Chapter 2
Eileen had been confined to the Princess’s Palace on the very day of her coming-of-age ceremony.
In the imperial family, it was customary for members to manifest their abilities on the day of their ceremony, yet she had awakened hers a month early.
Elated, she had hurried to deliver the news to her father, and he had promised to hold a grand celebration in her honor.
And then, one month later.
On what should have been the most glorious day of her life, she plummeted to ruin in an instant.
The ability that had manifested so clearly until the day before vanished without a trace overnight.
The joyous banquet hall was instantly transformed into a courtroom.
“We must immediately strip Princess Eileen of her title for mocking the imperial family!”
“She must be confined to the palace at once!”
The nobles, as if they had long awaited this moment, tore into her with their accusations.
“Confine the princess to the palace. Until I give the order, she is not to take a single step outside.”
Even her father, unable to conceal his disappointment in the face of the nobles’ uproar, issued the decree for her confinement.
“I’ll try again! Please, just give me one more chance!”
“Eileen… was it a lie? About awakening your ability? Did you want the throne that desperately?”
“Lucas, you saw it too! I wasn’t lying!”
“And how do you expect anyone to believe that wasn’t some trick?”
“Lucas…?”
When even Lucas turned his back on her, something inside her crumbled.
“No… please…!”
Dragged away by the knights sent at her father’s command, she was about to be forced from the hall when her eyes met those of a girl standing in the corner.
Though the girl quickly averted her gaze, Eileen clearly saw the faint smirk tugging at the girl’s lips.
“You…?”
Before she could utter a word to the girl, she was dragged out and imprisoned in the Princess’s Palace.
“Please open the door! Let me out of here!”
From the very first day she was locked away, she had clung to the doors, pleading for days on end.
“Open this door! I wasn’t lying!”
Her hands, pounding relentlessly against the doors, bled raw, and her voice turned hoarse and ragged, but she did not stop.
“Please… someone, let me out of here…”
She begged for anyone, anyone at all, to open that door and release her.
Before long, even memories of her childhood faded. In that place where neither her father nor Lucas came to find her, she withered like a dried flower, left to await death.
One day passed, then two, then a year. And before she knew it, the Princess’s Palace became a place no one sought out.
She had long since lost track of how much time had passed since her confinement when, one day, a cold and indifferent maid spoke casually as though it were nothing.
“The emperor has passed away.”
The tears she had suppressed for so long spilled down her cheeks.
“Lucas… I was wrong! Please, let me see Father one last time!”
Though she had given up everything else, she wanted to at least be there for her father’s final moments. She begged, choking on blood, pleading to see him just once, but she was not allowed to attend his funeral.
And in the end, it was only through death, at Lucas’s hands, that she was finally freed from that prison.
***
“…..”
It had certainly happened that way…
But how was she meant to accept this situation now?
“Haah…”
Eileen sluggishly turned her heavy head, letting her gaze roam around her surroundings.
The familiar ceiling and furnishings, engraved with the imperial insignia she had seen just before her death, came into view.
She had finally escaped the hellish prison she’d been trapped in, reaching death at last, so what was this?
There wasn’t even time to feel relief at being freed from Lucas and that prison-like Princess’s Palace. It felt as though she had merely been moved to a new kind of prison.
Blankly, she stared up at the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Where was this place? A world of gods, decorated just like the imperial palace?
Was this heaven, and had she, who died because of her twin brother, been reborn as a cherubic little angel?
“Haah.”
That thought made it a little easier to accept the bizarre situation.
“And our little princess is so quiet today, isn’t she? Not a single cry. Jam-jam~”
But her fragile effort to reason with herself was abruptly shattered by a woman’s voice.
Princess?
Eileen blinked at the sight of the woman before her.
“Jam-jam~”
The woman repeatedly opened and closed one hand in front of Eileen’s face, trying to coax a reaction.
“Princess, jam-jam~”
There it was again, princess.
At the word, a deep, instinctive discomfort rose within her, memories from her past life bubbling to the surface.
When Eileen remained unresponsive, cold sweat gathered on the woman’s brow.
“The little princess is especially quiet today.”
As Eileen continued to stare without a word, the woman forced an awkward smile.
“Did our princess not, um… relieve herself?”
” …!”
At the strange sensation of unfamiliar hands on her, Eileen’s body flinched.
The woman was patting her plump little bottom.
“Daah!”
Startled by the sudden assault, Eileen shouted out instinctively.
Even though the woman was the same gender, shame prickled through her.
“Aw!”
As Eileen protested, a strange babble mixed with hers.
“…?”
Another voice, besides her own? A chill ran through her. The small gurgling sounds seemed to pierce straight through her chest.
“Kyaa.”
Dragging her heavy, alien head toward the source of the sound, Eileen’s breath caught.
Lying beside her was a face so unmistakably familiar, except for its gender, it was identical, as if stamped from the same mold.
Her twin brother, Lucas.
The moment she saw his face, her babbling lips snapped shut.
A jolt of instinctive fury shot through her tiny body.
“Oh my, did the young prince wake because of the princess’s voice?”
Is she implying it’s my fault he woke up?
Eileen shot a glare at the woman.
“Sylvia, come here for a moment.”
The woman called out another name, oblivious to Eileen’s glare.
“Lenny, what is it?”
“…!”
As the two women came closer, Eileen’s mind finally jolted to recognition.
That woman… no, that girl!
Smooth brown hair, soft candy-pink eyes, and a half-moon smile that curved prettily whenever she laughed.
She had a likable face, but absolutely no sense, and her ability as a wet nurse was so lacking that Eileen had married her off early to send her out of the palace.
Her name was Lenny.
If Lenny was here, did that mean Eileen had truly returned to her infancy?
“Since they woke up together after sleeping side by side, they really must be twins.”
“Right? How could they be this adorable.”
Called by Lenny, another woman appeared with a happy smile as she looked between Eileen and Lucas.
Unlike Lenny, she had deep gray hair, olive-green eyes, and freckles scattered across her nose. It was Sylvia, Lucas’s old nursemaid.
“Kkyahat.”
“Looks like the young prince is in good spirits too.”
At the two women’s smiles, her ‘household nemesis’ waved his tiny arms excitedly, clapping his hands together.
“Aa-ba-ba.”
It can’t be. There’s no way. I can’t have come back…
“Eh…ng!”
Startled, a cloying, sweet taste of milk filled Eileen’s mouth.
“Chup chup.”
Damn it. Had she not only become a baby again but was now instinctively behaving like one?
“Did our princess not have enough at feeding time?”
As Eileen panicked at her own involuntary reaction, Lenny’s cheerful voice sounded beside her.
Lenny bent into the crib, slipping her arms beneath Eileen’s stiff little body and lifting her up in one swift motion.
“….”
Eileen longed to scream at her to put her down, but all that came from her mouth was a fish-like gape.
It was true what they said, heaven and hell were only a hair’s breadth apart.
The realization hit her: she was back to a time before she’d even been weaned.
She and Lucas should have severed their bond back then.
So why, why was he lying beside her, grinning like nothing had ever happened?
This was undoubtedly the gods’ doing. Nothing else could have brought her back here, to this moment, alongside Lucas.
Unable to accept this reality, Eileen glared daggers at the obliviously smiling Lucas.
“Princess, your brother’s face is going to get holes in it if you stare so hard. Are you two that close just because you’re twins?”
Lenny’s senseless remark made Eileen let out a sharp, crow-like shriek.
“Kyaaak!”
“My goodness, how adorable!”
“The young prince is cute too, but our little princess is just precious.”
Neither Lenny nor Sylvia had the faintest idea of what was going through Eileen’s mind as they chatted away excitedly.
How could I possibly forget?
The agony that had twisted her insides, the blood she’d vomited until her lips turned blue…
Even though she and Lucas had rarely met after their coming-of-age ceremony, she’d still believed the bond of twins connected them. And in a single moment, that trust had been severed, leaving only betrayal.
Every memory seemed to be carved into her bones.
After spending so much of her life locked away in that palace, the thought of reliving it again made a fresh wave of suffocating rage rise within her.
Could I… really endure it this time?
Her tiny body trembled with fury.
“Hic.”
“Oh dear, princess, what’s wrong all of a sudden?”
Eileen was so overwhelmed with anger that she began to hiccup.
“Hic.”
“It’s all right, princess. I’m here.”
Lenny quickly took note of Eileen’s state, gently patting her back to soothe her.
“Hic.”
“Sylvia, check on the young prince too.”
“Right, I will.”
Sylvia lifted Lucas from the crib and carefully checked him over.
“Aa-ba.”
“Looks like the young prince is fine.”
After confirming his condition, Sylvia returned Lucas to the crib and set the mobile above it spinning.
“Kkyahat.”
While that boy gurgled away without a care, why was she still suffering because of him?
I crossed death’s threshold because of you, and here you are, bright as ever.
Seeing Lucas flail happily at the mobile only made her anger burn hotter.
“Hic.”
“Princess, calm down. Are you really unwell somewhere?”
Her hiccups wouldn’t stop, her rage refusing to subside.
“What should we do, Sylvia? Should I summon the palace physician?”
“Lenny, get a hold of yourself. I’ll fetch him.”
Sylvia handed Lucas over to Lenny and hurried toward the door.
“Thank you.”
Knock, knock.
Just as Sylvia was about to open the door, there came a knock from beyond.
“His Majesty the Emperor is here.”
The attendant’s voice rang out as the door opened.
His Majesty… Father?
“Hic”
In an instant, Eileen’s hiccups stopped cold.
