The Change

She woke up with a clean slap to the face.

Yuna jolted up in surprise and saw the emotionless maid's face before her. She didn't speak before motioning her hand over to someone standing behind her.

A butler entered Yuna's field of vision.

His hair was a dirty blonde, cleanly slicked back. A monocle rested on the right side of his face, outlining his black eyes. He looked like a middle-aged man with dark eye bags.

That's when Yuna realized she was sitting in a chair, her body facing a mirror on top of an antique dresser. It was all too sudden. Wasn't she just getting beaten down by her father? Then she recalled what had happened.

Her eyes widened as she saw her reflection in the mirror.

The little girl before her was a thin, pale skeleton who wore one simple dirty dress. Her skin hugged her bones, extenuating ribs, and joints. She looked deathly ill, with bruises and bleeding cuts all over her body. The girl's eyes were coated with a shade of black. Long, silver hair hanging by her sides with split ends at each strand of hair.

Yuna couldn't believe this was her. It was the first time she saw her present body's face. Somehow, even though she looked starved, she was still quite pretty. Yuna's hand unconsciously moved to touch her face, but she held the feeling back as there were still two unfamiliar people in the room.

Instead, her hand moved to touch Winston's scarf for reassurance but froze when her hands didn't feel anything. Panicked, she looked around the room and stopped when the scarf and storybook were nowhere to be found. Yuna looked back at her reflection with disappointment.

She caught the blonde-haired butler's movements as he picked up a pair of silver scissors from the side table next to the dresser and remembered her father's words as the scissor in the butler's hands came closer to her head. Staying calm was the best she could do right now, but;

Feeling each lock of hair fall from her head, she watched the butler do his work.

The fact hit her, 'He's dead... Winston's dead,' her eyes wandered, 'It doesn't feel real. It seemed like just yesterday when I was smiling and laughing with him. Now, he's dead, and I have to pretend to be him? Christ, It feels like I'm mocking his existence.' She thought back with resentment.

Then finally, tears started forming in her eyes. One by one, they slowly dripped down from her face. The maid motioned for the butler to stop. He did as told and took a step back, leaving half of Yuna's hair uncut.

The maid walked in front of Yuna and bent her knees slightly to see her tearful countenance. She lifted a hand to touch the side of her face, and Yuna felt yet another cold slap.

For the first time in her years of living in this world, Yuna heard the maid's voice. Unlike the stern tone that was anticipated, it was delicate. But the words that came from her mouth were anything but that, "As ordered by the king, you are not allowed to show any troublesome emotions. With each display of emotion on the list, one beating shall be implemented. Adhere to this rule or face increasingly severe punishments, as suited by the occasion."

Yuna was stunned by her words and hurried to wipe her tears. She brought her breathing back to normal as soon as possible. Though it was easier said than done, she did her best to stop her emotions from spiraling out of control. There weren't many things in life that she feared, but the king's glaring face and cruel words have long traumatized her. He also held the most control of her life in this world, so if she wanted to live a good life, she had to be as obedient as possible.

Her willpower wasn't strong enough to disobey him.

'I don't have the luxury to mourn right now. If I want to make up for Winston's death, I need to get my act together,' she thought while breathing in the stinging result of the slap. Yuna looked in the mirror to see her cheek growing redder.

The maid stepped back after seeing Yuna finish collecting herself. She motioned for the butler to complete his job.

...

Due to the maid blocking her view and swiftly carrying her to the bathroom, Yuna didn't get a chance to look at herself after the butler finished.

After closing the door behind her, the maid took off Yuna's dress and set her down in a bathtub with pre-prepped water.

She was scrubbed to the bone.

An insane amount of dirt came off Yuna's body, along with a few patches of dead skin and dried blood. The water was dyed a dark reddish gray in response. It got so dirty and muddled that the maid had to change the water to continue washing her.

At first, Yuna was embarrassed that someone was seeing her naked and washing her since she was mentally still a teenage girl. But if it meant she could have a short break, she didn't mind. If her starving stomach had been ignored, she would've felt liberated at this moment. It felt too good to finally have a shower after what felt like a century.

Though she had to admit, it hurt a lot every time the maid scrubbed certain parts of her body closer to her organs. However, she didn't dare complain nor display blissful emotions as she recalled the threatening rule and the beatings she'd have to take if she broke it.

'Do not show troublesome emotions,' Yuna repeated in her mind, determined to stick to these strange rules as she learned them. No one besides a masochist would ignore such a thing, and she certainly wasn't one.

...Because a lingering hope in her heart remained.

A hope that after all this mess, if she survives, she could live a better life.

...

While the maid was busy washing her leg, Yuna took the chance to touch her drastically shortened hair. As she never had such short hair even in her previous life, the weight change of loss of hair made her feel weird. But she felt much more comfortable with this hair, so she didn't have much to complain about.

'I wonder how long I'll be impersonating Winston,' Yuna let go of her hair and sunk her chin under the water, 'Will I ever go back to being myself?'

She quietly sighed, '...Oh well, let's just see where this thing will lead me.'

Yuna gave up on controlling the direction her new life was heading because she didn't have the power to do much about it at the moment.

Maybe when she grows older, and the king dies...

'Wait, what will happen to me after the king dies?'

...

She hadn't realized it before, but her face was almost identical to Winston's. It was scary how much a simple haircut could change a person.

In the full-body mirror wasn't Yuna nor a little girl who was locked up in a dark room for years of her life. No, it was a darker and skinnier Winston whose eyes were tainted in the curse of maturity, unbefitting a child.

This new Winston had a more hunched back. His warm personality and fluffy silver hair were replaced with a serious face and straight, white hair. This version of the boy was also paler and was anything but cute.

The difference was so subtle that you had to pay close attention to spot it, but it was still there. Yuna sighed with the new identity she'd taken on.

Her anxiety rose when she saw the maid standing at the side suddenly moving behind her.

'Did I do something wrong?' Yuna thought with sweat dripping off her face.

Suddenly, she felt a merciless slam on her back, like a truck had bashed into her.

Each bone and muscle in her back rearranged itself to realign her spine, and her blood cell count tangibly increased. Color had returned to her skin, and she finally stood upright, actually becoming taller than the previous Winston.

She coughed violently as she felt the bones in her neck being corrected one by one. The cuts on her body healed themselves during this process.

Yuna felt like curling into a ball from the pain, but she didn't know what that'd do to her body. She didn't want to get beat again, either.

After her body finished restoring itself, she let out a quiet exhale, 'How in the world did the maid do that?'

She wondered, 'From the odd and irregular features of the people I've seen so far, this world might be of fantasy.' Yuna turned to look at the maid covering her mouth with a handkerchief. The maid stared back at her questionably.

Just as Yuna was about to ask the question, she paused to think about something. Only after she finished thinking was when she ordered in a deeper, steady tone, "Water."

The maid received the message and complied with Yuna's request.

...