The pawn's second life

chapter 1 - Re-incarnation

"Another dream? Or reality is it? Who's the girl over there? It's that dream again...isn't it? But why do I feel especially overwhelmed today? "

" What the hell? The assassins? Attacked her? But why? Wasn't she a harmless person on her way to the temple? Why are they attacking her? Someone- someone save her... she's gonna die. No!... "

I woke up panting from my dream after seeing a horrible end. It wasn't that first time I had seen something involving that girl, but this certainly was the last , since she finally died in this episode along with her brother and child. To be exact, these dreams started a while ago, all of a sudden, at first it was difficult to distinguish if it was reality or dream, for the dream was way too lucid. I almost saw her whole life story through them, indeed she was a pitiful child, sometimes I felt a certain strange resemblance between us, she was someone who had relations in that world, but nobody exactly was with her, with whom she could share her pain. While I, Kim Eun-Jae on the other hand was alone from birth. My parents probably didn't want me and left me infront of an orphanage where I grew up against all odds, even I never had anyone whom I could call my 'own', and that's what was similar in our case I believed but one of the differences was that she was crazy rich! Being the only daughter of the wealthiest duke of the empire, had she been only a little less stupid and innocent maybe she wouldn't have lived such a pitiful life.

From all the information I gained from the dreams, they seemed to carve a story, her name was Valentina Isidor. Fearing the growing power of the Isidor duchy, the Alasdor imperial family proposed an engagement between the two families, previously an engagement had taken place between the families, and Valentina was a descendant and as a result she was second-in-line to the imperial throne and this engagement between the Emperor Feliz Sylas De Alasdor and Valentina was supposed to prove the Isidor duchy's loyalty towards the Imperial family along with helping the Imperial family in gaining more power through the Isidors. And hence the contract marriage took place, Valentina had put forth no conditions since she was already in love with Feliz and he knew it. A while after their marriage, Valentina gave birth to a boy and almost immediately he was declared as the crown prince of the empire and with that, the Isidors were bound in shackles to not betray the Imperial family else their own kin would be harmed and to provide assistance whenever necessary. But finally few months before the child was supposed to turn one, the emperor showed his true intentions. He already had a lover - the daughter of a baron - Isabella Diathretch and their plan was to promote an engagement between the Isidor duchy and the Alesdor Imperial family and divorce Valentina after she gives birth to the heir of the throne, since the Isidor duchy would still be bound to the Imperial family due to Valentina's child. But after the divorce, Valentina was soon assassinated, it was said that both Valentina and the new empress Isabella were going to the same temple on the same day, but the assassins mistook Valentina's carriage for the empress's and killed her, in the accident many of the supports of Isidor duchy were hanged with conviction of treason. Later, the death of duke Vercil Isidor was reported, he was said to have died during the moster subjugation, many people found the sudden death suspicious since the duke was never an impulsive person and was quite powerful, but nobody could do anything. In the absence of competent heirs and supporters of Isidor duchy, the once powerful duchy soon fell into dust. The crown prince's position had also weakened visibly while Isabella was slowly yet securely and cunningly growing her influence. A few years later, the crown prince died in a carriage accident. Many believed that it was done by empress Isabella but no one had any proof. Besides she had done a pretty good job in maintaining a pitiful face as if she had broken down due to the unfortunate death of the crown prince. But taking advantage of the political distress caused, she skillfully proposed the name of her own son for the position of the crown prince.

Isabella - Even if the crown prince truly deserved the throne and my heart gets ripped into pieces even while speaking about this, we must think about the future of the empire, though not as deserving as the crown prince, the empire still has another prince, my son - prince Elijah Alasdor, no matter what, he is still of noble blood and in such a heart-wrenching time when the empire is already mourning but is in a dire need of another crown prince, my son must be given the position, to reassure the citizens and to prevent any acts of treason.