Volume 1 Chapter 1 Prologue
──Lydia Rest, I will break off our engagement!
At the graduation ceremony, my fiancé, Sir Stefan Bernard, said this in a cold voice.
Just thinking about it makes my insides boil.
Why did I have to be the one to have my engagement canceled?
I'm the eldest daughter of the glorious Rest priest family, and yet I'm being dumped...!
I added a little water to the frying pan where 2 eggs were sizzling, then closed the lid.
The sizzling sound changed to a gentle bubbling.
*Bubbling.*
*Hissing.*
The delicious smell of the eggs cooking filled the air.
"This grudge... this pain will make you taste better, eggs...!"
I chanted a curse over the eggs in the frying pan.
It's not like I have any magical power. In fact, I don't have magic.
I just whispered to myself about being the glorious eldest daughter of the Rest priest family.
But really, I'm a failure.
"...Ugh, it's so hard... The eggs look so good, but it's just painful..."
Staring at the frying pan, I started to cry softly.
I was too emotionally unstable.
I wondered about myself. It was about 6 months ago that I was told by my fiancé, Crown Prince Stefan, that he was breaking off our engagement at the graduation ceremony of the Royal Ascalith Academy.
Next to Sir Stephan was my half-sister, Francois, who was a year younger than me, sticking close to him.
The reason she's my half-sister is that Francois is the child of a concubine.
My mother passed away early, so Francois's mother is no longer a concubine but the legal wife.
Unlike me, Francois is a talented child who inherited the power of the Rest priest family.
My father had high hopes for Francois and seemed to have no interest in me at all.
"If you're going to break off the engagement, you should have made Francois your fiancé from the start...!"
It seems my father originally planned to use me for a political marriage.
For a failure like me, that's about all I'm good for.
I think it's kind of amazing to be chosen as the Crown Prince's fiancée, but there's a reason for this.
Here in the Bernard Kingdom, we worship the divine ancestor, Theobart, and the power of the priestly family that oversees the church that preserves the state religion is very strong.
In other words, my engagement to Sir Stefan was requested by the royal family.
The reason they wanted me instead of Francois is because Francois's mother, my stepmother, originally came from a background as a high-class courtesan.
That's a secret, but those who know, know.
It's a scandal when the high priest visits a brōtḥel and even makes a courtesan his legitimate wife.
"Sunny-side up, I have a second one, so sunny-side up person... you're on my side, right? You're the only one who understands this pain, this sadness..."
Muttering to myself, I opened the lid of the frying pan.
The kitchen, powered by fire magic stones, has several fire magic stones hidden inside the stove.
Unlike firewood, they burn steadily and cause fewer fires, so many modern stoves use fire magic stones.
Magic stones are great. They can be used even without magical power.
"Anyway, I have no magical power. I'm worthless. A worthless human. Even lower than a sunny-side up person..."
Inside the frying pan, 2 sunny-side up eggs with their runny yolks were wobbling as they looked at me.
I sighed.
I placed a fried egg on a white plate, and now I started to cook 2 sausages.
"In the end, if he's going to make Francois his fiancé, then one's background doesn't matter, right?"
According to Sir Stefan, who broke off our engagement, my reasons were that 'I bullied Francois because of her background,' 'I have no magical power, so I'm not fit to be a queen,' and 'Francois, who inherited the power of the priest family, is the one who deserves to be the queen.'
So, on the memorable day of the graduation ceremony, I was dumped and didn't go back to the Rest Priest family.
Honestly, I never had a place there.
My father only doted on Francois, and my stepmother did too, of course.
The servants looked down on me for not having magical power, and I wasn't even allowed to cook.
If I went back there after being dumped, I couldn't imagine what would happen to me.
Since there were only Francois and me as children in the priest family, Francois was supposed to take a husband, but that would probably fall through too.
If they told me to marry the second son of the Duke family, Sir Roxas Girard, who was supposed to be Francois's fiancé, that would be the worst.
I would be hated for life.
Especially since I didn't do anything wrong.
So, I went back to the school dorm, packed my things, and ran away.
After a lot of things happened, I'm now living quietly in a corner of the royal capital.
"...Today's fried egg is filled with resentment, isn't it..."
I placed the two cooked sausages next to the fried egg.
Then, I added fresh lettuce and 2 cherry tomatoes.
A perfect breakfast was ready.
"Thank you for waiting! Here's the dark fried egg, served with sausages so annoying I could crush them!"
I cheerfully said the name of the perfect breakfast menu while carrying the fried egg to the dining table across the counter in the kitchen.
"Looks delicious again today, Lydia! Please, will you join my knight squad?"
The big man sitting nicely in the chair was so happy trying to hire me that I just ignored him.
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