I Became A Wretched Extra In A Healing Story - Chapter 3

Finely chopped vegetables disappeared as if hidden inside the dainty lips. At the same time, the small and cute lower jaw began to move diligently.

Every time the chin moved, the head bobbed, making the pink hair sway. The chubby cheeks, like marshmallows, moved along with the munching lips.

The child’s appearance was truly adorable. It was as if a doll had come to life.

However, the eyes of those watching the child were colder than the frost of midwinter. The atmosphere was so fierce that it seemed as if they were facing a lifelong enemy.

Gulp.

Finally, the food went down the child’s throat. A moment of silence followed. Then, the brown-haired maid standing nearby swiftly took away the food in front of the child.

“That’s enough, take it away.”

The food she took was carried on a luxurious tray and disappeared through a side door. As if waiting for that moment, voices were heard from beyond the thick wall.

“Oh my. This is the stir-fried vegetables that Her Highness likes.”

“It’s really amazing. Children usually love meat, but our dear princess prefers vegetables over meat.”

“That’s why I’m more worried. She should eat a lot of meat too. She only eats vegetables. She’s so small that ysheou might blow away in the wind.”

The worried voice soon took on a warm tone as they spoke about the princess’s loveliness.

“Did Her Highness wake up late today?”

“Recently, as Her Highness mentioned, a group of demonic beasts appeared near the capital. It seems there were many things to discuss with the knight commander because of that.”

“How did she know in advance? She’s still so young… Our princess is truly brilliant.”

Meanwhile, another dish arrived in front of the child. It was a delicious-looking steak.

The dishes in front of the child were quickly cleared away and replaced with new ones.

Then, a small piece of steak, cut from the edge, was placed in front of the child.

The child picked up the tiny piece of meat with a fork that was cleaner than a fingernail and put it back into her mouth.

Once again, all eyes were on the child. Their gazes were so cold that it felt suffocating.

But shortly after.

“Good morning, everyone!”

A clear voice echoed from beyond the wall, and the icy atmosphere melted away in an instant.

“Your Highness.”

“I missed you all!”

“I missed you too. I longed for you all night, Your Highness.”

“Me too! Even when I see you, I want to see you again.”

The princess burst into laughter at the honey-dripping flattery.

The clear and lovely laughter brought gentle smiles to the faces of the maids, but their expressions turned cold again when they looked back at the pink-haired child.

Gulp.

Not long after the child chewed and swallowed the food, the steak also quickly disappeared on the tray.

Then, tap tap. The maid tapped the table. It was an order to leave.

The child, who stood up, slightly lifted her skirt and greeted everyone before leaving through the small side door, but no one returned the greeting.

They just,

“Delicious!”

focused on the sound from beyond the wall, smiling pleasantly.

As if they had forgotten the girl’s existence.

* * *

“Ugh.”

With a sharp twist of the stomach, food poured out of Reibella’s mouth. Her small hands clutched the toilet tightly.

“Haa.”

After emptying her stomach, Reibella rinsed her mouth and let out a small sigh. Despite vomiting, she felt worse than usual.

‘They say the food in the imperial palace is like food from heaven.’

It was all lies.

The food had no taste, and the stares that pierced her as she took each bite were the worst. She almost missed the hard bread crumbs she ate on the cold floor of the prison.

But she had no choice but to eat.

‘I will give you the opportunity to taste the meals of Her Highness first. It is a position too good for a traitor like you.’
‘You should be grateful that you are the same age as Her Highness.’

That’s why she was brought here.

A few days ago, instead of going to the mountain of demonic beasts, Reibella was dragged to the imperial palace and given the role of the princess’s ‘taster.’

She was to taste the food before the princess did.

At first glance, it seemed like a position too good for her, as they said. To dare share the same food as the princess, who was higher than the sky! Even though her family was destroyed for rebellion!

But in reality, it was to check if the princess’s food was poisoned and, if it was lethal, to eat it and die first.

Every day, she was trembling in fear and suffering as she ate food that might be poisoned. She was supposed to atone for her sins.

What kind of fool in the world would take this as a generous consideration?

‘Same age? Grateful, my foot.’

They must have brought her because they thought she could filter out special poisons that worked on similar ages.

‘Besides, I heard another taster died a few days ago.’

Most of the time, the food was safe as it went through a mage’s inspection, but sometimes poisons undetected by magic were found.

Such an incident occurred recently, and Reibella was chosen as a replacement for the dead taster.

‘There won’t be poison again, right?’
‘No way, there hasn’t been anything for years… but two have already died.’

Everyone tried to hush it up, but the malice of people with ill intentions was always transparent.

‘The other person is a fragile child.’

No matter how much they disliked Felicity, sending poison was too much. These people lacked basic human decency to the extent that she would rather root for the person who sent the poison.

Thanks to them, she realized within a day of arriving at the imperial palace that her position was precarious.

Reibella, who rinsed her mouth and wiped off the water, trudged toward the bed.

Thud. Lying on the small bed in the tiny room she used alone, she organized her thoughts.

‘…What on earth is happening?’

The current timeline was the omitted section before the phrase ‘10 years later’ appeared after the end of the first part of the novel.

The protagonist, Princess Erina, had resolved her misunderstanding with the emperor and was happy. The transition from childhood to adulthood is a period skipped in the novel.

So, even though she remembered the original story well, she didn’t know much about what happened during this time.

The only thing she could be sure of was…

‘If I stay like this, I’ll die.’

The existence of a taster wasn’t a prominent role in the original story, but she was so close to the princess.

Moreover, the fact that the name ‘Reibella’ was never mentioned once in that long novel probably meant her future wasn’t bright.

The likelihood of her surviving the next ten years was extremely low.

‘This is really the worst.’

Wasn’t this novel supposed to be a healing story? Why did it feel like a hopeless, tragic story?

‘I need to escape quickly.’

To get out of this miserable situation, she had to distance herself from the original story as much as possible. As far away as possible, to a place not even mentioned in the story.

If she were to escape, it would be best to go to the Kingdom of Baribe, which had no contact with the empire until the novel’s end.

‘But to get there, I have to pass through Louvindisi…’

Louvindisi was the territory of the novel’s villain, the Duke of Vicheravali.

And it was also the family of the male protagonist, Royan. The madly devoted man who killed his father, who threatened the emperor and princess, and offered Vicheravali to the female protagonist.

‘If I get caught by him, I’m dead.’

Would he let her live just because of her hostility towards the princess, when he even killed his own father?

Everywhere was a minefield.

Reibella, who rubbed her cold face, took a deep breath.

‘First, let’s focus on surviving in the imperial palace.’

The immediate danger was the ‘poison’ she might encounter during the tasting process.

If it was a poison that even mages couldn’t detect, it was probably similar to the poison the princess consumed in the second part of the original story.

‘It was sent by those who were seeking revenge against the emperor.’

In the novel, villains who were tormented by the emperor continuously targeted the princess with poison.

In the second part, the princess eventually consumed the poison, leading to a scene where the emperor regretted making so many enemies in the past.

‘I have to die for that damn regret scene.’

This is driving me crazy.

The only fortunate thing was that there was a way to survive even if she consumed the poison.

In the novel, the princess ate a certain flower and woke up, which was a panacea that detoxified all poisons.

With that, she would be fine even if she ate poison or took a poison bath.

‘I need to get it.’

She knew what the flower looked like and what it smelled like. The problem was she didn’t know where it bloomed.

‘It was rare outside, but the imperial palace was overflowing with it, according to the setting.’

It was said to be so abundant that you could trip over it, but despite searching the imperial palace for the past few days, she couldn’t find it.

Was it not there because it would be used ten years later, or had she simply not found it yet? Or was it because she wasn’t the protagonist?

Surely it must be blooming somewhere in the imperial palace. If she searched thoroughly, she would find it. Unfortunately, Reibella didn’t have the time to search the vast imperial palace.

She could die from poison as soon as tomorrow.

‘There’s no time to waste.’

Being anxious and stomping her feet wouldn’t change anything. She had to save her own life.

Suddenly, Reibella stood up, adjusted her clothes, and walked toward the door with a determined expression.

It was time to head back to the battlefield.