Corinne is Urduja

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Lucelence Empire is an empire boasted in an abundance and luxuriant environment which is ruled by the 35th Emperor, Alistair D'Arcy.

The Emperor has gone on an expedition for almost three days already. All the state affairs that require the presence of Emperor Alistair have to be postponed until His Imperial Majesty comes back to the palace.

A messenger hawk landed in the golden post. The royal guard approaches it and seeks the letter tied in the hawk's foot. The seal is marked with a blue wax seal which indicates a royalty or one of the members of the imperial family is in a medical emergency.

The guard quickly takes a stride and delivers the letter to the faithful, loyal Imperial Knight and the assistant of Emperor Alistair, Sir Maximus Fischer, or is known as Maximus the Emperor's Spear. As a blonde-haired with brown eyes, he is making himself stand out amongst the Imperial Knights. He is also popular amongst the ladies in the empire because of how good-looking he is.

Maximus reads the letter and gasps. He ushers himself to the tent where Emperor Alistair is busy with the map.

"Your Imperial Majesty! Terrible news!" He waves the letter as he is huffing, calming himself.

Emperor Alistair, a white-haired handsome man with a pair of blue eyes, turns at him. "What is it?" There is an unpleasant expression hinted at in it.

But Maximus ignores his sharp glare and continues to deliver the news. "We received a letter tampered with a blue wax seal. You won't believe what is inside here."

He averts his eyes and focuses on the map. "If that is all about the Archduke Alexander's health deteriorated, then-"

"It's about Empress Urduja, Your Imperial Majesty."

Alistair snaps his head as his heart pounds so fast. "What is it?" he asks in an almost hurried tone.

"The Empress fell from the pond. The lightning dragon struck her with its lightning."

He drops the quill pen. "Is she dead?" His eyes widened from the question that came out of his mouth.

"Her ladies-in-waiting said that her heart stopped for fifteen minutes then she returned to life. The Imperial Physician told them that she looked fine. As per the letter said, the Empress is still unconscious."

Alistair slowly nods then returns to his seat, calming his heart. He almost has a heart attack from the news.

"Shall we finish the expedition, Emperor Alistair?"

He glares at Maximus. "What?"

Maximus sighs. "So you can see the state of Her Imperial Majesty." He is hoping that the Emperor will decide to see her.

Alistair shakes his head. "No. You said that the Empress is fine now but just unconscious. There is no need for me to finish the expedition. And who is she for me to stop this expedition? She is nothing but a useless Empress of my empire."

As selfish as he is, he chooses not to see his Empress. He never wants to see her. But why does his heart react when he almost thinks she is dead?

"As you wish, Your Imperial Majesty." He bows his head. He is about to leave when Alistair calls him. "Yes, Your Imperial Majesty?"

"Investigate as to how the Empress fell from the pond the moment we return to the palace. If the result is all about her clumsiness, then don't report that to me at all."

His cold demeanor lingers around the tent. Even though he doesn't want the Empress anymore, it is still visible that he still cares for her a little.

"Understood, Your Imperial Majesty." Maximus bows his head.

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Corinne slowly flutters her eyes open. She feels her body is a little weaker than it was before. She is confused.

"Empress Urduja is awake!"

She hears a gasp from a close distance but she ignores it. She focuses her gaze on the fancy medieval ceiling design. She furrowed her eyebrows.

'Since when did I have curtains in my bedroom?' Now, she feels weird right now. She blinks so many times. Slowly, she gets up on her bed and turns to her left seeing four ladies with concerned expressions on their faces.

"Empress!"

'Empress? What? What are these people saying? Why are they wearing some... Victorian dresses? Are they some cosplayers? Or some sort of singer in an opera?' "W-Who are you?" She groans softly and massages her temple. Why does she have a headache right now?

Then all of a sudden, there is a memory gleamed on her mind about these familiar people which made her confused.

"Y-You don't know us?" The lady looks shocked. "Your Imperial Majesty, I'm Gertrude from Ray Household and one of your ladies-in-waiting." She looks at her fellowship. "Summon Imperial Physician Harold now, Polly. Hurry!"

"Y-Yes." A lady named Polly immediately emerges from the room.

Another lady holds her frail hand. "I'm Camila from Perez Household. I'm your one of Her Imperial Majesty's ladies-in-waiting. A-Are you sure you can't remember us?"

Corinne shakes her head. 'Why do they keep on calling me 'Your Imperial Majesty'?' She is astonished right now. She doesn't even know if she is in a reality show or maybe she is just dreaming.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I'm Ingrid Moss. Do you not also remember me?" Another lady again has a concerned expression.

"Um..." 'Are they going to cry in front of me? Do I know them?' "I'm sorry but I don't remember any of you..." She smiles wryly and gently removes her hand from them. They look so weird and that is creeping her out.

But a weird memory pops out of her mind. It looks like these ladies are familiar to her. But how is that possible?

The three ladies look at each other, concerned for their Empress. How on earth can she not remember them? When their Empress looks at the glass of water, Ingrid immediately moves and bestows it to her.

Corinne drinks it in one gulp as she is feeling parched right now. The moment that some of the strands of her hair fall from her shoulders, she silently gasps seeing the color of her hair is now auburn.

'Since when did I color my hair to auburn color? I'm a brunette! Not auburn-haired!' Panicking, she roams her eyes around and sees a vanity mirror.

Even though she is still feeling weak, she quickly gets off the bed and runs to the mirror. What she discovers right now shocked her.

She discovers that what she sees in the mirror is not her face at all. Before, she had deep-set brown eyes, straight brunette-colored hair, an upturned nose, and a rectangle-shaped face. Right now, she has protruding purple eyes, wavy auburn red hair, a straight nose, and an oval-shaped face which is not her after all!

"Shit... Oh my god..." She steps backward, and can't believe what is happening. Is she dreaming right now? Is this some kind of sick joke?

She glides her cheek to see if she is wearing some sort of makeup and even tries to pull her hair. She irks because it hurts her. She pinches her cheeks to test if it hurts her again. And it did! "That hurts!"

"Your Imperial Majesty!" The three ladies try to approach her but she stops them.

"S-Stay there..." They follow what she said but still, they have worried expressions.

She tries to remember what happened to her before this. All she remembers is she was on her way home when she was...

She gasps and places her hand on her left chest, wide-eyed. She can still feel it. She knows she has been stabbed by that old man who was her customer back at the convenience store.

'But how? I know I felt like I was dying on that spot. Just what on earth... she pauses and scans her body. Why is this body so weak?' She wonders and makes a slight turn. She takes a few breaths, calming herself. She must calm down and analyze the situation first.

After analyzing, she now realizes that she is in a different body. She looks like she is dreaming but she can feel that this is her reality now. But how on earth does she end up like this?

A memory of facing some unidentified women like they were in some sort of confrontation flashes on her mind. She blinks. The one with her memory is a woman with something like a weapon—a sword fan. Then the next thing she sees on her mind was being thrown in a pond with lightning struck on this body.

'Am I supposed to be dead if I was struck by lightning? Is the soul of the body still in somewhere and I was switched with her? Is this soul swapping that I read before? Is this some kind of sorcery? Am I thrown back in some 18th-century timeline? What the heck? I'm in trouble if it is!'

"Your Imperial Majesty..."

Corinne looks at the woman named Gertrude. She already knows what happened here—what happened to the previous owner of this body. She tries to understand the situation and concludes. If she is the one who can control this body, then the owner has died. That certain woman with wicked behavior plans for the previous owner recalled on her mind before the lightning struck this body. Based on the body status she is at right now, that can be a fatal death. Moreover, the strike of lightning pushed her to the edge of dying.

'What kind of sorcery is this? How is it possible that I am switched to this body?' She is trying so hard to understand her situation. She inhales and exhales, calming herself. 'Apply the ability to adapt. Be flexible, Corinne.' She remembers the lesson she had learned when she wasn't a dropout Criminology student.

"You kept on addressing me 'Your Imperial Majesty'. What am I? Some sort of a queen or something?" She asks as her eyes roam around.

The room she was in is made of gold. Even the pillars have incredible spiral designs that she only sees in the Greek ruins. She bet if she takes a piece of them, she can have a million dollars for it. She chuckles mentally.

Gertrude blinks, a little confused about the way Empress Urduja speaks. What she knows of her is that she is a soft-spoken person. The Empress Urduja she is facing right now seems a little unruly and bolder. It is as if it wasn't her after all.

"You are Empress Urduja, Your Imperial Majesty. You are the Empress of the Lucelence Empire."

"What?" Wide-eyed, her jaw drops. 'The heck? What? I'm an Empress?' She looks to the mirror and sees how her surprised expression reflects on it. 'This body is the body of an Empress? I am now royalty?! But I am just a dropout Criminology fourth-year student! And this is not my body!' "Okay, okay. Wait..." She is starting to panic and paces back and forth. 'This is getting crazy as it is... Oh my god...'

The three ladies look at each other as they see the panic state of their Empress.

She halts when she sees a painting of her and... There was a handsome, good-looking man beside her. The painting Corinne sees is the painting of Empress Urduja and Emperor Alistair.

Camila approaches her and says, "He is Alistair D'Arcy, the 35th Emperor of the Lucelence Empire, Your Imperial Majesty."

"He is my husband?" She asks for confirmation while Camila nods her head. She furrows her forehead, looking one more time at his figure.

Emperor Alistair is a white-haired young man with a pair of blue eyes, a smug expression plastered on his face. The dignified and tyrant look is making Corinne shiver down her spine. It is as if she can feel those intense glares piercing through her body.

But there was something that astonished her.

Why does she feel sadness and pain while laying her eyes on the painting?

A splitting image of this man comes across her mind. She closes her eyes as sees him lashing out at her. Then beside him are the three women she saw in her mind earlier, crying. She flinched the moment she saw that he was about to slap her. She slowly peels her eyes and clenches her hand.

"Maltreated..." she mumbles in bitterness.

Now, she understands why this body can have a negative emotion on this man. The previous owner must have had a hardship on him but still loves him with all of her heart. Corinne knows this familiar feeling of being abused because she once felt this toward her mother.

"Your Imperial Majesty, are you alright?" Gertrude asks in a concerned tone.

Corinne looks at her. Then she looks at the other two ladies. She feels at ease with them. It can mean that these people treat the previous owner with care and love. She nods and understands better.

"How is my relationship to this man?" She can't help but ask. She wants to confirm from them so she can immediately adapt herself to this environment. She can't do anything right now. She can't even panic because it is useless. She knows if she tells them that she is not what they think she is, they will find her hilarious. She will deal with the matter later once she understands her life here.

Neither of them speaks. But they look at each other, trying to persuade which one of them can tell the truth.

She sighs. "Am I being mistreated here?" she asks which stiffened the three ladies-in-waiting. "Gertrude," she calls her name with a demanding tone.

Gertrude lowers her head while she is answering her. "Your Imperial Majesty, you have lost the Emperor's favor ever since you married him two years ago." That is hard to tell her. Gertrude doesn't want to say those things to Her Imperial Majesty but she has no choice.

Corinne crossed her arms over her chest, staring at the painting of her. 'An Empress of an empire lost her husband's favor?' "For what reason?" This is getting interesting.

Before they can answer her, the door swings open. Polly appears together with Imperial Physician Harold. Breathless, Polly and Imperial Physician Harold bows before her.

"Greetings, Empress Urduja," Harold says with a bow.

"Who is he?" she asks in a low tone to Gertrude.

Gertrude whispers to her. "He is Harold Martin, Your Imperial Majesty. He is the Imperial Physician here in the imperial residence."

"May you please take a seat, Your Imperial Majesty?" Urduja looks at Gertrude. When she nods at her and guides her to sit in the chaise lounge. Doctor Harold kneels before her.

"How is Empress Urduja, Doctor Harold?" Ingrid asks as the Imperial Physician is checking the pulse of Urduja.

Urduja cautiously gazes at him. She has been checking his pulse for more than five minutes already. 'Is he really a doctor?' She almost scoffs. But she scrutinizes his face. 'I think he is a man of 30s or 40s? But he is a good-looking doctor.' She chuckles mentally. Urduja already sees some good-looking doctors when she visits the hospital for the project at their school when she is studying.

She is thinking if her soul isn't here, where the real Urduja's soul may be. Is it on her former body?

Doctor Harold sighs and looks up at her. "I am quite astonished about your health, Your Imperial Majesty."

"What is it?" She can't help but ask, a little nervous.

"It seems that you are completely healed. I'm impressed that you have nursed your health back in less than two days." He stands up from kneeling. "Please open your mouth, Your Imperial Majesty." She does as he tells her. "Huh? Your tongue-tied condition is no longer visible..."

"What?" the four ladies say in shock.

"H-How is that possible, Doctor Harold?" Polly asks.

Urduja looks at them as she exchanges her glances to the four ladies and the Imperial Physician. She is baffled at what they are discussing because she has no idea as to what is happening. But as to what she can understand, this previous body has a tongue-tied condition.

'Tongue-tied condition? Does this empress have that? Really? What the heck... But since when?'

"I am not sure yet." He offers his hand. "There is something I need to confirm, Your Imperial Majesty. Would you mind if I hold your hand?"

Hesitant, Urduja lays her hand on his opened palm. The moment she touches his hand, there is a static current emerges from Urduja's hand traversed to Imperial Physician Harold. Harold gasps and immediately jerks his hand away from her. Corinne gasps in surprise and looks at her hand.

Her ladies-in-waiting gasp in surprise. Then they look at each other. "Isn't that..."

Harold nods his head while he is wagging his hand from the jolt of electric current that flowed to his hand. Unlike her, she can't even have pain from that static current her hand released. It is a bit painful for him so he hisses a little before he speaks, smiling at her.

"Empress Urduja has mana."

She tilts her head in confusion.

'Mana? What's that?'