Chapter 1 — Chapter 1

It seemed like I had landed somewhere... but where exactly, I still needed to figure out.

With a groan, I opened my eyes. My head was spinning, and there was too much black around me. "Did someone die?" I wondered detachedly.

"Oh, lady, are you alright?" With these words, a skull... in a bonnet bent over me.

Long live hallucinations! I wanted to scream, but I couldn't find the strength.

"I don't know..." I barely managed to say, looking at him.

"I'll call for a doctor," said the skull and vanished.

This was some kind of delirium. I strained my memory, trying to recall the last events. I am Lada Horeseva. Or rather, I used to be...

Suddenly, horror overwhelmed me. The accident, the pregnancy, the hospital... My husband, looking at me with barely concealed disgust. The doctor's words that there was no chance to save the baby and that I had become disabled...

I swallowed my tears and brought my hand to my face, wiping them away.

***

"Stop, wait..." The thought that something was wrong flashed through my mind. I didn't have a right arm or both legs, yet there I was, kicking off a very warm blanket. I grabbed my flat stomach and unexpectedly burst into loud sobs.

Above me loomed the face of an... elf? I must have been delirious! Or was it the aftereffect of another anesthesia?

"Lady, the child is all right. Please calm down," he requested, his voice tinged with fear as he dripped something into a spoon, lifting my head and bringing the liquid to my lips.

Hearing that the child was alive, I instantly calmed down. And after taking the medicine, I felt as if I wasn't myself anymore... My body felt alien.

"Is everything really okay with him?" I asked the pointy-eared man. Perhaps it would have been better to stay silent; my hallucinations were quite strange...

"With her, lady... It's a girl," the elf blushed suddenly and adjusted the blanket over my bare legs.

"Great..."

"You'll be fed now, but after two weeks of being unconscious, you seem to be doing well," he said, eyeing me suspiciously as if expecting something. "May I go?" my companion asked.

"Sure," I replied, puzzled. Why ask?

"Thank you," he said before disappearing from view.

The skull in a bonnet appeared again and spoke to me in a female voice. "What is this? A side effect of some medication? Will it harm the baby?" I wondered, studying the imaginary creature.

"Lady, I am Stefania, your maid. Please don't be alarmed; the lich will take you to the bath now."

Frantically, I tried to remember what a lich was. The books I'd read in my youth, especially the isekai fantasies, came to my aid. "A lich is some kind of dead creature..." I concluded from my memories.

"Is he safe?" My voice trembled unexpectedly. Though what danger could there be when I was talking to a skeleton dressed in an ancient maid's outfit?

"Oh, no, lady! You're our mistress! If you're gone, we'll turn to dust... Everyone wants to live," Stefania said, making a strange statement.

"Alright, let him take me," I agreed.

A short while later, another skeleton appeared, this one with dark eyes covered in gray-green skin.

The infernal maid pulled off the blanket I was clinging to and adjusted my nightgown.

"Lady, he's not a man, don't worry," she reassured me. That was the last thing on my mind.

"Does he have a name?" I whispered to Stefania for some reason.

"Yes, lady. Antonius."

"Lady, I will carry you. Don't worry, I'll hold you. I'm strong," the lich said.

I could only nod. "I wonder when these delusional visions will stop? If I tell anyone, they'll lock me up in a psych ward!" I panicked inwardly, watching the monsters circle around me.

The lich carried me into a huge bathroom with a stone basin in the center, where the maid was already filling the water. Antonius sat me on a bench and stood beside me. Once the basin was full, Stefania quickly removed my nightgown, and the lich lifted me again, gently placing me in the water, then stood by the door.

"Lady, may I ask something?" the skull in the bonnet broke the silence.

"Go ahead," I allowed, still in shock. Because the maid's fingers were bony, she wore special gloves and expertly washed me.

"We don't know how to address you..."

"Why?" I was surprised but didn't rush to introduce myself.

"The master never called his wives by name... They didn't stay long," Stefania shared the "joyful" news.

"So, I'm married?" I was astonished, but...

"But now you're a widow and the mistress of this house. And we don't know how to address you," the maid explained, clearly embarrassed.

I was genuinely shocked; I had no memory of getting married, let alone becoming a widow! Events flashed before my eyes: the accident, the hospital, the disability there, and here... What happened here?

Lifting me out of the water, the lich set me on my feet, and Stefania hurriedly dried my body.

"Antonius, you can go. I'll make it to the bedroom on my own," I let my undead bearer go.

Wrapped in a robe, I slowly walked, leaning on the maid's bony arm. My body obeyed, but with difficulty. I decided not to ask any unnecessary questions for now, so as not to accidentally give myself away.

Stopping in front of a large dressing room, I stared at my reflection in surprise. Well, not my reflection... It wasn't me!

I was a slender blonde with an amazing figure, but the girl looking back at me from the mirror was plump and dark-haired. Much younger than my thirty-four years in my past life... "Where is 'there' anyway? And does it even matter now? Here, I'm whole and with a child - isn't that the dream?" I pondered, studying my new appearance.

"Do I have access to my husband's study?" I asked Stefania. She dressed me in a black dress I'd never liked... But now, as a widow, it seemed fitting. And the reflection in the mirror seemed to suit it.

"I think the spirit will unlock it, but you need to eat first. Antonius has already set the table," the maid offered her arm, and I, holding onto it, walked into the living room.

Indeed, everything was ready and smelled delightful.

"Is there any living staff in the house?" I glanced at two new servants in livery. Of course, they were skeletons.

"No, lady," Stefania froze in fear. "The master didn't like the living..."

"So, these aren't hallucinations..." I began to understand gradually.

"And the elf?"

"He was invited by the butler specifically for you. We really wanted you to survive."

"Why?" I didn't even bring the spoon with the appetizing soup to my mouth.

"We would have been scattered, and the house destroyed..." the maid sobbed.

"I should remember what 'scattered' means... It seems to imply death? But they're already dead..." I was genuinely puzzled.

"Does the elf live here?"

"Yes, lady. He's staying in the guest quarters."

"Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Your late husband's brother, Lord Varlet, arrives tomorrow."

"Why?" I froze with the spoon in my hand again.

"We don't know. A messenger just arrived announcing his visit," and Stefania, for some reason, flinched away from me in fear.

"Well, the deeper into the forest, the more mysteries and probably problems," I concluded, amazed at my own composure.