From a young age, I knew I was different.

When I was very young, I knew I was different from other girls.

I am the daughter of a duke, and my status means absolute dignity, luxury, and inviolability.

If you say that, it might seem like I'm a bad woman, right? But that's really not what I intended, I'm just very conscious of who I am.

Born into the family of the Duke of Jinguo, I have the second most noble surname in the country.

Many people may think that this is a very enviable thing. But that's all there is to me.

In addition to my last name, I'm also an ordinary girl, I will have things I like, and I hate to do things that I don't want to. I would cry, I would make trouble, and I would want to get rid of the persuasion of the people around me, and I would go barefoot in the fountain to step on those splashes.

Even so, I'll end up scolding my parents.

As the daughter of the Duke's family, I was well aware of what my presence meant from an early age.

Almost without the words of my parents, I can understand from the mouths of those tutors that I will have and will only have one identity in the future, that is, the imperial concubine of the Blue Bay Empire.

Marrying into the royal family, which may be a topic that ordinary girls may be very envious, is so common to me. Because this path is a path that has been prepared for me a long time ago, I don't need to envy anything at all.

Mom and Dad loved me very much, especially my father, who often told me that I was the most important treasure in his life.

However, even treasures need to be tempered. An unpretentious, unpolished gemstone may be a good material, but not enough to be admired in the crown.

So when I was just remembering, I started learning all sorts of things.

Dancing, painting, music, appreciating jewelry, learning to taste tea, and even the weekly opera appreciation are all about watching those very high-profile traditional operas, re-immersing oneself in the ancient knowledge of the rich tradition and full of history, and making one's whole body more suitable for being a noble and dignified princess.

It's a bit boring for me, but if I watch too much, I'll get bored.

Although every time I go out to the opera house, many adults say that I am very beautiful, and they all praise me for being polite, and I will definitely be an excellent woman in the future, but I am a little tired of living this life.

Ah, it's not that I'm dissatisfied with my life, I just think that this kind of life still lacks a little bit of excitement.

Maybe it was the Knights and Adventures storybook I read two nights ago? Or the opera of the princess and the dragon that I watched last week?

Adventure and magic seemed to have somewhat affected my thoughts, and I thought that maybe there would always be something unusual in this world waiting for me to discover.

That's it, what I've been looking forward to, and what I've been waiting for.

In the midst of such ignorance, I came to my eighth birthday.

But on the day of my eighth birthday, something happened in our family that made my father, uncles, and brothers very difficult.

On my birthday, His Royal Highness was invited to congratulate me.

On that day, I saw His Royal Highness the Prince, who was walking towards me in a gorgeous military uniform and gloves. And he knelt down on one knee in front of me and kissed my fingers.

His Royal Highness the Prince is really handsome~~~!

It was also on that day that I truly realized the true meaning of the concept that I would be the Imperial Princess. That means I'm going to marry the prince, become this handsome big brother, and be his family ......!

But, I know.

They didn't tell me, but I could tell from their disappointed faces.

His Royal Highness the Grand Prince likes me, but maybe he just takes care of me as a cute little sister, right?

From the conversations of the maids, I learned that His Royal Highness the Great Prince, as the prince, must exercise his own strength and leadership, so he has been on the battlefield, and he is a very mature man at the age of eighteen. For a little girl like me, he was a big brother worthy of my longing, but he was not the man who would be my husband.

And His Royal Highness seems to be a little more interested in Sister Natalie than me.

Well, Sister Natalie~~~ I like Sister Natalie very much.

That day, I saw her tidying up her dinner plate after dinner, and when she went out, she accidentally bumped into the crown prince's brother who was walking in the garden, and the two of them seemed to be arguing about something at first, but soon, I felt that Natalie's sister was full of smiles. When the crown prince's brother looked at his sister, the smile on his face became more and more relaxed, and it was completely different from the smile he had at that time at me.

Ah, even though I saw this, I don't have a problem with Sister Natalie.

She is a very good sister, and she always smiles at everyone.

Although I just said that she will do some maid work, however, she is not a maid in our family~~~!

To put it loosely, Sister Natalie and our family should be distant relatives.

Listening to my parents, it seems to be so far away, so far away that I almost forget that there is such a small family.

Natalie's sister's father was not a duke like my father, but a baron who was nothing.

It's not a civilian, but it's about the same, right?

Seniorly, I thought I should have called Natalie's sister's father "uncle", but my father would never let me call me that. Even when I met that uncle a few times, the man was very respectful to me, and he didn't look like an elder to me.

So, I didn't call him uncle, and it seems that he was happy with his position in the Duke's Palace.

On a rainy night two years ago, Natalie's sister's father brought her sister over. It seems that he owes a large amount of money and is currently being hunted down, so he hopes to foster Sister Natalie in our house first.

My father agreed, and offered to pay for the man to pay off all the debts.

However, the man seemed to understand that by doing so he would be deprived of the only title that he had a little dignity left, right? So I didn't agree, but kept saying that after I raised the money, I would come back and find a way to pick up Sister Natalie.

Then, the man was gone.

Let me think about it, it seems that it wasn't until the moment that Natalie's sister and the crown prince's brother got married, and he didn't run back in a hurry, right? Then, he found a painless job in the imperial city, which can be regarded as preserving his dignity.

Speaking of Sister Natalie, when she first came into my house, she seemed a little cautious.

Soon, however, she began to mingle with the servants of the house.

She seems to be born so cheerful, and can convey a lot of laughter wherever she goes. She is a very unique presence in my family.

She is not a maid, but she does some maid work on a daily basis.

She was the daughter of a baron, but there was no barrier to communication with the servants.

My dad didn't seem to like me much about interacting with Sister Natalie, but I would sneak out and talk to Sister Natalie sometimes.

She told me so much about the outside world, about the mountains in the distance, the endless desert, and all kinds of terrible monsters! Every time I listen to it, I will listen to it with a lot of excitement! Even though I've heard some stories several times, I still enjoy them.

So, when Sister Natalie and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince met, I didn't feel any discomfort.

Sister Natalie was not a slave, she was also the daughter of a nobleman. Since they are nobles, they can become the wives of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and the facts have proved that their union is really very correct, and I am sincerely happy for their wedding.

But I'm happy, my family isn't so happy.

The daughter of the Jinguo family should not be a mistress, and I don't want to ruin the relationship between Sister Natalie and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

In this case, then looking at it, the only one who can guarantee my entry into the royal family is the last choice, that is, the second prince.

But......

From the beginning, I didn't like the second prince very much.

He didn't have the steadiness of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, nor did he look at me with the same affectionate gaze that His Royal Highness looked at Natalie's sister.

The first time I came into contact with the second prince was in the spring.

On that day, I was ten years old and went out on a horseback ride with my family.

When my horse ran out of control, it was His Royal Highness the Second Prince who stopped my horse.

In hindsight, I think it should have been an arrangement prepared by a parent.

But that didn't matter anymore, because this was the first time I met the second prince, Tide Blue, who seemed a little flirtatious, didn't like to talk to me very much, and then didn't look at me as attentively as other boys.

Ah~~~ What should I do?

Day after day, I stayed in my room, holding my favorite doll and sighing.

I don't think the second prince likes me very much, and I don't like him very much.

Strange to say, when I saw the look in His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's eyes looking at Natalie's sister, I suddenly understood what "political marriage" meant.

I've always understood this since I was a kid, and I have nothing to complain about. After all, as a woman of the Jinguo family, my innate mission is to make my family more prosperous.