Hearing her name called, she jumped up from her chair and asked the person who opened the door as if shouting.
“Has His Highness finished the preparations?”
“Yes! Finally.”
Today was the day when the famous ‘Beast Prince’ of the Atarta Empire would finally appear in public. In other words, it was his debut day!
She ran down to the hallway with a trembling heart. And without hesitation, she opened the door. ‘Leone Atarta’, the first prince of the empire and nicknamed ‘the beast prince’ was there. Being able to enter his room without knocking was a privilege that only she had in that imperial castle.
“Leo… is that you?”
As she called out to him with a smile on her face, she stopped.
“Trixie?”
Recently, he had been wearing pretty neat clothes. So she thought he had adapted. But that day Leone was…
That man with deep purple eyes, beautiful yet dangerous smile that looked like she would be swallowed up if she looked at them too much time…
The way he always ran around barefoot and on all fours with his messy hair just couldn’t match with his current look. The dog she used to know was now completely gone.
“Trixie. Good morning.”
A man approached her with his long outstretched legs, and without hesitation he grabbed her hand. She always thought he was beautiful, but once he decided to let himself be decorated he was truly a perfect handsome man.
Seeing him dressed in a robe with his clean hair gave her a new feeling. He used to walk on all fours. His meals were raw meat from animals, and he howled like wolves or bit people to injure them. He used to be a man who was so feral as if he was raised in the wild. That was Leone.
So no one expected it. In his childhood, he was nicknamed the Beast Prince, and the grand duke who was aiming for the throne looked down on him and constantly sent assassins. The emperor, who could not give up on the bloodline of the only royal family, also almost gave up on him. Somehow she reminded the past days when Leone and she struggled.
“Leone… really…You’re so cool.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she held Leone’s hand.
“Trixie. Are you crying?”
Leone stroked her cheek with surprised eyes. She shook her head and took his hand.
“It’s okay. I’m crying because I’m moved.”
Far from being treated like a prince, Leone was treated as a stranger even among people. He has grown now into a wonderful man like a full-fledged person, no, like a prince in a fairy tale.
“You’ve really grown up…”
It seemed that she could understand the heart of any parent once again.
“There is nothing I can do for you now.”
There was still work to be done, but somehow it felt strange to think that something to do with Leone would disappear soon. She gently stroked Leone’s cheek with a strange face mixed with pride and pointless sadness.
‘Oh my baby You grew up well, really.’
“Yes. Trixie doesn’t have to do anything.”
Leone laughed lightly and rubbed his face on her palm.
“What? Aren’t you sad to talk about it so easily?”
“From now on, I intend to do everything.”
“Yes?”
“Trixie is my… No, because I am the master.”
Leone’s unique low voice flowed into her heart. His clenched hands were strangely itchy and she tried to remove them, but Leone wouldn’t let go. Rather, he interlaced it between her fingers, and he took a step towards her.
“Trixie. I didn’t know it before, but it was surprisingly nice to stand on my own two feet and live like a human being.”
It was a whisper so low that no one else could hear it. Originally, he was insensitive to skinship, but he was careful in front of others. Was he excited today? This was her fault for having been tangled up in a fight with him without hesitation.
‘I will teach you properly again.’
Leone was also… Now, as a prince, he must have known that he had to be careful with his manners. It’s okay with her, but what if the many young ladies he meets misunderstand him?
“What?”
“I can face Trixie.”
“Yes?”
“I can hold your hand and walk with you, or I can hug you.”
The voice sounded grave. Even though he was speaking human words, it was still like a low wolf howl.
“More than anything…”
“Yes?”
“I can talk to Trixie.”
“What?”
“I belong to Trixie.”
“Haha.”
The whisper tickled her. She smiled and gently pushed him away. He speedily took a step away from her.
“How can you belong to me? It’s not like you’re a real puppy.”
“It’s okay to be Trixie’s dog.”
“Leone. If you are a person, you should live with people.”
She thought she had taught him everything, but it seemed that he still had a long way to go before being socialized and interacting with people.
“Haha. That’s great. Let’s get ready now.”
After giving a rough answer, she stopped his hand after trying to stroke his head out of habit. Wanting to ruin his hair, she stopped her hand and turned around to face someone else. It wasn’t an unusually busy day, so there were many things to check.
“… Hmm.”
Somehow she could hear Leone’s small snort.
* * *
“Get out now!”
Who was that person and where was that place? Her last memory was the moment she was hit by a crazy dump truck while taking a walk with her dog Deoksoon. She thought she was dead because she definitely felt the pain of her bones being broken. But she caught her breath and her eyes opened. It was a strange place.
Before she could properly recognize that she was still alive, a middle-aged foreign man and woman suddenly opened the door and entered, standing there dressed as if they were cosplayers and screaming at her. She didn’t know why but they seemed very angry.
Behind the man, several women dressed as maids entered and turned the room upside down.
“Change your pajamas and go out. You are no longer our daughter anyway, and it is a disgrace to the family to go on like this.”
“… Well. So um… You mean to get out of here?”
Most of the man’s words were incomprehensible to her.
“What’s my name, and what have I done wrong?”
She was worried about the woman who was about to collapse, but she tried to stay as calm as possible.
The man clicked his tongue and the woman cried even louder, perhaps not liking my bold question.
“Tsk. You must have gone crazy at the end. Even if you get down on your knees now and beg, it won’t be enough!”
“Trixie. Why did you…”
“No one will be helping you! You all know if you get to help this child you will be fired! Your handsome fiancé has come to meet you, so follow him, or starve to death wherever you go!”
A piece of clothing was thrown in front of her and the door closed. It was a pretty yellow colored dress… Large, puffy and with a bunch of intricate knots that would take an hour to put on.
What she was wearing now was a white nightgown with a dainty lace trim.
‘Wait.’ She raised her arm to look at the clothes she was wearing, but she froze for a moment.
There was no way she would look like that. Her hands were small and smooth, with no calluses at all.
“Strange.”
She headed towards the mirror standing on one side of the room. Her steps became hasty.
“… This is crazy.”
Pretty curly hair in a color between orange and red, lovely white cheeks, shining blue eyes… A girl of about sixteen stood there where she should be. She was a very different being from Lim Bo-bae, a thirty-one-year-old office worker. She put her face close to the mirror and looked at the sides.
“Ah, no way.”
How did it happen? Was it a dream? Yes, it had to be a dream.
So she pinched her cheek and it didn’t hurt. ‘Good luck, it’s a dream!’ But at the moment she pulled a little harder.
“Ouch.”
The pain was enough to bring her to tears.
“I guess… it’s not a dream.”
“Why are you procrastinating? Get out now!”
She was startled by the mad command from outside. First of all, she had to find something other than that dress.
She rummaged through the closet, hurriedly changed her clothes, grabbed her luggage and ran out. She felt like she shouldn’t be there.
“Oh my God! What are you wearing? Why are you wearing sportswear…”
“Let’s leave it alone. She’s not our daughter anymore.”
What she was wearing were riding breeches and a shirt with a lot of frills that looked comfortable.
Her mind was confused.
What was the meaning of this ugly man’s coy smile holding her hand next to her, and what the hell meant that old man who puts gold coins into his hand saying it was the last time?
“Honey. Let’s live well from now on.”
The man who was walking alongside her after she got out of the big mansion, no, after she was kicked out, said abruptly.
“… Honey?”
“You abandoned your family for me. You have no idea how happy I am, Miss Beatrice Giuseppe. No, now that I have completed my marriage vows, you will become Beatrice Barton.”
Beatrice, Giuseppe?
A sentence passed through my confused mind: “Beatrice Giuseppe was a young lady famous for being immature.”
‘This… oh finally something came to mind’
A romance novel that she couldn’t finish reading until she was hit by a car and died.
『Contract Marriage with Marquis』
Beatrice Giuseppe was a supporting character in that novel. From her debut party to a petty tea party, she went crazy with gossip and made mistakes. At the end she fell in love with a commoner man and was kicked out of her family, she left the story like that.
She remembered that while reading the character seemed like licorice, like if she was about to burst into death in any moment of the novel
‘But that’s me…?’
Should she pretend she was a supporting character who ruined her life with her own hands? She didn’t even know what the end of the novel was since she couldn’t finish reading it.
Besides, she didn’t even have time to sort things out, when did she marry that guy?
Her dog, Deoksoon, must have been hit by a car too. What happened to him?
“Now there is nothing to hinder our love.”
An ugly man whose name she did not know showed his teeth and laughed while still holding her hand.