The First Princess and the Forgotten Past
I found myself staring, utterly mesmerized, at the mysterious girl surrounded by a garden bathed in moonlight and a swarm of butterflies emitting a soft, azure glow. But I quickly shook myself back to reality.
‘...Is that a Unique Ability?’
Blue butterflies. They were creatures that could easily exist in a fantasy world, but our estate didn’t keep them, nor had I ever received reports of them inhabiting the nearby area. That led to the conclusion that these butterflies, with their surreal glow, were a Unique Ability manifested by the girl’s own mana.
‘Or perhaps some magic I’m unaware of.’
To avoid startling her with my sudden presence, I deliberately stepped carefully, keeping the sound of my heels low. As the rustling sound mingled into the silent garden, the fluttering blue butterflies simultaneously stopped their wingbeats and hung suspended in the air. In that illusion of frozen time, the blonde girl slowly turned her head to look at me.
The moment our eyes met, the first thing that struck me was her vivid, vermilion-colored irises. Those alien eyes, burning like embers under the moonlight, left an even more intense impression as they contrasted with the blue phosphorescence of the butterflies.
‘The Sun?’
And immediately after, my gaze fell upon the mask that intricately covered half of her face. Surrounded by brilliant blonde hair and mysterious butterflies, her hidden features only made her appear more enigmatic. Within the vermilion gaze reflecting from behind the mask lay a chill, one whose emotions I could not read.
I knew this girl. Soleia Solaris Helion. She was the First Princess of the Helion Empire and the character who appeared as Cassian’s fiancée in the webtoon Academy’s Hidden Heir. And now, she was the person who would become my own fiancée in this world.
‘Well, I’ll end up breaking off the engagement eventually, anyway.’
Engagement aside, it was a bit unexpected. There was a rule that royals could choose anywhere they pleased during the grand banquet, but I never imagined the Princess would go out of her way to come to Valenvalt.
‘The webtoon didn’t really flesh out Cassian’s backstory, so how would I have known?’
The swarm of blue butterflies trembling under the moonlight, the bizarre yet elegant mask covering half her face, and the vermilion eyes burning beyond it. The sight I had only ever seen in the webtoon’s art now existed right before my eyes. She was one of the villains. She was also one of the reasons I couldn’t drop a webtoon that didn’t even suit my tastes. Seeing her in person, she was even more mysterious.
‘So that’s the vermilion gaze said to be born only to the Imperial family...’
It truly looked as if she held the sun itself within them. In the original story, she was like a rose—beautiful but harboring a lethal poison. Her Unique Ability, hidden behind the noble status of the First Princess, was a source of both fear and awe even at the Academy.
‘I never imagined I’d run into her like this.’
I swallowed hard. I had fled to the depths of the garden because the hyena-like gazes of the nobles were suffocating, but I had ended up meeting a predator tens of thousands of times more dangerous and grand than them.
In the webtoon, Soleia had appeared somewhat playful yet detached. But the girl in front of me now was a young girl who hadn’t yet reached that future. Moreover, seeing her in person, she felt a bit different from her webtoon image. Rather than the coldness of dead eyes that didn’t see people as people, there was a stronger sense of being detached and transcendent, as if she might vanish at any moment. It was a strange atmosphere, like that of a hermit or a Taoist who had no great attachments to the affairs of the world.
Since the timeline was different, the information I knew might not align with who she was now. But that didn’t mean I could let my guard down. Young as she was, she was the First Princess of the Empire. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake with a careless word and tarnish the reputation of the Valenvalt family.
“I greet Her Imperial Highness, Princess Soleia.”
The vermilion eyes behind the mask stared through me, and then, the lips not covered by the mask curved into a playful, narrow smile.
“……Has the young master of Valenvalt always been this well-versed in etiquette? You didn’t seem like this when we met last time.”
What on earth was this supposed to mean… Was Cassian already acquainted with Soleia? It was natural that I wouldn’t know, but it was incredibly bewildering. Judging by Soleia’s reaction, it was definitely not a positive one.
‘No, Cassian, you idiot. What kind of rudeness did you commit against Princess Soleia?’
I felt wronged. It was already miserable enough to be forced into this strange world without warning, and now I had to clean up Cassian’s mess? The sense of injustice rose to my throat, but on the outside, I had to maintain a poker face befitting the heir of Valenvalt. I was in front of a Princess. Still, I could at least curse inside my head.
‘Screw you, romance fantasy! This dog-like world!’
There was nothing I could do but curse internally. ‘I’m helpless. So helpless.’
Just as I was wallowing in self-pity, Soleia moved. Rising from the bench, she began to approach me slowly. Step by step. Every time Soleia narrowed the distance, a strange pressure permeated the air. Whether it was because of the blue butterflies circling her like guards, or the unique authority of a royal who had grown up looking down on everyone from birth…
‘So, a royal is a royal, after all.’
It was a moment that clearly revealed the gap between Soleia, who had stood at the pinnacle since birth, and me, an ordinary citizen who had suddenly entered the body of a noble.
Soleia stopped right in front of my nose. Her vermilion eyes stared intently at me from behind the mask.
“Your complexion has been changing quite vividly since a moment ago. As if you’re someone busy cursing me in your head.”
The playful smile on her lips looked even more bizarre in the moonlight. Her tone was light, but the insight contained within it was anything but.
Soleia’s vermilion eyes watched me quietly. I didn’t avoid her gaze either. It was just a bit troublesome. In truth, I had no idea what kind of reaction I should show Soleia. After all, I didn’t have a single shred of the original Cassian’s memories left. My soul was that of a completely different person. Given the situation, acting like the original Cassian she remembered was near impossible. No, judging by her cynical reaction, I didn’t even want to act. It was obvious she hated me. I finally understood why the two of them had wanted to break off the engagement so badly in the webtoon. Their relationship had been twisted from this early childhood stage.
‘These emotions must have piled up until some incident occurred. That must have been the trigger that turned them into a hateful relationship where they couldn’t live with each other.’
The common ruinous route of a romance fantasy played out in my head. I wasn’t happy about the forced engagement either, but there was no need to make the First Princess of the Empire my enemy.
‘I don’t want to be hated. The world is exhausting enough as it is.’
So, I agonized over how to speak to the owner of the vermilion eyes watching me. Would it be better to just tell her? ‘My parents said to keep it a secret, so only a few people know, but… it should be fine to tell Soleia. She is an Imperial Princess, after all.’
Few people, aside from the family’s closest aides, knew that I had lost my memories. Among the lower-ranking staff, only my personal knight, Kalia, and my tutor knew, and the rest were all my father’s confidants. But I couldn’t keep giving ambiguous reactions to the Princess I would have to face repeatedly in the future. I cleared my complicated thoughts.
“……Actually, my memories from before I was nine years old are not intact.”
I confessed as calmly as possible, yet with proper courtesy. I also added a touch of vulnerability. Soleia was a woman, too. It was a shallow hope that appealing to her emotions might yield some advantage.
Soleia didn’t answer, instead scanning me from behind her mask. A strange tension hung in her detached yet playful gaze. A silence followed, as if she were trying to discern a lie. The blue butterflies that had been swimming through the air as if guarding her slowly circled around me. Every time the subtle phosphorescence created by their wingbeats brushed my cheek, I had the illusion that her gaze was digging into my very skin.
The silence was longer than I expected. I maintained the poker face I had learned during my previous life’s social career and didn’t avoid her gaze. Being wronged was one thing, but settling this situation was the priority.
Finally, Soleia let out a small, soft laugh from behind her mask.
“Sincerely apologizing. That doesn’t sound like something that would come out of the mouth of that arrogant young master of Valenvalt.”
Because of the blue light emitted by the butterflies, her vermilion eyes shone even more strangely.
“Did you lose that sharp personality of yours along with your memories? Or have you started a new act to deceive me?”
Cassian, you jerk! What on earth did you do in the past to make Soleia react like this? Did you curse at the Princess? Did you really? Ah, my head spun at the thought of having to clean up this mess. I suppressed my sense of injustice and opened my mouth to make an excuse, but Soleia brought a slender finger to her lips, cutting me off. I thought I heard a shh sound.
“That’s a very convenient excuse.”