Chapter 1 – Lady Patrizia
“Ah!”
Patrizia woke up with a yell.
Before her was a dark mahogany desk and the white pages of a book before her. And sitting in the chair…was herself. She stared dazedly in front of her, then suddenly blinked into awareness.
“I…for sure was…”
Dead. She was definitely dead.
“I was dead.”
She could still vividly recall the cold touch of steel on her slender neck. It was a horrifying, dark memory, and she subconsciously shuddered. What she found more surprising was that she felt fear. That was an emotion that was exclusive to the living.
“..But how?” she said disbelievingly.
The sound of her voice pierced her ears like a stake. That was another thing—dead people could not hear. So how was she alive now? She slowly flipped a page on the book. The page number printed on the paper increased by one.
However, she couldn’t rely on a single test, so she tried the next most obvious one. She lifted her hand and slapped herself on the face.
Jjag! A sharp pain stung her cheek.
“Hurts…” Patrizia mumbled, cupping the smarting flesh.
She was alive, she was sure of it. But…how? She looked down to inspect her body, when someone burst through the door.
“Patrizia!”
That voice calling her…
“Nil…”
“Rizi, you were reading again!”
Petronilla approached her younger twin sister, and Patrizia’s eyes widened and she shuddered like she had seen a ghost.
“Nil, are you really…Nilla, are you alright?” she said in stunned shock.
“Rizi?” Petronillia tilted her head, wondering why her sister was behaving strangely. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Patrizia did not wait to give her an answer, and instead rushed forward to embrace her sister. Dear heavens. Her sister was really in front of her. Nilla, her precious family, was still alive.
“God, my God….” she murmured.
“Rizi? What on earth is wrong with you?” Petronilla was embarrassed by Patrizia’s strange behavior, and Patrizia finally pulled away from her sister with a tearful expression.
Patrizia was certain—she was alive, and her sister Nilla was alive. But if that was the case, what was she doing here…? The answer to her question came to her like a shock.
“You’re hopeless, Rizi. You’ll never be a queen!” Petronillia pouted.
Patrizia felt as if someone had struck her on the back of her head. “Qu-Queen?” she stammered.
“Yes, Queen. We have to inform them by tomorrow.”
“Impossible….”
“It’s not impossible. You spoke about with me until yesterday,” Petronilla pointed out, smiling brightly. “So Rizi, I’ve been thinking….”
“….”
“Let’s decide which of us it will be by drawing a lot. What do you think?”
Despite Petronilla’s question, Patrizia remained silent. There was a pregnant pause, and when Petronillia opened her mouth again, Patrizia finally spoke.
“Sister.”
“Yes, Rizi. What is it?”
“Now…you and I…” Patrizia’s lips were trembling, but she managed to finish her question. “Are we nineteen?”
“Yes. How could a smart girl like you forget our age?” Petronilla said in a gently scolding voice. “We even had our birthday recently. What’s wrong with you today? Is it because you read too many books?” She gave a joking smile, but Patrizia didn’t care about the teasing. It was when they were nineteen years old that her sister was selected to be a queen candidate. Then that meant…
“I came back to when I was nineteen….” Patrizia murmured.
“What?” Petronilla asked, but Patrizia continued to speak to herself.
“Repeat…did time turn back? But how did it happen…”
“Rizi, wake up!” Petronilla snapped. “You’re acting strange today. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”
“Ah…”
Only then did Patrizia accept reality. She had returned to the time when she was nineteen—to the time of the queen selection days.