Chapter 6

Where is this place?

I spun around, completely flustered. I had been mindlessly walking around the flower field and found myself here.

I knew the palace was big, but not this big. And it wasn’t like I could find my way back because I hadn’t been walking in one direction.

For the first time since I entered this world, I didn’t know what to expect. L-let’s calm down. Since my area in the palace was big, I could probably see it from here.

I was right. When I lifted my head, I saw the wall of a castle. I quickly scurried over with flowers in my arms.

“What this?”

The place I arrived wasn’t the Ruby Palace.

It was an empty place, there wasn’t a single hair visible. No, it was much more empty than my palace.

Did no one use this place? It seems clean, but there’s not even a single rat here.

I was completely baffled because I had only been trying to find pretty flowers but I ended up here.

Wait. No one uses this palace?

“Oho?”

My eyes widened. If no one used this palace, I could use it, right? I was looking for a place to hide my treasure, and this was a perfect place!

There were limits to hiding it in my palace. And I felt uneasy because Lili had gone to meet the head maid this morning.

I quietly examined the entire place. And I started to tip toe to not make a sound as possible.

After a short exploration, I found that the palace was clean but there really wasn’t a single ant here.

If so, I only had to be careful when maids came to clean here. It was probably one of the palaces the past emperor used. And it was close to my palace too! My luck really was amazing.

And this abandoned palace became my secret hideout.

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I’ve been thinking, but 4 years ago I probably died after taking the sleeping pills. And since it was the middle of winter without any heating units on, I probably froze to death. Dang.

Well it’s not like I missed that life or anything, especially since I was an orphan. If someone told me to go back, I absolutely wouldn’t.

Actually, novel aside, if you looked at it logically, this was a pretty good place. I got meals, a house, and I didn’t have to work for a single thing.

And with the possession buff that I got, I could understand the language of this world the day I opened my eyes.

“Li,li!”

I happily smiled holding the paper that had scribbly words on it. The level of education in this world was low, and kids my age learning to write was unheard of.

My goal was to quietly live without attracting too much attention, but I was completely doomed. Lili and the maids looked at me in shock like I was the genius of the century.

“Our clever princess.”

And after that, they started to officially educate me. The maids that used to adore me were burning with a passion to teach me things, and they started teaching me basic manners.

I learned later on, but children usually started learning manners when they were 8.

“I’m sincerely happy that I can be by Princess Athanasia’s side.”

It pricked my conscience that I was considered a genius when all I was was the possessor of this body.

But I didn’t mean to! So I intentionally got grammar wrong and spilled tea to appeal that I wasn’t smart. It seemed like it wasn’t working though.

“Ati is so happy to be wid Lili too!”

The silver lining was that the Ruby Palace was pretty isolated, so news from inside didn’t spread to the outside.

That was a big relief. Because I’m not gonna meet Claude when I’m 9 years old, and I’m gonna leave before I turn 18!

I’ll do anything to avoid Claude. I don’t know where it is, but I won’t even look at the Emperor’s Palace.

It was probably the fanciest and extravagant of them all since it was where the Emperor lived, right? I just had to avoid that kind of building.

“Princess, would you like some milk?”

“Yeah! I dun like it cold!”

“Yes, I’ll prepare warm milk for you”

Once Lili left the room, I got up from the floor where I had been writing letters. And I got out two pouches that I had prepared beforehand from under my bed.

The pouches that I had gotten from Hannah by using my puppy eyes contained the funds I have saved up so far.

Once I made sure the weight of the pouches were about the same, I quickly lifted my dress. I could see my cute baby underclothes in the shape of pumpkin pants.

I quickly tied the pouches to my thighs before Lili got back. I had asked for warm milk to buy some time, but I was still short.

Why won’t this be tightly tied?

I tried to think of all the methods I could safely get my treasure out without anyone noticing, but this was the only way.

“Done!”

With my chubby fingers, I had managed to barely tie a knot and I got up from where I was sitting. It was heavy for my body, but I could still do it. If I did this several times, I could probably get all my funds out in a day.

The reason why Lili went to meet the head maid was to talk about cleaning the entire palace. She probably wanted to fix some things up since I had grown up a bit.

Considering the personality of the head maid, it would be hard to get some extra help from her, but the head maid had to say yes because of the rules in place of the palace.

After Lili told me, I had shivers down my back. I needed to quickly carry out my plans.

So I was planning on sneaking out of my palace under the pretense of a nap. By pretending to fall asleep, I found that Lili doesn’t enter my room when I’m taking a nap. Probably because she knew that once I fell asleep, I would only wake up when I was woken up by someone else.

“Princess, have sweet dreams.”

When Lili thought I had fallen asleep, she kissed my cheek and quietly left the room.

I laid in bed for a while listening to the sounds outside, and I slowly opened my eyes.

Ouch. My legs were under the pouches. Because the items inside the pouches were hard and sturdy, my legs would probably have markings on them. It was hard to move my little pretties to safety.

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I closed the door as quietly as I could and left the palace.

I had run through simulations of the maids working and knew all their trajectories so I was able to get to the garden without being caught. But it was ok to get caught as long as it wasn’t Lili who caught me.

I hurried my feet past the flower field. I knew which way I had to go because I had investigated beforehand.

But it was definitely not easy to run with this body, especially with the extra weight.

I finally arrived at my destination, legs shaking.

Crap. I felt like I was gonna collapse. But I only had 2 hours so I had to move quickly.

“Argh.”

First I untied the strings, and I ran to the place I planned to put my treasures. If I put it inside the building, something could happen, so I was going to bury it under a trustworthy looking tree.

But there was a problem.

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I don’t have anything to dig the ground! The earth was hard because it hadn’t rained in a while, and my soft hands couldn’t do it. ALso, if I had soil on my hands, I would get caught by Lili. WHat to do.

I struggled for a bit, and I decided to hide my babies in a bush. I would have to come back tomorrow to properly bury it. I’ll ask Hannah for a play shovel.

When I went back, it was easier because I was lighter. I made eye contact with a maid on the way to my room and almost peed my pants, but she thought I was just visiting and didn’t think too much of it.

It was a good thing I usually wandered around my palace.

I returned to my room, and I felt like I was gonna die because I was so exhausted.

“Our Princess, time to wake up.”

“Oookay.”

I was actually really tired so I moaned from the stress. Lili thought it was because I was still sleepy.

“Hm? Why are you drenched in sweat?”

At Lili’s surprised voice, I froze. Sadly, A perfect crime was too much for me.

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“You seem to have a slight fever. Do you have anywhere that hurts….?”

“Yeahh. It’s hot. The Sun is so bwight.”

Lili glanced around my room and swiped the sweat on my forehead with the back of her hand.

“Starting from tomorrow, I’ll open the window or close the curtains. This room does seem a little hotter since it’s facing south.”

“Ati wants milk. Cold please.”

“You already drank some before your nap.”

Despite saying that, Lili left the room to get some cold milk. And once I was completely alone, I fell back in my bed.

***

After that, I left the Ruby Palace about two more times. I thought I might get caught by Lili and it was tiring going out everyday so my secret absence took place once in a few days.