Chapter 3
Dazzling beauty.
It’s an idiomatic phrase, but she never saw anything like dazzling beauty in her life.
Until this moment.
“Hello, everyone!”
An idol?
She thought, but then she realized that their worldviews were different and calmed down.
“Long time no see! How are you all?”
Alas, this is the romance fantasy novel Male Lead.
As if to say, he walked into the room.
‘There’s no comparison.’
The boys she saw so far, all of whom were incredibly good-looking, no extras by any means, were in a different league. A title popped into her head.
‘The lord is handsome and composed. Grounded.’
“Good, Your Highness.”
“How are you, Your Highness?”
The room was instantly filled with the presence of Crown Prince Pession Allerman.
The figure, which seemed to speak of an entirely different creature, glowed with a halo.
“Now let’s go to lunch!”
“Lunch is ready for you, gentlemen.”
“I asked them to cook something delicious today, so you can look forward to it!”
“Wow-!”
The excited children rushed out of the room in a clamor.
Now she is the only one left in the room.
“No one really cares about me.”
She knew it.
She sighed heavily and stood up, only to be approached by one of the palace maids, who had noticed her presence late and looked surprised.
“…?”
“I’ll show you around.”
“…, please.”
The palace is a big place, but she can’t help it if she doesn’t know the way.
She walked through the silent corridors, not even the chatter of children, and glanced out the window.
She wasn’t hurt by the revelation, but it wasn’t pleasant to be left out.
‘I was determined, but…’
The Duke of Halbern’s one and only forbidden jade leaf.
It sounded like a very important young lady, but it wasn’t at all.
‘This world is a novel.’
A world where the protagonist is already decided.
Regardless of her status, she was given the role of an extra.
In other words, the best man.
“Extra…”
It wasn’t bad being an extra, the one no one paid attention to because they’d climbed too high and crashed. In fact, it was okay.
When you spend your whole life trying to have something you can’t have, and then you get frustrated and despair, you naturally become that person.
She didn’t want to be noticed anymore, she didn’t want to be special.
But…
“Still, isn’t this a bit much?”
This life she knew, even as an uncredited extra, was pretty bizarre.
“What was I expecting?”
When she realized she had been reincarnated, there was only one thing she expected.
A family.
A proper, close-knit family.
A family that loved me more than anyone else.
She briefly dreamed that she could have a family that didn’t expect anything from her, that just loved her for who she was.
But then, it was just another pile of crap.
It was unfair.
She doesn’t know who her mother is, let alone love her, and I’ve never seen her father.
And to top it all off, she was shunned by her family.
Why? Because she was the only blemish on the perfect Archduke of Halbern!
No, she wasn’t born because she wanted to be born!
Is there a time limit?
“Effective.”
She can’t have anything she really wants, and if she can’t have it in reincarnation, isn’t it hopeless?
She was tired. She is tired of trying, of striving, of everything.
She didn’t want to do anything.
“I don’t know. Let’s just live.”
And this became her new life goal.
***
Mealtime was a happy time.
Except for her.
Most of them didn’t even care that she came in late and sat down when the chatter was at its peak.
She feels like a bully.
The kids are full and starting to decide what to do next.
“What are we going to do today?”
“Let’s go outside and play!”
“How about we go for a run?”
Run?
“Or let’s do what we did last time. Let’s play fetch.”
“I like that!”
“That was fun!”
There was a flurry of activity and play.
The more she watched, the darker her expression became.
Won’t you all be considerate of her?
Haha, they won’t even remember that she exists.
Arellin in the original novel, and her in the past, tried very hard not to be ostracized from this group.
Despite her weakness, she went out and played with them and then collapsed for a week, and she tried to be friendly and make the friendship as smooth as possible.
She stayed in her room all the time.
She was lonely.
‘…’
So Arellin, and by extension, she found this time with other children her own age to be so precious and enjoyable.
She would be the first one to lighten the mood if it got dark, she would intervene if there was a fight, she would make sure they all got snacks and stuff.
“Oh.”
She hates it.
The corners of her lips twist in frustration.
She had enough in her life without anyone caring, hanging on and watching.
“Let’s go!”
“Whoever comes first gets to hide the ball today~”
“Okay, okay!”
Another rush of children scurried away. She sighed, looking down at her barely-eaten rice.
She glanced up.
One of the imperial maids, who had been concerned about her inability to fit in, asked her gently.
“Aren’t you going to the princess’s?”
“…I’m going now.”
She stands up and smiles, and the palace maid tries to show me the way.
“I can get there on my own.”
A worried glance turns to her.
She felt uncomfortable with this expected, ritualized politeness. The maid must feel sorry for her, too. She knows it.
She deliberately ignored the look and walked down the path where the children had disappeared.
The crown prince’s palace was spacious.
She headed toward the flower gardens and courtyards where the children usually played, and stopped short when she could no longer see the imperial maid.
“She’s not coming.”
Her gaze drifted to the bushes, another well-groomed path.
“Time to kill some time.”
***
A month has passed.
Wednesday, Friday. Collecting meetings. The schedule to the imperial palace was unchanged.
If there was one thing that changed, it was the way she treated the other children.
She watched them openly.
It didn’t matter, because she treated them like air anyway.
“Look at this, did the king give you a present?”
“Really? I got this last week.”
“What? When did you?!”
As expected, the popularity of Male Lead was through the roof. Every girl hoped to marry a Male Lead.
Is that why? She noticed a little nervousness in the girls that she hadn’t realized before. Mmm. Cute.
“Cade says he’s already sensed an Auras.”
“That’s amazing. He’s slower than you, but isn’t he a genius?”
“What’s the big deal about feeling Auras?”
“What? You think you can feel Auras?”
“No, not really, but…”
“My uncle said that if you’re as good as you are, you might be able to become a Sword Master before you come of age!”
“That’s great, I’ll have to work hard too.”
“Me too, me too!”
It was cute to see a bunch of unblemished children playing with each other, probably because they were all from the nobility.
Apart from that, it was funny to see them fighting amongst themselves without realizing that they couldn’t fake their origins.
Still, as someone who was once on the threshold of adulthood, it was cute.
Playing with them like their peers was impossible, even if they were reborn.
‘Peaceful.’
She never had time like this before because she was always busy with lessons, so she felt like she was on a holiday somewhere, just people watching and relaxing.
‘When did she appear…’
Chloe, the heroine of this novel about a girlfriend’s obsession.
Although her family was Korean, she had a dazzling talent.
A magical talent of epic proportions.
The young prodigy is brought to the attention of Empress Ageni, who has a penchant for capturing talent in a mantle.
‘It was a cute, innocent, adorable story.’
She remembers it being uncomplicated and full of crazy love triangles.
“Yeah, this is it.”
She vowed to be the first person to enjoy their crazy romance.
And so it was. This is what it’s like to be the first row of the back room romance fantasy novel!
Well, maybe not the back corner, but it’s still an intuition.
The real winner is her.
“What shall we play today?”
“Let’s play the same game we played last time!”
“Let’s play ball today!”
“Let’s play knights, let’s play knights!”
She shrugs as she listens to the chatter of energetic children.
When they went off to play, she hid where no one could see her and waited for this time to end.
It was nice not to have to look for anyone.
Today, she sat in her secret place, still and still, looking up at the sky.
Being alone voluntarily felt different from being alone because she was excluded.
It’s freeing and lonely.
Sometimes it was a little miserable hiding from anyone, but it was a hundred times better than trying to fit in.
It’s easier than trying to fit in and burning her liver trying to be liked.
It was nice to just be alone and let time pass.
It’s calm, and she feels like all my thoughts are gone and she is just the scenery.
She don’t get much time to be alone like this in the Duchy.
‘The first play will be over by snack time, so we can sneak out in two hours.’
She sat down under a large tree and watched her surroundings. If she was lucky, she would occasionally catch a glimpse of the white cat that lived in the palace.
She only saw him twice, but he’s so cute that she fell in love with him at first sight.
Whenever she saw it, she was in a good mood for the rest of the day.
Who do you think owns the cat?
Do they belong to the Empress or the Monarch?
Unusually, the Empress is not called a princess, but a monarch.
The imperial throne is also passed down through a contested succession, and Crown Prince Pession was only seven years old when he was recognised for his talents and cemented his position as crown prince.
In many ways, he’s a bastard.
That’s what she was thinking as she sat clutching a cat’s favorite treat behind the backs of the imperial maids.
A rustle in the bushes made me look up in delight.
‘A cat!’
And…!
“Huh?”
She made eye contact with the crown prince.
“…!”
“…!”
Deathly silence.
She panicked.
Why is the crown prince here?
