When her last class of the day ended, Mira stepped out to find Magnus waiting outside the classroom for her. She knew his unhappiness with her had to be brewing under the surface, but he somehow managed to greet her with a neutral expression.

  Mira was almost impressed.

  “Shall we?” he said, gesturing forward to signal for her to go with him.

  She swallowed. It stood to reason that since he’d given her a ride here, he would also be her ride home. With no other way to get back to Blythe’s home, Mira followed him to his carriage which had arrived at the courtyard.

  This time, she accepted his help with getting up onto the carriage. There were no changes to his favorability when she took his hand. It appeared this particular action wasn’t a big deal to him.

  The palpable tension between them in the carriage was so thick that it nearly suffocated her lungs. Neither of them spoke to each other, but every few minutes her favorability with Magnus would fall by one.

  Mira glanced at the notification window that flashed before her for the sixth time now.

  What’s his problem? Okay, fine. I know what his problem with me is, but what is his problem?!

  Clearly, he was still upset with her for openly harassing Daisy after her assurance earlier in the morning that she intended to stop doing it. But this weird trickling decrease after every few minutes even when they weren’t speaking to each other was just weird. She wanted to at least know what was causing this.

  Did merely looking at her face irritate him so much he couldn’t help but dislike her more for it with each passing moment?

  The impulse to jump out of the carriage window to escape his heavy gaze welled up in her. Mira reminded herself she had no other means of transportation apart from her two legs. She didn’t know the way back anyway.

  Finally, fifteen lost points later, they arrived at her palace, going through the gates and pulling up at the front doors where Suzy was awaiting them.

  “Welcome home, my lady.”

  Magnus helped her down the carriage, courteously wished her a good rest of the day, and rode back home in his carriage. Letting out a silent sigh of relief, Mira spun on her heel to go inside. Suzy caught her eye by staring at her with a puzzled expression.

  Her stomach contorted itself into a pretzel once more. She seemed to constantly be doing something wrong or bizarre in the eyes of others.

  Determined to ignore Suzy’s reaction, Mira turned away from her and walked inside.

  Suzy hurried to keep up with her. Just as Jessica and Sophie had done earlier, she stayed a couple of steps behind her.

  Not for the first time, Mira was frustrated by her own poor sense of direction. Her inability to fully remember how to get back to Blythe’s room from the front doors was compounded by her exhausting day at school.

  She came to a halt.

  “My lady?” Suzy asked cautiously.

  She could get Suzy to walk in front of her again, or she could meander around the palace in search for Blythe’s room. Both were terrible options.

  “Suzy, could you please walk in front of me?”

  She realized her mistake—being too polite—the moment Suzy gazed at her in astonishment.

  “Ah—um—yes, of course, my lady.”

  Still appearing bewildered, Suzy overtook Mira and began leading the way.

  She knew the request was suspicious, but getting lost while in search of Blythe’s room would look even more suspicious.

  Without further incident, they made it back to Blythe’s room.

  Mira looked around the enormous room, glad to finally be away from all her other schoolmates for the day.

  “Are you alright, my lady?” Suzy asked, her eyes alert and cautious.

  Trying to imitate the original Blythe’s mannerisms would only land her in hot water when she failed to keep up. Mira decided to try a different tactic. Either way, she would arouse suspicion, so she might as well try something more sustainable.

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  Mira smiled at her.

  “I’m fine, Suzy. Thank you.”

  Suzy’s mouth opened and snapped shut, with no words coming out from it. She repeated the action a few more times, doing an amazing impression of a goldfish.

  Taking pity on her, Mira said, “I feel I’ve been too hard on you. I know you’re only doing your best.” She took a stab in the dark at how the arrogant Blythe would likely treat her servants. “I know I’ve been impatient in the past, but, moving forward, I’d like to be more … patient as a person.”

  The shock was evidently too much for Suzy, because she brought her hands up to her chest as if her heart would fall out otherwise.

  “M-my lady! Did … Could … Did …”

  Panic flashed across her face, chased swiftly away by confusion and amazement, in that order.

  Mira waited for her next words, but none came.

  Suzy continued to look conflicted for the next few seconds, but then she seemed to come to a decision. Her mouth set in a determined line as she faced Mira.

  “I understand, my lady.” She hesitated. “Thank you for your magnanimity. It is truly my honour to serve you.”

  Hearing the stuffy speech patterns of people around her was enough to make Mira tire of being the daughter of a duke. It was all well and fine to monologue to herself about how she would lie back in the lap of luxury and enjoy life from the safety of her bed, but actually being in this situation made her wish she had become a daughter of a well-off merchant instead. If not, she wouldn’t mind becoming a commoner either.

  She didn’t want to talk like this for the rest of her life.

  At that thought, a chill ran down her spine.

  For the rest of my life? No, no, no … After I go to bed, everything will return to normal when I wake up, right? Right?

  Uncomfortable with Suzy’s formality and unsure of how to respond, Mira said nothing.

  Thankfully, her personal maid didn’t seem to be anticipating a response.

  Suzy turned toward the bathroom door and said, “Shall I prepare your bath for you now, my lady?”

  “Yes.” Mira didn’t know how else to answer her question. Were there any other options?

  “What scent would you like today?”

  She stared. “Um, you can pick one for me.”

  Suzy stared right back for a couple of seconds before starting, as if just realizing what she was doing. She bowed. “Yes, my lady.”

  ???

  Asking if her lady had taken leave of her mental faculties, however roundabout she couched the question, would result in her losing her job. Suzy was certain of that.

  It was why she’d ultimately decided to keep her mouth shut after a great internal struggle.

  However, that was the only conclusion she could come to after seeing such a gentle Lady Blythe after she’d come home from school. Perhaps something had happened at school to cause such a massive change.

  It might even have something to do with Prince Magnus—she hadn’t tried to persuade him to stay for dinner, and it was normally the first thing she did when he dropped her off at home.

  What could have caused this? Suzy could only imagine it might have been something traumatic that resulted in such a huge personality transformation, as if someone else’s personality had been transplanted into her lady.

  And she was even delegating the choice of her bath scent to Suzy now. Lady Blythe loved pondering over the different bath scents she had, choosing one to suit her mood at the end of the day. Even more odd was her behavior when she’d entered her room upon returning home; she’d looked around as if this wasn’t the room she’d been grown up in.

  Suzy puzzled over her mistress’ strange behavior as she hurried to the bathroom and prepared her lady’s bath. Lady Blythe was far too mercurial for Suzy to trust that this behavior would persist.

  ???

  While Suzy was in the bathroom, Mira checked out the embroidery work-in-progress on the glass coffee table. It was indeed a silk handkerchief.

  Embroidered on it was a half-complete bird. Despite its unfinished state, its refined beauty was obvious. Blythe really had a flair for embroidery. It was a shame she didn’t use more of her spare time to focus on it instead of coming up with schemes to harass Daisy.

  By this point, it was obvious that it was for Magnus.

  But what was Blythe supposed to finish it ‘in time’ for? Why was there a deadline?

  Again, that nagging sensation that she’d forgotten something tugged at her brain.

  Mira activated the item detail window in an attempt to glean more information from it.

  Sighing, she placed the handkerchief back onto the table. Maybe she’d work on it later. It had been nice seeing that increase in her experience points.

  She shook the thought from her head. She was getting more comfortable with the idea of living in this world as Blythe. Images of her parents’ smiling faces surfaced in her mind, and cold fear speared into her gut.

  She was never going to see them again, was she?

  No, no. I’ll wake up and discover this was all a dream. Everything’s going to be just fine.

  Mira repeated that last sentence to herself over and over, drawing slow, deep breaths.

  Next, she ventured over to the nightstand and opened the top drawer where she’d seen the scroll with a pink ribbon in the morning. Sure enough, there it was.

  Unfurling the scroll revealed a beautiful lifelike painting of a galah cockatoo, with its pink and grey feathers. She looked at it, half-expecting the parrot to stare back at her. Nothing happened. She would probably have to ‘make a call’ with it for the parrot to do anything.

  She rolled it back up and tucked it into her school bag.

  It would come in handy. Earlier in the day, she’d seen a couple of birds return to their owners and slip back into the reopened scrolls. Mira figured she would get the hang of it once she tried it a couple of times.

  The sound of the running water stopped, and the bathroom door opened.

  Suzy stepped out.

  “Your bath is ready now, my lady.”

  Mira followed her into the bathroom and allowed Suzy to undress her. Slowly, she stepped into the bathtub, feeling the resistance of the water against her legs as she did so. Back home, they didn’t have a bathtub. Mira had only ever taken showers. The relaxing scent of the rose petals in the warm bath water enveloped her, easing the tenseness in her muscles.

  Once her body was submerged in the bathtub, Suzy bowed and said, “What shall I bring you, Lady Blythe?”

  “Huh?” Her inelegant reaction was more of a reflex than anything else.

  She cringed right away.

  Staring in horror at Suzy, Mira cast her mind around for a possible answer she could be expected to give. She came up blank.

  What? What does Blythe normally want you to bring her? A book? More bath scents? A rubber ducky? Why is everyone always springing these weird questions on me?!

  With each passing second, the confusion on Suzy’s face grew.

  “Nothing,” Mira managed to croak out.

  “Oh …” Suzy gave her a hesitant bow. “Is everything alright, my lady? You seem … very different today.”

  She forced a smile onto her face. “Like I said earlier, I want to work on my patience. That will be good for everyone around me.”

  She just wanted Suzy out of here before she did anything else that could be deemed as strange.

  “But, my lady, this seems to go beyond exercising patience. You did not extend a dinner invitation to Prince Magnus earlier.”

  The statement hung in the air like a question.

  Mira wanted to scream. Why couldn’t she just be left alone?

  so mad. [Favorability drops]