Camille Miseria (2)
Getting transmigrated into a novel after leaving a massive comment on it.
By now the trope was so well-worn it was practically everywhere. And yet it remained one of the more entertaining genres out there. Stories about someone who loved a work enough to drop a novel-length comment—someone armed with that much background knowledge—getting dropped into the story, solving every problem, and saving everyone… those had always held a reader's interest.
…Except.
"Camille? What's the matter?"
The name Camille. That white hair, that face. I had no memory of a character like this in the work I'd read—the one I'd left that wall of text on.
So who the hell had I been dropped into?
"Um… where is this…?"
My throat was so raw that a lisp slipped out without my meaning it to. A thin, delicate, crystal-clear voice. It couldn't have been more different from the rough man's voice I'd had back when I worked construction—the one people used to give me what barely counted as compliments for, saying I'd be great at doing Gian impressions from Doraemon.
"…Camille. Do you perhaps… remember."
The middle-aged man suddenly seized both my hands and all but shouted.
"Camille! Do you not remember your own father?"
Father?
My dad doesn't look like this. This man was a completely different type from the father I knew, who'd be at home scratching his belly and watching baseball.
"…Uh."
This was bad. No matter how hard I dug through my memories, I had no idea who the man in front of me was. A fairly wealthy noble, that much I could tell.
His face twisted into something almost ugly, as if he were about to cry.
"Ah… how could this be…"
The two of us sat there, neither knowing what to do, when a light, bouncing little tread approached—nothing like the servants' footsteps. The door opened, and in came a cute girl with beautiful crimson hair tied neatly back.
"—Sister?"
I couldn't possibly not know that face. I'd looked at it, read about it, and drawn it for years without ever getting tired of it. She looked much younger than the version I'd spent so long drawing, but the original didn't go anywhere just because of that.
"…Daisy?"
"Sister? Sister!"
Daisy, whom I'd only ever seen in illustrations, was alive and moving. Not just alive and moving—she came running over in little hurried steps and threw herself straight into my arms.
Only then did I realize who I was, and where this was.
Camille Miseria. First daughter of the Miseria marquisate, and Daisy's older sister.
The reason I—someone who'd pored over every last scrap of this world's lore—hadn't recognized it immediately was simple. She was a character who only ever got a few lines of text, someone already dead by the time the main story began.
"Sister, are you okay? Does it hurt a lot?"
My heart was hammering. The voice of a girl I'd only ever read as text in a novel was ringing out live, right in front of my eyes. I couldn't find any of the viciousness or sharp temper I'd seen on the page, but that captivating hair and those looks were exactly the same.
"Daisy! What do you think you're doing? Camille's body is still—"
"It's all right."
If the girl in front of me was Daisy, and this middle-aged man was Daisy's and my father, then he was probably the former head of House Miseria. Calpin Miseria.
No—given Daisy's current age, this would be before "that incident," which meant he was still the sitting head of the house.
"…I-I remember now. Father."
"Really? Are you truly all right? Should I not bring the physician back for a thorough examination?"
"I think I was just disoriented from having only just woken up. I'm sorry."
So it really was an isekai transmigration. And of all things, I'd been dropped in as the closest blood relative of my ultimate favorite character, back in the days when she was still innocent and pure. I wanted to get up and dance right then and there.
If it weren't for just one little fact, that is.
The original never specified exactly when Camille dies… but one thing's certain: it's before Daisy enters the Academy.
"Father, what is today's date, if I may ask?"
"The date? It's the thirteenth of September, year 1089."
Daisy would enter the Academy three years from now. With the knowledge I had, I couldn't pinpoint the exact window of death, which meant I had less time than I'd thought.
"Mm… Sister…"
While I was turning that over in my head, Daisy—who'd burrowed into my arms—nuzzled her head against me with devastating sweetness. This was not of-this-world cute. This was the kind of cute that pulled a dad-smile onto your face whether you wanted it to or not.
"D-Daisy. That tickles."
"Ahem. Daisy. That's enough. Camille needs to rest."
When even Calpin joined in to stop her, Daisy reluctantly lifted her head from my arms, then took hold of my cheeks with a teary look.
"You suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed… everyone said you were in danger…"
"Yeah, I'm okay. So no more tears."
"Mm… you're really okay, right? You can't get hurt. Got it? Promise?"
After I hooked my pinky with Daisy's and made the promise, she seemed to feel better. She got up from her seat and trotted out of the room.
"You've grown quite a bit more mature since I last saw you. Camille."
"Ah, ahaha…"
Had he noticed something different in the way I'd so naturally soothed Daisy? Calpin's thick hand stroked my head this way and that.
"Did you happen to overhear?"
"If you mean about the mana core. Yes."
"…I see."
He must have been referring to the conversation he'd had with the man who looked like a physician, back when I'd first come to. People in this world were born with what amounted to a second heart: a mana core. Through it, they circulated mana—a second kind of blood—throughout the body, allowing them to use magic or reinforce their physiques.
"It seems Daisy ended up with a large portion of the mana core that should have been mine as well."
"This is my fault. I should have noticed even a little sooner."
Camille and Daisy, twins born from the same womb. During the stage of physical formation, for reasons unknown, a large portion of the mana core that should have belonged to Camille had been absorbed into Daisy. The aftermath of that was Camille's frail, sickly body.
A body that was excessively pale even accounting for ten days without food. Gaunt hair with no vitality in it, and faded, washed-out eyes. Mana wasn't called a second blood for nothing. In this world, having an abnormal mana core wasn't simply a matter of being unable to handle mana. It meant a body that took twice the effort just to move, that fell ill more easily than others, and that could barely hope for natural healing.
"I'm sorry. Camille."
Calpin quietly rested his hand on Camille's thin, light thigh. A constitutionally frail body. A younger sister who, unlike herself, had been born with an almost excessive blessing of mana. But I, now inside Camille's body, could feel it instinctively: even so, Camille had never once been jealous of her little sister, nor resented the parents who had brought her into the world like this.
"It's all right, Father."
At that answer, Calpin's eyes went wide. It felt different from every answer she'd given before. This wasn't the voice of someone who'd accepted death—someone who'd resigned herself to her circumstances and given her body over to fate.
In the original, House Miseria is ultimately destroyed. The older sister who died of chronic illness in a constitutionally weak body. The father who died in a terrible accident. And Daisy, who for unknown reasons grew jealous of Justia and was ultimately judged for it.
"So please don't worry. I won't give you cause for concern like this again."
I would never let it happen that way. I would protect that favorite character of mine—the one who'd been alive and moving in my arms with that innocent face and voice. Even if it meant colliding with the original story.
"…Sister, eat your porridge."
I'd made that grand declaration months ago. So why was I still wasting away in bed? And over a mere cold, at that.
I struggled to sit up and took a spoonful of the porridge Daisy had prepared.
"How is it? Sister? Does it taste okay?"
"Mm. It's really good."
I'd clearly told Calpin not to worry, and yet this body of mine spent more time lying in a sickbed than walking around outside. It was enough to make me wonder how I'd even survived this long.
"Ugh, the weather's so nice today. I wanted to go out and play with you too…"
"Sorry, Daisy. Once the fever goes down, let's go out and play together."
This was a world with no smartphones, no computers, no internet—but just getting to see Daisy's adorable childhood face up close every day was enough to wipe the fatigue right off me. This is what being a fan is all about. Yeah.
"You and I will be old enough for the Academy soon."
Daisy, who'd been sitting still watching me eat porridge, spoke up absently.
"Soon? There's still over two and a half years left."
"Two and a half years is soon, isn't it?"
"…I guess so."
Come to think of it, two and a half years wasn't that long. It had already been half a year since I'd fallen into this world after that comment-war with the author. Would two and a half years really take that long?
"What's going to happen with you being this weak? You're not going to be taking classes from a sickbed at the Academy too, are you?"
"Must be nice being so full of energy. You little brat."
Have you ever considered that the reason you're so energetic right now is because you ate up your sister's health?
…Of course I had no intention of telling Daisy that. I'd promised Calpin, and if she found out, she might spiral into a complete breakdown.
"Anyway, Sister, I heard they picked a new Saint candidate in the capital recently. Her name is…"
"Justia, right?"
"…Where did you hear that first?"
As expected, the world was flowing along the same course as the original I knew. Justia would be selected as a Saint candidate, and a grand banquet would be held in the capital to celebrate the birth of the new Saint candidate.
"Is there something on my face?"
"No."
"Then why are you staring at me like that? It's embarrassing."
Daisy met my gaze with a slightly uncomfortable look.
"It's nothing. I was just thinking about something else."
Naturally, various noble families would be invited to the upcoming banquet, and the Miseria marquisate would be among them.
And at that banquet, Daisy would cause a very, very big incident.