The New Isla
Lady Isla Ruby—that's the name I'm supposed to have here, in this strange new place that's completely different from the world I came from.
Back there, my world was just me—alone in my tiny room, studying day and night, chasing a scholarship to my dream college. I wanted nothing more than to start a life of independence, one I had always dreamed of.
I was a nobody in my world. No parents. No siblings. Nothing to love. The only thing I had—and still have—is me. I loved myself. I still do.
It's been a month since I woke up as Isla. Not the Isla I used to be—but Isla Ruby, the daughter of a Duke in this foreign world. Somehow, not only do I share her name, I also look exactly like her—a perfect mirror image.
So imagine my shock when I opened my eyes not to my cramped orphanage room of seventeen years, but to a luxurious, palace-like chamber big enough to house my entire old school.
At first, I thought this was some kind of prank—maybe some rich people charity project where they let orphan kids "pretend" to be royalty for a day. But I quickly realized how real this all was when her—no, my—maid burst into the room in tears, hugging me as if she'd seen a ghost.
That's when she told me: Lady Isla had been in a coma for fifteen days—after being pushed off her balcony by none other than her sweet little stepsister.
How cliché.
She was overjoyed to see "her lady" awake again. If only she knew her lady was actually an orphan girl from another world—a world she wouldn't believe existed even in her dreams.
I've read plenty of transmigration novels in my spare time, but never in a million years did I think I'd end up in one. And what's worse? I didn't even become someone important! No legendary heroine. No hidden villainess. I've become Lady Isla Ruby, a girl not even mentioned in the original story.
You heard that right.
Lady Isla—now me—is the daughter of Duke Phillip Schofield, who rules over a rather insignificant territory in the great Kingdom of Marsach. In the novel I've supposedly landed in, the actual story revolves around a poor, innocent princess who's tormented by her stepmother and stepsiblings because they don't want her to become the future queen.
The princess gets bullied relentlessly. She cries in silence. Nobody helps her—except the son of her father's friend, who secretly likes her. But instead of confessing like a normal person, he bullies her too, because that's apparently romantic.
Classic.
Eventually, after years of misery, the prince discovers the extent of her suffering and saves her, sweeping her into a happily ever after.
And me?
I have absolutely nothing to do with any of it. Heck, my father's dukedom isn't even mentioned in the plot!
Every transmigration novel I've ever read said the whole point of waking up in a novel world is to change the story, fix the tragedy, or become the powerful heroine. So why am I here? What's my role?
Will I ever even meet the princess?
For now, I've given up trying to answer that.
Because honestly? My own situation is far from a fairytale.
Let's talk about me for a second.
Lady Isla's life—my new life—is a mess.
First, I found out that my birth mother ran off years ago. She apparently didn't want to be the wife of a Duke no one respected. She left me behind like yesterday's news.
Second, my father? He barely acknowledges me. I'm nothing but a painful reminder of the woman who abandoned him. Maybe that's why, even after his current wife's daughter tried to kill me by pushing me off a balcony, he did absolutely nothing. No punishment. No justice.
And don't even get me started on my stepmother. She treats me like I'm her personal maid. And the worst part? The previous Isla put up with it. She actually listened to her nonsense.
Well, not anymore.
For the past month, I've played the part—acted exactly like the old Isla. Quiet. Submissive. Obedient. I needed to learn who my enemies were, and who I could trust.
But now?
Now it's time for the real Isla to take the stage.
No more quiet little lady.
I'm done playing nice.
From now on, I'm Isla Ruby—the girl who doesn't take anyone's crap rather makes them choke on it instead.