Crown Prince, I hate you!

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Rael?”

Somehow, Rael had arrived unnoticed, and before anyone could react, she forcefully shoved Helen away from me.

From a distance, I saw Meysha running toward us, and I pieced the situation together.

They must have been watching from behind.

“I heard you lacked etiquette, but this is outright rude, Miss Helen,” Rael said, her heavy voice cutting through the tension like a blade.

“…Ah, the Crown Princess’s personal maid, I presume?”

Helen, now unbalanced and stumbling from Rael’s push, brushed off her shoulders and cast a disdainful look toward Rael.

“A maid with such rough hands—it makes me wonder if you’re even in a position to lecture me about etiquette.”

Feigning indignation, Helen pretended to shiver as if she had nearly fallen, prompting a bitter laugh from Rael.

“They say ignorance is unbeatable. I suppose this situation proves that saying true?”

Rael’s sharp gaze bore down on Helen, who met it with a tilted, mocking smile.

A headache began to throb.

Watching their verbal sparring, which seemed destined to go nowhere, was exhausting. I knew if I didn’t stop it, things would only escalate.

“Rael, enough.”

“Your Grace—”

“No more. Let’s go back.”

I had no choice but to turn away first.

“You’re leaving already? I’ll see you again soon, Your Grace,” Helen said with a sickly sweet smile. Under the bright sunlight, she strolled off leisurely, ending the confrontation—

Or so I thought.

“Answer me!”

Haelon’s voice rang out as he appeared before me, declaring my utter defeat in this battle.

He’s raising his voice…

The man I had always known to be the epitome of composure and logic was now visibly angry.

Haelon was someone who never showed strong reactions unless directly provoked. That had, ironically, been a source of comfort for me.

I knew he didn’t love me, but I had convinced myself he wouldn’t give his heart to anyone else either.

But now, seeing him like this, all because of her—what exactly was Helen to him?

She had climbed to a place I hadn’t dared to reach in all my years of longing for him. She had effortlessly nestled into the heart I had only dreamed of touching.

“Your Grace,” he began, his tone sharp.

That alone caused something fragile inside me to crumble.

“Who… is she to you, Your Highness?”

“That’s all you have to say right now?”

His brow furrowed. His expression was calm, yet I could tell he was angry. Still, he was holding back, not letting his anger fully show.

He was waiting. If I apologized, if I admitted fault to Helen, this would all be swept under the rug.

I should apologize. If I don’t want him to hate me more…

My mind screamed at me to act, but as I opened my mouth, a different thought slipped through:

Is there even a reason to keep trying not to be hated anymore?

“…And Your Highness, do you have nothing else to say to me?”

I already knew. Our relationship had ended a long time ago.

“What?”

His reaction was unexpected, and his expression darkened further.

“When was the last time we spoke, Your Highness? Two weeks ago. And even then, it was about Helen.”

For the first time, my voice pushed back against him.

“Have you even thought about how I must feel, hearing her name as the very first thing you say to me after two weeks? Or how others must perceive me in this situation?”

The emotions I had suppressed for so long spilled out uncontrollably.

I had held back out of fear that he would dislike me even more. I had swallowed countless words I wanted to say, desperately yearning for a chance to speak to him. And now, as the words finally came, my voice wavered, heavy with unshed tears.

“…Am I not your Crown Princess? Wasn’t it my role to stand by your side, to move forward with you? Then what am I now? What am I supposed to be, living every day hidden away in my chambers?”

As soon as those words left my lips, my vision blurred. The years of pent-up sorrow and humiliation came crashing down at once.

“Act like a Crown Princess.”

All the days I spent trying to meet his expectations were, as of today, rendered meaningless. My desperate struggle to remain by his side had left me utterly drained.

I couldn’t even see his expression as I hung my head. What would he say now? If he offered even the smallest bit of recognition, maybe these feelings could subside—just a little.

I had dared to hope.

“How utterly pathetic.”

For a moment, I forgot who Haelon truly was.

“I told you from the beginning—your only role is to stand before the people.”

His icy gaze bore down on me.

Click. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, turned his back on me, and headed for the door.

“If I hear even a whisper that you’ve troubled Helen again, there won’t be a second warning.”

Bang!

He slammed the door shut and strode off without a backward glance, heading to his office.

I collapsed to the floor, my legs unable to hold me up any longer.

A Crown Prince who wanted a “display” princess, someone “easily replaceable.”

That was the only role I had ever held in his eyes.

For years, I had looked only at him.

The royal family’s emphasis on proper behavior for the Crown Princess had always felt oppressive, but I told myself:

“I can do it. I have to.”

I worked tirelessly to change everything about myself that wasn’t befitting of a Crown Princess, hoping to meet his expectations and catch his eye.

Yet in the end, I was nothing to him.

The realization—one I had avoided for so long—finally struck me with full force. My heart crumbled.

A dull ache spread through my chest.

Why was I always like this?

Whether it was my family, my friends, or even the first person I ever believed I loved, no matter what beginnings I had, the endings were always the same—ruin.

The bitterness of it all—the predictability of my despair—was infuriating and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Even the last thread of hope I had clung to so desperately had slipped through my fingers. Everything I held onto, everything I tried to preserve despite the humiliation, was gone.

Whoosh.

A cold wind swept into the room through the open window, wrapping itself around me.

As if hypnotized, I stumbled toward the window.

The moonlight was bright enough to illuminate the tears pooling in my eyes, making them glimmer faintly.

Clink.

My feet carefully crossed over the cold ledge.

The sight of the ground far below made my body freeze momentarily in fear, but the thought of continuing to live this way frightened me far more.

I couldn’t keep going. I had nowhere to go back to.

“I’m so tired.”

I was tired of Helen’s sneers, tired of chasing after Haelon, tired of the dismissive gazes of the servants, and tired of the naive hopes of the empire’s citizens who expected something of me.

For four years, I endured the responsibilities that came with the title of Crown Princess.

In those four years, I lost myself, I lost my people, and now, I had nothing left.

Living like an empty shell was unbearable.

The thought of abandoning the position I had clung to so desperately, even at the cost of my own identity, made a bitter smile rise to my lips.

“I once thought it was my last lifeline.”

My eyelids slowly closed, blocking my view.

“Please. Never again.”

I whispered my short farewell to no one in particular. My trembling foot stepped off the ledge into the void.

The sensation of falling, detached from everything, didn’t last long.

Thud.

The harsh impact of my body meeting the ground sent searing pain shooting through me. It spread quickly from the point of impact, consuming every part of me.

It hurts.

A single tear rolled down my cheek at the unexpected intensity of the pain. I thought I would die instantly, but even that didn’t go as planned.

Even as my body screamed in agony, my mind wandered to Haelon and Helen. Would they still be smiling together, completely unaware of my suffering?

The thought brought a flicker of bitterness.

As my vision dimmed, sticky crimson liquid pooled around me.

I regretted ever stepping into this life. The humiliation and pain were sharper than the physical wounds.

But even so, I didn’t regret my choice.

My body was battered and scarred from all the ways I had fought to hold onto him, to avoid being replaced.

I didn’t want to continue living as someone I no longer recognized.

In a way, perhaps this wasn’t such a bad ending after all.

“At least I won’t have to scramble for his attention anymore.”

With that thought, my vision slipped into total darkness.

How much time had passed?

Clutching my pounding head, I slowly opened my eyes and sat up.

Still alive.

Was my life so worthless that even death refused to take me?

As I tried to gather myself, I froze at the sight before me.

The Claudy estate—my childhood home, which I had left behind to become the Crown Princess.

And the bed I was lying on…

It was the same one from the room I had used before leaving.

But that room had been redecorated years ago. There was no way I should be able to see it now.

“What… what is this?”

I bolted out of the bed and ran to the door.

Click—

“Miss? Is something wrong?”

The maid, Meysha, looked at me with concern as she met my panicked gaze.

“Meysha, what year is it?”

My voice trembled uncontrollably.

“Why, it’s the year 572 of the Imperial Calendar. But miss, why are you sweating so much—”

Her words barely registered.

572?

It felt like someone had struck me over the head.

The last moment I remembered had been in the year 577.

Somehow, I had returned five years to the past.