The person who entered the restroom after me was none other than the Baron's youngest son, Jeremy Seybel.
The tall guy with red hair and a scattering of freckles stood right in front of me, and I stared at him in surprise. Honestly, I thought I had misheard.
"What... What are you talking about?" I asked again in a trembling voice.
"Wi-Fi," he repeated more confidently, "Cellular communication, roaming, YouTube... You know this, right?"
As the guy continued listing names of things that don't exist in this world, I just shook my head like a bobblehead.
"Yes..."
After my words, noticeable relief appeared on the face of the Baron's youngest son. "Whew... Thank God. So I wasn't mistaken."
"..."
While I stood frozen, as if hit over the head with a frying pan, this guy continued doing something completely unimaginable. In an instant, the heir of a noble family, observing all the rules of etiquette, finally managed to take off that mask. The next moment, tears welled up in his eyes.
"I knew... I knew I wasn't alone here!!!"
The next moment, the guy I had known for only a few hours suddenly impulsively embraced me. As if I were his long-lost sister. At first, I was stunned. But then, as if catching this wave of emotion, I also became emotional.
For a while, we just stood there, hugging and crying. It was like a madhouse.
"Wait... Are you saying you're also from there?" I asked excitedly. It seemed I still couldn't believe that what was happening wasn't a hallucination or a dream.
The realization that I wasn't the only person who had somehow moved into this novel made my heart beat faster.
"Exactly," the Baron's son sniffled, "And I'm so glad I got to meet you. I thought I'd be completely lost here..."
When we had both cried enough, the guy told me about his unfortunate fate.
As it turned out, Jeremy Seybel really did come from my world, moreover, we were even from the same country. We just lived in different cities. Rufus (that was his name in his past life) was an ordinary university student, just like me. So at what point did his life go awry?
And it happened like this.
"...That day, I was sitting in class as usual," the guy reminisced, "Actually, before this, I hadn't read any internet novels. But the deskmate I sat next to was into them. She wanted to get me interested in some fantasy novel, promised I would discover a new world... Well, basically, that's what happened."
Giving in to his friend's persuasion, the guy briefly glanced at the description and only peeked a little into the first chapter. That's where his acquaintance with the novel "Darker than Black" ended. Rufus fell asleep in class, and when he woke up, he found himself already here.
In his own opinion, this was terribly unfair. Unlike his acquaintance, who had read this novel from cover to cover and nothing happened to her, he was the one who wandered here by a random twist of fate.
I cleared my throat.
"Well, you know, there's generally little justice in this world."
Despite my attempt to cheer up the new acquaintance with these words, the Baron's son's face remained dejected.
I sighed. We leaned our backs against the tiled wall.
"You know, I feel like I'm going to go crazy here soon," I shared my dejected state.
"Never mind," Jeremy shrugged, "I've been in this position for three months already."
"Three months?" I asked again, "You've been here that long?"
"Yes," he nodded grimly, "But I'd rather forget. It's some kind of horror."
"Hm?"
The transmigrator looked at me eloquently. After that, he told me the difficult story of his new life. It seemed that right now he was pouring out on me all those experiences he had been holding inside all this time.
Like me, the guy had transmigrated into the body of a character who had no relation to the current plot. No, his situation was even worse than mine. The Seybel family belonged to the lowest stratum of aristocratic society, which promised not only poverty but also numerous family feuds.
Besides Jeremy, he had six older brothers. It was they who divided all the property among themselves, leaving the guy practically with nothing.
And while the elders fought for the inheritance and their father's title, Jeremy was always on the sidelines of this family. He had to wear his brothers' hand-me-downs, and there was no need to even mention any decent attitude towards him.
Despite the fact that Rufus had moved into this guy's body only three months ago, according to him, he had already "suffered enough."
It so happened that Jeremy Seybel was out of the race for the family inheritance even before his birth. There was no need to even talk about receiving the title of Baron in the future. At best, he might be able to build a career for himself and not die of hunger on the street. But...
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Here's where one problem intervened.
This guy turned out to be too stupid to pass the exams for the state academy. His physical abilities also left much to be desired for service in the Imperial Army. And thus... The Baron's youngest son turned out to be completely useless.
No wonder the poor guy had been bullied all his life.
Rufus had taken over the body of the young aristocrat at the most inopportune moment. Now his father was vainly trying to find him a match, to at least get a dowry from a bride for his inept son.
But no one wanted to get involved with such a loser. Thus, all the humiliations associated with rejections fell precisely on the lot of Rufus, who had ended up here.
In short, after listening to his story, I realized that my situation wasn't so bad.
We sighed heavily.
"Wait..." I suddenly realized, "How did you even figure out that I'm not from this world?"
"Well..." he scratched his cheek, "At first, I just assumed it."
"And why?"
I was curious how the guy could even come to such a theory, because in my view, I didn't stand out among the other local noblewomen. But Jeremy's answer literally dumbfounded me:
"You put your elbows on the table during dinner."
"Huh?.."
"And when you drank tea, you held the cup not by the handle, but by the body. No noble lady from this world would allow herself that," the guy remarked eloquently.
"..."
While I blinked in surprise, my initial astonishment gave way to realization.
If you think about it, there really was some truth in Jeremy's words. The local nobles absorbed manners and etiquette almost with their mother's milk. By the age of six, children were already trained to maintain posture and handle cutlery correctly.
Compared to them, I was, of course, a real country bumpkin.
"Besides, it was hard not to notice how you were tapping your foot under the table, like you were sitting in a clinic queue."
As Jeremy continued to list aloud my terrible manners, which I hadn't even suspected, my dignity sank lower and lower towards the ground. And here I was wondering why Yufil and the Duke kept glancing at me so strangely...
When the blush of embarrassment faded from my face, I deigned to inquire:
"Ahem... Okay. But how do you know all this?"
I was curious how a guy who had spent much less time here than I had managed to gather so much information about the local world order. Jeremy's answer was short and concise:
"Experience."
"Experience?"
"I haven't been here long, but unfortunately or fortunately, I've seen a lot..."
Unlike me, who had spent a year within four walls with minimal socialization, in the form of pointless conversations with nurses and a game or two of chess with the old folks, Rufus, although he had spent less time here, had already actively integrated into local society. At least, his father made him travel everywhere in search of a bride.
Does this mean I can consider him my "sunbae"?
In any case, since for both him and me, there was no way back, we could only accept this and live on. At least now we could hold onto each other.
We chatted for at least half an hour. Of course, from the outside, it might have seemed strange and even indecent: an unmarried lady and a lord alone in the restroom, and who knows what they're doing in there. That alone would be enough to start unflattering rumors.
But at that moment, we completely forgot about it.
Finally, when the joy of our extraordinary acquaintance had subsided a little, I asked anxiously:
"What will we do? The Duke and the Baron are going to force us to marry."
My transmigrator "sunbae" thought for a moment.
"Well... I don't think it's such a bad idea," he said unexpectedly.
"What?" I was surprised.
"Think about it. Those old men will eventually force us to get married sooner or later.
And I think it's better for us to do it than with anyone else."
"Are you serious?!"
"A fake marriage," Jeremy concluded, "In my opinion, the best way out of the situation. You know, I'd rather marry you than some old woman for her wealth..."
I couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Well, what? That old fart actually had that option too!"
Well, Jeremy's proposal didn't seem so strange to me. Given the current times, we couldn't just tell our parents we wanted a "free life" and pursue self-development or hobbies.
Marriage was a necessary attribute of modern society. And since the Duke insisted on marriage, I saw nothing wrong with entering into a union with someone I knew at least a little. Besides, this guy was from my world, and that in itself was a great stroke of luck that we managed to meet each other.
At least, it was much better than tying my life to some random person. What I feared most about the idea of getting married was precisely this kind of unexpectedness. It's literally getting a "pig in a poke."
If I ended up with a domestic tyrant or another aggressor, I wouldn't be able to divorce him. Divorce here was considered almost a sin. So I really had only one chance.
And Jeremy, it seemed, thought so too.
"Okay. Then let's just support the old men in this endeavor."
Having made this mutual decision, we were about to return to the dining room together. But we unexpectedly stopped just before the entrance, hearing noise.
"...bear in mind that our family is not a simple one!" the Baron was boastfully saying, "The House of Seybel has a centuries-old dynasty. Therefore, my son deserves better treatment."
The Duke de Walte let the obvious hint about increasing the dowry go in one ear and out the other.
"I understand your concern. Of course, we will do everything in our power."
"We are willing to turn a blind eye to the bride's shortcomings. But on the condition that all wedding expenses are fully borne by you."
Jeremy and I looked at each other anxiously. The tension in the living room was growing.
The usually calm and imperturbable Duke de Walte put his knife and fork down on the table. A dangerous glint flashed in his eyes.
"Lord Seybel, I advise you not to forget your position."
"What?"
"The de Walte family initiated the engagement," he reminded him, "We set the terms, not the other way around."
"You initiated it, and our family accepted the offer," the Baron declared, "But we can also change our minds. Bear in mind, you're not the only one who should benefit from this."
"..."
"We're already doing you a favor by accepting a defective daughter-in-law into the family," the man responded graciously, "It's perfectly normal for you to pay us extra for it. After all, who else would do it?"
"....."
Actually, I wasn't offended by these words at all. After all, I was the one who spread all these rumors. But the Duke's patience was beginning to run out.
"Are you implying that the de Walte family is unworthy of you?" he chuckled in an icy tone.
"You exaggerate, Duke..."
"It seemed to me that's exactly what you meant."
"I..."
"Indeed, what did I expect, getting involved with such trash?"
"....."
Jeremy and I froze, hiding behind the wall, our mouths open.
It felt like we were watching a dramatic scene unfolding in a TV series. Or a brawl of drunken fathers at a wedding.
Victor de Walte's last words finally heated up the atmosphere.
"What did you say?!" the Baron exclaimed angrily, rising from the table.
"I think you heard perfectly well."
And the next moment, before we even had time to understand when it happened, they had already attacked each other.
The scuffle continued for several minutes, and the winner, as expected, was the Duke de Walte. He pressed the Baron's face to the table and twisted his arms behind his back.
We gasped at such a turn of events.
"Rather than get involved with such rabble, we'd better not accept any offers at all," the Duke hissed.
Baron Seybel, pinned beneath him, cursed indignantly.
"You...!"
"I've said what I had to say. As long as I live, I will never allow the de Walte family to be trampled into the dirt."
And in this unforeseen manner, my possible engagement was cancelled.