Even when Serena glared at Anna, she didn’t budge and finally spoke.

“Why are you saying that? You know my heart better than anyone, Anna. I didn’t want this marriage either, and wanted to live freely in Astel by myself.”

“Yes.”

Anna still faced Serena with a stern expression.

“But there’s no one in this world who lives exactly as they want.”

That was true for the emperor, attendants, knights, and beggars alike. No one was born because they wanted to be, and no one could be free at the countless crossroads of life. It was a fate that no human could avoid.

“That’s because the prejudices of this world make it so. Even a woman can live alone sufficiently…”

“Your Highness has often said such things before.”

Anna rarely interrupted Serena. After suffering from a high fever, the ducal lady often said this world’s frameworks and prejudices were wrong before abruptly leaving for the Astel estate.

“But who is the one living freely alone? Is His Highness the Crown Prince truly free?”

“At least he’s not bound by rules like I am. He can do what he wants and fulfill his ambitions.”

“No. He is already bound by greater rules than Her Highness the Crown Princess and cannot be free for even a moment. All the royals in this palace are like that. Except for one person, Her Highness the Crown Princess.”

Back then, it was considered just a phase of growth, but if her mindset was the same after 6 years, someone had to scold her.

“Whose side are you on? So you’re saying the Crown Prince is unconditionally right and great?”

“Is that how it seems?”

Serena was wise and clever, but sometimes her emotions got ahead of her. Then even the smartest person would lose their logic and throw tantrums like a child.

“Your Highness. Face reality.”

Today, even Anna couldn’t indulge that childishness.

“I’m saying this only for the sake of Your Highness the Crown Princess.”

Rather, it was because she was Anna that she had to awaken Serena to reality even more. If not her, no one could set the current Serena straight.

“Your Highness is no longer a lady without any responsibilities.”

“I…!”

“Nor are you the acting duchess.”

At those words, Serena bit her lip as if resentful.

“That was my place. My true role where I could fulfill myself.”

“No. That was never the case.”

Anna cut her off. Because Anna was always so kind, Serena’s eyes wavered.

“That position was given to you by your father, the Duke of Astel. The same goes for your status as the duke’s daughter. No matter how much Your Highness achieved, it was possible because you were of the Astel Dukedom.”

In fact, Serena knew it too. She said the rules of this world oppressed her, but that didn’t mean her modern self was free either.

“Furthermore, being part of the Astel Dukedom is your father the Duke’s share for the duties he upheld. Doesn’t the Duke always fulfill his obligations to the empire even while wandering the world?”

Rather, in her past life, no one paid attention to her, but as Serena, people gathered around her and listened to her words.

It was because Serena was the only daughter of Duke Astel, not because she was outstanding.

“No one can be free from their destiny. You must not turn your eyes away from that reality now.”

Even if she had entered this story the same way, even if she was just a supporting character and not the real protagonist Elise, it would have been impossible if she were an orphan or commoner.

“And you must not give up as you are now.”

“Because I’m the Crown Princess?”

Becoming the Crown Princess was an inevitable fate. The original Serena became empress later on, and she became that Serena.

“No. No one should give up on their life. Because if you give up on yourself, you can’t find any salvation.”

Indeed, who could help if she let go of her own happiness? But right now, she didn’t have the strength to rouse her helpless heart.

“I know, this could all just be the grumbling of a well-fed person. But I was truly happy developing Astel. That was my everything.”

Serena barely poured out her true feelings.

She thought she had finally become a meaningful being while governing the Astel estate, but now it felt like it all disappeared and she woke from a dream.

“That’s just a part of Your Highness’ life. Will you throw everything away just because you don’t like your current role?”

Living was never easy. In her past life and in this story. Just as not every moment in life could be sweet.

“Since Your Highness is wise, I won’t say any more.”

“Anna…”

“Rest well today.”

Anna bowed and gazed at Serena for a moment before closing the door and leaving. Serena lay down again and tried to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t come easily and her thoughts only grew longer.

“It’s the same in any world.”

There was never a time when she was completely free in her past life either. The rules of the world were different, but living as a person was the same. In her past life, she had nearly lost her role.

That helplessness, despair, repetition of the same life with no expectations for the future… Serena shuddered recalling that feeling.

“I don’t want to live like that again.”

There was nothing more miserable than a person without a role. The loneliness of no one having expectations or recognizing you was terrible.

“Ah…”

Suddenly, a thought crossed Serena’s mind.

That was Serena’s future to come. It was also a part she had completely forgotten while seeing Lucas’ persistent courtship and earnest eyes.

“It was the future I’m creating now.”

If she rejected Lucas’ courtship and pushed him away, naturally no marital ties could form. If that time stretched on, she would become an empress with no presence.

“Just an empress in name only.”

Since it was an imperial wedding he stubbornly insisted on, it seemed her position as empress was preserved, but eventually the nobles would seek out the next empress and the real protagonist Elise would appear.

“A being that can’t even be a supporting character, just passing by.”

Serena closed her eyes. In this story, Serena was no more than such a being, but now it was completely her life. And in their own lives, everyone becomes the protagonist.

No matter how much Elise was the real protagonist, in Serena’s current life, she herself was the most important.

“Can I change it?”

Perhaps because she knew from the start that this story had its own real protagonist, Serena had never thought about the distant future.

Because when some time passed after Serena became empress and Elise appeared, inevitably the center of the whole story would shift to Elise.

“Living moderately here and exiting moderately… I can’t do that.”

She didn’t want to get too attached to this world. Hadn’t she already experienced struggling alone only to have the stage taken by the real protagonist in her past life? But if… there was a chance?

“What I truly wanted…”

No one wishes for loneliness from the start. No one lives for the repetition of powerless days either.

“I…”

The reason she secretly shed tears and was hurt each time was because she actually wanted to become the protagonist. At least on the stage of her own life, she wanted to become a wonderful protagonist.

“That’s right.”

Why hadn’t she realized it until now?

“I didn’t purely want to just govern Astel.”

Serena had been mistaken all along. It was because when she first fell into this story, she drew her own limits as not being the real protagonist.

It was a truly thoughtless idea to do whatever she wanted since she had a role to live moderately and exit moderately.

“I wanted to be recognized. And… I wanted to live a meaningful life.”

What she accomplished in Astel was possible because she had the senses and knowledge of a modern person, not because she could be called an excellent monarch.

Perhaps she had only gained a canvas to spread her dreams on. And there were more canvases in Serena’s life.

“Why did I think Astel was everything?”

She already knew the answer. It was because she set her own limits.

“…It wasn’t the rules of this world.”

Serena had thought that what confined her was external oppression. So it was inevitable, not her fault. What could she, who wasn’t even the protagonist in the first place, do?

“It was all because of me.”

Serena was wrong.

“Didn’t I say I don’t care about others’ gazes anymore, that I won’t live as others dictate…?”

If Elise being the real protagonist was the only truth of this world, there was no explaining what Serena’s life had been until now.

“And yet I’m not the protagonist?”

The emotions she shared with the people by her side, Astel’s prosperity, the black eyes that steadily gazed at her… All of those things were already her life and undoubtedly existed.

“There’s no way all of this is nothing.”

What Serena truly needed to realize wasn’t that she could do anything, but that she had to break the premise of this story.

She ranted on about not being swayed by others’ words or opinions anymore, so why had she so easily submitted to the fact that only Elise was the real protagonist and not herself?

“It’s me.”

Serena slowly exhaled.

“It has to be me.”

Right now, a crack was forming in this world.

“I’m the protagonist.”

The moment she recited those words, countless memories and stories flowed into Serena’s mind.

“I am.”

It was the moment the soul that entered this story 6 years ago truly realized its existence and meaning.

It was an instant and also a very long time. And when Serena opened her eyes again, a new her opened her eyes together from within.

“I… am the protagonist.”

It was the awakening of the new protagonist in this story.