Author: Plutos

Source: woopread translations

“What do I have to do for you to love me?”

Athanasia looked up at the person in front of her with a tear-stained face.

But her father, Emperor Claude, coldly looked at his daughter, who was crying at his feet.

“Should I become like Jannette? Then will you love me? Then will you warmly call my name? If I just work harder….”

Her beautiful step-sister. As if it wasn’t enough to take what little honor Athanasia possessed, she also stole Claude’s love.

Athanasia was at her limits. She didn’t know what else she needed to do.

“Will you hug me in your arms instead of pushing me away?”

“Over my dead body.” “How come!?”

But Claude didn’t hesitate. He didn’t even blink at the sight of his usually obedient daughter crying with despair.

“But I’m also your daughter! I was with you for longer than Jannette was!”

Athanasia begged with all the courage she could muster. This was Athanasia’s first and last plea. She had never asked for anything else. But

her king, her father, was cold like ice to the very end.

“Foolish being.”

Claude pushed away the frail hand that was holding on to his leg. He looked at her with contempt. A cruel voice crept into her ears.

“I’ve never considered you my daughter.”

Athanasia felt more desperate than she ever had in her entire life. A deep despair was visible in her glimmering blue eyes.

~~~~~

*** “Huh?!”

This was crazy.

She dropped the rattle that she was holding because she was suddenly reminded of a scene from a novel.

Why did this unlucky scene from a book suddenly pop up in her brain? It was a book that she had snuck a look at when a middle school student had left it behind during her late night shift.

It was an immature and drab book that was fitting of its title.

Was it because her name was the same as the unimportant princess who had

died on her 18th birthday? Ugh, what a bad omen. Bad thoughts, get out of my brain!

“Ugh, what the heck. Why does she keep dropping it?”

A woman that had been soundly sleeping was startled up by the sound of a rattle hitting the floor. And she started to curse. Of course, I was baffled.

What was she talking about, I didn’t even drop it that much! And babies usually drop things easily, right?

“Please be quiet and play with this, miss.”

Wow, she was giving it to me without even wiping it? I didn’t know if it was because the knowledge of cleanliness was poor in this world or because she was looking down at me because I’m an outcast princess. It was

probably the latter…sob, I convinced myself that it wasn’t.

“Uwaaa.”

I dropped the rattle again.

So the rude maid started to console me. I could tell she was annoyed.

“What’s wrong? I’m busy because I’m sewing. Here, I’ll pick it up for you.” “Don lik.”

I don’t like this! It’s dirty because I already dropped it twice, and it’s not my taste! I know I look like this, but do you think I’d enjoy this with my current mental age?

“Is she tired of it?”

She placed me back in the crib and left. She probably went to the head maid. If you’re gonna come back with a rattle again, just don’t come back at all.

“Eung.”

I lifted my hand in front of the spinning mobile and looked at it. What a light and chubby hand.

I still couldn’t get used to it. I had definitely fallen asleep after taking some sleeping pills…but when I woke up, I was in this body! Did this make sense? I mean, we’re talking about real life situations here!

And from what I hear from the maids, I’m the princess of this land! This is

completely crazy.

“Princess!”

Ugh, that maid always does that! Does she have to barge in without knocking and start screaming? “The head maid said we don’t have enough funds. Just play with this.”

The maid forcefully put the rattle back into my hands and sat back in the chair to resume sewing. “I’m not gonna soothe you if you start crying again. I really am busy.”

I’m a baby! Do you think I’ll understand what you’re saying? This was so unfair!

I guess there were different levels of princesses. In my past life, I was an orphan, so it was nice that I was born as a princess, but did it have to be like this?

***

I used to be an orphan. An unnie [1] told me that I was found in front of an orphanage bundled up in clothes.

She was 18 and about to leave the orphanage, and I was 5.

I was abandoned without a name, so the manager of the orphanage named

me Jihye Lee after finding the name in his contacts list.

When I first found out, I was like ‘oh well.’ There were plenty of kids like me in the orphanage, and I couldn’t miss my parents since I never had them.

In the orphanage, children knew things that they shouldn’t know at their age.

I always had to fight for what I wanted in that crammed orphanage.

So when I was 18 and able to leave the orphanage like the unnie who told me about my backstory, I felt a sense of freedom.

But reality was harsh. I was an orphan who didn’t have any money or connections.

There was nothing I didn’t do to earn money. I worked at a convenience store, wiped cars at a car wash, and washed dishes at a restaurant.

I was pessimistic about my life.

I wanted to go to school like everyone else, but my circumstances didn’t allow me to. I was already overwhelmed from paying rent for a small apartment.

In the middle of winter, it was so cold that my entire body felt frozen.

I thought I would die from hypothermia because of the cold. I had already pulled several all-nighters because the freezing temperature wouldn’t let me sleep.

I begged the owner of the restaurant I was working for for some sleeping pills and barely got them. Once I took them, a wave of sleep lapped at my brain, and I slowly forgot all the worries and concerns I had.

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

***

“Da-da.”

Today, like any other day, I was trying to talk. All I did was eat and sleep so I didn’t even know how much time had passed. Sometimes, I thought I was dreaming.

“Our pretty little princess, Athanasia.”

But the one thing that comforted me was that not all the maids were mean.

I widely grinned at the maid who was rocking my crib. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She looked like she was in her early 20s, and she became my exclusive maid.

Why, you ask, do I only have maids and not a nanny? That’s because I’m an outcast princess.

“Grow up nice and tall, my princess.”

When I first saw her, she was so pretty that I actually drooled. Her name was Lilian, and she could pass for a teenager with her looks. Wow wasn’t this a great stroke of luck that someone like her was my maid?

“Ooah, buah.”

But Lily’s face was saddened. I became sad too, when I saw such a pretty face frowning. Lily often made this face when she looked at me. Lily, don’t make that face! You’re prettiest when you smile. “Oh, my princess, it’s time for you to sleep.”

I started to kick and whine.

The Sun was still in the sky, but she wanted me to sleep? I’ll admit, I was tired since I was a baby, but not right now. Play with me some more! It’s so

boring here.

“No, I can’t, my princess. You need to sleep well to grow up nice and tall.”

But my little act of rebellion didn’t work.

“Lillain!”

Suddenly, a loud voice pierced into the room. Geez, that maid was so loud! I was faint hearted because I was a weak little princess!

Lily frowned at the actions of the foolish maid. She softly stroked me because she thought I might have been scared.

“Princess, I’ll be right back.”

I waved my hand to say bye. Although she probably couldn’t tell what I was doing.

I looked at the ceiling once I was alone. A fancy chandelier and a detailed design filled my view. When I turned my face a little, I could see shiny

Furniture and expensive looking decorations.

Every time I saw that, I wondered if it was real gold. Once my teeth grow

in, I’ll definitely try biting that to see. Of course, if I’m still alive by then.

[1] Korean term for a female that’s older than you.

“Uwaa.”

My entire body quivered when I heard rumors about the person who’s supposed to be my dad.

The only information I had about him was from the maids, but that guy was a total psycho. It was so obvious what kind of guy he was when I heard the maid unnies whispering.

The place that I lived was called was the Ruby Palace, and it was where the Emperor’s concubines lived.

In other words it was the Emperor’s harem. But for some reason, one day, the Emperor killed everyone here.

No one knew the reason why to this day.

My mother, Diana, was a dancer who was invited to the Emperor’s royal banquet and she had caught his attention, but afterwards, she was forgotten by him and birthed me.

Diana was a lowly commoner, so she couldn’t even be an official concubine of the Emperor.

Then she died leaving me behind.

And since then, the Emperor’s sole bloodline, me, has been abandoned here ever since. And so I was raised by the mainds who were in the Ruby Palace.

Hmm, now that I say it like that it seems like we’re a real mess of a family. No, all else aside, just what in the world is the Emperor doing leaving his only child here?

Anyways, so I was living in the castle where a violent massacre had taken place.

Shiver. After first hearing that story, I had nightmares every night. You had to be really evil to put a baby like me in this place.

However, I was more scared of the Emperor I never met than this castle where literal horror stories took place. What if he was like ‘Oh yeah!’ and suddenly came over to kill everyone here? I just got to be a princess, but my life was already really hard.

“Ung-aung.”

Oh right. Did I already mention my name? In my last life, the manager of the orphanage had given me a random name that he found in his contacts, but in this life, my mother had named me herself.

And that name was Athanasia. It was a fancy name meaning ‘immortal.’

Lilian told me last night, and I thought it was an extravagant name for an outcast princess like me.

And it was also the same name as the unlucky princess in the novel

My mother probably named me that so I would be able to hold my ground and survive against the Emperor but….

Cough. But the Athanasia in the novel had died a tragic death at 18 and the name made me a bit uncomfortable.

And she died by the hands of her own father!

“Uhuh.”

So when I opened my eyes today, I kept on glancing over at the door in fear that my father was going to storm in.

At that moment, the door suddenly opened and I was completely scared out of my wits. But thankfully, it was just my maids. The maid unnies looked over at me like I was a complete nuisance.

“Sheesh, she’s still not sleeping.”

“Do we have to stay here? It’s not like she can move.”

“You know Lilian will make a big deal out of it. It’s so annoying.”

There they go again. They always bully me like that. It’s not like you’re much better than me anyways, since you’re stuck here too.

“then can just think of it as a break and leave later.”

“what if she starts crying?”

“Rock her cradle so she starts sleeping.”

Wow, if someone heard them, they would think I always cry. If there’s a baby as nice and quiet as me, I’d like to see if there is one!

Lilian was always worrying about me since I was always gurgling instead of crying, but these maids always said those things whenever they saw me.

It was obvious they looked down on me because the Emperor never sought for me.

But was I sad? Of course not! My goal was to continue living like this. I would get along just fine with all the gold in this room. So please forget about me.

“Even if the Emperor doesn’t care about her she gets to live a good life because she’s a princess.”

And the grumbling maids were right. I still got 3 square meals a day even if it was only infant formula. My bed was warm and soft. And most of all, there was gold everywhere.

If I continued living like this, it wasn’t too bad, cause I was still a princess. Once I grew a little bit older, I was going to run away with the gold.

So first, let’s just out of this crib first. Like Lillian said, I would eat well and sleep well to grow up faster.

I kicked furiously to grow some strength in my legs.

‘ It’s just a candle against the wind. Anyone could kill me right now.’

“Yeah..I can’t believe we were assigned here…Did you hear? That a ghost appears every night in the kitchen.”

“I just got goosebumps. ke might end up like that too.” The maids continued to whisper, glancing at me occasionally. It wasn’t like I didn’t understand them.

Even I didn’t like living in this palace where people were killed. I’ll escape as soon as I gather the funds!

I once again promised myself.

***

“Hehe.”

I was feeling really good right now! As I laughed at the object in front of my face, Lily looked at me contently

“Do you like it that much?”

“Ah lik!”

Shiny gold. How pretty. I was so excited about the gold ball Lily gave me. I screamed in laughter and made cute gestures. Lily kissed my cheek as if she was happy.

As time passed, I was able to crawl around the room. I look at the objects around me in greed.

It seemed like a palace was definitely a palace. There was splendor everywhere, and it was overly fancier than it needed to be. But this was all real gold and jewels, right?

As I kept trying to touch the gold decorations and jewels, Lily thought I liked shiny things.

And after that, she brought me a gold rattle and a mobile. My eyes widened. The palace was fancy because people used to live here, but all my toys were poorly made because of the lack of money.

“I’ll bring you something else once you get sick of it.” Lily’s pretty face looked even more beautiful today. “Gya. Ohowa.”

I was playing with the ball Lily brought me on the carpet. I wasn’t able to walk yet, so Lily had placed me on the floor so I could at least roll around.

I’ll take good care of this ball so I can take it with me later. Hehe. Oops, I drooled.

The days in the place were peaceful. It seemed like the Emperor really forgot about me.

The maids were all nervous, but now they were all relaxed too. Although the ghost story about the ghost in the kitchen continued to be told.

I hoped I could walk quickly. Then I’ll be able to gather money to run away. I don’t know if it was just me, but I kept on getting the feeling that the decorations in my room were disappearing one by one.

Maybe they’re storing it away because they think I might hurt myself by dropping it? No no no.

Give me my gold back!

“Uwaa!”

I let out a loud cry while I was playing with my gold ball.

My butt felt wet. It’s embarrassing, but I gotta get my diaper changed!

***

The Magician of the Tower is the strongest out of all the magicians.”

I was in Lily’s lap, reading a fairy tale. But it wasn’t just a fairy tale, it was basically a condensed history book with lots of images.

I liked reading it since I was curious about this place, but usually kids my age didn’t understand information like this.

Hm. Seems like Lily’s interested in early education.

But the book Lily read to me was super interesting so I was quietly listening. Especially the existence of magicians!

There’s magicians in this world! Wow, this world didn’t seem normal and it really wasn’t.

“Ooh wah!”

I pointed at an image in the book. There was a black top that was covered in thorny vines.

“They say that if the Magician of the Tower wants to, he can easily get rid of an entire empire.”

I was excited about hearing about magicians. I want to see! I want to see magic!

“And that’s why they intentionally freeze their own hearts.”

Finally the boring history book seemed like a fairy tale. What Lily told me about the Magician of the Tower was super interesting.

I had something else I definitely wanted to do. I’m going to see a magic with my own two eyes I listen to The Other Stories Lily read to me with a pounding heart. then something caught my eye.

“ka dis?”

What’s this?

I pointed at the image in the novel. There was a man planting a sword in a large throne.

“Oh my. Do you recognize this person?”

How am I supposed to know.

“Yes, you’re right. It’s your father, my princess.”

Wait, what? The bastard who completely abandoned his wife and daughter?

“Ba ga! Tash!”

Bad guy! Trash! I cursed at the man in the fairy tale.

“Aw, how clever of our princess.”

As I roughly pointed at the man in the picture, Lily stroked my head like she was proud of me.

I couldn’t read the letters, but based off of what Lily said, this person was the current Emperor of the Obelia Empire.

The image depicted him as a hero who got rid of the violent past emperor who had made a contract with a devil.

I couldn’t believe he had been shown as a just and divine Emperor when he had killed everyone in his harem and completely neglected his daughter.

I panted in rage.

“Oh, I’ve never told you his name.”

My face grew sour as Lily spoke.

“kould you like to see the picture again?” Nope! I’m not one bit curious about that bad guy! But my face froze at the words in my ear.

“The father of Princess Athanaisa is Emperor Claude de Alger Obelia.”

My head was filled with question marks. What? What did you just say?

She must’ve felt my curious gaze because she smiled again as she stroked my hair.

“And you, princess, are Princess Athanasia de Alger Obelia.”

Huh? Even my full name is the say as the princess in that novel? I remembered the name because it was my first time reading a romance fantasy novel and seeing such a long name.

“Usually names of the royal family aren’t repeated, but when the Emperor saw you, he gave you the middle name. So

you are definitely loved by the Emperor right now.”

Wow, even that was the same. How uncomfortable….

But was it just me, or did anyone else feel something was off? Haha….

***

Let’s see. How did the novel go?

Lovable Princess was a famous romance fantasy internet web novel.

Or that’s what the middle school student who left if behind said. I tried reading it when I was bored during work, and I didn’t understand why.

Like the title says, a lovable princess appears. The second princess of the Obelia Empire, Jannette.

There were two princesses in the novel, but one of them was just a tragic supporting character, and the main character was definitely Jannette.

She was an extremely beautiful princess with brown eyes and the exclusive blue eyes of the royal family.

Jannette was as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, so she was loved by everyone.

Not just the citizens of Obelia, but all the males of the continent fell in love with Jannette.

And one of the people who loved her dearly was the Emperor, Claude.

Isn’t it obvious that a father should love his daughter, you ask? Well, you don’t know Claude.

Claude was an extremely cold and rational person who killed his own father and the original heir to the throne, his brother, to become the emperor.

Claude was revered as a savior because the past emperor always flung violence around, but that didn’t mean he was nice.

Evidence being that he massacred everyone who used to live here.

But anyway, Jannette was the lovely princess who managed to melt that cold human’s heart.

Claude discovered Jannette’s existence when she was 14. Until then, Jannette resided at one of the three pillars of the empire, at the Duchy Alpheus family’s home.

Jannette’s mother, a Marquess, was Claude’s fiance, but she died after getting kicked out from the palace during childbirth.

So Jannette’s aunt, a Countess by marriage, decided to ask the Alpheus family to take care of Jannette because they owed her a favor.

It was dangerous to reveal Jannette’s existence to the mentally unstable Claude. Slightly psycho. It was only after time had passed that he found out about her.

Of course, Claude didn’t feel affection for Jannette right away.

But what kind of person was Jannette? She was the unrealistically lovely Princess Jannette who had received the ‘female lead buff.’

And so Claude eventually fell over to her charms.

After that, Jannette lived happily ever after with her powerful father on her side, and with Duke Ezekiel, the most eligible man in the continent, whom she had grown fond of during her stay at the Alpheus residence.

“Das gu ing.”

Disgusting. How unlucky.

Thinking of the novel, I angrily chewed the blanket that I had.

Was it because she was someone who had never experienced hardships? After reading the novel I immediately threw the novel down on the counter in frustration.

Sheesh, Claude and Jannette were real scoundrels. That was my review of Lovable Princess.

But wasn’t the book awful? If you think about how Jannette received the love of literally everyone while Athanasia was left out. Princess Athanasia with blonde hair and blue eyes, of the same age as Jannette.

Born from a lowly dancer mother, she experienced a completely different childhood than janette.

Unlike Jannette, Athanasia’s existence was delivered to Claude as soon as she was born but he neglected her and put her in the Ruby Palace.

And Athanasia grew up being scorned and ignored.

So Athanasia grew up very weak, always having to care about what others thought of her.

She first met her father on her 9th birthday. Her father was holding a ball for emissaries of foregin countries. He didn’t even remember her birthday.

Athanasia accidentally took a wrong turn after following the lights and sounds.

She met Claude in the garden of the Emperor’s Palace. And he walked right passed her after seeing her. Starved for affection, Athanasia thought it was fate that she met him.

Even before Jannette appeared, she was depressed because of her father.

But still, Athanasia did everything shou could to be loved. So Athanaisa grew up talented and accomplished, but on her debutante ball, Duke Alpheus presented Jannette to the world and all her hopes were shattered.

Athanasia was somewhat gloomy and dull compared to Jannette, who was always full of sunshine.

So in a way, it was inevitable that Jannette would be more loved.

As the story continued on, Athanasia became even more timid as Jannette was emphasized as the perfect princes.

How bad was it, you ask? Well….when Jannette, who had arrived late to the party first arrived at the palace, she had a hard time getting used to the palace life. Even Claude didn’t pity her at that point, so the person who helped her was Athanasia.

Gosh, what a stupid girl. She should’ve been worrying about her own life, not taking care of her rival.

The naive Athanisa got Claude’s love that she so desperately wanted taken from her by Jannette. And she ended up being killed by her father.

On the day of a grand ball, Jannette was poisoned, and she was pointed to as the suspect.

Actually, it was a false charge. It was a trap set up by Jannette’s aunt, the Countess, who considered Athanasia an obstacle in her niece’s future to become the next empress.

Athanasia wasn’t even an obstacle, however, because she didn’t get an ounce of attention from Claude.

And most importantly, Athanasia wasn;t bold enough to do something like that. If she had known the truth, she would have drunk the poisoned glass herself to save Jannette.

Because she knew that Claude would be sad if something went wrong to Jannette. Athanasia was that pathetic and pitiful.

All the Countess expected was Athanasia to be incarcerated, or dethroned from her spot as the first princess.

But what kind of person was Claude? While Jannette was on death’s door, he killed Athanasia, who wasn’t even confirmed to be the culprit.

It was her 18th birthday. It had been exactly 9 years since she first met Claude. Wasn’t it quite ironic?

Later, it was revealed that the Countess was actually the culprit, but Athanasia had already died, falsely charged.

And Claude, who didn’t love anyone other than Jannette, felt no remorse for Athanasia.

The angelic main character Jannette felt responsible for Athanasia’s death, and she was riddled with extreme guilt, but with the consolation of her lover, Ezekiel, she was able to move on.