🌹🌹🌹
…Or so she thought.
Alicia sat up in her large, canopied bed, breathing hard. Her heart hammered against her chest, and she was sweating profusely.
“Cia? Are you all right? …Cia?”
Alicia ripped the negligee sticking to her sweaty skin off, searching for the mortal wound on her chest. But her soft, white skin was free of scars. Was this some kind of joke?
“She looks so pale. Maybe we should summon the attending physician after all?”
“But Your Majesty, the princess’s temperature has already come down…”
Alicia stared at the pair of worried adults as they continued their conversation, as if she had seen a ghost. She could recognize that amiable, round face and plump body anywhere. There, seated by her bed with his brows creased with worry, was Alicia’s father—King James, who had died during the latest war waged against Erdal.
If only. No, this isn’t right at all. They must be ghosts.
Fearfully, Alicia forced her gaze toward the full-length mirror in the room. She had already caught a glimpse of an impossible image out of the corner of her eye and hesitated to look straight at it. But she had to face the truth.
A young girl stared back at Alicia through the large looking glass. She seemed to be about ten years old, with sky-blue hair and eyes, and her every movement mirrored Alicia’s own.
There was no mistake. The girl in the mirror was Alicia herself.
“Huh…?”
Princess Alicia Chester, formerly Queen Alicia Chester Jorum, cocked her head to the side in utter confusion.