Evelyn wasn't sure what the young miss did, but suddenly, the entire family became less disdainful, or at least learned to hide it better.
Rosanna seemed pleased by the development, and when her beaming eyes, which seemed to ask for acknowledgement, met Evelyn, she couldn't stop her conscience from feeling pricked, so she picked up a stick and expressed her thanks on the ground.
The young miss's response was a face filled with incredulity, leaving Evelyn startled. Did… she do something?
"Verity, you can write?"
Evelyn: …
Was Verity not supposed to know how to write?
Now that she thought about it, why was a fantasy setting speaking English, even if it was probably some alternate-world version of Old Britain? Shouldn't they at least be speaking Old English?
A brief explanation flashed in her mind but faded quicker than she could grasp it. Still, it gave Evelyn the much-needed confirmation that she really was in the world of some story, but she just couldn't remember which. Even after pondering over and over again, so she gave up.
Maybe this left her vulnerable and possibly in danger, but in this state of mind, whatever was to happen… let it happen. She was just tired.
Excited by the shocking discovery of Verity's writing skills, Rosanna soon hauled her into the Castellan's huge library, piled up a stack of storybooks for her, and then simply stared.
Evelyn had always known this child was weird, but not until she sat for hours just watching her read did that idea consolidate.
What was she? A show?
Discomforted and perhaps a bit frustrated, she gestured to the young miss to join her, and with a thousand baby-blue lights blossoming in her eyes, the young girl eagerly did.
Like that, they were either walking about the house playing strange games invented by the young miss or reading books. The young miss led, and Evelyn followed. That was their odd but simple dynamic, until everything fell apart. Literally.
*****
The young miss tumbled into water. Evelyn stood affixed in shock for a few seconds before diving into the lake right after her. She managed to rescue the fainted child, who, after being administered CPR, expelled water and passed right out again.
Isolde Castellan, the Grand Duchess, was Verity's adopted mother, and perhaps the one who despised her the most. Whenever those familiar baby blues stared at her, it wasn't the usual excitement like the young miss, but disgust.
As far as Evelyn knew, there wasn't any justifiable reason for this hate, except that Verity was unfortunate enough to be chosen by the young miss as her playmate.
Yes, finally, Evelyn remembered the story she was in, and the overarching plot, which was nothing short of a miracle, given how many novels of the same tropes she had devoured in her avarice.
However, despite most of the stories she had read merging into one convoluted mess, this one stood out solely:
Tides of Passion.
Indeed, the author thought it smart to name their book such, given that the female lead was a mermaid, and the story, a reverse harem set in a royal fantasy, was, surprise, surprise, about passion.
But Evelyn found its name forgivable, due to how delectable the story was, at least for lovers of such tropes. Arabella Wynne, an orphan, a commoner child, adopted by a fallen noble family, was a paragon of beauty.
She had long, flowing silver hair that cascaded to her waist and eventually to her knees when she bloomed into a full-grown woman. Siren eyes, of the bluest, most majestic color of the ocean, that could drown one with a single glance.
She was also a woman of great height, about 5'7", with a perfect hourglass figure.
Still, the author swore her beauty wasn't a major factor in her managing to pull in a harem of prestigious males. All the readers unanimously pressed F for disbelief.
Arabella's potential was noted by a rather desperate fallen noblewoman who adopted her and spent the majority of her growing years railing into Bella's mind that, as their only saving grace, she had to be ready to do anything to elevate their status.
Someone with such training from a young age would probably end up with a few disturbing characters. But not Bella. Being born to a mermaid father and a human mother, and inheriting the full bloodline of her father, making her a pureblood mermaid, she had a trait that separated her from other children — maturity beyond her age.
She came to understand fully that she had been adopted to be used as a pawn, and would remain one in the hands of that woman unless she took matters into her own hands.
And so she did, starting from the young age of 13.
***
Evelyn had been slapped by the furious Isolde and subjected to shouts and threats of many gruesome death patterns, all of which were not to be spoken to a child, promised to her for the past hour.
Maybe her silence hadn't helped matters, as they all concluded that she was the one who had pushed the miss off the rowboat—and she had yet to say a word in her own defense.
However, Evelyn knew, having now recalled the contents of the story, that regardless, the same course of events would repeat itself, even if she defended herself.
At least the vicious slap had finally activated her dormant memory, making her recall a core scene from the story that unleashed the rest of the plot in her memory.