Heroine On Strike

Maylin was treating her like a baby. Ranhee, a 38-year-old woman, felt goosebumps growing on her back from being treated like a baby. She glared sideways at Maylin and noticed Maylin giving her a surprised look.

“My god! Look at those goosebumps! Was the water too cold?”

Maylin placed her hand in the water to check the temperature. The water was just the right temperature. There was no reason for Luciella to have goosebumps like that during the warm, late spring weather. Maylin began to suspect the reason for Luciella’s condition. 

“Are you shivering? Do you feel cold? Let’s go lie down, my lady! I will bring Baron Hillis right away!”

Was it age that gave Maylin such great energy? Maylin, Luciella’s guardian and supporter, became more active as she aged. To Ranhee, she was just an annoying nosy lady. Ranhee could not stop her. She was dragged back to bed without saying a word and covered in blankets. Maylin’s worried look lingered in Luciella’s mind. Maylin tried to find abnormalities in Luciella’s condition. If she found any, she wanted to report them to Baron Hillis. Unfortunately, she could not find any. Maybe it was better to just fetch him at once. Maylin, as she left the room, left a warning to Luciella. “You must never, EVER, leave your bed, my lady. Do you understand?”

“Yeah,” answered Ranhee. 

She could not tell Maylin that the source of her goosebumps was from Maylin. Maylin treated her like a baby. What Maylin did was normal. There was no way Maylin could imagine a 38-year-old woman was now inside her lovely young lady’s body. Telling Maylin not to follow her routine schedule would also be strange. 

Ranhee sighed as she was alone once again in the room. She couldn’t understand why this was all happening. She first suspected that this was just a dream, but it wasn’t. Her head still had lingering pain from when she pulled her hair. There was no way this pain was just part of a dream.

‘Did I die in my sleep? I’m now the girl that I was envious of among the books I’ve read… nope. That doesn’t make any sense.’ Ranhee stopped herself from thinking such thoughts. She knew that trying to explain this mysterious phenomenon to herself was futile. Similar to this world, things happened coincidentally without an explanation in her previous world. Ranhee eventually came to terms with her current situation.

Just let it go. 

It was not necessary to try and explain how or why this all happened. So, she stopped trying to explain or understand her situation. It was nobody’s fault. It just happened.

Her parent’s sudden death while she studied abroad. Ranhee’s trusted business partner suddenly bailed on her with the startup money. There was no reason for either of these events to happen in her life. She regretted and contemplated as much as she could, but nothing changed. Her parents were still dead, and she could not find the b*stard that took her money either. It was never her intention to become a famous pâtissier. Ranhee never understood what pleased the media. Many of the so-called critics critiqued Ranhee and tried to pinpoint the reasons for her fame. Many of these reasons were not unique to Ranhee. She never understood her popularity with the public.

‘One day, I am going to be hated for no reason.’ Ranhee always believed that. She realized that day had appeared when she was first brought into this world. Eventually, Ranhee directed her focus towards the luxurious carpet next to the bed. Golden threads were used to embroider the stellations on the carpet. Luciella’s mother, Duchess Constance, created this masterpiece.

‘Luciella had parents. Yeah, I remember now…’ Ranhee’s eyes shook in realization. She had no idea how to communicate with them. It certainly was going to be as awkward; Similar to how she reacted when she met Maylin. RanHee did not know them. To them, however, Luciella was their precious daughter. She was their first daughter after having three sons. Because of that, they treasured her the most. Their hearts would be heartbroken if their daughter acted like a stranger to them.

Although Ranhee was aware of that, she was not sure if she could pull it off. In her previous life, she studied abroad after she had graduated from elementary school. After three years, her parents died while flying over to visit her. Ranhee went through a long period of self-hatred. She believed that her greed caused her parents to die. That thought continued to consume her life to this very day.

But here it was again. Parents filled with love for their daughter. Ranhee felt like running away before she faced the loved-filled eyes of the duchess. 

“Ella!”

“My baby!”

The situation she was worried about appeared much quicker than she had anticipated. Quickly, the duchess ran towards her daughter and covered Luciella’s cheeks with her hands. Ranhee’s mind raced as she tried to think of how she would react to the duchess’s worried look.