The Useless Duke's Daughter Saves the World

♧ [V1 || Chapter 21] ♧

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Where am I? This place.... feels familiar. 

"May! Haven't you showered yet? It's already dinnertime!"

"Haha! Mum, don't you know May is the number one stinky queen?"

"Jun, you realize that you don't exactly smell like a field of flowers either right?"

"Dad! It's because I just came back from soccer practice, ok? Hmph! You always take her side"

These people are... my family, from my past life. They're... really here!

Tears welled up in my eyes, my heart feeling immensely relieved. Then, it was all just a dream? The accident? Going into the novel and becoming Evangeline? That was just a long, dream after all! I knew it wasn't something as ridiculous as I thought.

I'm really back home.

"Everyone—"

"That's cause dad loves me the most, stupid!"

Before I could even speak, someone had cut off my sentence. And that someone had a very familiar voice. As I slowly turned my head around, a figure dashed past me...

Or rather, it went through me.

A girl with short black hair ran over towards my younger twin brother and smacked him in the head. She was wearing the clothing that I usually wore to sleep. But, why was she wearing it? Who gave it to her? Surely, not my mum, right?

I turned my head towards her, my face expecting her to yell or even curse her out for wearing my clothes. But, instead... my mum, the one who gave me a warm smile my entire life, was barely looking in my direction. Instead, she was giving that very same smile to that girl. And then there's my dad, who was scolding the two of them for arguing, his expression was stern but in his eyes were hints of laughter. It was the look of a father towards his children, a look of love and pride.

Why?

Why aren't they looking at me? Who is that girl?

"Mum! Dad! Jun! It's me! I'm here!" I called out to them. But, no matter how much I screamed, they hardly turned their eyes towards me. It was like I was invisible, like I wasn't there at all. 

"It's me! Your daughter and older sister. It's me, May!" I ran up to them, waving my hands wildly in front of them.

I went to grab my mum's arm in an attempt to catch her attention but, instead of feeling her warm skin, my hand went right through her.

This... I can't touch them? Why? WHY?

"It's because you're dead"

Looking up from my trembling hands, I turned my head towards the feminine voice that spoke just now. And then my eyes rounded. I knew who the voice belonged to, but I refused to believe it... because the girl who was familiarising herself with my family looked exactly like me. No, in fact, she is me!

"No— No, it can't be!"

"It's time you accept your fate. You're no longer May," her eyes matched her cold tone. 

"STOP! YOU'RE AN IMPOSTOR!" I shouted, my tears were rolling down my face in frustration and confusion. I don't understand what was going on. Why is there someone who looks like me... HERE with my family? Don't they know that's not May? I'm May!

"That's funny, coming from someone who's lying about their identity," she sneered. 

"I—" I couldn't continue my sentence because she was right. I was calling her an impostor and yet, here I am, pretending to be Evangeline and lying to the Alcmene couple that I was their daughter. I was every bit as an impostor as she was.