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Chapter 02
It was a cloudless spring day.
Shinkester, like the Republic of Korea, had distinct four seasons. The difference was that spring and autumn lasted longer here.
A warm breeze circled across the terrace. I looked past the tea table set in front of me toward Erdan.
‘He really is handsome, my brother.’
His shimmering pink hair looked as if it carried the fragrance of freshly bloomed flowers, and his green eyes scanning documents were as beautiful as leaves dancing in the wind.
“Charlotte?”
Erdan lifted his head, noticing my gaze.
“Yes.”
“Your nineteenth birthday banquet is coming up soon, isn’t it?”
“Yes. There’s about a week left.”
“The invited guests will start arriving soon, so we should prepare to receive them.”
I kept eating macarons and recalled the names of the guests in my head.
Then I heard something strange.
“I heard the delegation leader from Blake is the Sixth Prince.”
My hand, which had been reaching for another macaron, froze in midair.
“What did you just say?”
“The one attending your birthday banquet is Prince ‘Leonard Blake.’”
Did I even invite him? As my expression immediately frowned, Erdan leaned toward me.
“Why? Did he do something rude to you?”
Erdan was fundamentally kind, but he showed no mercy toward those who treated me badly.
Noticing his face starting to turn stern, I lightly tapped the back of his hand.
“No, not at all. I’ve never even met him.”
“Then is it because of bad rumors? I heard the Sixth Prince is somewhat cruel.”
“That’s not it either.”
“Then?”
“I’m pretty sure I invited the Third Prince, His Highness Alex.”
“What I just said is that the Sixth Prince is coming instead of the Third.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps he wants to establish ties with Shinkester. It seems he has ambitions to become emperor.”
Now that I thought about it, I had vaguely learned this in diplomacy class.
The Blake Empire was notorious for its fierce struggle over the imperial succession, and among them, the First and Sixth Princes were said to be the most powerful rival factions.
At the time I had been too busy trying to change the original story to care, but now it felt strange.
‘In the original story, there was no Sixth Prince in the Blake Empire.’
Moreover, in the novel, the Third Prince becomes emperor. The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt, and I clenched my fist.
Erdan chuckled and set down the documents.
“Why are you suddenly interested in the Blake Empire?”
Then he gently brushed my hair.
“Don’t concern yourself with that empire. It’s a very dangerous place. And it’s far away, so we barely have any contact with them.”
Erdan was right.
The Blake Empire was a distant land, far beyond the Cerbi Kingdom.
If I were to compare it, it was about the distance between South Korea and the United States.
Unlike our peaceful Shinkester Kingdom, that place was filled with constant wars of varying scales.
The north was an icy sea, the south a barren rocky wasteland, the west a rugged mountain range, and the east a dark forest full of monsters.
Each of those four regions was ruled by one of the four imperial heirs, who constantly competed for power.
“They are fundamentally different from us, a divine race, Charlotte. Unlike us who possess holy power, they have not even a drop of it.”
“I heard they instead inherit dragon blood. That’s why they have superhuman bodies and immense mana.”
“However, they also inherited a cruel nature from it. They are not compatible with us.”
Erdan stepped closer and kissed my forehead.
“I will never allow you to go there.”
“Your Majesty…”
“Don’t call me Your Majesty. I told you before—I prefer ‘brother.’”
“You really…”
In the end, with his warm and gentle touch, I ended up smiling like Erdan.
Yes, even with the butterfly effect, since I had possessed this world, things in distant countries could very well have changed.
“Brother, these macarons are really delicious.”
I popped the macaron I had been about to pick into my mouth. The sweet taste spread through my mouth, sweeping away my thoughts.
“Princess! Princess! Look at this!”
As soon as I returned to the princess’s palace, what awaited me were more than ten marriage proposals.
“Are they sending them directly to the princess’s palace now?”
“If they send them to the palace, His Majesty filters them all anyway.”
“Honestly, His Majesty loves the princess far too much.”
I was nineteen.
In South Korea, it would be an age spent studying in a library, but here it was different.
It was the age to enter high society, pretend to dance the waltz, and search for a husband or bride.
“Princess! Even the famously handsome Marquis Orpheus sent a letter!”
“Oh my.”
Orpheus was so beautiful it felt like the author deliberately designed him that way.
Whenever he appeared at a ball, all the women’s faces would flush red.
Of course, I was no exception. I had even drooled before, so I always carried a fan.
‘A man like that sending me a proposal—being pretty and rich really is the best.’
I stroked my chin with a very serious expression.
“If I have to choose just one man, I need to think carefully.”
“That’s right. A birthday banquet will be held soon, so princes and imperial princes from major nations will all be attending.”
Abigail, the maid who had brought tea, spoke gracefully.
“It would have been wonderful if His Grace the Duke had proposed.”
“Just wait a little! I’m sure the Myers Ducal House will also send a proposal!”
No, Dorothy. There’s absolutely no chance of that.
My connection with Cedric was only that I saved him from the Velusium slave market shortly after I possessed this body.
To fall in love with a slave male lead, shouldn’t you at least bathe him, feed him, dress him, and even give him a name after saving him?
But I had quickly taken Cedric back to the Myers family and focused on securing my own survival.
Moreover, once Cedric found emotional stability, he immediately entered the Elisium Military Academy.
Three years later, he returned as the continent’s greatest holy knight, his emotions and desires strictly controlled.
In the original story, he later meets Aurora and goes through a regret arc before finding true love.
But I absolutely could not endure being coldly treated by an indifferent man from the start.
“Don’t worry about the duke. More importantly, aside from Marquis Orpheus… who else is there…?”
I smiled contentedly as I flipped through the proposals.
Then I saw one crest and frowned.
“This is…”
“Oh my! That’s the crest of Blake! And it belongs to the First Prince!”
The emblem was indeed fitting of the First Prince, the Ice Magician.
A blue background, a snowflake in the center, snow leopards wearing crowns on both sides, and his middle name written at the top.
“They say the Sixth Prince is coming from Blake, but the First Prince is the one sending a marriage proposal?”
“It really must be a fierce power struggle.”
In the midst of this, did the Sixth Prince perhaps not want to marry me?
Curiosity crept in, and I flipped through the proposals. As expected, there was no letter from the Sixth Prince.
“Hmm, there aren’t any from other princes either?”
“…Princess.”
Dorothy narrowed her eyes.
“Don’t even dream of marrying into Blake!”
Dorothy, who raised her voice, soon trembled as if frightened.
“Going there is basically like being sold off. They say in that imperial family, about thirty people die every day!”
“Why are you shouting? When did I ever say I’d marry into there? There’s a proposal from the First Prince, but none from the Sixth, so I was just curious.”
“He might even come personally to propose.”
Abigail calmly inserted herself between us.
“Then you can prepare to refuse him.”
“Alright.”
Anyway, the Sixth Prince…
Even though Erdan told me not to worry about it, the sudden appearance of a prince who supposedly didn’t exist felt far too strange.
‘Why has even the distant Blake begun to change from the original story…’
