New Year, New Me (1)
𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏: 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮?
The figure was quiet, unmoving. The only sound was of her gentle breathing, which came in soft gasps. There was sweat on her forehead and a grim expression on her face. She looked to be in pain.
The figure belonged to a frail, young girl, who had become gravely ill due to the change in seasons from summer to autumn.
"I apologize, Duchess. I am truly at a loss regarding the young lady's condition. She seems to be in excruciating pain, but there is nothing wrong with her body. Perhaps it is a mental sickness that ails her, rather than a physical one?"
The voice of a man swiftly sounded in the previously silent room. He was of a short and round stature, wearing a black suit and holding his bowler's hat inside his hands as he bowed in apology. He was in the standard uniform of a Doctor.
On the other hand, the lady he just addressed, the Duchess, sat comfortably on the couch. She was staring at the figure on the bed, without any emotion. Her eyes, as blue as sapphire stones, were cold as ice, while her dark chocolate hair was threaded into a braid down the side of her neck.
"Do you claim that my daughter is mental, Doctor?"
She spoke, opening the fan in her hand and gently fanning herself with it. Her voice was like lace, delicate and pretty, but the tone of it made the doctor shudder.
He was well aware of that tone. A wrong word and it would be off with his head.
"N-No, m'lady. That is not what I meant... I-It is just... I can not diagnose her with her current symptoms. It is because of m-my incompetency. I apologize, Duchess."
The Doctor frantically replied, stuttering in the process. His dignified persona was slipping in the presence of this woman. But who could blame him for being petrified of her?
She was as beautiful as a shining star, and yet even farther away from him than that twinkling light which floated in the skies. Her status alone was enough to scare a person away. The Doctor was holding off well compared to her own servants in this regard.
"Hmm, indeed. Your incompetency insults me. Were you the best that the Royal Academy could offer?"
The woman's words were like knives that cut deep wounds in the proud Doctor's heart.
It was an obvious fact, in the entirety of the Nine Seas, that graduates of the Royal Academy of Medicine were the best Medical practitioners in the entire realm. So why must he be a victim to such outrageous insults?
But before he could reply to the madam, a soft moan escaped the lips of the person on the bed. Immediately, he turned towards the figure with wide eyes. Even the woman, who had been lounging back on her comfortable seat, straightened a bit, though her expression remained the same.
"W-Water..."
The sickly figure slowly said. Her voice was cracked, and it seemed to take all her strength to just utter one word.
But the Doctor, with his eyes still widened as big as saucers, took the hasty initiative and quickly grabbed the glass of water kept on the nightstand. He took the leap to reach her side and gently helped the frail girl to sit up.
"Lady Ariadne! We have been waiting! Thank goodness you have woken up!"
He said, smiling joyfully, as he helped the glass to the young lady's lips.
As she slowly drank the water from the cup, the Duchess got up and walked to the bed. Tactfully, the Doctor stepped aside, letting the mother step closer to her now awake daughter.
"You may leave, for now. I thank you for your services, Doctor. It seems you are not as useless as I deemed you to be."
The woman spoke, without looking at him. Her eyes were fixed at the little girl, who was too busy drinking the water to pay much attention to anything else.
Hearing the rare praise of not (?) being as useless, the Doctor happily bowed and left with a smile.
"Of course, m'lady. I will be waiting right outside, so please do call me when you are done with your conversation. I advise you to keep it short. The young lady is still in need of a check-up."
The woman waved her hand dismissively at the nagging of the Doctor and waited until the door closed after he left.
As she heard the confirmation that no one other than the two were present inside the room, she opened her mouth to speak, but before any words could come out, the little girl on the bed spoke up first.
She had midnight-blue hair, that cascaded down her shoulders in a gentle tumble, and her frail, delicate features glowed in the dim lighting of the room. Her weary blue eyes — which were a shade lighter than the woman's, almost like the luminous sky at dawn — turned from the glass in her hand, to the woman with a strange, clear sheen, and she said a single sentence.
"Who are you?"
At this, the blank expression on the Duchess's face finally cracked, and a hint of uncertainty overlapped with her features.
━♛━
The moment she opened her eyes, she knew she was not herself.
It was an almost unconscious reaction — perhaps induced due to some bodily difference that she may have inferred or because of her surroundings, that seemed to have changed from that of the Shrine on New Year's Eve to that of a fancy four-poster bed with ruffled mattresses and shiny gauze curtains.
She was confused. Extremely.
But even more than that, she was in pain.
She had been in pain before. When she worked too late into the night despite her rising fever, or when she had to go to classes despite the forming bruise on her stomach because of her father's inhumane kick from the previous night. She had known pain for most of her life.
That is why it did not hinder her too much when the man in the black suit had helped her get up. That is why it did not matter all that much even when she gulped the water carelessly despite the burning sensation inside her throat.
How long had it been before she drank water?
It felt like months, if not years.
She looked up at the woman, who was walking towards her.
A beautiful woman, with dark hair and blue eyes. Foreign features that felt unfamiliar and uncomfortable. And yet, a deep sense of yearning settled in her heart, leaving it breathless and itchy.
What was this gnawing feeling inside her chest, as if she was forgetting a grave detail?
Who was this woman?
"Who are you?"
The question left her lips almost as instantly as it sprouted in her head. She needed an answer to truly understand what was going on.
She could feel her emotions battling against one another inside her tiny body.
Disorderly confusion. Unsettling fear. Alarming panic.
They were coming in waves — both big and small — and it felt like soon she would drown. But she mustn't. She must stay afloat.
Whatever happens, she must not let herself be swept away by her emotions.
She stared at the woman with a determined gaze.
"I asked... who are you?"
God, even the voice that came out of her mouth did not sound like her own.
Just where was she?