'Crap! What's going on?' Juliana couldn't move her eyes away from her own replica in the mirror across the room. Her mind was not cooperating as well... This was not something she could handle nonchalantly!

The tremors of her body—err, was this her real body? As if building up from overwhelming pressure—like a volcano ready to erupt any seconds now. The truth was, she was freaking out immensely!

So this maiden's name was Marie Juliette Boucher... why did her name sound so familiar the more she thought about it over and over again?

Boucher... Boucher...

'Fuck!' Nothing was coming up to her memory at the moment. She was in a state of panic! She needed to appease herself and use her rationality in her current situation. Even if that situation was unfathomable, straight out of fiction—for instance, Juliana in another human's body. Not just anyone's body, but a noble daughter's body! How crazy was that? It was something that 'science' could never explain.

If this was truly the reality, then she dreaded the possibility that she did lose her life that night. The only card that she must play, for now, was to keep the show going by pretending that she was the girl called Marie Juliette.

However, she started off being pretty weird in these people's eyes. Would she be able to put the act together? She didn't even know this young lady's personality. All doubts poured in relentlessly to her head... It would be much better if this was all a dream.

'I'll try to rest one more time... Maybe tomorrow or when I wake up, everything will go back to normal,' Juliana thought, trying to convince herself with every probability that her mind could come up with. Well, this could be a dream. Who knows? That was the only practical explanation.

She closed her eyes and briefly took a deep breath before facing the people who were waiting for her reaction. 'Now, where were we?' Her eyes searched the woman that seemed to be the 'mother' of the person whose body she possessed with.

'Countess Boucher...' That was what the ladies-in-waiting and Dr. Gibbs addressed her earlier. 

Readying her act, Juliana began by touching her forehead and putting a dramatic painful expression on her face. "... M-Mother?" She said, mimicking the typical characters in the movies who regained their memories back from amnesia.

The countess' eyes widened in surprise and quite made a short gasp along with the maids beside her. "That's right, my daughter! I'm your mother! Oh! Can you recognize me now, dear?"

"Ah... y-yes. Aw, my head!" Nope, Juliana did not even know the Countess' name.

"Dr. Gibbs, please examine her immediately!"

"Oh yes, Countess." Mister Gibbs quickly held out his hand and touched Juliana's wrist to feel the pulse that made her eyebrows lift in question.

'What is he doing?' As a doctor, herself, it didn't determine the patient's condition just by simply palpating one's wrist. Welp, she wanted to educate this doctor Gibbs but she needed to refrain from doing anything weird and suspicious. It seemed that this place was not yet at the peak of modernization.

Besides, she was still not losing any hope that this was a dream. So as for the next few moments of examination, Juliana was caught off guard when Dr. Gibbs' fingers that were feeling her wrist suddenly emitted a bluish fluorescent light. Like an orb floating in the air. It was mesmerizing yet terrifying for her... She had never seen something like this her whole life! Only a face that unveiled such a flabbergast exterior and dilating reddish-brown eyes was seen staring right through that spectral encounter.

'What the heck is that?' Everything escalated too quickly, from being inside in another person's body and now this gleaming floating mini-balls...

Juliana could feel a surge of energy flowing in her vessels from where the physician had touched her. It was a very cool sensation as if a stream of water had coursed through her whole body.

'Is it magic?' She was aching to ask Dr. Gibbs about it but she kept her mouth shut since they thought she was the 'young miss Boucher' that they knew.

"How is she, Dr. Gibbs?" The Countess asked the man with a tone of impatience. If anyone could hear it, one would assume that she was loved dearly by the mother.

The gentleman released her hand before turning his attention to the Countess and the glowing orbs that were drifting about around Juliana gradually disappeared too.

"Countess, nothing is wrong with the young miss. She can go back to the academy next week after a few days of rest. I advise you not to give the miss any arduous activities and have her magical core be evaluated by a tower mage. I sense a bit of instability in her energy but it is common for people who are under a lot of physical or emotional stress."

'Magical core? Tower mage?' Ah, so it was like that. She was starting to understand what kind of world she had just fallen into. Doctor Gibbs probably used magic on her while checking her condition—that fascinating blue spherical lights—her curiosity could not be contained anymore.

"A tower mage? Can't you do it, Dr. Gibbs?"

"Pardon my shortcomings, Countess Boucher, but my magic is not capable of evaluating a person's core. It should be at least a midtier mage that could assess it."

Juliana was intimately listening to the two people who were talking in front of her. As she tried to gather pieces of information based on her mother and Dr. Gibbs' conversation, this world was obviously had a perception and use of magic. If she was not mistaken, there were tiers of magic and something like a core inside of each individual.

'Hmmm, it sounds like the novel I have read before...' The book that she was reminded of, in fact, was one of her favorites—A Paladin's Love. Of course, that was the only fiction book she read that had magics and knights on it way back in college where she still had the luxury to sit and relax on her couch before the grueling hours of her hospital post-internship.

"...It would be alright, Countess. The Royal Mage Tower is in the Capital right now so you can immediately summon a mage from the tower. They will be staying for a few weeks in Helios Empire," said Dr. Gibbs towards her mother.

Ah yes, yes, Juliana remembered the Helios Empire from the novel too... 'Wait, what?!' Did she just hear it correctly? She paused for a minute and turned her attention to what Dr. Gibbs was saying.

"Thank goodness. I appreciate your efforts, Dr. Gibbs! My daughter needs to go back to the Academy as soon as possible for the social season is right around the corner. I can't afford to lose this chance for Marie Juliette to gather influence among the aristocrats of her age," the Countess replied to him. "I've been worrying the whole time because she has not made any friends since she started going to the Academy. A soon-to-be Duchess of Bushberg must need a powerful circle!"

Duchess... of Bushberg?

"There's no fucking way!" Came her squeal of repudiation and absolute disbelief. The room suddenly became silent after that pretty loud yelp she made... which she realized quickly and began to chuckle awkwardly with hopes of dodging the bullet of suspicion—that by the way, had been captiously noted in her earlier behaviors. "A-Aww...sorry, my head still hurts. I've been talking nonsense, have I?"

She looked at them with a one eye close to see their reaction and the people around the room wore that kind of mix expressions again—shock and uncertain fear. Best to shoo them away now before Juliana could have more slip of tongue. "M-Mother, I want to rest."

"A-Alright, dear. Then we'll take our leave and let you get some more rest. I'm sure you will..." The Countess gave Dr. Gibbs a knowing side glance. "...be back to normal, hopefully. We trust your words, Doctor Gibbs."

Juliana gave a small fiddly smile at her before nodding politely to the mistress and Doctor Gibbs that reluctantly exited her room along with the maidservants. It was peaceful at last... but not her mind though. The chaos just started welling up from her cup.

'Yeah, that's right... maybe a good rest might wake me up from this weird situation.' Because it probably would be the most empirical solution as to why she was inside her favorite novel. More specifically, a boy's love novel called 'A PALADIN'S LOVE'.