Once upon a time, there was a kind and beautiful girl named Nanelle.

When her mother pa.s.sed away, her stepmother who suddenly entered her life tormented her daily in attempt to give the wealth and power of the family to her own son.

Fortunately, she was the first daughter of the powerful family of the Duke. She didn't have to scrub the floor nor was she forced to sew her stepmother's dress.

Instead, her stepmother arranged a marriage for Nanelle.

As they say, 'The best way to get rid of your daughter is to marry her off.'

The man Nanelle was to marry was a man of great influence but was thirty years older than she was. She was blissfully unaware of this, worked on her embroidery everyday.

It was her half-sister who saved her then.

Her stepmother also hated her half sister but Nanelle shared with her sister delicious cookies and small dresses that she couldn't wear anymore.

To Nanelle's surprise, her sister told her a secret; that she had the ability to see through lies.

Her sister whispered carefully to Nanelle.

"Sister! The stepmother is going to marry you off to an old man!"

Nanelle was greatly shocked and ran away. Then, she lost her way in the woods.

Coincidentally, the neighboring kingdom's prince who happened to be pa.s.sing by appeared. The prince fell in love with beautiful Nanelle. She also fell for the prince.

The prince ended up riding back together with Nanelle on his white horse to the neighboring kingdom and marrying her.

Nanelle wore a crown that glowed beautifully like the stars and lived happily ever after with the prince.

But, what happened to Nanelle's sister?

Inevitably, she was left in the Duke's house with the stepmother that hated her.

Yes, this is my story.

I am Lynette Camelia, the second daughter of the great and powerful family of Duke Camelia.

A fourteen-year-old girl who was born from a mother who was a maid but listed by the Duke as his second daughter.

That's me.

I thought that I could escape from this world once I helped my sister, who was the protagonist of the storybook to get married.

But I couldn't escape.

I'm screwed.

* * *

And she lived happily ever after.

All fairytales come to the same conclusion.

But that is only for the protagonist of the story. Lynette Camelia was not the protagonist.

She was only a supporting character whose name doesn't even appear in the story 'Lady Camelia,' who provides kind Nanelle with the key to her happiness.

'Lady Camelia' was a fairytale that was always on her bookshelf when she was a child.

She had no clue as to what led her into this story that she thought was bland but ominous because it was strangely realistic.

But whatever the reason, she had adapted excellently to the situation. Her life as a corporate slave where she had to always be mindful of what her bosses were thinking and was compelled to improvise on a daily basis contributed greatly to her successful transition into Lynette.

After she had entered the storybook, she tried her best for the protagonist Nanelle for a year. To be more precise, she tried her best to escape from the book since all stories are bound to come to an end.

She faithfully fulfilled her role as Lynette Camelia by accomplis.h.i.+ng Nanelle's happy ending.

And because of Lynette, Nanelle really did get her happy ending. She got married to a prince from a neighboring kingdom.

Lynette thought, 'Once Nanel's wedding is over, I should be able to find my way out of the book.'

How deluded I was. I was over-optimistic to think that everything would be resolved once Nanelle got her happy ending.

It has been one week since Nanelle's wedding.

Lynette was still trapped in the Duke's house.

Her reality was still in this poor room. A room so wretched that you would never expect to find it in the Duke's house.

She let out a sigh.

Nanelle will continue to live a happy life but no one knew Lynette's future.

The story had already come to an end.

Quick judgement and strong improvisational ability was also helpful in places like this. She decided that since she ended up stuck in here, she might as well try her best to live as Lynette.

But……

'How should I live?'

She had never lived as a daughter of the Duke before. At the very least, she could be sure that she wouldn't starve to death.

As much as her stepmother hates her, she wouldn't kill me because of it.

Of course, there are people in the world who would kill just because they hate someone. But her stepmother had a 'reason' that she couldn't kill her. That, at least, was a relief.

Knock knock.

Then, someone knocked on the door.

Lynette replied indifferently.

"Yes."

"……Miss!"

The face that pushed through the door was a welcomed one.

A cute maid girl with cheeks like apples. Her name was Apple.

Lynette smiled brightly with her eyes open wide.

"Apple!"

"Can I come in?"

"Of course!"

She jolted up to greet Apple.

"What were you doing?"

"What else? Just breathing."

Apple giggled.

After Nanelle had left the house, the only person left in the house that she could rely on was Apple. Apple, knowing this, probably came to check on Lynette.

Apple was the person that explained to her about where she was when she first opened her eyes inside the story world, for which Lynette was grateful. She also told Lynette things about her that was not written in the book.

Things like Lynette did not know who her father was until she was five years old.

Her mother raised Lynette being treated as a promiscuous single mother, as maids were commonly treated.

Then, when Lynette was about five, her mother realized that she could see through all her lies and took her to Duke Camelia.

The ability to see through lies was specific to Duke Camelia's family.

It was an ability that was pa.s.sed to only one person in each generation.

People called this ability 'hundred eyes.' It meant that whoever had this ability could see through deception and reach the truth with a hundred eyes.

After asking Lynette a few questions, the Duke was certain that she was his child.

The Duke had been worried that while his own powers were gradually weakening, his daughter Nanelle did not possess the 'hundred eyes.' When he saw that Lynette had the ability, he immediately had her listed in the family registry. Outside the family, he cooked up a story saying that she was a child that he had with a Lady in a foreign place.

It wasn't so bad when Nanelle's mother was still alive. The first d.u.c.h.ess didn't favor her but she didn't discriminate against her either.

After the first d.u.c.h.ess died, when the second d.u.c.h.ess Imelda came into the family, everything changed.

d.u.c.h.ess Imelda completely ignored her. She deemed Lynette, a maid's daughter, such a disgrace that she tried to forget about her altogether.

However, she could not harm her because of the ability that she possessed.

As an illegitimate child, she had to get used to living alone in a cold attic room before she even turned ten years old.

It was Nanelle who took her from the attic and moved her to a room that was shabby and cold but was still located in the middle of the house.

Lynette's active cooperation in achieving Nanelle's happy ending was largely due to her desire to leave this story world but the fact that Nanelle was an honest person also played a part.

There was no way to find out where Lynette's mother was.

'She's probably dead.' 

Lynette thought.

"Hey."

"Yes?"

"What should I do with my life now?"

"How should I know? I guess you could get some ma.s.sage, get your nails done, do some embroidery, and dance a little."

Apple said as she rolled her eyes.

Did Nanelle live like that?

Lynette touched her frowned forehead and said.

"And then?"

"Yes?"

"And then, what do I do? I can't dance and get ma.s.sages my entire life."

"Well, you have to get married."

"……Get married?"

"Yes. Like Lady Nanelle. Wouldn't it be nice if the groom was a charming prince from a neighboring country?"

Apple commented as she pretended to dance.

"……But don't go choosing a prince from a rural country like Lady Nanelle did."

Lynette let out a laughter. Apple was right.

Nanelle was happily married to a prince. However, the prince wasn't affluent.

It was improbable that a prince pa.s.sing through a dim forest unaccompanied was a man of great importance to begin with.

He was a prince of a small nation of the Resist Empire. The country was so small that it was even smaller than Duke Camelia's territorial domain.

In spite of this, Nanelle escaped. From Duke Camelia's family.

She probably didn't care as long as she didn't have to marry that old geezer.

The prince will live treating Nanelle like a princess for the rest of his life because she is the first daughter of the reputable family of Duke Camelia of the Resist Empire. At least for Nanelle, this was really the best outcome.

Hmm.

Getting married to a good man could very well be the best ending.

Lynette thought lying diagonally on her bed.

Nanelle's happy ending did not get Lynette out of the story.

'Perhaps I can't get out of here until Lynette gets her ending.'

But—there was nothing that was absolutely certain.

What happens if I choose a good man and get married but there is still no ending?

'Nanelle got her ending with her prince from a small nation, but what about me? What happens if this still continues even if I marry the prince?'

She was adept at calculating probabilities. She treated probabilities without guarantees as imaginary numbers.

There was only one answer.

"I'll just do whatever I please."

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