Chapter 4
4
==
After class, I sat at my desk, contemplating what I needed to do.
‘I shouldn’t let them find out I can write yet….’
So, I wrote down the initials like a code, recording my thoughts.
First, there’s….
"Save Gabi."
As planned this morning, I need to completely cure Gabriella’s cold to prevent it from turning into pneumonia.
If I fail, my life will become quite difficult, so I must succeed.
Next….
"STBG"
Receive the Divination.
The Divination is a huge event that will change my life.
The princess of Ruelle usually receives Divinity during her first Divination at the age of seven, and Rosa going in my place was the starting point of everything.
That damned Rosa made my Scent pouch not long after receiving the Divination.
‘She must have heard about my Divinity in that Divination.’
But she left that part out and only talked about herself.
That she would soon see the future.
So, this time, at the age of seven, I must receive that Divination. Absolutely.
‘But why did Rosa go so far…?’
Rosa’s Foresight is invaluable, incomparable to my mother’s Healing Power.
In Ruelle’s history, kings with Foresight were rare among the great kings.
‘She must have heard about her Foresight in the Divination….’
Thinking that far, I finally realized.
‘My Divinity manifested too early….’
Rosa didn’t know when her Foresight would manifest, and she was afraid that she would become useless because I received Divinity in time.
We were forbidden twins, and we didn’t know about our mother’s Divination.
‘She must have thought she would be abandoned.’
But to deceive me for the rest of my life?
What did you gain by making me such an incompetent sister?
‘The love and respect of the kingdom’s people?’
I felt a renewed surge of anger and wrote the next line.
"Get revenge on Rosa."
Since the Divination our mother received firmly protects us, there’s no way to kick that little kid out of the castle, no matter what I do.
‘But it’s too frustrating to just sit still until the Divination at the age of seven, isn’t it?’
Also, it will be even harder to deal with Rosa after she sees the future.
It won’t be easy with this tiny body….
‘But let’s give it a try.’
I glared at Rosa’s name, written only in initials, on the paper, breathing heavily.
Just then, I heard a knock, knock.
“Yes?”
Beatrice appeared with a gentle smile.
“Your Highness, are you reviewing? Oh my, how admirable.”
“Umm, well….”
I quickly pushed the paper away, afraid of being caught writing, but Beatrice didn’t seem interested in the paper at all.
She simply asked with a soft smile.
“It seems we’ll be seeing His Majesty the King this evening. Shall we practice our greetings?”
Ah….
You see, when we were young, we were surprisingly shy around our father.
It was because we didn’t see him often.
‘But I didn’t know we even practiced our greetings.’
Beatrice misunderstood my troubled expression and quickly waved her hands.
“Ah, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, Your Highness.”
Wait a minute….
There was a clause in the Divination our mother received that said, ‘The existence of the Divination may be revealed after the child’s Divinity manifests.’
‘If Rosa hadn’t hidden my Divinity during the first Divination at the age of seven….’
There would have been no reason to deceive Father for another eight years.
If he had known we were twins, Father wouldn’t have been disappointed waiting for Mother’s second pregnancy for so long….
‘Because one of us could have received Nigel’s title of Grand Duke.’
Hold on.
Could it be that Rosa really didn’t manifest until she was fifteen?
‘What nonsense!’
Rosa must have been seeing the future long before that.
‘So, she made sure I didn’t get sick or hurt, so she could hide my Healing Power.’
As far as I remember, Rosa was always a troublemaker.
She accidentally dropped portrait frames hanging on the wall or smashed vases; big and small accidents never stopped happening around her.
We shared everything, but anything that broke or was damaged always happened when Rosa touched it.
‘I just thought she had terrible luck….’
Was she deliberately doing that to take responsibility for the accidents I would have caused?
Because if I got hurt, my Divinity would be revealed?
I took out the paper I had pushed aside earlier and circled the words I had written.
"Get revenge on Rosa."
Just you wait.
‘So, when exactly does Rosa manifest?’
If that day wasn’t far off, I was the one in a hurry.
Even if my Healing Power manifested earlier than Rosa’s, I couldn’t face a sister with Foresight with just Healing Power.
‘Then, until then….’
I calculated in my head and added a few more letters without Beatrice noticing.
"Recruit Dad."
Gather as many allies as possible.
Aja, aja, fighting!
* * *
“Hello.”
When I finally went to the evening banquet, the man at the head of the table, who looked somewhat nervous, smiled as if he had been painted.
Even though I had practiced greetings with Beatrice, I reflexively flinched at my father’s voice.
Before the age of fifteen, my father was a scary and uncomfortable person to me, and after that, he was always someone I felt sorry for and guilty towards.
‘In my 22 years of life, Father has always been so difficult….’
Mother quickly intervened as if taking my side.
“It’s amazing how you still get shy every time he comes back.”
“…I guess so.”
I noticed Father’s trembling lips, which I hadn’t seen when I was younger.
The glimmer of expectation in his mysterious purple eyes vanished in an instant, as if doused with cold water.
‘This won’t do!’
I have to get closer to Father somehow!
I mustered my courage, raised my head again, and awkwardly waved one hand.
“…Pa.”
The father, who had been momentarily stunned, suddenly jumped up from his seat.
He moved his long legs awkwardly, rushing towards me.
He knelt on the floor in front of my table, lowering his height, and looked down at me with pleading eyes.
“Did you say… Dad, baby? Did you call me Dad?”
No, why are you making that face over just one word….
“Hic….”
I felt so sorry that tears burst out before I knew it.
Mother deliberately blamed Father.
“Oh my, you’re something else too…. Why are you getting so close to a shy child?”
“Ah…. I, I’m sorry…. I’m sorry, dear.”
Father hurriedly returned to his seat and didn’t look at me again.
Then, he began to chew and swallow the kingdom’s best banquet like stones.
He must be afraid that I’ll burst into tears because I’m shy.
‘I’m doomed.’
Oh, what am I going to do about this?
God, why do I have to do this again…!
* * *
The day of being four years old was so exhausting that I fell asleep as soon as I lay down on the bed.
I slept so deeply in the early morning that I didn’t even realize Gabriella had taken me back to the detached palace.
I didn’t even get to see Rosa.
‘Haa, Rosa Rostel La Perca….’
As I lay comfortably on the bed in the detached palace, looking up at the simple ceiling, Rosa’s obnoxious face… well, she looks exactly like me, but anyway, she comes to mind.
‘How can I get revenge on that wicked thing?’
I didn’t want to come back, but now that I’m back, I can’t stand not crushing Rosa.
‘But I can’t crush her unless I make eye contact….’
When we were very young, Rosa and I didn’t even know of each other’s existence.
‘Of course, because there was no reason to meet.’
Then, after we learned to speak, Gabriella told me almost every day.
That I actually have a twin sister, and people think my sister and I are the same person.
That they think we’re one person.
“If we keep it a secret until we’re seven, everyone will be happy.”
As Gabriella said, that would have been good enough.
I remember the day I first realized Rosa’s existence in the bedroom in the early morning.
‘The first memory of seeing a sister with the same face as me, another me….’
Even in my young heart, it was so strange that I will never forget it.
We rarely met after that, but after learning to write, we began to communicate briefly.
For example….
“The teacher says there’s a test.”
Leaving notes like that.
Of course, knowing there’s a test that morning doesn’t help at all.
‘But it’s difficult to act like I didn’t know there was a test.’
If that Rosa went alone to receive the Divination and then handed me a Scent pouch as a gift, of course it would be suspicious!
‘The past me who happily accepted that and wore it day and night, should have died…!’
Ah, I’m already dead….
Ugh, now that I’m alive, I can’t die again.
‘If one of us has to die, it’s Rosa’s turn this life, right?’
You go as a hostage. Or go as a Royal Concubine.
Let’s do it fairly, once each.
‘I’ve only been locked up for one day, but do you know the sorrow of the dungeon?’
Do you know the bitterness of betrayal?
‘If you hadn’t talked to me about family or love or whatever….’
Haa.
I get so angry just thinking about Rosa that I’ve secured insomnia for this life.
Gabriella smiled as she watched me sighing in bed.
“Thank you for yesterday, Your Highness. Sending the Royal physician because I was sick…. When did you grow up so much, Your Highness, who was just a little baby?”
