Chapter 2
A week had passed since I woke up in Rishima's body.
During that time, Martha-the maid who had been by my side since the moment I first opened my eyes-had told me everything she knew.
I had been poisoned.
I had been unconscious for three days before finally waking up.
But who had poisoned me?
No one knew.
And that worried me. This wasn't something I remembered from the novel.
The main story hadn't even begun yet, so there was no mention of Rishima being poisoned around this time. I had no idea this was supposed to happen.
For the entire week, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Was someone trying to kill Rishima?
Was there an enemy I didn't know about?
Or was this the beginning of something that had never happened in the original story?
For the past week, I had mostly stayed in my room. I needed time to process everything-to understand this world, this body, and the situation I had suddenly found myself in.
Knock, knock.
The door opened, and Martha entered carrying a tray of food.
"Lady Rishima, you need to eat."
She carefully placed the tray on the table.
Her movements were stiff, almost nervous.
I noticed the way she avoided looking directly at me.
"Y-you've been cooped up in this room for an entire week. His Grace has even started asking about you."
My hand paused over the book I was reading.
"The Duke?"
Martha nodded quickly.
"He asked me earlier if you've recovered enough."
"Is that so?"
"Y-yes, my lady."
Her voice was quiet.
Almost too quiet.
I looked at her for a moment.
She seemed afraid of me.
Actually, I had noticed it several times during the past week.
Whenever I called her, she would immediately straighten her back. Whenever I asked her a question, she would answer carefully, as though afraid that one wrong word might upset me.
It wasn't difficult to understand why.
The Rishima I had read about in the novel was notorious for her treatment of servants.
A small mistake could earn someone a slap.
A bigger one could get them fired on the spot.
And there were even rumors that she had gone as far as torturing servants who displeased her.
No wonder Martha was afraid of me.
Before I came into this body, she had been serving that Rishima.
To her, I wasn't simply a young lady recovering from poisoning.
I was still the same Lady Rishima she had always feared.
I couldn't blame her for being cautious around me.
I sat quietly for a while, staring at the food Martha had brought.
Then, an idea crossed my mind.
The Duke.
If I remembered correctly, Rishima's relationship with her father wasn't exactly good.
In the novel, she rarely spoke to him unless she wanted something. And as time passed, the distance between them only grew wider.
Rishima eventually committed crimes so terrible that even her own father couldn't openly save her.
And when the day of her execution finally came...
He wasn't there.
I still remembered that scene from the novel.
At that time, I had thought he was a terrible father for not being there for his own daughter.
Of course, Rishima had committed terrible crimes. Her punishment was deserved.
But still, I couldn't help but think that a father should at least be there for his daughter at the end.
Now that I was in her body, however, I had a chance to change things before they reached that point.
That was something I could change.
The main story hadn't begun yet. Nothing had been set in motion.
Which meant I still had the chance to change more than just Rishima's fate.
I could change her relationships, too.
Especially with her father.
If I could repair their relationship now, perhaps things would be different when the events from the novel finally began.
And honestly, having the Duke on my side wouldn't hurt.
He was Rishima's father and one of the most powerful people in the empire. If something happened to me in the future, having someone like him willing to protect me could make all the difference.
I pushed myself up from the bed.
"Martha."
She immediately turned toward me.
"Yes, my lady?"
"I want to see the Duke."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"The Duke?"
I nodded.
"Yes. Take me to him."
Martha looked at me as though I had suddenly said something completely unexpected.
Perhaps, for the Rishima she knew...
It was.
Martha led me through the long corridors of the estate until we finally stopped in front of a large wooden door.
"The Duke is inside," she said quietly.
I nodded.
I took a slow breath before speaking.
"Father? It's me."
For a moment, there was silence.
Then a deep, calm voice came from the other side.
"Come in."
It was the first time I had heard the Duke's voice. It was deeper than I had imagined, calm and steady, yet carrying an undeniable authority that made me instinctively straighten my posture.
I opened the door and stepped inside.
The man sitting behind the large desk looked up from the documents in front of him.
My steps slowed.
So this was the Duke.
Rishima's adoptive father.
He was a powerful mage who had become the Duke of Grimaldi at the age of twenty. Despite his young age, he had already made great contributions to the Empire, earning both respect and fear from those around him.
He had black hair that fell neatly around his face, contrasting sharply with his striking violet eyes.
Those eyes...
They were exactly the same color as mine.
According to the novel, Rishima had been abandoned in a small, poor village when she was still a baby.
The Duke had happened to pass through the village and found her there.
The moment he saw her violet eyes, which were strangely similar to his own, he took an interest in her and decided to bring her home. He later announced that he had adopted her as his daughter.
The timing of it had also been rather convenient.
At the time, the Duke was under constant pressure from other nobles and members of the ducal household to marry and have a child who could inherit the Grimaldi Duchy.
With no child of his own, some of his relatives were already hoping that the duchy would eventually fall into their hands.
So when the Duke returned with a baby girl and announced that she was now his adopted daughter, the pressure surrounding his succession eased somewhat.
Of course, that didn't mean everyone accepted Rishima as the future heir.
She was a girl, and she wasn't related to the Duke by blood. There were still relatives who believed that the duchy should belong to someone from the Grimaldi bloodline.
It was then that the rumors began to spread.
Because Rishima shared the Duke's violet eyes, people often whispered that she was actually his illegitimate child.
But it was nothing more than a rumor.
At least, that was what the novel had revealed.
The Duke's eyes settled on me.
"Rishima."
His voice was calm and low.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
This was the first time I had actually seen him in person.
He looked exactly as I remembered from the novel. Cold, intimidating, and difficult to read.
I walked closer.
"Father."
The word felt strange coming from my lips.
His expression changed slightly.
Perhaps he noticed it too.
I stopped a few steps away from his desk.
"I heard that you asked Martha about my condition."
The Duke leaned back in his chair.
"I did."
"I wanted to thank you."
His brows furrowed slightly.
"Thank me?"
I nodded.
"Yes."
There was a brief silence.
I could practically see the questions forming in his eyes.
Rishima wasn't known for thanking people.
Especially not her father.
"I've caused you enough trouble already," I continued carefully. "I didn't want to make you worry more than you already have."
The Duke stared at me.
His expression remained unreadable.
For a moment, I wondered if I had said the wrong thing. Then he finally spoke.
"You've certainly caused me enough trouble." I froze.
The Duke's crimson eyes remained fixed on me.
"Do you remember what happened before you drank the poison?"
My heart skipped.
"Before I... drank it?"
His eyes narrowed.
"You don't remember?"
I hesitated before shaking my head again.
The Duke was silent for a moment.
Then his eyes narrowed slightly.
"So it's true." I looked at him.
"You don't remember."
My heart skipped.
Before I could respond, he continued.
"Then let me tell you what you did."
I swallowed. The Duke's gaze remained fixed on me, cold and unreadable.
I waited for him to continue.
For some reason, the silence made me more nervous than his words had.
Then he finally spoke.
“You demanded that I speak to the Emperor and ask him to arrange your engagement to Prince Enzo,” the Duke said, his voice heavy with frustration.
“Even after he rejected your proposals again and again, you still refused to give up.”
My eyes widened, Prince Enzo?
I knew Rishima had been obsessed with him in the novel, but I had assumed that obsession began after the main story started, when the heroine appeared.
I hadn't known it had already begun before then.
"You said you would rather die than give up on marrying him."
My mouth parted slightly.
"You had made the same threat before, but I didn't think you would actually do it this time."
My eyes widened as the meaning of his words finally sank in. For the entire week, I had been worried about who had poisoned Rishima.
I had wondered if someone in the household had tried to kill her.
I had wondered if there was an enemy hiding somewhere, waiting for the right opportunity.
I had even wondered if this poisoning was somehow connected to an event that wasn't mentioned in the novel.
I had spent days trying to make sense of something that had never happened in the story I knew.
And now...
The answer was right in front of me.
There had been no mysterious assassin.
No hidden enemy.
No elaborate scheme.
Rishima had poisoned herself...
I slowly covered my face with one hand.
"You've got to be kidding me." I uttered in disbelief.
I wanted to scream.
WHY DID I HAVE TO TRANSMIGRATE INTO THIS WOMAN'S BODY?!
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