Living Up to Your Expectations - Chapter 23

“Princess Spirit, please don’t be so disheartened.”

“That’s right, you mustn’t let such harassment get to you. The spirits are on your side too, Your Highness.”

The attendants dispatched from the Spirit Ministry offered their consolation in high-pitched voices, their words feeling like hollow sympathy.

How annoying. Just shut up!

I swallowed the words that rose to my throat at the last moment. Instead, I put on the usual mask of the “Spirit Princess.”

“Thank you for your concern. But I’d like to be alone for a while.”

I smiled with just my lips, but inside, my anger was quietly, steadily reaching its boiling point.

With the sound of the closing door behind me, I rushed to the sofa and began grabbing every cushion in sight, hurling them against the wall.

—Pfft. Thud. They bounced lightly and fell uselessly.

“What’s her problem… that woman?!”

The words slipped out unintentionally. My trembling fingers gripped the edge of a cushion tightly.

Even though until now, she never even glanced my way.

Overwhelmed by the wave of emotions, I threw myself onto the bed. The fluffy down comforter enveloped me, yet my frozen heart remained completely unwarmed.

Burying my face in the sheets, I gritted my teeth.

—I won’t forgive her.

What infuriated me most was how her smile was filled with such irritating “righteousness.”

Unspeakable, ugly emotions burned in my chest.

“‘Tart’? ‘As an example’? Does she really think that’s not sarcastic?”

Did she think I wouldn’t notice? The image of her sitting next to the Crown Prince, pretending to be the perfect lady, flickered in my mind.

No, she only thinks she’s perfect, doesn’t she? What does that matter?

—I am the Spirit Princess.

The only one who could manifest a spirit’s form during the judgment. The spirit’s voice was clearly heard by everyone present in that moment.

‘Hey, hey, do you have any sweets?’

I thought it could have said something more impressive, but spirits love sweets. The Spirit Ministry’s head official said it showed the spirit felt close enough to me to ask for treats.

And with just that one phrase, my world turned upside down.

My life, which had been confined to a poor village corner with my drunkard father, began to shine.

“I thought once I came to the palace, I would become the Crown Prince’s fiancée, and that woman would become unnecessary.”

How much time has passed since then? Yet nothing has changed. That woman remains by Prince Lucius’s side, while I don’t even have an adoptive family decided yet.

“Besides, studying at this age is just ridiculous.”

The palace tutor’s voice echoed like a curse. The academy lessons made no sense, and I had to endure sitting through them while fighting sleep.

This isn’t what I’m meant to do. I have a much more suitable place.

“I was going to choose one lady from my followers to be the concubine and have her handle everything else…!”

Politics, paperwork, social engagements, I should have been able to leave it all to others and just smile. As the Spirit Princess, as the Crown Princess, I should have been living dreamlike days!

“Things were going well with Prince Lucius too. We should have been just one step away.”

He was beginning to open up to me. Every time our eyes met, every time we spoke, the distance between us was definitely shrinking.

—That woman. She’s been getting in the way lately.

I wish she’d realized her position was threatened by me much later.

It’s because those people who call themselves my friends are spreading unnecessary rumors.

Heh, but now that she’s noticed, that’s fine too. I’ll just change my approach.

“What will happen when rumors spread about ‘the Crown Prince’s fiancée harassing the Spirit Princess’ and ‘the spirits will surely get angry’?”

The nobles prioritize amusing curiosity over doubt. I just need to add a little embellishment and tell the story with teary eyes. After that, those “friends” of mine will happily spread it around for entertainment.

Like storytellers of heroic tales, foolish and conveniently so.

“What will happen when it reaches Prince Lucius’s, no, the King’s ears?”

She won’t get off lightly. Because I am “an existence equal to royalty.” The “Spirit Princess” who brings peace to the nation.

I wonder what face she’ll make. Just imagining it made my chest feel lighter. I barely swallowed back the urge to shout “serves you right!”

The debut day, the day my name would be officially engraved in noble society as the “Spirit Princess.” The day I would stand beside the Crown Prince as the chosen one. The day my existence would be known throughout every corner of the kingdom.

My first dance with Prince Lucius.

What played in my mind was a beautiful scene that would captivate everyone.

The Prince gently placing his hand on my waist, dancing to the light melody. The hem of my dress floating gracefully, the atmosphere becoming breathtakingly splendid. The nobles’ murmurs and enchanted gazes.

And that woman’s sorrowful face.

“I’ll continue practicing. There’s still time with the Prince too. There are still chances to deepen our relationship.”

Suddenly sensing a shift in the air, I smiled.

“Spirits. You’ll be watching over me properly, won’t you?”

Without the Akrum stone used in the judgment, I couldn’t perceive their forms or voices.

How inconvenient.

But during my debut, what will be formally bestowed upon me by the King as the “proof of the Spirit Princess” is a necklace made with Akrum stone.

The moment I receive it, the world will change.

“Hey… when that time comes, you’ll tell them everything about how that woman bullied me, right? What face she made, what words she threw at me, everything from today too.”

I whispered softly.

“She’s the one at fault. I’m just doing my best. Right? Isn’t that so?”

The spirits would never smile upon that woman.

Because the one chosen by the spirits was me.