Strange Place

BELLE’s P.O.V 

“Good morning my lady.” May, my personal maid said as she pulled the curtain in my bedroom. A ray of sun hits my face, oh it’s morning again.  

I greeted her back then walked to my mini table where a glass of water is put every morning. 

I sat down and observed her, she’s now arranging the books that I’ve been reading since last night. She’s the one beside me the moment I open my eyes in this strange place. She takes good care of me and acts as if she’s my mother despite our two years age gap, she’s really mature for her age. 

May’s also my personal tutor, I’ve learned a lot about this place with her help. At first it’s hard for me who came from another world to just wake up in a strange place, new people, new place, new environment and even the way they dress freaks me out. If you’re wondering what I’m saying, let’s go back to the day I first opened my eyes in this place…

Ouch… My back hurts…

“The...”

“-and...”

I feel like there’s someone talking but I can hear them clearly. 

“I think...” 

The noise is hurting my head more, what are they talking about? I tried to open my eyes a little, they’re also aching… 

“My…lady…” Someone’s talking.

I force my eyes to open, I want to see what’s happening around me. At first my vision’s blurry, all I can see is a white and gray. The next thing I saw was a woman's face… 

“My lady!” Her face changes as she calls for someone. Who is she calling? Why is she looking at me? 

My vision became clearer and now I can see her face, she looks worried… Who is she? 

“My lady! My lady is awake!” She shouted. 

I tried to roam my eyes, I can’t remember coming here. Where am I? 

There’s furniture that I only see in historical dramas, is it gold? How much is it worth? They do look shabby though, like they’ve been there for a long period of time already. 

I tried to move my body but it hurts a lot! 

The last thing I remember is I’m on my way to my house when suddenly a truck appeared out of nowhere, a beam of light appeared then people screaming in the background. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground and everything went black. 

It’s really confusing me, so I’m not dead right? But where the heck am I?

My eyes stopped at the woman, I wanted to ask her who she was and where I was. 

“My lady, I’m glad you’re awake…” Is she referring to me? 

She wipes her tears and sighs, she’s weird. 

I wonder why I couldn’t talk. Does the accident affect my voice as well?

A week has passed and I can now sit and talk. I’ve learned that the woman who calls me “My Lady” is May, she is my personal maid and I’m an illegitimate daughter of a Count. My name is Belle Stefano, a 16 year-old with a weak body and an uneducated child. I’ve been living here since I was born and my personal maid is the only one who’s taking care of me, no other maids here in this mansion. Truck-kun really isekai me huh, and to a worse family too. 

May thought that I’ve lost my memory because of the incident, that's why I’m behaving like that. Well, I fell into a coma for almost three months because someone put poison in my food. May found the same symptoms to what her mother had and immediately searched for herbal medicines. Thanks to that I recovered little by little. 

Back to the present, I had to adjust to this strange place so I asked for books. The first time I read a book May looked shocked, girl I’m shocked too! I can read the book because it’s written the way we wrote it in my past life but of course she cannot believe it ‘cause I’m an uneducated child. 

Thank God I’m an honor student in my past life. 

“Self study.” Is all I said to her and shrugged, should I just tell her that I’m a polyglot?

It’s also amazing that the books here have the same writings as we had on Earth. May once told me that there’s a book that she couldn’t understand because it is in ancient language. It turns out that it has the same writing style as the English alphabet on Earth. Also, she introduced me to a book of herbs that was written in another language, and that language is Baybayin. I'm so lucky to have learned this in my past life. May was so shocked that I can transcribe the books that even her mother couldn’t. 

After reading some books, that’s where I realized that I’m really in a different world. Does someone pick me up from Earth and throw me here? How about my body there, Am I dead? 

There’s a lot of questions but what I’m sure of is I’m now a different person. 

How about my parents though? I’m not sure if they’re even thinking about me. Surely, they’re happy because of the compensation of the truck company who hit me. 

Back to this world, I learned that I’ve been neglected even before I was born, my first maid was May’s mother but she died a few years ago, thankfully her daughter was the one who replaced her. May worked here even though I’m an illegitimate daughter, she doesn’t get the salary she deserves and she does all the work night and day, see what happens to illegitimate children here in this world? It sucks for real. 

Another shocking revelation for me is that my so-called parents didn’t even check me even once or ask their servants to check on me or this house, that’s why this house looks more like a haunted mansion . Thankfully May takes good care of the furniture so it doesn’t look that old aside from the room where I first wake up. 

That room is the only room in the attic. I don’t know why May placed me there while I’m still unconscious though, and I still remember when I asked May to bring me a mirror because I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was really shocked that time that I couldn’t talk for a few hours. That’s totally insane. 

One time when we’re taking fresh air from the veranda I asked her.

“May, can you tell me more about my family?” 

She paused for a minute, looking like she’s unsure if she would tell me but then spoke afterwards.

“Your father is Count Bourbone Schwarts, he is a well known businessman, your mother, Leonna is her mistress who works at a hotel in the city. She died giving birth to you, you have three siblings from your father but they don’t care about you.” Ouch…  Was she always this savage? My family from Earth’s not like that, but I can’t tell that they really love me. I’m an orphan after all. 

I’m an orphan until I reached eight years old. When I got adopted I did my best to look good and make them proud, I worked hard to be on top of my studies. They seem proud outside our house but cold when inside. 

“Your father’s wife also doesn’t like you, that's why she asked your father to throw you away, but due to your father’s love for his reputation, he decided to buy you an old mansion and make you live there.” 

“That house is this house?” I ask her. 

She nodded and continued, “your father’s wife is Fionna Heidy Schwarts-”

“Pft!” 

She turns her head and looks at me as if asking what’s wrong with me. 

“HAHAHA!” 

Fionna, that’s a good name! Like Shrek’s wife!

“What’s wrong my lady?” 

I can’t contain my laughter, tears start to come out my eyes and my stomach starts hurting. Oh gosh…

“N-No nothing, please continue.” I said between my laughs.

She sighs. 

“As I was saying, she is your father’s wife as well as…” She looks like she’s thinking. 

“As well as?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“-as well as… your father’s wife.” She stated. 

Huh. 

I waited for a couple of minutes to hear her say more but she just stared at me as if she’s done. 

“So she’s just there…” I stated.

Her face remains the same. 

“Yes my lady.” 

“She’s just… existing…” 

We nodded to the fact that she’s just there, existing.

“Pft!” 

“My lady please don’t-” 

“HAHAHA!” I burst out laughing, goodness. 

What an evil person to ask her husband to throw away a baby but she’s just there,no work and purpose- oh wait, right. Her purpose is to exist. 

May once again sighs. She shows me some pictures of my family, they look like the one in a renaissance painting to be honest. Everything looks old fashioned, I’m not sure if it’s just me but their clothes look terrible. I bet if they wear it on Earth, millennials will find it ‘not aesthetically looking’. It makes me miss my life there. 

We spent more than one hour looking at the photos. I saw their family photos and all I can say is… 

“They’re good looking huh.” 

Count Bourbon has red hair, he looks like an idol. No, to be exact all of them look like an idol, Fionna has long brown hair, I can’t deny the fact that she’s pretty. My siblings are all good looking and confident, do they even know they have a younger sibling?

When I think of this body’s appearance, I was really amazed. Amazed to the point that I immediately want to dress her up and put make up on her even though I don’t know how to put it on myself. She looks like a doll that heaven sent here to be a saint but because she’s malnourished, her physical appearance changes.

 I should eat more, even though I’m not the owner of this body, I can’t just let this body be malnourished, right? It’s for my own good too. I don’t want to go around looking like a skeleton. 

It’s a waste to let this beauty be like this forever. 

Later on, I ask May to prepare my bath. It hasn’t been long since I got here, there are some things that make me want to go home like when someone wants to take a bath here, they have to get water from somewhere and they’ll pour it into the bathtub, it’s really different to Earth where we can just open the shower. The difference makes me sick, I miss Earth so much. It makes me cry thinking that I have to lift a lot of water buckets especially with this malnourished body.  

TODAY is our harvest day. According to May we have to do this if we still want to live since I’m an neglected child that no one comes to visit me, even my own family rarely sends my budget for my needs. It’s like they’re purposely neglecting me so that I will die soon. 

May plant vegetables for us to eat and survive. Now is the time where we’ll harvest those she planted a few months ago.  

“My lady, you can just wait for me over there.” She says. 

I grab the gloves and look at her. 

“Don’t worry, I can do this better than you.” I smirked. 

She raised her left eyebrow.

“Wanna bet?” 

We just had an intense eye to eye, I know she doesn’t believe me because this body is weak but that is Carlota, not me Josefina Diaz. Ha! 

After we finish what we need, she asks me to eat a little more because we’re not sure whether I lose consciousness due to hunger. After that we go straight to the little farm she does beside our house.  

When we get there, little farm is really an underrated word because it is as huge as the house and it’s actually beautiful. Didn’t expect this huh. 

“You’re great.” 

“I know, thanks.” 

We first harvest the potatoes then the carrots. 

I was about to slip but she caught me. 

“Please be careful my lady.”   

I thanked her and continued harvesting. We rest for a few minutes then start picking herbs. She gave me information that I can use. According to her there were poisonous plants nearby and she’s afraid I might pick them. 

We agreed to stop before the sun sets and meet at the table beside the gate. 

Although I don’t really enjoy this kind of stuff since all my life I just sit and read a book, I just couldn’t ignore the fact that we won't have anything on our table when we don’t do this. 

Should I look for a job? 

I can clean, I can cook or whatever they want me to do. I’m also a little familiar with engineering stuff, but I don’t know if they’ll be interested in that since people here have magic. 

I was picking some herbs when I heard something crackling far from me. I looked at it, there’s nothing here. What was that? 

I ignored it and picked another herb that was a few steps away from me when I heard that noise again. Dude what’s that? 

Curious, I walked towards the direction I heard the noise, there’s a bush blocking the way so I need to remove it first. 

I almost jumped when a rabbit appeared. 

“Oh my gosh!” I almost had a heart attack!

I felt relieved, at least it’s not someone who will harm me. 

I continued what I’m doing when suddenly I heard a noise as if someone’s running. Is it May? 

I looked around but to see a masked man running towards me, he’s like six meters away from me and because there’s plants everywhere I can’t see anything other than his head. All I am sure of is he is a man, a tall man rather. I think he’s wearing something old fashioned. 

I focused my eyes on him to see him clearly, when he’s just a few meters away I just felt my soul leaving my body. 

He’s holding a sword! A f*cking sword! 

For a moment I forgot that I’m in another world where there is magic and war. My feet felt numb and my hands started to feel cold. My heart started to beat fast. Why is he running towards me with that big sword! 

May is not here, she’s way too far for her to see me nor this man. What should I do?! 

Am I going to die again!? 

I want to run but I can’t move my feet. My throat feels like it’s blocked. 

I’m not ready to die! Not again! Help! Someone!

He’s getting near me but I still can't move. 

He started to raise his sword, running towards me faster. Tension fills my body. He points his sword towards me and when he's a few steps away from me I can be sure that his target is really me. 

He’s charging towards me!  

Goodness! It’s not that long when I first got into this world and now I’m going to die again?!