Chapter 2
Stella's whole body began to tremble and she had lost her appetite after hearing his name. "What is he doing here?" She asked trying to hide her fear from her maid. The maid then immediately replied, "He came here to check on you after hearing you weren't in good health, isn't he a wonderful fiance." When Emily said that Stella felt sick. He probably came here to check up on her simply because he had to out of duty.
"Tell him that I'm feeling very weak and can't see him right now." Stella said before she started drinking her tea again. Emily looked at her in surprise before replying by saying ' yes miss ' and rushed out of the room. When Emily closed the door disappearing, Stella released a long sigh of relief and then decided to not let him ruin her meal and started to eat her delicious breakfast again. Later that morning Stella decided to take a walk around what was her new home. She was surprised after exiting her room, even though she knew that the house of quite big she had no idea it was this huge.
It was a big mansion looking like it came out of a fairy tale and it was three stories. As she exited her room and started walking down a random corridor she saw a beautiful garden filled with red roses with a white gazebo in the middle. While most people thought that was red was overused she loved the simple beautiful red rose. Without knowing Stella had started to make her way toward the garden. The closer she got the more she saw how well kept and loved this garden was by its owner. She entered the gazebo and sat down admiring the roses.
Unknown to her that someone was stealthily watching her from the side. It was only after two hours had passed that she decided to walk around a while longer. The longer she walked, the more she realized that she was feeling very weak. She then went back to her room disappointed about not being able to walk more. 'I wonder why I feel so weak, is it because I haven't gotten used to this body yet.'
Stella decided to keep it like that and rested her body to take another walk later in the day. Just as she was going to sleep, she heard a knock on her door expecting it to be Emily she said "Enter." After she said that an old man then came into her room. He looked like a butler with how he dressed so she had to be on high alert. "What is it?" She asked trying to sound more regal.
"The Grand Duke had sent over some herbs to wish you a speedy recovery should I ask the doctors to make you some soup my lady." He asked while looking at her. Stella found it weird that he looked at her while the other servants wouldn't dare look at her at all. "I have no use for them so please throw them away." She said before turning knowing after hearing about the Grand Duke she couldn't go to sleep.
"If you don't mind me saying wouldn't it be better to use the medicine from the Grand Duke." The butler said looking straight at her. Even though she knew that what he was saying was right Stella knew something about him was wrong and couldn't help but be angry at him. "If I wanted to use the medicine I would have taken it, tell Emily to throw it away and I will ask Emily personally if she threw it away, that will be all you're dismissed." She said coldly before pointing to the door signaling him to get out.
The butler was shocked at her sudden behavior but bowed and rushed out of her room soon after. Stella sighed in relief as he quickly exited her room. She couldn't let this butler walk over her or else she pushed around. Thinking about what had happened Stella didn't feel sleepy anymore so she decided to make a plan to survive in this novel designed to kill her.
Later that day Stella came out of her room and went to find the library. While looking for the library she saw a maid. "Hey, do you know where the library is?" She asked. The maid looked around before nervously stuttering "Y-yes yo-young l-l-lady it's down the hallway and to the first left." Stella looked at her confused as to why she looked so frightened. "Why are you so frightened of me." She asked jumping to the point.
The young maid looked even more horrified before she furiously started to shake her head. "Of course, not m'lady I just thought you were angry how you didn't get to see the Duke." The maid said while lowering her head. "What did I use to do when I got angry about the Duke," Stella said trying to get more information about how the old Stella was to everyone. "You would just-" She started saying before stopping in the middle of her sentence and looking up at Stella before continuing.
"You would just throw things at us maids." The young maid finished and then began feeling worried as she saw the startled look on Stella's face. "Of course, you had every right to be angry at the Duke." The maid said hoping that Stella would not be angry at her. What the young maid didn't know was that Stella was figuring out how to let the maid forget the original Stella's action. "It's not okay, after not feeling well I had enough time to reflect on my past actions and I am sorry for what I did."
The maid couldn't believe what was coming out of her young lady's mouth but soon she began hoping that what she said was true. Stella now learning what the old Stella's personality was like dismissed the maid and continued to walk to the library. When Stella turned to the left she could see a large brown door with ancient texts on it which she had guessed was the entrance to the library. So she pushed the door with all her strength and since she was still getting accustomed to her new body she felt exhausted.
As she pushed the door she saw a large library that looked like it had a few thousand books. Since she was so amazed at the size of the library she didn't notice the presence of someone to her left. "Can I help you, young lady?" A female voice said. Stella jumped and immediately looked to her left to see who it was. It was a woman who looked like she was in her late 40s and had an imitating aura around her. She was dressed in a simple but elegant white shirt and a black long skirt.
"Who are you?" Stella asked trying to keep her composure in front of the mysterious woman. "I am the librarian of this residence, it seems like you don't remember me, my lady." Worried over the fact that even though this woman knew the old Stella she had never seen her in Stella's memories so she had tried to quickly come up with an excuse. "Yes, after getting sick I had lost some of my memories and have been having headaches so I am here to relax and clear my head." She said. The woman stared at her then soon bowed and replied. "Let me introduce myself I am Miranda Noel and I have worked for the Albion family for almost thirty years." Miranda announced
Stella made sure to make a mental note of her name before she smiled politely and said it was nice to meet her. "Do you where the section about the Kingdom's history is?" Stella asked needing to learn more about this kingdom and where she was in the story's development. "Of course young miss it's right there on the first six shelves." Miranda replied while pointing to the right corner of the upper part of the library. Stella then politely told her "Thank you so much for the help." The mysterious librarian simply smiled before excusing herself.
Stella slowly stepped up the stairs as she was still not back to normal. When she reached the upper level of the library and scanned the first shelf for the royal family of the Raina Kingdom's history. Fifteen minutes later she finally found a book on the royal family's succession line. As she was almost done with the book she heard the library door opening. Curious to see who it was Stella peeked out of one of the railings and saw that it was the butler from earlier. He directly walked up to Miranda and when she looked up she looked surprised and immediately got up and said. "What a coincidence seeing you here head butler it seems like the library is quite busy today first young mistress Stella and now you."
When the butler heard Stella's name his expression stiffened before replying "I just came to make sure the library was in order I will be leaving now have a great day miss Miranda." Just like when Stella had told her thank you she just politely smiled. Even though the butler had left and Stella went back to reading she couldn't stop thinking about how weird the butler's reaction was when he learned that she was in the library. After she had read the entire book but learned nothing new about the current emperor or the crown prince she decided to go back to her room.
She carefully came down the stairs and politely said goodbye to the librarian. On her way back to her room she thought about all the events that happened. She met a suspicious head butler, learned that the previous Stella abused her maids, met a mysterious librarian named Miranda, and also learned there was some weird connection between Miranda and the head butler. Stella was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that was walking straight into a person. A few seconds later she bumped into that person. "I'm so sorry." Stella said apologetically. When she looked up she felt her whole body freeze up the person she bumped into was the tormenter of her nightmares, the Grand Duke Aster.