When Helenda realized that the queen had gone dead silent, she tried to speak again but the queen had interrupted her.

"Helenda, how old is my... daughter?" Her lips were pursed and her face was paler than when the princess had cried. It was like the simple action of telling her about her name had caused a route of destruction to erupt.

"Her Highness has recently celebrated her birthday and is eleven years old." Helenda had noticed the moment of hesitation when the queen had mentioned the word daughter but chose to not comment on it.

Helenda was prepared to answer many more questions, but she was shocked to see the queen nod and dismiss her.

"Thank you. Can I get some rest, please?" At such a polite manner that the queen used to address her, a servant, Helenda sighed and bowed her head. She left quickly to allow the queen some solitude. It appeared that they needed to educate the queen about the manners of a royal family member as soon as possible. A queen, or actually, a queen regent since King Redian was inactive, would not use such a speech with servants and subjects. It would be an authoritative order rather than a polite request.

Even though the queen with her memories never did this, Helenda never thought that her amnesia was that drastic. Such behavior was dreadful and her loss of memory could be used as a political weakness. Right now, the queen was the highest power in the entire kingdom and they couldn't afford for the crown to be so weak and prone to attacks.

The princess, the heir, was too young to takeover and she clearly wasn't ready even if she was educated from a young age. She had recently lost her father and her mother had forgotten about her, meaning her mental state was barely functioning.

All Helenda could do was pray to Solaris for guidance and a method to stop the bleak future of the kingdom.

♚♚♚

Alone in her room that she had admired earlier, now dreadful and frightening to look at, Hyejin was consumed in her thoughts. She had curled into a fetal position and gripped her legs anxiously. She bit her bottom lips until she could taste blood, but her mind was too distracted by the impending doom of the body she was occupying.

She had marveled at her luck, but now cursed whoever decided that this was okay. She had transmigrated into the body of that dreadful book she had sent the email about!

Vyriana's Vendetta has begun fairly decent, but turned sour as soon as the popularity of the novel had exploded. Another typical shoujo novel that ruined the revenge aspect and focused too much on the romance, decreasing the intelligence of the characters. The reason that she had even bothered to send that email was purely to satisfy why authors such as GlamorousByeol1230 took such an unappealing turn with their female leads. She had read plenty of these stories, but the latest one had taken truly caused her to be intrigued and question the author.

This was something out of the norm for Hyejin who preferred an idle lifestyle, but even the biggest saints had a day of mischief.

But that wretched intervention and email had caused her to be in this situation!

Hyejin regretted the decision to break out of her usual style and send that detestable email.

Her shitty luck hadn't even allowed her to be transmigrated as the main character or even a side character! She was in the body of the unfortunate queen who died in the first five seconds of the novel and forgotten easily afterward, even by her daughter that had sworn revenge in her honor!

"Why why why!" She groaned, grabbing a pillow to silence her impending frustrations.

Why Queen Asielle!?

Hyejin had read the side stories of the novel, none of them belonging to the queen.

That's how much of an insignificant character she was!

Of course, if she really was an insignificant character, she would be more than happy to watch the story plotline unfold in front of her.

However!

Queen Asielle was doomed to die in order for the plot to start. The trigger to it all, in two years.

Yes, two years!

Hyejin had estimated it was two years later on Vyriana's thirteenth birthday that Duke Klasius' coup d'etat occurs and he massacres the remaining royal family members—Queen Asielle and her daughter, Princess Vyriana. As always, with the main lead halo and plot armor, the queen happens to help her escape and a look-alike servant is sacrificed in the princess' position. And all is well for the tyrant until the deceased princess appears six years later, filled with the desire of revenge and the need of taking her throne back.

And for a fairly good chunk of the novel, it was fascinating to see the connections that the princess makes in six years representing the six love interests be used against the duke. And with the wit of the duke, it was a never-ending battle in his favor, but as expected... the author had let the popularity overwhelm the plot and the romance swooped in and took over. To balance it, the characters lost their IQs and Princess Vyriana became the Queen of Aucainad in the end with an ambiguous romance.

The author had added so many powerful love interests that in the end, she couldn't decide which one to make the female lead end with. Although it did lean partially towards one of the love interests, it was never explicitly stated what happened. Perhaps, if Hyejin was still alive, she would be there to witness a sequel or a following book other than another side story, but she was already dead.

What do I do?

Tears of fear fell from her eyes and she skimmed her mind to think of something to stop her death. She had already died at the age of twenty and was suddenly twenty-seven, but she wouldn't complain further. Yet Queen Asielle had an expiration date glued to her!

Mother, help me...

She desperately wished to see her mother or her father, regretting that she only visited on holidays with their consistent nagging.

Now, she was stuck, never to see her family ever again. Hyejin knew that she wasn't as lucky as those heroines in her shoes. She wasn't a doctor, business genius, practically anything that could help her situation as the queen of an entire nation.

She majored in art!

Perhaps if a painting could help govern a kingdom, then she would create a multitude of paintings.

I'll run away.

No, she was the queen of a nation. The entire military would be searching for her if she ran away. And it would alert neighboring countries to either attack or be on guard. She would be found very soon.

I'll beg the duke to not kill me?

No, he had sociopathic tendencies and was very violent after taking over. Maybe he would have sadistic tendencies as well since the coup d'etat was described quite gruesomely. In reality, it was a miracle that he managed to keep it all bottled up for so many years until the takeover of the throne. His manipulative skills were sharpened to the point that no one would believe her if she said that he was planning on taking over with a coup d'etat. His seizure of power had happened too abruptly in the novel, so abruptly that it hadn't allowed the queen to counterattack or prepare.

I'll prepare starting now?

No. That wouldn't work either. Who would be ready for a civil war based off of her words? And even if she somehow managed to convince the military, the author had written that Duke Klasius had prepared meticulously. He didn't have just a few thousand soldiers. It was possible to say that he was the puppeteer behind the military overall.

I'll abdicate the throne.

So far, out of all of the ideas she had thought of, this one was the most plausible. Duke Klasius wouldn't need to attack a throne that was his. It would be the most peaceful method of keeping her life and actually keeping Vyriana from straying on a wrong path and growing to be an intelligent young lady.

This would probably destroy the connections she is supposed to make and would ruin the plot, but who gave a fuck about the plot. Once the plot had become Hyejin's reality, it was no longer simply a story. It was a matter of survival. And realistically, she could care less if she had messed with the plotline and their fate. As long as there was no blood shed, then by all means, she would take that route.

By abdicating the throne to Duke Klasius, then it would allow for her to take a percentage of wealth to live her life in peace and raise Vyriana without financial issues. Rather than wait for a coup d'etat, where Vyriana was forced on the streets with no money and grew up in poverty and constant travel with an assigned servant, it was best to grow up in a safe environment.

Hyejin knew many would call the queen cowardly, but she did not have the privilege of choice. With a clock ticking on her death, she couldn't think clear either. Two years could be a long time, but could also pass in the blink of an eye. She also had the excuse of amnesia, so she couldn't govern a country based on knowing absolutely nothing about the etiquette of royalty.

Maybe in these two years, she could think of other solutions, but for now, her best solution of avoiding death and other tragedies was to surrender before the fight even began.

A knock on her door interrupted her train of thoughts. Another maid other than Helenda entered, bowed and introduced her as Isleila.

Isleila? That's the name of the maid that escapes with Vyriana!

♚♚♚

Surprise update! Will do that a lot for this book :P

Other than its usual updating schedule of Saturday and Sunday every week.