Although I told Elisa to notify the boys and the guards if I didn’t return to the party in ten minutes, I doubt they would know I’m at the opposite end of the estate.

A looming man chased after me as scampered up the grand stairs; layers of my dress curled up between my fingers. He was covered in an all black suit and had his face hidden behind a mask. Something shimmered in his hand as he stumbled behind me, following with a quiet, yet eerie, chuckle.

I rounded to the right, a humble spot for tea beside a large window, and held on to the weak and obsolete chair. As the man followed right behind, unaware that I had stopped, I raised the chair high and crashed it down on him. He fell with a grunt, but in no short time, he was getting up again. Briskly, with a broken shard of the chair, I stabbed him in the arm and made a run towards Lewell’s office.

I heard him howl behind me and tried to reach for my skirt. Luckily, I had whisked it away before he could slow me down. I slammed the office door shut and crouched behind his large oak desk. Scattered on top were papers and folders. It was too dark to read what they said. It didn’t matter what they said though, those weren’t the reason I was here.

Opening the first drawer, I scattered through his folders and disorganised papers in a hurry. Then the second drawer. Third. Fourth. Just as I reached the fifth one on the left, the intruder’s voice echoed up to me. “Where are you, bitch?”

Come on, come on, where is it? I slammed the fifth drawer shut and went for the last one. A few pens were lying around and at the very back was a small black box.

Found—

“—You.”

Snapping my neck up, the man stood at the entrance of the office, his large blade shining against the moon’s pearlescent gleam.

Bang.

Swish.

He ducked behind the door as I landed myself to the ground; him covering from my sudden firing and me from the blade he threw at me. The blade had cut through the glass from the window and no doubt landed in some unsuspecting bush. In the brief silence after we fired our weapons—our heavy breathing syncing—I moved my ginger tresses off my face, contemplating my next move. Then, “Risa?” yelled a familiar voice from somewhere nearby.

“In here!” I hollered back, tightening my grip on the pistol and slowly rising. The stomping of several men let the joints in my body loosen, and I released a mitigated sigh.

And just as I caught the wisp of Lewell rounding the corridor to his office, the door suddenly flung open and the intruder ran towards me.

Stiff and determined, I fired twice at him, but he dodged the first one and took the second one on his shoulder. Despite the sudden blow on his shoulder, he took no hinderance and slammed right into me.

I saw Lewell enter the room just then. His black hair and worried green eyes seemed so bright then. And although it wasn’t slow, it felt as though it was—he slipped out of my view as I fell through the window.

There wasn’t a bush below, just a footpath.

There was so much bustling as I opened my eyes. People moving up and down the room and some horrid woman ordering at the top of her lungs. I was on the ground in a maid-like dress with flour covering the grey apron. Slowly, I get up, a migraine echoing through my skull, and note the commotion in front of me. It seemed like I was in a very familiar stairway.

“…cleaned it. I can’t believe her highness is arriving today! Wasn’t she supposed to come a week later?” Asked a maid carrying an adorned white vase of plumerias. She was standing at the entrance of the room.

Another servant answered her as he took the vase from her. “Apparently, her highness could come into Poria using the alchemy-powered blimp rather than the train, hence they’re ahead.”

That sounds familiar. I need to find Lewell and figure out what I am doing here wearing this extremely well-put transmutated disguise. I move forward, heading towards the exit to confirm my suspicions, and immediately bump into another maid. “Ah! Sorry,” I quickly mumbled an apology.

She looked at me, slowly blinking as if she just realised she had collided with another person. “What’re you doing?”

“Erm…”

“Are you new here?”

“…Yes?”

She sighed, “Well start moving or Madame Bernice will get you.” Madame Bernice? Surely not… “Since you seemed to be working in the kitchen, why don’t you go help Cook with lunch?”

Nodding, I follow her out. I ask her to take me to the kitchen, but not even half a minute later; I realise I already know the way. This house, this setting, it’s all too familiar.

“Are we…Are we in Count Sparwell’s estate?” Almost immediately after I slipped that stupid question out, I felt like throwing myself out the window again.

The maid looked at me strangely. “You mean Duke Sparwell. And of course we are. Are you feeling okay?”

Since when was he a duke? “I fainted a while ago, feeling a bit foggy. Can you tell me what’s happening?”

The maid hummed and looked towards the large arching windows. “The Emperor of Kogaki’s daughter is arriving as Duke Sparwell’s guest. She is apparently to secure engagement with his cousin, the Crown Prince.” …No way.

“Her name..?”

She can’t be possibly talking about—

“Risa Morikage.”

—me!

I stopped short. Am I not in some disguise? This can’t be true. All of this happened two years ago. I arrived here in Poria two years ago and stayed at Count Sparwell’s estate where I first met Lewell. The blimp, a vase of plumerias in my room, Madame Bernice. All of this was two years ago.

But all of this was nothing in comparison to a foreboding question that popped.

If I am Risa Morikage in someone else’s body, then who is in Risa’s?