Chapter 1

“So, Princess, will you please marry me?”

I stared blankly at the person who said that.

A man was sitting in front of me on one knee.

He was a beautiful man. His white skin was as smooth as porcelain, and his blue-black hair seemed to contain the night sky.

Brilliant golden eyes under the black hair looked at me.

A slightly thin face and shady eyes evoked a strange decadent beauty.

At the age of 18, he is already this beautiful. By the time he turns twenty, he must already be a handsome man who will shake up the empire.

As I imagined his future, I bit my lip in a complicated mood.

His name is Tristan.

He is a young duke who was recently granted the dukedom.

And he is the main character of this novel.

“You want me to marry you?”

Even though I knew it, my voice trembled a little.

“Did you mean that to me?”

Tristan's eyes lit up with a look of embarrassment at the sound of my voice.

I was tense like a cat in front of a tiger.

Tristan sometimes looks at me with very strange eyes. He frowns slightly and examines my face as if he were seeing someone for the first time.

I usually treat him without hesitation, but when I feel his gaze, I get strangely nervous and restless.

"Of course. Who else can I propose to marry other than the princess?”

Tristan said. His attitude was so decisive that I wanted to run away.

Of course I like Tristan. He has loved me for a long time, beyond imagining. And I wish him happiness more than anyone else.

So it can't be.

“Tristan, do you love me?”

Tristan's brow furrowed a little more.

So don't make that face. I mean, it's scary.

It's clear that Tristan doesn't love me. Otherwise, you wouldn't be staring at me like this every time I say something stupid.

“How many nobles in this empire will marry the one they love?”

Instead of answering my question, he asked me backwards.

That's right. In this world where arranged marriage is the default, it will not be easy for the duke to marry the person he loves.

But you did that hard thing. So you can't compromise here.

“Why are you saying that?”

As I was contemplating how to convince him, Tristan's voice suddenly became mournful. He thought his heart stopped for a moment.

“You saved me.”

He reached out to me. He tried not to do it, but the moment his golden eyes glared at me, I had no choice but to extend this hand as if possessed.

He took my hand and put it to my cheek. And he looked at me with eager eyes.

“Are you going to save me and throw me away?”

I couldn't say a word.

I wanted to tell you that I am not your destiny, that there is someone else you will love, but I couldn't.

So I screamed in my mind.

Why is he suddenly like this?!

You are not this character! And we're not like that...…!

Since when did this happen?

I didn't mean to do this, where the hell did I go wrong?

...***...

Let me explain from the beginning:

When I woke up one morning, I found myself in a novel.

In the book titled .

"Nonsense…….”

I looked in the mirror and slapped my cheek in disbelief.

It hurt immensely. It was reality.

Tears are stinging, but I don't know if it's because my cheeks hurt or I'm out of my mind.

I giggled and looked in the mirror.

A strange girl stood in the mirror. She was a very pitiful little child.

The girl with her long, curly blonde hair and blinking round eyes could have been as cute as a doll.

If only I had gained 10 kilos more.

A child who is short and pitifully dry that the dress she is wearing is about to fall off. Her skin and hair are crumbly, and there are handprints on her cheek.

The handprints on the cheeks were just made by me, but because they look pitiful, the handprints fit so well that it's ridiculous.

She looked like a young Cinderella from a fairy tale. Her unhappy energy was flowing all over her body.

However, contrary to what it seems, this child is not a kitchen digger, a maid, or a street beggar.

The child's name is Lucilia El Esperusa.

She is the 17th princess of the Esperusa Empire.

“This is a dream!”

I grabbed my head and tried to escape reality once more.

No, I can't, I can't do this! Why is it the <13th Princess> among the many romances!

As the title suggests, was a political drama about the process of rising to the throne of the thirteenth princess, the main character, Imelda.

The protagonist's competitors are, of course, the same brothers and sisters. There are not one or two brothers and sisters, but at least 18.

In other words, including Imelda, there are 19 children in total.

The problem was that this novel was incredibly harsh on the Ropan theme.

The Esperusa imperial family is, in a word, a bloodline. In the long history of the empire, no one has succeeded to the throne peacefully.

Siblings die and kill each other, and the final winner becomes the emperor. This was the tradition of the Esperusa imperial family.

They want to become a bloody, grassy family that is not enough even to say that it is a soybean flour family.

I fell in the middle of such a house.

Not as the main character, but as a supporting actor.

“Lucilia isn’t that bad, but…….”

I took a deep breath and recalled the original content.

For some reason, I had not only the original work but also Lucilia's own memories in my head, so there was no difficulty in understanding the situation.

Lucilia was a rare child in the Esperusa family, both physically and mentally weak. She also had no relatives to support her as her mother came from a Korean-American family.

A princess who is too weak and insignificant.

That fact saved Lucilia's life.

The mad prince and princesses of Esperusa are desperate to get rid of their rivals, but Lucilia was so insignificant that she couldn't even offend them.

Lucilia was weak, but not stupid. She knew that this was the only way she could survive.

So the 17th Princess chose to live as if dead in her small and shabby palace instead of intervening in political battles.

After thinking this far, I took my eyes off the mirror and looked around.

This was Lucilia's bedroom. As I remember, not mine, the room was small and shabby.

The bedroom had a bed, a dressing table, a palm-sized coffee table and chairs, and a wardrobe. All very outdated.

The blanket on the bed was thin and looked cold, and the chair in front of the table was about to break, so I couldn't even sit down.

Obviously, this room was small and shabby for the imperial princess.

But, from my point of view...….

“It’s bigger than a gosiwon room.”

I walked to the window and opened it.

“There are windows.”

Sunlight poured in through the open window. Looking at the sunlight in the room, I don't know how long it has been.

I muttered blankly.

“The room is fine…….”

In the original world, I was a dirt spoon.

I didn't have the money to go to college, so I got a job right after graduating from high school, and after I got a job, I worked until my body was broken. I also made some money.

But instead of going into my pocket, the money was used to pay for living expenses for my parents in rural areas and for my younger siblings' tuition.

“Aren't you the eldest daughter?”

My parents abused me with those words.

It was neither a thank you nor an apology, but I was comforted by those words. Because it was only then that my parents gave me kind words, when I gave them money.

So I worked hard. I was trying to save the money I would spend and give it to my family a little bit more.

The rent for a one-room apartment was too expensive, so I lived in the cheapest room in a gosiwon, and used to make up for my meals with discarded food from the convenience store I was working in.

I've never been tested, but since I've lived like that, there's no way I'm healthy. Maybe my body is broken as soon as it breaks.

Looking back, I remember how tired I was before going to sleep. Much more than usual, as if this whole body was bound in chains.

I guess I'm overworked.

"haha…….”

When I woke up, I was smiling. There was nothing to laugh about, but somehow I laughed.

Looking back on my life, I thought that I really lived like a hogu. Working to make money for others and overworked, is there any other life like this?

If I go back, I might be able to live a different life.

No, I will definitely live differently.

But I'm probably dead, and I have to live a new life in an unfamiliar place full of idiots.

The life of a poor princess who lives as if dead...….

"no."

I shook my head and muttered.

Here in the novel. Lucilia is a poor supporting actor. However, Lucilia's life is not always unhappy.

I know Lucilia's future.

“How old is Lucilia this year…….”

I just mumbled, but a memory popped up in my head as if answering. This year is the 515th year of the imperial calendar. Lucilia is twelve years old this year.

“Twelve years old?”

My eyes scanned my bare arms and legs.

“I think I would believe it even if I was eight years old.”

It seemed that she had suffered so much that she had not grown properly.

Unfortunately, the past is the past. What matters is the future.

Three years from now, Lucilia meets a person destined to change her life forever.

Imelda, the protagonist of this novel.

Imelda was originally a princess who lived quietly as if dead like Lucilia.

However, at the age of 18, a major event occurs, which leads Imelda into a struggle for the throne.

Imelda, who decided to aim for the throne in earnest, chose a strategy quite different from other competitors.

That is, she reached out to her weak and powerless brothers and sisters.

Many princes and princesses rejected her out of fear or blindly doubted Imelda.

But some were moved by Imelda's attitude, opened their hearts, and were eventually saved.

Lucilia was one of them.

Lucilia, who saved her life with the help of Imelda when she was dying of illness, vowed to spend the rest of her life for her sister.

At that moment, Lucilia's hidden talent blossomed. Since then, she has used that talent to help Imelda.

On the day Imelda becomes emperor, Lucilia congratulates her sister with a happy face. To her who won her victory, and to her herself…….

Thinking this far, I was so happy that I almost screamed.

Isn't this a life-changing thing?

She had a difficult childhood, but after riding the main line, she hits a jackpot in everything she does, and in the end, she defeats her enemy and wins.

Strictly speaking, the real winner would be Imelda who became emperor, but this was not the life I wanted to live.

The emperor is annoying and difficult, but it's also a dangerous position, isn't it?

Perhaps because of the memory of a past life where I died of overwork, in my eyes, a life full of practical happiness like Lucilia seemed much better than an emperor who had to work until he died.

And now I am Lucilia.

I once again stood in front of the dressing table and looked at my reflection in the mirror.

Now it didn't feel pitiful.

It wasn't the poor little child in the mirror.

It was the promised happy ending.

I looked in the mirror and smiled. Toward the new me, and for the true protagonist of this world.

“I’ll wait for you, sister.”

3 years from the beginning of the original. Let's just last 3 years. As quietly as Lucilia had been until now, as if dead.

Until my sister-in-law comes to visit me.

_____________________

Terms hub~

-Terms that one may not know is usually explained in the end!

Gosiwon refers to a form of dormitory-style single room accommodation common in South Korea that first appeared around the 1980s, mostly near universities in Seoul.

These facilities provided cheap accommodation, mostly small in size - between 3 and 6 square meters - and intended for students preparing for state-run exams to be lawyers or senior government officials.

But nowadays, gosiwons are more associated with poverty, having become a symbolic residential facility for socially disadvantaged people who cannot afford more comfortable accommodation.

Rooms are as tiny as 3.5 square meters and furnished with a desk, bookshelf and bed.

Hogu (호구) is a slang. It means the person who is so foolish that everyone use her/him for their own benefits. I recommend you not to use this word often.

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