"Your Highness, are you all right?"
Graciela Canarium couldn't answer her maid's question. Yesterday she had a horse-drawn carriage accident which left her head injured. However, the wound was not the reason she didn't answer the question earlier.
The reason Graciela covered her mouth was that she was in deep shock. She lost consciousness after the accident and had a strange dream. In the dream, she lived in a strange world, a world different from her current world.
People in that world no longer used horse-drawn carriages, but a very sophisticated means of transportation called a car. Soon Graciela realized the dream was a memory of her previous life.
"Please get me a drink," Graciela begged, and the maid immediately obeyed the order.
The girl was still bedridden because her head hurt when she thought about her previous life. She was most shocked when she found out that she was reincarnated as Graciela Canarium, a side character in a BL novel entitled 'His Majesty's Secret Relationship'.
In the novel, Graciela became a ruthless queen and was killed by Ashton Cerbera, a knight commander. Ashton became king and was respected for his good demeanor. However, people didn't know he had a secret relationship with Dexter Petandra, the strongest mage in the kingdom.
Their sweet love story had to end tragically because Ashton died at the hands of Cyril Zodia, a grand duke who was obsessed with Graciela. After the incident, Dexter committed suicide because he didn't want to live without his lover. The ending of the novel made readers refer to the novel as 'Romeo and Juliet 2.0'.
"Out of all the novels I've read, why did I have to enter this novel?"
Graciela exhaled heavily, a little desperate about her future life. Now she was still a crown princess and had not ascended the throne. That meant she had a chance to survive.
"Your Highness, here is the water." The maid came back into the room and put the water on the table near the bed. "Let me help you sit down."
As the maid helped her sit down, Graciela suddenly heard a 'ding!' sound. The sound was like the phone notification sound in her previous life. However, in her current world, there was no such thing.
"Did you hear that voice?" asked Graciela as she sat down.
Lucy the maid shook her head, frowning in confusion. "I apologize for not being able to hear the voice you are referring to, Your Highness."
"Really? It sounded like a 'ding' or something."
"I'm sure I've never heard that voice."
Graciela gave up on asking her maid, assuming that the horse-drawn carriage accident had damaged her ear. Soon, she heard the sound again, and this time, a notification window appeared in the air.
[Congratulations! You have been reincarnated into a side character!]
"Huh? What is this?" Graciela asked in surprise. Then she glanced at her maid. "Did you see anything in the air? It's square and blue."
"I sincerely apologize, Your Highness. But I don't understand what you mean. I saw nothing in the air," answered Lucy, secretly worried that the princess was hallucinating because of the accident.
Graciela quickly realized what was in Lucy's mind and concluded she was the only one who could see the notification window. A moment later, there was a sound and a new notification appeared in the air.
[You have got the main quest and the daily quest!
* Main quest: create a harem in the palace (unfinished)
Consequences if the main quest fails: die
Time duration: one year
* Daily quest: meet the male lead (Ashton Cerbera)
Consequence: going blind for one day
Time duration: one day
[You can check more details on the 'menu']
The shocked Graciela couldn't help but stare at the notification. If she shouted, then Lucy would find her strange behavior and report it to the king. That was why she took a deep breath, looked at her maid, and told her to leave the room.
After Lucy left, Graciela started reading the quests in the notification window carefully. She hoped her eyes were wrong and such a quest didn't exist. Unfortunately, her eyes still functioned properly because the notification window displayed two quests.
"Why should I make a harem? Does that make sense? The quests should give me a way to survive," grumbled Graciela, who decided not to complete the quests.
She felt the quests were ridiculous and didn't need to be completed. Besides, that strange notification appeared explaining nothing, so Graciela paid little attention. Instead of completing quests, she preferred to rest all day in bed.
And bad things happened the next day. Graciela woke up in a panic because she couldn't see anything and made Lucy bring a healer. However, the healer even didn't know why her eyes went blind suddenly.
"Your eyes are fine, Your Highness. I don't know why you can't see anything. Could it be because someone sent black magic on you?"
That was what the healer said and created a tremendous commotion in the palace. Everyone, including the king, assumed that someone had bewitched Graciela. Instead, the maids gossiped the culprit was the daughter of another concubine.
Yet, Graciela knew their assumption was not true. Now the girl could only lie down, lamenting her misfortune. She regretted ignoring the strange quest. She shouldn't have ignored that kind of thing.
"Huhuhu, what should I do? Why did this happen to me? What did I do wrong?"
Graciela burst into tears, causing Lucy, who was standing beside her, to cry too. They kept crying until Graciela suddenly shouted, "Lucy, please bring knight Ashton here!"
"K-knight Ashton...? I'm sorry, but he won't meet someone if they don't make an appointment first," Lucy reluctantly refused her lady's request.
"Just say to him if the crown princess wants to meet him!"
"It's impossible. Only His Majesty the King can give him orders without making an appointment."
Graciela growled in annoyance, thinking that Ashton was too arrogant just because he had some power. She had never met Ashton, the knight commander, but the maids at her palace often gossiped about him.
They said Ashton Cerbera was the strongest person in the Kingdom of Canarium and highly respected by everyone. People even speculated the man could stage a coup after the current king died.
The king only had daughters. There was no prince, so Graciela, the first princess, was appointed as the crown princess. It was a potent reason Ashton could overthrow Graciela in the future.
"Do you know exactly when Sir Ashton usually trains knights?" asked Graciela, who wanted to meet Ashton today.
Lucy hesitantly replied, "Sir Ashton is training them now. However, he will ignore you even if you come there."
"I am the crown princess. How could he ignore me?"
"Please forgive me for saying this, but other people still look down on you. They think you are weak and won't be able to become queen in the future."
"You don't need to apologize because you're right. I still want to see Ashton. You are ready to lead me to meet him, right?"
Lucy had been Graciela's maid for ten years. Thus, she knew exactly what Graciela's behavior was like. It was the first time she had seen the crown princess so stubborn. There must be a powerful reason for this.
"Let me hold your hand, Your Highness," said Lucy, making Graciela smile happily.
They walked towards the place where Ashton trained the knights. Graciela thought she had walked long enough when Lucy whispered they had arrived. Even though her vision was completely dark, she still could hear the screams of the knights. Also, someone was approaching her because she heard footsteps.
"Your Highness Princess, why did you come to my place? I heard that you have become blind."
It was a man's voice filled with insult. However, Graciela instead responded to the insult with a sweet smile. She didn't want to curse Ashton because she believed the man could get her eyesight back.
"Thank you for your concern, Sir Ashton. I came here to ask for your help," Graciela told as she moved her hands, trying to find Ashton.
Unfortunately, it was a terrible decision as Graciela felt her hand touch something. She was sure the something was Ashton's stomach muscles. Was that knight shirtless in front of the crown princess?
"I don't know why you want to ask me for help," Ashton spoke while holding Graciela's hand, which was still on his stomach. With a crooked smile, he continued, "But I know you are a perverted princess."