As soon as Rosette entered the small suffocating room without enough ventilation, a strong smell of dust, paper and ink attacked her nose.

In a corner of the dimly lit room, there was a grand mahogany desk which glowed a reddish hue as the candle light weakly permeated from the walls. The walls held tall bookshelves holding several old books and literature, with varying thickness and dulled leather bound covers. The air was dry to preserve the condition of the books. 

As she mildly stood at the entrance, she felt claustrophobia tingling in her senses. The tall bookshelves were imposing, as if staring down at the feeble 7 year old girl.

This was her study room, conjoined to a bigger library containing even more books. She could see speckles of dust fluttering in the air under the candle light, a pile of thick opened texts sprawled across the table and some parchment papers holding some scribblings.

As the small girl walked towards the high chair behind the desk, ‘Clack clack’ rang out in the room whenever her heels made contact with the floor.

Her sight landed on the heavy books flipped open in front of her and she clicked her tongue with much distaste. The books had pages full of words and no illustrations. There wasn’t even enough space between the lines making it look like someone messily spilled a cup of words all over the book.

She immediately felt drowsy after reading the first two sentences. She let out a long sigh.

“To think they expected a 7 year old child to learn all these without the help of a tutor.”

Hey asshole father, if you want your daughter to be intelligent, instead of berating her how about getting her a teacher? 

How dumb is your prime minister brain that you can’t even understand this logic?

“First… Let’s learn more about where I’m at.”

Kingdom of Alban is a small, but strong country. It’s relatively small when compared to the Dimitry empire to the north and less culturally diverse in comparison to the Koran Empire of the East.

But it is most well-known for several talented individuals produced by the Royal Academy located in the capital city, in addition to blooming trades achieved by the port-city located in the South.

Francis de von Alban, despite being 7th in line to the throne, ascended to rule the Kingdom skipping his older brothers due to his military prowess that no one could deny. 

He proved his worth after several wars with surrounding nations and bringing consecutive victories; a capable man who was blood thirsty. 

His cold blue eyes and silver hair soaked in blood would bring shivers to the enemy facing his army on the battle field.

Supporting under him were the four dukes who each handled an important role to keep the country running. The two most well-known were Duke Yttrea and Duke Phillius, who held their territories in East and West respectively.

Duke Yttrea was a house constantly supplying intelligent strategists for the country. Current Duke Theodore Yttrea, Rosette’s father, worked as a Prime Minister handled various internal affairs of the country.

Duke Phillius held a high position as a prestigious knight house leading the knights and military of the country.

The two duke houses made the brains and brawns of the kingdom.

To no surprise, magic was also present in this fantasy-medieval world. And like many other mangas she had read in her previous life, it was easy to imagine it would be mana-based.

4 primary elements: Fire, Earth, Water and Wind
2 heretic elements: Light, Darkness

“If I’m not wrong, the heroine of the story will always have a strong light element”

Rule 2 of isekai: HEROINES ARE ALL MUNCHKINS WITH LIGHT ELEMENT.

‘I don’t even know how much mana I have or can use… To protect myself, it’s obvious I have to be strong.’

Rosette started scribbling down furiously on a new piece of paper of her “To-do list to not die”. Her eyes furrowed and sweat drops formed on her forehead.

She was writing in her native language, in order to avoid anyone from reading this. 

After all, it’s number one rule of Isekai to not let anyone else know you’re from a different world. That’d just get rid of the advantage you have, you know!

Rosette did ponder if she should use English, but it was a widely used language in her previous world and she didn’t know if anyone else had reincarnated into this world.

Rule #23 of isekai: MOST OFTEN, THERE ARE MULTIPLE REINCARNATED PEOPLE

Her native language was a niche language, it looked like round butts and it was already hard enough to find another person speaking the language anywhere outside her country, much less in a different world. It was a safer choice of the two.

She pondered the role she was given in the story. For now, she assumed she was playing the role of a villainess from her appearance.

Rosette recalled her previous life as a university student, filled with assignments day in and out. “Group projects” she had to solo... There were times she wanted to give everything up but reminded herself of the expensive tuition she’s squeezing out to attend these classes.

“I really just want a lazy life without doing anything…” she muttered with a resigned tone.

‘But here I am, having to worry about life-and-death situations.’

If she could do whatever, she’d just like nothing to do with the original story and live an easy commoner life opening a small book cafe in a small town. But saying that out loud would definitely raise a flag so she swallowed her words.

As she scribbled such thoughts, a knock resounded from the door. With her permission, Paul the head butler entered her study room.

“I’ve brought you lunch, my lady.”

She stared at Paul standing in front of her. He had brown gel-backed hair and sharp hazel eyes, sharp jawline and a tanned skin. An overall tall person wearing a tidied uniform accentuating his broad shoulders and long legs.

Maybe because it’s a fantasy world, but even the side characters are beautiful.

‘He looks around late 20s, but he’s already being assigned to manage this mansion. Either Paul’s really capable, or the Duke just doesn’t give a fuck. 

Assuming there’s no harassment from the staff under his management, he probably is a nice guy. But then the sorry state of the mansion makes me wonder where all the fund is going to. 

I need to keep the fact I lost my memories a secret…’

When Rosette requested Theresa with moist teary eyes to keep this a secret, the maid immediately agreed. Probably because there would be more discrimination from the Duke if he found out Rosette lost her memories.

"Paul, can I ask if there's anyone available to tutor me for my studies?”

Paul stood silent at my question, his expression sour.

"Miss..." He slowly answered, troubled on how to explain the situation.

Why does this smell like more trouble?