Chapter 1
Prologue
Once upon a time, there was a princess who wanted to become king. Her name was Erin, and she was the first child of the King of Kalis.
The King of Kalis loved his daughter dearly.
“People often say the eldest daughter takes after her father, and indeed, you’re the spitting image of me.”
He found his daughter, who beamed whenever he held her, utterly adorable. He only adored her, though. He had no desire for her to succeed him.
Even as he doted on the daughter before him, the king thought that next time, he would have to have a son. It was simply common sense that a son would inherit the throne.
A father passed his place on to his son, then closed his eyes. That was how the Kingdom of Kalis had continued on. Every single one of their ancestors had followed that rule.
“Erin, you’re my daughter and the only princess in this kingdom. You may do anything you want.”
The king encouraged the princess without ever dreaming that he was contradicting himself. He indulged her in everything, making her truly believe that she could do absolutely anything.
As a result, the princess became quite the little hellion. A princess who made her nanny’s life miserable.
“Princess, I told you not to go in there!”
She was always going to places she’d been warned were dangerous. She also enjoyed teasing dogs and cats, and there was no exception even when her own father was riding a horse. After the king fell off his horse, he had to keep his arm in a splint for the next month.
“Please, just stay still for once! Whenever you cause trouble, Princess, I’m the one who gets in trouble!”
Every time that happened, the nanny wanted to cry. Even when she said she couldn’t look after the princess anymore, the king refused to allow it.
There was only one thing left to do. Somehow, she had to find a brilliant way to make that wild princess behave.
The nanny tried all sorts of methods. After failure upon failure upon yet another failure, she finally found something that worked. Telling her stories.
It was a method that hadn’t worked at all when Erin was five. But astonishingly, everything changed once she turned six. Perhaps growing a year older had given her at least a little sense, because while listening to stories, she didn’t play any pranks and quietly paid attention.
There was one condition. The protagonist absolutely had to be the kind of person she liked. A king. And if he wasn’t a great king, Erin quickly lost interest. She would complain that she was bored and hang from the window, terrifying everyone.
So the nanny had no choice but to scrape together the achievements of great kings from here and there and turn them into stories. One of them was an old tale from Grauden.
Rapunzel.
“Rapunzel was a maiden with mysterious hair that could grant any wish.”
It was the story of an evil witch imprisoning Rapunzel in a tower, only for a prince to miraculously discover her one day and rescue her.
“My hair is long too.”
The princess murmured quietly, then the next morning, she hooked her hair around the window latch and jumped.
The child who fell from the second floor gained a broken right leg and a lesson.
“I couldn’t become Rapunzel.”
The nanny felt relieved when she saw the dejected princess. She had gone through a painful experience, so surely she would show a little restraint from now on.
But Erin continued.
“I’m going to be king, so I wasn’t supposed to be Rapunzel. I should’ve climbed down another princess’s hair.”
The princess’s realization had gone in the exact opposite direction from what the nanny had wanted. She had learned a completely hopeless idea as though it were some kind of lesson.
But there was a more fundamental problem than that. In Kalis, a princess couldn’t become king. Erin had no idea and simply believed that, naturally, she would become king when she grew up.
If the nanny told her the truth now, she would be crushing a child’s dream. It didn’t seem like the right thing to do, but that day, the nanny had been severely scolded after an accident happened because she’d taken her eyes off the princess.
Feeling spiteful, the nanny told her the truth. Erin asked, “Why?” as though she couldn’t understand.
“Because that’s the law of this kingdom.”
The nanny replied primly. She explained that everyone had to obey the law and that there were no exceptions.
“Father too?”
“His Majesty as well.”
“I have to follow that law too? No, right?”
“Oh my, even His Majesty can’t defy it, so why would there be an exception for you, Princess? Of course you do.”
“Then what about the king? If it’s not me, who’s going to be king?”
“Prince William, who was born not long ago, will succeed to the throne.”
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