“So you’re the real Fantasia,” I breathed. “Good. You can take your body back.”

Fantasia blinked, “Unfortunately, I can’t do that. I’m already dead.”

I blink back, “And I’m not?”

“Well,” she started. “You were dead. Goddess Diana simply gave you another chance at life.”

Anger was boiling within me, “I never wanted another chance…”

Fantasia’s spirit crossed her arms as she shook her head from side to side, “I’m well aware. However, it can’t be helped. I called out to the Goddess to put me out of my misery, and then you appeared.”

That makes no sense. How would I appear after Fantasia called out to the Goddess? Last time I checked, I’m not a holy being, let alone a God.

“I’m confused, too,” Fantasia sighed. “I didn’t want to suffer anymore and asked Goddess Diana to pull me into her embrace. My body was dying because I was poisoned.”

That piqued my interest, “Poisoned? You don’t look like the type to get yourself into any type of trouble.”

Fantasia’s spirit circled my own, “You’ll be surprised.”

That’s not something I would like to hear. She’s pretty much saying that whatever problems she got herself into, they’re mine now. Not like I even want to go back to that body in the first place.

“If given the chance, would you want to go back to your life?” I asked her.

She gave me a look of pure confusion, “Absolutely not.”

“S-So blunt…” I whispered.

“I fought for too long. I’m simply letting go. There’s no reason for me to go back to that terrible life,” Fantasia explained. “And it’s not like you’ll be going back to your old life, so I think we both got what we wanted.”

Her spirit came closer to mine. I couldn’t push her back even if I wanted to. For some reason, however, she was able to wrap her arms around my neck and come in for a hug.

“You have a lot of love to give and no one to give it to,” Fantasia whispered in my ear. “Take this opportunity to kill everyone with it.”

“...Is this your way of saying that you want revenge on those who’ve wronged you?” I asked her.

“In a way,” she replied. “But think of this less as revenge for myself, and retribution for all that you’ve been through.”

Her spirit pulled away from me but left a hand on my shoulder, “And if all else fails, I hope this time around, you learn to respect yourself a little bit more.”

My spirit shivered. This was probably the most genuine thing anyone has ever said to me. It brought a tear to my being’s eye.

“So, in order to have my peace, I have no choice but to fight for it,” I said. “It sounds so unfair…”

“It is, but you look like you’re ready to start right away,” Fantasia smiled. “Don’t expect me to be here for you every time you get into this state. I’m only here for a limited time before the Goddess truly calls for me.”

With that, she floated further away from me, drifting off farther and farther into the darkness. I stretched my arm out to her in hopes of grasping her back, but it was too late. I still had so many questions to ask her.

It all went dark again. My eyes slowly fluttered open. I’m back in Fantasia’s body.

I guess it’s safe to say that my name is no longer Diana but Fantasia now. Having that one-on-one with her calmed my anxiety down a little bit. Slowly getting up from the cold floor, I looked towards the door.

“Is anyone out there?” I called out.

“My lady?” a voice called out, sounding like the same maid who I threw out, “Are you okay?! May I come in now?!”

She sounded like she was in hysterics, but at the same time, she was relieved to hear my voice. I guess she was truly worried for me.

I made my way closer to the door, avoiding the pieces of glass and debris on the floor, “Yes, come in…”

The door flung open almost immediately. A cute maid with short brown hair, brown eyes, and a slender build jumped onto me for a hug.

“My lady!” she cried. “I was so worried about you!”

Hesitation took over me, but I fought it, hugging the maid back and laying a hand on her head. I pulled her closer into the tightest hug imaginable. She felt a little taken aback by the reciprocation.

“Thank you for waiting for me. I appreciate you,” I told her.

The poor maid sniffled and wailed throughout the corridors as I continued to hug her. I’m not really used to people crying, especially in my arms. I brought the cute maid into the room and shut the door. Her cries stifled a little bit, which is good. That means I could try to get some information out of her.

Scratching the back of my head, I let out a sigh, “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you. Could you, by chance, tell me your name?”

You would think that a human being wouldn’t have that many tears stored in their body, but alas, the maid’s tears would put Niagara Falls to shame. She’s a crybaby, this one.

“You forgot who I am?!” the maid cried. “It’s me, my lady! I’m Donna!”

This little girl looked no older than thirteen. Yet, she was a maid. When I looked in the mirror, it seemed as if Fantasia’s age was nineteen. Everything in the room was luxurious but Victorian. It’s not out of style, modern day-wise, but this is the type of style that well-off people use in their mansions.

Unfortunately, I have to ask a crybaby questions about how to control her tears. This is going to take a while.

—

Through her sniffling, Donna would tell me the date. It was the year 345, with the reign of the Alabastrum Kingdom, its people enjoying prosperity and peace. I came from the Proscotti Kingdom as the youngest daughter of Marquis Everdeen. Both Kingdoms were in talks of peace and thought that the best way of ensuring it was having one of the nobleman’s daughters marry into the Alabastrum Royal Family.

The Marquis first volunteered Fantasia’s eldest sister, Eliza. When Eliza heard of the whole ordeal, she threw a big fit, saying that she had a whole life ahead of her and that marriage was out of the question.

The truth was that Eliza was seeing Count Iris’s son, Joshua. Instead of fulfilling her duty to the Kingdom, she suggested that Fantasia would marry instead. Their mother took Eliza’s side and pushed Fantasia into the marriage. The Marquis didn’t really care who got married into the royal family as long as they were given the honor of helping to ensure peace between the two kingdoms.

Fantasia was only sixteen when she married the king, Victor Aurum Alabastrum. The difference in age was stifling, to say the least, by twenty years. On their wedding night, the king didn’t bother touching her and just went straight to sleep on the couch in her bedroom. This way, it would seem as though their marital duties were performed.

It didn’t last long until the nobles of Alabastrum were worried over a possible power struggle between the two kingdoms, so the Counts, Marquis’, and Dukes would send over their daughters to the palace to become the King’s concubines. As such, the king would actually perform his duties on their wedding nights.

A year passed by, and all of the concubines were pregnant with children. This led to rumors that Fantasia was barren. Rumors circulated that the king would come to Fantasia’s bedroom every night for a year, but she wasn’t able to produce an heir.

Other rumors were about how the Procotti Kingdom sent Fantasia out of disrespect to the royal family, knowing fully well that the young girl was barren.

A council meeting occurred afterward, claiming that Fantasia was too young to perform her duties as a queen and for her to step down from her position. She got frustrated that she had to be ridiculed like that and tried to convince the king to sleep with her.

She didn’t get her way. In fact, the king said she wasn’t even pleasant to look at and forced her to step down as Queen, replacing her with the Duke’s daughter. Fantasia was demoted to concubine and shoved to the farthest reaches of the concubine palace.

Out of sight and out of mind, Fantasia was angered by the blatant disrespect and went after Marquis Hannington, the husband of Marchioness Hannington. She would force him to publicly come to the concubine’s palace and spend the night with him.

This only led to more unwanted rumors about Fantasia. The nobles thought that since she lost favor with the king, she was now going after married men. Such nonsense spread to the Proscotti Kingdom that her own family took a long journey over just to scold her for her promiscuousness. Not once did they attempt to hear her out.

Her father had no choice but to discipline his child, “If your legs opened just as quickly for the King as it did for the Marquis, you wouldn't even be in this mess right now.”

To which Fantasia replied, “If Eliza had stopped fooling around with Count Iris’ son, your honor wouldn’t have been tarnished.”

Both cheeks were swollen and red after that statement. She cupped both her cheeks as she sat on the floor.

“At least your sister isn’t going around with married men,” he retorted. “Don’t even think about coming back to the Proscotti Kingdom. You live here now. Deal with the consequences.”

And thus, Fantasia was left to fend for herself in this palace with only Donna to keep her company. No more letters were sent to her from her family, and vice versa. The last letter she received was from the King of Proscotti, which held significant meaning to her.

That letter was kept on her nightstand for safekeeping.