It was a hot summer day when she turned 12 years old. Lucia’s world turned upside down. Everything spiraled down when her mother passed away and she had to enter the royal palace.

　　‘Was I dreaming? Or am I still dreaming…?’

　　Lucia sat on her bed mumbling while trapped in a trance. She just had a very long dream. It felt like she had returned to the past, or maybe it was a precognitive dream. Inside the dream, she experienced her future life. It wasn’t a peaceful life. Most of the days were stained with suffering and tears. But there were times she had felt happy and joyful. She had lived on hanging onto a tiny sliver of hope.

　　‘Mother….’

　　She had had no idea. Her mother was of noble blood. While she had still been alive, she had never let out a single peep about it at all. When Lucia was 25 years old inside the dream, she had bumped into her mother’s brother and came to know the truth.

　　Her mother, Amanda, was the youngest daughter of the Baden Earldom. The Baden nobles had once been influential margraves

count of a border territory

. However, currently they were only nobles in name, overlooking not even a single plot of land. The will of the Baden nobles ran deep, but their name had more or less been forgotten by the majority of the population, and it was unknown how long they could keep hold of their nobility.

　　Amanda had run away at night after taking a single pendant, that had been passed down from generation to generation inside the empty rooms of the old-fashioned house at the border lands.

　　Lucia’s uncle had bitterly stated that they should have gone out to capture Amanda at the time she had made her escape. He never imagined that it would be the last time he would ever see her. She had been a foolish youth when she had run away, and it had been foolish to think she would return. A month later, they had attempted to track her down, but it had already been too late.

　　Her uncle had had no way of finding her mother. She had run to the capital and that had made it close to impossible. Even Lucia didn’t fully remember how they had lived through the hard times in the capital.

　　However, although Amanda had been unmarried, she had given birth to a genuine king’s daughter. One could only assume the truth of the situation. When Lucia was born, the truth should have been revealed to the royal family, but Amanda had chosen to do what nobody else would have done. She had hidden her noble bloodline and had lived as a commoner together with Lucia.

　　Lucia’s mother was an aristocrat, the daughter of the noble Baden family. More than that, Lucia was related to the king by blood. Lucia had never known the truth and had spent her childhood thinking of Amanda as a commoner.

　　Her mother had been beautiful, the townspeople had all been nice, and she had always played together with the other kids by the river and the forest. It seemed like only yesterday, but it was a distant memory now, and she could do nothing else but cry. Her happiest moments belonged to those early days.

　　All the suffering had come out of the blue. Amanda had fallen ill due to an epidemic that had swept throughout the city. In Lucia’s memories, her mother had been a petite and skinny woman, different from the strong commoner women of the city.

　　She had grown up in a noble family and had never experienced any harsh days. Raising Lucia as a single mom had been taking a toll on her body, until she had turned into a sickly mess.

　　Her mother had seemed to know that she would die soon. A few days before her mother’s death, Lucia had passed a message in her stead. It had probably been a letter meant to be delivered to the royal palace.

　　Lucia understood her mother’s decision. She had done the best she could up until her last breath. The life of an orphaned girl could only spiral down into the depths of hell. If Lucia had never entered the palace, she would have had to become a prostitute and sell her body for the rest of her life.

　　A few days after Amanda had passed away, a guard had brought Lucia to the royal palace. The royal family owned a magical device that could confirm anyone’s ancestry. It was the royal family’s treasure, but occasionally other nobles would come and use the device as well.

　　Even if illegitimate children flooded over, conflicts over blood relations would not occur due to this magical treasure.

　　The King had confirmed his daughter’s face through the device and had bestowed a name upon her. That had been the first and last time she ever met her ‘father’.

　　“Vivian Hesse.”

　　That was Lucia’s new name. Nobody had bothered to ask about her original name. Everything had been decided one-sidedly. She had lost her mother, had been forcefully dragged to the royal palace, and had been generously provided with a run-down palace detached from everyone.

　　After crying all night, she woke up early in the morning and realized that everything changed – her own self and her surroundings. She sat down hugging her knees and thought about her future.

　　Just because she had become a princess overnight, nothing in her life had actually changed for the better. The unrestrained king had spread his seeds all over the place. The news of a new prince, or even a princess, were not enough to become the hot topic of the palace rumors.

　　Lucia was the 16th princess. She had figured that out after a long time of residing in the palace. She had calculated the total amount of children who had gained the approval of the King, and had figured out she was the 16th princess. She had an obscure background and was born after a one night stand with the king. Additionally, she was a royal princess who had grown up among commoners.

　　‘Even if I know my future……….’