Chapter 1

A shriek lifted me out of somewhere deep.

“Lari… Open your eyes.”

I blinked my heavy eyelids and opened my eyes to the cry of a young voice.

“… Your Majesty?”

It was a small whisper, but Thierry’s head was lifted. He seemed to have been holding my hand all the time and resting his forehead on the back of my hand.

The eyes were full of moisture, and even as a child, the beautiful appearance as if he had already grown up was pitiful.

“Your highness, how are you here?”

I tried to raise my upper body up with a surprised face, but in the end, I gave up and barely uttered words. The more he spoke intermittently in a deeply submerged voice, the stronger the gripping hand became.

“I was worried…”

“…”

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

All I had was just a cold. I stayed in the room for two days in case, but it seems that the young prince could not bear it and came to the place where I stayed.

“Not at all! I just don’t have the energy. After tonight, it will be the same as usual.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I couldn’t see you all the time, so I came here like this, but even when I called, you didn’t wake up…”

“I’m sorry. Were you surprised?”

“…Yes. I was afraid that Lari would not be able to open her eyes like this.”

The white face contrasting with the black hair looked particularly pale today. Even though the corners of the eyes, which were soaked with water, were burning red.

A face of desperation, thirsting for affection, drew closer to me.

“Lari. Did you not forget that you agreed to stay with me? Will you keep your promise?”

The voice whispering urgently, in case someone heard it and interrupted it, was very painful. I couldn’t help but smile and held the boy’s hand tightly. The hand that used to be small was now as big as my hand.

“Absolutely. As long as Your Majesty wishes, I will keep that promise.”

I didn’t even know that would be the last time.

***

Originally, I wasn’t ‘Lari’.

One day, I stumbled on the overpass and fell. When I opened my eyes, I was possessed in this body. It was about the body of a supporting actor in the novel 『One Wish』, which I read right before my death.

The male protagonist, Thierry Rainerio, was an unlucky prince. He lacked the power of fire that only appeared to the royal family of the Podia Empire, the guardian of fire, so he was living alone in a secluded villa.

And my future was already bleak because Lari, a maid with the commoner background, who was roughly attached to him, later stole his mother’s only keepsake, a necklace, broke it, and died at the hands of that man.

You just kill people like that?

Lari was just a stepping stone for the male lead to grow. It is the opportunity to awaken the power of fire when he finally became angry and felt emotions.

That way, after that, he will be able to open his heart to the female lead and sit on the throne of the emperor against the empress and the crown prince.

As I recalled Thierry, the man who was crying for me a while ago, I fell into a strange feeling.

‘It was really hard. With a 12-year-old body, I swept and polished the large villa, treated the seven-year-old prince well both physically and mentally. I almost felt like a parent.’

Of course, the desire to return to the original world was also there, but when I remembered the painful last moments of my previous life, my will was quickly shattered.

So, I decided to live with it.

‘Anyway, it’s better to live than to die again.’

At first, I wanted to sneak away. However, the place I stayed at was like my residential area, and ifI ran out of the Imperial Palace right away, I would only be roaming the streets forever.

After all, there was only one way. Working hard to raise money with the male lead.

Of course, there would be no death flag if I don’t steal the necklace, so I decided to take good care of the male lead so that he wouldn’t be crooked in order not to cause my neck to fly.

I did my best with no regrets.

The child with a closed heart treated me as if I was not there, but as if to repay the sincerity I had shown over the past 6 years, his gaze gradually began to dwell on me.

Finally, today, to the point where he even shed tears for me.

‘In the original, he was a ruthless and cold-hearted person, but Thierry is different now. It’s like he’s completely naive. The environment in which a child grows up is also important.’

I was saving money to run away, but my future seemed safe enough that I didn’t have to.

I frowned as I thought that I should spend the whole day with Thierry, who would have been very surprised tomorrow with a happy mood.

‘The only problem is that I’m worried that Thierry won’t trigger the power of fire…’

Other imperial families naturally learned the power, but the author put a useless setting on why he had to realize that power based on anger.

Maybe I should come up with a different method so that Thierry can realize the power…

‘Hmm, I don’t know. Let’s get well soon and get up.’

Suddenly, it was late in the morning.

I was so thirsty that I opened my eyes for a moment while I was sleeping, but the sound of rain coming through the window somehow reminded me of Thierry’s crying, so my contemplation became longer.

‘Let’s go to sleep.’

I tried to clear my head to fall asleep again.

Squeak!

But at that moment, the squeaky sound of the hinge rang quietly. I opened my closed eyes again and carefully looked toward the open door.

‘Did Thierry come again? Huh?’

Darkness settled in the room, but the size of the incoming person could be seen, so I could soon see that my guess was wrong.

“Who is it?”

In an instant, only black shadows filled my view, and a towel covered my nose and mouth.

“Ugh!”

A tremendous force weighed down on me. An unidentified strong smell paralyzed my senses and blurred my mind.

‘I’m going to die again? Why?’

I was discouraged by the fact that this life would be lost in vain again, feeling the increasingly blocked breath and a distant spirit.

‘Who on earth…’

Eventually, I lost sight and stopped breathing. It was a perfect dark battle.

“Hah!”

However, I felt that my breath, which had not rested due to tightness, returned.

“There’s a reaction!”

“What? Are you saying that her consciousness is back?”

I opened my eyes wide like a person who was rescued from falling into water.

“The princess really opened her eyes!”

“Gasp…”

There was a commotion around. I was just busy trying to breathe, so I didn’t have the time to look around the fuss.

“What?”

I thought I was dead. I definitely felt a sense of suffocation.

To say that I was paralyzed by sleep paralysis, everything was too vivid, and I felt like I almost lost my mind for a moment, but I opened my eyes quickly. But strangely, the surroundings were so bright and strange.

‘…It’s not my room. Is this a dream? Or the afterlife? Something like that?’

I rolled my eyes. The people surrounding the high ceiling, the colorful bedroom, and the bed I was lying on were staring at me with pressure.

“Alicia! Are you awake?”

“…Me?

Are you sure you’re asking me right now? I barely spoke a word in a voice that seemed so different.

‘What situation is this?’

There were many things I wanted to ask. One, as if I had not played my part for a long time, my neck was stuffy as if it had been stuck in something, and when I made a sound, it hurted as if it were about to be torn.

“Alicia. I can’t believe you opened your eyes…”

The middle-aged man looked into my eyes and gently swept my hair. His trembling fingertips touched me for a while and then fell off.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry about this as your father. I’m just thankful.”

Soon after, people bowed their heads deeply toward the middle-aged man while I frowned and suppressed intense emotions.

…No, something’s wrong with this.

I looked faintly around with a speechless look. Then, thinking that I couldn’t do it, I secretly pinched my thigh under the blanket.

“Ow!”

It hurted so much. Tears came out from the pain.

“Princess! Are you okay?”

“What are you doing? Check the condition quickly.”

“Princess, excuse me for a second. Can you look at this light for a second?”

I crouched to the side, rubbed my thighs quickly, and opened my closed eyes.

If it’s not a dream, what is this? Why do you keep… Who is this Alicia?

Only then did the words that I heard slipped into my ears. The hand rubbing my thigh stopped.

At that moment, an unknown sense of sight crossed my mind.

“Princess?”

“Alicia?”

Me, who woke up in a strange place after realizing death, and those who call me a strange name. These situations are different, but I definitely seem to have experienced it one day.

As the hidden field of view opened, blonde hair and thin white hands that were scattered on the bed caught my eyes.

‘It’s not my body.’

My hands trembled in front of me as if they were agitated like my feelings.

I stare at the noise around me. Soon, I closed my eyes tightly.

***

As expected, it was the second possession.

“Oh my… You’ve been lying down for 7 years, and you’re so healthy. This is a miracle!”

It’s been a month since I opened my eyes from this body.

I thought it would take a long time to recover because I had been lying down for a long time, but I’m already healthy enough to live a normal life.

“It’s all thanks to everyone’s sincere care for me.”

“Haha, princess…”

“…Isn’t it time to stop crying?”

At first, every time I opened my mouth, I trembled with contemplation, but now I looked awkwardly at Norman, who shed tears with an emotional face whenever I said something.

“This old man is always making a fuss and apologizing. Even though the memory of the princess is not intact, the way you try to get along makes me feel emotional…!”

“Oh, I see.”

“If it were in the past, you would have asked me to get rid of my tears right away, but you even listened to me like this. This old man, even if I die tomorrow, I have no regrets!”

I swallowed laughter as if I knew what I had been suppressing was bursting. The more Norman talked today, the more I couldn’t hide my feelings.

‘I heard that a person becomes nice after he/she dies and comes back to life.’