Everyone remained quiet, rather shocked at what just happened. Susan didn't dare move or even breathe as the maid held her bridal style.

"Well, you heard his highness! Get to work everybody!" Another maid said, clapping her hands to snap everyone back to reality. Susan was immediately taken to the bathroom but as soon as she was placed on the ground, she tried to make a run for it. She was sure that maybe she could escape before meeting that scary boy again.

"Now now dear princess, we are not going to harm you. We simply need to wash you up and get you ready to meet your brother," the brown-haired maid spoke softly with a smile. Susan immediately stopped, in a way, she reminded her of one of her teachers who would always help her out through middle school. Both of the women had such a strong motherly aura that made Susan feel safe.

"Okay..." Susan decided to obey. The three maids that were around her went into shock. The young girl, the sleeping beauty that was asleep her entire life, understood everything they were saying...and she could talk too!

"Oh, how marvelous!"

"She's so smart!"

"But how?"

"I-I heard voices...'The little traveler'" Susan quickly said to move away from the suspicion from her. She did try to figure out why when she died, she hadn't just awakened in a child's body but she managed to get all the memories of being stuck in the dark, hearing different voices, almost the day after she woke up. But one 'memory' did manage to stand out more than the others, it was a soft voice reading a book and guiding her out of the darkness. She didn't want anyone to know that her real identity wasn't a princess...but rather a thirty-two-year-old businesswoman! So instead, she told them about the voice.

"Ah the book I used to read to you!" The brown haired maid said delightfully. The other two maids that were working on warming up the bath stopped and looked at her strangely.

"W-Well you see...since I was the only one who was stationed to take care of her for the last couple of months, I had my hopes up that one day she would awaken! And plus, now you know that I didn't lie last week, and it really did happen!" She quickly rambled nervously, although it did seem suspicious reading to a sleeping child that had no hopes of ever waking up, they didn't question her further.

As they got the bath ready and brushed Susan's long golden locks, the young girl decided to create a plan. A plan that would get her out of this mess and back into her own world.

However, how was that even possible? If she was here, in another body, didn't that mean that she was dead in her own world? And what happened to the owner of this body? All of her dreams were only filled with floating in the dark and listening to a little boy traveling the kingdom, in search of a cure for his dear mother. But these dreams weren't dreams. They were real, while the owner was stuck sleeping in this body, the world around her moved on until Susan woke up within her. The voice that was telling the story had belonged to the maid in which she admitted to reading her the book.

The memories didn't belong to the princess, but maybe Susan herself. They felt so real. Did that mean that after she died as Susan, she became someone else, a sleeping princess who couldn't wake up until now? And what if it was really just her being stuck in her own head? Was there no such thing as the time when stuck in darkness? Or had the world just moved on without her? Did this mean that years went on in her other world after her death?

So many questions, yet no answers.

"H-How old am I?" Susan asked, slightly cringing at how sweet and baby like she made her voice sound. She was a child in this world, if she acted like a grown-up woman then people would get suspicious of her. The last thing she needed was another goose chase around the castle.

"You have just turned seven, my dear princess! Not to mention, you have awoken from your slumber on your birthday!" The maids cheered excitedly.

"Why was I asleep?" Susan asked, she figured if she asked a few questions then it wouldn't hurt.

"No one knows why, your highness, maybe a curse that couldn't be broken? However, what we do know is that the curse didn't harm you in any way! Now although you are awfully skinny, the curse was able to keep your heart beating and your body growing despite not being fed!"

"But the doctor did ensure that you are in a perfectly healthy condition every month, you don't have to worry, princess!" Susan was confused, how could magic keep her from dying without any food in her system, it was impossible! But yet here she was, in a world where royalty and magic were no fantasies.

"So I am a princess?" She asked innocently.

"Yes your highness! The most cutest princess ever!"

"And name?" Susan pointed to herself while also trying to figure out if seven-year-olds knew how to talk properly. Her childhood wasn't as memorable and she never had kids in her past life, so she wouldn't know. But she was aware that if she acted stupid at times, the maids would consider it to be the defect of being asleep for such a long time.

"Your name is her highness Emilia Alexandra Diana Louis Hamilton, Imperial Princess of Avrigastan Empire!"

"That's so long!" Susan said, how was she supposed to remember so many names at once. She knew that she'd remember Diana since it was the name of her mother in her past life.

"We could give the princess a nickname..."

"That's improper Jennett!"

"Nickname! I want a nickname!" Susan cheered, her cheeks turning pink at her childish behavior.

"How about just Princess Emilia?" A maid spoke.

"How about Princess Lia?" Jennett, the brown-haired maid asked. Susan immediately nodded her head, Lia sounded so much better than Emilia, the name which reminded her of her ex-best friend in college. It was a very long story that ended with countless fights, tears, and some bruises. Susan wasn't usually violent unless she got on a whole new level of angry, but she had to protect herself in that situation. Lia sounded so much better and brighter, not to mention it was easier to remember. 

"We can't call the princess that! Listen to your superiors. Maids are not allowed to be so informal towards royalty!" The other maid said, she was the serious one. She held more authority than the others, due to the fact that she was the head maid and her responsibility was to ensure that everything is performed with the best quality and is done on time.

"Then...I order you to call me by my nickname," Susan said with a cheeky smile. Since she was a princess, it meant she held authority too and by watching her dear brother in action, ordering everyone around, it inspired her to act out. The maid's mouths dropped open while Jennett cheered, she was also the youngest maid who looked like she was in her early twenties.

"Princess Lia it is!" Jennett clapped.

"Drop the princess," Susan said, it sounded like a pet name in her ears.

"Oh but that we can't do princess, giving us permission to call you by your nickname is an honor but we still must be formal towards royalty, it is the law," Jennett said with a serious look.

"What is law?" Susan, but rather Lia, played dumb. That was already way too many demands and questions so she had to throw the maids off her trail.

"That is a rule that everyone must follow, you are too young to understand," the head maid said.

"Now princess, let's get you washed up!"

"Ummm...I can change myself, thank you!"

* * *

The maid ended up changing the princess out of her dirty white nightgown after some little arguments. The princess felt awfully embarrassed, constantly trying to cover up herself, after all, she did have a mind of a grown woman, and she hadn't been treated like this since she was a small baby. After some quarrel, the young girl finally calmed down and let the maids do their work, washing her hair and body.

She sat down in the hot water and let her thoughts take over. The possibility of reincarnation were getting higher, what else could explain her sudden transfusion into a totally different world and body? And although her being dead was rather sad, she knew she had to move on and focus on what was in front of her.

This world full of magic and mystery.

While the maids played dress up with the young princess, the girl began to accept her new reality. She was no longer Susan Parks, but Princess Lia instead. Who knew what kind of other 'laws' that this world had. And the fact that she was a princess of an Empire made things even worse. How was she supposed to escape in a world filled with magic? The safest way was to stay here, behind guards and walls guarding her while she learns to accept her new identity of Princess Lia, and figure out a way to go back home. That is, if there is one.