The Monster Princess

Chapter 2

The Monster Princess’s Future

I had a nightmare.

Inside a glass greenhouse, there were corpses of birds and empty birdcages scattered everywhere. A young woman was crying silently, her features devoid of emotion. She was crouching, so her long, lustrous golden hair touched the ground. I could not get a clear view of her face because of the hair hanging in front of it, yet somehow I knew she looked familiar.

Caw! Caw!

Black feathers fluttered into the air as the sharp cries of a crow echoed within the glass walls. In the woman’s hands, which had never seen a hard day’s work in her life, she was clutching a fistfull of black feathers.

“Judith... What I can’t have, you mustn’t have either.” Words filled with hate and sorrow left her bloodied lips. “So if I must meet my end utterly empty-handed...”

In her grip she held a helpless bird struggling to escape. She watched it with a smile, her eyes flickering with a hint of madness.

“Then I will destroy the whole world, the world that should have been mine. That way, no one may claim any of it.”

A teardrop rolled down her cheek. The sunset reflected off of it, giving it a bright red glow as if she were crying blood.

Through the feathers swirling in the air, I finally caught a glimpse of her face. She looked frighteningly like myself.

* * *

“Gaaah!”

I jolted awake with a sound quite unseemly for a princess.

“Oh, you’re awake, Your Highness,” Marina said.

I popped up and glanced around wildly like a meerkat. After confirming that I was indeed in my bedchamber, I sighed in relief.

Whew. It was just a dream, but it was so vivid. Creepy.

I’d been having the same nightmare as of late—one where a young blonde woman tortures a bird inside a greenhouse. And I just happened to have it again during my quick little nap.

“Marina.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Would you like some cold water with honey?”

She seemed to have a sixth sense, always knowing what to do as soon as I called her name. This time, it was bringing me some chilled honey water.

I gulped down the sweetened water, but I was still in pain. My body also still felt like it was on fire, despite my blankets being enchanted with cooling magic.

Noticing how weak I was, my maid consoled me. “Your Highness, please remain strong just a little longer. I am confident you will regain your health very, very soon.”

It had been around ten days since my tea with Chloe. When we had our tea, I had just recovered from a fever aggravated by anger and stress. It was unbelievable to already be sick again.

Ugh, goodness. What am I to do with this useless body?

This time I was sick because of my own father, His Majesty the Emperor. Two days ago, despite the fact that I had only just recovered, he ordered me to summon rain on the Finlen region to alleviate them of a famine.

“The emperor must be trying to drain me of even my bone marrow before I die.”

“Please don’t say that, Your Highness,” Marina rebuked. “I’m sure His Majesty simply relies greatly on your prowess. You’re the most renowned magician in all of Camulita.” She was also good at giving appropriate responses to my occasional bitter remarks.

But really, I was only fourteen. After putting me through all that, the man clearly didn’t fulfill the criteria to be called a good father.

It is true that I am the empire’s greatest magician, though. I felt a bit better as I reminded myself of just how special I was.

However, my strength once again left my body as I looked at my sad, sickly state. Great power came at a price. My magic required me to use my mana, and as powerful as my mana was, this was what I often had to endure.

I changed the topic. “How is the girl doing?”

“Do you mean the Cold Palace’s princess?”

She was referring to Judith, the fourth princess and the same small girl whom I saw being bullied by Chloe not long ago. Her mother was a slave, but she was taken in as the viceroy’s daughter because her jet-black hair and sparkling golden eyes gave her a striking resemblance to the empire’s first ruler.

But that was where the goodwill ended. She was constantly shunned even within the imperial palace and was left to live by herself in a place known as the Cold Palace.

“She is the same as always. Her days seem to consist of quietly reading books and studying the fundamentals required to join the imperial family.”

Marina seemed skeptical about my sudden interest in Judith. It was understandable. Until recently, I wanted nothing to do with her and had treated her like a person who shouldn’t exist, filth born from a slave.

But that changed when I suffered from an extreme fever due to my chronic illness. I had an experience so bizarre that I couldn’t possibly hope to make sense of it.

That night, I thought my brain would literally melt in the furnace that was my body. Because my fever was so high, at times I could not discern whether or not I was conscious. After I finally did fall unconscious—though whether I was asleep or passed out, I couldn’t be sure—I opened my eyes to find myself in a mysterious, almost magical place.

The scenery laid out before me was illuminated with an endless purple hue. There were countless bird cages hanging from above, and whatever was shining inside the cages made them glitter like stars in the night sky.

I was overwhelmed by the mystical sight. The cages flickered as if inviting me to open them. Hypnotized by the dazzling lights, I swung open the door of the brightest cage.

The light inside burst forth and took the shape of a book with a golden cover. It flipped open to display an account of an unknown stranger’s life. Somehow, the passage I read made its way into my head.

—The twelve-year-old Judith Camulita had always wondered if she was destined to never find happiness.

Wait a minute...

No. It wasn’t the life of a stranger. The life in the book belonged to Judith—the slave-born princess unworthy of the name given to her, the embarrassment of the imperial family, and the half-sister whom I’d never even spoken to.

The light from the cage had somehow become a work of fiction with her as its heroine. This was blatantly obvious even from its title: Princess Judith's Dazzling World.

It was a dull and silly love story, the likes of which Chloe enjoyed. It was mainly about Judith’s personal journey and romantic encounters, but once I took out all the trivial details, it could be summed up in a single sentence: After being isolated by her own people and living in the Cold Palace all alone, the slave-born Judith overcomes trials and tribulations to obtain love and take hold of power.

Those trials and tribulations included constant bullying by her half-siblings, who saw her as nothing but an eyesore. It was a shockingly accurate reflection of my reality.

As I continued to read, what followed was even more surprising. The book stated that the one who always obstructed her path to a happy ending was none other than me.

—To the arrogant First Princess Arbella, the noblest of the imperial family, Judith was nothing but vermin and the daughter of a slave. But when the worthless Judith awakened to her mana, she instantly surpassed all the other princes and princesses to become the most magnificent magician in the realm. Arbella was incensed, as she could not get rid of her.

At first I was only puzzled, but then rage began to slowly creep in.

What the...? What is this? This book was blasphemy against the imperial family. The lowly Judith becomes a magician who exceeds my abilities and takes away everything from me? How could someone write about me like this?

The Camulita Empire was a powerful and magical domain containing mana inherited from the ancient kingdom of Mado. The mana passed down through the imperial line was especially formidable, and among the imperial family, I was the one born with unrivaled mana.

Who dares to write such an insulting book to mock me? I kept reading and found that I would later suffer defeat at Judith’s hands. To top it off, I would face not a noble end, but rather a pathetic and miserable one.

I staggered, feeling my blood boil. I attempted to tear the book to shreds, but at that moment I awoke from the hellish dream.

Once my fever subsided, I left the palace as if possessed by some strange force. That was when I found Chloe bullying Judith.

I had already decided to put the ridiculous dream out of my mind, writing the book off as nonsense. If it were true, the pathetic little girl I had never paid attention to was the true heroine of this world, while I was just a villainess who would try to crush her only to face my own doom.

Even though I didn’t believe it, something kept gnawing at me. Since I had nothing to lose, I decided to confirm a few things from the story.

I was shocked by what I witnessed. I saw some maids knock Judith into the fountain and the other princes and princesses pour glue into her hair. Over the last ten days, scene after scene played out exactly as was written in the book.

Just thinking about it made my blood simmer even hotter. I chomped on an ice cube Marina gave me. “Anyway, I would like you to keep an eye on her.”

“Certainly! I will do that.” My maid usually obeyed my orders without question, but this time she hesitated. “Although it feels like you’ve changed as of late, Your Highness.”

She was spot-on. My heart sank slightly. It felt like I got caught thinking about what happened in the book and that it was a big no-no that I had.

I maintained my composure, but blurted out cynically, “Maybe it’s because my days are numbered.”

“Again, please don’t say such things.”

It suddenly felt like I had too much to think about.

“I must get some rest. You may go,” I ordered Marina. Sending her away, I closed my eyes.