YOU NEED TO READ THE PROLOGUES ON THE OTHER TO UNDERSTAND THE PLOT IN HERE!
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Jasmin's Point of View
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There's water every-fucking-where.
I am drowning, which is extremely weird, as I've never been bad at swimming in my immortal life. But here I am, drowning and feeling my arms too weak to even move. Where is my immortal strength at? I haven't cultivated for thousands of years for nothing. Did I do the array wrong or something?
The more I tried to breath, the more water entered my mouth. All of my efforts were useless. And for the second time in my life, after Leo's invasion, I thought I was going to die.
That is, until strong arms held me and rescued me from the deep lake, pool, sea, or whatever was that. I tried to conjure my Yin energy to help me out, but I found… none. None cultivated, which is bullshit. This is impossible. I must have done something wrong.
As I threw up all the disgusting water I ended up swallowing while I was… ugh… drowning, I felt not just sick, but weaker than never. I've never felt this weak before. What the hell is even happening? I must have done something incredibly wrong to end up like this. Even if I was wounded back then, during the invasion, I would be feeling like this at all. Not with my heavenly cultivation.
Could it be a side affect after I used demonic QI?
Well, I've never done that before, so that could indeed be it.
"Fifth Princess," a female cried too loud near my ears. "Oh, Gods, Fifth Princess, you are soaked!" She squeak to someone still way too near me. "That vicious Cleo Aurora Nekrasova has no sense at all," the female kept yelling. "Just because you are always kind to her, she uses you like this Fifth Princess. They do not deserve your kindness, my Lady. Not at all."
I clenched my jaw, "Please, stop yelling, for fuck's sake!" I yelled. "I don't know who you are talking to, but stop yelling on my ears. It'll make my ears bleed if you keep going!" When I finally managed to glare up at her, I realized she was the one who was holding me and who had saved me from drowning.
A…. Maid? How is a maid stronger than me?
"Fifth Princess?" She gasped stared directly at my eyes. "What happened? Did you hit your head in the pond?" Pond?
Please, don't tell me I was drowning in a POND! "Who are you calling Fifth Princess? And who the hell are you? Where am I? What year is this? Why was I drowning?" I looked around suddenly feeling nauseous and I noticed that she was right, I was indeed drowning on a… pond. Fuck. I can believe I'm this weak.
She cried as if I had bitten her, "Oh no, oh no, oh no! They will kill me if they know I failed to get you to safety before you hit your head, Fifth Princess!" Is she calling me that? But why?
I'm not a 5th Princess. I'm the Crowned Princess of Heavenly Soul Recesses, and I only have one younger brother, not four older siblings. "I can't recall anything. So, help me. What's my name? Who am I?"
The girl frowned in desperation and covered me with a fancy pink winter robe, bringing me closer to her, and only then I noticed how tall she is, at least, a lot taller than me. Though that isn't much of surprise. "Okay, let's try to refresh your memory. You are the 5th Princess of the southern Teyer Kingdom, Angelina Jasmin Swatosch, 2nd daughter of the King with the Queen and 1st Wife," what?
Wait… what? That isn't in any of the Immortal realms, and there's only five Immortal Royal families. Please, Gods above, please, don't tell me I am in the mortal realm. Shit, that can't possibly be right? I can't have come back more than 55555 years on the past, to when I was sent as a baby to the mortal realm to prove my worth and return at 25, right? …Right?
"Four years ago, when you were 15, you was sent from the Teyer Kingdom to the Aschauer Empire, biggest territory of our realm, as a peace offer after the Teyer and the Bathelt Kingdoms were in a losing war against the Empire. Since then, you've been living in the 8th Castle of the Imperial Palace." No. Shit, shit, shit.
Aschauer Empire? Fucking shit. That's the only place I know from the Mortal Realm. This can't be happening. How am I even going to find Leo in this madness of a wild realm? I know he was here at the same time I was, but I recall absolutely nothing from my time acting as a mortal when I was sent here as a newborn.
If I'm four years ago I was 15, it means I'm 19 now. Meaning I've been living as a mortal for 19 years, and I'm 6 years always from going back to my realm. But how is it that I have no cultivation in this useless body? I can feel my heavenly immortal bone, but I feel no cultivation at all. Was I this stupid? Better yet… HOW was I this stupid?
"And you are…?"
She frowned in dismay. "I'm Petra Pierer, Princess. Your aide."
A maid, as I thought. I looked around, frustrated. "Where are we?"
"We are in the 4th Castle of the Imperial Palace, Princess. As you wanted to come and visit the 2nd Imperial Princess Cleo Aurora Nekrasova who had caught cold, out of kindness, to give her a strengthening soup you made yourself. But she mistreated you as well, disregard your kindness, and threw you in her seventeen-meters deep pond!"
Seven meters deep? Oh, well. "At least seventeen meters deep is understandable to drown on," I scoffed. "So, this Princess hates me, hm? And why is that?"
"How can you even forget that, Fifth Princess?" She gasped but I glared at her, waiting. Petra sighed, "You married the Prince she wanted. She's been green with jealousy and hatred since then." I am… married? What? What the fuck? Married at 19? "Don't tell you forgot that as well?"
I clenched my jaw, "I did… yes. Since when am I married?"
"Since you two were 17, Fifth Princess!" Gods above.
"Who marries at 17? What a nightmare. That means we've been married for two years already." To think I was married while living as a mortal. I can't believe this. Did my parents knew this? Hah, I bet they knew. Maybe that's even more of a reason why they took my memories of it. And I'm not complaining about it this time.
Gods… that means I'm not a virgin as I thought I was. And to think I was deflowered by a… ugh… a mortal. An immortal breed with a mortal. What kind of sick joke is that?
"How is that weird? It's an honorable age to be married at, Fifth Princess. You told me that countless of times. I even married Josef because you said we would be an amazing match together. Which was true indeed!"
"Who?" I gasped.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Josef Regner. Your husband's aide, Princess. We've been married for a year now." So, she and the aide of the mortal I'm married to are… a couple? That sounds chaotic but indeed a good match as both work for us. But still, chaotic.
"You don't spill our secrets to each other, do you?"
Petra seemed offended, "We would never do that, Fifth Princess."
Hah, why is it that I don't believe her words? "Am I what? A kind of hostage in this Empire? If the Imperial Princess wanted my husband for herself, I take that he's either a noble or from a different Kingdom."
"He's the Fifth Prince from the Bathelt Kingdom, Princess!"
Oh? "So, the two supposedly hostages from the Kingdoms that lost to the Empire, were married to each other?" Sounds like bullshit and power play to me. When she nodded vehemently, I chuckled bitterly, "Where do I stand in this? Does everyone mistreat me like this Imperial Princess does?"
When she bit her lip and took longer to answer, I knew in my bones that it wouldn't be a pleasant answer, "You were always too kind to every single person in there, Princess, and they always took it for granted. The more you tried to help, the more they used you. Throwing stuff on you and pretending it was accidental. Making you get hurt and also pretending it was accidental. Humiliating you under the pretense of helping. Some people like the Princess even harmed you physically but you never fought back."
So, my mortal-ish self was a pushover. That's as disappointing as me not having cultivated shit in these 19 years. What a fucking waste. How did I even manage to prove myself worth in the remaining 6 years? Did I even managed to do that? Because it seems kind of hard, seeing it all now.