First, let’s make one thing perfectly clear—never date a woman who writes novels.
Not unless you want to die and then be transmigrated into a romance-fantasy work famous for its hardcore, miserable depictions, like I did.
‘…I thought we broke up pretty cleanly, all things considered, so why this work of all things?’
The confusion after my transmigration lasted only a short while. After piecing together the information I’d gathered from the people around me as I grew from childhood to the age of twenty, I realized—I had transmigrated into my ex-girlfriend’s debut novel.
The title of the work was .
It was about the princess of a weak nation defeated in war becoming a hostage of the empire, then being violated as the plaything of the emperor and the princes who lusted after her.
I remembered it clearly because, when my ex had asked me for my thoughts, I’d said, “If four people are sharing her, is this a Netflix subscription plan?” and got smacked on the back for it.
‘…No, wait. Maybe it’s because this was actually the most decent thing she wrote, relatively speaking.’
For a while, I truly resented my ex-girlfriend, but when I suddenly recalled the list of all her works, I realized once again that she really had loved me.
If she’d hated me, she would have transmigrated me into one of the countless BL stories she’d written instead of this one.
In the worst case, I might have been pinned under a hairy werewolf going “ugh, ugh,” or ended up as the urinal beneath the desk of some chaebol chairman, so I suppose this was the best possible outcome.
“Young Master Ian, I have prepared your meal. May I come in?”
“Yeah, Claire. You can come in.”
The one who interrupted my brief reverie was Claire, our family maid.
She was someone I was grateful to, who had been attending to me since I was young.
“Wow, this looks delicious. Sea bass?”
“It is sea bass steak with lemon sauce, your favorite, Young Master. For dessert, I have prepared custard pudding and fresh fruit.”
“Thanks, Claire. I feel bad making you bring meals all the way to my room every time.”
“Not at all, Young Master. You like eating in your room, don’t you? Please call me when you have finished your meal.”
“I’ll bring the plates down myself. I have some things to think about. Thanks. By the way, when is Mother coming back?”
“I doubt she will be able to return today. Her Majesty the Queen said she would be attending the Goddess Banquet, so I suspect she will return tomorrow evening or night.”
“…Another banquet? I feel like I heard them whining not long ago that the royal family had no money.”
“Exactly. I heard they raised the taxes on the crown lands again. It truly makes me grateful to be a resident of the Harper Barony, where the baronial family actually looks after the circumstances of its people. Well, I do not farm anyway. Then I shall take my leave. Enjoy your meal, Young Master!”
Giving a light farewell to the maid as she left after setting down the meal, I pushed the old memories that had briefly surfaced to the back of my mind.
‘Well, still, this second life doesn’t seem too bad.’
When I was born, my homeland turned out to be the setting of the original novel: the Kingdom of Sterling, a small kingdom that would be invaded by the empire.
It was a “small” coastal kingdom in the southwestern part of the continent, with a population of roughly three million.
(Criticism of my ex-girlfriend’s sense of numbers is always welcome. This is an era that’s roughly a mix of medieval and early modern times, so hearing a population of three million treated as a small kingdom is hilarious every time.)
My family, the Harper family, is a baronial house with a territory by the sea. About half of our people work in fishing, while the other half work in agriculture. In other words, we’re a family of no particular importance.
And since I’m the second son, I won’t even inherit that unimpressive family anyway.
Whenever I see my poor older brother working day and night to lead the Harper family in place of our father, who passed away early, I feel sorry for him and a little envious too. Not that I have any intention of being jealous.
That’s about all there is to say about our family.
If there’s one unusual thing, it’s that my mother is very close to the queen, so she is frequently summoned to the royal castle.
From what I heard, back in her academy days, there was a young lady of a baronial house who was being bullied, and instead of joining in the ostracism, Mother became friends with her.
That young lady grew up to become incredibly beautiful and succeeded in making the third prince fall head over heels for her. In the end, she married him, but then the first and second princes suddenly died, so the third prince became king, and she became queen—or something like that.
The queen never forgot her friend from those days and has continued to look after her and stay close to her.
If our territory were far from the royal castle, that would be one thing, but since it’s only about a day away by carriage, even now Mother goes to the capital by carriage once every ten days or so to spend time with the queen.
[It is a message from Mother.]
“Huh? What?”
No sooner had I thought of her than the crystal orb began vibrating.
When I first came to this world, I despaired at the fact that there were no smartphones, but I soon found it fascinating when I heard there were things called crystal orbs.
They weren’t terribly expensive, so not only nobles but even commoners with a certain amount of money bought and used them.
As for how to use them, aside from the screen being round, they were fundamentally not very different from smartphones.
“Yes, Mother.”
[Yes, my son. Are you doing well? Have you been eating properly?]
“Yes. Did you arrive safely at the royal palace?”
[I did. The banquet will begin soon, so I thought of you before going in and called. Is your brother well?]
“Brother went out earlier, saying he was inspecting the territory. I’m at home, lazing around and reading books.”
[You should go outside, ride a horse, and do some hunting. I feel like you’ve been staying home too much lately.]
“Ahaha, if I feel like it, I’ll ride out for a bit.”
[Yes, do tha—oh my, Your Majesty!]
There was a brief rustling sound from beyond the crystal orb, and then a familiar voice came through.
[Ian! Are you doing well?]
“Your Majesty, Ian, second son of the Harper Barony, offers his greetings. Have you been well?”
[Goodness, how many years have you and I known each other? Why be so formal? If you’re Michelle’s son, you’re no different from my own son, aren’t you?]
“I am always grateful for your warm treatment, Your Majesty.”
[Yes, let’s stay close for a long, long time. Oh, right. My son and daughter kept asking when Ian would be coming, so next time, make sure to come along with Michelle. I’ll have lots of delicious food prepared for you.]
“Yes, I will be sure to visit next time.”
[Good, good. I’m going to go have fun with your mother now. Here, here’s the crystal orb, Michelle!]
For some reason, Mother sounded slightly tired when she took the call again.
[…I’m not joking. I really think you must come next time. Her Majesty was like that, and the prince and princess truly kept asking when you were coming. It has been a while since you last visited, hasn’t it?]
“Yes, well, I’ll definitely go with you next time.”
[All right. I’m sorry for troubling you so much. Mother will be going now.]
“Yes.”
When the call ended, I rubbed my face with dry hands and flopped down onto the bed.
“…Phew.”
As you heard, the queen’s children and I are fairly close.
I’ve been seeing them and growing up with them since I was three, after all.
Until I was around eight, I practically lived in the royal palace and grew up with them like siblings, and until the year before last, we attended the academy together too.
To the point where I suspect that if I suddenly lost my mind one day and called the queen “Mother,” she would probably accept it.
“Wow, you’re really handsome! What’s your name?”
“I am Ian, second son of the Harper Barony. It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Your Highness.”
“My name is Joseph! Let’s be friends!”
Becoming close with the prince two years older than me was easy.
After all, from birth, the contents inside me had been a twenty-five-year-old university student, so matching the pace of a child was nothing much.
If he wanted to play war, I became his loyal subordinate; if he wanted to have a sword fight, I would take the upper hand at first, then act out a narrow defeat to the prince, who grew during the middle of the battle. Since I could do things like that easily, the prince must have found it fun to play with me.
Even after we grew older and became somewhat more mature, we continued to be close.
“Brother Ian, hello!”
“Your Highness, you have arrived. What studies shall I help you with today?”
“I don’t really understand this part of the classic novel. Could you explain it to me?”
As for the princess, from childhood I provided her with incredibly well-constructed playing-house scenarios—most of them were based on morning dramas I had watched beside my grandmother—and when I acted them out with all my soul, she loved it.
During the years we attended the academy together, I even volunteered to act as her tutor.
Of course, starting the year before last, I felt like the way she looked at me kept containing emotions that were more than friendship, so I kept an appropriate distance.
Leaving aside the realistic problem that, as the second son of a baronial house, marrying the princess was impossible, I also had no desire to get involved with someone who, in another worldline, had been used as the Netflix Family Edition.
As a person, she was kind and good, but every time I saw her, I remembered how terribly she was abused in the original novel, and it made my heart ache.
‘…And soon, war will break out. Our kingdom will surrender before we can put up anything worthy of being called a fight, and she’ll be dragged away… So I shouldn’t bother staying too close to her. If we become too close, it’ll hurt when she gets taken.’
There was a time when I kept my distance with roughly that mindset.
“Ian Harper, as king, I earnestly ask this of you. For the sake of the royal family, would you go as a hostage while pretending to be the prince?”
“…Pardon?”
The moment those words came out of the king’s mouth, all my efforts became meaningless.