After all, I was the crown princess of this kingdom.
✦ ✦ ✦
Father eventually came back up to my room. He consoled me while I cried until I calmed enough to speak, and he made me swear never to do anything so reckless again. Though he did confess that the attendants found one cracked wheel and one defective one when they inspected the carriage.
“I owe you my life. Thank you, Pride,” he said, wrapping me in his arms.
Almost as quickly as I’d managed to stop crying, the tears flowed again.
Later that day, when Mother returned to the castle, Father recounted the day’s events to her. I became the official heir to the throne at that point, and the news of my awakened powers spread to the people of the kingdom. When Father tried to ask my guards and maids what exactly happened, I placed myself between him and the servants.
“It was all my fault,” I said. “These people were only looking out for me, so if anyone deserves punishment, it’s me.” But Father just smiled and shook his head, and I realized he’d never intended to punish anyone in the first place.
That night, Father stayed by my side until I fell asleep. He hadn’t done that for me in ages. He spoke softly and soothingly, telling me about my younger sister Tiara like it was a bedtime story. He said he’d planned to tell me about her that very day before I blurted it out myself. I would get to meet her in one month on her birthday, but until then I wouldn’t see her or Mother much. It turned out the queen had to spend a lot of time looking after sickly little Tiara on top of all her other duties.
He stroked my hair, so like his and my mother’s, as he described Tiara more. “You and Tiara are both our precious daughters. Nothing could ever change that,” he said, his gaze brimming with affection.
I had to wonder if the Pride in the game would turn into a corrupted, evil queen if her father had gotten to live and say such lovely things to her all the time. It was still possible, of course, but maybe his kindness would have changed the course of events for her.
Father warned that the pace of my studies would pick up now that I was officially recognized as the heir to the throne. He rattled off a list of subjects—governing, local history, etiquette, procedures—and my eyelids grew heavy as lead. I drifted off to the sound of his voice, the deep rumble of his soothing tone as he debated adopting a little brother to serve as my assistant now.
Wait… A brother?!
✦ ✦ ✦
“I won’t forgive you… I’ll never forgive you! I’m going to kill you!”
A boy was crying, his tearful eyes ablaze with pure hatred. He stared straight ahead at a girl who cackled right back at him, a girl too young to soften her laugh to be more ladylike. She clutched her sides as she laughed down at the boy.
“Ah ha ha! How foolish can you be? You could never kill me. After all…”
I knew both of these people. No, it was more than that…
That girl was me.
Pride Royal Ivy. She…or rather, I was the girl who irreparably scarred the hearts of all the game’s love interests. My younger sister, Tiara, would sweep in to heal their wounds. After I received my punishment at the end of the game, Tiara would take my seat as the queen and set the kingdom back on the path to harmony alongside her love interest.
I remembered this scene from the game. From what I could recall, it was the memory of one of the love interests.
“Why did you trick me?!” the boy said. “I-I just… I wanted to see her, that’s all…”
The boy gritted his teeth, tears tracking down his cheeks while I pointed at him and howled with laughter. That laugh was too big, too cruel, too evil to fit inside one little girl, yet there I was. Meanwhile, the boy kept calling out for someone.
“I missed her. I missed her so much,” the boy said.
“Ah ha ha ha! Oh, that’s right. You’d better keep this a secret,” I said. “Not that anyone would listen to a dirty former commoner like you.”
I kept up my laughter, and the boy howled until his voice went hoarse. Over and over again, he cried out that he would kill me.
His name was…Stale. Stale Royal Ivy—Pride’s adopted younger brother-in-law.
Someone… Someone save him.
He hadn’t done anything wrong, but I couldn’t do anything for him. After all, I was the one who hurt him.
The one who could help him, the one who was his only salvation from the life he lived at the castle, was his adopted younger sister-in-law.