“If you hadn’t offended Her Highness the Fourth Princess, you wouldn’t be in this situation today.”
The young man in the gray robe walked ahead, guiding Lulumia.
Noticing her glancing around nervously, as if contemplating escape, he added calmly.
“You won’t get away. I don’t want to get rough with you, so don’t cause me any trouble.”
“The Fourth Princess is arrogant. You offended her, and without an explanation to the royal family, this entire workshop can’t keep running. This is your own fault.”
With that, the young man stopped and pushed open the door.
Unlike the previous prison cell, the spacious room revealed itself with a huge floor-to-ceiling window.
In front of it stood a rather vintage European-style desk.
A faint, elegant fragrance lingered in the air, and the sunlight pouring through the window was unusually bright, shining on Lulumia’s face, making it impossible for her to see clearly who was inside.
She felt an irresistible force clamp down on her shoulders, and the next moment she heard a thud as the gray-robed youth forced her to kneel on the floor.
“Boss, the person has been brought.”
The room was deathly silent.
The pressure surged, and the suffocating feeling of being judged overwhelmed Lulumia.
She tried to make out who was inside, but several faces were obscured by the sunlight; she could barely tell there was one man and one woman.
The original owner’s memories told her that the woman in the ornate long dress was none other than the Fourth Princess of this country.
Her throat instinctively made a gulping sound.
Lulumia nervously began to consider her options, then suddenly realized one detail.
If they intended to execute her, they would have taken her straight to the recycling chamber.
Her life would have ended then and there.
But bringing her to meet the Fourth Princess—could this mean there was a chance?
After all, she was renowned as a “nearly perfect mage doll.”
It wasn’t impossible that the Fourth Princess would take an interest and use her for some gain…
Her emerald vertical pupils suddenly lit up.
Lulumia’s spirit stirred, but before she could speak, the man hidden in the sunlight spoke with a grim tone.
“You were supposed to be melted down and remade, but someone pleaded on your behalf. Yet you offended Her Highness the Fourth Princess, which complicates matters. The Fourth Princess is right here. If you can earn her forgiveness…”
“Heh heh.”
Before the man finished, the woman draped in a fur-trimmed shawl and elegant clothes stepped out of the sunlight.
She was a slender girl of about fifteen, her black hair loose.
Her pale complexion revealed the sickness of someone rarely seeing sunlight, but the sharp, upturned eyes and fiercely penetrating gaze gave an impression of keen intelligence mixed with harshness.
She exuded arrogance from head to toe.
Not a vampire, yet she carried the aura of one.
Only someone long accustomed to being in a position of power would have such a presence.
Could such a sharp person really have been fooled by the original owner, that fool, out of five thousand gold coins?
The thought popped into Lulumia’s mind.
“Forgiveness? Lyan, it’s rare to find such entertainment. She’s far more interesting than the other dolls in the workshop.”
The Fourth Princess’s eyes flickered, casting a fox-like, inscrutable teasing glance at Lulumia.
So she really intends to let me go?
Lulumia suppressed her chaotic thoughts and forced a faint smile.
She wanted to speak, but the Fourth Princess’s face twisted into a satisfied expression as if savoring a delicacy.
Suddenly, her gaze turned fierce and angry.
She grabbed Lulumia’s slender wrist, her fingers digging into the skin like claws, dragging her roughly off the ground like a rag doll.
“No one in this world has dared to toy with me—you’re the first. I wonder what kind of sweet, sorrowful cry a perfect doll would make when thrown into the furnace!”
The Fourth Princess’s voice was full of hatred.
This is over.
This one’s a sadistic masochist.
Lulumia’s heart skipped a beat.
Obviously, the Fourth Princess just wanted to watch her struggle and beg in the scorching furnace.
She had to break free and slip away quickly!
Buzz—
Suddenly, the sound of a tuning fork’s vibration rang out.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Lulumia’s body suddenly felt light.
The oppressive pressure vanished, and she instinctively glanced around.
Everyone’s expressions were frozen, even the Fourth Princess’s cruel face was vividly preserved.
Everything was suspended in place.
This is…
Lulumia noticed something new in her field of vision.
Beside the Fourth Princess floated a translucent, milky-white display frame resembling a game interface.
「Name: Xinleila Sienheim Athenaheim Xuelun」
「Title: ‘Bookworm’」
She then shifted her gaze to the workshop’s boss, Lyan.
「Name: Lyan」
「Title: ‘Money-Grubber’」
This was a feature showing others’ traits? But why were so few titles displayed?
Her mind raced as she glanced repeatedly between the two.
With her frail body, escaping right under the guards’ watch was impossible, so how to use this sudden interface became crucial.
She scrutinized the Fourth Princess again and noticed that both the princess and the workshop boss had many unreadable parts in their trait lists, shown as “□□.”
With her extensive galgame experience from the 21st century, she deduced it was because she hadn’t gained enough understanding to unlock further content.
Then she looked at herself, eager to see what useful traits she had.
「Name: Lulumia」
「Title: ‘Fragile Young Dragon’, ‘Useless Doll’, ‘Poor Wretch’, ‘Despised by All’, ‘Holy Grail: 0’」
「Sanity: 60」
“Huh?”
Setting aside ‘fragile’ and ‘poor wretch’, what was this Holy Grail?
Which kind of Holy Grail?
Her thoughts instantly veered into an inappropriate territory, but she quickly shook her head to refocus.
It now seemed both the Fourth Princess and the workshop boss could decide her fate.
The original owner had ended up sentenced because she owed too much money, and the workshop boss saw her as a losing investment.
If she could appeal to the tastes of both—arouse the Fourth Princess’s interest to settle her debts, and convince the workshop boss that she was a profitable treasure…
“Crack.”
The sharp sound of glass breaking echoed in her ears as time resumed flowing.
The Fourth Princess, close enough to touch, continued pulling on Lulumia’s wrist, ignoring the pain etched across Lulumia’s face as she almost hoisted her completely off the ground.
“You want to save face in front of everyone and keep living? No such luck. Lyan, you know my grip. If you don’t execute her today, I’ll make your life hell!”
“I—!”
The ripping pain in her arm made Lulumia cry out involuntarily, but she couldn’t care about anything else.
Her overwhelming survival instinct pushed her to shout boldly, “I have a way to make it up to you!”
As a 21st-century person trapped in a backward medieval world dealing with a bookworm and a money-grubber, what could possibly make them love her beyond letting go?
Lulumia had an obvious answer.