Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
In the third year after my novel transmigration, I stumbled onto a secret that could get me killed.
Adrian Ravenscroft—the male lead—could hear my thoughts.
At that very moment, in the middle of the grand hall, my younger half-sister Lydia was performing the stolen Song of the Beauty, and I had just been mocking her in my head.
Dancing like she has a muscle spasm.
Then Adrian Ravenscroft, the prince regent who held the entire court in the palm of his hand, suddenly looked up and pinned me—the story’s disposable side character and legitimate elder daughter—with a gaze sharp enough to skin me alive.
Music swelled through the hall, bright and glittering, while Lydia Ashford danced in flowing white silk at the center of the floor.
As she spun, she cast a glance toward Adrian and sang in a soft, sweet voice, “In the north there is a beauty, peerless, standing alone…”
I lowered my eyes and shelled peanuts with perfect calm, though inwardly I was laughing myself sick.
Li Yannian’s Song of the Beauty, used here in the imperial capital to flirt with a man? What is this—did someone fail geography and decide confidence would cover it?
The next second, a piercing gaze cut clean through the noise of the room and landed directly on me.
My heart dropped.
Why are you looking at me? Your precious heroine is the one dancing.
I immediately straightened my back and arranged myself into the picture of a proper noble lady.
After all, no one wanted to catch the attention of the book’s villainous male lead.
In the novel I’d transmigrated into, Adrian Ravenscroft was the all-powerful prince regent.
Lydia was the transmigrated heroine with an obvious plot cheat built into her life.
According to the original storyline, the two of them were supposed to become a one-and-only true-love match.
As for me, the elder sister? I was nothing but a jealous disposable side character who, in the end, would be mutilated beyond recognition.
I had spent three full years lying low, minding my business, eating well, staying alive, and waiting for the final chapter to pass me by.
And now, one look from Adrian had wrecked the whole plan.
Lydia’s long sleeves whirled through the hall, her waist twisting as if she didn’t have a spine at all.
She had clearly gone out of her way to create that carefully crafted innocent-seductress look—flushed eyes, parted lips, the expression of a woman with far too much left unsaid.
Around us, the nobles and royals began praising her at once.
“The Ashford family’s second daughter is truly dazzling.”
“What a masterpiece—surely such music belongs in heaven and is only rarely heard on earth!”
Lydia listened to the compliments with her chin slightly raised, smug satisfaction gleaming in her eyes—the self-assurance of a transmigrated heroine absolutely convinced the world existed to applaud her.
She spun to a stop in front of Adrian, letting her sleeve brush his wine cup on purpose, her gaze soft and clinging.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
I popped another peanut into my mouth and continued my silent critique.
This dance is a disaster. No structure, no control.
Her footing’s weak, her turns are sloppy, and she’s barely keeping her balance.
She can fool this crowd of backwater aristocrats, maybe, but that’s about it.
And Adrian is pathetic too. A prince regent reduced by the plot to some lovestruck idiot who only cares about a pretty face.
You’re telling me he’s actually mesmerized by this flailing mess?
Adrian had been holding a wine cup, his expression cool and detached.
Suddenly, he stopped.
He set the cup down and tapped his fingers lightly against the table.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound wasn’t loud, but the hall gradually fell silent anyway.
Everyone’s attention turned to him.
Lydia stopped dancing at once and knelt shyly before him, eyes full of expectation.
According to the original story, this was the moment when Adrian should have rewarded her with a ceremonial jade scepter and granted her a wish.
It was supposed to be the beginning of their romance.
Instead, Adrian parted his lips and said, in a voice as cold as winter steel, “Miss Ashford.”
Lydia’s face lit up. “Your Highness.”
“How long did you spend practicing that dance?” he asked.
In her most delicate voice, she replied, “For today’s birthday banquet, I practiced for over three months.”
Adrian gave a short, scornful laugh.
“Three months,” he said, “to produce footing that unstable and a complete lack of core strength?”
The entire hall erupted.
Lydia’s smile froze on her face. She stared up at him in disbelief.
I nearly sprayed tea across the table.
What the hell?
Did someone swap his soul out overnight?
How does he even know what core strength is?
That was exactly what I was thinking!
His gaze drifted back to me, unreadable, with the faintest trace of amusement in his eyes.
Ignoring Lydia, who looked moments away from collapsing, he lifted one hand and pointed in my direction.
“Who is that?”
My father, Lord Ashford, the Chancellor, was on his feet in an instant, wiping sweat from his brow.
“Your Highness, that is my eldest daughter, Clara Ashford.”
Adrian lifted a brow. “Miss Ashford seems to have rather strong opinions on her sister’s dancing.”
My father shot me frantic looks, clearly begging me to get up and smooth things over.
With no choice, I rose, bowed, and answered in the gentlest voice I could manage. “Your Highness, I know nothing of music or dance. I only thought my sister performed beautifully—like a heavenly maiden.”
Inside, I rolled my eyes so hard I nearly saw my brain.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Beautiful, my ass. She looked like someone doing rehabilitation exercises for a nervous condition.
Can we please end this already? My knees are going numb.
And when is this miserable banquet getting to the pork?
Adrian studied my obedient expression, and the smile in his eyes deepened.
Then, without warning, he stood.
His black robe, embroidered with dark gold, shifted around him with a weight that made the air itself feel heavier.
He walked straight toward me and stopped close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes.
His voice dropped low.
“If Miss Ashford thinks the performance was so fine,” he said, “perhaps Miss Ashford should be rewarded… with a pork knuckle?”
My head snapped up.
How does he know I want pork knuckle?!
After that banquet, the entire capital changed its tune.
Lydia, who had been meant to stun the city with a single dance and become the prince regent’s favorite, turned into the court’s newest joke.
And I—
I was sent back to the Ashford residence clutching the glazed pork knuckle Adrian had personally awarded me.
The moment I returned, Lydia stormed into my courtyard and threw an enormous tantrum.
She smashed every piece of porcelain she could get her hands on until shards littered the floor.
Then she pointed at me and shouted, “Clara Ashford, was this your doing? You were jealous of me!”
I stared at the broken porcelain and felt my heart ache.
That’s money on the floor.
That blue-and-white vase was an antique. Does she think these things replace themselves?
Jealous of you? Of what, exactly? Your seizure-like dancing, or the fact that you were humiliated in front of half the empire?
Outwardly, though, I put on my best frightened-rabbit expression and let my eyes redden.
“You misunderstand, Lydia. I didn’t do anything.”
“The prince regent’s thoughts are impossible to predict. Perhaps… perhaps he was simply in a bad mood today.”
Lydia let out a cold laugh. “Stop pretending. So what if you’re the legitimate daughter?”
“Father’s favorite is me. Just wait. I’ll take back everything that should have been mine.”
With that, she spun on her heel and stormed out.
I sighed and told the maids to sweep up the broken pieces.
The truth was, Lydia wasn’t wrong.
For a legitimate elder daughter, I had ended up in a much worse position than my younger half-sister of lesser birth.
My mother had died young, and my father was the kind of man who loved only what benefited him.
After Lydia arrived in this world, she won him over completely by reciting famous poems she hadn’t written and introducing things like soap and glass.
By now, she was the jewel of the household.