Chapter 2
This Princess was infamous from an early age. You don’t need to hear it to know that she was so bad that her courtiers shuddered at her from afar, and her loving family gradually gave up on her.
“You shouldn’t be dead. Why don’t you go outside and take your mind off it?”
“Hmph, a Princess cares about my heart…! I can’t believe it.”
I nodded in understanding and stood up.
“I’ll leave you to it, but if you ever need me, I’ll be here.”
Norman realized it was time to leave for real, and with a tear in his eye, he left with lightning speed.
I heard the door close softly behind me. The sound of my dress swishing as I walked filled the room.
‘Thank goodness, everyone understands that it’s just a late blooming Princess, so I don’t have to make up a reason…’
Soon my steps stopped in front of a large mirror. A still unfamiliar face filled my vision.
Long, wavy platinum hair and big eyes that seemed to hold an ocean of sparkling emeralds. A beautiful girl, full of freshness, locked eyes with me.
‘Alicia Ashtad.’
The youngest Princess of the Kingdom of Ashtad, struck by lightning seven years ago and left in a coma. This year, when I turned eighteen, my heart suddenly stopped beating completely and then started beating again, and I woke up in that body. To a stranger who wasn’t even mentioned in the original story.
But what stunned me more than that was the realization that the year Lari died was seven years ago today.
‘Seven years passed between my death and my resurrection in another body.’
At first, the seven-year gap didn’t seem real. The shock grew stronger as I searched for news of Thierry.
The boy, now twenty years old, had ascended to the throne three years earlier, exterminating the Imperial Family and becoming a ruthless tyrant.
‘That gentle child… He used to hold my hand at night because he was scared…’
Did he meet his mistress, and that’s how he became Emperor? Was the original story like this? I don’t think so.
“Yes. If the original story had gone the way it did, I wouldn’t have been questioned, and the villa was off-limits to outsiders in the first place, so it didn’t make sense to sneak in unless you had a plan.”
During the six years we stayed there, no one took any interest in us, not even Thierry’s father, the Emperor. The cottage was like our own fortress, where no one visited, and then, out of nowhere, someone came and killed me.
Judging by the fact that Thierry grew up unharmed, it was clear that they were after a mere maid, not the Emperor. By some strange coincidence, I now woke up in a different body, but my death was too close to be considered a blessing in disguise.
And a second possession.
I knew I had to look into this weird phenomenon, but I didn’t know where to start.
“… Huh, that’s a headache.”
I can’t do it right now, but at some point, I’m going to have to secretly find out about the situation at the cottage, and I’m not sure if that’s even possible.
Who was the intruder who killed me seven years ago, and what happened to the cottage after that. These are all questions I can’t figure out on my own, so I’m just stuck.
But one thing is clear to me. My life today is completely different from the original story.
‘I guess that’s a good thing.’
For a while, it was a feast of question marks, but on reflection, I realized that cutting ties with Thierry wasn’t a bad way to go.
I had a good relationship with Thierry, but it was only because I was trying to save my life.
‘It would take one last promise to stay together… But that’s a promise that will naturally cease to exist when Thierry grows up, and when he meets the original heroine, he’ll be busy making love to her as a young maid or something.’
I’m now a Princess in a kingdom that has nothing to do with the original storyline, and Thierry has risen to power and built his own Empire.
Time has changed many things, and it was right that we shouldn’t look back on a relationship that ended as we each forged ahead in our respective places.
‘We’ll get along.’
But as if that weren’t enough, her relationship with Thierry continued to be torrid.
***
“There might be a war?”
“The Kingdom of Tael fell last year, and they say ours is next on the list.”
“You can’t be serious, coming all this way to…”
“Or maybe you’re lucky, Emperor Podia is looking for something.”
I was on my way to the dining hall. The chatter of the maids in the corner hallway caught my ear.
‘Emperor Podia, Thierry?’
I slowed my pace and crept around the corner.
“What are they looking for?”
“I hear he’s looking for information on the elves.”
“Elves? Isn’t the elven race long gone?”
“I thought so, but the way he’s been digging around, I wonder if he’s onto something. Anyway, I’m worried that that warmonger is really going to try to get in here.”
Far from just gossiping, there was genuine fear and a deep sigh in the handmaid’s voice.
“They say he’s a tyrant who will go down in history, but it’s scary to hear.”
“They say he went mad when he was young, that he drank blood instead of bread…”
The maids’ chatter grew more distant. Suddenly, they were quiet.
‘Do you think Thierry might come here, too, to war…?’
I stared off into the distance like a stiffened man.
‘Heh, it’s probably just a rumor, there’s gossip everywhere, haha, ha…’
I tried to laugh it off, but my face grew sullen.
‘What happened to Thierry, what happened to him, what happened to that cute little boy?’
I know Thierry wasn’t destined for an easy life.
But as casual as I am about him now, I can’t help but see in my mind’s eye the gentle sparkle in his eyes as we spent six years together, day in and day out, starting at the age of seven.
And even our first meeting.
“I’m Lari, and I’m at your service, Your Highness.”
Though royalty, Thierry has been alone since birth because he is a bastard. Crumpled clothes, unkempt hair, and sadly hollow cheeks.
I was uneasy at first, knowing that the future Thierry would kill me, but as soon as I saw the fragile child, that thought flew out the window.
I turned to face Thierry, who was staring at me with an emotionless face, and smiled.
“May I hold your hand?”
Slowly kneeling down and locking eyes with Thierry, I asked cautiously and waited patiently for an answer. I held out my hands, palms facing each other, and held them for a moment for Thierry to place his hand on mine.
“…”
I don’t know how much time passed. When my legs started to go numb, Thierry’s hand brushed against my fingertips.
“… Thank you.”
I was trying to push his boundaries, but he reacted faster than I expected. For a moment, I thought I might be ignored or rejected, but then I wrapped my arms around his tiny hand, not wanting to let go.
I felt the warmth of her hand, like I was waking up from a novel and realizing this was real.
I could feel it at that moment. I realized that I was never going back to where I came from, and that I was truly alone.
This is my reality from now on.
Feeling like I was on the verge of tears, I squinted slightly and muttered to myself.
“It’s warm.”
The warmth of another’s body, the first thing I felt after waking up in a strange world. The gray eyes staring back at me reflected my own, almost crying face. The gray eyes staring back at me reflected the emptiness on my own.
On impulse, I whispered to him.
“Your Highness, you are with me now.”
Thierry stared at my smiling face, trying to hide his trembling lips, and then nodded weakly.
“…Yes.”
A muffled voice whispered in my ear.
***
I rubbed my forehead with one hand, trying to clear my expression.
“At this rate, I wouldn’t recognize you if we bumped into each other.”
You’re so different from the you I know, I muttered under my breath and started walking away.
But I didn’t get far before I stopped in front of the carpeted center staircase.
‘Ugh, why are there so many stairs here?’
I had been traumatized by stairs since I was a Lari because of a fall in my past life.
I’m fine going up, but I’m scared and anxious going down because I’m afraid I’ll lose my footing, so I have to hold on to the handrail and go down slowly.
In the villa I stayed in with Thierry, it was fine because it was on the first floor, but here the bedroom was on the second floor…
“Your Highness, are you holding my hand so I don’t fall?”
“…Yes.”
A cute little head nodded in response.
I didn’t go often, but sometimes I had to go up and down the stairs to clean the second floor, and Thierry must have noticed my anxiety about the stairs, because every time I stood in front of them, he would come over and grab my hand with his fern-like hand.
‘It was so pretty… It was also cute how he stood there stunned. You must have grown up to be a very handsome man.’
My heart instantly melted at the memory that kept popping up. It wasn’t like this when I woke up, but maybe it was because of the rumors that I might run into him.
‘No, no! Let’s get a grip. If we do run into each other, it’ll be at the worst possible time. It’s better for both of us if we don’t see each other.’
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, then took a deep breath, gripped the stair handrail tightly, and carefully placed one foot on the landing.
***
A month had passed, and the meal was still awkward.
I didn’t adapt to the first time I came to this world, nor to sit at the table and eat with many people. In addition, the family members who reacted burdened to my every move made this place more burdensome.
“Alicia.”
“Yes?”
I lifted my eyes to stare at the handsome, thick-lined man sitting across from me.
He was Fadel Ashtad, the older of my two brothers, with platinum hair and emerald eyes like mine.
“Your walks have been longer than usual. Are you sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard?”
“It’s okay, I’m just taking it easy on myself.”
I replied with a faint smile, and Fadel gave me a strange look.
