2 New Identity

Estelle's vision cleared, her mind and body felt lighter than ever. The room had a window, which filled her eyes with the dim light of the night.

'What's in my hand?'. Estelle thought after pausing for long. She lifted the object in her hand. A birdcage-like object was wrapped inside a thick cloth.

Estelle lifted the cover and a blinding light entered her eyes. It was as if a mini sun blasted in the small room.

Hurriedly, she wrapped up the lamp.

But again, she lifted the cover. This time only so a ray of light would brighten up the space in front of her to see.

The room felt very unfamiliar. A bed with a pile of quilts was in front of her. Near the window was an empty bedside table. She turned back and saw a door. No, it was pieces of wood held together with iron bands.

"A medieval style door…" she quickly realized and pushed it open. It led to a hallway that stretched in both directions.

One by one, Estelle shined the torch like light both ways. At one end, she saw a bigger door and moved towards it. After she removed an iron lock, the door swung outwards with a creak.

Cold breeze mixed with the smell of dirt and flowers greeted her face. Estelle had never been to a place so pure. Her memory of city air, compared to the present, could only be described as choking.

'Am I dreaming? What is this place…'

Estelle walked out with the lamp. Sounds of flowing water entered her ears. She followed the sound to a wooden bridge made of red. A thought crossed her mind, and she quickly crossed it.

On the other side stood a tree, just as she expected! She ran towards the enormous tree and touched it. Coldness entered her hands.

'No, no, no, no…'

'Do I need prescriptions to sleep okay now?'

'This must be a lucid dream.'

Estelle crossed the bridge back and looked at the space around. The building she started from was a dormitory. At its side were a few glowing flowers.

"Garden of Chambers," she turned around. "The Redberry Bridge. This is the place where King Nicolas lace von Deque found the body of his fiancée, Isabelle!"

Estelle jumped and ran towards the bridge again. 'If I am really here, then...'. She followed the path around the tree, which led upwards a small hill.

The scene beyond made her take the longest breath of her life.

In the distance, light swayed like butterflies. A giant castle was faintly illuminated, along with the surrounding settlements.

"Lanceworth Castle, no way!!"

Excitement churned from her chest and expanded all over. Her body shuddered. Everything here was much clearer than she could ever imagine.

Estelle focused on herself rather than on the surroundings. She removed the cloth covering the lamp to observe more clearly. A long black frock, a white apron with short frilled sleeves.

Surely, this was not the style which maids wore in medieval times, but that's how the writer wrote that story.

"This must be the Maid Training Camp," Estelle looked back.

'This dream is so real.' A sharp pain emerged in her head that made her fall down on her knees. 'Uncountable worlds, unending lives. For your wish to be true, where do I send you?' The voice reverberated louder and louder, followed by complete silence.

'Am I dead?' Estelle recalled the scene where she kept walking lifelessly. At the end, a voice asked her what would be an ideal world to live in.

'I feel like I am missing something.' She pondered for long but couldn't remember anything except a few lines.

"Uncountable worlds, unending lives. For your wish to be true, where do I send you?"

'God exists?' She sighed deeply while not letting go of the possibility that this might be a dream. But nevertheless, it was going to be fun.

Inside the world of her favorite light novel as a random character!

'Who am I?' Estelle tried to guess by her body proportions, but it remained unclear. She walked back towards the room she came from.

'The writer did not describe the trainee maid chambers, but they exist!'

'What's the date today… the writer didn't mention any dates…'

'I need to know who I am and how much the story has progressed.'

Estelle entered the building and walked through the hallway. The bright lamp helped her see the environment clearly.

'These are the private rooms for the maids,' she thought. Her eyes observed the details of the world.

"Who is there!" a raspy voice of a grumpy woman sounded through the hallway.

'Holy, it's the witch of chambers!' Estelle covered the lamp and took big strides forward. Her one hand held the lamp while the other extended forward. She moved along the wall and soon her hand touched the open door.

Estelle quickly entered and pulled the door.

Clang!

Just as the door locked, another opened. The witch of chambers brought out her own lamp into the hallway.

Inside a room, Estelle inserted her hand through the cloth and turned off the lamp. Now the only source of light was the window.

Estelle felt the bed with her hands and went around it. She kept the lamp on the small table at the side and hid the cloth under her pillow.

'But why did I wake up with a lamp in my hand? And a cloth covering the lamp…'

'It seems the character I turned into was sneaking back into the room.' Estelle concluded after some time. 'But there was no character like that in the book.'

Estelle pulled the blanket and shut her eyes. The sound of footsteps stopped in front of the door before moving towards the next.

'I am safe for now, but in the morning I need to find a mirror.' Thinking about her situation, she quietly turned towards the side.

Eventually, the sound of footsteps was heard again, and then completely vanished. Estelle breathed a sigh of relief. She opened her eyes again and looked at the dark ceiling. A long time passed and she instinctively pulled the blanket but it felt like someone pulled it back.

Quickly, Estelle shut her eyes. Her heartbeat increased, but she did not utter a sound. When nothing more happened, she pretended to turn while sleeping.

Slowly, she extended her one hand forward on the bed. Bit by bit, her hand moved until it touched something warm. She properly felt the warm object.

'It's a person… I am sleeping with someone!'

The realization hit her hard like a truck. Hopefully, she could have transmigrated into the body of King Nicolas, or luckily, in one of his concubines, or perhaps the princess. Honestly, she felt at peace after finding herself inside her favorite novel.

BUT!

'But my lord! I am the maids who is openly in love with a fellow maid, Isabelle!

'And on top of it, later into the story. I disappear!

'After a few chapters, the king sees Isabelle and falls in love at first sight. Soon after, Isabelle is murdered at the Redberry Bridge!

'The novel is ongoing and I have not caught up yet. I don't know the reasons behind Isabelle's death, nor my disappearance...'

Many thoughts stormed Estelle's head. They visualized as sweat beads on her forehead. It was the first night, no! Only a few hours, but she was already plagued by her own demise.

'I couldn't save myself from the sad ending in my previous life. But this time I have to change my story. This is my only chance at living a free life!'