Chapter 3: Twin brother
It was a vast bedroom the size of an apartment actually. The shining sun was blocked by thick blue curtains with flower patterns. The bedroom was a big one with curtains of its own that were lifted and showed a bed that wasn't neat for the covers were all over the place as though someone just got up from them. Not far from that bed, at its left and leaned against the wall was a large yet closed wardrobe. On the other side of the room, there was a small table and two armchairs to accompany it. On the table, there was a set of teacups and sweets. The floor was decorated with soft tapestry making walking on them an agreeable experience and the ceiling had a five light chandelier in crystal. Everything in here seemed so expensive... from the bedsheets to the cups of tea...
However, that wasn't what was Miyabi's focus on the moment. Instead, it was the right side of the bed, where laid two cradles in which slept two babies who didn't look older than some few months!
With slow and uncertain steps, she came closer to the cribs. Those babies were sleeping so peacefully and if she wasn't in the actual situation she was in, she would certainly take the time to admire their cuteness... but for the moment, this was the last thing in her mind. For now, there was an intense fear that slowly crept in her being and was expanding with time.
Miyabi wasn't really sure how she got here. Obviously, mere seconds before, the train she was on was derailing from its track… Instead of opening her eyes to a scene of scattered debris or possibly one of hellish gore with corpses -whole or mutilated- dispersed all around, she was actually met with two babies sleeping peacefully in their cradles. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself… At this moment, if she was still alive after that accident, she must be in a coma then and her brain for some reasons, created this installment… which would mean that her problem was serious if she was at the level of imagining such things… taking another deep breath, Miyabi thought she was willing to forget rationality for a little bit at this moment, if only for the sake of her own sanity... but she couldn't help herself and kept thinking...
It was just too bewildering as experience and disorientating. At the time she felt like she had to touch the baby, to check if it was as real as it looked. The instant her fingers got in contact with one of the babies' cheek, she saw this whole baby's life in her mind or rather, she got an in-depth of a character from the game she was playing the moment before the train's accident. A game for crying out loud! Shocked by the vivid visual, she hastily retracted her hand, staggered and almost fell.
What the hell!
She peaked at the other baby. If one was Meirin, then who was this other? He certainly looked identical to the one next to him, though it was said that babies tended to look the same sometimes and Miyabi couldn't really say she was an expert in that field.
Shaking more from fright than bewilderment, she finally retracted her eyes from the hand that just touched the baby. It was so white, fingers so lean and seemed so smooth. What was this delicate skin! Where was her tan! And the long fingernails were painted in black. Complete black! Definitely not her style! She was wearing a long nightdress, a deep purple one which contrasted greatly with her pale skin. Her gaze followed all the way from her generous breast to her feet and she saw her toes moving at will, though she still couldn't remember ever liking painting her finger toes' nails black too. Curiosity required it and using one hand, she touched the other, more to feel the smoothness than anything, but a new set of information made its way to her brain. Those she believed, must be depicting Yzaide's life in what should certainly be the game. And that was when she understood. If previously what she saw was really that baby's life then the left baby was Meirin and following that logic, since she just touched herself then she was… Yzaide?
Her brain suddenly hurt. Metaphorically.
What kind of bizarre event was this?
She somehow, rather not think about the logicality of it all and decided to ignore the question for now. It frightened her more than anything else thinking along that line so she was more comfortable with conveniently not caring for the time being. So, for the moment, her brain supplement that she was in a roleplay and her character was Yzaide.
A vain, arrogant and haughty person! Though the woman too, seemed to have her own story to tell but truth be told, it was nothing pitiful enough to warrant her becoming that sorry figure of mother she had been or even that sorry state of human she represented.
Was she really going to interpret such a character? An abusive mother?
Even if she wished to block it, reality seemed to weigh too much and Miyabi's shaking knees finally gave away and she found herself falling on the carpeted floor. It was painful… yet the scenery stayed the same. The same grand room, the same furniture, the same two cribs, thick curtains which hadn't been correctly closed for a ray of light illuminated the room… It seemed real… so real. Collecting her strength, she pushed herself to get up and looked through the windows… She was on the second floor of a manor… The sun shone high in the sky and all around, it was a forest. Some people were out there with servants clothing or a sort of uniform, those with tunics and saber at their waist… guards? Slightly familiar, it really seemed like the uniform of the guards following the heroine around town in the game.
No kidding, she was really in a game? And from all the games she could enter, it had to be this one? She was at lost and had no words to describe what she felt… As if the matter of transmigrating inside a game wasn't terrible enough, she had to be a mother! And such a terrible mother too! Must be the worst of all the game! In a vain attempt to humor herself, Miyabi thought it pretty good that she didn't arrive at the moment when she was giving birth. How painful would that be?
She closed her eyes and inhaled then softly exhaled, clenching and unclenching her fist to soothe herself. It was going to be alright, she started comforting herself. She absolutely wasn't going crazy.
Making up her mind, she reported her attention to the two sleeping babies. They sure were cute. She had already touched the one at her left who was Meirin. If she hadn't touched her own hand, thus known Yzaide's life, Miyabi would have at first thought that this other baby was Andrea but then again it couldn't have been for this manor was isolated in the forest -obviously more like a place to hide a dirty secret than a loving daughter that the heroine was- and anyway there was no way that Baron Mitch would have let his beloved daughter with her stepmother rather than her mother. Either way, there was no need for guessing game time. Although this baby didn't appear in the settlement of the game, from what Miyabi just saw of Yzaide's life, this one was actually Meirin's twin brother, Hendricksen.
This baby just reinforced the idea that Yzaide really was the worst mother in the universe and he was also the justification of Meirin's fear of her mother. The reason why the poor girl was so scared of her mother's threat was that she, after all, saw that woman abandoned her brother with her own two eyes. The child, at the age of four when it happened, just had the misfortune of being unable to sense mana. He was repeating how scared he was and unwilling to be tested. Prior to that, he was already a child who liked talking to himself and acted strangely so his sanity was already doubted. In the end, it was concluded that he had no potential whatsoever. Feeling shamed and angered by this boy, the mother who had no use of such a child send him to her maternal family's home where he was reported missing after just a week. No one searched for him. Later, he was deemed dead and an empty coffin had been buried in his name. None of the family members were even there!
What a mess! They all deserved to be struck by lightning! The mother first! The father should follow, and that maternal family certainly shouldn't be forgotten!
Sighing softly, Miyabi reached out and touched the baby's cheek, wondering what really happened to him.
She softly poked again and again and after a moment she frowned. Nothing happened this time. Why was that? Touching Meirin previously, she had seen her whole life even what was not mentioned in the game. Touching herself it was the same result. Why was it different with this little one? Or maybe was it what was identical between Meirin and Yzaide for it to have worked? Being from the same family didn't count since Hendricksen too was family. Was it being a girl? Then there was nothing to be done. Or was it that they were featured in the game?
There was really too many possibilities if one started to think about it.
Miyabi touched Meirin's cheek again… But this time nothing happened. For the time being, she could only helplessly concluded that it worked only the first time.
As her hand was still on the baby's cheek, suddenly, that one started to tear up and wailed from its sleep; prompting the other to follow suit. Oh dear!
Soon it was a cacophony and the angry babies didn't seem anywhere near done crying. What kind of bad luck was this?
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