Chapter 1: First Trail – Morning Communion.

“You are a princess.”

···I had a nightmare.

It was so horrific that when I opened my eyes, my entire body was soaked in cold sweat.

The even more cruel fact was that it was not a dream but reality.

“Good morning. Master.”

A maid dressed in a traditional maid uniform greeted me politely the moment I woke up.

Until just a short while ago, it was a sight I could not even have imagined.

That was not all.

Looking around, the indoor scenery that met my eyes was filled with brilliant decorations and artworks that a commoner could never even glimpse in an entire lifetime.

Of course it was.

This place was none other than the royal palace.

I had begun to slowly grow used to this room that greeted me every morning when I opened my eyes.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and greeted Erica as usual.

“Erica. Slap my cheek.”

“Hehe. You are testing my loyalty again as always.

There is no way I could ever slap Master.”

No, isn’t following orders the loyal thing to do?

Anyway, the option of waking from the nightmare by getting slapped on the cheek failed again today.

Well, I knew better than anyone that this was nothing more than denial of reality.

How on earth did things end up like this?

I began to recall the beginning of this entire situation.

Going back in time roughly two weeks.

Around the time I was slowly getting used to my second life as an ordinary village flower shop girl, a man came looking for me.

Knock knock.

“Princess. Have you woken up?”

Speak of the tiger and it appears.

Now he even interrupted my recollection to show up.

“Is that Sir Kaled?

Come in.”

When Erica opened the door, a red-haired man entered the room, bowing politely to me.

A black coat embroidered with golden thread.

Even at a glance, it was clothing no ordinary person would ever wear.

At our first meeting, he had introduced himself as a member of the royal guard, commonly known as the ‘Royal Sword’.

I was hearing the name Kaled for the first time, but Royal Sword was a fairly familiar term.

It appeared as a subordinate organization of the final boss of this game world I had possessed, the ‘Queen of the Ruined Kingdom’.

In the game they were undead reduced to nothing but bones, yet since there were still ten years left until the kingdom’s fall, he was a perfectly fine handsome young man.

The important question was why someone from the Royal Sword would personally visit a shabby rural village.

The answer to that question was the final scene of the nightmare I had just had.

It led to the absurd story that I was actually a princess who inherited the blood of the royal family.

If this had been a fairy tale full of dreams and hope, it would have ended there with ‘and they lived happily ever after~’.

But this story did not flow that simply.

“I apologize for coming so early in the morning.

But as I explained…”

“I know.

I must never miss the morning banquet.”

One of the rules that had to be strictly observed while staying in this royal palace.

Everyone had to attend the morning banquet without exception.

As someone weak in the mornings, waking up early was quite difficult, but they said something terrible would happen if I broke the rules without special reason, so I had no choice but to move diligently even if I hated it.

“Master.

You need to get ready first.”

“Sir Kaled.

You may take a seat, so could you wait a little?”

“Understood.

There is still time, so please take your time.”

Then couldn’t you just come leisurely on time instead of arriving early and rushing me?

···I barely held back the urge to sneer and quietly accepted Erica’s hands.

Although Kaled was nominally my escort knight, it was more accurate to call him a surveillance role.

“Please take care, Master.”

After finishing all my preparations, I left the room with Kaled while receiving Erica’s send-off.

I thought as I walked down the corridor.

What would happen if I smashed the window and escaped right now?

The result of the simulation came quickly.

Before my body could even feel the outside air, Kaled would grab me by the nape of the neck and drag me away.

Right now I was a powerless, frail girl in her late teens, and the other party was a Royal Sword ranked among the strongest in the kingdom.

The dining hall on the first floor had only nine seats prepared, which did not match its enormous scale.

Two of them belonged to the king and queen.

The remaining seven seats were all for the king’s children, that is, my siblings.

Well, they were all nothing more than half-siblings at best.

It seemed I had arrived second today.

My eyes met those of the person who had reached the dining hall before me and was already seated.

“Tsk.

Ruining my mood first thing in the morning.”

A blonde woman who made no attempt to hide her blatant displeasure.

Her name was Victoria Erandel.

The eldest daughter of the royal family, second in the line of succession, and the next queen of this country who appeared as the boss ‘Queen of the Ruined Kingdom’ in the original work.

Although she had not yet inherited the throne, it was an undeniable fact that she would be the queen of Erandel in ten years.

The first thing she did after ascending the throne was to purge any siblings who could potentially threaten her.

She was truly a model of a cruel tyrant.

Therefore, to avoid offending her as much as possible, I tried to flatter Victoria just as I had always done until now.

“Oh dear.

It seems something unpleasant happened.

Cheer up.”

“…Enough.

Complaining will only make my mouth hurt.”

Fortunately, whether she was moved by my sincere empathy or not, she did not voice any further complaints.

In the quieted dining hall, we waited in silence for the others to arrive.

As the time drew near, they appeared one by one and took their designated seats.

Of course, there was no trace of warm or harmonious morning greetings between siblings.

“Victoria.

Your face is as scary as ever today.

It’s an expression that wouldn’t look strange even if you drowned someone.”

“If you want, I can drown you first.”

The eldest son and first in the line of succession who appeared last among the siblings.

Richard Erandel started picking a fight with Victoria, who was sitting opposite him, the moment he arrived.

Victoria did not back down in the slightest and poured venomous words at her older brother Richard.

As I quietly watched the scene, the spark suddenly flew toward me this time.

“Compared to that, our little sister Beate is so beautiful again today.

If we weren’t related by blood, I would have proposed right away~.”

I decided to lightly ignore the prince’s worthless advances.

Unlike the terrifying Victoria, Richard was a man who lacked any sense of weight, to the point it was hard to believe he was the crown prince.

Well, that was probably why he was pushed aside by his younger sister and lost the throne.

Then the door opened and the king and queen walked in proudly together.

The king sat in the seat of honor, glanced over us once, and spoke.

“Good morning.

Come to think of it, it has already been two weeks since the first test began.

I expect that by now everyone has finished adapting.”

The moment the topic of the test came up from the start, everyone stared straight ahead with stiffened faces.

“So today I intend to hold a simple interim report.”

Two weeks ago from the present.

The test that I, a flower shop girl, had been summoned to the royal palace and forcibly made to participate in.

The succession test.

It was literally a test to select the successor who would inherit the throne.

Originally, according to the order of succession, the eldest son Richard should have been the successor, and I, an illegitimate child, should not even have been given the qualification.

But as if such things did not matter, the king prepared the test on his own and unilaterally notified us.

I still did not really understand the reason why.

Although not exact, if I calculated the exchange rate for 1 Gold, it felt roughly about 100,000 won.

In other words, the theme of the test was how to invest and grow the basic funds of one million won.

At the king’s calm explanation, some people nodded confidently while others lowered their heads with dark expressions.

For the record, I remained completely still without any reaction.

Why?

Because I had never intended to take the test seriously from the beginning.

I had only been dragged here by the warning that I might die if I did not participate, and from the start I had not the slightest interest in the throne of Erandel.

Why bother when the country would fall in ten years anyway?

Moreover, even if by some chance I somehow passed the test and became the successor to the throne, the ‘Queen of the Ruined Kingdom’ would never just sit still and watch that happen.

Therefore my goal was only one.

Somehow avoid standing out in the eyes of the other siblings, receive the lowest score, drop out of the test first, and then flee as far as possible before the kingdom fell.

As long as I continued to remain in this damn kingdom, the bad ending route of having my neck cut by the ‘Queen of the Ruined Kingdom’ was guaranteed.

“Now then, explain one by one how you are investing the money.”

At the king’s command, Richard, being the oldest, presented his interim report first.

“I focused on the item with the highest return on investment.”

“Oh.

What is that?”

“The casino.

If only a big jackpot had hit, a return rate of 10,000% wouldn’t have been a dream…!!”

At the eldest son’s sincerely regretful appearance, the king rubbed his forehead and let out a sigh.

Looking at that state, I could somewhat understand why the king had bothered to adopt the cumbersome method of a succession test.

On the other hand, Victoria was competent as expected.

“I diversified the investments as much as possible.

After growing the basic investment funds in relatively safe items that could generate definite profits, I made secondary investments in high-return items.

The amount I currently hold is 432 Gold.

I am also continuing to invest based on the increased capital.”

Even though only two weeks had passed, she was already generating profits exceeding 43 times the basic funds.

For me, that was very good news.

Based on the knowledge of the original work, it was far more convenient for me if Victoria became the next queen according to the existing flow.

The other siblings’ interim reports continued after that, but of course no one was achieving better results than Victoria.

When it finally became my turn, I spoke confidently.

“I purchased a portion of the mountain behind my hometown.”

“…Hmm.

Why is that?

Is there a special reason?”

Of course there was a reason.

It had always been my dream to build a villa on the mountain behind and rest leisurely.

A space of my own where I could occasionally go down to my hometown until the test ended and rest comfortably without worrying about anyone’s eyes.

How sweet a dream that was.

But if I revealed that fact straightforwardly, the king might grow angry and say I was not properly taking the test.

So I decided to make up an appropriate excuse.

“I will tell you the reason at the next final report.”

Then, unexpectedly, someone raised an objection.

It was none other than Victoria.

“Are you daring to ignore His Majesty’s question right now?

Why don’t you answer properly?

Could it be that you wasted the money His Majesty gave you for no reason just because it was land from your hometown?”

I was surprised.

Everything she said was correct, and there was no room to refute it.

I simply kept my mouth shut.

If my image worsened because of that, wouldn’t that be fine in its own way?

But contrary to my expectations, the situation flowed in the worst possible direction.

Kaled, who had been waiting a step away from the table behind me, suddenly interrupted the conversation.

“Princess.

I apologize during the meal.

Come to think of it, I forgot something I should have informed you of this morning.”

“…Sir Kaled.

I don’t know what it is, but please do it later, not now.”

I tried to cut off the conversation out of instinctive anxiety, but everyone’s attention had already focused on him.

“A report came in that a large number of magic herbs were discovered on the mountain land the princess invested in at dawn yesterday.”

“Magic herbs…

Those that are worth over 500 Gold per root…?”

Someone’s muttering filled the dining hall with emptiness.