Chapter 5

Life had not favored Beatrice at all… After two years of living in the palace, she was struck with a tragedy she wished she had escaped. She woke up one day informed that her father promised her to a loyal ally of the kingdom–Chancellor Gilbert.

Bitter memories haunted her, Beatrice could only shake off the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes.

But the time I spent as Chloe was far more blissful compared to the two awful years I spent as Princess Beatrice.

Unbeknown to the many, Chloe was not a normal person. When she was young, she realized that she could recall memories from her previous life. They weren’t mere dreams, even in reality, she could remember everything from her past life with vivid clarity.

After years of contemplation, she finally admitted to herself that she had a previous life and had reincarnated as Chloe. It was thanks to the same realization that she survived despite being abandoned as soon as she was born.

I’m still alive.

Chloe thought she was extremely lucky when she became a princess. However, her life fell apart after her husband’s visit to the palace. Gilbert was El Pasa’s best man and a close friend of the King. So when he asked for the hand of one of the princesses, the King couldn’t refuse.

Dreaming to claim the throne someday, Gilbert wanted one of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed royal daughters, which was the symbol of El Pasa’s royal family. However, the King couldn’t attain giving his legitimate daughters to Gilbert, a man of significantly lower standing.

Luckily though, the King had Beatrice; the only royal princess with black hair and eyes to give as he wished. For this, Gilbert was extremely disappointed but could not turn down the King’s offer. Well, he was at least satisfied with the nights he had spent with her.

At that time, Nosteros, the largest empire in the continent was invading other countries with the intention of conquering the entire continent. Thus, eventually, even the ever-independent El Pasa collapsed due to the betrayal.

As Beatrice looked back on this series of events, she did not shed tears. It seemed like a dream but unfortunately, it was the harsh reality.

I had been with Gilbert for two years…

She calmed herself down at this morose thought. Her marriage was nothing short of a nightmare and it never failed to make her desire death. But with her untimely captivity as a slave, she had somehow escaped the marriage. And it gave her a sense of hope…

For her, the most important thing was the fact that she was alive. She couldn’t just give up her life and wished to build her life all over again. To pull herself from the pile of rubbish she was thrown into.

“Lumi, Lucy, everyone… You have always been so nice to me. Thank you very much for helping me at the royal palace all these years.”

Beatrice calmly expressed her sincere gratitude towards the maids. They simply glanced at her with teary eyes. To them, her words sounded like her final words.

“As knight Evan stated in the morning, we are all slaves now. Please don’t call me Princess Beatrice anymore.” She gave a small smile before continuing, “Actually, I think I make a much better slave than a princess. So from now on, don’t treat me with reverence and just be comfortable with me.”

Some of the maids seemed startled by the princess’ shocking remarks, but most of them chose not to answer her.

It was time for everyone to start thinking about their own situation first anyway. El Pasa had collapsed. Gilbert, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was the only one with some sort of power but even he didn’t have enough strength to return the country to its original glory under the Nosteros’ mandate.

“You guys sure are having a lot of fun.”

The ladies turned their heads towards the sudden voice of a male. Their breaths hitched as their eyes failed to hide the fear they felt. They could never forget the face of the man who had killed the maid named Blair.

His name was Leo.

His voice echoed in silent barracks. No one could respond to his words. Leo was a madman, his words and deeds proved that fact.

“Ah, princess! If you like the fact that you’ve regained your status as a slave, you should at least have a ceremony to celebrate it.” As he said so, he unlocked the dungeon, much to the captives’ horror.

Leo roughly grabbed Chloe and dragged her out of the dungeon. Before she knew it, all the other knights surrounded her to watch the show. What did he want from her?!

“It must be so much fun to be able to go back to slavery. We should celebrate this, shouldn’t we?” Amusement danced in his eyes as he looked down at the defenseless Chloe.

As if manhandling was still not enough, he seized her shoulder and began to play around with her, dragging her body all over the floor as the other knights began to shake with laughter.

“Lord Leo! I’ve never seen black hair before! I wonder if her hair’s black in other places as well.”

As soon as one made that remark, the others began to cheer for her clothes to be stripped off of her.

“I know, I’m curious too,” Leah said with malice.

As the other knights chimed in agreement, Chloe began to doubt whether they were even actual knights. After all, they were so cruel. Ashamed, she didn’t dare raise her head. She knew they wanted to tease her but she had a foreboding sense that they’d do something much horrible…