It took me a few days to come to my senses over what happened. Not only did I die, but I also did it in such a stupid way. To add salt to the injury, I had the misfortune of being reborn into the body of Lucreatia...

And who was Lucreatia Mountnero? Well, she was the saddest part of "A Duchess Love."

****

Lucreatia was a side character, her relevance was only important at the beginning of the book.

She was the adoptive daughter of the Duke of Mountnero, while her sister Jennifer was the rightful heir, blood from his blood. So having already an heir, why would the Duke adopt another child? For altruism? Because he found Lucreatia in the streets and took pity on her situation? No, of course not.

A person known as the cold-blooded snake of the Sun Empire wouldn't have such pure intentions.

No... you see, Lucreatia was the daughter of his unrequited love. The same love who refused to marry him, because she loved another person. Because of such, the Duke made sure she and her lover lived a miserable existence. Ripped from her noble rights, Lucreatia's mother led a poor life, yet she still found happiness in those gloomy times with her husband. However, all changed when he died while she was still pregnant. After the traumatic event, her mind grew lost in the overwhelming guilt added to her heart.

Unable to cope with being left alone, she took her own life. Her daughter was but two years old when that came to happen. The Duke, when he found out about her death, rushed to her side, bent on killing the child he thought had caused his love's death. However, when he saw Lucreatia, he noticed the child's silver hair and golden eyes. "Lucky" Lucreatia was the spitting image of her mother.

Charming.

The Duke showered Lucreatia with affection instead of his actual daughter. Jennifer, while never mistreated, was never truly loved, either. Lucreatia knew deep down from her younger years that his affection was an extension of his love for her mother. He loved her image and not herself. And Lucreatia was unable to accept it.

Craving for genuine love, she grew close to her sister, who, pure and sweet, loved Lucreatia back with all her heart. But with everything in Lucreatia's life, things went wrong when her sister befriended both the crown princes of the Sun and the Moon Empire. The neighbouring Empires had a good relationship since their founding, and every generation of princes studied together to promote friendship and future alliances. These two were especially close and were always together.

One day, while they were running from their tutors, they came across Jennifer, who was the daughter of a great house of the Sun Empire, visiting the palace on an errand. Because of her sweet nature and her cute side, the princes became enthralled by her presence. This soon turned into love and hell broke loose, as Jennifer fell in love with Prince Cedric of the Moon Empire.

Their love was so consuming, that they pondered eloping to stay together, leaving their titles and life behind. But their fiery romance got challenged when Jennifer realized that Lucreatia, her beloved sister, had always loved Prince Cedric and, since discovering their relationship, had fallen into a state of deep depression. Jennifer's guilt was so vast it caused her to become sick as well.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

However, bad things didn't stop there. Even worse was bound to come. Prince Francis of the Sun Empire, best friend of Cedric, was chosen as Jennifer's fiance. This meant elopement between the moon prince and a great lady of the Sun would cause a war between the empires and the destruction of many of their people's lives. The once best friends had turned into enemies.

Jennifer's kind heart couldn't allow for such destruction of her homeland, so she left Prince Cedric, lying to him by saying she had fallen in love with Prince Francis. What Jennifer hadn't expected was that she was now pregnant with Cedric's child. After marrying Prince Francis, she gave birth to a boy. Sadly, Jennifer never saw him afterwards. As, right after birth, the Sun royal family sent the baby to the Moon Empire to be with his father, the now Emperor Cedric.

But even with his son at his side, the Emperor felt betrayed. He wished to inflict on Jennifer the same pain she had put his heart through. To accomplish that, he demanded to marry Lucreatia, who he knew loved him.

The Sun Empire again accepted the request, as long as the Duke's daughter did too. Lucreatia, against her better judgment and the Duke's wishes, accepted the marriage proposal. It was then that her fragile sanity began to crack.

"Lucky" Lucreatia, who, to the outside person, had everything, beautiful looks, riches beyond one could ever imagine, and the love of her sister and the Duke, was a very lonely girl. Besides her family, no one showed her affection.

Everyone loathed her because of her disgraced lineage and the Duke's favouritism. Society saw her as an opportunist and someone beneath them, and as such, Lucreatia's peers bullied and avoided her. The princes too had the same view as the ladies and lords of the kingdom, and had a natural dislike for her. Mostly because of their love for Jennifer, who they saw as a victim of Lucreatia.

Poor Lucreatia, even blamed, fell in love with Cedric and his blood-coloured eyes. Her wish to be loved by him made her glue herself to her sister whenever she visited the princes. As time went by, Lucreatia sensed their growing resentment, which caused her heart to get darker and her mind disturbed.

With Cedric's proposal, Lucreatia thought her heart could finally heal. That lasted until her wedding day when she found out about the crown prince Nathaniel, son of her sister and her now-husband. It was also on that sad day she discovered that her marriage only happened to bring pain to Jennifer, her loving sister. Lucreatia realized then that the Emperor would never love her.

Her existence turned into nothing but continuous pain.

The pain got unbearable when she wrongly believed her sister was happy in her marriage. Jennifer had become pregnant again and was crowned Empress of the Sun. Jealousy crept into poor Lucreatia's bruised heart, making her lose her last bits of sanity. Closed off from the world, she devoted her time to working and studying the black arts.

Then one day, something terrible happened. A pact Lucreatia tried to make with a demon beast backfired, and to stop the ritual, the crown prince, Nathaniel stabbed Lucreatia. It was not, however, enough to stop the destruction. Cedric, seeing no other alternative, sacrificed himself to seal the demon, saving his son and the Moon Empire from its horrid power. He died with Lucreatia, who in her last moments was able to smile.

She was finally free.

Jennifer and the Duke grew closer over Lucreatia's death, and years after Prince Uriel was born, Jennifer and Emperor Francis reconciled and found true love. Their sad marriage turned into a love story. The unfortunate crown prince Nathaniel, whose tragic event caused the death of his beloved father, made him grow cold and rough. Perfect for the main lead role in "A Duchess Love".

But that, for now, was another story.

****

As I reminded myself of Lucreatia's sad end, a tear rolled down my face. It was, in equal parts, vexing and sad. The real Lucreatia did not deserve this miserable life. Those shitheads caused this.

I cleaned my tears and fired up my spirit. For the wronged Lucreatia and me.

And in her fairytale room, I declared to the walls my mission in life:

"I won't let them treat me like that, and I will survive! These rotten people won't see the end of me!"