“Let’s put all the information of the events that have happened to us so far,” I say, sitting down at the dresser and taking a good stare at the reflection. Even if I barely got a glance before, now that I see it, this person does look like me. The face in the mirror is lean and pale, but not much paler than my original skin color. Her long silky hair isn’t even tangled, and I can’t help but brush my fingers through it. My dark blue eyes shine from the chandelier’s glare.

Except for the different clothes and hairstyle, I might even say she’s practically a doppelganger. 

Now I wonder if some spirits’ looks are based on actual humans in the past… 

I reach for one of the drawers and pull out a pen and ink with some papers in the drawer under that. It seemed I did that out of habit… How did I even know it was there? An idea is forming in my mind, but I can’t seem to put it together, so I ignore it and start writing down the major events.

“Okay, so we can already assume that I’m now human since I can’t seem to float but I can move objects, and…” I look back to see if Cynthia’s paying attention, but find her up at the ceiling, touching the golden chandelier. “You seem to be having a lot of fun with this new ability of yours,” I say with a smirk.

“Yeah yeah, wipe that grin off your face. We can assume I’m still a spirit now since I can’t even budge this thing.” She replies grudgingly while pushing the source of light. I nod and start to jot down the events that happened:

• Cynthia turns into a spirit.
• Cynthia sees a reflection of someone who looks like me and gets sucked into the mirror.
• We wake up in this place that looks like the past. Probably in a wealthy noble’s mansion.
• I’m a human and Cynthia is a spirit. This body also looks like the real me for some reason??

“It’s almost like we switched roles,” Cynthia says, staring at the list with a hand on her chin. She has a habit of doing that when she’s thinking pretty deeply.

“Yep, that’s basically what I think too,” I say, confirming her thoughts. “And what I find even weirder is that I feel like I’ve been here before. Like this body isn’t strange to me. I somewhat recognized the maids and I know where and what everything in this room is-”

“What’s that then?” She says, pointing at a random box on top of a dresser. I stare at it for a while. What was it… A jewelry box? Looks too shabby for that… Is it important? I have no idea.

“That’s… um…” I trail off. “Okay, I know what some of the things are.” 

We likely switched roles, but that doesn’t explain where we are, and why we’re here.

“Hmm… I’ve thought of two things,” Cynthia exclaims happily after a moment of silence, clapping her hands. It’s another habit she has when an idea’s been kind of solidly formed. “Either scenario number one, we got trapped in some sort of book, like in those Manhwas, and this is a fictional world, and you were transferred into the main character's body.” 

“That’s crazy, you’ve been reading too many isekais.” I retort, hiding a snort.

“It’s entertaining!” Cynthia shouts, sticking her tongue out at me. 

“Well, even if that were true, it wouldn’t make sense for me to become a character, and for you to remain as a spirit.” I add in. 

Cynthia looks at me with a tired look. With sarcasm in her voice she scoffs, “Geez, fine then, just hear me out. It’s either that, or you are Lady Adeline. Or, you were in the past.”

I can slowly see her sarcastic remark turn into a new theory. Cynthia waves her arms dramatically, stars practically shining in her eyes. Enthusiasm leaks from her voice.

”You were originally in her body but… y’know, died eventually and got turned into a spirit in the modern world and now we just went back in time and your spirit returned to the original body, and I somehow got pulled along with it. But both of these ideas don’t really make sense since they’re pretty supernatural… Actually, since we got sucked into a mirror, at this point anything’s possible. I still like my isekai theory better though.”

I shift my sight from Cynthia to the floor, lifting a hand to my chin. That… That actually makes a little more sense! This being my original body and my spirit just returning… I don’t know how it would make sense, but it just feels like it does. I always knew Cynthia was good at problem-solving, but I guess being creative with it is her forte! This is a good place to start investigating. “Cynthia, is it just me or did you get smarter?!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s more likely that we traveled back in time. That’s some genius thinking.” I say, scribbling down on the piece of paper. I furrow my eyebrows at the bigger question. “But… We still don’t have any information on how or why we’re here. Okay, so we had better start doing some research on the simple stuff, like where we are.”

“Good idea. But where can we research this stuff?” Cynthia asks.

“There’s a big library down at the plaza. Let’s go there.” I reply, once again on instinct. Memories of the library’s walls and ceilings full of books flood my mind. I remember finding it quite enjoyable and it even being one of my favorite places.

“And you somehow knew where it was even if you’ve never been there,” Cynthia says with wide eyes. “That’s incredible.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” I say, standing up quickly and shoving the papers into one of the drawers.

“Yup! To the library!”