"From now on, your name is Lady."
Sleek platinum blonde hair, a keen pair of lavender irises, towering height paired with a toned figure, and a well-developed frame - seeing these striking features alone, anyone would think that the current head of the ever prestigious Mireille Group was a human masterpiece that was intricately chiseled by the goddess of beauty herself.
Maximilian Mireille.
Not only does he have a stunning appearance, but he also carries a prepossessing presence. He's a fine-looking man in his early thirties, seemingly too stern and serious that he may as well be the perfect definition of stoicism. That impression makes itself especially known to the six-year-old as he sits behind his office desk and stares down at her, expression cold and indifferent.
He is staggeringly handsome, indeed, but all the little girl can think about at that moment is how exactly it is possible for an ass like him to have such a pretty face.
'What a jerk...' was the first thing she thought of on her first time meeting her adoptive father.
'Who the heck would name their daughter 'Lady' without a second thought? And while looking at her like she's his pet at that?'
In some ways, she knows that she's close to a pet as far as labelling goes.
Golden yellow hair and amethyst purple orbs - features that closely resemble his, and she possesses them, apparently. They look so alike that they can be easily mistaken as real father-and-daughter. Because of that, she has been adopted by this big shot and is given one certain role that's related to the purpose of her visit in the conglomerate's main headquarters today.
That is to act as its CEO's illegitimate daughter.
Not adopted. But illegitimate.
In other words, Maximilian wants a six-year-old girl to lie that she's his biological child. It's not just lying, though. This is bound to turn into a full-blown pretension as there are several rules that must be followed - be quiet, be polite, be obedient, be ambitious, be a Mireille.
Be Lady.
'All this trouble for an out-of-school orphan just so that this pretty-ass-guy can stay single forever...?' she pondered with an incredulous look, trying her hardest to collect her thoughts together as calmly as she could.
'Yep. I guess I'm right all along, then. A CEO who doesn't want to get wed, the Mireille company name, this whole fake daughter act, and a bamboozled six-year-old whose name really makes her feel so unique and original - it seems like this world is indeed the same one in the novel I made.'
It hasn't even been a day since she woke up to this second life of hers, but it's already taking a toll on her sanity.
She remembers dying a slow yet painless death on her hospital bed at the age of thirteen - only to be reborn as the six-year-old adoptive daughter of a conglomerate president in a fictional world. It's so surreal and bizarre that it still hasn't settled down on her. She'd been out of it all morning, and before she knew it, she's already on a ride to the main headquarters - already on her way to officially meet her adoptive father.
'This sounds really crazy. I must be going crazy. Yet all I can do is to stay cool - to think about everything calmly...' she silently told herself, muting her surroundings and zeroing in on her thoughts.
'On the other hand, maybe this is just a dream.'
Never the bright and brainy one, she decides to get the easiest way out of this convulated situation - to claim that this all just a dream. There's no use figuring out the reason behind this strange phenomenon, especially since the remaining brain cells she has left can't even barely assess what's happening at that very moment.
Maximilian is talking.
She can't get what it is. She doesn't know what it is. Yet she can tell that it's important.
"It's been a month since you left the orphanage and started living in my place, right? We hadn't seen each other since then, and I could only give you a name now."
On second thought, maybe it's not that important. She would've been better off not hearing that, especially the last part. It's too late now, though. Her day is perfectly ruined because of that fun little trivia of his.
What a caring father, she wanted to say then.
"You'll be meeting the other members of the family, too. There'll be a dinner party tonight. Remember that this is very important. It's the first time I'll be introducing you to other people, after all. So, be in your best behavior, and do as you are told..." Maximilian ordered with a strict gaze and an austere tone.
"I expect that you'll do at least a satisfactory job. Don't waste your one month of training. Proper etiquette and the likes - I believe you've had enough time to learn about them."
The old her may have had, but the new her hadn't at all.
Meeting the other Mireille's today is news to her - a bad one, perhaps, considering that one Mireille already seems like a handful. She has not even registered everything yet, and she still feels like this whole thing is only a dream. What she needs right now is to stay in one place, grab some pen and paper, and write down all of her thoughts in order to better understand what's going on -
Not attend some dinner party with some filthy rich folks.
"Why aren't you saying anything? I said that your official introduction tonight is very important. You have to tell me that you understand," Maximilian muttered, displeased to find his adoptive daughter in a daze.
Of course, she understands.
Lady's successful debut as the antagonist of the story is important for the progression of the plot as well as his character development. However, waking up without any memories of the past Lady is quite troubling - it's like waking up in some survival game with some shitty ass luck and realizing that she's already too late to avoid a death flag.
For now, though, she has to put that one aside - there's a bigger concern to deal with.
"What are you doing?" Maximilian asked, baffled.
Out of nowhere, she walked closer to him and stood before his office desk. He looks down at her with a brow lifted, expecting that she'll say something. Little does he know that it's not only him who have priorities. Even she has those - and one of them is making sure that she is not really dreaming right now.
"Excuse me for a moment."
And with that, she slams her head on his office desk, throwing him off guard.