Stories about people from my world being reincarnated into the bodies of other worldly beings. Prince's, princesses, Duke's, commoners- even ones in worlds of games and those of monsters.

These stories brought me light when everything was so dark. My one true solace.

"This child has dark hair, your majesty… " The midwife spoke with hesitation.

"Then it must be a cursed child…And yet it has my blood flowing through it."

The emperor was a calculating man. He picked my mother, a princess from a nearby kingdom to be his empress solely because she had holy powers in her weak body. He had hoped for each of his children with her to possess her holy abilities. All other than his second son had been disappointments in this way.

And so, for my mother after all her failures to produce a child with jet black hair… It was the final straw.

"Lock that child away in the enchanted forest. Do not let me catch sight of her again." 

He turned to my mother. My mother who just gave birth to her third child with her fragile body. 

"And you…" My father muttered.

My mother, pale and slick with sweat, turned towards him. Her eyes unfocused, as if locked onto the figure of death instead of the man before her. Though at this moment, there was no difference.

"This is the last time you disappoint me."

Being sent away to a small crumbling building in the enchanted forest, it was the last time I saw my mother before she was executed.

My father spread plenty of rumors about my mother to keep her from gaining power, as if driven by an unyielding force. A fool with no true influence in the imperial palace. Woman of wicked blood. Monster with the intent to destroy our empire. It did not matter that my mother was blessed by the gods, my father's words were stronger than any power she held.

And so, there was not a single person who pitied my mother other than me. How she felt I wonder, branded as a villain attempting to bring the empire to ruin. Surrounded by the subjects she gave her life for-cheering as the blade took her head.

Mother…

My lady…

Mother.

My lady.

Mother.

"My lady!"

Opening my eyes, Amelia sat over me.

"Amelia."

"It's time to get up, my lady."

"So it is."

"Ah, could you not speak like you've lived a long life. You're only 14 for goodness sake! Well, after everything you've gone through… "

An orphan from a fallen viscount family, Amelia has been my personal attendant for over a decade in this life.

After my mother died, I finally worked through my clouded mind and realized who I was in my previous life. An avid reader of all sorts of Asian media.

Manga, manhwa, novels, litrpgs, even manhua when I could get my hands on it. I simply enjoyed the storytelling from those cultures. It was my everything.

And in these stories the one reincarnated would remember the events of the story, and use that knowledge to their advantage, but… I definitely don't remember a story like this.

I could think of many with a similar premise, of course. But one with this exact situation, and a young discarded princess with purple eyes and black hair. It's so familiar, but I know I haven't read the story before…

"Will you be heading out again today, my lady?"

"Yes. Will you please get my sword, Amelia."

Dismayed, Amelia left the room.

In a world where I have no opportunities, advantages, or special abilities - there is only one thing I can do.

I donned my shabby armor. Tough leather tanned from my previous hunting excursions.

Stepping out the front door. The world was calm. Swaying black leaves above, and the gray grass fluttering below.

"It seems the beasts are sleeping today, Amelia." 

"My lady, Kali, please be careful." 

"Of course."

The only thing one can do when there is nothing in your hands, is to simply bring forth something that cannot be taken away.

"My strength will carry me, Amelia. Will you please have a stew ready for when I get home."

"And when will you be home, my lady?"

"Sundown." I answered.

Sundown. I was supposed to be home by sundown. I mumbled to myself, as blood trickled down my face. The sun is already down, and the beast's eyes are like the moon.