"Gongzhu woke up early today," a lively voice took Li Feifei out of her reverie as she turned to the entrance of the ancient room, finding a little girl no older than nine standing there in traditional pink maidservant clothing. Her pitch-black hair was put up into two buns on the top of both sides of her head, making her extremely cute especially with her large doe eyes that were filled with the innocence of a child.
Looking through the body's memories, Li Feifei recognized the maidservant as one of her four personal maidservants, Liu Yi. Liu Yi, along with the other three, were bestowed onto the original by the Emperor and the Empress when she had recently undergone her coming of age ceremony not even two months ago.
As she was the Emperor's only daughter she was highly pampered but also sheltered, just like the mission details had described. She didn't have many genuine friends, due to the power behind her so her four young maidservants were the closest people to her.
"Liu Yi," Li Feifei let out a small smile in acknowledgement. The original was the complete opposite of herself--refined, delicate, and as gentle as the calm waters. And, since she didn't have much confidence in her acting skills as her previous bodies were all to her liking, she just decided to try keeping her mouth shut as much as possible when surrounded by those more familiar with the original.
Feeling as welcomed as always due to the princess's kind demeanor, Liu Yi smiled back brightly as she stepped into the room to help her master get ready for the day.
Li Feifei was feeling groggy and lazy anyway, so she allowed the younger girl to undress her to bathe. When she was done getting cleaned up and wiped down, Liu Yi then draped on a baby blue inner garb and skirt, following with a complimentary light lavender outer robe with golden phoenixes embroidered on the back and shoulders and flames on the cuffs and hem. Then, her hair was combed and put into a neat braid that reached down to her ankles.
"What are gongzhu's plans for today?" Liu Yi excitedly asked, as Li Feifei rarely dressed up so well only to stay inside the palace so she assumed that the princess intended to head outside for once. The original usually spent her time cooped up and improving her skills in the four arts, only occasionally stepping out to partake in some parties held by her Mother Empress's closest female friends.
But Li Feifei refused to conform to the original's character any more than her temperament. She would die of boredom if she stayed true to Li Feifei's daily routine ah!
'It can't be out of character to step out, 001, since the original was curious about the outside world but just chose to stay within the limits of her comfort zone," she felt that her system really wanted to say something so instead of waiting to be scolded, she justified her actions instead.
It's not like she could get anything done if she stayed within the confines of her palace anyway, otherwise she would be no different from the original.
Most importantly, as long as the residents of the world didn't suspect anything, how could it be considered OOC? Liu Yi was obviously more excited than worried about her master's change in routine.
Li Feifei felt the need to find her devil, sure, so that she could have him ready anytime to get her baby back but at the same time one needed to know the situation of the kingdom to rule over it and she knew not to rely entirely on her faulty system for that kind of information.
001, [...]
"This princess wants to explore the common streets. We shall head over to see Imperial Father to discuss His arrangements," she explained to the little maid before waving her long, wide lavender sleeve and stalking off towards the throne room where the Emperor and His officials were holding their morning court.
When they arrived, just the two of them, as Li Feifei usually only kept one of her four maidservants around to tend to her needs each day as opposed to the custom, despite Liu Yi's worried expression Li Feifei had told the girl to wait outside as she herself would head in to speak to her Imperial Father about her plans for the day.
As rude and inappropriate as it sounded, Li Feifei couldn't give a damn as she was supposed to be the spoilt and pampered daughter anyway.
So, when the large golden doors to the throne room were thrust open by the little fifteen-year-old princess, the previously fiery officials who were appealing to the esteemed Emperor of Li over trivial state affairs as always, immediately shut their mouths to stare at the unexpected intruder.
Seeing the heavily doted only princess of Li, some of the ministers couldn't help but express some distaste through their expressions while others who were wiser kept their heads lowered in respect. It wasn't good to offend what one could consider the most powerful woman in the kingdom.
Instead of feeling angry at His daughter's intrusion that normally wouldn't be allowed in other kingdoms, the Emperor only had a helpless and doting smile as He beckoned His only daughter over to His side.
"What has brought zhen's little Fei-er to zhen today?" The Emperor happily laughed as Li Feifei sat right next to him on his large golden dragon throne. His arm was slung over her slim shoulders overbearingly.
Li Feifei had to admit that this Father of hers was indeed a catch. Even in his late thirties, the man was still oozing with sex appeal and handsomeness with his thick sword brows and black phoenix eyes filled with hints of gold. His long straight nose and thin lips really made one want to trace over the contours with a finger or two.
Being the type who preferred the "wild" look over a more composed and tidy look like the man's before her, Li Feifei found that the dragon crown on her father's head that was positioned over his bun didn't detract from his look at all but only made him look more regal. In fact, even under his thick layers of his golden dragon robe, Li Feifei could make out the muscular form of the Emperor before her.
Squeezing out a controlled smile as she grabbed onto his cuff, Li Feifei's tiny voice echoed throughout the large hall like tinkling bells, "Imperial Father, Fei-er wants to go explore outside the palace today..."
"Oh, well, uh, Fei-er," the mighty Emperor seemed to have stumbled as he wasn't expecting his little princess to request leaving the palace! He wasn't ready to expose her to the outside world yet ah!
Knowing his father's inner struggles, the Crown Prince at the side chuckled softly as he lifted his sleeve to cover his gentle smile, "Imperial Father, if it makes father feel better, this older brother would like to accompany Fei-er outside of the palace."
Li Feifei turned with excited eyes towards this older brother of hers. With his voice alone she could already tell he was a beauty that could cause the downfalls of many nations! Sure enough, Li Yun, the Crown Prince was a beautiful kind of handsomeness that bordered along the lines of masculinity and femininity. His skin was as white as her own, and the only giveaway to his male gender was that his brows were as shapely and defined and he possessed the same phoenix eyes as their father's, who was a man amongst men.
Today, he wore a white robe embroidered with dragons on the shoulders and back that had only four claws as opposed to the king's six. In this country, the six-clawed dragon was the symbol of the Emperor while four was used for the Crown Prince. Lower-ranked princes like the Third and Fourth Princes used the three-clawed dragon on their clothing and insignias, while she as the Second Princess had the double-taloned golden phoenix and her Mother, the Empress used the four-taloned golden phoenix.
"Imperial brother! Fei-er can't trouble Yun-gege. It's enough for Fei-er to have Imperial Father's shadow guards!" While Li Feifei personally felt that having such eye candy follow her around all day would be quite pleasing, she had things that she wanted to do that the original would never have done so she couldn't afford to have this older brother of hers keeping such a close eye on her.
As for what she was going to do, for one, she needed to make direct contact with either Li Hao or Long Zheng to see if they were the devil or not. Truthfully, she wasn't sure which one of them, if at all, could be him.
Li Hao could also be considered her half-brother in this world, so she was actually hoping that he wasn't her devil or that'd just be weird--even for her.
Well, Li Hao wasn't currently in the hall, so she would make use of her outing as a chance to run into the guy to see if he was her devil or not.
She wasn't really banking on it, though.
"But this brother is curious, why does Fei-er want to go outside today?" Li Yun asked out of curiosity. There was nothing fun going on inside the capital at the moment, and Li Feifei rarely stepped foot outside of the palace even when there was something going on.
The Emperor seemed to be curious as well as he tilted his head in thought.
"Fei-er has gotten bored of staying holed up in the palace recently! Even Fei-er can grow tired of playing the qin and chess, painting, and doing calligraphy all day long. Some fresh air would do Fei-er some good!" She beamed energetically, "And Fei-er heard that General Long was coming back today, so welcoming Fei-er's fiancé back to the city would be good, as well."
This was true. She seemed to have transmigrated to the time when Li Hao and the female lead were supposed to have already gotten together after she was drugged by her evil step-sisters. Long Zheng had yet to actually step foot into the capital and meet the female protagonist, as he was just called back from the Hua border a few weeks ago. In fact, the young general was supposed to have arrived today and he would bump into the female lead, who was hunched in a remote alley full of injuries after she'd encountered her assassins.
Of course, he had seen her fend off those assassins from the very beginning and only approached her after she'd already gotten rid of them. He wasn't exactly the most gentlemanly person in the kingdom--that title belonged to Li Yun, her eldest Imperial brother.
The only reason nobody had expected Li Feifei to want to leave the palace today was because she had previously never even showed a bit of care towards that fiancé of hers. Actually, if her four maidservants hadn't been told that the princess had a fiancé by others, they would have never even known about it. In fact, they were only aware that she was engaged but did not know who the lucky man was and couldn't just ask Li Feifei about it as that would be overstepping their boundaries even if they were considered her closest friends.
The father and son duo were momentarily surprised at Li Feifei's answer as they knew how little she cared for the general, which they were happy about. But now, hearing as she was so excited as she pleaded to go welcome him into the city, they only felt a faint sense of danger as if their precious little girl was about to be swiped away.
Li Yun maintained his composed smile, "Fei-er, it seems like it would be best for older brother to accompany Fei-er after all. Right, Imperial Father?"
The Emperor nodded vigorously as his expression was solemn, "Yun-er is correct. It is too dangerous for Fei-er to be running around without an escort, and the shadow guards are too coarse and unreliable for this job."
The shadow guards who were shot while lying down, "..."
Seeing as she had used the wrong excuse in trying to assuage their worries, Li Feifei gave up on trying to make them give up in accompanying her and just let it go.
So what if Li Yun found her behavior strange? Just pin her character change on being lovestruck ah!
While the original had never met the young General in her life and therefore never cared for him, who could say otherwise that she couldn't fall in love at first sight with such a powerful man known for his accomplishments at such a young age!
With this thought process and reasoning, Li Feifei didn't even have to discuss with 001 about possible OOC, as it was always justified in novels that once someone fell in love, no matter how high their initial IQ was in the beginning, it would automatically fall into the negatives.
Though, in her case, her IQ would still be quite high as she wouldn't really be in love with the man--hell, the only one she truly loved was her baby! And maybe her devil, but for now her baby was her top priority.
The two promptly left the morning court that had been disrupted and ended early due to Li Feifei's intrusion.
The missions this time were relatively easy, as she only needed to get rid of the other emperors from the other kingdoms, using the Li kingdom as her background to unite them all. Her Imperial Father would gladly hand down his throne to her if she asked, as well, crowning her the Empress of all kingdoms.
The best part of the mission was that she didn't have to actually guarantee that there was peace within the four kingdoms, only that she ruled over them as the Empress.
As for keeping her Imperial family safe and alive that was even easier. If a threat would dare to show themselves upon their doorsteps, no matter who it would be, even with her weakened constitution Li Feifei was sure she could overpower anyone in this realm with her grandmaster-level swordsmanship and the Sword of Oblivion.
In the case of another host, however, things would get iffy but overall she was confident that she could take care of them for the most part.
She never thought to use the devil to help her with her mission because he would have his own share of missions and tasks to complete--though with the current main mission they could actually end up reigning the world together.
The question was, who was he?
But, Li Feifei soon shoved that question to the back of her mind as her and Li Yun saw General Long's grand procession approaching from afar.
Suddenly, 001's male mechanical voice rang in her ear,
[Side Task 1: Make Long Zheng fall for you. Reward: 1500 points]
Well, he definitely can't be my devil, then. My devil already loves me.
Then, who the hell is he this time?
She totally did not forget that this random General who she was supposed to make fall in love with her was her fiancé. And, the fact that she was engaged to someone that was not her devil accompanied with said fiancé's love for her, would come back to bite her one day in the near future.