Chapter 2

I thought it was unlikely.

Occasionally, I would have strange dreams.

Dreams where I saw myself watching a TV.

I don't know if it was magic, but it was a box with a glass-like surface, vividly displaying various people. Many of the people shown were women exposing their legs, and none of them were wearing dresses. After waking up, I wondered if I had some exhibitionist desires that led to such dreams. It's also a mystery how my brain could imagine something like a TV, which doesn't exist in reality.

I also had dreams where I saw people other than myself in the mirror.

They weren't wearing a dress or a corset. The person in the mirror had straight black hair and dark eyes.

My current hair color is like maronglaze, and my eyes are a dull grayish-green. I wondered if I had a desire to have black hair and dark eyes, and I once stared at my face reflected in a polished silver mirror.

But I didn't feel that way.

Instead, the person in the mirror felt somewhat nostalgic. Perhaps it was because I resembled my late mother.

However, my way of thinking changed after I started having these dreams.

It was around the time when my stepmother treated me coldly, and the few servants we had started to avoid me, swayed by the strong ones.

I, Kiara Patricia, was seven years old.

Until then, my room was the only place that remained the same, so I would cry in my room. After I started having these dreams, I became more defiant.

First, I stopped hoping that my father would help me.

I used to cry a lot, but I could accept that my father was infatuated with his young stepmother and treated me like a thorn in his side, with a detached feeling.

My heart felt a little lighter, but more painful things happened to me.

When my father died, I became a servant.

Because of the difficult financial situation, my adoptive father didn't want to buy clothes for me, who wasn't his biological child. I was given only one black servant's uniform that didn't show dirt, and I lost everything, including my room.

On the other hand, my stepmother bought silk clothes for her son from her marriage to my father. The servants, who were swayed by the strong ones, didn't even offer me any comfort.

Still, I managed to endure because of the memories of the different 'family' I saw in my dreams.

My stepmother and half-brother were not my family. Thinking this way helped me maintain myself.

However, that life lasted only about three months.

I was adopted by an unknown noble family.

The nobleman, Lord Patricia, seemed to want a daughter to use as a pawn to expand his influence.

Because I was needed, I was not deprived of meals at my adoptive home.

I was given beautiful clothes, and the servants treated me properly as a young lady.

However, there was no affection.

Still, I was able to attend a church school boarding house, and for the next three years, I lived and studied etiquette and other bride training-like subjects like a proper young lady.

I thought that was enough.

In my safe boarding house room, the strange dreams became less frequent, and I thought I had seen them because I wanted to escape reality.

"I was too naive..."

In the boarding house, I crouched and sighed.

In my room at the boarding house, I read a letter from my adoptive home, and I was so shocked that I almost screamed. After holding back, I was overwhelmed by a terrible sense of despair and collapsed.

The letter said I was to marry a man who was two decades older than me. Moreover, I had heard rumors that this man had three or four mistresses and was far from being a romantic gray.

I had seen him once when he visited my adoptive home three years ago... his face was toad-like.

I'm not exactly beautiful, but I'm only 14. Isn't it okay to dream about a marriage partner?

Lord Patricia, my adoptive father, wrote that he would send someone to fetch me immediately to get married.

I must have been brave for not shouting "Liar!" out loud when I read it.

Looking back, Lord Patricia, who took me in, had said he intended to make me a lady-in-waiting at the royal palace. I had only thought about working at the palace after graduation... I was too naive.

To be a lady-in-waiting to the queen, one must be married. This is because if a noblewoman becomes the king's mistress, she can still be treated as the daughter or son of that noble family.

The country's policy does not recognize illegitimate children, which helps to protect the queen's position and reduce issues of succession.

To prepare for any eventuality and to avoid my family being targeted by the queen, I was to marry for work and could not refuse if the king, who is much older and not to my liking, made advances.

I just want to run away... The psychological barrier to working at the palace is too high.

Even if I become a lady-in-waiting to the queen, I won't be able to have romantic feelings, and the queen's reputation is not particularly good.

Moreover, the queen is from a neighboring country, and that country has recently been creating an uneasy atmosphere. It has been repeatedly invading and annexing other neighboring countries.

While it is said that the Falzia Kingdom is safe because the queen is the princess of the neighboring country of Ruain, many people are on high alert.

If I serve under such a queen, will I have to side with her if an invasion occurs? Will I become an enemy to the entire country?

It's all so bleak.

I can't see any light in my future.

I don't want to be a villain-like character!

At that moment, the dreams I had seen since I was little came back to my mind.

Along with the dreams, various memories floated up like bubbles.

I was 14 years old, living in Japan on a planet called Earth.

My appearance was that of a black-haired, dark-eyed girl I had seen many times in my dreams.

I lived in a town with tall buildings but a somewhat rural atmosphere.

The memories only went up to when I was 14, but I was reminded of a game I used to play a lot.

I liked simulation games.

The realistic battle scenes were too dizzying, and I preferred turn-based action where it was my turn and then the enemy's turn, which was easier to understand and suited me.

One of these simulation games was about a protagonist who fights to reclaim a kingdom that was almost taken over.

The name of this country, the Kingdom of Falzia, was used in the game.

The protagonist, whose royal family was killed and whose country was invaded by a neighboring country, rises up to save the country and battles the army of the enemy country and the queen who brought them in.

In the game, there was a magician who hindered the protagonist's advance.

Marianne the Poison Queen's confidante, Kiara Credias.

The person I am supposed to marry is the Viscount Credias.

If I marry him, I will take that name...

Wait! Could I be the villain!?

That's the panic in my head right now.