Third Was Not The Charm

Returning to the table with a couple of bottles of beer and snacks to go along with it, Reina began to drown her sorrows in alcohol.

"She wrote a fricking vanilla Vampire love story!" She cried out while taking another big swig straight from the bottle.

Her eyes fell on the tossed phone which still displayed the novel's beautiful cover.

Three breathtakingly handsome men surrounding a young and petite woman whose hair resembled cotton candy.

'Stupid reverse harem!' She sneered as she continued to drown herself in her sorrows.

Instead of writing boy on boy perfection, her sister had chosen to write about a girl being pursued by three men at the same time.

'Would have been much better if the men fell for each other.' She snickered while gazing at the exquisite faces of the three men.

Her eyes blurred for a second, an aftermath of the quick chugging that she had done earlier.

"Meteor Sama?" She muttered when one particular man on that cover displayed similar attributes to the man of her dreams.

However, blaming it on the alcohol, Reina shook her head and tossed that thought aside.

Taking advantage of her drunken state, she decided to use this chance to right the wrong that had been done to her.

Thus she picked up her phone and called her sister, to demand a reason for this betrayal of trust.

Yet no matter how many times she dialed the number, the result was the same.

A busy tune was heard before the call was disconnected each time.

This made her toss her phone aside once again but this time with more intensity.

Sadly, her phone had enough good luck to land on the couch and not on the floor where it would have shattered to pieces.

Turning her gaze away, Reina focused her attention on the agenda for the night.

"Drink tonight! Fight tomorrow!" She yelled, already feeling the effects of the alcohol entering her system.

The more she drank, the more she felt that she had been wronged by her elder sister.

"If she had no plans of using my knowledge then why did she give me false hope!?" She grumbled in a drunken daze as her eyes welled up.

Through blurry eyes, Reina picked up the plate of chicken wings that her maid had prepared for her before leaving for the night.

Devouring the meat clean from the bones, she did not forget about taking another swig of the chilled beer.

'She could have at least called…' Reina hiccuped while thinking of her sister who had disappeared for months.

It would not have hurt her as much if Tanya had just told her upfront that the book would not be making use of anything that she had been taught.

However, her elder sister must have believed that everything would be fine by just keeping the little one in the dark.

This resulted in Reina being taken by surprise on the release date and the thought of this did not sit well with her whose cheeks were now flushed due to the alcohol.

Sniffles and curses were a constant in the main hall of the penthouse where the lone woman resided.

If she could have succeeded in contacting her sister tonight, then Tanya would have heard an earful from the inebriated Reina who was grumbling with her mouthful.

"One call!" The now completely drunk woman scoffed as her butt slumped to the floor.

Sitting on the cold floor had never been a problem with Rein especially now that she was drunk.

Laying her head on the coffee table before her, she sobbed in silence as her sister had used her and not even found it necessary to give her an explanation for the changes that had taken place in the initial plans.

"She owes me an explanation!" She repeated and sat upright, glancing around to look for her phone.

However, Rein was looking in the wrong place as the phone was up on the couch and she was down on the floor.

Though she did not find her phone with which she could contact her sister, she found something else that warmed her heart.

"Rozella, you angel!" She giggled, displaying all the telltale signs of a drunk person as she grabbed the plate of chicken nuggets, her victim to be devoured next.

Her lips dipped to form a frown when she noticed that she had downed the two bottles of beer already.

The empty bottles soured her mood, making her pout at another injustice she was facing today.

The solution to this problem was simple but impossible at the same time.

To fetch a new bottle would require her to get off the floor and that was something her limbs declared impossible at this moment.

Therefore, Reina remained seated on the cold floor as she begrudgingly popped the nugget into her mouth.

The first went down and so did the second as she muttered incoherent slurring words narrating her injustice to no one in particular since she was alone in the apartment right now.

However, the third was not the charm in Reina's situation.

This was due to the fact that the moment the third nugget entered her mouth, it slid right down her throat.

The drunken woman could sense that something had gone terribly wrong when her throat felt constricted.

Her hands reached for the bottle to drink some liquid to lubricate the passage, allowing the obstruction to move freely.

However, her hands only grasped the empty bottle of beer that she had downed earlier.

With her face turning pale then blue, Reina was gasping to catch her breath but the nugget stuck in her throat would not allow her to do so.

Alone in the apartment, drunk and disoriented, she struggled to find anything that might save herself.

However, fate had different plans for her as on that night with her eyes blurred through both the effects of the alcohol and the tears pooling in them, Reina Gomez did not even have the fortune of breathing her last.

As a tear streamed down her cheek, she blinked her eyes shut one last time only to never be able to open them ever again.

___

Laying on Rein Melk's bed, Reina blinked her eyes open as she snapped out of her daze.

This morning, she had been disoriented and her head felt like it had been run over by a train with the new memories she had obtained.

Therefore, she had only remembered her sister's betrayal and not the events that took place after her drunken ramblings.

That, however, had changed as she was now aware of everything that had come to pass last night.

The memories of last night when she was struggling to catch her breath were now imprinted on her mind.

She shuddered while gulping her saliva, reassuring herself that she was fine now and could breathe freely.

'I don't want to feel like that ever again!' She caressed her throat and grimaced because the memory of dying like a fish out of water was still fresh.

However, when she thought of how after she had not even breathed her last in that body of Reina Gomez, she woke up and found herself in Rein Melk's body.

'Did she struggle just like, me only to die miserably with no one by her side?' She wondered whether Rein had felt the same despair and helplessness she had experienced last night.

Shaking her head, she rejected that thought straightaway.

'Rein was more pitiful than I was.' She gritted her teeth while thinking of certain truths.

It was undeniable that she had died due to her careless and drunken behavior but Rein's situation was not the same as hers.

Rein had experienced an attempt on her life which had succeeded to kill her.

The original owner of this body was murdered and the culprits were Lady Marin and her now-dead maid while their accomplice who had prepared that poison was Lady Amaira.

Though Doctor Bundt had declared that the poison wasn't effective enough to kill Rein, she knew better.

Last night, when she had died in her world, Rein Melk had faced her demise in this world.

She did not know how or why but her soul had transmigrated and entered this pitiful woman's body who could not even live while taking pride in her real gender.

She was pretending to be someone that she was not but Reina could not understand why.

From the memories she now possessed, she had understood that Rein had approached the King during one of his expeditions to other Kingdoms about eight years ago.

Ever since then, the young servant 'boy' began following the King, and today, that same 'boy' was now the King's chamberlain.

'Why did Rein approach the King and why did she pretend to be a man?' She was curious to gain answers but she was coming up with a big blank.

Any memories which could answer that question would have to be from before she had met the man.

However, no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing that she could recall from that timeframe.

No memories before she met the King.

This was the only answer she could obtain after trying hard enough to give herself a headache.

Finding no valuable answer in Rein's memories, she decided not to strain herself too much as she had not yet adjusted to this new body.

Closing her eyes once again, Reina pulled the covers up to her chest.

Right now, her priority was to get better soon and figure out a way to live here without gaining the King's suspicions.

'Rein Melk, wherever you are. I am sorry for having occupied your body.' She apologized for being a squatter in this body.

'If by any chance, you are in my body in the other world… Tell Tanya that I am not mad at her, will you?' She requested, hoping that if by some bizarre stroke of luck Rein had transmigrated into her body, she could fulfill this wish of hers.

No matter how much she was annoyed by Tanya's actions, there was no way that she could let her elder sister live with guilt for her entire life for something that wasn't her fault.

'I was foolish enough to choke on chicky nuggies.' She grimaced, guilty for her drunken actions which had caused her death.