Who Could Have Loved the Monster Princess? - Chapter 1
Prologue
The morning after, moans of pain escaped through the throbbing in my head.
“Ugh…”
Why does it hurt so much?
I opened my eyes and looked around, startled by the unfamiliarity of the scene, and tried to stand up, tripping over the hem of my clothes. The floor was cold and painful.
I reached out and grabbed for anything to get up. But somehow, I felt something colder than the floor.
Upon closer inspection, what I was grasping turned out to be none other than the toilet.
“Oh…”
The toilet seat was familiar. It was my toilet.
Well, if I was leaning against it, no wonder everything feels strange. I guess it’s true that drinking too much alcohol can make you lose your mind and your memory. Time to sober up and get on with the day.
I swayed as I struggled to stand upright, muttering to myself, “If I drink again like that, I won’t be a princess—I’ll be a dog.”
It was the first time I’d ever done it, but somehow it sounded like something I’d heard before. No, I’m a first-time offender, and I won’t drink like that again.
But last night of the Summer Festival was too harsh for a single person to handle sober. Especially for a monster cursed with love.
I was cursed from birth. The reason? I was too beautiful.
In an era where the Demon King invaded the human realm and was defeated by a hero, it’s so unrealistic to be cursed for being too pretty. But whatever the truth, I was cursed with a face and limbs that resembled reptilian creatures.
The condition for lifting this curse was simple: love. Not just any love, but a love that would risk death.
‘Simple, yet incredibly difficult.’
It was a condition I didn’t feel comfortable talking about. Naturally, even as I became an adult, my curse remained unbroken.
‘It’s impossible to love in this wretched situation. Besides, if it requires a love that would risk someone’s life, wouldn’t someone have to die for the curse to be lifted? Then I might as well just leave it as is.’
I’ve long since tempered my expectations with these thoughts, but I couldn’t help but feel a bitter sting in my stomach. Especially as the organizer of a nationally recognized couple-matching event, the Summer Festival.
Now in its fifth year, five years after the end of the long war and the return of peace, the Summer Festival is organized by the five heroes who defeated the demon. And this year, it was the turn of the Grand Magus, Duke Calcioso Staedt.
That’s my dad.
The festival openly aimed to pair people off and revive human history. Yet, I didn’t have a partner and had no intention of finding one.
‘But as the organizer, I had no choice but to attend…’
Until the preparation for the festival, I was managing fine. But when I saw people gathered together, having fun with each other and forming pairs, I couldn’t help but feel sad about my situation.
So, after fulfilling my duties as the organizer, as soon as the official event ended, I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and found a corner in the sponsorship area, where I drowned myself in alcohol alone.
“Where are the reptile fetishists? This damn curse! Forget love, I should be getting married or something! How can a Duke’s daughter, with all the power and wealth in the world, not have a single marriage proposal coming her way?!”
I recalled blabbering something while inebriated. It seemed like I was pounding the ground and tearing at the grass, screaming…
My face heated up with shame.
‘No one heard me, right?’
I tried hard to remember, but I could only recall the landscape swaying back and forth due to my drunkenness. Even though it was just a memory, it made me feel nauseous.
“Looking for a reptile fetishist, I must have said the most nonsensical things… Oh, come to think of it, they do exist.”
Upon further reflection, I realized such a person existed in this world.
‘There is one person.’
My friend studying abroad in the empire happened to be a lizard enthusiast. She was the first person I’d ever met who praised me as beautiful upon seeing me. Didn’t she say something about my scales being incredibly smooth and exquisite? She was truly an unusual fellow.
‘Other than her, people usually praise me for my accomplishments, not my face…’
With my father being one of the five heroes who defeated the Demon King, I was quite popular as well. However, that popularity wasn’t due to being seen as a romantic interest, which was what I needed to break my curse.
Regardless, I really hoped no one had seen me in that state yesterday.
But in that moment, as if mocking my wishes, I remembered someone else’s words coming back to me.
“Just get married and fall in love.”
Amidst my own thoughts and the haze of alcohol, the voice interjected with an unusually composed tone.
‘Who! Who saw me like that?’
I clearly had a memory lapse. I couldn’t remember who I was talking to. But I was sure that it wasn’t a stranger. I had a feeling that my drunkenness hadn’t surprised him and that we were having a casual conversation.
“Who would love a monster? Can you love me?”
I swung the bottle of alcohol towards my companion. …Oh, maybe this wasn’t such a casual conversation—was this the real deal?
“Yeah.”
“…?”
What was this memory?
Was I so drunk that I started hallucinating and hearing things?
“What? You would sleep with me?”
Wait, is this a dream? It’s a dream, not a memory, right? It has to be a dream.
“If you keep talking like that, I’ll knock you out.”
“Are you drunk?”
“A little.”
“You must be totally wasted! How can alcohol beat the @^#$& who can withstand anything?”
My sarcasm was met with silence.
I became more confused by the memories that wouldn’t stop coming. A dream? It must be a dream.
But against my wishes, the memory unfolded in more detail. In what followed next, I swallowed hard and held out my hand to the other person. He was being too serious for someone who was wasted. Since he was drunk too, he must have thought I was being sincere.
“I can’t stand this.”
“Huh?”
What’s going on? This memory can’t be real, can it?
Without hesitation, the other person grabbed my hand, covered in scales and sprouting long claws. And in an instant, our lips met.
“What the hell!”
I jolted upright. My head was spinning from the hangover, and I reached out to touch it, but the sensation was peculiar. As I raised my hand, I found five unfamiliar, pale, and smooth fingers.
“…What is this?”
I hurriedly went to find a mirror. Hastily removing the cloth covering the seldom-used mirror in the corner of my dressing room, I stared at the reflection.
A woman I didn’t recognize was staring back at me from the other side.
“What?”
The forehead that had been densely covered in scales was now smooth, exhibiting only a clear, pale complexion. The large, round eyes that had previously resembled a cat’s eyes, along with the lack of a distinct nose bridge, replaced by two long, slender slits, were all gone.
“Is this me?”
A voice of disbelief escaped the beautiful young woman’s lips. The voice remained the same.
Under sparkling silver eyelashes, there were pink-tinged irises and round pupils. As I examined my eyes, I almost poked them out of shock. When I furrowed my brows in surprise, surprisingly, I looked like someone I knew.
“My eye color looks like Mom’s, but they’re shaped just like Dad’s?”
Thinking it was a dream, I pinched my cheek. Instead of tough scales, I felt soft skin.
“Have I become… human?”
And not just any human, but an incredibly beautiful one.
I opened and closed my lips. The ends of my lips were delicately curved. My lip shape and jawline hadn’t changed, yet the absence of scales and the return of smooth, fair skin made me look incredibly lovely.
‘Could this really be me…?’
For a moment, I felt dizzy. But soon, the trivial fact that I had no memory of my first experience was swept aside by the joy of having someone I loved enough to overcome the curse.
‘Yes, I found love.’
My face lit up with joy.
‘Love with @^#$&!’
I froze in a wide smile.
“@^#$&… Who’s that?”
I had no memory. None at all.
