Damn.. It's too bright.

"Unconscious near a lake? Drowned? What is the meaning of this captain? Were your men not told to keep their eyes on the Young Miss at all times?" A voice questioned in a calm tone.

Waking up, Rei let out a slight yawn before trying to rub out the discomfort in her eyes.

"We were informed by one of her maids, that the Young Miss had chosen to recklessly travel on ahead before the maid had the time to grab a suitable guard. My men did not expect for the usually cautious Miss to leave so suddenly without waiting for a guard to arrive sir, they were caught off guard." Another low voice spoke with a slight tremble.

Listening in on the faint conversation, Rei couldn't help but turn her head towards the sound, wondering if she had left the TV on before going to bed.

Setting her eyes on the sight of a grand gold embedded dual doored entrance, Rei raised a brow and blankly turned her gaze away to observe the rest of the room.

"...?" 

After taking a good look at the place that was at least double the size of her apartment, Rei let out a deep sigh as the memories of the last time she woke up resurfaced in her head.

She had woken up in a strange lake, then stayed in the lake for a long time. After a while she got cold and decided to swim out, got exhausted after getting on the shore, saw a group of people, then promptly passed out.

After that, she watched a nonsensical ten year long movie, about the life of a fictional character in a romance game. When it came to an abrupt end, resulting in the unexpected death of the character, Rei heard a voice off in the distance, saw a light, then woke up. 

Now she's here, laying comfortably within a soft bed with a silky pink transparent sheet surrounding it like a mosquito net.

While slowly recalling the events that led up this situation, Rei made sure to keep up with the hushed conversation on the other side of the fancy looking door, where she could see two blurry figures through the opaque glass door frames.

"Left without a guard?" A rough sounding voice pondered out loud before finishing up with the rest of what they had to say. "That does not seem like something the Young Miss would do... Was there perhaps someone who could have persuaded the Young Miss?"

"There was. We have received information regarding a gardener who was traveling along with the group. According to the carriage driver, the gardener had persuaded the Young Miss to travel on ahead with the promise that the Miss's guards would catch up sooner or later."

"This gardener seems a little off, don't you think? It is as if he was in a hurry to quickly alienate the Young Lady. I don't suppose that you have him under custody? His capture would surely help further our investigation on how the Young Miss, who should be celebrating her 10th birthday, has suddenly turned up unconscious and soaked to the bone, looking to have been nearly drowned."

"...I regret to inform you that the gardener could not be found. We had thoroughly searched the area where we initially discovered the unconscious Miss, but nothing but wild animals could be found. It had looked like the gardener had quickly made his escape after leading Miss Heart inside. I've sent some men out to search his home as well, but they've returned empty handed, it looks like he cleared everything out before running away, even his family of three have disappeared without a trace."

"How impressive. He managed to escape our clutches just like that, without even a fight. In all my years as the Duke's right hand man, I've never come across an situation like this Captain. As the man behind the men who had managed to let the Duke's daughter vanish right under their noses, do you think I should allow you to have a light punishment?"

"....Of course not sir."

"Good, we agree. As for the punishment... For your inability to sufficiently protect the Young Miss, you and your troops have been affectively issued up to one year of intense training in the Western Mountains, infamous for its abundance of poisonous plants and insects. All men involved will be required to train from dusk till dawn, with only four hours of rest, no exceptions. Food provided will only be hard bread and water. No vacation breaks will be permitted throughout this period of time. In the meantime your position shall be handed over to me and my men until I find a suitable replacement. Do you accept your punishment?"

"...I accept."

"Fantastic. Then is there anything else to report?"

"No, sir. That is all."

"Hm. Alright. Dismissed. I do hope that the next time I see you, both you and your troops have improved tremendously to make up for this unfortunate occurrence. You may go, I'll have to trouble you with the task of sending over the Manor's healer on your way out." 

"I will do my best not to disappoint, General. Then, I will be leaving."

"Yes. Until next time."

Watching as one of the two tall looking figures give a respectful bow to the other before swiftly leaving, Rei's eyes wandered to the person who stayed behind. Observing the tall buff looking figure, Rei wondered to herself why she had found his voice so familiar. 

As she tried to match the shape of the man to anyone in her life, she was a bit startled when the man suddenly turned in her direction and bowed.

"Please excuse me for disturbing the Young Miss's thoughts, but since you are awake and seem to be fine, I would like to inquire about the Miss's health." The unfamiliar man questioned, in a low but concerned voice.

Hearing this, Rei took another look around the room to check if there could be someone else inside. Seeing no one but herself, Rei let out a small frown.

Could he be talking to her? No way. She doesn't have such a weird nickname.

"....." 

But if he's not talking to her then who is he talking to?

A ghost?

Perhaps because Rei took too long to answer, the man at the door decided to peak his head inside, revealing the face of a handsome older man with faded black hair and a neatly trimmed beard.

"Young Miss? Are you alright?" The man said, as he gazed over in Rei's direction.

Startled, Rei stared at the man in utter confusion. Who the hell...?

"Young Miss?" The man spoke again, this time with a look of deep concern.

Feeling a little agitated, Rei glared at the man and raised up an unfamiliar looking slim white hand to shut him up before he could say anything else.

"...I would like some time alone. Please kindly leave... Sir." She spoke in the nicest tone she could conjure up, since she wanted him to quickly leave without asking her any questions. She took a short breath of air afterwards, feeling odd after saying something so long.

Hearing her polite demand the man's concerned face deepened even more, which made Rei feel uncomfortable for some reason.

What are you so concerned about? I just want to be alone, is that too much to ask for..

"Young Miss, could there be something wrong with you? No.. perhaps you hit your head somewhere? Maybe you—" The man continued to ramble on for a few more minutes questioning whether she had lost a few brain cells after she woke up, making Rei want to throw something at him to shut him up.

Rubbing the sides of her head as she felt a headache coming, Rei gave up on being polite and sent a hostile glare at the man before pointing a finger to the door.

"Get out." She said.

"But—"

"I said, get out." 

Hearing what Rei had to say, the man let out a sigh.

"As you wish, Young Miss." With that the man sent another worried glance in her direction, gave a splendid bow and left.

Seeing the magnificent gold dual doors shut close, Rei took in a deep breath to calm herself down.

What was wrong with that man... But more importantly why did he seem so familiar?

Shuffling through her memories Rei couldn't find anyone who could resemble the strange man. 

Ah. Maybe...?

Just when she was about to give up on finding out the identity of the old man, Rei remembered that she had just watched a full ten year long movie about a pink haired villainess. Could it be…

Taking off her focus on her own memories, Rei tasked herself with remembering all the people that had appeared in the short life of that unfortunate child. After a few minutes of filtering through the many scenes she found an exact match.

Elmore Graelles, better known as General Graelles, Duke Aerion's personal guard and the lead commander of the Heart Manor's private battalion.

Ah.. So it's him. Nothing to worry about then. 

".…."

The hell's this guy doing randomly walking around in front of her face? Is he not a fictional character from a fictional world? And why did she find information regarding him in the memories of that child?

Rubbing her temples even harder, Rei watched as a strand of long hair made its way to her face, frowning, she casually blew it away before continuing her thoughts. 

"....." 

Ah? 

Oh no.

Reaching out a hesitant hand to grab a piece of the hair on her head, Rei held it in front of her eyes. Going silent for a minute, Rei thought back to the time when she was back at the lake, and how she had woken up with a head of strange pink hair.

Confused, she released the hair in her grasp and made her way out of bed. With her small pale white feet touching the cold wooden floor, she made her way to a large antique looking vanity in the corner of the room. It was painted white with gold lining around the edges, in front of it sat a matching chair with a soft cushion seated on top of it. Ignoring everything about it though, Rei rushed to look at the reflection in the mirror.

"....Shit." Was all she could say as she faced the young girl in the mirror.

She repeated that a few more times as she examined the facial structure of the little girl, who she knew for a fact was ten.

Shit indeed.

She had really wished it wasn't true, she had even ignored all the little clues that had made its way into her head, for example the pale white hands that had no business belonging to her, or the long silky pink hair that had selfishly decided that it should replace her short jet black hair, or the new memories that welcomed her in a tight embrace. Even the contents of the conversation between the two men outside the door was a huge hint, along with that old man calling her Young Miss. 

She had really hoped it wasn't so, but how was she supposed to ignore the fact that her reflection was a whole different person. Or how realistic everything seemed to be.

Slumping down on the chair next to the vanity, Rei stared at the pink haired girl in the mirror, a dark expression was plastered on her small face, as her pale blue eyes unconsciously narrowed into a cold glare. She stayed like this for a few more minutes before she turned her head away.

This haughty looking face.... It definitely belonged to that girl. 

Rosélia Heart.

"....Hah." Rei sighed.

Whatever. She doesn't care. It's fine. She's fine. Everything's fine. It's all going to be fine.

Even if she had transmigrated into some dumb romance game, she was sure she would be okay. Even if everything goes wrong, Rei was at least 39% sure that she could make a great escape plan, it's close enough to 40%, which is just ten digits away from 50%. So she shouldn't worry about this right? What comes, comes, she won't interfere. It's all good.

"Ah. Wait a minute..." 

Doesn't this kid end up being exiled from her country or at worst executed publically by the end of the game? Should she let that happen? No, she'll at least make an effort towards putting a stop to that. It seems painfull to die, afterall.

Well. Since everything's been decided she'll just go with that. As for if she could go back, she doubted that could ever happen since most of the time people who transmigrated into a different world rarely ever go back... So, she'll just have to suck it up and move on even if she's a bit bothered by it since it doesn't seem like theres anything she could do about it right now.

Besides, there isn't much to miss back there anyways since her parents are away, travelling the world, without any worries, and all her close friends were busy getting ready for college, tackling whatever life throws at them. She didn't have any lovers to miss either, with her pets probably being the only things she'll actually feel bad about leaving alone, but they should be fine, Wendy would probably look over them.

It will take a bit of time, but she'll get over it. 

"Hah. This sucks." Rei said to herself before getting back into bed.

Whatever, she's going back to sleep. No use thinking so much about it.

And so Rei just indifferently accepted it, no big deal.

"....." 

Haha. 

Why is she screaming internally right now. 

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