Chapter 1: 1

This is the first time in my life that I have been to the capital but for some reason when people see me, they have strange reactions. I haven’t left the comfort of my home which was located in the Northern part of the empire for the past eighteen years. To put it bluntly, I am simply a frog at the bottom of a well.

 

If the butler hadn’t brought in the notice for the Knight selection at the manor, I would still be gathering herbs in the mountains and practicing swordsmanship. So there’s no way anyone would know me in this capital city since it’s the first time I’ve set foot here. At least I believe it should be…

 

“Excuse me, can I ask you for directions?”

 

“Sure, what…. Oh my gosh!”

 

‘Ah, not again.’

 

The man with the smiling face turned his head to look at me, and as soon as he saw me, he was immediately frightened. At first, I was flustered, but given that humans are adaptable creatures, I became accustomed to it. So everytime I receive the same reactions from them I remain calm.

 

“I’m sorry, but do you know where the examination for the Imperial Knights Selection is located?”

 

‘Good Imperial citizen, I assure you that I am not a frightening beast.’

 

I said that with the corners of my mouth twitching upward in an attempt to appear as harmless as possible. It was my intention to come across as a simple person from the countryside who was visiting the capital for the first time, but alas, it didn’t work at all.

 

My ‘Charming‘ smile only made the man cringe as if he had encountered a wild beast in the mountains. He ran away in a panic and said something strange.

 

“L-Lady B-Bright is back, ahhh…!”

 

“Oh! Wait a minute!”

 

What is he saying? I wanted to grab the man who left the first hint of why everyone was frightened by me, but I was too late. I sighed as I watched the man’s rapidly receding backside.

 

‘Lady Bright?’

 

Who the hell is that? Let’s see, if it’s ‘Bright‘, it sounds like a family name I’ve heard of somewhere before. I was standing there in the middle of the street, searching through my memory, but nothing came to mind.

 

Ah, I don’t know. How can a young lady like me, who’s never even had her debut and met with anyone from the capital know about those sorts of things? My head hurts just thinking about it. How would I know any famous Family? I shook my head in exasperation.

 

“Ugh…”

 

I rubbed my face and looked around for someone to ask for directions again. Just then, I saw a woman with a basket walking towards me.

 

“Excuse me…”

 

“What? Huh?!”

 

I was speaking cautiously, and the woman who had just answered me turned to look at me and like before her eyes went wide after seeing me. She was so surprised that she even dropped the basket she was holding in her hand.

 

“Hello…”

 

‘Please don’t run away. Don’t run away. Don’t.’

 

I tried my best to smile and flutter the shivering woman, but I was unsuccessful again.

 

“Ahhh!”

 

The woman screamed and ran away as if she had seen a vicious criminal.

 

“What is it? What’s all the fuss all about?”

 

“Lady Bright?”

 

“That person… Ahhh!”

 

“G-ghost?”

 

The woman’s screams attracted a crowd of people, who turned to look at my face and was greatly horrified.

 

 

“I, I think you have some misunderstanding…”

 

“No way!”

 

I don’t understand what’s going on. At this point, I was already getting a little frustrated.

 

Whether I’m getting upset or not, I just don’t understand anything. Are these people deaf or just playing a prank on me? They were so busy chatting with each other, when I suddenly heard someone call out loudly,

 

“Call the guards!”

 

‘What? Guards? No way. I’d better get out of here…’

 

I decided to head out of the alley to avoid the guards for now. I didn’t want to cause any unnecessary commotion. I figured I’d just go somewhere else to ask, since I won’t be able to fish out any information with those people acting like that…

 

“Huh! G-ghost!”

 

It was a failure again.

 

“I… want to ask you a question, who is that Lady Bright?”

 

“Y-You’re L-Lady Bright?!”

 

No, I mean, I’m not her!

 

‘Miss, you know what?’

 

The butler once told me that there are people in the world whose faces look exactly similar even though they’re not related by blood. ‘Those people who walk among us are often called Doppelgangers.’

 

‘What did I say then?’

 

I think I remembered saying that, ‘If there is such a person in this world who looks exactly like me, I would like to meet them.’

 

 

I still think the same way. But if my doppelganger was a criminal, then I’m definitely a lamb ready for slaughter.

 

 

Why do I think that way? Well that’s simply because right now I’m under the custody of the Imperial Guards. I was mistaken for someone else, and now I’ve been taken in by an officer because someone called in to report that I was the freaking Lady Bright or something.

 

“She’s right there! It’s Lady Bright!”

 

“Right here!”

 

“Oh no, no, no! I’m not Lady Bright. I’m not-”

 

None of them believed me. I thought about drawing my sword, but then I realized that it would make me look even more suspicious. I thought I’d be more likely to talk it out with the guards than the people, but I was terribly mistaken.

 

“I have already sent word to your family now, and so I expect you to behave until someone arrives to pick you up, my dear Marquis Bright’s Young Lady.”

 

 

“No, I told you I’m not her, my surname is Sabrina, Iris Sabrina, look I can show you my ID!”

 

“Whoa, young lady, be quiet before you get sued for falsifying your identity.”

 

The guard’s reaction was no different from the people I’ve encountered on the street.

 

You are reading story Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! at novel35.com

“Iris Sabrina,” he murmured, even though I’ve shown him my ID he still thinks I was lying. Those guards even treated me like dirt and locked me up in a holding cell.

 

Are these people blind?

 

No matter how much I thought about it, this situation didn’t make sense at all, but I was already in a holding cell, so what else could I do? I had to wait for someone from the Bright family to come and confirm my identity.

 

What did I even do? 

 

I leaned against the quaint cell wall and thought about that Young Lady Bright whom everyone was talking about. I went to the capital with that big dream to become an established knight, but things had to take a strange turn for the worse.

 

“Young Lady Bright…”

 

Just as I arrived at the capital, everyone I met called me ‘Young Marchioness Bright’ or ‘Lady Bright‘. In fact, every single one of them mistook me for the same person. So I figured we must have looked quite similar.

 

Just considering the fact that everyone, regardless of their identity, knew where Lady Bright was and what she looked like. It’s clear that she was quite a celebrity, but in a bad way.

 

“Hmm..”

 

This whole thing won’t affect me from becoming a knight just because we look similar, right?

 

I immediately frowned, after recalling all those negative reactions I’d gotten from those people who saw me. I was worried that I might be at a disadvantage due to this incident.

 

 

‘Oh, no, there’s no way…’

 

The more I think about it, the more anxious I get, so I stopped.

 

As I lightly popped my head to chase away the worries that kept creeping up on me, the commotion outside the holding cell became loud and boisterous.

 

 

Apparently, someone from the Bright family had arrived.

 

‘Good, now I can finally clear this misunderstanding up and get out of here.’

 

I jumped to my feet as I heard footsteps getting closer and closer.

 

“My Child..!”

 

My eyes instantly widened at the sight of a person appearing over the bars of the holding cell.

 

He was a middle-aged man with long, graying hair and green eyes, and it wasn’t until I saw his face that I understood the reactions of the people.

 

“What are you doing, how dare you lock up my daughter!”

 

The man was furious to see me locked up inside the cell. As he went wild, the guards who had been so rude to me earlier immediately groveled.

 

“How dare you lock my daughter inside a moldy den like this…! What if she faints? Are you deluded into wanting to die?!”

 

“M-Marquis, my apologies.”

 

“Open it!”

 

“Y-Yes..”

 

I was expecting a butler or a hired hand, but instead it’s actually the father. I silently admired the man as he raged at the guards.

 

No, why is he so pretty? I’m used to seeing bandits and raggedy men, so to see a beautiful middle-aged man with such a refined face that was as white as a pearl and full red lips, is like a breath of fresh air.

 

‘Are all the men in the capital like this?’

 

Come to think of it, the men I saw on the road earlier looked like that, and compared to the people in our territory, the people in the capital both young and old, are all beautiful.

 

“My child!”

 

The man stepped into the holding cell as soon as the guard opened the door. The closer he got, the better he looked. For a father at that age, he must have been at least forty years old, but the smooth, wrinkle-free skin took my breath away.

 

“Where the hell have you been…..”

 

“Wait!”

 

Pretty is pretty, and this is this.

 

I shouted, gesturing with my hand towards him as if signalling him to stop. I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but I also didn’t want to cause any confusion, because I wasn’t really his daughter.

 

“Sweetheart?”

 

He stopped in his tracks, as if he were going to scoop me up in a hug at a moment’s notice.

 

“I’m sorry, but you’re not my father.”

 

The man’s blue eyes fluttered hard at my words. Soon he cried out in a pleading voice,

 

“What do you mean, are you still mad at me?”

 

Strange. The way he was acting, he was the epitome of a father who cared deeply for his daughter, so why couldn’t he see that I wasn’t his child?

 

“I’m not the Young Lady Bright that you’re looking for.”

 

“Huh?”

 

I denied it immediately, and the man blinked at me in disbelief. He actually looked kind of adorable.

 

No, this wasn’t it.

 

I had to clear up this whole misunderstanding first,

 

“I’m-”

 

“Oh, are you pretending to have amnesia again like before?”

 

The man let out an exclamation and cut me off as he smiled in understanding. He immediately spoke in a gruff tone, like a man cracking a carrot to a rabbit,

 

“Honey, I know daddy did something wrong . .”

 

“No, It’s not that…I–”

 

“But you’ve improved your acting skills a lot since last time.”

 

“Look, just calm down and listen to me first I–”

 

“You haven’t sent me any news in months! I was so worried that something bad had happened to you….. Huhu… huh.”

 

 

‘No, why are you crying! I’m the one who was supposed to cry!’

 

I was suddenly speechless at the sight of the man bursting into tears. He leaned in a little closer as if he thought I was finally ready to listen to him since I became quiet.

 

“Your grandfather doesn’t like to talk about it but he misses you a lot. So why don’t you just calm down a little and forgive me, okay?”

You can find story with these keywords: Mistaken for a Wicked Woman!, Read Mistaken for a Wicked Woman!, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! novel, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! book, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! story, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! full, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! Latest Chapter