A Life That Truly Belonged To Me

“Why am I getting married… and to whom?”

As though answering that ridiculous question, the large shadow of someone fell across the tent entrance.

[“You really can’t stay still for even a moment.”]

Seeing Rose standing upright, Kadin remarked coldly.

‘Don’t tell me… that barbarian?’

Rose’s lips slowly fell open in stunned disbelief.

Meanwhile, Shuhar continued.

“You’d be wise to accept it, whether you like Kadin or not.”

“…?”

“It’s the only way to protect your country, Verotten, Princess Lukete.”

* * *

When Rose returned to her original tent with Shuhar, no one else was inside. Shuhar merely escorted her back and did not enter.

Left alone in the tent, Rose set down the untouched bowl of soup with a dull thud.

The moment she heard Shuhar’s words, all the scattered pieces in her mind fell into place.

The odd details she had been too preoccupied to think deeply about while trying to cope with the sudden situation.

The dark crimson hair cascading down her back. A frail body that groaned from nothing more than a shallow wound. The name ‘Lukete’ she had heard amid the unfamiliar language.

―Princess! You must flee at once!

Even the very first cry she had heard after collapsing from eating Ratan’s cake and opening her eyes again had called her a princess.

―Don’t you dare lay a finger on the princess!

The woman who had screamed had treated Rose as though she truly were a noble princess.

Which meant…

“So I’m really alive.”

But…In someone else’s body!

Princess Lukete.

She was the only child and daughter of the King of Verotten.

Yet whenever the precious princess ventured outside the palace, the people trembled in fear, terrified they might somehow catch her attention.

A princess so notoriously vicious that people would secretly spit on the ground the moment her back was turned.

That was Princess Lukete.

Since Rose had lived in the capital, she had seen the princess’s face once or twice.

Skin as white as milk.

Hair as red as blood.

And emerald-green eyes said to belong only to the direct descendants of Verotten’s royal family.

After examining every inch of her body once more, Rose had no choice but to accept it.

Rosalind herself, abandoned the moment she was born, used, and ultimately murdered, truly now bore the appearance of Princess Lukete, the king’s only daughter.

Ironically, the emotion Rose felt the moment she reached that conclusion about her bizarre reality was hope.

Anyone else might have been stunned by such an unbelievable situation, but Rose had something far more important to think about.

Waking up again in the princess’s body meant she had been given a new life.

It meant she could truly live the life that had been cut short by poison simply because she had dared to hope for one.

She had no idea how this had happened, but it had to be a gift from god.

There was only one thing she desired.

Freedom.

If she had been given a new life, didn’t that mean she might finally be able to live freely, if only she played her cards right?

Rose slowly closed her eyes against the sudden sting of tears.

‘I really did wish… just for one day, I could have a life that truly belonged to me.’

She had lived only twenty years, but every one of them had been unbearably cruel and miserable.

Rose briefly wondered what had become of her real body, which was likely dead by now, before pushing the thought aside.

She wanted to rest now.

Whatever happened, she wanted to live peacefully, doing only what she herself wanted, free from every chain that had bound her.

Free from Ratan’s orders.

Free from the constant terror of being marked for death.

Free from the endless battles she had been forced into.

But before any of that, there was one enormous problem with this new body she had been given.

―The king agreed to hand you over in exchange for sending us back. You are proof of the treaty declaring Verotten a vassal state of Paradsus, and a sacrifice offered for the kingdom’s safety. That means you must obediently marry Kadin.

Those were the heavy words Shuhar had added, as though telling her to give up.

As every piece of her situation finally settled into place, Rose bit down hard on her lower lip.

‘A political marriage.’

Princess Lukete was the proof that Verotten, the greatest power in the east, had willingly submitted to Paradsus.

If the princess had been handed over under such strategic terms, then from the barbarians’ perspective, marriage was absolutely essential.

Why would they care about the truth—that this exquisitely beautiful princess was wicked, two-faced, and capable of nothing but preening?

They simply wanted to hastily make the dazzlingly beautiful princess their bride and display her to other foreign nations.

Keeping the princess as a hostage would also prevent the King of Verotten from entertaining any reckless thoughts.

Two birds with one stone.

Which meant…

They would never let Rose go free.

In that case…

‘I have no choice but to run away right now.’

Rose reached her conclusion without hesitation.

Holding her breath, she quietly rose and walked toward the tent entrance.

Searching her memory, there were about two guys guarding the entrance outside. With her body in its current state, taking them down in a fight was out of the question; she had to slip past them and run while they were distracted.

Before long, Rose pulled open the tent flap and stepped outside.

Just as she had expected, two guards were standing watch.

Sure enough, one of them eyed her suspiciously.

[“Where are you going?”]

As Rose considered how to get past them, she hurriedly placed a hand over her stomach.

She wasn’t sure if it would work, but she decided to contort her face with all her might, putting on an expression as though she were suffering from a stomachache.

[“What on earth are you trying to say?”]

One guard frowned as he carefully observed her, then suddenly looked as though he understood.

[“I think the Princess needs to relieve herself!”]

* * *

Rose glanced back at the guards following behind her.

‘The princess says she needs to use the bathroom, and they’re still stubbornly tailing me.’

Deep within the forest, a short distance from the camp, Rose spotted a patch of thick undergrowth.

“Stay here.”

Stopping in her tracks, she turned around and waved them back, signaling them not to follow.

The two guards hesitated briefly before stopping where they stood.

One of them warned her.

[“I don’t know if you understand me, but don’t wander too far.”]

Naturally, she understood nothing, but Rose nodded anyway.

She turned back and continued walking alone.

With every step she took, she remained keenly aware of what was behind her.

Fortunately, no one followed.

‘Good.’

Careful not to arouse their suspicion, Rose maintained the same steady pace for a while.

Then, upon reaching the spot she had picked out earlier, she calmly bent her knees and crouched down.

Seeing her settle in one place, one of the guards muttered,

[“So even that pale, beautiful foreign princess has to relieve herself.”]

I know, right.

His companion nodded, apparently finding the thought strangely fascinating.

Then, after quite some time…

[“But… why is she taking so long?”]

As Rose still hadn’t returned, the guards waiting for her tilted their heads in confusion.

[“Wait. Now that I think about it, that princess hasn’t even eaten anything. She’s been lying unconscious for three straight days, hasn’t she?”]

Damn it!

Realizing something was wrong far too late, the two guards finally broke into a frantic run.

But by then, it was already too late.

‘First, I need to get as far away from here as possible.’

Rose was already sprinting swiftly and skillfully through the dense forest.

The moment she entered the woods, she recognized them.

This was the very forest just before crossing Verotten’s border.

It was a forest Rose knew well.

As a child, Ratan had constantly forced her to run through these woods to the brink of death as part of her survival training.

She didn’t know how long her stamina would last, but if she kept running without stopping, there was a forest keeper’s cabin ahead that she knew well.

She needed to take the horse there and keep riding.

That was her only chance.

The barbarians would soon come after her on horseback at terrifying speed.

‘There it is.’

The forest keeper’s cabin came into view.

Rose’s chest, heaving with ragged breaths, swelled with hope.

‘If I can just make it there… I’ll have a chance…!’

The metallic taste of blood rose in her throat.

Summoning every last ounce of strength, she pushed herself even harder.

Whoosh—

Without warning, an arrow flew in and struck the ground directly in front of Rose’s feet with a sharp thunk.

‘An arrow…?’

Right in front of her feet, which had been brought to an abrupt halt.

The leisurely sound of approaching hoofbeats grew closer.

Soon afterward came the ominous snort of a horse, and the powerful legs of a magnificent steed filled her vision.

‘Please… don’t let it be him.’

Rose swallowed hard before slowly raising her eyes.

‘Ah…’

Despair clouded her gaze as she squeezed her eyes shut.

The instant she recognized the rider atop the horse, a sigh run awayd her chapped lips.

The thought had crossed her mind of seizing the giant man’s sword and facing him.

But the current Rose was no longer Rosalind, the mercenary who had once dominated the battlefield.

Simply put…

‘This princess’s body is far too weak.’

A second wave of despair stabbed deep into her heart.

For the first time in Rosalind’s life, she had judged a battle unwinnable before even fighting it.

Trying to run any farther now would be nothing more than the desperate struggle of a rabbit already trapped in a perfect snare.

It was infuriating.

But Rose knew exactly when to advance…

…and when to retreat.

“Haa…”

Only after finally giving up did the ragged breath clogging her throat burst free.

[“You run surprisingly well.”]

Even if a prey couldn’t understand the hunter’s language, it could still sense the hunter well enough.

[“Especially for a princess who’s probably never run a day in her life.”]

The voice drifting down from above was unmistakably mocking.

As Rose bit down on her parched lips and continued gasping for breath, Kadin leisurely dismounted his horse and stepped onto the ground with infuriating composure.

His sheer presence after stepping off the horse was so overwhelming that Rose felt as though she had already been trapped within it.

Then it happened.

Staring intently at her small face streaked with dirt and sweat, Kadin slowly bent down.

Rose’s brows knitted together.

Meanwhile, Kadin pulled the thick arrow embedded in the ground before her, as though it were prison bars.

He turned the arrow this way and that before smiling faintly.

As if to say he would gladly hunt her down again, no matter how many times she tried to run.

[“It’s been damaged quite a bit.”]

A slight frown crossed his face as he muttered with genuine concern.

His eyes remained fixed solely on the arrow, showing nothing but regret over the worn arrowhead he had wasted catching a single fugitive.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of sympathy for the fallen princess who had been captured while trying to run away from the barbarians.

[“What a pity.”]

The thick lips she barely managed to read expressed nothing more than a superficial, mocking pity.

[“The only way a princess can ever run away from me is…”]

The moment his sinister, wicked smile vanished—

In the blink of an eye, Kadin suddenly wrapped his thick, powerful arm around Rose, yanking her hard against his chest.

Then he positioned the arrowhead at the slender white line of her neck, just before piercing her skin.

‘What is he doing?’

Rose’s eyes widened as her breath caught in her throat.

‘Is he planning to kill me just because I tried to run away once?’

Rose bit the inside of her cheek hard and stared right up at him.

Kadin stared back coldly at the neck that felt as if it would snap with just a little pressure, and the emerald eyes that didn’t waver in the slightest even with an arrow pressed against them.

Then—

Slowly, Kadin leaned his face toward the nape of Rose’s neck and continued in a whisper,

[“You’d only have to cut off my head…”]

[“…or pierce my heart.”]

His hot breath brushed against her skin with chilling menace.