IALFMFL Prologue CH 01

Prologue

My name is Katrina Ezelot.

I am the youngest daughter of the Count of Ezelot, a noble family located in the northeastern part of the Cabal Empire, and a fifteen-year-old young lady who is infamous throughout the capital for being reckless and—

No, to put it bluntly, a thoroughly unpleasant girl.

“Ron.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Take out the oath.”

Predictably, some people would be horrified the moment they heard my name, while others would immediately show their displeasure. One thing was certain: no one who heard my name would ever have a positive reaction.

Calling me reckless was merely a gentle way of putting it. In reality, my personality was no different from that of a horse that had broken free of its reins.

“The Emperor’s seal?”

“I brought it.”

“A fountain pen.”

“Here it is.”

I had many nicknames among the nobles. They ranged from the Young Lady Who Fears Nothing and the Self-Willed Young Lady to the Ezelot Brat and the Unpleasant Little Girl.

Since none of them had the courage to say such things to my face, I laughed at them for insulting me behind my back. But there was not a single lie among those descriptions.

Even I had to admit that I was a selfish, unpleasant brat through and through.

“Give one to Kate as well.”

“Yes, Lady Katrina. Here, please take the fountain pen.”

There was a very good reason why I was confessing all of this about myself.

It wasn’t because I had been caught doing something naughty and was writing a reflection paper, nor because I had decided to repent for my past misdeeds and become a better person.

“Lady Katrina?”

As unbelievable as it sounded…

I had just remembered my past life, which I had completely forgotten for fifteen years.

And of all moments, I remembered it while receiving an engagement oath from Crown Prince Nezar!

“Hey, Kate. What on earth are you thinking about so hard?”

I flinched at the sudden voice and raised my head. Nezar, sitting across from me in the drawing room, was staring at me with an expression that could freeze the air.

“I brought the engagement oath just as you begged and clung to me, crying. Don’t tell me you’re protesting because I didn’t prepare a bouquet.”

Accompanied by a sigh, Nezar’s voice was colder and stiffer than a snow-covered road in the middle of winter.

I hurriedly shook my head at his words and accepted the fountain pen from Ron.

Once I signed the bottom of this parchment, my long-awaited engagement to Nezar would finally become official.

The very engagement I had desperately begged for, throwing away every last shred of pride I possessed as a noble lady and practically crying my eyes and nose out.

“Stop spacing out and sign it already. As you know, I’m not exactly a man with a lot of free time.”

Nezar scolded me once more, but both my hands had gone stiff and refused to move.

In my previous life, I had been a seventeen-year-old high school girl, though I couldn’t clearly remember how I had died. What I did know for certain was that my previous life had not been in this world.

The fact that I had died young as a high school girl wasn’t actually much of a problem.

Here, I had been born as the youngest daughter of a prestigious noble family. I had everything I wanted to eat, everything I wanted to wear, and lived a life of luxury and comfort day after day.

Yes, the real problem wasn’t being reincarnated…

“Kate, I said sign it already.”

It was the fact that Nezar, the Crown Prince I was about to marry, didn’t like me.

“J-Just wait a moment. I’m only delaying because I suddenly feel dizzy.”

Sweating profusely under Nezar’s urging, I tried to postpone signing for as long as possible.

Political marriages between certain noble families were common in aristocratic society.

But such duties were usually shouldered by heirs or eldest daughters. A youngest daughter like me, who had been spoiled and adored all her life, usually got to choose the man she wanted to marry.

And in my case, that “man I wanted” was none other than Nezar Audrine Cabal, the Crown Prince of the Cabal Empire.

However, that was only true from my perspective. Nezar, the object of my unrequited love, was constantly annoyed by the way I followed him around like a goldfish’s droppings trailing behind it.

Forcing me to eat paprika, the one vegetable I particularly hated, because he told me to stop acting like a child was the least of it.

He would nearly have a fit over my shallow level of knowledge and force me to read books on etiquette and general education. Late at night, he would even sneak into my bedroom disguised as a ghost just to make me cry.

“What did you do again last night to make your head dizzy?”

“I-I really didn’t do anything. I went to sleep quietly yesterday!”

As I recalled everything one by one, the fact that he truly didn’t like me became painfully obvious.

If I signed this parchment and eventually married Nezar, a horrible married life was undoubtedly waiting for me.

He wouldn’t even share a bed with me, so we wouldn’t have children. Then one concubine after another would appear, and I would eventually have nowhere left in his life.

And when that happened, my old age would be unbearably lonely, making the life of a solitary old woman seem cheerful by comparison.

A lonely old age?!

It couldn’t possibly get any more horrifying than that.

I didn’t even want to imagine such a future.

“Then what’s the problem? Do I have to sign it for you?”

Whether he understood my complicated feelings or not, Nezar continued urging me to sign.

Unlike before, his voice had now become noticeably heavier, leaving me with no way to delay any longer.

With trembling hands, I placed the fountain pen against the parchment.

Just like the black ink spreading across the paper, it felt as though mold was blooming in ugly patches inside my heart.

But I had no justification for refusing my engagement to Nezar.

This engagement was the result of months of visiting him, chasing after him, and desperately begging until I had finally managed to obtain it.

How could the person responsible for causing all this dare claim that it was invalid?

“I-I did it.”

I left my signature on the finest parchment, bearing the Emperor’s seal.

Yes.

In the end, I really did it.

Right beside Nezar’s elegant handwriting, my shabby signature was etched onto the parchment like a crude drawing.

Ah… I’m doomed.

For the rest of my life, I was surely going to be tormented by him before eventually being abandoned…

“Tch. If you were going to do it, you should have done it sooner.”

Nezar clicked his tongue lightly and snatched the parchment from me.

After carefully reading through the contents of the oath and our signatures, he handed it to the aide standing beside him.

His aide, Ron, bowed and accepted the document.

His reddish-brown hair and dark chestnut eyes gave him a distinguished appearance. Despite being middle-aged, Ron’s face was remarkably smooth and free of wrinkles, and a satisfied smile spread across his lips.

As I stared blankly at the whole process, a memory of the first day I met Nezar suddenly came drifting back to me.

How had I ended up falling so hopelessly for Nezar?

Why had I dug this enormous hole for myself with my own hands?

To be precise, I hadn’t fallen for Nezar at first sight.

At that time, I had been desperately starved for affection. I would do anything to gain my family’s attention.

It was simply that Nezar had been the only person who managed to ease that loneliness and emptiness.

I met him when my craving for affection had reached its peak.

It was a bitterly cold winter night, with snow falling heavily from the sky.

I was burning a teddy bear that had been ruined in the laundry.

Wrapped tightly from head to toe, I stood alone in the snow-covered garden, lighting a pile of dry branches myself.

Not long afterward, beyond the red, crackling stuffed bear engulfed in flames, a boy I had never seen before suddenly appeared.

Even years later, I could still remember him vividly.

His pale white face was barely visible in the glow of the bonfire, yet his delicate and noble features resembled something crafted from glass.

“Who are you?”

At my question, his beautifully shaped lips slowly parted.

“A friend of your older brother.”

The boy possessed an unusual air about him. Despite his angelic appearance, his voice was low and calm.

But whether he looked more like an angel or a devil had absolutely nothing to do with me.

I was actually quite annoyed that he had thoughtlessly interrupted me while I was saying goodbye to my teddy bear and was now watching me.

If only my mother or siblings would come instead. At least then I could have a conversation with them after going days without speaking to them.

I gritted my teeth and endured it until my patience finally ran out.

Then I shouted irritably,

“Why do you keep staring at me? Get lost already!”

Let me make this clear once again.

Before remembering my past life, I had been an arrogant and self-centered noble lady.

If I spoke rudely enough, surely he would leave.

Usually, if I threw a few insults at the servants in the castle, they would either become frightened or look fed up and run away.

Surely a boy wouldn’t be any different.

But my wish and the boy’s reaction were slightly—

No, very different.

Instead of being startled, he merely raised one handsome eyebrow and opened his mouth with an indifferent expression.

“You really don’t know anything. Your gray teddy bear, which is destined to burn to death, would be happy if there were lots of guests at its funeral.”

H-How did he even know I was saying goodbye to my teddy bear?

Confused, I shouted even harsher words at him, but the boy didn’t even blink no matter what insults I hurled at him.

Instead, he gave a loud snort within earshot and shook his head.

I eventually caught a terrible cold after jumping around in the snow and making such a huge commotion.

And because I had caused more than enough trouble over the years, my mother was furious enough to finally take up the rod.

That night, I hid beneath my blankets, quietly shedding tears as I tried to soothe my loneliness and pain.

It was then that the boy I thought had disappeared returned to visit me.

Nezar seemed to feel sorry for me, the girl who caused some sort of commotion every other day just to receive attention.

He talked about this and that, showing that he meant me no harm, before suddenly asking me a strange question.

“What do you want to do?”

What do I want to do?

I frowned and thought about it for a while before slowly shaking my head.

“Nothing.”

“Then make something you want to do. I’ll play with you all day for the four days I’m staying in Ezelot.”

“Why?”

At my question, Nezar furrowed his brow for a moment.

“There isn’t really a reason. Well, if you really don’t want to, you can refuse.”

There was no way I was going to refuse an offer like that.

I jumped out of bed and grabbed both of Nezar’s hands.

In this enormous Ezelot Castle, he was the first person who had ever shown genuine interest in me.

The sound of my pounding heart had never felt so happy.

“I don’t hate it at all!”

From then on, I followed Nezar everywhere, completely forgetting about my actual brothers and everyone else.

I didn’t need anything else.

From that day forward, Nezar—not myself or my family—became the greatest meaning in my life.

Well…

Now that I thought about it again, I suppose I had a pretty good reason to fall for him.

I shook my head from side to side to clear my thoughts and looked straight ahead again.

Since I couldn’t bring myself to meet Nezar’s eyes, I raised my chin slightly and pretended everything was fine.

For some reason, Ron’s lips were curled into an enormous smile as he held the oath.

“Finally, the engagement Lady Kate has been eagerly looking forward to for such a long time is being formalized. I shall carefully deliver this oath to His Majesty the Emperor. Congratulations on your engagement, Lady.”

At his words, Nezar gave a small snort.

My mind was already complicated because I had remembered my past life.

My chest felt heavy whenever I thought about the future.

And Nezar was standing right in front of me, snorting at me.

Feeling unnecessarily miserable, I covered my face with my hands.

I had only meant to hide my distorted expression, but perhaps because my vision had darkened, tears unexpectedly trickled down my cheeks.

“Oh my, Lady! How could you cry on such a joyous day?”

Ron said it, but his voice contained not a trace of concern.

Instead, he sounded positively delighted.

I’m not crying because I’m happy! I’m crying because I’m worried!

At this point, there was only one solution.

I needed to find a woman Nezar would fall completely head over heels for and make him break off the engagement himself.