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Chapter – 05
“Waaah! Please save us, Your Majesty!”
“The Corrosion has reached the capital!”
“Open the gates! If you don’t, the people will—!”
It was the scene she had heard and seen right before her regression, after breaking free from the brainwashing.
The citizens who had desperately rushed toward the castle gates in hopes of surviving.
The blackened, dead land spreading endlessly, devoid of even a single blade of grass.
And the rampaging beast-like monsters cloaked in black smoke.
It was complete chaos.
And what had she been able to do back then?
Nothing except hide herself amidst the rebellion that erupted from the confusion.
So how had it ended again?
She fled by sacrificing the life of someone she loved, and then…
“Ah… It was a dream.”
The sunlight was blinding. She slowly opened her eyes.
The weather was bright and clear.
As her senses returned, she realized she had stretched her hand out into empty air.
“Erant…”
It was a name she had not spoken in a long time.
Shairin rubbed her face dryly and rose from bed.
“I slept a lot.”
Naturally. An entire day had already passed.
Whenever she stopped thinking, sleep and laziness overtook her completely.
Morning, noon, night—it didn’t matter.
Resting was nice, but now it was time to start running toward her goal again.
She sighed as she got up.
Judging by her wildly tangled hair and heavily wrinkled nightdress, she must have tossed and turned violently again.
“How annoying.”
She wanted to skip everything.
But the maids had already brought in dresses and cosmetics and were waiting in the dressing room.
Dragging her heavy feet along, she reluctantly let them prepare her before heading toward the royal palace where the noble council was being held.
“Princess Shairin has arrived!”
“This is a meeting, not a banquet. Why announce my entrance? It’s unnecessary.”
She wasn’t the monarch, so why did they need to announce her arrival?
She already wanted nothing more than to fade quietly into the background.
Attention was the last thing she wanted.
“Ah, y-yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good.”
She walked straight to the chair beside the king and sat down.
The nobles of her faction tried to approach her, but she firmly stopped them with a raised hand.
Crossing her legs and folding her arms, she lazily glanced around the council chamber.
Some clicked their tongues at the princess’s arrogant posture.
Most of them belonged to Princess Relina’s faction.
They were centered around House Serint, Relina’s maternal family.
Most believed that the still-young and healthy king had no reason to choose the mediocre Shairin as crown princess merely because she was the eldest daughter.
Their logic was simple: experience could always be learned once Relina grew older.
As a result, they disliked Shairin.
Though in truth, they resented Shairin’s overbearing faction more than the princess herself.
Shairin ignored the silent battle between the nobles.
If she were being honest, she wanted to agree with them completely.
But it was still too early to approach Marquis Serint’s side.
‘I need to prove that I’m someone safe and favorable to Relina.’
Only then would they seriously listen to her.
After briefly glancing toward Relina’s grandmother, Marquis Serint, Shairin looked forward once more.
“His Majesty Perrinton Lavantra, the 46th King of the Kingdom of Lavantra, enters!”
The king stepped into the council chamber.
Even just walking, his overwhelming presence could be felt.
“Your Majesty.”
Everyone, including Shairin, stood to greet him.
“Let us begin the meeting.”
Once Perrinton sat at the head seat and declared the meeting open, numerous nobles immediately began speaking.
Various issues were brought forth.
Many heated debates broke out as they discussed solutions.
“How do you think this matter should be resolved, Shairin?”
The king directed a question toward her.
Naturally, her answer never changed.
“I do not know, Your Majesty.”
Shairin answered I don’t know to every issue.
There were certainly things she knew, but she kept her mouth shut.
Someone else would eventually find the answer anyway, and she had no intention of earning praise by speaking up.
‘From now on, I am thoroughly an incompetent princess!’
This was her small(?) act of revenge against her father.
And Perrinton, who naturally understood his daughter’s intentions, let out a sigh.
The reason he had appointed Shairin as acting regent was simple.
First, he hated seeing his beloved daughter’s years of effort reduced to nothing.
Second, he genuinely believed Shairin was more than qualified to become the next ruler.
She had simply been overshadowed by Relina’s genius.
This was not the biased overestimation of a father—it was the judgment of a king.
But he had never imagined she would resist this fiercely.
‘Should I simply let you have your way…?’
At that moment, the atmosphere around Shairin—who had remained uncooperative throughout the meeting—suddenly changed.
The reason was the report brought by the commander of the Royal Knights.
“This is a message from Erant Fezis, who is currently overseeing the kingdom patrol mission.”
“What is it?”
“Recently, land near the border has inexplicably become blackened and contaminated.”
Land collapsing and becoming blackened for no reason.
That phenomenon was the very disaster Shairin had seen in her dream earlier—
The Corrosion.
The primary cause behind the continent’s destruction before her regression.
The Corrosion.
One day, without warning, the land began sinking into the ground while the surrounding area turned black.
Poisonous gases periodically erupted from the corrupted land.
People died simply by passing nearby, and animals mutated into monstrous creatures that destroyed everything around them.
And that wasn’t the end.
The Corrosion gradually spread wider and wider, collapsing the continent’s foundations and destroying neighboring kingdoms one by one.
Nothing could be grown on corrupted soil.
By the time Shairin regressed, countless citizens had already starved to death.
Naturally, public unrest spiraled out of control.
Murder, robbery, kidnapping, assault—every crime imaginable flourished.
Like a typhoon, the Corrosion destroyed everything and plunged the continent into hell.
For Shairin, it remained a nightmare burned into her memory.
The biggest reason she wanted Relina to become ruler was because she herself wanted a carefree life—
But the Corrosion was also part of it.
Stopping it symbolized casting away the incompetence of her previous life.
‘So perhaps preventing it is my true mission.’
Biting the inside of her cheek, Shairin focused intently on the knight commander’s report.
“We cannot determine whether this is a temporary phenomenon or a larger abnormality affecting the continent, so we have ordered further investigation.”
“If there are damages, compensate the victims fully and uncover the cause no matter what.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
If only she knew more, she could have confidently voiced her opinion.
It was frustrating.
When the existence of the Corrosion first became publicly known, Shairin had already been brainwashed.
Her fiancé and other nobles monitored her constantly, restricting her every move.
As a result, she knew the Corrosion existed but had no idea what caused it.
She didn’t even know whether it occurred naturally or was caused by someone’s interference.
‘…This time, I absolutely won’t fall for it again.’
Thinking about the scented candles stored in her room, she secretly clenched her teeth.
Since regressing, she had not used them even once. They were tightly sealed away where no one could touch them.
Once she secured that man, she intended to entrust him with uncovering the mastermind behind everything.
‘Still, I’m glad Erant is doing well.’
Shairin’s childhood friend.
And right before her regression, the first and last person to ever reach out a hand to her.
It frustrated her that she could do nothing for him while he remained away from the capital.
Once Relina became crown princess, she intended to repay him properly.
Even if he claimed he wanted nothing in return.
Then, remembering that she herself had caused the reason they drifted apart, Shairin sighed inwardly.
She had committed far too many sins.
That was why, in this life, she intended to atone for everything and finally enjoy her own life.
But before that—
She needed to get rid of this damned acting regent position first!
This was a nightmare. It really was.
Even though she deliberately acted incompetent, she still found herself being overworked just like in her previous life, causing Shairin to begin denying reality altogether.
No, seriously—she kept saying she couldn’t do it and didn’t know, so why did they keep forcing her into these meetings?!
If she stayed buried under work like this, she would never have time to grow closer to Relina.
And to make matters worse, while processing documents, she had unconsciously displayed the skills she’d accumulated in her previous life.
As a result, the king only became more convinced of her potential.
Damn it. What had she just done?
She wanted to chop off her own wrist.
‘This can’t continue!’
And so, one week later—
“I’m going on strike.”
Shairin firmly declared this and stopped attending the noble council meetings altogether.
