“Your Highness, she’s using you! Burn her at once!”
“I’ll burn you all first! She is my beloved consort!”
“Your Highness, do not be tempted by her beauty! She is a Mimic Beast; she can change into anything! She took this form just to seduce you, Your Highness!”
“What? She can change her appearance? That’s even better!”
!
Vera snapped her eyes open. As expected, it was only a nightmare.
Yet, it sounded exactly like something that man would say.
She cupped some ice-cold water and splashed it onto her face. The Mimic Beast opened her eyes to look at “herself” in the mirror.
The person in the mirror had dazzling, long, fire-red hair, a perfect oval face, an exquisite nose, pale pink lips, and a pair of seductive, pale gold eyes.
Moving her gaze downward, beneath a slender, swan-like neck, was a deep, bottomless valley between two snowy peaks.
She still couldn’t understand why both human males and females liked this heavy fat.
Vera gave it a squeeze.
It was soft, but it offered no defensive power whatsoever. It only hindered her in battle.
At that thought, the Mimic Beast pressed her hand against her chest and pushed hard. With a poof, the mountains turned into a plain.
‘Ah, that’s better.’ Vera moved her arms around; it was much more convenient.
Knock, knock. Someone tapped on the wooden door.
“Lady Vera, I’ve brought breakfast. Are you awake?”
Outside the door stood a castle maid. Judging by her voice, Vera knew it was the one with the most chest fat — and the one who was pursued the most.
“Just leave it outside. I’ll get it myself,” Vera ordered the maid.
At the same time, she relaxed her control over the plain on her chest.
The area swelled once more into towering mountains because that was how she appeared in the eyes of these humans.
“Understood, Lady Vera. The bread and hot soup are on the stand. Please enjoy them quickly, or they’ll be too cold and hard to bite.”
The delivery maid placed the food on the stone ledge outside the door and continued pushing her cart to deliver meals to the other knights in the castle.
Only after the rumbling sound of the cart’s wheels faded into the distance did Vera open the door to retrieve her food.
Today’s breakfast was the same as always: a few slices of black bread.
Even if it was toasted and heated, it had to be soaked in hot bean soup to soften completely before eating.
Otherwise, its hardness rivaled the bluestone used to build the castle; one might lose a few teeth before finishing a single slice.
As the Lord’s Chief Knight, Vera’s meal included more than just black bread and hot bean soup.
She also had a few slices of salted beef that looked as if they had drowned in a pile of salt, along with one boiled egg.
This was considered a luxurious meal in this kingdom.
Vera habitually checked the food for safety first.
Then, a vertical mouth split open in the center of her body.
She dumped all the food inside, closed the maw, and finished the entire meal in an instant.
After finishing breakfast, it was time to start the day’s work.
Since becoming the Chief Knight, Vera’s daily routine was simple.
Unless there were special missions, she provided close-range protection for the Lord’s safety around the clock.
While almost everyone else in the castle had to splash cold water on themselves to wake up and plunge into a new day of work, only the black-haired youth before Vera could continue enjoying his time with the God of Dreams.
This man was Vera’s master, the fourth son of King William Simeklund of the Black Cross Kingdom, a legal candidate for the throne, the Lord of Hanover in the Northwestern Frontier Province, and the protagonist of Vera’s nightmare — Anke Hi Meklund.
Once, an old human man had prophesied to Vera: “Anke Hi Meklund will become the next King of the Black Cross Kingdom. Furthermore, he will be the King of Kings who conquers the entire world, ending the history of all empires.”
‘That sounds so fake…’
“Exactly. This fraud didn’t even do his homework before coming out to scam people.”
Vera had expressed her doubts, and the passersby nearby had scoffed at the prophecy even more.
“Who doesn’t know that even if our Fourth Prince isn’t famous, he’s certainly infamous?”
“Words like ‘debauched’ and ‘unfettered’ are actually compliments for the Fourth Prince.”
Faced with everyone’s skepticism, the old man who gave the prophecy only said, “One cannot judge the development of things by their outward appearance. My prophecy will never be wrong.”
Shouldering the mission of reviving her race and being new to the human kingdoms, the Mimic Beast Vera instinctively chose to believe the prophecy.
Under the incredulous gazes of the onlookers, she paid half a pancake as the fee for the prophecy.
However, once Vera became Anke’s Chief Knight and truly interacted with him, her deepening understanding of the human world’s rules made her feel more and more like she had been scammed.
There was an ancient proverb from the East: “Rotten mud cannot support a wall.” It was the perfect description for someone like Anke.
Yet, unfortunately, aside from being the “King of Prophecy,” Anke was Vera’s only option.
The only comfort Vera could find was that although Anke was a waste, he wasn’t the kind of bastard noble who killed people regardless of whether he was happy or angry.
In short, he had a pile of minor flaws, but no major ones.
“Good morning, Vera.”
While she was lost in thought, Anke woke up. He even greeted his Chief Knight, who was standing guard by his bed.
This was one of his minor flaws: he lacked the self-awareness of a noble and treated everyone the same way.
Although Vera was the Chief Knight, her bloodline remained that of a commoner.
As a member of the top tier of the nobility, Anke had no need to be so friendly to her.
It would only cause other nobles to look down on him.
“Good morning, Your Highness. Have you rested well? Do you need to sleep a little longer?”
“No need. Waking up naturally is healthy enough. Any more sleep and I’ll turn into a pig,” Anke replied with a wave of his hand.
“Your Highness surely likes to joke. How could a person turn into a pig just from sleeping?”
‘Hmph, another minor flaw.’
Occasionally, he would speak nonsense, using phrases that even people from the East wouldn’t say.
Vera thought silently to herself before calling the maids outside to come in and help Anke wash and dress.
Once dressed by the maids, Anke’s short black hair fell slightly over his brow.
His pale purple eyes, inherited from his mother, shimmered with intelligence.
With a high bridge to his nose, thin lips, and skin whiter than most women’s due to the lack of labor under the sun, he looked like a prince from a young girl’s storybook come to life. He stood over 6 feet tall.
From a human perspective, Anke was very handsome and highly attractive to females — and occasionally to males. So the Mimic Beast lady evaluated him.
It was just a pity that for someone with such an outstanding appearance, his soul was a failing grade. Vera couldn’t help but sigh.
“Let’s go, Vera. Let’s head to the Alchemy Workshop and see how the production of the muskets is coming along.”
Sure enough, as soon as Anke spoke, his image as a perfect prince shattered into pieces.
Vera thought that Anke’s etiquette teacher would probably wish he could sew the prince’s mouth shut.
“If I may be so bold, Your Highness, you should still train a powerful army to protect the territory’s safety and compete for the throne with the First Prince and the others, rather than obsessing over an alchemist’s tricks.”
On the way to the Alchemy Workshop, Vera couldn’t help but try to persuade Anke. After all, their current situation was not optimistic.
“Trust me, Vera. Once I succeed, these muskets can sweep through any army in this world and change it forever.”
Anke wasn’t discouraged by Vera’s words. Instead, he squeezed his horse with his legs and accelerated toward the Alchemy Workshop.
‘Believing that an alchemist’s weapon can sweep away all enemies and change the world… That prophecy really was fake. How could a person like this become the King of Kings who conquers the entire world?’ Vera lamented in her heart.