For breakfast, there were sweet buns and a cup of warm milk. This reminded her greatly of her childhood and the time before the duke and duchess had died. It tasted much better than she had ever thought it would as she had not tasted food from her homeland since she had gone to Theron.
After eating, she got dressed in a flowing pale blue dress and sat down at her desk. She needed to start planning for her future, she would never meet the end of her last life. Despite being trapped in a prison of her own imagination or perhaps because of that, she knew quite a bit about what had been going on in around the world. She had lovingly read the newspaper over and over, and the information was imprinted in her mind. One side effect of this was that she had been able to gain photographic memory. Given this, she began to prepare her plan.
The first priority was to figure out what had called Louise to be likely killed. Thinking about that time was painful however she focused on her memories. There seemed to be nothing of importance. She had mainly sulked around during that time, sad that she was leaving her home. However, she had accepted her fate and had not acted out or did anything that would cause the Emperor to feel a need to punish her. But, the Emperor and his wretched family were not rational people and getting rid of Louise would just push her further in her shell.
Suddenly, it dawned on her. Before Clarimond had left, she had wanted to figure some answers to a couple of questions, mainly, what had truly happened to the duke and duchess. She had asked Louise to figure out what had happened and it appeared like she was getting pretty far in the investigations. Louise had probably guessed or figured out something that made the Emperor upset. Could the royal family have killed her parents? She blinked and her eyes watered, in her past life, she would have thought this was a lie but now that she had seen their true behavior, it did not seem impossible.
She sighed, she would have to tell Louise to stop investigating soon. Now, she needed to figure out how to change her end. She needed to gain some actual power because although she was duchess in name, nearly all of her power had been slowly taken by the Emperor or other people. Along with her power, there was barely anyone she could trust anymore. To become more powerful she would need an organization. But how would she find trustworthy members for this organization?
Then she gasped. Two years after she had left for Theron, there had been a so-called "commoner's renaissance". They had taken over important positions or flourished greatly like the captain of guard, many knights, and artists, and business owners. Given that these people were quite good at what they did, it was likely that they were not yet discovered and hidden among everyone else. In fact, some of the newspapers had given backstories or information on what their life was before they became discovered and roughly where they lived.
This would be the start of a new future.