes and delicate facial features but his hair resembles that of the Marquis... and mine.

He definitely would not look out of place in an anime. He fits the cool, aloof bishounen character.

"Uh, nice to meet you, my parents call me Lily."

I tried to correct the Marquis' error. I have never heard of anyone referring to me as Liliana; I have always been Lily to everyone back in my hometown.

"You are under my care now and your name will be Liliana Nieve, daughter of the Marquis of Sever." The Marquis gently but very firmly admonished.

The faces of Lady Bernadette, the marchioness, and the young master, Rufus, cannot be more shocked at the bombshell of an announcement the marquis calmly detonated in their faces. But being members of the aristorat, they immediately recovered from their initial shock. The marchioness, as deserving of her title, calmly mumbled an 'of course' and with a spine-chillingly perfect stepford smile, bade me a short welcome. I cannot help but admire her composure; if your husband suddenly brought home a child and claim her as his daughter, any normal woman would definitely throw a tantrum on the spot, much less bade a welcome. Young Rufus, however, merely nodded and his face returned to the stoic mask it was before the marquis' announcement.

There was not much after that, being rather late in the evening. I was led to a hastily prepared guest room as no one in the manor is expecting a daughter to arrive with the marquis. I did not expect riding a carriage to be so exhausting and bumpy that I fell asleep as soon as my back touched the bed.

Sometime near dawn, I was awakened by a bustling in the room. I saw a pale sillouhuette of a young girl with pale blonde hair bustling around my luggage. When I called out to her, I was surprised to see the face I usually see in the mirror. However, the aura around her is not that of a human – she is a doppelganger. It was the first time I saw one in this world, though I occasionally see spirits and fae around my home and in the forest.

"You are not afraid of me?" cried the doppelganger.

"Why would I be afraid? I have merely seen a girl who looks exactly like me. If you are covered in blood and with a messy long hair, that will be scary"

"I am not the Bloody Bride who lives upstairs" the girl retorted as if gravely offended, "you would never catch me looking like an abandoned woman."

"I guess it would depend on who you mimic- wait, there is a bloody ghost in here?!"

Spirits and fae are one thing, but spectres – that is, the lingering ghosts of humans with unfinished business or resentment so deep that they cannot rest even in the afterlife – that is something I'd rather not encounter. Not only were they troublesome to deal with, but rather unreasonable too. They attack you without wasrning and you'll never know when and how you offended them.

"Of course there are bloody ghosts in this manor. This is an old ancestral house with several hundreds of years of history. Wait, you're afraid of that bloody old hag you haven't seen yet but you didn't even bat an eye in my direction?"

Oh, did I offend this doppelganger's sensibilities? It is true that doppelgangers are feared because people believe that doppelgangers bring bad luck to the people involved but according to the great naturalist Libra, they are just mischievous spirits not unlike the elves who like to play pranks on people.

"Forgive me, should I start screaming now?" I retorted. Sweeping past the flabbergasted spirit who now looks like a landed fish muttering a string of "you's", I went to the bathing room, or what I assume to be a dressing room, to wash my face and brush my teeth. As expected, the little spirit followed me inside to glare at the mirror.

"I cannot say that I am not afraid of ghost and spirits, Its just that I'm a little bit used to seeing the 'Other'." Its never a good idea to anger any spirit or ghost. ...Maybe just enough to establish who is the boss-err tell them I'm no pushover.

"My name is Lily," I extended my hand to her, "what do you prefer me to call you, Miss Doppelganger?"

The spirit stared at my outstretched hand for a while before taking it up in a handshake.

"You are a strange human," she remarked, "I have never interacted with any human in this way before s o you might as well give me a name to use."

My, what a carefree ghost. I envy you.

I looked her up and down, "Since you already assumed my form, I will call you Anna. That is short for Liliana, the name I go by here."

"...Why do I feel like I've involved myself in something problematic?"

"Nonsense. If anyone here should be uneasy, it should be me, the human."

But having a doppelganger around will be convenient when I want to go somewhere without alerting the people in this house.

"By the way, Anne, what were you doing with my baggage?"

"Oh, borrowing your clothes" she replied with airily, "I just want to use your appearance and annoy Lady Bernadette. She has insulted poor Mrs Daisy again."

This d*mn unrepentant spirit! If you do that then rather than disliked, I would be outright hated!

Feeling the onset of a headache, I further questioned Anne and found out that the marchioness had a rather nasty domestic dispute with the marquis immediately after sending me to the guest room last night. The angry marchioness then took out her anger on the servants, criticizing (read:nitpicking) their work. Unfortunately, the things she nitpicked on included a work of the family brownie, Mrs. Daisy; hence the planned payback using my name.

If you want your revenge, then go ahead, but don't involve me in this!

"You have to help us! Afterall, it's because of you the Marchiness threw this tantrum in the first place!"

"..."