"Are you sure that's what you saw, old man?" Master Albrecht, who you never see not working, actually paused his work when I retold to him what happened earlier.

And certainly what I reported is enough to make anyone stop at their tracks. "Yes my Lord, lady Arianne has drastically changed upon waking up from her illness." I confidently told. "The usually meek lady is now making threats and has such a sharp tongue that I couldn't help but be reminded of those old merchants." But she seems even more terrifying than a sly fox. "She became like a cold fox." 

Foxes manipulate because they are weak. But lady Arianne uses her voice like it would a wolf does.

—How could she have developed such a mouth? I wondered.

Lady Arianne is not the same one we knew from before, so surely his Grace would not take this lightly—

….Is what I thought. "Well that is certainly very interesting." Lord Albrecht muttered in an amused tone. "My daughter became cold huh..." 

After his remarks though our conversation went silent, "So…. Lord Albrecht, what do we do in this situation?" I'm surprised myself.

Lord Albrecht Verde Geistein is famous for being a meticulous man that never lets anything be up to fate.

And I know that since I've been by his side since he was but a child.

Finally my curiosity was sedated when he replied. "What should I do? Nothing for now. She must have had a deep look into herself while she was unconscious and decided to change for the better. I mean I was different myself when I was a child."

—Lord Albrecht, I wholeheartedly disagree with your last point. But obviously I couldn't say that so only a wet smile remains on my face.

I am never one to question my master's motives so I only need to know his confirmation. "So my Lord, am I correct to assume no action will be taken for Lady Arianne's drastic cold change of personality?"

"Of course not, she is my daughter after all." And further emphasizing his point. "She's the only child that me and her had—"

"I apologize, Lord Albrecht." He even brought out that taboo subject that his Grace rarely if ever brought up to anyone.

"...You interrupted me, but it's fine, you won't get punished for mentioning her." He reassured me.

"Yes your Grace." Lord Albrect is a noble that doesn't like unnecessary actions so I immediately stand upright again, but…

—Even if it's not in the rules it might as well be one.

Lady Arianne's mother. 

My eyes shake in sadness whenever I think of that person.

And Lord Albrecht must have realized it too, "It is not healthy to dwell into the past, it happened." And continues. "...Is what I ideally would like to say but as you know old man, the past holds the present down."

"You know what I mean right?" This time, Lord Albrecht's voice sounded cold.

"Yes, my Lord." I bow my head down again but only down to my neck. 

"Because of the past, my daughter is someone inconvenient to let out of this house, many people would unjustly hate her and in extension, our household so it is better to leave her alone." And with that, my report is essentially over.

After talking a bit more. "I will take my leave now my Lord." Turning around I take my leave.

But with my back turned, "Wait." He stops me, which never happens. "I guess it wouldn't be bad if you further investigate her newfound cold personality, Arianne's that is."

With my back turned my Lord couldn't see the smile on my face. 

—I almost thought he wouldn't mention his own daughter's name. Thank God I was wrong.

Turning around I return to my standard expression. "Yes your Grace, me and the relevant parties would be beside her as she Is recovering." My Lord once said my smile looks goofy so I stopped showing it to him.

"Go, your smile is still annoying to look at old man." And with that I leave his office.

As I was closing the door I saw him muttering something.

"Cold, huh..."

And unlike grabbing his papers like he usually does, he closes his eyes and has a deep meditation.

—There is only one readon that could make Lord Albrecht act like that.

But sadly, it is taboo to talk about in this mansion.

So I closed the doors, walking away with a melancholic smile on my face.

•••

For a while me and the original Arianne did nothing but stare at each other, if anyone else saw this they would have proclaimed I have gone mad but here I am. 

From what my brain can come up with is that there are two different consciousnesses in this one body, me and the original Arianne who is talking to me via reflection in the mirror.

"This is just insane..." One crazy thing keeps happening to me after another and I'm honestly pretty exhausted not just physically but mentally as well.

"...I don't know what to say about this as well." Speak of the other side of the mirror, here she is.

"...Yeah." I don't know what to say as well.

Then once again we stared at each other. It continued like this for a while then...

"It feels uncomfortable being stared at by my own body." Arianne was the one that finally broke the silence.

She shivered as well, to which I also experienced. 

Arianne continues to explain her discomfort. "And since we are in the same body, it also feels uncomfortable staring at myself when the person in front of me that I'm talking to is the same face as me and moving the same as well."

"Your right." I completely agree. "It's also uncomfortable of me not freely being able to control my own body, like when you shivered earlier." Explaining our strange situation to each other made me realize something.

I think we're the only people that have experienced something like this before. I thought, as I sigh at this absurdity and continue on.

While thinking about how there's two minds inside one body, I need to test a few things first before anything else.

"Your right, I also never saw myself making such a—wait wait wait! What are you doing?!" I felt my mouth being forceful right now from her, annoying but this is for the sake of my future.

"You're grossed out by this huh?" I showed the back of my hand, the knuckles where I punched the mirror earlier.

The hand is bloody to a pulp, there are scratches and pieces of glass stuck in there, not to mention my skin is already red from the skin that she'd off like a snake when I first inhabited this body.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?!" She screamed.

Placing this right in front of her, she tried desperately to move it away. But no matter how hard she tries, believe me I can feel it, she can't move it out.

I feel bad having her see such a gory thing so I finally move it away. "I knew it." I did not want to do this to a little girl but for my own sake I had to do it.

I finally told her the conclusion of my little experiment. "Although you can speak through our mouths freely and to somewhat move this body's facial expressions and reactions, I now know for certain that I have the more dominant consciousness when it comes to this body." I told her, and also. "Try as you might, you didn't manage to remove my hand even if you wanted to." I told her why I put such a disgusting thing right in front of her.

I knew that no kid like her would be able to contend seeing such a sight and so would naturally try to get it out of her sight. I also focused my eyes so she won't shut it down too.

Now that it's done, "Sorry about that." I need to apologize. "I need to make sure that I have control of this body somehow, you may be a kid but it is unacceptable if I can't even control this body."

The idea of someone else controlling my body is incredibly disturbing, enough to make my spine tingle. In this case though I'm the invader, but even so I do not care if this is another person's body and the person in front of me is the original own, I will not let her control this body.

My original body is dead and it would be torture to live but not have my own free will to my own body.

I already despise people that took control of everything in my previous life, so me not being able to control my own body is something unbelievable to me. I will hate this kid to my core if she does that.

So yeah, sorry kid but I need to be safe in my own skin first before your feelings. So I need to tell her that so she would know her position.

But contrary to my expectations, "That's alright." She didn't seem too mad about it. "Even if I want to, I cannot move my own body much anymore because of you. So doing things like walking would be too taxing for me. I can only move my lips now to speak to you." The original Arianne accepted this position pretty quickly.

Still though, "Don't go speaking to anyone else other than me okay?" I don't want her blabbering when I'm asleep.

"Yes, foreigner!" She shouted.

"Good." I'm satisfied for now.

Afterwards though, Arianne smiled at me bitterly afterwards and said, "Your sharp foreigner." and furthermore. "I guess I'm lucky to have called upon you to my body." She said something even more unbelievable.

"What?" I inadvertently shouted out.

"Like I said, I was the one that let you inhabit my body. So I'm not really in the position to be mad by a foreigner like you since I was the one that invited you in the first place." And now Arianne is telling me about that bombshell of a statement.

What did she mean by that! I need to get to the bottom of this. My mind is blank right now.

Obviously I need an explanation. "Inhabit...? Invited? You called me? What do you mean you—" But,

"Let's introduce ourselves first shall we?" 

"..." This is getting to be frustrating. "Look, cut the bullshit okay? I wanna know—"

"Look, I'll tell you all about it once I know who's the person using my body from now on." Arianne gave me a look saying like she won't back down from this.

"...Fine." Normally I won't back down but this is a kid, and my own pride tells me that picking against children is pitiful and so I'll stop. 

Plus she seems pretty determined about it and I like people that don't back down.

"I'll go first since I'm the one that put you in my mess." Arianne coughs to speak. "My name is Arianne Magen Geistein, daughter of Margrave Albrecht Verde Geistein." 

"I already know that much." Miriam told me that. 

"I'm 9 years old and the second youngest out of us seven siblings. But I'm the only child of—"

"Alright that's enough." There's too many things that she's saying to me. "I'll get to know all of that in due time, so just tell me about you okay?" From what she said I already know that her family situation is complicated.

I mean Arianne wouldn't be in this situation if she was brought up normally in the first place.

"Okay well..." And it seems she's having trouble talking about herself.

What a poor girl. I frown at her in pity. Her inability to talk about herself is a clear sign of her having an incredibly low self-esteem. Like whenever she thinks about herself and the past only brings her sadness.

I knew that this isn't going anywhere so I'm taking the initiative, "Alright, my turn now. My name is—" But when I remember myself as well….

I'm even worse than her at this.

Everything that happened in my past life is an ideal one veiled behind mockery in betrayal. Every success and happiness that I had, involves the five people that stabbed me in the back.

So my entire life has led up to my demise.

Holding my face once more, Arianne asks with a shaking voice, "...What's with your atmosphere?" She continues. "I can feel an immense hatred coming from you, your soul is acting wildly and even I'm feeling it's wrath."

I despise all five of them.

Never trust anyone, anymore.

I slowly become calmer and calmer and then…

"Foreigner, I do not know what has happened to you in the but I can assure you that the source of your anger is not here." She tried to calm me down.

"...That's right." I am calm now. "I'm sorry letting my emotions run wild Arianne." I called her by name for the first time. " Now then…" I tidy myself up and said.

"Mr. Kim." That'll be my name. "It's the only name I find acceptable to call myself as."

My name. I was manipulated by the five of them using the familiarity of my name. I feel disgusted by my own name now as that person was manipulated all throughout his life. So my family name, a name that's not specific to me, is the only one I find tolerable.

But then, Arianne finds an even better name for me. "Mr. Kim, you are me now right? You're in my body so you are now a Geistein, you are Arianne." She continues. "No one would truly know the truth of what happened between us, for anyone else you are just me, and eventually we might even become one as well." She said cheerfully to me.

My indifferent expression turned into a smile. "Is that so?" I was happy when she told me that. "I am Arianne, how could something so obvious made me smile like a gopher."

Arianne simply chuckled. "I'll call you Kim to not make ourselves confused but you are just as much of a Geistein as me." But then I saw her eyes turned serious. "Then I think it's now time to tell you about that." And so,

She declares, "Mr. Kim, as our spirits are in one body, I am able to somewhat peer into your memories." 

She continues from that magical statement. "You are in my body Mr. Kim, I may be only a child to you but I need to know the person that'll take responsibility for my body right now." And then, "I promise to tell you everything about me afterwards. I need your permission to peer into your memories. Please."

After everything she said, "...Alright. But just so you know I do not trust you at all Arianne. I'll completely suppress you if you ever talk about this to anyone other than me."

Normally I would never do this to anyone, ever, even in my past life. But unfortunately she is in my body, although I am the more dominant one out of the two of us, she still has a say over my body. I mean we cannot afford to let each other be on bad terms as this body probably wouldn't function very well if it's moving against my will.

She could stop one of my organs for example. That's one extreme case I could think of.

I may not trust her but she needs to trust me.

"That's fine Mr. Kim. It's understandable." She continues. "I myself don't know exactly what will happen as Sir Fritz only told me the basics back then, but here it goes."

A name I never heard before, "What do you mean—" Then my head starts getting dizzy.

As I'm already in a sitting position I did not hurt myself while falling. My head even landed on the side of the bed.

But my mind is hazy.

"What….is….happen..." My mind gets dizzier and dizzier until I heard the door being opened

"Lady Arianne I brought you your—ah?!" I saw a blurry figure but from the red on top of her head it is most definitely Miriam.

Fuck. I need to tell that girl to not look too deeply into my memories…. Are my last thoughts before fatigue too over and I fell asleep once more.