---

〈 Chapter 2 - Petulant Carnation 〉

---

 

The new duke's daughter Garnet sat quietly in her bed contemplating the recent string of events that assailed her. She had inexplicably awoken to a new body and life without so much as a single prompt or reason. As far as she knew, there had been no event that triggered the transmigration. At least in most stories a person will experience an unfortunate sudden death and then some kind of meaningful meeting with God, reincarnation, or transmigration. However, there was no such occurrence for Garnet. She could only wonder in awe if perhaps she had died in her sleep, but in the end it was impossible to come to any conclusions without evidence.

For a few minutes she sat in silent denial that current situation was even reality. A dream. It surely was a dream, but minute after minute with even the smallest details taking on an unbelievably high level of realism left her to conclude that perhaps it was reality. She looked to the side of the canopy bed where the stalwart sentinel, the nameless brunette maid, still stood motionlessly.

*How do I start a conversation with her? Or rather how do I extract information from her without seeming too out of place?*

It simply wouldn't do to ask the girl her name directly. Miss clumsy brunette girl could have served Garnet's family for years. Asking her name would instantly signal that something was seriously wrong with this duke's daughter. There were many things wrong, but telling the world that another soul was inhabiting this noble young lady's body was something she had to avoid at all costs. Frankly, the truth itself was all troublesome and would land her in a psychiatric institution.

Without making any moves the status quo would never be broken and she would be in even greater trouble without actively trying to remedy her severe lack of information. Therefore, she pressed forward with shrewd necessity and attempted to extract information indirectly.

"Hmpf. Clumsy girl."

"Eh. Ah! Yes?"

The maid fearfully coughed out those few words after the silence broke.

"Tell me about recent events. Don't leave out any details."

A confused expression filled with worry overcame her face as she took up a thoughtful state. Her eyes swam all over and she only managed to nervously sputter out her words.

"Ah ... when, ehem, after Lady Garnet fell into the river ... everyone was deeply concerned for you. Days went by, 4 days, without you waking. The Duke and ... Madam were deeply concerned. Many doctors were called to check on you, but they couldn't identify what was wrong. During this time many of milady's friends and acquaintances sent gifts and letters. Notably Lady Minerva, Lady Viola, and Lady Amaranth I believe. His Highness also sent many of milady's favourite flowers ..."

*His highness? Who the fuck is that?*

Garnet did happen to notice that the room had an oddly large number of some type of red flower scattered about, red carnations to be precise, but she wasn't the type to know that. She wanted to immediately ask about this 'highness' person, but refrained from doing so. Not interrupting would allow her to continue getting a broader scope of information.

"... so the academy was notified that you were ill and would not be able to attend lessons for the time being. However, only those very close to the Valeria family were informed of milady's true state, namely, milady's fiance, his Royal Highness Prince Roland Ulric, ..."

*Prince! You're bullshitting me you ... you stupid brunette! Fucking fiance! Impossible! No, I will kill this man if he enters within a millimeter of my personal space!*

 

---

 

Trembling, the maid was unable to continue her words while watching the fierce eyes of her master who seemed to be extremely displeased. The girl prayed in her heart that she would not be punished for misspeaking. Four months had pasted since the start of her work as a maid in the Duke's manor. Her Viscount family, the Lotte family, were longtime subordinates of the duchy and had generously given up their second daughter Mira to work for the duke's family hoping that she would curry favor. Upon entering the manor she quickly learned of the strict conditions and constantly feared punishment from her masters.

There was no room to err. Everything had to be done promptly and perfectly. Worst of all was the current master that she was attending to. Her spirit sunk the moment that the young lady called for her personally. Not once, but twice she let the lady fall to the floor. She would be fired immediately and shame her family or so she thought, but strangely the punishment was not spoken. It made her tremble even more because she thought that the young lady was merely occupied with something else at the moment and would undoubtedly distribute punishment at a later time.

This was the first time that Mira had directly served Garnet. Despite four months having passed since her work started not once did she even speak a word to the young lady. Her primary job was clearly outlined by the Head Maid. Be silent, lower her head, and do not show any mistakes before the masters of the house. It certainly wasn't out of concern for her that they gave her these warnings, rather they simply didn't want to be held accountable for her bumblings.

Mira could still remember the looks that the two maids, Valentina and Teresa, who were ordered to leave the room, gave her on their exit. It was knowing pity, as if she had been singled out for punishment by their sadistic young lady and or dismissal. The two young maids had served Garnet for years as her personal maids and none in the manor envied them because it was clear from the many girls who had come and gone that the young lady was insufferable. Constant streams of insults were hurled at any servant foolish enough to breath in her presence. Everyone in the nearby vicinity would feel the ebb and flow of her mood as if it was the scorching heat of an open flame licking their bare skinned bodies. Her glare alone was poisonous and it couldn't be said that the lady was even capable of smiling. At best it was an arrogant smirk that screamed of patronizing superiority and belittlement.

That same lady who took pleasure in her servants misery on good days was now showing a ghastly upset expression. The anger was clearly visible in her fiery red eyes. So, Mira could only pray.

 

---

 

It took a while for Garnet to put her thoughts in order.

*This is ridiculous. To be a duke's daughter engaged to a prince. If it's true ...*

As the clumsy brunette continued to tell her story it wound up fostering even greater disbelief in Garnet's heart. Word by word the deep inundation of troublesome circumstances grew into an increasingly mucky mire. The stupid brunette looked like she wanted to cry, but the one who truly wanted to cry was her!

As Garnet became increasingly worked up by the story time passed and before she knew it there was a knocking on the door. Quiet once again fell over the room before the knocking renewed after but a moments respite. Garnet realized that the knocker was simply unable to enter the room without permission.

"You may enter!" she yelled.

Without delay a somewhat familiar young maid that was sent away earlier entered the room to announce, "The doctor has arrived. Does the lady need time to prepare?"

Garnet's mind restarted as she considered the coming intruder who was about to interrogate her. After a short-term coma it would be natural for any doctor to be concerned about damage to a patients cognitive abilities. Though Garnet wasn't well versed in medical practices she thought that it was highly likely that a competent doctor would treat her like a concussion patient and ask probing questions. However, in her current state it would even be impossible to state her own name and birthday ...

"Can he come back at a latter time?" She asked with the hope that it was at least possible.

The maid tactically left only to return with, "Under the orders of the Duke the doctor is required to properly examine your health and cannot leave until he does so."

*Begone you damn telemarketer. What is this? The fucking government census?*

"I-I see ... send him in then ..."

It was useless to delay any longer. Garnet had already resigned herself to pretending to be an amnesiac in a worst case scenario where she couldn't avoid.

 

---

 

Doctor Hans had been in his office just hours earlier when he was contacted by a messenger of Duke Valeria. He was requested to perform medical examinations on the young lady of the house who had woken up after a drowning induced comatose state of several days. The news itself had greatly surprised him, as he had been told something outrageous and confidential. Even more so was the fact that it had been strongly implied that refusal would not be acceptable. Thus he found himself entering the room of that very young lady at this precise moment.

It was troublesome, and incredibly stressful to have this responsibility. The young lady's disagreeableness was well known even outside the Duke's estate and now he would have to deal with a uncooperative patient of high social standing as their sole medical examiner. Expectations placed upon him were unclear and consequences of failure to accurately diagnose and treat the lady were even more dire.

He soon found himself seated in a bedside chair staring at a girl with a sour face and sharp eyes. It was moments like these where a true professional would show their trademark smile while giving a time tested and perfectly tailored formal greeting.

"Good afternoon Lady Garnet. I am doctor Hans and have been requested to give a medical diagnosis."

The girl studied him before giving her reply curtly.

"Carry on."

Hans had expected this degree of rudeness, but in a positive light it could be said that this level of disagreeableness was fairly manageable.

"Then let's begin. Today I will be working with you to confirm your symptoms..."

Within a short time Hans was truly anxious. Only a few questions in and he realized the severity of her physical symptoms. Lack of balance causing the inability to walk, headaches, and general confusion were a few of the issues. Even more troubling was the fact that she had sent her servants away to privately speak with him after becoming highly combative towards his diagnosis questions.

He could only prescribe rest, supported therapeutic exercise when she wasn't feeling dizzy, and healing magic. To his final words her eyes seemed to bulge. Hans had thought that she was dissatisfied with his treatment suggestions since he could not offer a direct prognosis or any confident words that her condition would improve. However, for Garnet the reason she was startled was because a grown man had, with a serious face, recommended 'healing magic' as course of treatment.

The end of the medical session came faster than Hans had expected due to the fact that the lady was being uncooperative. He thought that it was perhaps due to her petulant personality, but for Garnet her silence was because of an entirely different reason. She had realized that if she preemptively stopped responding under the ruse that she was upset it would end the session before any further dangerous questions, questions she would be unable to answer, were asked.

Thus Garnet's first major crisis had been averted by acting obnoxious.

 

---

 

〈 Author's Note 〉

Hello everyone. It's been another week and here is another chapter. I'll now give some clearly labeled general comments about what's going on with me and this series in the present and the future. There's a lot of stuff here so if you don't care ... I'll see you again on chapter 3.

(0) I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST BRUNETTES: Nothing desu.

(1) STORY:
The story's exposition is gonna be pretty much done after chapter 3. I'm going to write in third person for the majority of the time and switch to first person whenever a particular characters personal viewpoint is interesting. This chapter 2 concerned me because it is likely the least exciting chapter I may write for like another 50 chapters. Exposition blues. It wasn't an info dump so that's positive. I still think it's okay though. This is where all the reader comments really help me out! Also, I have been enclosing character inner thoughts/monologues in * * to be very clear. I'm not sure if there is a better way.

(2) UPDATES & I HAVE 2 GOALS:
I'm not forcing an unrealistic release schedule on myself, but I am aiming for 2 chapters/week. I only have 2 goals for this series. 2 goals you hear! My first goal is to write the best story I can. The second is to finish the story.

(3) WHAT I DID THIS WEEK:
I spent like 20 hours this week just studying otome games and novels that I really like to improve my story's content. I spent a lot of time writing out character backgrounds, planning my storyline, contemplating how I will go about my world-building, and learning general tips about writing. The path that I wanna take the story on will definitely change as I write more, but I wanted to write with a clear plan rather than have my writing become a blindly written and convoluted mess. It's hard to plan from prologue to conclusion, but I have tried. It's hard to make protagonists and villains deep, complex, interact with each other, and likable, but I have tried. It's hard to create and stitch together meaningful+exciting events in a coherent manner, but I have tried.

(4) UPDATE SCHEDULE:
Posting is gonna be Monday-Thurs at around 5PM - 12PM EDT because my analytics data tells me I can receive more free advertisement on novelupdates (ultimately optimizing my view count) at those release times.

There are many factors that contribute to those being good release times. For example, scribblehub/novelupdates user location density (where the majority of users live) affects the timezone that I have to pay attention to. Competition. When other authors are not posting chapters my chapter will stay advertised longer. People mainly post on weekends because that's when they write, but it's bad for their viewcounts. And I have scrounged up some data about scribblehub/novelupdates peak user times when the most people are on the sites, which indicates releasing later at night (probably when people are chilling after super and chores) is the best time to post.

(5) ILLUSTRATIONS:
Yeah, so I did my title illustration with a mouse and gimp. It was my first digital artwork and I experienced vector art mouse clicking hell. So I decided to buy a drawing tablet since I get serious about everything I do. The tablet arrived, but it didn't work. So I ordered another tablet. When it arrives you can bet with 1,000,000% certainty I'm gonna try another illustration.

(6) I'M BUSY PERSON, BECAUSE I CHOOSE TO BE:
I've got university classes, graduate study applications, doctor appointments, work, and stuff going on. It feels good though because I am doing stuff that I like for the benefit of myself, it's just that I've never been so busy before. Busy from 7AM - 11PM everyday doing stuff and I make time to write my story too because I want to very badly.