Stolen Life, Broken Vows

Realizations

Isella’s mind went into overdrive. If this was what’s currently going on, it must be the reason why she had been “sick” in her room these past few days. Clearly she didn’t want this marriage to happen, and her father might even be supportive of her desire to turn it down. Why was her stepmother pushing so hard for it?

What a stupid question… she thought as everyone looked at her, waiting for a response. Their apprehensive expressions told her they fully expected an explosive one. Of course it’s because she wants me out of her house yesterday.

This really shouldn't be so surprising. Stereotypes aside, what she’d observed so far told her that she and her stepmother didn’t have a good relationship. Since she was likely disrespectful even to her own father, she must have behaved even worse to his wife.

As an outsider, she understood why the woman was acting this way. But as the current Isella…

While wondering if she should act more like the old Isella after all—if only to get out of this like they both wanted—she felt her father pat her clenched hand reassuringly.

“We can talk about this privately later,” he said, breaking the tension in the room. “For now, I want you to focus on recovering your strength.” He rose to his feet and addressed his wife next from that higher vantage point. “If I may have a word with you, Countess.”

Without waiting for a response, the man—who must be a Count—walked out of the dining room. His wife followed him only after throwing Isella one last look of frustration.

Looking at her stepmother’s defiant posture as she vanished past the doorway, she couldn’t help but think, That woman is gonna marry me off if it’s the last thing she does, isn’t she?

…

Luckily, they were all done eating by then or no one could have swallowed another bite. After gingerly taking their leave of their older sister, the younger children also left.

Of course, that didn’t mean Isella was now all alone in the dining room. The servants were still present, including the maid who had brought her there. Wanting to take further advantage of her “weakness,” she asked the maid to support her again, this time as she explored the house and grounds. She pretended it was to walk off everything she just ate, but it was really so she would be able to navigate the place on her own later.

As she familiarized herself with the mansion’s layout, she thought about how rotten her luck was. She hadn’t even gotten her footing in this household yet, but now she was supposed to marry into another one already?

She briefly considered if that might actually be better. Since the people in that other household didn’t know the old Isella like the people here did, they wouldn’t find it as strange that she kept acting too differently. She didn’t know about her father, but her stepmother might jump at the chance to have her institutionalized if she found out there was really something wrong with her.

Of course, the downside of going through with the marriage was that she’d have to be the wife of a complete stranger. Large age gaps between couples tended to be common among the nobility. Even the Count and Countess were no different, though theirs wasn’t that bad. What if her groom was a geriatric old lord who wanted a fresh young thing to be his fourth wife?

If worse comes to worst, she thought with a shudder, I’ll just run away.

Once she was led to the back garden, Isella wanted to make sure that she would be able to flee later if she needed to. She dismissed the maid, who was only too happy to leave her company, and walked around the estate in a seemingly aimless way. In reality, she was looking for possible ways to sneak out, but she eventually reached the front gates without seeing any holes in security. Even in the daytime, there were guards on patrol everywhere.

Manning the ornate gates were two more guards in the same dark blue uniforms. Past them, there was only a long stretch of tree-lined road ahead.

Having noticed her approach beforehand, the sword-wielding guards saluted her, then one of them asked, “Will you be going out today, my lady?” Suddenly frowning in concern, he looked around Isella, as if trying to see something hiding behind her back. “But where is your carriage? Shall I have your usual one prepared for you?”

The way the guard spoke alleviated some of Isella’s worries while also raising others. It seemed her going out was a common occurrence. It shouldn’t raise any suspicions if she tried to go farther than these gates later—sneaking out wasn’t necessary.

On the other hand… carriage?

She thought she already understood her current situation, but for some reason, hearing that was what really “drove it home” to her.

After distractedly telling the guard she was just out for a walk today, she started making her way back to the mansion.

The good news is, she thought, I have freedom of movement. The bad news? This is really that kind of world. Carriages instead of cars, swords instead of guns. There’s no internet, no electronics of any kind… I’ve never been attached to my phone, but even for me, this is too much…

Of course, while having to deal with future boredom would indeed be tragic, that wasn’t her biggest problem.

So… if there’s no advanced technology here, then how am I supposed to send my consciousness back to my world?

…

On her way back to her room, she tried not to panic as she thought about other possible solutions. All this time, she’d been assuming it was something that happened back in her world that had mistakenly sent her consciousness here. But what if it was the other way around? How and why did Isella’s body end up vacant in the first place? What if something had happened in this world that caused a foreign entity like her to get sucked in?

I need to open that drawer, she thought as she hurried to her door. Please let there be a diary in there. Please… I need to know more about what’s going on…

Unfortunately, while she wouldn’t get into that drawer just yet, she was about to find out way more than she’d bargained for.

The moment she stepped into her room, she found her stepmother sitting on one of the sofas, waiting for her. While Isella remained frozen by the open doorway, the Countess gave her body another once-over.

“I’m glad to see you’ve recovered your strength so quickly,” she commented in a chilly tone. She must have just come from her “talk” with the Count and was likely still angry. Isella knew she had to tread carefully.

“Like I said earlier,” she replied, neither polite nor rude, “I was only feeling weak from hunger. I have recovered from my illness and feel stronger now that I’ve eaten.”

“Good,” the Countess said sharply. “Because you’ve wasted enough time. Close that door and sit down, Isella.”

The old Isella, she suspected, would have responded by throwing the woman out of her room. Now that she’d thought about it, she wouldn’t be able to put on that kind of act for long, so she decided not to even start. Instead, adopting a mature but still-bratty-deep-down demeanor, Isella did as she was told.

This talk could only be about the marriage. But since she didn’t know a thing about the specifics, she decided to maintain a stony silence while letting the Countess say whatever she came here to say.

Looking at her with eyes that said she wasn’t buying Isella’s act for one second, the older woman obliged.

“When you came out of your room today behaving as you did, I thought you’d finally come to a decision. But that is not the case at all, is it? You still want to have it both ways. Well, you can’t, Isella. You need to make a choice, and you need to do it now.”

This wasn’t the direction Isella expected the conversation to go. Even though she had no clue what the Countess was talking about, she was alarmed by how serious and urgent she sounded.

Hoping to tease out more information, she hedged, “Are those really my only options?”

The Countess looked at her in disbelief. “Would you rather be sent away? Is that what you want?” As she said that, she seemed to have realized something, and it made her truly angry. “And then what? Do you plan to reunite with your lover afterwards? Do you think that by getting banished to the middle of nowhere, you can have your little family in secret and live the rest of your life as you wish?”

Upon hearing that, it was all Isella could do not to appear like she was reeling.

‘Lover’…? she thought, swallowing. ‘Family’…?

She fought the urge to shake her head.

No… she thought in denial. There’s no way…

The Countess isn’t saying what I think she’s saying… is she?