"The Crown Prince Is In Love With Me!" or shortened as "Crown Prince Loves Me" with its abbreviation "CPLM", is the title of the web novel that took over the romantic-comedy genre the moment it was released. Almost everyone who was fond of the genre would have already read, or at least, heard the book.
This web novel was fairly short, only having around 100 chapters, but it captured the hearts of many with its adorable and sweet characters.
The female lead, Jasmine de Vanderwale, is the innocent, and gentle character, but of course, one of the smartest women among her peers.
Considered one of the most beautiful women in the Quintesse Empire with her straight and smooth silver hair that reached beyond her waist, hazel brown eyes, and porcelain white skin. The adopted daughter of Duke Vanderwale, one of the founding families of the Empire.
Those features made the Crown Prince, the male lead of the story, fall in love with her, along with another hundred reasons. Marin Youseff ro Quintesse, the heir to the throne of the Emperor.
The perfect man that one can ever hope to see, a typical male lead with the usual features such as smart, handsome, respectful, and strong. Described as having crimson red hair that was long enough to reach above his waist, golden eyes, and freckled sun-kissed skin.
He is the perfect heir to the throne. Even as a Crown Prince, he already did many great deeds that made the population know that the Empire will continue to flourish, or even more, when he gets the crown.
Despite being like this in the description for the first few chapters, afterward, he was immediately shown as an idiot when it comes to love. That's what brought in the comedy. The romance between the two is funny and enjoyable, which made the web novel popular.
The Prince always tried to curry the favor of the Duke's daughter with outrageous moves, which always failed, but in Jasmine's eyes, she liked his determination for her, so she ended up liking him.
But plot twist!
They have been in love with each other for a long time since they met as children! But Jasmine didn't recognize Marin since he was wearing a disguise every time they met!
Ah, the cliches never end, but they were so well-executed that it was extremely enjoyable to read, despite its predictability.
Jasmine was the first one to confess to him after figuring out his identity, which made Marin so overwhelmed that it made him cry.
The world is set in a European nobility-like era, but magic and mana existed. A fantasy modern-like setting, a mix of magic and fiction, with the technology and human advancements that Jessica's world had, with the guise of mana giving these devices power.
A world where healers, mages, and aura knights exist with the use of mana. This kind of setting is what was popular when this was released, so the author just probably chose to go that way, but they were creative enough to implement items from Earth into their romcom fantasy novel which was greatly appreciated.
Despite the story being only 100 chapters short, I didn't really care much about the other details, so I don't remember much, which is why it didn't occur to me immediately before I tried to find out clues for my memories. I don't even know if my family existed or was ever mentioned in the original novel. Knowing my re-reading habits, I only religiously read the ones with sweet romantic moments.
It's a bit weird to say, but I'm glad that this was completed and I got to read all of the chapters before I died. This was my favorite web novel, after all.
Although it was bombarded with numerous comments asking for a continuation since there were so many unresolved problems outside the romance aspect, I think it was short and sweet as it was.
"..."
I tap my fingers on the table as I arrange my memories of the web novel I read in my life as Jessica while connecting it with Nera's memories.
"It really is... this world..."
But to fully confirm my suspicions, I open the book in front of me, a book about the Quintesse Empire families.
"Quintesse, Vanderwale, Alacase, Diverroise, Falfite, and Ponterise." I read out the name of the founding families of the Empire, and the first two makes my body shiver.
So, I go to their current family tree.
"The current emperor is His Majesty, Emperor Mendri Querett ro Quintesse, with Her Majesty, Empress Rosina Yolette de Quintesse. They have three children and the current crown prince is... His Highness, Marin Youseff ro Quintesse."
I lightly bite my lip.
No way, right? This might be a coincidence.
I head to the current Duke Vanderwale family tree.
"The current Duke has two children. The first-born son, Jamie de Vanderwale..."
Huh...
Wait, that name sounds oddly familiar too... Is he a pivotal character from the book? I shrugged after thinking about it for a second since that's not who's important right now!
"And his adopted daughter, Jasmine de Vanderwale..."
I read out loudly but my voice fades as I continue.
How can this be?
Glancing at their birthdays, I notice that we're around the same age. I exist in the same world, the same timeline, as Marin and Jasmine. The same two characters that I loved and admired as a reader of that web novel.
As someone who has lived in this world for 18 years, I should've known who the Crown Prince and the daughter of the Duke is.
Unfortunately, things that are useless or unimportant to me don't stay in my forgetful mind. And by unimportant, one of them is people's names, but recognizing faces is easier.
Although, even with that, I'm busy training myself to be a knight. So, I rarely went to gatherings, even after my coming of age, which was when I was 16.
I sigh my longest for the day and my eyebrows furrow. Well, now, I will most definitely remember their names, since we live in the same world and they were my favorite characters back then.
"I won't be meeting them anytime soon, would I?"
There are definitely so many things that are different from the place I lived in as Jessica and here, the world of my favorite web novel.
But my main questions stayed unanswered.
Why was I reincarnated here, on a fictional web novel I read and loved, and how did my memories come back?
So far, I have no way of knowing how and why it happened so now, I simply have to accept the fact that I am living in this world.
"What's there to accept? I've already lived here for 18 years after all."
Everything that I knew here, from reading and my experience as Nera, is exactly how I remember it from the web novel. I might not remember everything exactly, but I will probably get to recall them as time goes on.
So, now...
What am I going to do with this information?
I can't tell my family members that I remember my past life. Reincarnation isn't even a thing here. People believe that the mana and physical body are returned back to nature to continue the circle of life, to be passed on to plants, animals, then humans.
With a deep sigh, I speak out loud, after making sure I am truly alone,
"I should do what I would do as Nera."
Continue my life as I should.
I close all the books, fix them on the cart, and leave them so that the librarian can put them back. I would've returned them myself, but I can't remember where it was supposed to be put, and for that, I quietly apologize for making more jobs to the librarian.
Thus ends my research in the library. I gained everything and nothing at the same time, but that's still a win since I read books.
This won't be the last time I'll be here though, romance novels aren't going to read themselves after all! My family has been used to my daily visits to the library for the past few days, so it wouldn't be out of the blue.
That's definitely an additional task in my new daily routine as Nera mi Ponterise.