CHAPTER 285: NOVEL’S REAL PROTAGONIST

Seeing Vivian Quentin enter her family’s carriage, Aristia turned around, heading to where her family was with the others.

Her parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, and friends were all present.

Seeing that Aristia was done talking to Count Quentin’s third daughter and had come to where they were, they turned to her.

"I had no idea that Tia was behind this." Ross Hemsworth said.

Aristia smiled at him.

Ross and Vasily were present at the banquet. Baby Valen was eleven months old now and would turn a year old in August. He was quite energetic.

He had already begun standing and was gripping onto the skirt of his mother’s gown and babbling.

The Hemsworth couple had moved back to the capital to stay, and once Valen turned a year old, Vasily would continue to tutor her students.

Vasily smiled. She should have known.

Aristia was smart, witty and full of ideas. When there was suddenly a royal order to build storehouses and granaries, her mind hadn’t connected it to Aristia.

But it wasn’t her fault for not realizing. There was no indication that the idea came from Aristia, and Aristia herself hadn’t revealed it.

Zender and Roxanne were equally proud.

"You’ve done well, Tia." Zender said, impressed.

They had also made the trip from the Hemsworth Fief in the North to the capital.

They wouldn’t be returning to the North immediately, but would stay in the capital for some time.

The ones who would return to the Hemsworth Fief were Carter and his wife Rulia, Ross’s parents, but they would make the journey after a few days.

So right now, the whole of Aristia’s extended family were all present.

But even the close friends were too; the Eldridge, Kiran, and Oswalt.

One by one, the families left the palace in their carriages.

In her family’s carriage.

Alaric leaned his head on Aristia’s shoulder while she looked out of the window at the night scenery outside the window.

Wilson and Catherine sat across from them.

"Did you know that uncle would reveal that I was the one who formed the idea?" Aristia asked.

Wilson nodded his head. Of course he knew that his brother planned to use this event to announce the real brain behind the idea.

His brother wouldn’t feel comfortable receiving the praise for something his niece had done.

Wilson also agreed with him. Even though he was aware that it didn’t matter to Aristia, but his precious daughter deserved to receive credit for her hard work.

Even grown men wouldn’t be able to think of a better solution.

Aristia didn’t say anything else. She also understood their reasons.

[Well, I’m sure by tomorrow, the news will spread. I can already imagine; third princess Aristia said to be the one who found a solution for the famine. It won’t be with this media tone, but if this world had a media, I’m sure it would make headlines.]

The carriage entered the mansion.

Aristia and her family came down from the carriage and entered the mansion.

They weren’t hungry. They had all eaten their fill in the palace during the banquet.

After wishing her family goodnight, Aristia went to bed, not expecting to have a dream, if it could even be called that.

She had just closed her eyes when sleep pulled her in and suddenly, she was in the same dark space as before.

There was the book in front of her again.

Aristia grabbed it and just like before, it stopped floating and landed lightly in her arms.

She opened the book with a bit of reluctance. She didn’t want to open the book and not be able to read it.

But when she opened the book, she discovered that... she could read it!

Chime!

A soft sound of light being switched on sounded.

Aristia turned, and to her surprise, there was a light shining over a couch.

[Hmm... Has this couch always been here? Maybe it was, but because of the darkness, I didn’t see it. Or maybe it just appeared out of thin air.]

She walked towards the couch and sat down with the book still in her hands.

She began reading the book, but the more she read, the more her brows furrowed.

"This isn’t Aristia." She said with a frown.

No. The novel was talking about another girl. This girl was the protagonist.

A wry smile appeared on Aristia’s face as she muttered. "It’s actually her."

The book’s real female lead was none other than... Carolyn Cornwell.

Aristia pushed all thoughts out of her mind and focused on reading the book.

Carolyn Cornwell had been living with her commoner mother. She was the illegitimate child of Baron Cornwell.

When the Baron’s wife died, he suddenly discovered that he had a daughter.

Carolyn’s mother’s health had depreciated. When she saw that she wouldn’t be able to live long, she told her daughter to find her father, not wanting her to suffer.

She died, leaving Carolyn alone in the world.

Carolyn wandered for a time before finally meeting her father by coincidence on one occasion.

He immediately recognized her because she looked so much like the commoner woman he had loved, Carolyn’s mother.

He was sad that her mother had died, but immediately took her in.

She first appeared in society during the Kingdom’s anniversary banquet.

Reading up till this point, Aristia stopped.

"So she first appeared during the Kingdom’s anniversary? That’s two months from now. Why did she appear earlier on? Could it be a butterfly effect?"

The book didn’t mention this banquet they just returned from because obviously, before she entered the book world, the kingdom would have no solution and the situation the book she read had described would happen.

The banquet they just attended was to celebrate the solution that helped them survive the famine, so since there was no solution in the book, there was no banquet like that.

The only banquet that was held was the Kingdom’s anniversary.

With such a situation, the kingdom wouldn’t be in a mood to hold a banquet, but the Kingdom’s anniversary had to be celebrated as it was tradition.

Aristia didn’t think this book was wrong.

Because it contained a lot of information that the other book didn’t, and she didn’t think that this book that was so mysterious could be wrong.

She continued reading the book.

In the anniversary banquet, Carolyn was shy, but her pureness made the noble children love her.

She encountered the Kingdom’s Crown Prince when she left the banquet hall for some fresh air because she felt overwhelmed, and the two began talking.

The Crown Prince told her that he would be hosting a tea party, and that she was invited. After agreeing to attend and thanking him, Carolyn left him outside after curtseying with a lovely smile and returned to the banquet.

Her sweet, bashful smile left a mark on the prince’s heart.

It took a few second before it clicked in Aristia’s mind.

[The Kingdom’s Crown Prince. Amberale’s Crown Prince... Ivan?!] She was dumbfounded.

She wasn’t stupid. Ivan never hosted tea parties. It was obvious that he had taken a liking to Carolyn.

But when he returned to the banquet, he was stunned to see her with teary eyes.

Going to see what was the cause of her tears, he saw that it was his cousin, Aristia, who had made her cry. That was the end of the Chapter.

"Oh, I’ve finally appear— Wait! How did I— no, I mean, original Aristia, make her cry? What sort of bullshit is this? I should have known this book was no different from that stupid book!" Aristia couldn’t hold back cursing.

No, she couldn’t stand any sort of injustice to herself.

She remembered the girl she had seen in the banquet hall. Carolyn Cornwell had the face of an angel and could easily control people’s emotions. Aristia was sure that original Aristia hadn’t done anything to warrant tears from the girl.

[Or maybe she did, judging from her reputation and her encounter with Vivian Quentin... I don’t know? But whatever!]

She looked at the book with fierce eyes before turning the second page, but... the page refused to turn.

"Eh?" Aristia asked. What was this all of a sudden? Was it because she had insulted the book and compared it to that stupid book?

Suddenly, her hand moved on its own accord.

It flipped the book to the first page, and before she knew it, she was reading the book again.

She couldn’t control herself until she had finished reading the first Chapter the second time, but the book still refused to turn to the second Chapter, as if it was glued.

She groaned. What was the point of rereading the book if the page still won’t turn?

Letting go of the book, she suddenly woke up.

It was morning.

She swiped her hair back with her palm.

She sat up on the bed and thought about the information she had just read.

[I can’t believe Carolyn Cornwell is the real protagonist of this story.]

A dreadful thought formed in her mind.

[If Carolyn is the protagonist, then... what does that make me?]