Chapter 18: Seventeen

A moment of stunned silence fell over them as they gawked at each other.

“W-wait, why…all of a sudden…” Anastasia mumbled, trembling with relief. “I…I thought no one would ever…”

“C-could it be because of this hairpin?” Rasputina held up the hairpin in her hand and let go of it. 

Anastasia’s mumbles immediately turned to gibberish. “Uesfghjikygk…?”  

“So, it really is the hairpin’s doing…interesting.” Rasputina quickly picked up the fallen hairpin and turned her attention to the blubbering princess.

“I’m sure both of us have a lot of unanswered questions in mind, but you can go first,” she gently suggested, seeing that Anastasia was on the verge of tears. “What questions do you want to ask me, Your Highness?”  

“I-huh-no-what-you—who are you calling ‘Your Highness’??” Anastasia stammered, blinking in surprise. “S-so, I really am a princess now?”

“Wait, you weren’t aware of that fact?” Rasputina muttered incredulously. “What did you think this place—” she gestured wildly around at the luxurious bedroom “—is then?!”

“I-I-I thought it was some kind of waiting room in heaven…” Anastasia cocked her head to the side and glanced away awkwardly. “Isn’t that how it usually goes? Like you suddenly wake up in a pure-white realm, then some floating orb or higher being apologises for accidentally killing you and then sends you off to an isekai world. I was wondering when I would meet them, since I thought it was strange for me to end up in someone else’s body all of a sudden with no explanation whatsoever?” 

Rasputina had to take some time to digest what she just uttered. “Does such a thing really exist?” 

“It’s a common light novel trope…well, in my home world, at least.” 

“If you aren’t Princess Anastasia, who are you then?” Rasputina pressed. “What is your name? Where are you from?”

“Eto…” She gave a light cough and faced her. “I’m Rei Hayashi, Japanese…I’m from Japan. Er, that’s a country on Earth, which is the world I transmigrated from.” 

“...transmigrated? You? From…Earth?”

“Hai, something like being transported from your original body to another body, I suppose.” She hesitated and asked, “so, can you explain where am I? What kind of world is this? I-Is there magic?” 

“W-wait, don’t overload me with questions at once, please.” Rasputina scratched her head and decided to start off with a formal introduction. “I’m Rasputina, a Saintess from afar who is here on the request of His Majesty King Cetheri to treat his daughter, which is you—I’ll explain the treatment part later. As for where you are, this is the capital of the Aetherium Empire, the largest country in the northern continent. We’re in the grand palace, where the royal family resides.” 

“Aetherium Empire, huh…” Anastasia got off the bed and walked to the lattice windows facing the capital city. “You know, this city…it looks more modern than what I was expecting. I can see grey smoke from the chimneys of factories in the distance.” 

“A few years before I was born, the steam engine was invented,” Rasputina said absent-mindedly. “The empire underwent many drastic changes since then, such as those new factories you are seeing now.” 

“Steam engine?” The princess frowned, then let out a small sigh. “So no magic…” 

Rasputina noticed her visible disappointment and made a face. “What, is there something wrong with my world being magic-less? We have machines and apparatuses for all kinds of purposes you can ever think of, there’s no need for such a childish concept to exist.” 

“I mean, if there’s no magic, what’s the difference between my world and your world?” Anastasia said with a faint shrug. “Magic is like, the most exciting thing when it comes to light novels…at least for the reincarnated or transmigrated ones.” She paused and smiled slightly. “But, actually, I’m kind of glad there’s no magic in this new world. I never played RPGs in my life and hate having to master new things, you see.” 

You are reading story This crossdressing fake Saintess must cure Her Highness! at novel35.com

“I don’t see your point, but whatever.” The Saintess crossed her arms. “I mentioned that my purpose here is to treat you, right?”

“Y-yeah? What about it? I don’t feel sick, so what are you treating exactly?”

“Well, the so-called treatment I doing is restoring Her Highness’ health and psyche to her original self.” She met Anastasia’s eyes squarely. “Can you return to wherever you came from and bring the real Anastasia back? This is the most important thing to me, or else I can’t get what I want and get the hell out of this palace.” 

“Return?! But I barely went outside this confined room since transmigrating here??” Anastasia looked at her with pleading eyes. “Can’t I stay here and explore this exciting isekai world to my heart’s content? A-and, I always wanted to try living as an actual princess, s-so…”

“Look, I don’t really give a fuck about your ‘isekai’ adventure, Miss Rei Hayashi.” Rasputina glared at her coldly. “I want my ten thousand doubloons as promised by the King, so you have to transmigrate back to your Earth or whatever now.”

“E-eeeeeeh?” She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly like a goldfish before shaking her head vehemently. “But even if—and that’s a very big IF we’re talking about here—I want to go back, I can’t do so without the man.” 

“Man?” The Saintess narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “What do you mean? Is this supposed to be a riddle of some kind?”

“I mean exactly what I just said,” Anastasia insisted. “This whole transmigration business was made possible because I-I made a deal with this man who approached me out of the blue. In exchange for fifty years of my lifetime, I can transmigrate into an isekai world and live as whoever I want to be...at first I thought it was a prank and went along with it, but to think that it really happened as promised—!”

Rasputina sprang out of the bed onto her feet and grabbed her shoulders violently. “Wait, wait, wait—fifty years?! Are you kidding me right now? I have to wait that long for the real Anastasia to come back??”

“Eh? No, no, I’m just occupying this body for a short while before returning back to my home world...” She gave a sad smile and shook her head. “So, if you really want me gone, rest assured that I won’t be here for long.”

“You...” Rasputina made a spitting gesture and pointed her shaky finger at the transmigrated princess. “Y-you absolute blistering idiot! Throwing away fifty precious years just like that for a mere fleeting moment—”

“There’s nothing precious about those fifty years,” Anastasia interrupted sharply. “I don’t know about your world, but in mine, it’s normal for us to live over a hundred years old or so. And besides, I don’t really have a future to look forward to if I remained there.” 

She blinked in surprise at the princess’ sudden change in tone. 

Anastasia grinned broadly and made a mock bow. “So, dear Saintess Rasputina—I shall be in your care starting today. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!” 

“In my care...?” Hearing that, Rasputina felt like she just experienced a coup de foutreI'll try my best to explain the joke here :,) basically 'Coup de foudre' (foudre with a d) literally means 'a stroke of lightning' in French, so Rasputina was shocked; but it also figuratively means 'love at first sight'! HOWEVER, Rasputina corrupts the romantic expression entirely by using another French word, foutre (with a t)...; she pulled at her hair and screamed in pure vexation. “NOOOOOO, MY GOLD DOUBLOONS!!!”

 

 

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