Chapter 5

And they felt more emboldened to do so because there weren’t any more women coming to the Ruby Palace, or Claude’s Harem.

At first it was hard to tell, but then it became so obvious that if you couldn’t notice, you were most likely blind. They even started taking the decorations and jewels on the wall.

Wow, these people. I guess they felt invincible since Claude hasn’t been killin anyone these days.

I noticed before Lili that things were disappearing from my room.

Because everyday, I observed my room, looking for things to steal away. But my plate was slowly becoming smaller and smaller.

I wanted to tell on them to the Emperor, but it wasn’t like I could go up to him and say ‘Daddy! They looked down on me!’ and he would ask ‘Who looked down on my precious daughter?’

Rather he would’ve been like, ‘You were still alive?’, and take my life right there.

O-of course, this could all just be in my head. But I didn’t want to gamble on my life, because I matter!

So I had to do nothing and watch my gold disappearing. All I could do as the maid unnies came into my room and slip something like a gold plate into their apron was vehemently wail.

But once Lili noticed, she became wildly enraged and went to the Head Maid herself to fix the problem.

I could slightly tell from the fact that the other maids used honorifics when Lili was around and that she brought me the gold ball, but Lili was probably the most powerful person in the Ruby Palace, even including me.

So those maids were kicked out of the palace. They were supposed to return what they stole, but I never got any of it back.

I was suspicious of the Head Maid, but there wasn’t anything I could do except cry, so I couldn’t do much. I could tell something was off about her from when she said she couldn’t get me a mere rattle because we didn’t have enough money.

If there was a silver lining, it was that there were so many missing things that no one noticed when I took a few more.

Uh no, let me rephrase that, since technically this is my palace. I was just keeping it safe. Yeah, I’m safekeeping my precious jewels and gold!

But there were limits to that too. Because it seemed like Lili was carefully looking around the palace these days. Even I could tell the palace looked emptier than usual.

Did I gather too much? If Lili saw the incident from 3 years ago was repeating itself and searched the palace….I’’ have to stop for a while.

“Princess, where are you going?”

“Hehet. I’m going to see Lili!”

“Hoho. Before that, we better wipe your mouth. Was the chocolate good?”

Then, the passing maids wiped my mouth with their handkerchief. On the handkerchief, there were clearly visible chocolate stains. I guess I ate it in a hurry to finish them all before Lili came.

The maids chuckled, but I became embarrassed. I can’t believe I did something like that considering my mental age.

“It’s a secret that Ati ate chocowet!”

“Of course, Princess.”

But I was more scared of being scolded by Lili then being embarrassed. I waved to the unnies and quickly fled from the scene.

Geez, the chocolate was even on my hands. I was gonna wipe it on my dress but held back because the dress was white.

It’s ok. There were places I could wash my hands, like a fountain. Of course…it wasn’t in a good condition but…

I passed a few more maids before I got to the fountain. The naked statue on the fountain was so seductive that it was more of a coquette than an angel.

But all the statues in the palace were like this. Was it because this was where the concubines lived? It wasn’t a good place for kids. Of course, I got to see eye candy everyday so it was good for me.

*splash*

I washed my chocolate covered hands in the fountain. I couldn’t go down to the lake in this body, so I had to settle with standing on my tip toes in front of the fountain.

But when I leaned over, I must’ve been careless because I almost fell in. I fumbled because I was surprised, but I saw a clear reflection of myself in the water.

I stopped moving and dazedly looked at myself.

“Prettyy.”

It sounds like narcissism, but I was a little bit too beautiful. Wow. I can’t believe this cute and pretty baby was me!

If this child was in front of me, I would want to bite their cheeks because it was so cute. My fist sized face had the perfect pinchable cheeks.

My naturally curly hair was soft without being too frizzy, and I had big eyes and even longer eyelashes. It was a face that would’ve succeeded as a child actor or model.

My hair and overall features resembled Diana, but my eyes were from Claude. I lost track of time looking into my eyes.

“Hehe.”

I was definitely a beautiful baby, but my eyes were on a different level.

Lili said my eyes were the ‘jewel eyes’ that were passed down the royal family, and the author of <Lovable Princess> had described Jannette’s eyes with lots of praise.

When I first read the book, I thought it was an immature description, but seeing the eyes for myself, the description was true.

When the light shone from different angles, my eyes changed color. There wasn’t anything as mystical or awe-inspiring like this.

I heard that only Claude and I had these eyes.

But that was wrong, because Jannette, who was receiving an abundant amount of love in the Alpheus family, existed as well.

No, but I still didn’t lose hope that maybe this world was different!

Anyways, I heard that everyone had their own magic in this world, but the magic structure of the royal family was so unique that this was why they had these colored eyes.

“Princess! Watch out!”

Suddenly, someone lifted me. I was surprised for a second, but I realized who it was right away.

“I said not to go around alone and you didn’t listen to me.”

I hugged Lili and beamed at her.

“I mwessed you Lili!”

Lili let out a sigh at my flattery. She still had the youthful face from 4 years ago. I tended to like people with pretty faces, so I always acted cute in front of Lily.

“Princess, you ate chocolate today too, didn’t you?”

Uh-oh.

My smile froze. How did she find out?

“I heard from Hannah. No more sweets for one week!”

Nooo. I can’t believe I can’t eat chocolate for a week! Hannah, you betrayer.

BUt no matter how hard I tried to make my face pitiful, Lili didn’t change her mind.

***

A moment later, I was picking flowers in the palace garden.

“Princess, could I have a flower too?”

“No! Bad!”

Hannah had traded shifts with someone and she was following me around because she didn’t have anything in particular to do. I could tell she was getting bored.

Hannah always adored me when giving me snacks, but it looked like she wanted the flower in my hand. If it was any other time, I would’ve given it to her right away but today was different.”

Because she told Lili about me eating chocolate! Hannah said it wasn’t intentional and Lili had heard her and Ces arguing about Ces stealing my kiss, but that didn’t change what had happened.

“The Princess is unfair.”

Even when Hannah was making crying noises, I pretended not to hear and pick flowers. I was going to make a flower crown for Lili. Actually, it was more like I was gonna bribe her into doing something about my chocolate ban.

I was gathering white flowers, but I realized it looked kind of dull. A bright colored flower would do the trick!

“Hanna, what color flower do you think would fit?”

Hannah brightened when I stopped the silent treatment. Ha, she really adores me.

“You’re giving it to Ms.Lilian, right? I think blue or purple would be nice. Hm. Maybe yellow too.”

Hannah was seriously thinking and said that she would look for more flowers somewhere else.

I decided to look through the garden by myself. I guess it would be nice to make a flower crown for Hannah to…

Gosh, I was so nice. But I knew how much Hannah liked me, so I decided to stop with the tantrum.

“Flowers live together in the flower field.”

I started to sing a children’s song as I looked for flowers.

“We live together in the kindergarten.”

And after a while, I realized I wasn’t in the Ruby Palace anymore.

“Uh-oh?”