Princess Alexandra.

“Princess…”

His response deafened her. The young man in front of her had been calling her ‘Your Highness’ from the beginning.

“Princess Alexandra?” Again the name struck her like a punch to the stomach and her eyes went wide before she flopped backwards onto the bed.

She had woken up in the body of Princess Alexandra II, she was thirty-two years old. And as the only blood relative of her older brother, the emperor, she was next in line for the throne.

Although the emperor kept countless women, none had born him an heir. Though no one dared to say it out loud, everyone knew that the problem was with the emperor himself. Thus, the only princess drew more and more attention with the passing years.

Many men sought out the princess’s bedroom in hopes of becoming her husband. And even those who did not want it were eventually pulled into her bed.

The rumour was, the only man in the palace that she had not laid her hands on was her own brother, the emperor.

Not unexpectedly, that princess’s hobby was to ruthlessly throw away her lovers after spending one night together.

Her **** sadism shone through in the actions she took to achieve her desires. She was especially cruel when it came to showing off and taking possession of what she wanted. So, it came to be that the kinds of things that normal people wouldn’t even dare to think about happened in the palace on a regular basis.

But the woman in control was not her, far from it, as she groaned at her own first-hand embarrassment, completely aware that she knew the character's backstory by heart from the novel, the heartless princess was her favourite character after all.

Her mind went back to each page recalling the number of lovers, affairs and heated sex scenes, instantly recalling growing up with the novel hiding it away from her parents whenever she stayed up past her bedtime.

However, past Alexandra’s carnal desires she also recalled her blood lust. The empire she belonged to could have been compared to any generic fantasy evil empire. Conquest was in its nature and she was no different.

From what backstory the novel gave of a younger Alexandra she understood through martial prowess the princess had expanded the empire’s domain, through passion and honour many followed their princess but after victory after victory her passion faded into apathy and her honour cracked. Leaving behind only a terrifying hunger for power, those who once loved and followed the princess fell, to be replaced by the many she conquered. The many that now feared her.

A famous and sadly recent example, on a trip to the neighbouring country of Vanagandr, the first prince of Vanagandr caught her eye.

But the prince of the tiny nation rejected her advances without a second thought. So two months later the princess led her army to Vanagandr and decimated it. ‘Dimitri V Vanagandr’ became her war trophy.

Then, on the night that his country was reduced to the empire’s dependency, he got on his knees before the princess to beg her to spare what was left.

‘That man…’ She recalled his red eyes from when she first saw him. Eyes like desolate embers that had only fury left in them. she felt chills, and the sensation that she had seen the abyss.

Afterwards, the former prince stayed in the palace as a captive, and whenever the princess called he would be dragged off to serve her in bed. It was his only reason for existing.

‘Ohhh hell no wonder he was so angry.’ But as of late, he had become unusually rebellious and had begun to refuse to follow orders. It wasn’t difficult for her to guess the reason.

He had found a woman he loved. The novel’s main heroine.

As one of the main male leads in the novel there was truly no better backstory than his. But she had already seen him not as a character in a novel, but as a living, breathing human being.

It was nothing but a horrible tragedy.

“Why… are you with me?”

She became curious. she wondered if it was possible to not find this woman detestable. As she turned the back to the boy for an answer who looked both frightened and enamoured by her. “ You bought me, your highness… Well someone else handed my previous master the money but ...”

“Hold right there...” She said bluntly as she held her finger up to cease the nervous reply that she didn’t want to hear, remembering a brief snippet in the novel mentioned that slavery was perfectly legal in the empire. A part of her died inside enabled to meet the boy’s beautiful eyes after learning she owned him, technically the tyrannical evil princess whose body she was inhibiting owned him but this didn’t help her conscience.

Clearly seeing her dismay the young **** crawled towards her and invaded her personal space. “If I may speak plainly, my mistress.”

The title caught her attention and left her wide-eyed.

“Despite the rumours, you haven’t killed me yet… Oh! And you do keep me fed!” He almost looked ecstatic to tell her that specific information.

‘Great good to know she treated him more like a dog than a ****… Ugh…’

“And Your Highness took me in even though I’m nothing… you didn’t throw me away.”

She became momentarily speechless.

One good deed couldn’t justify all of the ****, just like how the bruises that coloured his skin like a painting couldn’t be erased.

But he looked serious. He was sincerely grateful. It was enough to make her angry.

Without warning the young man lingered on her face before shyly looking away and looked to her legs. “Mistress, you look upset, may I please you?” Without warning, he lowered himself to plant his lips onto her long legs and kissed his way up their length.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that!” She blatantly spat out, too embarrassed to speak clearly.