The Fake Princess's Soul Contract Duke

Chapter 4: Mary and Thalia

In the dream, the images he saw showed that Thalia was a person who had repeated her life three times. The first life begins normally, from the baby until when he dies at twenty-two.

After that in his second life he was unreasonable, going back to the time when he was ten years old, then died at the same age, as well as his third life.

As for this fourth life, it seemed like she had decided to break out of her circle of destiny, and this was where Alianora was now.

In all three of her lives, Thalia was the adopted daughter of one of the four Duke families of the Angris Kingdom of Light, the family of the Sheridan Duke. His adoptive father, Kalisto Le Sheridan, was a cousin of the present King Agris, King Tyrion Lex Lumiere Di Agris. His mother, Annabeth Rocheleau, was the second daughter of the Marquees Rocheleau family, the wealthiest noble family in all of England.

Before being appointed duke's daughter, Thalia was the daughter of a close friend of Sheridan's family who was a commoner. When she was a baby, Thalia's father died in an accident, as a result of which she had to be raised alone by her mother. However, when he was 8 years old, Kalisto found him on the streets and then raised him as a child, to fulfill his promise to his friend. This is what Thalia used to know about her, and of course this is not entirely true.

Sheridan's family had no close friends with a commoner, and Thalia La Sheridan was not the son of Kalisto's friend, but her own biological child with an ordinary woman. Thalia never knew this truth at all, not until she accidentally heard the talk of her father and mother in the third life.

It's hard to believe, but this is exactly what happened.

In Thalia's memory, her three lives all have the same ending, her death with her family.

Just then almost the entire Angris Kingdom was destroyed caused by the black magic power of the underworld rampaging uncontrollably.

King Tyrion, King of the Kingdom of Agris, died as a result, and the first prince of the kingdom, Prince Roberto Lex Lumiere Di Agris, as the man responsible for the overflow of black magic in the capital, was killed, going insane and finally being beheaded in public as the mastermind of the rebellion.

As for him and his family, because they are one of the families in the faction of supporters of Prince Roberto, they also did not escape the death penalty.

In her first life, Thalia and her family were arrested and taken to a public beheading in the capital. From there, Thalia watched her parents beheaded directly before her, before her turn finally arrived.

In her second life, Thalia decides to prevent the death of King Tyrion. To that end, she thought of becoming the personal servant of Estelle, her half-sister, who was by then Prince Roberto's wife.

However, not only was he too late to save King Tyrion, he was instead accused of killing him. After that, just like his previous life, he and his family were put to death.

This time in her third life, Thalia was determined to leave the Kingdom of Agris. Just as Prince Roberto was going crazy and the capital situation was still in a state of chaos due to the attacks from the monsters of the underworld, he managed to convince his family and prepare everything for them to escape.

He and his family managed to get out of Sheridan before the soldiers surrounded their residence.

Unfortunately, before they could leave the outer borders of the Angris Kingdom, a line of royal family knight troops confronted them, and without further ado, he and his family were beheaded under a blue-eyed sword belonging to the leader of the knight's army.

Prince Noah Lex Lumiere In England.

Alianora still vividly remembered how the man's countenance looked at 'himself', expressionless but the glare of her golden eyes gave the impression as if she was staring at an insect. Really cold and sharp.

"Heh, I can feel how this body is shaking under that bloodthirsty gaze. Hm, is this what those humans used to feel when they saw me?", muttered Alianora while chuckling softly.

“Hm, but those golden eyes..they are really similar.” The same golden eyes as those of a god who only imagined them gave off a bitter taste on the tongue of Alianora, the God Ilios the God of Light who was worshipped by the Anglican Kingdom of Light.

Plop!

"Haa..," Alianora dropped her body on the bed with her blue silver eyes staring straight up at the ceiling, "Roberto, you useless brat."

This mess, everything, started with Prince Roberto. His ambition to have the throne, his arrogance, his greed, had made him recklessly use black magic to kill his own father.

According to Alianora, the way Thalia took in her second life was not bad.

He could see how his family treated Thalia, and how the people around him treated her. He was an unregarded child, his own biological father pretended not to know that he was his biological son as well. A useless child, even tend to be isolated in the upper class because of his low identity.

So, no matter how hard he tried to convince his father not to ally with Prince Roberto, his voice would not be heard.

Inevitably he had to do everything himself, and the truest way back then was to prevent the death of King Tyrion. If King Tyrion had not died, there would have been no reason for Prince Roberto, who was not even Crown Prince, to take the throne, but the issue is now about how he would have exercised it.

In the way Thalia who became the personal servant of her sister who was then the status of the prince's wife was actually not wrong, but she still could not be free to do anything without a second thought. He could not act rashly, there he must have been made a scapegoat by the real mastermind, and died in vain.

Then if Alianora wanted to save the king, she would have to think of another way.

Butwhat?

"Bahh! Inconveniencing! In fact, it would have been easier if I had just killed that brat of Roberto, than to have to go through with this!"

Had Thalia allowed him to kill.

Had he not been bound by the rules of the Soul Contract, Thalia's request would have already been settled from earlier!

He did not have to go through the same thing as the real Thalia, die under the knife, or die being beheaded shamefully by the expressionless Prince Noah.

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.

.

.

.

.

Wait, Prince Noah?!

Why didn't he think about it from the beginning?

Prince Roberto never served as Crown Prince, despite his identity as the first prince of the kingdom. That is, King Tyrion still doubts Prince Roberto's ability to lead due to his arrogant and greedy personality. On the other hand, there was also Prince Noah who was cold but very loyal to Angris and also to his father.

Of these two princes, it was clear who King Tyrion would choose as his successor, but, of course, he could not yet establish it. It was because, based on the memories of Thalia, Prince Noah who had no desire to ascend the throne.

As a result, the elderly King Tyrion was forced to continue to serve as king.

Alien, Alianora.

Why is he so stupid?

If indeed the root of the problem is the action of Prince Roberto who killed his father with black magic, rather than bothering to think about how to protect King Tyrion, he said, why didn't he think of eliminating the idea altogether from Prince Roberto's head?

Okay, how is it going?

From her bed, Alianora got up in unison and ran towards her study table to pull out a piece of paper, pen, and ink. He started writing quickly.

"Of course with Noah Lex Lumiere in England! He must be King! At least he should be crowned before that scum Roberto manages to touch the black magic. With this stinking trash it has no reason to kill old Tyrion!", Alianora said excitedly as she wrote Prince Noah's name on the paper.

He is both happy and proud of himself.

His brain, which he once thought was just a lump of muscle, turned out to function properly.

Ah, if only he would succeed in making Prince Noah a more convincing candidate for king than Prince Roberto, the Sheridan family would have turned to supporting Prince Noah.

Thus, even though Prince Roberto used the same black magic to carry out the coup, whatever the end result, he and the Thalia family would not be accused of anything. Eventually the Thalia family will live happily until the end. After all, Prince Noah was also unlikely to die, as long as Alianora was by his side. Okay, Mission is done.

"Oho, isn't that a good ending, hm?" muttered Alianora while circling Prince Noah's name.

"Ah, but...how can I persuade the boy to take the throne?"

Geck. Geck. Geck.

"S-good afternoon miss, this is my Mary.come to bring your lunch."

The young waiter who had brought breakfast for Alianora this morning, now came again to bring Alianora lunch.

The afternoon?

Alianora looked towards the window illuminated by the scorching white sunlight.

"Ah, yes, come in."

Slowly the door of the room opened, showing Mary in her maid dress, pushing a silver carriage filled with food. His expression was tense, inexplicable.

On the other hand, seeing that smile, Mary felt cold on her skin instead.

"Ah, Mary, you came at the right time. Come here, I want to ask you a few things."

*****

'I'm not Thalia.'

No matter how many times she turned back those words in her head, Mary still did not understand. What the hell is going on?

In the three years since she worked at Sheridan's family home, Mary has always assumed that her young miss, Thalia La Sheridan, was the most shut out of many. Even when Mary first met Thalia when she was only seven, she already had the impression that she was quiet, timid, and innocent.

A princess who thirsts for love but never gets it.

Every day Mary had to see how the duke and duchess Sheridan just ignored Thalia like she was just air. How they distinguish him from his sister Estelle, who always receives attention and love. How their gazes at Thalia who was cold and distant were like staring at an insect.

Besides, the servants also had no one to respect him. They tend to ignore it, give it worse food than the waiter's food, scoff at it, to steal from it.

No one in the house sided with him. There aren't. Even her sister, Estelle, who looks like the only one who treats Thalia like a human, is actually probably the mastermind of most of her misfortunes. The boy was that hypocritical, and Mary could see him.

Honestly, Mary felt a little sorry for him. In any case, they should not treat a seven-year-old child like that.

However, the more the day, his feelings are increasingly lost replaced by hatred and disgust.

Her young miss is too innocent and stupid.

Despite being blatantly insulted, Thalia did not do a single thing to resist. Even though it was clearly being tricked by his hypocritical half-sister, he still did not notice it. Thalia still, like a fool, tried to beg for love from the unworthy.

No matter the original or not, Thalia was still the legitimate noble daughter in the eyes of society, she should be able to utilize her title to make those who insulted her, get her reward, in her own way. All it takes is effort, determination, and strategy.

Unlike him, commoners who have to work banging bones every day on the road to be able to suck rice, sometimes even to have to scavenge in the trash. To be able to work in an elite noble family like this at the age of 13 alone, he already felt very lucky. If she was Thalia, she wouldn't have lived as horribly as she did.

For Mary, Thalia was not worthy of being a noble, and why would she bother to serve someone as inappropriate as Thalia? Therefore, Mary began to follow the other servants to treat Thalia badly.

Then now, to see the drastic change of her young miss, she felt like she was dreaming. No, maybe that young lady he knew, that quiet and clumsy all along was just a dream he had seen, now that he had just woken up and faced his real young miss.

'You surprised? Hah, I'm just as confused, but here I am now, in this little boy's body.'

Or no.

Although he tried to throw away those thoughts at the bottom of his head, a small part of him actually believed the talk of ‘nona younganya’.

That, the person in the body of his young lady right now was not the young miss he knew, but an unknown stranger.

Fearful. That was how he felt when he first heard the truth. People with unknown background, purpose.

People who may not be human. After all, does any human have such strange powers?

Undeniably, this person, or this figure, is extremely dangerous. His premonition says that this ‘nona of youth’ could have taken his life anytime he wanted.

“Mary? Did you hear me?”

Hearing the voice of her young lady, Mary immediately lowered her head to look at Thalia who was sitting sweetly while enjoying her mango pudding.

His silver blue eyes opened wide, staring at his brown bead innocently. The gaze he never got from his young miss who always avoided the look in his eyes.

Mary bit her lips, “M-forgive me miss, there is a thing..which disturbed my mind earlier,uhm, w-w-why can miss repeat it again?”

“Hm, okay. I was asking,” he devoured pieces of pudding, “what do you know about Prince Noah? Is she my age?”

Mary turned her face away from Alianora.

“Ah? Uhm, s-I don't know for sure but it looks like yes.Besides His Highness Prince Roberto, I've never seen a portrait of Prince Noah's face before, so chances are he hasn't made his debut.”

“Hm, makes sense too. What about the rumors around him?”

“S-I did not hear much rumors about His Highness the Second Prince other than knowing that he hated upper class association.” Mary replied with a bow, not daring to look at the young lady's face.

Mary had no idea what her young lady currently wanted, or not, to ask about the royal family, especially about the unknown second prince. Quietly, Mary became nervous, if the person in her non-body was a person of evil intentions, then maybe the reason she asked about the royal family had something to do with her purpose. Could it be that this man intended to destroy the Kingdom of England?

Then if she refused to help him, what would this fellow do to her? How will his fate be?

“Hm, Mary, what are you really thinking? Your face looks a little tense. What's up?” alianora's voice sounded like someone was worrying about others, but in Mary's ears, it made her hair stand up.

Mary quickly shook her head, “B-nothing, uhm, miss. Me, I might just be a little tired.”

Alianora again gave a silent look at Mary. He saw Mary's figure that was like a wet mouse that pretended to be tough in front of a cat, Alianora could not stand it anymore.

Indeed he admitted, his behavior this morning was a little harsh, it was because he was carried away with emotion for a moment. Eventually, the young servant in front of him was more ignorant than he had imagined, so he let go.

Yes, if she was still the evil Goddess Alianora, maybe she wasn't this concerned with what other people felt about her, but now she was just an ordinary little child, just a child, and to make others fear excessively is not the goal. For now.

Moreover, Mary was his servant, rather than making him an enemy, it was better for Alianora to lure him into being a loyal subordinate. There is no harm in finding friends from now on, it is because he knows that in the future, if he wants to play safe, he certainly can not do his own plan, he certainly can not do his own plan, for that he must need a lot of subordinates who can help him, and maybe Mary is one of the people.

After all, when she looked around again, regardless of her selfless attitude earlier, Mary was likely the one she thought was right to be her subordinate.

With a face that still implied a thin smile, Alianora responded, “Oya? Then you're really so tired that you make your face pale and sweaty like you've seen a ghost. As an employer, I should have realized from the beginning, was my food carriage too heavy, hm?”

The sweat on his forehead that was like rainwater, dripped quickly and flowed through his chin. His body was shaken, his knuckles felt ice-cold in his grasp. His heart seemed to want to jump from his chest cavity. The fear in the chest that he was holding, had peaked.

Mary did not dare to raise her head, she felt that if she looked at the slightest thing towards this person or figure in front of her, she would definitely cry.

“S-me...me...”.

“Oke, I get it. Mary, do you need to be this scared with me?”

“A-ah! S-me, not max me-”

“You need not fear. I've lost, even though I'm not the real Thalia, I'm not the bad guy who has the hidden max. I will not do dangerous things, it is too troublesome.” Alianora hummed a little, praising the delicacy of the melted mango pudding in her mouth as something she had never worried about before.

Alianora was indeed determined to bury the secret about her true identity deeply, yet she could not bury it alone, no, she could but she chose not to. It was because he felt that after this most of the time in his life he would use to face the public as Thalia, automatically he would always wear a mask, and surely it was very draining of energy. She needed time to be herself, and therefore she needed people who seemed trustworthy to be by her side, Mary was one of her candidates, and her gut feeling was never wrong.

“After all, you are my right hand. I will never treat my subordinates badly, believe me, as long as they don't betray me, I won't hurt them. So you calm down.”

Every word that came out of Alianora's mouth was all soft and full of a touch of kindness. Hearing this, Mary's body slowly stopped trembling and her feelings were somewhat calm. He ventured to look at the face of his young lady who was looking at him with a friendly smile.

Seeing that, Mary felt her nervousness begin to dissipate, she nodded before replying.

“B-good, miss.”

Although her fear had not completely disappeared, and there was still a hint of doubt in Mary's heart, she had no other choice but to try to forget about it for a while. He chose to believe in his vision now, that whoever was in the body of his young lady, was not as dangerous as he thought.

If that person doesn't want him to be too wary, then that's what he'll do. Everything she commanded would be fully and as much as Mary could follow, she would not be brave enough to try her luck by acting against this person. If he gets to do that, who knows what this young ‘nona’ will do to him, and no one will be able to help him. No one will want to.

So from now on, he will walk with the flow only, but remain vigilant.

“Iya so. Just talk casually, as long as you don't do what you did this morning to me, I won't get mad.”

Mary's face immediately turned pale again.

“A-ah! Pardon me, miss! Me, I've been sassy-”

“Hn, That's enough. Better now we go back to the previous topic. There are still many questions I want to ask you.”

Mary must keep fighting in order to continue to be on the side of her young ‘nona’.