Chapter 2: 2

Michelle felt a gaze on her and narrowed her eyes, but when she looked around, she didn’t find anyone, so she only frowned a bit. “Am I imagining things?” she mumbled to herself as she stood up. “Say, Snow, did you notice someone observing us while you fought?” she asked the little girl, but the little girl only shook her head before transforming back into the huge white fox.

“I’m going back to sleep in my liar!” Snow announced before walking away gracefully.

Michelle only helplessly shook her head and walked over to her maid. Gently shaking her, she tried to wake her up, but to no avail, so she just sat on a rock and looked at her wound. “I really can’t get used to this…” she mumbled as she saw her wound closing at a speed visible to naked eyes.

“Maybe I should experiment with it sometimes…” she nodded her head as ideas of what she could try started forming in her head. But at the moment, she had to be careful so no one found out about her extreme healing speed as it could bring her serious trouble.

Thinking about her healing capabilities, she couldn’t help but think about her past life. On the surface, she looked like an ordinary hospital doctor, but once a special envelope came to her, she took up a gun or a dagger and turned into a deadly assassin, known for her stealth and dreadful silence that shrouded her whenever she killed.

Even till the moment she died, no one found out about her identity or seen her face, because as an assassin, she never once spoke and her face was always covered by a mask. There were times when her killings were caught on CCTV footage, but she didn’t care as she never once revealed anything that could lead to her identity.

As more and more of the footage got leaked, people started to remember her as deadly assassin with perfect figure, but so silent, that they started calling her Mute Bloody Queen.

Michelle always thought that she would die on a mission as an assassin, since it was always dangerous, but instead, she died while saving a child that was about to fall off a rooftop. When she caught the child and brought him back up, in the panic of the moment, the child’s mother pushed her and Michelle fell to her death.

Thinking about it, Michelle found it to be quite a laughable death, but she didn’t care.

Michelle was sure that she had died from the fall, so she was shocked when she woke up, and in a completely unfamiliar place at that. She was lying on a soft bed in a room resembling a room from a historical drama, but Michelle couldn’t really concentrate on the state of the room, as her head was throbbing in pain as new information was slowly seeping into her brain.

“Damn…” she cursed under her breath as she scanned through the information in her head.

She was now the only daughter of Archduke Grace, Philip Grace. He was known to be righteous and strict, but towards his daughter, he was always kind and pampering, letting the original Michelle Grace grow up into though breathtakingly beautiful, but incompetent and lazy lady.

Michelle caused trouble wherever she went, though she rarely came out of her room. On one of her outings, she fell in love with the Crown Prince and used her father’s status to force him to get engaged with her.

Later, the Crown Prince fell in love with a different girl and plotted with the girl to get rid of Michelle. He led Michelle to a cliff and pushed her off.

The original Michelle’s soul died, but somehow, the body remained alive, so after the Archduke’s subordinates found her under the cliff they brought her back home, oblivious to the fact that the body was already awakening a new soul.

Realizing the situation she was in, Michelle rubbed her temples and sighed. She reached for the bell by the bed and rung it. A moment later, a young maid entered her room. “My Lady, how are you feeling?” she asked with a smile as an elderly man, whom Michelle recognized to be the family doctor, followed her.

Michelle looked at the two calmly and opened her mouth. “I wish to speak with the Archduke.”

Her words shocked the two. Not because it was unusual for the original Michelle to meet with the Archduke, but because she never spoke so formally. She always called the Archduke daddy or so, so when she suddenly called him so formally, they were shocked.

When the maid was about to ask what was going on, Michelle’s piercing gaze silenced her, so she quickly left with the doctor and went to report to the Archduke.

Michelle got off the bed and, using the memories of the body, she found some fresh clothes and changed into them.

When the Archduke came, he was shocked to see her calmly sitting at a table with the aura surrounding her being able to rival his when he was commanding soldiers. Seeing the state she was in, a suspicious feeling rose in his heart, but he still wasn’t sure what it was.

“What did you want from me, dear? Did you miss your father?” he asked with a smile, clearly happy that his daughter woke up from coma.

Michelle moved her gaze towards him, the calmness in her eyes only causing the suspicion in the Archduke’s heart to intensify. “Your Excellency, how about you sit down first, before listening to what I have to say?” Michelle gestured to the seat opposite her, her eyes scanning the Archduke’s expression with him clearly noticing it. But she didn’t mind that he noticed. In fact, she wanted him to notice as it would make it easier for her to get things done.

Seeing the gaze Michelle was directing at him, the Archduke felt like a huge boulder crushed against his heart, so he just silently sat down, the unease in him intensifying. He remained silent, waiting for Michelle to speak.

He was expecting a request of a kind, but instead, Michelle threw a question at him. “What did you notice so far, Your Excellence?” she asked calmly.

The Archduke was taken aback, taking a short moment to sort his thoughts, his brows slowly arching into a frown. He descended into silence, considering the things that had happened since the moment the maid came to inform him that Michelle woke up.

First, Michelle started speaking formally to him, no longer calling him daddy.

Second, her aura completely changed so much, that in the state of calmness, she was able to exclude the aura he had while commanding soldiers.

Third, the gaze she directed at him was not that of his pampered daughter. It was the gaze of a person who experienced numerous dangerous fights and thus always took a good look at who he was standing against.

And last, the calmness was not something his daughter ever possessed. Even though his daughter was endlessly lazy, she was never calm, but the person in front of him was so calm that it caused him to hold his breath for a moment when he entered the room, as if not to disturb the calmness.

Thinking about those four facts, the Archduke’s frown deepened. “Who… are you?” he narrowed his gaze, his eyes starting to swirl with anger. “Where’s my daughter?!” he stood up angrily.

Michelle looked at him calmly and grabbed his arm, forcing him to sit back down. “That’s what I want to talk about with you, Your Excellence, so please, do listen, or I’ll just leave!” she said placidly.

The Archduke gritted his teeth in anger, but sensing something amiss, he decided to listen to Michelle.

Michelle glanced at the Archduke for a moment before rolling up her sleeve, showing him a birthmark the original Michelle had. Then, she rolled up her other sleeve and revealed a birthmark that appeared on the body only after her soul took over the body.

The Archduke stared in confusion at the two birthmarks, clearly able to tell that both were genuine. “What’s the meaning of this?” he asked with a frown.

Michelle looked at his face and sighed. “Your daughter was killed!” she said decisively, causing the Archduke to freeze in shock, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Seeing the Archduke’s shock, Michelle continued. “Last night, she was invited by the Crown Prince to the Fire Cliff and there, he pushed her down. She died from the fall, but what died wasn’t her body, but only her soul. Your daughter’s body somehow remained alive, and after I died in my world, my soul got sucked into her body. I now have the memories of your daughter, so if you want, I can give you enough evidence that the Crown Prince killed your daughter. In exchange, I want you to give me an identity with which I can live in this world.”

The Archduke remained silent for a long while, his fists clenching in anger as he stared at Michelle. The two birthmarks, her appearance and what she said about the Crown Prince were enough proof that she was and wasn’t his daughter at the same time, but he didn’t want to believe it. He refused to believe that his darling daughter had died.

“Let me think about it for a while…” He stood up slowly and walked towards the door. “Till I decide, please, don’t let the servants know anything…” he added before he opened the door and left the room.

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