Princess, You Must Start the Revolution!

Chapter 2: The Forget-Me-Not Princess (1)

I’m doomed.  

After accidentally killing someone, they turned around and backstabbed me in the compensation process.  

I didn’t have much of a family to leave behind, but I still had things I cared about.  

If they promised compensation, they should’ve at least done it properly.  

Since magic exists, can’t they at least change my gender with it?  

All sorts of thoughts ran through my head, but reality was cruel.  

Yeah, I was fated to live in this body.  

Ah, damn it.  

I’m already feeling dizzy from the start.  

“Are you all right, Princess?”  

“Oh, I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.”  

“No, Princess. It is only my duty as a guard.”  

Of course, it took a long time to recover from the shock and learn to speak and act according to my appearance.  

For years, I desperately learned the language and knowledge of this place.  

I even researched whether there was any magical way to change my gender, grasping at straws.  

The result?  

Not even magic was that convenient.  

But that didn’t mean everything I learned was useless.  

Magic didn’t even exist in my previous life, so just building a theoretical foundation helped tremendously.  

By the time I was fourteen, my nickname had become "The Princess of the Library."  

Aside from horseback riding and shooting in the palace garden or learning to dance in the hall, I spent all my time either being tutored by private instructors or burying myself in the library.  

I wasn’t sure what they called me behind my back, but that nickname at least wasn’t malicious.  

“But aren’t guards supposed to protect His Majesty?”  

“That is indeed the highest honor, but protecting any member of the royal family is still a noble and rewarding duty.”  

The guard speaking to me was extremely polite.  

At the same time, it was impossible not to notice the personal fondness in his attitude toward me.  

For one, I was relatively respectful and mature in my interactions with others.  

And, thanks to my newly acquired body, my appearance was promising enough to be considered beautiful in the future.  

Well, I suppose it’s due to superior genetics.  

Generations of handsome and beautiful ancestors had accumulated, so my pale, smooth skin and dazzling golden hair were practically inevitable.  

The problem was that I had to use the word "inevitable" with some uncertainty.  

“What about His Majesty? My mother?”  

“…Both are absent, Princess. But they will return soon.”  

Well, if that “soon” stretched on for several years, even a child would find it hard to accept.  

I had only a shallow understanding, but at least I had picked up bits of knowledge about medieval politics.  

So I could at least guess that there were political circumstances at play.  

But for a typical fourteen-year-old girl, just beginning to experience emotional awakening, this would be completely unacceptable.  

Shockingly, neither my father, the King, nor the mother who gave birth to me had ever visited me.  

Not even once.  

At least I had seen paintings and portraits of the King.  

But my mother?  

If this were some kind of princess-raising simulation game, I would’ve suspected I had simply fallen from the sky.  

I mean, this is a world with magic. That’s not entirely impossible.  

Of course, by now, I had a rough idea of what those "political circumstances" were.  

It was about a year or two ago when I overheard a conversation between palace guards.  

They wore tall, wide-brimmed black shakos that shaded their faces from the sun.  

“A guard is still a guard, but just because we’re commoners, we get stuck in a place like this.”  

Normally, guards tasked with protecting royalty wouldn’t engage in such casual gossip.  

But I spent so much time in the library that I happened to catch this conversation on a whim while sneaking off to see the horses.  

“Hey, watch your mouth. Even if she’s of low birth, Her Majesty and the Church formally recognized her. Besides, how many nobles actually treat us common-born guards decently?”  

“I mean, isn’t she just a bastard child they reluctantly acknowledged to avoid a scandal? They locked her up in a tower, never letting her appear in public or private.  She’s just a pawn for a political marriage, right? And honestly, the only reason she treats us well is because she’s still young—”  

“You bastard. You’ve seen how noble kids change their attitude the moment they realize we’re commoners, right? You think princesses like her are common? Besides, officially, she is a princess. And we’re still stationed at the royal palace in the capital, so what the hell are you complaining about?”  

“I mean, there are plenty of princes and princesses. But she’s practically locked away—”  

“Shhh. Change the subject or shut up. If an officer or the captain overhears this, we’re screwed.”  

Ah.  

So that’s how it was.  

It was easy to grasp the situation.  

Right.  

This body of mine was nothing more than the result of the King’s unchecked lust.  

He didn’t want a bastard child becoming a political liability, so he forcibly legitimized me and shut me away.  

It was practically a crime, yet it was also the only reason I was considered part of the royal family at all.  

With that in mind, it would actually be strange for the King to visit me.  

My existence was a political burden.  

And my mother, being of low birth, had no powerful relatives to advocate for her.  

So she was locked away somewhere in the palace tower.  

And yet, I still received a private palace with space for horseback riding and shooting.  

I had multiple private tutors and decent treatment.  

That was because, even as a bastard, I was still acknowledged as part of the royal family.  

And that meant I was useful for a political marriage.  

To sum it up, in a few years, I would be married off in a political deal.  

‘This is bullshit.’  

This is absolute bullshit.  

It was bad enough that my original conditions were taken away.  

Now, I was set to be sold off in marriage in a few years?  

The possibility of being handed over to some balding middle-aged man made me sick.  

But even beyond that, the idea of being forced into a marriage as a woman was unbearable.  

If possible, I wanted to avoid marriage altogether.  

If I couldn’t, then at the very least, I wanted to choose my own partner.  

This wasn’t just a matter of personal preference.  

My mental survival depended on it.  

“Nanny, what kind of person was my mother?”  

Even if she was of low birth, there must be something about her.  

I didn’t even know if "low birth" meant she was a literal slave or just not a noble.  

Since the King took notice of her, she could’ve been from a wealthy merchant family.  

“Why do you ask?”  

“Oh, um… I wanted to plant some new flowers, and I thought it’d be nice to choose ones that resembled her. I’ve never seen her, after all…”  

I fumbled with my words.  

It was an excuse I had come up with on the spot, but even I felt it was a little weak.  

I wasn’t exactly an actor.  

“…Her Highness the Concubine was like a forget-me-not. That’s why His Majesty…”  

“Alright. Let’s plant forget-me-nots.”  

“Are you sure? Forget-me-nots only bloom from May to June. Even if we plant them now, it’ll take time for them to flower.”  

“It’s fine. If we take good care of them, they’ll bloom eventually. Since I can’t meet my mother, I’d like to at least feel her presence in some way. She has no family left, either.”  

“…Understood, Princess.”  

So she really had no family left.  

Since I wasn’t allowed to leave the palace, even if she had connections, I had no way of reaching them.

Then, the only thing left was magic.  

While the people of the palace were preoccupied with planting forget-me-nots in the heat, I was able to move more freely.  

Not that "freedom" meant much—just more time to read books about magic.  

Still, my efforts weren’t completely fruitless.  

The problem was, the results were rather uncertain.  

“You’re saying it’s different for everyone?”  

“Yes, Princess.  It manifests as early as the early to mid-teens for some, but for others, it might not appear until their thirties. The trigger could be something as minor as a small change in the body or as extreme as a life-threatening experience. When magic awakens, the person themselves will be the first to know. For those with exceptional talent, the signs are so obvious that even others can’t miss them.”  

No wonder I couldn’t find anything in books about how to awaken magic.  

After hearing it from a wizard directly, I understood.  

There simply wasn’t a method.  

And since it wasn’t something that could be controlled, there was no reason to record it in the first place.  

Still, even considering that, the knowledge I had access to was strangely biased.  

The books in this palace’s library leaned heavily towards etiquette, tradition, and being a virtuous wife and mother.  

“So, I just have to wait?”  

“Yes. There is no known way to detect who will awaken magic before it actually happens.  Perhaps, Princess, you may awaken it as well.”  

Wizards were not common.  

Because of that, anyone who awakened magic, regardless of status, was immediately taken in and given honorary noble status.  

Depending on their abilities and magical attributes, they could even rise to greater heights.  

On the other hand, objectively speaking, my chances of awakening magic were extremely low.  

The conditions for awakening were unknown, and even if both parents were wizards, that didn’t guarantee their children would inherit magic.  

If there was a genetic factor, it seemed to be negligible at best.  

But I was certain that I would awaken magic.  

After all, I had been reincarnated with my past memories intact by some unknown force.  

They had at least kept their end of the agreement to reincarnate me.  

So, surely, I had been given magical talent as well.  

I just didn’t know how much talent I had or when it would manifest.  

“Nanny, when do people usually get married?”  

“Why do you ask, Princess?”  

“Just… I don’t want to get married too early.”  

What if my magic didn’t awaken until I was in my thirties?  

I wasn’t sure of this world’s average marriage age, but thirty was definitely too late.  

For now, my best option was to stall for as long as possible.  

“For members of the royal family, it’s customary to choose a fiancé before turning eighteen. You’ll find a suitable partner as well, Princess.”  

No, I hated the idea of finding a "suitable partner" in the first place.  

But all I could do was force an awkward smile at the nanny.  

Eighteen.  

That was the average.  

But since I was being raised solely for a political marriage, it was likely to happen even sooner.  

To delay it, I’d have to create some kind of flaw in myself.  

For a woman, the easiest way to postpone marriage was through rumors about her purity, but that would cause more problems than it solved.  

The next best option would be visible scars or injuries.  

Should I burn my face?  

That would definitely have an impact.  

But intentionally disfiguring myself wasn’t something I could do on a whim.  

What if my magic awakened before my marriage was arranged?  

Or what if other political circumstances delayed it for me?  

Ruining my face wasn’t just a minor issue.  

If I damaged myself too much, they might decide I was no longer useful and dispose of me altogether.  

A bastard princess with no powerful allies could easily be eliminated without a trace.  

“When do you think it’ll be decided?”  

“Well… Most likely after your debut into high society at sixteen. That’s when most royal engagements are arranged.”  

Sixteen.  

That was my first major deadline.  

Even in political marriages, they at least needed to see the "product" before making a decision.  

At the very least, they’d want to know what I looked like and what kind of personality I had before finalizing anything.  

Surely, they wouldn’t arrange an engagement before I even made my debut in high society.  

That kind of thing only happened when families made agreements before or right after a child was born.  

And that required close ties between the families involved.  

I had no such connections.  

“Oh, Princess. What brings you here?”  

“I just thought the guards were working hard, so I wanted to check on them. Would that be alright, Captain?”  

“Of course, Princess. Everyone will be delighted.”  

Now that I had assessed my situation, I decided to strengthen my relationships with the people in the palace.  

I already had decent relationships with them, but a little extra friendliness wouldn’t hurt.  

I didn’t like the idea, but since I had been born with a beautiful face, I might as well use it.  

At my age, I didn’t have any kind of fatal charm yet, but precisely because of that, it was easier to build genuine human connections.  

Even though the guards rotated regularly, their assignments lasted at least a year.  

Building goodwill now would only benefit me in the long run.  

However, despite my efforts, my desperation, my expectations, and my plans—  

My magic awakened just three or four months later, in the winter of that year, when fresh white snow blanketed the palace gardens.  

From that day onward, many things changed—dramatically.