CH 1

Translated by EunEun

Edited by Slowday

Beatty was staring ahead with a puzzled look.

‘I’m sure I was just lying on the floor a while ago?’

Her then gradually narrowing vision gave an apprehension of foreshadowing an approaching death.

She thought that total darkness had finally come, and it was the end of everything.

‘I can see… the front?’

Furthermore, in front of her eyes, there he was standing.

That very childhood friend who killed her.

“… Ritter? What’s this?”

“Huh?”

It was Ritter, the boy who she thought looked like a prince inside a fairy tale.

“You knew my name?”

The boy who tilted his head and smiled innocently, had such an angelic face that she never had imagined would grow up to become a dirty traitor who bit his friend with his fangs.

“Niece, what are you doing blankly? You’re being rude in front of His Highness!”

‘Ah!’

She remembered seeing her aunt nagging her off with a shrill, deafening voice.

This day was the first time she met Ritter.

“No way…!”

Beatty hurriedly looked down at her hand.

‘It’s small!’

Just like Ritter, who somehow became a little boy again, her appearance was also that of a little child.

“It’s okay. Meeting me for the first time, it must be awkward for the Young Lady, too.”

She saw him naturally overlaid her aunt’s piercing voice.

‘It’s okay….’

He often said that word.

“It’s okay. I don’t care even if you’re an insignificant squirrel shapeshifter.”

Ritter, used to say that it was okay, even if he was a snake shapeshifter and Beatty was a squirrel shapeshifter, a half-sized shapeshifter.

“Because I think of you as a friend.”

‘I believed in that word.’

But, he, who was supposed to be her friend, inserted his fangs into her neck before Beatty’s dream came true.

***

From the moment Beatty could remember, she was already alone.

Maybe someone was with her before, but the child had been alone for too long for her young memory could hold on to.

It’s like when you choose the biggest number among the numbers you know, but the person you’re waiting for doesn’t come even after you count for a hundred nights from the beginning, then another hundred nights, and another hundred nights more.

In the end, being alone was the only thing left in the child’s memory.

“… They all lived happily.”

Inside the room with nothing to do, Beatty continued to read a book.

As if someone would accompany her one day, she put a chair next to the bed.

*Bump*

Suddenly, the door opened without any notice.

“Are you being stuck inside your room again?”

It was Beatty’s aunt, Firina.

She was the type of person that would reproach Beatty as a nosy person for going out of her room, and as a good for nothing for staying still inside her room.

Firina smiled contentedly as she looked around the shabbiest room in the mansion.

‘Huh! No. Even this room is too much for my older sister’s abandoned child!’

She was an older sister that pretended like she did not care about marriage, but snatched the most attractive prospective husband, then sent her a penny of sympathy as if she were laughing at her.

The thought of such an older sister’s daughter raising her head—since she was considered as a princess—and standing in front of her made Firina’s stomach churned.

‘Of course, I won’t let that happen.’

A stupid older sister.

‘I knew you must have thought that you had beaten me by marrying the Duke, but just look at what will happen to your daughter in my hands now.’

Firina, who had the corner of her lips raised with twisted expectations, opened her mouth.

“Stand up. There’s a place to go.”

“With me?”

Beatty blinked at her aunt’s words. Her aunt usually never said something like that. Firina laughed at the child’s expression that was mixed with a hint of excitement.

“Yes. With you.”

Firina said, while poking at the beautiful bride in Beatty’s fairy tale book with her finely groomed nails. 

“Even a child like you goes to do something worthwhile.”

That day, her aunt took her to meet the prince.

“You received an extravagant marriage offer simply because you’re a daughter of the duke. Just think of His Highness as your future husband, and serve him with a sincere heart.” 

Her aunt spewed out rapid-fire like words in a calm tone.

“To be a good wife, you must lower yourself in front of your husband, having the attitude of a servant. Always walk lightly, keep your body in good shape, and dare you not raise your voice.”

At the threatening words of her aunt, Beatty found herself stiffened even before meeting the Prince, who had been titled as her fiancé.

Listening to her aunt’s words was like listening to precautions before meeting some monster, not prospective husband.

“Your mom, who was so stiff, did it too, so you might as well do it too.”

At the end, her aunt went to the room once again to encourage her in a friendly tone, whether it was a compliment or a mockery was unclear.

“Now, say hello. You have to bend your knees with courtesy, because he’s a person with the blood of a noble White Snake.”

“Ha ha, you don’t have to be so formal like that.”

However, the prince whom she met was different from how aunt described him.

“Hi?”

He greeted her affectionately with his eyes almost closed.

“I’m Astrum Empire’s Second Prince, Ritter Astrum.”

He was a boy with a friendly smile. Even when there were only the two of them, his friendliness didn’t change.

“It’s my first time seeing a shapeshifter child like me,” Ritter said curiously. His eyes were fixed on the ‘Signum’ in her wrist.

Beatty shuddered without realizing it.

Signum. A fragment of star that only a shapeshifter, the descendant of the Constellation, was born with.

Normally, it would be an evidence of a proud shapeshifter, but not for Beatty.

Whissh.

Beatty covered her signum and another black thing aside from it with her hands, unlike other shapeshifters.

“Why are you hiding it?”

“….”

Beatty kept her mouth shut, because she didn’t want to explain her distinct characteristics.

“It’s okay. It’s pretty too.”

Ritter, who was watching her, smiled and wrapped his warm hands over the back of hers.

He was the first person who said that about her signum.

“You know, right?”

In a soft voice, Ritter whispered. He was also the only one who spoke to her in a friendly voice. 

“I’m on your side.”

And like that, the boy became her only friend.

By being chosen as his fiancé, and aside from being a good friend to the prince, Beatty’s world had been warped even smaller after the engagement.

“From now on, for your education, I’ll move your room to the annex.”

The education Firina talked about wasn’t like a real class. She didn’t even spend a penny on the education fee for her troublesome niece.

Instead, she controlled Beatty’s entire life under the so-called “bridal class”.

For Beatty, comfortable clothes, appetizing food, and mind-blowing entertainment were all luxuries.

“You shouldn’t be a selfish woman who wants to enjoy things only for herself. Always be vigilant, watchful, and evaluate yourself.”

She was the one who said the harsh words to Beatty more often than anyone else, yet, Firina labeled her bullying as ‘education’.

Even previously, Beatty wasn’t so free. But after being moved to the annex, her life had become even more restricted. 

Despite the circumstances, for her, it wasn’t that bad.

She found a bunch of old books and newspapers in the annex’s warehouse.

Whoosh.

Thanks to the blessing of the Constellation, she could secretly go to the garden in a squirrel form to avoid people’s eyes.

“What are you looking at?”

Because she had a friend.

She proudly showed the book that she had almost memorized by heart to Ritter, who visited her after a while. Beatty straightened herself up.

“A commercial book? Why would you look at things like this?”

“Well, I want to become a merchant who travels the continent later.”

“What?”

Ritter seemed surprised, but Beatty was confident.

“I have what it takes to be a merchant.”

Her aunt told her. 

“You’re a disgrace to others, that’s why you’re abandoned.”  

Therefore, she often called her like this. 

“You shameless thing!”

Whenever she didn’t like something, she would yell at her, throwing sharp gazes.

“A rat that devours others’ kindhearted fortune bestowed to it knows no shame!”

Growing up listening to those kinds of words frequently, Beatty contemplated. 

‘Merchants don’t have to be ashamed for not being paid….’

It was the words of the author of the book that she enjoyed.

‘I’m perfect for it!’

Beatty, who read the book from the annex’s dusty warehouse that no one was interested in, was fascinated by the merchant’s dream.

She wanted to go far, far away.

‘I don’t want to be stuck in a small place that others can’t see. I want to travel around the continent.’

For her, who had never left the capital, traveling around the continent was an object of yearning.

Her heart swelled with anticipation as she imagined that she would see the world that she had only seen through the book, with her own eyes.

“I want to abandon the queen’s seat, and… become a merchant.”

Embarrassed by her friend’s probing voice, Beatty hurriedly opened her mouth.

“Ritter, you said you didn’t want this marriage either. You said that you had no choice but to listen to your mother’s words.”

“Ah, yes. I did say that.”

Fortunately, Ritter soon returned to his usual stance.

“I just wanted to tell you.” 

Reassured by him, Beatty said with a slightly embarrassed face.

“Because we are friends.”

“Yeah… friends.”

Ritter’s expression of pulling the corners of his mouth was strange, but Beatty, who turned her head in embarrassment, did not see it.

“Surely, I must support my friend’s dream.”

As usual, she believed in that soft voice.