Surviving in a Romance Fantasy Novel

Chapter 6: The Azure Princess (4)

The headmaid of the Azure Dragon Palace rushed in and burst through the back gate of the Heavenly Dragon Hall.

Her disheveled hair and dirt-covered clothes were a clear sign that she was far from ordinary.

The court ladies working late were startled. The Heavenly Dragon Hall where the Heavenly Maiden resides was a place where even the Emperor conducted himself with decorum.

Even if it’s just a humble back gate, it’s not a place where a maid from another palace should carelessly enter.

Moreover, this is not just any maid, but the headmaid of the Azure Dragon Palace. She was looking as though she had been through a rough ordeal.

The court ladies were terrified, thinking perhaps a demon had appeared, but then a petite maid following the headmaid shouted.

“Ran-ah! Are you here, Seol Ran-ah?”

Bun Ryeong, an apprentice maid at the Azure Dragon Palace, was a close friend of Seol Ran.

Since joining the Azure Dragon Palace, she had been too busy dedicating herself to the Azure Princess to meet Seol Ran but they shared a special bond nonetheless.

“What on earth is happening! Hui Yin!”

The headmaid of the Heavenly Dragon Hall appeared above on the balcony.

The old headmaid, a confidant of the Heavenly Maiden, knew the name of the Azure Dragon Palace’s headmaid precisely.

“We need help! Is there an apprentice maid here named Seol Ran…?”

One of the apprentice maids scrubbing the floors was startled.

***

I suffered from the divine fever when I was around seven years old. It was when I was much younger than the current Azure Princess and the illness lasted a much longer period.

When I was cast into this world, my body was already engulfed in searing pain, and it wouldn’t have been surprising if I had died right then.

Yet, I survived. Perhaps it was due to a mental strength far beyond my young body, but that alone couldn’t be the sole reason for my survival.

Seol Ran took care of me while I was staying in an old, abandoned house on the outskirts of a rural village.

Despite the odds, where even a hundred or a thousand sufferers might not yield a single survivor, Seol Ran never doubted my survival and continued to care for me as I battled the divine fever.

While fleeing from the Huayongseol clan, she had sold all the heirlooms she carried and spent the money on visiting every pharmacy before trying every medicine known to be effective.

Night after night, she sat by my side, holding my hand and whispering relentlessly that I would survive.

At that time, Seol Ran couldn’t have been more than ten years old. She was at an age where she needed to be protected rather than protecting someone.

Indeed, not just anyone could be the protagonist of a romance fantasy novel.

The conditions were far more dire than those in the Azure Dragon Palace.

The money from the sold heirlooms that was meant to last a lifetime was squandered on medicine and it was difficult to afford even one meal a day.

At night, the abandoned house let in water, and occasionally, demonic spirits roamed in

The Azure Princess, shedding tears profusely, looked up at the sun high in the sky and whispered those words.

It had been one hundred and sixty-seven days since the girl started suffering from the divine fever.