“Don’t apologize, silly,” he said. “It’s entirely my responsibility. You’ve only just arrived in the capital. I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard.”
Right, I remember now. We stopped on our way to the mansion so he could show me the Magic Academy before the start of the semester. Something strange welled up inside me when I saw the school building beyond the gates, and I lost my sense of reality.
The gates of the Magic Academy? I saw them so many times in the game’s opening sequence, so that must’ve brought back my memories. That means this is the duke’s residence. No wonder it’s so luxurious.
The memories of my past life...
Unbelievable, right?
While it was certainly confounding, every hint pointed to the same conclusion: Yukimura Rina, white-collar zombie, had been reborn as Ekaterina, the game’s villainess.
Hold up, doesn’t that mean I’m headed straight to my downfall?! Not to mention the empire could meet its end if the heroine messes up!
“Huh?!” Ekaterina gasped with a start.
Alexei panicked, letting go of her trembling hand. “Ekaterina? Perhaps I must send for a doctor after all.”
“Don’t, there’s no need. I’m fine, brother, honestly.”
“But...”
“Instead, could you please hold my hand for a little longer?”
Unvarnished joy made Alexei’s eyes sparkle. “Yes, of course. My dear Ekaterina, I’ll gladly do anything you desire.”
With that expression on his face, Alexei looked far younger, though his monocle clashed with the mellow atmosphere that had surrounded him.
What a softie! Argh! He’s too cute! Aren’t you glad you pushed through your insecurities, Ekaterina? Okay, I’m serious about this! I won’t let anything bad happen to either of you, and there’s no way I’ll let my own life be ruined by overtime ever again! I’ll destroy the damn doom flags looming over us, and we’ll all be happy!
“I-It hurts...”
“Ekaterina!”
Yikes, sorry! We really gotta do something about this split personality thing first.
Three days went by before “Ekaterina” and “Rina” became one.
On the first day, I spent most of my time asleep. In my dreams, I tossed and turned through both Ekaterina’s and Rina’s lives, thoroughly exhausting myself.
On the second day, I opened her eyes, feeling much better, and even managed to stand up. Unfortunately, whenever I saw something that surprised me, I collapsed again. My body was struggling to handle two different sets of feelings and reactions at once. Whenever our emotions flared, it shut down. It was like trying to go to the left and to the right at the same time—the world spun until I felt sick.
On the third day, my brother, who had grown increasingly worried, begged me to stay in bed. I tried to read a book to pass the time and was assaulted by an eerie feeling; I had no recollection of the letters, yet found I could read them just fine. In fact, it felt natural to read them. At first, I felt nauseous, but after pushing through for a while, that gradually lessened.
In time, I realized that my heart had settled.
It took a lot out of me, but three days isn’t too shabby for adaptation time.
While both of my personalities had merged together, I got the feeling that I’d retained only Ekaterina’s mannerisms and speech, while my personality took after Rina’s. That made sense, considering my life as Yukimura Rina carried the weight of almost twice as many years. My life as Ekaterina had mostly been spent confined, drifting through one dull day after the other.
Thus was born my new self, a corporate drone in villainess’s clothing.
“I’m terribly sorry for worrying you, brother,” I told Alexei, who’d come to visit me on the morning of the fourth day. “I’m perfectly fine now.”
I smiled brightly to show him I meant what I said. Unsurprisingly enough, he did not take my word for it.
“That’s great, but you’ll rest today too,” he said, concern plain on his face. “You’ve fainted so many times in a row. Your body is fragile, Ekaterina. I don’t want you to overdo it.”
He’s such a tsundere! The original flavor!
I’d once heard that, originally, tsundere were characters who treated everyone but one person coldly. It wasn’t the main meaning of the word anymore, but Alexei fit the classic definition perfectly.
Despite his ice prince appearance, I’d never seen him act coldly to Ekaterina in the game. He only ever treated her as gently as possible. She was the only person in the world he loved without limits, to the point of turning overprotective at times.
Seriously, how perfect can you get?
“I promise I’m fine now! Why, my body’s never felt so good! I’m like a newborn baby, just bursting with energy! Like I caught a second wind! Besides, I have a very good reason I cannot rest any longer,” I stated, deadly serious. “I’m supposed to enter the academy in just one month, but...my scholarly abilities are absolutely abysmal!”
I’d been confined until six months ago, at least as Ekaterina. Thus, I had never received a proper education as a noble lady.
Under normal circumstances, young aristocrats were placed under the care of a tutor when they turned five. I, on the other hand, had been left to my own devices for fourteen years. I remembered my mother trying to arrange for a teacher to come to our residence, but her attempts had failed. Undoubtedly because of my hateful grandmother, who couldn’t resist a chance to harass her helpless daughter-in-law.
Look what kind of trouble your bullying got me into, lady! What are you gonna do about it, huh?
My mother had taught me the basics but, without any teaching material and with her illness forcing her to stay in bed most of the time, she hadn’t been able to teach me much. During my six months with Alexei, he’d hired tutors for me. Regrettably, since I’d been in the middle of my rebellious phase, I’d refused to study—whoops! All in all, my keeping up with the classes at the academy sounded unlikely.