"There she is! Seize her! "
The loud commotion interrupted Victoria’s thoughts. Before she could see clearly who was shouting, a large group of guards had already surrounded her.

"How dare you, Victoria? How dare you live in the palace and then elope with a dishonorable man. Do you have some kind of death wish, or are you just completely shameless?" A sharp female voice pierced through the layers of guards to Victoria's ears.

Protons were not allowed to leave the capital without the emperor’s permission. Even just stepping out of the city was a capital offense, and Victoria had eloped with a corrupt man, making her even more guilty.

Victoria recognized the owner of the ear-piercing voice; it was the proton princess Pauline, from Oliver County. She wanted to make sure Victoria was harshly punished.

In this world, everyone was a hostage, so Victoria was confused by Pauline’s sense of superiority.

"Your Second Highness, Pauline is right; she went out of the city.  She had us looking for her all night," said another woman.

Second Highness? Victoria realized they must be talking to the Second Prince, to whom she was engaged based on the arrangement made by her father when he sent her to the Ember Empire as a proton sacrifice.  But the Second Prince had never mentioned this matter. Weren't her father’s intentions clear enough? Victoria curled her lips. She didn't hold out much hope for the Second Prince.

The crowd was parted by the guards, opening a path. Victoria saw three people striding toward her. The girl on the left was dressed in pink and seemed prideful of her loveliness. This was the Oliver County princess, Pauline. The lady on the right was wearing a light-yellow dress, looking dignified and proper. She was Shauna, the princess who had held her birthday banquet the previous day.
The third person was a man in a blue brocade robe. Victoria was infuriated at the sight of this man. She rushed forward without even thinking; her actions were so fast that the surrounding people could not react in time.
"Carl, you bastard!"
A loud, crisp sound rang out as she landed a slap firmly on the man's face, knocking his head to the side.
Everyone was stunned at this spectacle.
What was going on?
Victoria spent all her anger in that one slap!
In her previous world, Carl and Victoria had once been engaged, before Sonya had snatched him away at the engagement ceremony. Then, he had had the nerve to call upon Victoria to perform surgery on her rival.
Since Victoria was kind-hearted, she had attempted to save her, but what about Carl? He had paid off an assistant doctor to kill her. The scumbag! she thought.
She raised her hand and was about to strike again, but this time, the man reacted quickly and grabbed her wrist.
"Victoria, what the hell are you doing?" His eyes blazed with fury.
Victoria was about to retort when Shauna's voice said, "Princess Victoria, how can you attack the Second Prince? Knowing that you went missing last night, he has had people out looking for you for the entire night! "
With extreme worry, Shauna looked at the Second Prince of Ember Empire, who was intended to be Victoria's future husband.

After hearing what Shauna said and looking again at the man in front of her, Victoria suddenly realized that he wasn’t Carl after all.

Noticing her shock, the prince pushed her away from him forcefully. She lost her balance and fell to the ground.
Her rage, which had been like a volcano about to erupt, suddenly subsided with the pain from falling.

She thought about it. That was right; she had seen this Second Prince Kris of Ember Empire before. He looked exactly the same as that bastard Carl.
What did that mean? Was this the enemy of her previous life? And did that also make him an enemy in her current life?
Gripped by the magnitude of this, Victoria lowered her head to gather herself mentally. She repeatedly told herself that this was no longer the world she had been living in, but a place where the imperial power reigned supreme. Just a single slap from her was enough for them to kill her ten times over.
Dammit, how am I going to escape? Can I pretend to pass out? she thought.
She glanced at the surrounding guards, who were glaring at her with hostility. She thought to herself that pretending to be unconscious wasn't going to work. What if one of them beat her to wake up? She was very afraid of pain.
If she couldn't feign unconsciousness, then she could only pretend to be ignorant.
However, before she could react, Kris walked in front of her and said in a cold tone, "Do you want to pretend to be unconscious or stupid? Victoria, stop your scheming and don't try to attract my attention. I won't marry you! "
Kris rubbed the handprint on his face and resisted the urge to slap Victoria back. He was a prince and was also a popular candidate for becoming the crown prince. He could not be seen beating a woman in public.
The first half of Kris's speech made Victoria feel that the Second Prince could read her mind. But the second half of it made the corner of Victoria's mouth twitch. Could this man have some information? Why did he think she wanted to attract his attention?
Victoria stood up from the ground, rubbing her new bruises gently. Although she was not as tall as Kris, her tone was not weak at all. "Second Prince, didn't you hear what Princess Pauline said? I tried to escape. And you think I’m trying to attract you? It makes no sense!" She rolled her eyes. 

Kris was stunned by her words. It was obvious to him from what she said that she didn’t think much of him. The woman had crawled into his bed three times, and now she said this. 

What kind of scheme is this? Does she want me captured? That's right; that must be it! he thought.
Kris sneered, "Oh? Escape? Then I want to see who you eloped with. Who would have the guts to take the Little Venice proton and run away? " Kris felt that the adulterer was a traitor to the sovereign family.
Victoria sneered. "Your Highness, asking such an overbearing question. Anyone who didn’t know better might think you were jealous!"
Kris was infuriated by Victoria's provocative attitude. She had always been a timid and obedient girl before. So what's wrong with her today? Did she take the wrong medicine? he wondered.
"Shameless! If you do not hand over your adulterer today, I will behead you right at the city gate, and even Little Venice will not dare to say a single word!"
Victoria could see that Kris was not faking his intention to have her killed. Whether it was anger due to embarrassment or hatred toward her from the start, this threat was real.
She pursed her lips, regretting her impulsive actions.
But since, in reality, she had just arrived here, she needed time to adjust to the fact that she had changed from the highly regarded Dr. Bennett to the lowly proton princess.
She was in big trouble.

Victoria had no power, so she could only look for someone to pose as the “adulterer.” If she said the “adulterer” was Kris’ father, the Emperor of the Ember Empire, she wondered if he would believe her. The corner of her mouth twitched in amusement, but she decided to give up on this idea, since it would surely mean they’d kill her faster.

I’m damned either way! she thought.

While Victoria was thinking about this dilemma, a guard hurriedly ran in and said to Kris, "Second Prince, your subordinate has caught the guard that Princess Victoria ran away with!"
Kris was stunned; he found it hard to believe that there really was an adulterer.
In fact, even though Pauline and Shauna had both mentioned that Victoria had a secret relationship with a guard in the palace, he hadn’t thought too much about it because he really didn’t want her anyway.

But what was going on now? If there really was an adulterer, how could the prince bear this embarrassment?
Even if he didn’t want Victoria, Kris wanted to get his hands on the guy!  

“Bring him here!” Kris ordered through gritted teeth.
Victoria stared blankly at the man that was brought forward.
The man, named Neil, was wearing the same guards’ uniform as the others. The difference was he was tied up like a crab.

"Insolent lackey, you actually dared to kidnap the princess?” said Pauline. Reprimanding the people kneeling on the ground, she continued, “And you didn’t know he was a traitor?" 

At this, one of the other guards cried out, "Your Highness, please, spare us, it was Princess Victoria… it was all her. Halfway through her escape, she took advantage of Neil’s rest time to put some mystery concoction in the water and weaken him. She wanted to kill him to silence him. But luckily, he was still able to fight her off! She saw that things were not going well, so she turned around and headed back toward the capital."
Upon hearing this, Victoria let out a long sigh.