The Odd Return

CHAPTER 1

"It's your life now!"

"Ah! What the..." I muttered as I jumped up from my bed. "What the hell was that...?"

"Shitty nightmares. I should sleep a bit more..." I muttered pulling the covers. The bed felt softer than it actually was and the covers felt more warmer than it usually felt.

"Lady Evanora, please wake up."

"Lady Evanora,"

What the fuck? Is it a dream again? Who's voice is this? It's not my mom...did someone break into our house? Even so, why are they calling me? Hold on, my name is not Eva- whatsoever. Is that their leader? But there is nothing to steal in our house.

"Lady Evanora, you have to wake up." the voice called again. Is this Eva sleeping too? Okay, I am curious, did someone break in? The last thing I need is my phone getting stolen, and I probably can't even afford a second phone. So, I did it. I only opened one eye. But this time, unlike the last time when I jumped up from the nightmare, the room was filled with bright light. The windows were open, the curtains were pushed away. All around me the walls were decorated in white and gold. Expensive furniture and show pieces, as if this place was something out of a royalty. What the heck is this place? Did I get kidnapped or something? Did the people who broke in kidnapped me? But if this is the place we get to stay at after getting kidnapped then, who wouldn't want to get kidnapped.

"My lady, you are awake. Please wash your face first then we can get you dresses." I turned towards the source of the voice. A young girl probably 16 or 17, around my age. Brown hair and bright green eyes, she was also wearing a black and white uniform which is often used in cosplays. Did she get kidnapped too? Or is she a cosplayer?

"What's your name?" I asked.

"My name...my lady it's Emily." she said looked nervous.

"Oh, how old are you?" I asked.

"Miss, I am 16." she said with a nervous expression not leaving her face.

"So how many years do you work here?" I asked.

"Um...for 5 years, miss." she said.

"Wow, that's long!" I smiled. "So do you know what this place is or how to get out of here?"

"My lady...that..." she looked panicked.

"What happened? Do you not know what this place is or how to get out of here?" I asked and sighed. "How am I supposed to escape..."

"I...I must inform his grace..." she muttered as she rushed out of the big room.

"His what? Hey! Wait!"

"What the! She ran away..." I muttered.

"Geez, did I scare her?" I said as I got up from the soft bed. Gods, I can sleep here forever! I walked around the room admiring all the furniture and every other thing present in the room. Even to buy one of these items must cost us a fortune but over here these things are laying around like priceless junk.

And all this was until I came across the beautiful floor length mirror. The frame of the wall seemed like it was made of gold, as I walked closer I could see my frame come visible on the mirror. Only problem was that the person in the reflection was not me. I stared at the reflection. Straight long black hair framed her slim and tall figure, gem-like purple orbs stared back at me under the long lashes. Flawless pale skin, almost white. And the finishing touch to that was the pale pink lips. A perfect definition of beauty.

"Who is th-'' I couldn't finish my sentence as I felt a jolt of pain in my head. This person is familiar. The pain made my eyesight turn blurry, it was only a matter of time until I collapsed. Feeling my body falling down, I remember a small piece of memory.

'Evanora Esmeray, the villainess.'

...

The villainess was described in a new best-selling romance novel. "Heart Full of Stars." Evanora Katara Esmeray. Her name was an irony. It meant light, but the darkness the villainess had within couldn't be removed with a thousand rays of light. But it wasn't exactly darkness, more like emptiness and loneliness. She was abandoned. An abandoned soul who was framed into a villainess.

The story started when the female lead, Elara Amata Calithea, was 18 years old. At a young age, she was adopted by the Calithea count family. The count and the countess cherished her dearly. Gave her all the love and kindness she deserved. But shortly after the story started, the count and countess were assassinated, after a deep investigation was done by the imperial palace the criminal was found and punished but still as one of the supporting houses of the royal family, the space for count Calithea remained empty.

As the adoptive daughter of the count, Elara was not the direct heir to the count. And for that, the council of nobles had held voting to see if Elara Calithea was worthy of taking the title of Countess Calithea and supporting the royal family. Few of the respective nobles and the crown prince gathered at the Calithea household, where the voting was held. After Elara gave her speech and talked about some of her contributions, some families like Marquess Reamann and Marquess Benedict gave their favour to Elara.

Duke Esmeray was known for being neutral and not choosing sides. While there, Duke Adarlan was a tricky person. But after Elara earned both of their favours, the crown prince gave his decision. Elara successfully earned her title of Countess Calithea. After that when Elara devoted herself to work for the empress and the crown prince she failed to notice the anger and hatred of the villainess sent towards her. Evanora Esmeray. The adoptive daughter of the Esmeray family, also known for being the only noble lady attending the Tower of magic under the Reamann Marquess family.

Evanora didn't have many reasons to hate Elara, she only wanted her family's attention. After being adopted by the Esmeray family at the age of 7, Evanora always wanted to be acknowledged by her father or maybe even by her brothers but she never got any. Only one who sometimes came to see Evanora was Orion Esmeray, her second brother. But soon he also left for the academy and was rarely home. She accepted it and stopped trying. She even got engaged to duke Cirillo Adrastus, but it was just to form a bond between the families, not for love.

But when she saw the girl from the count house, easily forming a bond with her brothers and getting the favour from her father, Evanora burned in envy.

Months later, after the Empress' sudden assassination, the crown prince had to take the throne and in the meanwhile when everyone was busy with preparation, disturbing rumors about the Countess Calithea spread among the commoners and nobles making them rethink their decisions to favoring Countess Calithea. Many businessmen stopped supporting the countess and slowly all their business suffered loss. And when Elara was worked up by everything, she almost got killed if it wasn't for the crown prince who was now the emperor. He realized that the assassination of the Queen and everything related to the Calithea family was all planned.

After the crown prince personally assigned knights and the captain of the knights, the heir of Esmeray ducal Kaven Esmeray investigates the matter. But it didn't stop there as later there were many more attempts to kill Elara. But at the very end, Emperor Lucian and Kaven Esmeray, who was personally investigating the matter, found who were the traitors to the empire.

Evanora Esmeray, Cirillo Adrastus, Fenix Khrysaor, and Haizea Sheridan were mainly present in the treason. At the emperor's order, they were hanged. The story ended with a happy ending as later the emperor expressed his love for Elara. And later Elara took the place of the empress and stood by Lucian's side.

...

"Your Grace, judging by the symptoms it seems like my lady is suffering from amnesia,"