Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 2

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 2
To be fair, I hadn’t collapsed from sheer joy—that much I could say with certainty.
Overload, perhaps, would be the better word. My new body, struck by a weak shock the moment I opened my eyes, simply couldn’t endure it. Had that not been the case, I never would have remained unconscious for an entire week afterward.
The moment I awoke, I dragged myself to find a mirror. The reflection that greeted me was exactly the same face I’d seen a week prior.
Soft, cotton-candy-pink hair that looked as sweet and fluffy as spun sugar; clear, crystalline sky-blue eyes; delicate features arranged with remarkable precision on a small face.
My hand reached toward the mirror of its own accord.
“Oh my…”
Beautiful. Breathtakingly beautiful. I’d spent twenty-five years thinking my own face wasn’t so bad, but compared to this, I was nothing more than the suction cups on a squid’s tentacles.
I caressed the mirror with the fervor of someone drooling, and though I could see my body responding to my will, I simply couldn’t believe it was truly mine.
The soft pink hair that swayed at my waist felt as though it might melt at the slightest touch. My cheeks, plump and yielding like freshly made rice cakes, were no different. I looked barely past adulthood, perhaps even younger. I grinned widely and murmured to myself.
“I was certain I was dead.”
Even this girl’s voice was sweet as honey. This, this… if I grew just a bit more, I’d have men eating out of my hand. And this body is mine? I’m going to do wonderfully. Yes, I am.
The corners of my mouth couldn’t help but curl upward. With this face, I could easily become an entertainer. They say that if your face is strikingly beautiful, you can make a living off it alone. That means I wouldn’t have to work those miserable late-night convenience store shifts anymore. I wouldn’t have to live crushed under the weight of monthly rent worries.
That alone made me ecstatic. What fortune is this! I should be thanking the heavens just for not being dead, but to have such extraordinary beauty on top of that? And I’ve been made younger too! I must have saved a nation in my previous life.
But my surprise was far from over. While I was pressing my face against the mirror as though I meant to lick it, a dozen or so maids filed into the room.
The maid at the front approached with delight.
“You’ve awakened, Your Highness!”
“Yes, yes?”
I stared up at her blankly. The costume was far too realistic to be cosplay.
A neat black dress that fell to the ankles, an apron with ruffled trim. Even a headscarf wrapped around her neatly pinned hair. But what shocked me most was the title she’d used: “Your Highness.” I stammered like a fool.
“Y-Your Highness…? Huh?”
And I was startled once more by the language that had come from my lips. What is this?
It was neither Korean nor English. What language is this?
Whether the maid noticed my shock or not, she continued speaking.
“We were all so worried when you wouldn’t wake for an entire week. Are you feeling alright?”
“Yes, yes…?”
“My, why are you suddenly being so formal with us, Your Highness?”
The maid with chestnut-brown hair laughed and helped me up from the mirror. I was then placed blankly onto the bed.
What on earth is happening?
The events that followed were nothing short of bewildering. I washed my face with water from what looked like an ornate basin, cleaned my limbs, and brushed my teeth with a stiff little brush. Throughout it all, I didn’t lift a finger.
I lay sprawled on the bed with a vacant expression, receiving all this attention without doing anything myself.
“Um, um…”
“What is it, Your Highness? Is something uncomfortable?”
“No…”
A princess. A princess?
I should have been grateful enough just to be alive again in the body of a peerless beauty. But a princess! Only then did the question suddenly occur to me. I asked the maid brushing my hair cautiously.
“Um, but where is this…?”
The moment those words left my lips, I knew something was terribly wrong. The maid’s eyes widened in alarm, and she let out a shriek.
“The Queen!”
“Fetch Her Majesty at once! No, first call the royal physician!”
In an instant, everything around me spiraled into chaos. I stood dazed, watching the maids scatter about in frantic disarray….
“The youngest princess has lost her memory!”
—was the refrain of anguished wailing I had to endure all day long. With a massive question mark hovering perpetually above my head.
* * *
In any case, here was the crux of it: the body I had awakened in belonged to Yerenika Shushubia Lebovni. I was the youngest princess of the Lebovni Kingdom, situated in the central regions of the Laigar Continent.
The King and Queen—who claimed to be my father and mother—along with the red-haired sister I first saw upon awakening, had clung to me and wept for days. No exaggeration; truly from morning until night, the entire day through.
The Queen asked, tears streaming down her face.
“Yerenika. Our beloved Yeni. Don’t you remember your mother?”
“Um….”
I had no mother. My father was scarcely present either. When I gazed upon her with unfamiliar eyes, the Queen’s sorrow overwhelmed her, and she burst into tears.
So I wept along with her. Sobbing away. It was wonderful to be alive again, wonderful to have become beautiful, but where on earth had I fallen to?
I first sensed something amiss a fortnight after awakening in Yerenika’s body.
I stared blankly down at the knight prostrated before me. He was said to be my escort knight.
“Um, what was your name again?”
“Fernandis Cardier, Your Highness.”
Cardier! A flash of recognition struck my mind. My brain, which had been frozen like a lump of scrap metal for the past two weeks, began to spin once more.
Cardier. I had definitely seen that name somewhere before….
And the conclusion of that thought was utterly absurd. I burst out laughing.
“No way, that can’t be right.”
“Pardon?”
“Right. It can’t possibly be. Cardier, you say. I really do have quite the imagination, don’t I?”
Even as my mouth prattled on of its own accord, my mind worked diligently. It was definitely a word I had seen. Where? In the novel I had been clutching until the moment of my death.
I let out another incredulous laugh.
“My imagination is far from ordinary. Ha, ha ha….”
But why did this feel so ominous?
I grasped at my consciousness, which threatened to slip away, and asked again.
“So, Fernandis Cardier, is it?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Do you perhaps have a son? Or perhaps siblings?”
My voice trembled as it emerged. There was only one Cardier I knew. The male protagonist of the novel I had read just before my death.
That devastatingly handsome knight who had stolen my heart. Alexio Lazar Cardier. A name I could never possibly forget!
How many times had I suffered heart palpitations over our male lead, Lexi?
Fernandis tilted his head while remaining prostrate.
“A son? Your Highness, I am still unmarried.”
“Ah.”
“And I am an only child.”
At those words, I barely managed to hold onto my sanity. Yes. It must be mere coincidence. Surely not. Surely I hadn’t actually….
“Ugh.”
Even as I steadied myself, memories came bubbling up like a spring, and I pressed my forehead against my palm.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————