Victoria believed in science, but she also believed in things that science couldn’t explain, such as the sixth sense and parallel space.

But she had never thought this kind of metaphysi cal anomaly would happen to her.

Victoria had still only been in this new world for a short time. The era was around 3,000 years before she had been born in her other life, but it wasn’t the world that she had studied in her history books. Instead, it was another branch of the space track. This completely unfamiliar world was called Rhode Island.

There were five nations: Beverly Hills, Countryside, Oliver County, Little Venice, and Ember Empire. In addition, there were several cities independent of the imperial power.

Ember Empire was the ruling nation, and the other countries all had to report to the capital on their actions every year. They were also required to deliver a proton—a female sent as a sacrifice—to Ember each year to show their willingness to bow to the throne.

The weakest of the five states was Little Venice. Unfortunately, one year, its emperor had selected his seventh daughter, Princess Victoria, as proton.

From what she understood, Victoria had entered the capital six years before, at the age of nine. Now fifteen years old in this reality, she had just achieved the age to be given the traditional hairpin as a symbol of reaching maturity, but in her mind, she was already a grown woman. 

It wasn’t that Victoria wasn’t aware of her position in this reality. But sitting near the river’s edge, looking at her reflection, she realized that it was hard to feel like a princess when she appeared so unhealthy, thin, ragged, and unkempt.

The most unpleasant part was the thick, caked-on rouge and makeup all over her face. A gentle scratch of a nail could scrape off at least a layer of that.

Some princess I am! she thought, a smirked lifting the corner of her mouth. She couldn't help but think that the demand for princesses in this era was even lower than that in her other, future life.

She recalled that yesterday had been the birthday of Shauna, the princess of Culver City. She had held a small banquet in the palace, and everyone important had been there to celebrate with her. Naturally, polite behavior was always expected.

At the party, however, Shauna had drunk too much. As punishment for this unacceptable behavior, she was carried away and left out in the dangerous depths of a forest overnight. Somewhat surprisingly, however, she had survived unscathed.

Having witnessed all of this, Victoria couldn’t help but fear for her own journey here. She curled her lips and felt that she was very unlucky. She could not help having crossed into the body of a proton when she died in her other world.

Could there be any rest after that? She was always wondering if someone was plotting against her in this world too. When will someone be coming after me? Whose way am I in?

***

“There’s that woman! Grab her.”

The shout interrupted Victoria’s thought. Before she could see who had spoken, a large group of bodyguards had surrounded her.

“Bold Victoria, who dares to attend a banquet in the palace and elope with a sinful man. Are you going to die or be shamed?” said a woman's sharp, piercing voice.

Protons were not allowed to leave the capital without the emperor's permission. It was a crime for Victoria to have stepped out of the city gate. Plus, a shameless woman who eloped with an immoral man was to be held guilty of an even more serious crime.

Victoria recognized the harsh voice as that of the proton Pauline, a princess of Oliver County. She didn't know how the woman maintained such a sense of superiority over everyone around her.

Determined that Victoria should be punished harshly, Pauline pleaded, “Second Prince, she committed a crime by escaping from the city, and we have been searching for her all night!” 

Second prince? Victoria recalled that the second prince was the man she was supposed to be engaged to. The emperor of the Ember Empire hadn’t agreed to a suitable match for him yet, so her scheming father had offered to give her hand in marriage to the second prince when giving her up as the sacrifice.

Although she had been granted her hairpin more than two months ago now, the second prince had still not mentioned the arrangement at all. Could his dislike for me be any more obvious? Victoria thought. She didn't hold out much hope for how things were going to go there.

The guards separated the crowd to make way. Victoria looked down the road and saw three people coming toward her.

On the left was Pauline, dressed in pink, looking pretty and proud. The woman on the right, Shauna, had a dignified bearing, despite the disaster of her birthday banquet the previous day.

In between them was a man dressed in crimson and blue robes. When Victoria laid her eyes on him, she became furious. She rushed forward almost without thinking about it, moving so fast that the people around her didn't have time to react.

“Carl, you son of a bitch!” she cried.

She raised her hand and landed a forceful, ruthless slap on the man’s face, slamming his head to one side.

Everyone was shocked, but Victoria wasn’t in the mood to offer any explanation.

In her previous life, Carl and Victoria had been engaged to get married, but his affair with Sonya had broken them up. Then, he had called for Victoria to perform surgery on the woman who had destroyed her life.

The kind-hearted Dr. Bennett had saved her, but what about Carl? He had paid off an assistant doctor to kill her.

“You scumbag!” she shouted at the man. She lifted her arm, preparing to slap him again. However, this time, the man reacted quickly and grabbed her wrist.

“Victoria, what the hell is going on?” His eyes were almost bursting with anger.

Before Victoria could reply, she heard Shauna’s voice. “Princess Victoria, how can you slap your Second Highness? Since hearing the news of your disappearance last night, your Second Highness has been searching for you tirelessly.”

Shauna looked anxiously at Prince Kris, the second prince of Ember, who was engaged to be Victoria's future husband.

Hearing Shauna’s words and looking at the man's clothes, Victoria suddenly realized that she had been mistaken. Although this man looked identical to Carl, he was not the same man who had broken her heart in another life.

Seeing Victoria stunned into inaction, Prince Kris pushed her away. She lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Her anger, which had been like a volcano about to erupt, subsided with the pain from the fall.

The prince thought she was like two different people, both timid and ferocious. The two princesses who had witnessed this scene thought she seemed like a two-headed monster, revealing both strength and wickedness.

What does this all mean? Am I an enemy of the future that was my past, and of the present too? she wondered in anguish.

Victoria lowered her head. She repeatedly reminded herself that the imperial power reigned in this world that was so different from her previous life. 

Just then, a powerful slap struck her face, leaving a burning pain. 

Asshole, how can he get away with that? Should I pretend it knocked me out? she wondered.

But glancing at the guards standing around her, she decided that pretending to be unconscious might not work. What if one of them were to beat her to wake her up? She was afraid of them hurting her more.

If you can't pretend to be unconscious, you can only pretend to be stupid! she thought.

But before she could react, the prince came up to her and said in a cold voice, “Do you want to pretend to be unconscious or stupid? Victoria, put away your careful thinking. Don't try to attract my attention. I won't marry you!”

He rubbed gingerly at the palm print on his face, but after a couple of moments, he stopped. He was a prince, after all, and the most popular candidate for becoming crown prince. He couldn't be seen to condone such things as beating women in the street, so he had better make sure Victoria got cleaned up.

The first half of Kris's statement made Victoria feel that he was a mind reader. But the second part of what he said made the corner of her mouth twitch into a smirk, which she didn’t want him to see. What made him think she was trying to attract his attention?

She stood up from the ground and brushed the dirt off her clothes. Although she was smaller in stature than the prince, her demeanor was not weak at all. “Your Highness, didn't you listen to what the princess said? I'm trying to elope. Think about it; if I want to get away, how can I still have the desire to have power? Your highness is worried about nothing.”

Kris squinted his eyes and said, “Who do you think you are? I really don't like you!” He was stunned by her boldness. This woman has been in his bed three times. 

He sneered, “Oh? Elopement? Well then, who were you eloping with? Who is so bold to elope with the proton of Little Venice? This is a crime of adultery!”

Victoria sneered, “Your Highness is so aggressive. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were jealous!”

Angered by Victoria's attitude, Kris thought, She used to be so timid. What happened today? Did she take the wrong medicine!? 

“You clearly have no shame! If you don't hand over the adulterer today, our temple will cut off your head at the gate of the city, and even your father will not dare to protest!”

Victoria clearly saw the unmistakable intention to kill in Kris's eyes. Whether he was just angry or specifically hated her to the bone, there was no doubt this was not an empty threat.

She pursed her mouth and regretted her impulse. But she was still not fully adapted to her transformation from Dr. Bennett to a proton princess!

What a mess, she thought.

Would Kris believe her if she told him the “adulterer” was his father, the emperor?

Victoria sighed and gave up that idea, certain that it would just lead to her death faster.

Damed if I do, damned if I don’t! How will I ever get out of this? she thought.

While she was still thinking about this dilemma, a bodyguard rushed in and said to the prince, “Your Second Highness, I caught the bodyguard who eloped with Princess Victoria!”

Kris was stunned. It seemed that he could not believe that there was a real adulterer.

Even though Pauline and Shauna had previously tried to tell him that Victoria had a close relationship with a bodyguard in the palace, he hadn’t thought much about it, because he really didn’t want her. He had never thought they were compatible.

But what's going on now? Is there a real adulterer? he questioned in his mind. If it’s true, how can I bear such an embarrassment?

Even though he didn’t want this woman, it was unacceptable that he had been betrayed!

“Bring him here!” Kris snarled through his teeth.

Victoria looked blankly at the man who was brought forward.

The man was dressed just like Kris’s bodyguards, but he was tied up.

“So, this is the bold slave who dared to abduct the princess. You’ll pay for your impudence!” Pauline scolded the man kneeling on the ground.

Hearing this, another bodyguard immediately cried out, saying, “Your Highness, please forgive me. It was Princess Victoria; she said that she was pregnant with Neil’s child, so he made bold plans for their escape. But on the way, she took advantage of him when he was resting. She put some kind of medicine in his water to weaken him, and she tried to kill him. Fortunately, he was able to fend her off, and she didn’t succeed. But, met with his resistance, she gave up on her escape.”