*What do I have to do to get his majesty to love me?"

Atanasia stared the person in front of her with a face stained with tears. However her father, the emperor Claude only stared down at her with no emotions in his eyes.

"Do I have to be like Jennet? If then, will you love me? Just like how you act towards Jennet, gently calling my name with eyes filled with warmth? If I work hard than I do now......"

Her beautiful step sister. That lovely Jennet gaining glory that Atanasia has never had before, yet haven't taken enough and also stealing his dad.

Having the nerves to mention that name in front of him, she was already mentally messed up right now.

"Instead of throwing me out, will you welcome me with an embrace with those hands of your's?

"Never a chance even if I die."

"How come?"

However, Claude didn't hesitate to answer. He was not in the slightest surprised looking at the always calm daughter being that pitiful in front of him.

"I also am your majesty's daughter. I was here with you longer than Jennet has."

This took all of Atanasia's courage to beg her first wish, and was her last appeal. However, her king, her dad kept his emotionlessness 'till the end.

"Foolish human."

The hands that were gripping onto Claude's legs lost all it's strength and fell to the floor. The strong words that will make Atanasia's mind and thoughts skewed. It was cruel enough to make her ears bleed any moment

now.

"I've never had once considered you as my daughter."

The clear ocean blue stained eyes of Atanasia possessed a deep desperation...

-Chapter 8: Twisted Fate Ω

***

"Gasp*!"

Crazy.

The sudden thought of a certain part of a novel made me extremely speechless that I had dropped the ding-ding sounding thing. (Note: aka 'Baby Toy Bell' The shaky thing.)

Why did I suddenly have a thought of the novel I have previously read before? It was a romance novel she had a glance at when a customer left at the gaming centre she had previously worked a part-time-job at. 

The novel had a very irregular title and fitting to it well, the plot of this novel was also very irregular and childish.

Is it because the 18 year old princess who ends up getting killed by her own father's name is the same as mine? Argh.  I'm very unlucky. Shoo, shoo! Get outta my head right now!

"Jeez, what is it? Who's making me mad repeatedly dropping stuffs?"

Just then, the sleeping women sitting on a chair woke up due to that bell sound. Then she threw a stick at me. Obviously, this made no sense at all.

Repeatedly? I had only dropped it once! What else have I dropped to get this treatment. Also, babies drop stuffs frequently!

"Stop being noisy and play with this quietly."

Even so, you wouldn't even wash the toy that has been dropped to the ground? I don't know if it's a piece sh*tty world or are these people just simply not paying attention to me just because I am the lowly treated princess. I think I am a former princess... Sniff, I do not wanna believe it.

"Wahh!"

I had dropped the bell once again to the ground.

Even though I am a baby who can only crawl, this is just not right.

Just then, the bad maid started to calm me down. Even so, there was annoyance shown on her face.

"Why cry? I am busy since have a lot to sew. Here, I'll grab it for you."

"iswh. (This)"

I don't like this toy! I had already dropped it twice so it's dirty, moreover this is not my style! Even though my physical body is a baby, if you realize how old I am mentally, playing with this bell wouldn't be so fun!

"Is she sick of it now?"

She tilted her head a few times, then placed me who was playing on a carpet, back in the crib. She must have left off to the 'Maid Place' (Sorry, no words available to call this 'Maid Place'. My apologies!). If you are going to bring another bell, then don't even come back.

"Wah ngh."

I calmly lied down and shifted my gaze. When I did, I saw a hand so soft and squishy under the moving mobil.

Sigh. No matter how many times I look at it, I can't get used to it.

I was sure that I fell asleep after taking my sleeping pill... When I opened my eyes again, I was looking like this in this shape. Does this make sense? What is this, earth is not even a fantasy novel yet I have turned into a baby.

Moreover, the who maids who works for is me, who is the princess of this country. The world definitely went insane to it's furthest.

"Princess!"

Ah, this maid is always like this! Are you allowed open the door of a room where a baby is so suddenly and loud, and also scream as you want?

"The head maid had said that we are lacking budgets. Just play with what you have here."

The maid had forcefully made me grip the bell with my hand and went back to sowing.

"I won't try to calm you down even if you cry this time. I really am busy."

The words and her tone she chose to use was always very unkind and harsh.

​I. Am. A. BABY! Are you thinking that I would be able to understand what you are saying? Wahh, that is soooooo unfair!

Maybe this is it even for the real princess. Being an orphan in my previous life, I was grateful that I was born as a princess who had a gold spoon in her mouth, but... Why does it have to be a mistreated princess! Wahh*!

*I was an orphan.

An older girl from the same orphanage as I went to my past life once had told me that when I was a new born baby, I was wrapped in a piece of clothing and was laid there in front of the orphanage.

When I first heard those words was when I was a year before the age to enter the elementary school, February, and that older girl was at the age of 19, the age you'll have to leave the orphanage.

Since my mom didn't even give me a name, the head of the orphanage had used a phonebook (A telephone directory) to give me a name, 'Lee Ji Hye'.

When I heard that, I was like 'Okay, then.'. In the orphanage were a lot of kids who were just like me, and it was to late for me to feel the feelings for my absent mother. The eight year old kids from the orphanage weren't even a kid. 

In the small, and barely fitting orphanage, I could only fight with the orphanage kids for food.

So when I thought of the older girl who had left the orphanage, it gave me a small bit of hope and excitement to leave this cr*ppy place.

However, reality was not something that can know of just by your imaginations. Even more so for an orphanage girl who doesn't even have money, and... well, anything!

After leaving the orphanage, there was nothing I have not done to earn money. I've washed dishes until my hands went numb, and I've also worked at a gaming centre where there were cigarette smokes all over the place.

I've eaten out-of-date Korean sushi and had worked in the superstore. Not only that, I've washed cars under the burning hot weather and even got a heatstroke. 

I've dreamed of living as a normal student, like study and go on a date, but as for me, I didn't really have time to spare. I've only worked my life off, so I couldn't even set my gaze off my work for just a second.

Wow, there's really no hope for me. In the winter, I was scrammed inside my unheated house, shivering from cold and thought of stuffs like that. 

The very next day, I had work in the midnight but couldn't even sleep because it was cold. If this were the case, the summer was much better. I was worried I would get frostbite if I slept in this state. 

But while living, it wasn't just once I've stayed like this. It's been like this for days after days.

Leaving me with no choice, I've ended up begging the landlady and had the sleeping pill I've gotten the day before. The sleepiness made me leave all my worries.

And~ when I opened my eyes, I was a princess.

***

"Abwa."

Today was the same as any other days. For the whole day, I ate, pooped, and blankly stared at things. I was still confused if this was reality or just a dream.

"Our beautiful princess Atanasia."

What's fortunate is that there weren't only bad maids, but good ones too.

I smiled at the maid shaking the bell, playing with me. She was a young and beautiful maid with brown hair and pure blue eyes. She looked to be at the age of early 20s, and it seemed like maid who will care for me this month is this girl right here*.

*Why don't I have a nanny but a maid when I'm a princess? Pfft! That's because I was this certain mistreated princess.

"You should grow quickly and healthy."

She was so beautiful that when I first met her, just staring at her face would make my head go blank and drool. The innocent maid's name was the majestic Lillian. Ah, just how well her name fits this extreme beauty!

So I (mentally) call her Lilly for short. It's awesome to have a maid with such a beauty who would make people staring at her mind go blank. Sigh, isn't this already a successful life.

"Uwa, bah."

But calm sadness had eventually filled Lilly's face who was looking at me. Oh no, it felt like my heart was ripping into pieces when I stared at such a beautiful girl in front of me to look this sad. When Lilly looked at me, she would be reminded of something and would frequently make that face.

Sister (Korean people call any older people either sister or brother.), don't make that kind of face. You look the best when you smile.

"My my, princess. It's time to sleep."

But the happiness was just for a moment, by Lilly's statement, I ended up struggling in disagreement.

Telling me to sleep when the sun is up there in the sky, still very energized! Even though I felt sleepy when I had already slept for very long because I was a baby, this was a different situation. Play with me more. It's too boring here.

"No way. You'll only grow up young and healthy when you eat your foodies and sleep soundly."

My struggle did not work. Looking at me playing with the bell under her own soft 2 hands, she once again smiled.

"Lillian!"

At that moment, a voice was heard out of the room. That maid always do that. I'm weak and small so I get 'surprise surprise' easily!

Lilly, who also heard those words, had wrinkles form between her eyebrows. Her hands that were gently patting my chest in case I got scared made me feel good.

"Princess Atanasia, I'll go out for a moment and will come back soon."

I waved my hands on purpose of signalling have a nice moment. Even so, it will look like I'm struggling in her eyes. Sniff.

​Left alone, I rolled my eyes that were staring at the celling while lying down. I looked around the gorgeous room, and observed the patterns on the celling. Moving my eyes over more and more, the sparkly furnitures and decorations entered my eyes.

I was always curious when I saw them, but are those real golds? I'll have to try biting them later when my teeth grows. It's another story if I still am alive by then of course*.

"*Uya."

I couldn't help but shiver when I thought of the ongoing rumours about the human known as 'Dad' .

I have only gotten the informations from the maids, but I already knew that he was a huge psychopath. I tensed up every time the maids come to clean my room and whisper about him.

The place I'm staying right now was called 'Ruby Palace', where the emperor's concubines stay at.

In one words, it was the king's harem. However, one morning, he killed all the people from the Ruby kingdom.

The reason was unknown, however it was sure that something has bothered the emperor and made him kill all of them himself. 

My mother Diana was invited to the imperial palace banquet one day as a dancer, somehow attracted the emperor's attention, and gave birth to me.

Diana, however, unlike any other citizens, passed away during giving birth. She didn't have a chance to become the empress professionally and had only left the newborn me behind.

After that, that emperor hid himself and blocked me out of sight. The maids in the Ruby palace took care of me since then.

Hmm, when I mention it like that, this really is one sh*tty bean house. Put all the other matters aside for now but what is that damn dog emperor doing ditching his own child behind?!

Anyways, now I was living at the place where chaos happened.

Arrgh. I could not have a nightmare when I first heard about it. Leaving a baby like me stuck in one room... This was definitely a bad, bad habit.

But I was more scared of that emperor who I didn't even know his appearance of than the horrible things that had happened to this palace. Just like people who were killed in this palace, won't he go mad again, suddenly appear out of no where and kill everyone while saying 'You die!'? Including... Me?! This is great. What a great future I have just when I was born as a princess.

"Uwaa euu."

Ah, right. Have I mentioned my name before? In the past life, the head of the orphanage had given me a name uncaringly, but in this life, my mom had made it herself. 

That name was 'Atanasia' (Sorry, her real name is Athanasia, but I'll use Atanasia for some of my reasons.). Tremendously, my name had a meaning that was 'Unknown'.

I've heard it from Lilly from last night, but it was a luxury name for the lowly treated princess.

Of course, it had to be the same name as that unlucky bad-futured princess from that romance novel.

I wonder if a human known as 'Mommy' made this name, meaning for me to live long and happy within that beast emperor's hands.

Sniff. However it made me feel very wrong that the character Atanasia in the romance novel had a fate of a terrible death at the age of 18.

Moreover, out of all death incidents, why death by the emperor, her dad himself! It weren't like this before, but why do this romance novel keep popping up in my head after I have turned into a baby?

"Euuu euuu."

So when I opened my eyes, I was in fear from the thought of that human described as dad would visit me.

Click!

I thought I was going to die just then. It was fortunate that the ones who came in the room was none other than the maids from the Ruby Palace. The maids stared at me and whispered to themselves with complaint visible in their eyes.

"What's this, she's not sleeping."

"Do we really have to be here? She will not be able to move anyways."

"You know Lillian. So annoying."

Oh, there they go again. Whispering complaints while staring at me. Let's not do this to each other, we are all jammed in the Ruby Palace after all, right big sisters?

"I'll just think of it as resting for a while."

"Isn't she going to cry again?"

"Hurry swing the crib to get her to sleep faster."

It'll seem like I cry all day if someone listened to it. If there's any other babies who can cry any less than I do, then make them get here!

Lilly was worried that I wasn't crying as much and was just mumbling, but those big sisters would always whisper these stuffs whenever they come to see me.

I was pretty sure that they were treating me like this just because I didn't have any importance to the emperor.

Am I lonely because of it? Not at all! It was a dream to live as a princess like this. I would be able to play all day long even if I snatch some golds here and run off. So, please, forget about me. I don't want any of the attentions. I don't!

"She's not even an interest of the emperor, though her luck is good."

That was correct. Even though I was only fed warm milk in a bottle, since it was a palace, I would get 3 whole meals a day! Sleeping here was also very comfortable, adding to that, the room was filled with gold.

If this continues without me entering the emperor's eyes, I wouldn't have to worry about the lacking of foods. Even though if this repeats, this wouldn't be such an invaluable life.

If I grow up like this, I'll find a chance to run away after scratching (Means stealing/packing) some gold.

So let's focus on growing up first. If this was the case, eating and sleeping healthily and excersizing just like Lilly mentioned was very important.

Hiya hiya! I had kicked in the air with my legs to strengthen them.

"Even if that's the case, she's still very weak that she could die with a flick of a hand."

"True. Why out of all places were we hired here... Oh right, did you hear? It's a story about a ghost in the Ruby palace kitchen. It makes its appearance every night."

"Goosebumps. We don't know when we'll be in the ghosts, too."

Whisper whisper.

They kept on whispering while glancing at me from time to time. As for me, it wasn't that I didn't completely understand how they felt.

Even I, the princess of this kingdom was afraid to stay at a place where you could die any day. If I gain some valuables, I'll get out of this terrible place!

I once again motivated me of my choice.

***

"Eh he he."

I was very happy! When I smiled happily at the object in front of me, Lilly smiled gracefully as if she was very satisfied.

"Do you really like it that much?"

"I lwike iwt! (I like it!)"

Oh yeah, oh yeah! Uh huh, uh huh! Alright! Praise for my gold! How pretty it is!

Looking at my precious golden round ball, I was exited that I performed all my cuteness, loveliness, and charm. I was sure I looked attractive. When I laughed and rubbed my cheek on it, Lilly must be happy now too that she planted a kiss on my cheek.

Time went by and now crawling on the carpet wasn't as hard as it was before. Every time I crawled, I would always look at the gems and golds with round and sparkly eyes.

The walls had gems installed on it, and even the walls were gold. Wait, it is real gold and gems. It must be, right?

Anyways, seeing me reaching for valuables all the time, Lilly must have gotten the idea that I liked sparkly stuffs.

Since then, Lilly would bring other toys made of golds and gems and made my eyes go big and round in surprise. I thought that Ruby palace lacked of budgets and didn't care at all about my toys.

"I'll bring new toys later when you grow sick of them."

Lilly's face that was always beautiful looked more dazzling today when she spoke those words. Lilly, you are my everything!

"Gya. Uwaa."

I played with teh ball, crawling on the carpet. Lilly must have brought this ball for me, who could only crawl, to roll them on the floor.

I'll keep this well for later when I run off. Ah ha ha! Ahhh, drool!

Ruby Palace was very peaceful. I was uneasy at first, but as months went by, I realized that my dad, the sh*tty emperor stayed quiet and had stayed out of my sight. This was enough to prove that there was a possibility of him forgetting of my existence. 

Of course, the others who were scared of him coming to kill us all had calmed down a lot. However the rumours of the kitchen ghost stayed alive. 

I ate, exercise, and slept well that I was growing healthy and quickly. Thanks to Lilly's care for me, I never once suffered a major illness as I was growing nice healthy.

I still wanted to be able to walk soon. Because when I could, I could start collecting the valuables. I don't know if it's just me, but it seemed like the decorations in my room was disappearing one by one.

Did Lilly think that I would drop or lose it so took them away? Wahh. No. My precious. Hand me my precious gold back!

"Wahh!"

I stopped playing with the ball, and started crying to call Lilly.

My butt felt moist. Sniff. Embarrassing, but should change my diaper.

***

"The wizards from the tower possess strongest powers out of all the other existing wizards."

I was reading with Lilly the storybook with illustrations while in a comfortable position within Lilly's embrace. They called it a storybook, but it was actually a history book of this kingdom reduced into one storybook size.

For me, I had a lot I'm curious on of this place, so I listened to it calmly. However if it was any other babies of my age, they wouldn't be able to understand this difficult-to-understand plot.

Mmm. It seemed like Lilly was highly interested in child education.

The book Lilly was reading to me now was very thrilling, so I paid my fullest attention to the story with my sparkly eyes mode on. Something that caught my highest interest though, was within the following.

And that is the existence of wizards! Its said that wizards exist in this world! I had always thought of this world as not a normal U.S.A, however I really didn't think it would be this abnormal!

"Ish! (This!)" 

When Lilly was about to flip the page,  had stopped her hand by pointing at an illustration. In the illustration existed a tower covered with tangled spiky vines.

'"Depending on the might of the wizards from the tower, erasing a country from the map is known as not even a work for them."

I was thrilled of the existence of magic. I want to see it too! I want to see magic!

"That's why its said that they are freezing their own hearts." (Like a frozen heart.)

Ah, that's when I felt that this boring history book was turning into a real storybook. The black tower of the wizards Lilly was telling me about was intensely exciting.

"If ability, not a reason, and passion, not stoicalness is within a person's heart, than that strength can be used in a good way rather than for the bad."

"Woah."

"There's a story in the record of Obelia and the tower's wizards. The reason for why Obelia's current dynasties (Rulers) needed to rebuild it on the ruins was because the tower's wizards had destroyed Obelia."

This record have a big possibility of being only an exaggeration, but fun was still fun.

The things I have to do later in life had increased. I'll see magic with my own two eyes!

With my hearts thumping in excitement, I had listened to other stories Lilly read for me. It was until something had caught my very interest.

"Wats ish? (What's this?)"

What... Is this*?