One day, I woke up to discover that I, a former maid, had become a lady.
This wasn’t some kind of possession like the ones you read about in novels.
Nor was it a case of my social status rising after the secret of my birth was revealed and I discovered that I was actually a noblewoman rather than the commoner I’d always thought myself to be.
This was an accident—or rather, an accident that wasn’t really an accident at all—caused by the scheming of the young lady I had served.
As a maid, I’d always thought that becoming a lady meant I’d get to live comfortably in a nice house, with all my needs taken care of.
But once I actually became a lady, I discovered that reality was very different from what I’d imagined.
Before I could even get used to high society, a flood of disillusioning incidents came crashing down on me.
As a result, I occasionally caused trouble despite myself, but I’d never committed a crime out of malice.
“It’s not fair! I didn’t commit murder, nor did I plot treason!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs, desperately asserting my innocence.
But no one sided with me.
How could the world be so unjust?!
This was simply wrong!
It was all that young lady’s fault.
That’s right. The only reason I’d been dragged into court under such a terrible false accusation was because of her.
If she hadn’t switched bodies with me, I would never have gotten caught up in something like this!
‘If only I hadn’t become the young lady…!’
Belated regret flooded over me, but there was nothing I could do now.
As the list of crimes and misdeeds I hadn’t committed was read aloud, cold stares pierced me like daggers.
A moment later, the judge spoke in a stern voice.
“The defendant is hereby sentenced to death.”
***
I’d been working as a maid for the Nezer family for five years now.
“Ulpina!”
“I said no!”
Once again, our young lady was being chased around the house.
She was well past puberty, yet she still spent every day arguing with the viscount and his wife, leaving everyone exhausted.
Lady Ulpina was the sole heir to the Viscount Nezer family.
However, she had no desire to inherit the title or expand her connections in high society, and she was constantly running away from social gatherings. As a result, she didn’t have a single friend, nor even anyone with whom she exchanged the obligatory New Year’s cards.
The young lady shouted at the viscount and his wife as they nagged her.
“I don’t want to spend my entire life cooped up here like you two! I want to live freely!”
H-How could such an immature brat say something so hurtful to her own parents?
They’d done their absolute best to feed her, clothe her, and raise her, and that was what she had to say in return. She’d been born into a family that had money, status, and prestige. What on earth could she possibly be unhappy about?
“Live freely? Don’t you already spend your entire life doing whatever you please?!”
The viscount was absolutely right.
“Don’t tell me I’ve been free! You stop me every time I try to do anything!”
“Of course we do! What parent would stand by and watch their child go down the wrong path?!”
Those were truly words of wisdom.
‘If Master hadn’t stopped her, the young lady would have ended up on the streets long ago.’
Indeed, because she acted on every whim, the young lady had nearly fallen victim to scams on several occasions.
Having no answer to the viscount, who had countered every complaint with nothing but facts, the young lady’s face flushed red with anger.
“Just leave me alone!”
With nothing left to say, she stormed out of the study and slammed the door behind her.
‘And now she’ll come whining to me about her troubles later.’
She’d complain about how nothing was harder than making her debut in high society.
And, sure enough, it didn’t take long.
When I quietly slipped into her room, I found her sitting carelessly, having thrown all thoughts of dignity and grace out the window.
And just how much alcohol had she managed to drink in such a short time? She no longer resembled a young lady at all. Instead, she was slurring her words like a hopeless drunk.
“My lady, where on earth did you get all that alcohol? And who’s supposed to clean up this mess?!”
Who else? I’d have to clean it up!
Clicking my tongue, I dragged the young lady over to the nearby sofa and sat her down.
I felt an overwhelming urge to throw her out the window when she repeatedly slipped off the sofa, unable to keep herself upright. However, unlike the young lady, I was a sensible person, so I refrained.
“Aida… You have no idea how miserable I am, do you…?”
“Are you planning to be even more miserable than I am, the one who has to clean up this disaster right now?”
I snapped back irritably, but she was already too drunk and too immersed in self-pity to care. Shaking her head, she mumbled,
“I’m miserable… You have no idea how hard it is to live as a lady…”
“Excuse me?”
Was that really something she should say to someone who spent all day doing menial labor without even getting a proper chance to straighten her back?!
But she wasn’t finished.
“I want to live freely. I don’t want to spend my entire life worrying about what society thinks of me.”
It seemed the young lady had her own troubles, after all. It wasn’t as though nobles had nothing to worry about. Just because their bodies were comfortable didn’t mean their hearts were at ease, too.
‘Maybe I should feel a little sorry for her.’
Seeing her so vulnerable softened my heart a little.
“If you didn’t have to be a viscount’s daughter, what would you want to be?”
“I want to be a pirate. A pirate who sails freely across the blue sea…”
She must have gone mad from having too much of a good thing.
My briefly softened heart hardened once more, becoming stronger than steel.
“There’s no way you can claim you aren’t free, my lady. I doubt there’s anyone in the world who gets to do whatever they want as much as you do.”
“But…”
“If I were you, I’d be so happy I’d die.”
It was obvious that being a noble young lady was far better than being a maid who received a pittance for doing menial work.
“Really? Then do you want to switch places with me?”
Having said that, the young lady sprang to her feet as if she’d never touched a drop of alcohol, looking strangely excited as she opened a drawer.
What she took out was a set of tea leaves and tea-making utensils.
She brewed the tea with such steady, flawless movements that it was hard to believe she was drunk. Her skill was practically inhuman.
“Drink this.”
The young lady handed me a teacup. It was a pretty one decorated with flowers and trimmed with gold, a cup she usually treasured so much that she rarely even used it.
Her sudden kindness made me suspect she was up to something…
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
For the time being, I decided to drink the tea first and think about it afterward.
As a maid, getting to drink high-quality tea was as unlikely as plucking a star from the sky. Besides, even if I suspected something, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
‘Wow!’
The tea’s characteristic bitterness lightly brushed my tongue before transforming into a subtle sweetness that filled my mouth with warmth.
A comforting heat spread from my chest throughout my body, and I felt as though my fatigue was melting away. It tasted like nothing I’d ever had before.
I was just thinking that the tea leaves must have been incredibly expensive when the young lady, who had been drinking her tea across from me, quietly looked at me.
“How is it?”
“It’s deli—”
I was just about to say it was delicious when—
Eeeeeek!
A piercing ringing filled my ears, and my vision darkened.
My stomach churned. An intense dizziness washed over me, as if I’d drunk an enormous amount of alcohol.
The teacup slipped from my hand and fell to the floor, splashing tea across my instep and the carpet.
“Ugh…”
I tried to say something, anything, but my body wouldn’t obey me. Through my fading vision, I saw a blonde woman.
It was me.
‘What the hell is going on?’
I was right here, so how could I be looking at myself? It made no sense.
‘Is this what they call an out-of-body experience?’
But wasn’t that supposed to happen while you were asleep? And besides, the version of me standing across from myself was moving around of her own accord!
My body looked itself up and down as if fascinated by its new appearance, then spun around in place as though dancing.
“I did it!”
The person who shouted that was me. With a radiant smile, she hurried over and stood right in front of me.
Seeing my own face from a different perspective gave me the creeps.
“I’m sorry, Aida.”
Aida, that’s you. No, is that me? But you’re Aida, too.
I tried to think it through, but my head was spinning so badly that I couldn’t form a coherent thought.
Meanwhile, the person sitting in front of me continued spouting strange things without a care in the world.
“If I ran away in my own body, my parents would raise a huge fuss and search everywhere for me, and our family’s reputation in high society would be ruined. It would be absurd for a noblewoman to run away from home because she wanted to become a pirate.”
What’s absurd is this whole situation!
It seemed the young lady had taken over my body.
“Ugh…”
I desperately wanted to protest, but the body I was now inhabiting refused to move, and all that escaped my lips was a groan.
I—or rather, the young lady—gently brushed aside my fallen bangs with her fingers and smiled sweetly.
“I know that just as I envied you, you envied me, too. That’s why I came up with this plan.”
With that, she walked toward the door with light, carefree steps.
“So let’s call it even.”
Those were the last words I heard before my consciousness faded away.
Comments (0)