“I’m done fixing the roof!” A thin, sleek body jumped down from the roof. It was Irina, Asha’s mother, wearing an old shirt and trousers, wiping her sweat. Asha handed Irina the linen she was holding. It was the softest piece of cloth in the house. Even if it was still really coarse.“Oh, Asha, did you come outside to see me?”

Asha was in the middle of contemplating whether she should sit on the steps in front of the door and wait until the roof was fixed to see her, but Irina lifted her up before she finished thinking.

“Irina, you did a great job.”

Irina, who was holding her daughter, went inside, while her father Yuriel, came out of the kitchen holding a ladle.

The one who was in charge of cooking today was Yuriel.

The bottom part of the ladle Yuriel used was almost all worn out and would probably not be able to scoop out anything besides the solids in the soup tomorrow.

The old table was shiny, perhaps because it had been used for more than a decade.

Yuriel put three bowls of stew and a coarse loaf on the table with a proud face. Asha looked down at the clear stew with potato slices that floated to the top. She could see a few pieces of meat. It was meat that Arten Juvanne, a harpist invited by my parents the day before yesterday, had brought as a gift to help the needy family. “Tonight’s dinner is very rich.” Yuriel sits down and lifts Asha several times, sitting her on his knees.

This is half the reality of the fact that there are only two chairs in the house. The other half was that they cherished the fact that the child was only ten years old.

“Mr Arten gave us such good meat! Does our princess want to have a try?”

The bowl was small, but it contained the most ingredients.

“A—hm.”

“Aigoo, you’re eating so well.”

As Asha emptied the whole bowl of stew, the slices of bread also went into her mouth.

Asha tried to give her parents the bread several times, but it didn’t work.

Irina fed a handful of dried fruit from her neighbours to Asha for dessert and looked at Yuriel.

“By the way, Asha will have her spirit ceremony soon. If it’s only the two of us holding it…”

“Since brother Maxim is helping us, he said not to worry too much.”

“Then Asha will have it with Dimitri…”

“N-No, Dimitri is…”

Yuriel’s words drifted off in a pause. Irina seemed to get what he was trying to say.

Asha, who had been listening to her parents’ conversation, tilted her head.

“Dad? What’s a spirit ceremony?”

I’ve heard the name Maxim come out from Yuriel’s mouth several times.

He’s a person who often helps our poor family. Dimitri is probably his son.

‘Thank god he’s not a swindler.’

Until two years ago, there were several occasions where innocent parents were tricked by a merchant speaking some bullshit.

They haven’t been back ever since Asha put laxatives in the new merchant—no, scammer’s stew.

“We were talking about a new friend that is coming to meet our princess.”

“Friends? I don’t need friends.”

Asha tried to stop herself from saying that, but it was too late.

Yuriel and Irina’s eyes started to get moist.

“I, I’m serious, I really don’t need any!”

“Our princess…”

A shabby hut on the outskirts of this rural village. Compared to those living nearby, Yuriel and Irina, who were both undoubtedly poor but still somehow seemed noble, were like foreign beings.

Their reluctance naturally came down to their only daughter, and even up until she was ten years old, Asha still didn’t have a decent friend of her age.

Yuriel and Irina never gave in to poverty or hardship.

However, occasionally, on days when they thought that they were the reason their daughter felt lonely, they would start to tear up like this.

“Dad, I’m really alright! I really don’t need friends. Spirit ceremony? I don’t need one either!”

I don’t know what it is, but when I see my parents worry, it seems as if they were about to spend a lot of money. Asha shook her head hastily.

Yuriel lifted Asha up quickly and rubbed their cheeks together.

“Don’t worry. We absolutely have to hold the prettiest spirit ceremony for our princess!”

“Then I prefer white dandelions!”

“Then should I make a wreath out of a hundred white dandelions for our princess? And a ring to match it.”

At Asha’s words, Yuriel kissed her on the cheek, saying he would make her a flower crown and a ring.

And then in the next moment, Asha didn’t realise what had happened until the only door in the house had been broken and suddenly fell down.

There was not a single lie told when Yuriel called her ‘princess’.

At the sound of the door opening, Irina grabbed her sword.

“Please forgive our intrusion. We have something to say. We…”

However, while they were looking at the tip of her sword, the moment they tried to say something softly, Yuriel moved first.

“Ah!”

Yuriel began to run straight for the back door while holding Asha.

“D-Dad?”

For the first time in 10 years, Asha learned that her father was not just talented in drawing, writing, playing the flute and cooking, but also at running strenuously.

The back door which Yuriel pushed at heavily with his shoulders fell to the floor at once, the flustered people pausing and missing Yuriel and Asha who he had in his arms.

But it didn’t take long for the two of them to get caught again.

People in luxurious uniforms had already surrounded the nearby houses.

Asha held her breath and clung to Yuriel’s collar tightly.

‘W-What in the world? Military? Police? Journalists?’

“Dad, what…what’s going on? Huh?”

“Hic. Asha, our princess…”

“D-Dad.”

Yuriel hugged her and said in a bitter voice, as if bleeding, breathing heavily because of the sudden run.

‘Are we being taken away? Has the country finally decided to wipe out the revolutionaries?’

Asha swallowed, despite her dry throat.

Yuriel never made a scene, even in his own house. He was a meek person who was so sensitive that he could bear to part with his precious metals and hired musicians to listen to music.

However, there was only one instance when Yuriel was full of anger and raised his voice, and that was when he was talking about the country.

“That insane emperor! I refuse to breathe the same air he was in!”

A sip of wine for my father, who was horrible at drinking, surprisingly kicked up a storm.

There were a series of words that were harsh and not noble at all.

Taking into account the normally elegant lifestyle of both parents despite the circumstances of the poor family which obviously would not have been able to support it.

Ever since she was reincarnated, she had thoughts like, “Although my dad has a lot of self restraint, he must have run away doing something like joining a rebel army.”

‘What do we do? What should I do? No matter how much I reincarnate, what do I even do in this situation…’

I couldn’t see any way out at all.

Asha listened while trembling and held her breath while Yuriel hugged her even harder.

At that moment, the man who broke through the sea of men surrounding them and had been the first to come into the cabin appeared. to him stood Irina with a resigned look on her face.

At the moment Asha tried to call out to Irina urgently, he interrupted her first.

“I’m here to escort the Imperial grandchild, Her Highness Anastasia!”

Tears welled up in Asha’s eyes.

[ / / / ]

“We will now begin the entrance of the Imperial family’s direct successors of the spirit ceremony. Imperial grandchild, His Highness Illiya, His Highness Dimitri, His Highness Vladimir, His Highness Lucian…”

In the deepest part of the Imperial Palace is a small, isolated palace.

This palace, named Statten Palace, is only used for the ‘spirit ceremony’ of the imperial children.

A straight waterway through the entire stream was laid on the floor, and cold water flowed in from outside like an ice field, causing a cold chill to rise. In the middle is a small room that looks like an interrogation room.

In front of the room, her and other children around the age of ten had gathered together.

All of them were Asha’s cousins, this was the first time she had seen them.

“C-Cold…”

“Are you really His Majesty’s grandchild if you can’t even stand this sort of cold, Illiya?”

The short boy named Illiya who had said it was cold, shivered. In the meantime, the other boys chatted.

“Which spirit are you going to sign a contract with?”

“There’s still the Earth Spirit King and the Water Spirit King, so if we do well…”

“If I don’t do well for this, my mum won’t let me back into the house.”

“But who’s that?”

“Seeing that she’s here, she must be our cousin.”

“I’ve never seen her before.”

“How skinny. She’s thinner than a twig. Isn’t she smaller than Illiya? Then won’t she break as soon as I touch her?”

“Then she’ll make a contract with the spirit of a tree branch. Kekeke.”

But the noise made from the boys of her age did not even reach Asha’s ears.

‘This is a lie, right? A lie? A lie?’

Because Asha was busy swallowing her scream in her heart and gripping nervously at her collar.

Six days ago, Asha found out that she had relatives other than her parents. She was told when she got into the carriage to go to the palace. She knew four days ago that one of her relatives was the Emperor, the one who her father was constantly swearing at, “He’s a crazy man, I wouldn’t even spit in his direction.“ She knew three days ago that the Emperor had expelled almost all his sons from the palace, and that he had Alexei, the only son of his eldest son, appointed as Crown Prince.

Two days ago, she found out that Alexei had signed a contract ten years ago with the Fire Spirit King, Fafnir, at the age of five years old, thus becoming the Crown Prince. And it wasn’t until this morning that Asha was told that all of her cousins had already been training relentlessly for a decade or so in order to sign a precious spirit at the spirit ceremony.

The spirit ceremony that was scheduled to happen this morning! ‘This is all a lie, right?!’ Then, at that moment, Asha suddenly recalled a similar piece of work that she had seen in her previous life, well over a decade ago.

She couldn’t even remember its name now, whether it was a movie, a novel or a cartoon. But the only reason that she had remembered her past memories of that piece of work was because she had reincarnated. Asha also remembered seeing a few stories that were similar to that in such a novel.

But she didn’t think that she would be the main character of that said novel. “I can’t even remember what the title of the movie or the novel was, but it’d be useful if I remember what will happen in the story!’ Asha held back her tears that were about to burst. ‘You called me Asha. Asha! You called me Asha my whole life, yet you never bothered to tell me that my real name was Anastasia! Mom! Dad!’

You didn’t tell me I was that Anastasia, the Imperial granddaughter who lived like a poor commoner until she was ten years old, then after finally experiencing the first bit of sweetness in her life, immediately took the express route down the highway of despair and ruin! ‘What should I do? What do I do? What should I even do in this situation?’

All she had wanted to do in both her past and present life, was to bake cookies. She had no time to bake in her last life. All the money she had earned had been used to pay the living expenses of her younger brother and other family members. Then in the end, the money she had saved up to open a store was used to pay for her younger brother’s games.

Afterwards, she was struggling to save up for the store again, and ended up falling asleep at the end of the night. She had barely opened her eyes before she found herself in an old creaking crib.

Her hands were as immature and weak as a premature cub’s, and there was nothing she could see in sight.

A week passed by in a blur, but she still thought of it all as nothing but a dream. It wasn’t until another week had gone by that she finally accepted the reality of the situation.

‘So it turns out I’ve reincarnated!’ The fact that she had actually died, and after reincarnating, would have to make a fresh start, was slowly accepted as reality during her stay in the crib. The most important thing was that even after she had died and reincarnated, her dream was not wiped away or erased, and still remained the same. Whilst adjusting to her new life in the crib, Asha reflected on her dream. Asha didn’t know where she was in this new world, but she was greatly anticipating finally being able to do what she had always wanted to do.

However, even after she had turned ten, her wish still remained unfulfilled. She had never even seen butter or sugar in this life. And that was because her family was just that poor! But until then, she had thought that that was all there was to her story. It wasn’t until she was kidnapped by the Imperial guards and taken to the Imperial spirit ceremony, that she realised which desperately poor family she had reincarnated into! ‘Now, I finally know the reason why we were so poor. If I’m Anastasia, an Imperial Gandchild, then my father must be Prince Yuriel… He had run out of the Imperial palace on his own feet, with nothing but the clothes on his back, so of course he had no money.’

Everyone in the Empire had a contract with a spirit when they were around ten years old. The variety of abilities numbered as many as the citizens of the empire, however, it was still possible for commoners to gain the rarely obtained great power that would open up the door to success.

Because of that, every child who was in this period would experience some sort of nervousness and anticipation.

However, if someone signed a contract with a useless spirit, even aristocrats found it hard to be successful, let alone the case of the imperial family, where conditions were even stricter. Depending on the spirit which you signed a contract with, if they signed with one of the superior spirits, they would become the next emperor, and if not, they would be kicked out of the palace. So the only people left in the palace as of now, were the current emperor, who signed with the Wind Spirit King, and Alexei, the Crown Prince, who signed with the Fire Spirit King.

on their shoulders. ‘No, no. Asha, stay calm. There’s no way that’s gonna happen. It won’t. It won’t. It won’t!’ Asha denied it with all her might. The following was what she had remembered from her past memories.

An ordinary girl with the power of vitality and stability, meets and falls in love with Alexei, an unstable but powerful Crown Prince of fire.

Naturally, there are a countless number of obstacles standing between the two of them, but they overcome them together, the strongest of which was the Crown Prince’s cousin, Anastasia. Anastasia, who is allowed to stay in the palace due to a rare spirit she signed with at the spirit ceremony, comes back to bother Alexei and the female lead in every turn. In addition to the right to succeed the throne, she also had a brilliant spirit in her hands, so there was nothing for her to be afraid of.

But it wasn’t stronger than Alexei, and in the end, Anastasia, the Imperial granddaughter, met a miserable end as a result of her own actions. ‘But I’m not that Anastasia, am I? We’re two different people. So that’s why there’s no way it will end like that. Also, there’s a possibility that it’s not the story I know.’ At that time, the sound of a cane hitting the floor rang out in the hall and broke Asha’s train of thought. At the same time, two people entered the hall.

“His Majesty Mikhail, and the Crown Prince Alexei!” It was the sound of the attendant’s shout that resonated through the hall. As soon as she saw them, Asha turned her head away and swallowed her tears. ‘I was right…!’

It was the appearance of the Emperor and the Crown Prince. Despite his wrinkled face and thick beard, the Emperor was such a large and solid figure, he seemed to shroud the entire hall in his shadow.

Standing by him was a boy who looked around fifteen years old, who was looking down at the children in the middle of the hall, grinning with a mature smile that didn’t seem to match his age at all. The boy’s blonde hair was as beautiful as the particles of a star and his blue eyes were like the clearest shard of glacial ice. As soon as Asha saw them, she immediately knew that that was her grandfather, Emperor Mikhail, and her cousin Alexei, the Crown Prince. Looking at the two of them, Asha thought that the original work she had seen might have been a movie, not a novel. The reason being that the scene before her gave her a sense of deja vu, as if she had seen a video of it before.

“I knew it! I was right, I was right, what I read was right! But wow, why did she even think about fighting Alexei? He gives me the chills just by standing still.’ Are the people who have smiles on their faces, really smiling? Alexei, his eyes don’t soften at all. ‘No, that’s not right. That could happen. Imagine having carrot porridge and potato soup for ten years straight, then hearing that you’re an imperial grandchild for the first time.’

And if you were allowed to stay in the palace, that young kid might suddenly dream ambitiously… “No, no, no, that isn’t important right now, rather, what should I do from now on…’ At that moment, the emperor shouted. “Begin the spirit ceremony!”

[ / / / ]

Looking from above, everything adjacent to the south had melted down with the ash and rain and blended into the horizon. And just above the horizon line, was the fresh snow that had just fallen the day before. At that line’s boundary, a man sitting astride on a horse, stood on the border between a boy and a young man and looked down. Black hair fluttered in the north’s cold wind. Just above the pitch black hair, a bluish colour made an appearance. The purple eyes below seemed to reflect the icy light of the snow field.

At this place, the war which had interrupted the eternal winter, and silenced the sound of the wind, was now over.

And the man who was riding a horse, who had just come to this snowfield, was the one who had ended this war with his own two hands. Karno Neustadter, the one who had gone off to war at the age of fourteen and finished it all at fifteen years old. “Deputy Commander, we’ve finished preparing everything for our return.” A knight came up with a horse and said softly. The knight who was ten years older than Karno, was excessively courteous.

everything he touched would become ash.

“Let’s go back.”

“Yes!”

The knight who had been frozen stiff, followed Karno from behind. Karno did not look back.

[ / / / ]

“…Dimitri has been blessed by the Spirit of Candles!”

For something that was said to be a blessing, the reaction toward it was too lacklustre. Asha pressed her lips together, feeling sorry for herself.

As she thought, the Emperor’s expression while looking down at the imperial grandchildren has always been as cold as ice.

The Spirit of Candles, the Spirit of Glass, the Spirit of Flowers, and the Spirit of Rain had all made an appearance, but there was never any real happiness on her cousins’ faces. “The Imperial Grandchild, Her Highness Anastasia.” It was finally her turn. Asha opened the door, looking around. The floor was full of streams that all flowed into the hall, and as she stepped in, she felt a chill rise when her feet got wet. “Ugh.”

The water was so cold that she could almost feel her goosebumps rise. Asha closed the door first, then knelt down slowly in the pool.