Valerie slowly exhaled as she raised her sword in front of herself again, frowning as she corrected her posture before swinging her blade once more.

One. Two. Three.

Three strikes and the wooden dummy in front of her burst into pieces.

"Suppose that's good for now…" she muttered to herself, slightly disappointed by her own work. It wasn't that it was lacking, no, far from it, her skills as a swordsman was well above that of even the strongest swordmaster in the continent, but she was getting bored. Mostly with how she wasn't really achieving anything new with her own practice nowadays.

She looked up to the sky and saw the bright sun a bit below noon. Around 2PM, if she were to use Earth's standards, but she wasn't in Earth anymore, so it was technically just afternoon. People here didn't really need specific measurements of time beyond the days, weeks, months and years. The only ones who really paid much attention to it were the military and the aristocracy. in that respect, converting from Earth's time to this world's time system would just mean subtracting 6 hours and changing the units from AM and PM to Day Time (DT) and Night TIme (NT). Rather simple, really.

Does make it confusing when one considers that noon would be converted as 6 hours DT instead of 12 hours AM, but she'd gotten over that rather quickly, she had to live in this world all the way back from being a baby, after all.

That was certainly an experience. Still, she found it interesting and fun. Though… it was rather worrying considering the world she'd even ended up at in the first place.

Riverside Crossing, that was the title of the visual novel in which this world and the people she was around and currently lived as starred in. Lady Valerie Darnum, daughter of the Darnum Ducal House… she was a fairly generic villainess, truth be told. So, it made her feel weird to be in her shoes right now, and in many ways, she started to understand just why Valerie was the way she was in the game.

She snickered, well, she was Valerie now after all. Alicia… herself from before, was no more.

Sheathing her sword to the side, she turned in time to see her butler arrive. The butler bowed, "The Lady Nora is calling for you, young mistress."

"Lead the way." she responded, following the butler as he turned around and led her through the manor.

Living in a large house… it was an interesting experience. Though it wasn't one she was unfamiliar with. It was interesting with how different the technology of this world was compared to earth, but then again, she supposed, that's a fantasy world for you.

Valerie spotted her mother, Nora, idly sipping on a cup of tea as she painted an image on the canvas beside her.

She watched as her mother hummed to herself, seeing her draw a bright and vivid image of a crow and a raven flying over a large castle that seemed reminiscent of the Antium Imperial Castle in the capital of the Andorian Empire.

She found herself frowning at that, feeling worried for some reason, before she could think too deeply on that, however, her mother turned to her with a smile.

"Ah, my beautiful daughter. It seems you've finished your training for today?" Nora said,

"Yes." Valerie said, "It was… productive."

Nora didn't look convinced, "Oh? Doesn't sound like it to me."

Valerie didn't say anything to that, instead moving to sit down on the chair beside her mother and picking up her own teacup and sipping from it.

Black tea, she still doesn't know why this was considered a luxury item, it really wasn't all that good.

Unperturbed, Nora continued, "Well, it doesn't seem like you wish to speak about it. No matter, we'll be heading towards the Palace soon."

"I see, so it'll be time." Valerie muttered, focusing on the fountain in the distance. "My fiance… His Highness, Prince Julien."

"Indeed. It would do you better to be more excited, however."

"Hmm… maybe so." Valerie smiled, "I just wonder how it will turn out this time."

"This time?" Nora said in surprise, making her realize that she messed up.

"N-Nothing." Valerie said, looking away as she cursed herself for accidentally blurting out her thoughts. "I'm just wondering… what his highness will think of me." she managed to say, albeit it wasn't really that much better.

"I see then. Well, we'll know soon, but I think his highness will take quite a liking to you. His Highness seemed to have been expecting you as his fiance after all."

Those words made Valerie pause, making her turn to her own mother.

"His Highness… did?" she asked in disbelief. This didn't make sense, no, in the game, Prince Julien never wanted anything to do with Valerie, but instead his hand had been forced because he couldn't really find another candidate as good as her either. But even then, he was never expecting Valerie to be his fiancee, his first choice was instead—

"Yes. Was this really that unexpected?" Nora suddenly asked.

"Y-Yes… I don't know why his highness would be interested in me already. I don't think we've actually met each other beyond passing greetings before…"

"Interesting. Perhaps his highness had been enraptured by your beauty and grace. Many girls are envious of you, you know?"

"Oh…" Valerie muttered, not having known of this. To be fair, she hadn't really been paying attention outside of what she needed and wanted to do after all. Most of which included mindless high society meet-ups and her mastering the sword.

Did she change something in the story? No, she couldn't have. Rather, this was mostly to be expected of Valerie, really. And even her personality matched, so why…? Did the prince really take a liking to her in this instance?

Suddenly, her mother was giggling.

"Mother?"

"O-Oh, sorry. I just thought it was cute to see you act that way, you were even blushing!" Nora burst out into laughter, making Valerie pout at her.

"Mother!"

"I'm sorry, you just looked really cute."

"Mother…" Valerie muttered in a low voice,

"Alright, alright, I'm done. Still, it must be a good sign. Perhaps his highness has noticed your efforts and wanted to reward you for that. You did beat one of our kingdom's highest ranking swordmasters, Sir Dolan, after all."

"Ah." Valerie remembered that, it was more of a spar, really. But… it just didn't feel like the swordmaster she was fighting against was really all that skilled. He was strong, definitely, but he was not very skilled…

It was disappointing, really, but she never really said that out loud, knowing that it would have been a bad idea. She didn't want to case too much chaos after all.

Oh, wait, maybe that's why the Prince's view of her was different here compared to the game. In the game, the prince thought that Valerie was too focused on the established rules of their society after all. Always a stickler for law and order.

But then, does his highness see her as a person who liked to challenge the established system now?

Maybe so…

"Well, it would be quite interesting after all. The strongest mage and the strongest swordsman together… even I'm interested to see where the two of you will go from here."

"What? The strongest mage?"

Nora blinked, looking almost appalled, "You don't know about what his highness had achieved in the past few years?"

Seeing the look on her mother's eyes, she gulped, "W-Well, I-I haven't been paying attention all too much s-so…"

Nora sighed deeply, shaking her head in disappointment, "Oh dear… if you'd gone there like this then not only will his highness be disappointed, her majesty would be as well."

"W-Wait! Please tell me everything! I can't possibly meet them like this!" Valerie suddenly panicked, a rare occasion for herself, but she really would be committing a crime if she went there like this. She was a noble and yet she didn't know about the achievements of his highness? His highness who she would be betrothed to as well?

At that point, even they would rather have a commoner marrying into Royalty than her.

"Of course you can't. Well, do you know of Sage Harold, one of the Kingdom's most talented mages?"

"Yes, what of him?"

"His Highness, Prince Julien, had bested him in a Magus Duel."

"A Magus Duel?" Valerie couldn't help but be surprised at that, "His Highness is that talented?"

Nora chuckled, "Not just that, his highness is more skilled than even I and his mother had been at his highness' age."

"W-What…?" Valerie barely managed to get out, "But… just what could have happened to make him so skilled?"

"I could ask the same of you, Valerie." Nora said, making Valerie pause.

If that was the case, then wouldn't he be…? No, it can't be right? But, if he had been expecting her then he must know of the game, what guy would have played this game? Could it be… No. No, she can't get her hopes up.

No… she can't…

"Valerie?" suddenly, she felt her mother's hands wrap around her own. "You're shaking. Is everything okay?"

Valerie looked at her hands closely. Yes. They were shaking.

The past she'd been trying to bury her old life behind—trying to convince herself that she wasn't Alicia anymore. But, but suddenly a ray of hope just…

Before she realized it, she was wrapped in her mother's arms, sobbing. Letting out all the bottled up emotions which had been plaguing her for years without her realizing.

Twelve years. In that time, she'd managed to come to terms with living in this world, and had even thought she managed to leave her old life behind. But, no, it seems that no matter what, her past would always plague her.

That life which she'd made a great mess of… she didn't want to remember it, but she couldn't let go of it either.

Leone… if he was here, if he truly was here—she wouldn't know.

She didn't know.

She wanted to see him again after all this time, but at the same time… if it really was him, she wouldn't know what she'd do if he realized it was her.

"I… don't want him to hate me…" Valerie whimpered as her sobbing quieted down. "If it's really him, I… I don't know how I would feel if he just hated me—I won't know what to do after that I, I just—"

"Shh, it's okay dear, it's okay. His highness would never hate you. Why would he? What makes you think that?"

"Because…" Valerie gulped, "Because we're not—no, I'm not from this world."