Event! The big parade!

The next day, Yang Yulan came down with a fever. She lost consciousness from overexertion and lost her remaining strength.

At this time, rumors spread throughout the palace about the final clouding of the princess's mind. The manager of the White Lotus Pavilion was severely injured and almost bled to death. And all this is the work of the first princess Yang Yulan, who got angry out of the blue. The rest of the servants and employees of the palace began to panic, because now no one was sure of their complete safety.

After hearing such news, Chu Qi was not surprised at all. On the contrary, it was to be expected from stupid people who are ready to believe anything to avoid getting bored at work. She didn't care about their distorted opinions, but she wasn't sure if it wouldn't anger Yang Yulan when she woke up.

– This girl does not have time to recover as she gets into some kind of trouble again.

Fortunately, this time her state of health did not suffer much. She's just a little exhausted. Even her temperature dropped immediately after taking the medicines that Chu Qi literally wrested from the imperial doctor. Because of these rumors about outbursts of anger, the attitude towards Yulan has finally deteriorated. Now even the doctors hoped for her imminent death. However, the princess again escaped punishment for her act. As always, her parents didn't give a damn about what she was doing.

However, Chu Qi still hid Yulan's weapon away from prying eyes just in case. It could still be seized by particularly proactive individuals. Despite the maid's desire to limit the princess's connection with dangerous objects, she did not want to upset her mistress. There's not much that makes her happy anyway. Only recently has the princess started smiling, joking and experiencing emotions besides anger and rage. If archery is so interesting to her, then let her keep trying. Still, it's better for her to give up and change her mind than to be forced to do it.

Chu Qi spent the lion's share of her time in the princess's chambers, but she had a lot of other worries on her shoulders. For example, she needed to help in the main palace with preparations for the parade in honor of the victory over the demons. It was a very significant event in the history of the country.

For many years, humanity has been under the yoke of a demonic state. People were forced to give them all their hard-earned wealth, arrange feasts in their honor and sell people to them as slaves. Demons possessed a special dark magical power beyond the control of any human. Thus, no matter how angry the emperors were and no matter how ordinary people suffered, they only had to endure, avoiding the complete enslavement of their race, scaring away demons only by the number of people in their army. Although everyone knew for sure. If a war starts, people will never win.

Only one person did not give up in these difficult times. He was Yang Jinglong, the second prince of the Southern state of Nan. Already at the age of sixteen, he was burning with righteous military fire. He sought to destroy the demonic army and restore freedom to mankind.

But for such a feat, he needed tremendous strength. A force that can fight back against the dark demonic energy. Then he came up with an idea.

All people have known the legend of the lake with the magical blue fish since childhood. According to legend, this place was surrounded by bright Yang energy and had life-giving properties. However, for thousands of years, no one has been able to find him and take advantage of the benefits that he provided. Therefore, the legend remained a legend. However, the prince decided not to despair and try his luck in search of a magical place. The lake was supposed to be in the deepest cave in the largest mountain in the world. Such was the giant Yue, who was located in the west of the country. For many years, people went there in search of a cave, but the mountain never revealed its mysteries to them.

So, having gathered a team of several particularly close henchmen, Yang Jinglong went to the cherished mountain. On the day of his departure, all hope for the fate of mankind rested on his still fragile youthful shoulders. And the guy didn't live up to those expectations.

When he reached the right mountain, he walked with his men around its surroundings for several days. However, they couldn't find anything. On the fourth day, at night, as usual, without going to bed with the others, Yang Jinglong continued to search for a forbidden place alone. He examined stone after stone, not leaving a single blade of grass without attention. Then the mountain decided to open its doors for him and check the purity of his motives.

Upon reaching the magical place, the man froze in amazement. The entire cave was full of artifacts that possessed magical energy. However, Yang Jinglong only bowed to the magical fish swimming in the precious lake and took out one stone from its bottom. The smallest of them all. Then the wise fish guarding this place rewarded the guy for his modesty and put a huge amount of light magic into a small stone, blessing the young man to win the war.

After returning from his journey, Yang Jinglong did not hesitate and immediately began preparations for war. Having gathered a large army, in which even ordinary people participated, who were burning with the idea of protecting their loved ones, he led the warriors into battle, leading the army and holding high above his head a long silver sword, in the hilt of which a white magic stone glowed. From his bright radiance, the demons, who did not expect such pressure, lost all their strength and began to give up their positions. After several years of bloody war, humanity has won a long-awaited victory.

The prince returned to his homeland a great hero. Monuments began to be erected in his honor. People made up legends about him and sang songs to him. The emperor declared his son crown prince on the same day that he crossed the border of the country, carrying a huge torn flag with a blue fish. The symbol of the Nan state and now the symbol of victory.

However, Yang Jinlong returned from the battlefield a completely different person. Having seen all the horrors of war at such a young age, his character became very hardened. Even the prince's gaze became more stern and mature.

The changes in the environment were difficult for him. His hands, which had always been soaked to the elbows with blood, his own and someone else's, now had to cope only with fragile imperial porcelain.

Not knowing how to live outside the war, the man withdrew into himself and did not even communicate with his family. However, the people believed that one day the prince would meet a woman who, with her kindness and patience, would be able to melt his stone heart and bring joy back to life.

***

That morning, Yang Yulan lay unconscious and occasionally woke up to fall asleep again a couple of minutes later. During one of these awakenings, she seemed to notice a familiar pink scoreboard above the bed. The exact same thing had once announced to her that she was moving into this damned novel.

"Have I started hallucinating already?"

the girl thought and closed her eyes again. She finally woke up when the sun was already burning full outside the window. Feeling a sharp stab in her stomach, the girl sat up in bed, rubbing the sore spot. At that moment, the rose window above her head lit up again.

[Event! The first meeting. A big parade. The remaining time before the event is 21:34...21:33...21:32...]

– What? So it wasn't a vision.

– The first scene of the book is coming soon.

The long-awaited meeting of the main character and the prince was supposed to take place at this holiday. However, that meeting was not the first. The couple had already met once during the war. It was in flashbacks. Then the girl helped Yang Jinglong by bandaging his open wound with a piece of her rumpled dress.

The man was so impressed by the courage of the girl who came to his aid, despite the danger, that he could no longer get her image out of his head. Then he realized that he had finally fallen in love with this stranger. But it was too late, the girl suddenly disappeared one night and did not appear in front of him anymore.

During the parade, the prince will see her again in the square, at the moment when she, making a big noise, will escape from bandits who attacked her right during the holiday.

Then the prince suddenly gets out of his carriage and, despite warnings from the servants, saves the main character from criminals and, taking the poor girl in his arms, carries her to his carriage.

Recalling this event, Yulan couldn't help but exclaim to herself.

«How romantic it is!»

The entire capital gathered in the square will be in great shock. Later, people will even make up legends about a beautiful girl who took a fancy to the country's greatest hero Yang Jinglong.

Of course, their sudden union will cause a lot of discontent. Including on the part of senior officials, who were not at all pleased with the idea of an alliance between a dirty slave and a great crown prince. It is good that the female lead, who possessed a strong character and exorbitant willpower, will be able to prove her importance in the palace and become the empress most beloved by the people.

The fact that the system had good-naturedly warned her about such an important event could not but please her.

«Really, they haven't forgotten about me after all. The last time I begged to be let out of the book, this stupid company pretended that I was an empty place.»

– Stop! – Yulan abruptly jumped to her feet and began pacing back and forth across the room.

– It's already tomorrow. How long have I been lying here unconscious?

Due to her blackout, the girl did not have time to make absolutely any preparations for the upcoming event. And worst of all, she didn't even have time to figure out how to get to this very parade.

Then the system window above her head shone again and caught her attention.

[For the convenience of the program participants, we have developed a special movement system. You can open the system window at any time and select the desired option]

– Wow, you can read minds too.

The system wisely decided to remain silent on this injection.

– So okay. And how it should happen?

Yang Yulan tried to poke at the pink scoreboard a couple of times, but only got into the air, looking extremely ridiculous at the same time. Then the girl raised her voice.

– Disappear.

The system window suddenly flickered and disappeared.

– Yeah. Just like the voice assistant on the phone.

– System window.

An empty pink background lit up in front of her face again

– Open the options available to me.

There were only two options on the list that appeared before her eyes.

[Available options:

• Moving to the spam spot.

• Moving to the place of the event «First meeting. The Big Parade» (Careful! There is a time limit)]

Rubbing her hands in anticipation, Yang Yulan smiled all over her face and did not even notice someone else's presence. She jumped on the spot when she heard someone's voice behind her.

– Your grin scares me sometimes. I'm afraid you're up to something bad again.

Chu Qi, smiling, entered the room and gently put the princess back to bed.

– You need to rest. You are still weak.

– What are you talking about? I'm strong as an ox. Have you seen me shoot?

– If you haven't already forgotten, then after the last time you went to bed for several days with a fever.

Yang Yulan reached out to her head, which was still spinning from fatigue, and lightly massaged her temples.

«Is it even possible to forget?»

– Why did you even go there? – Yang Yulan protested and got up from the bed again.

– I had no right to refuse, Your Highness – Chu Qi replied calmly, forcing the princess to lie back down – I could only hope that I could protect myself.

– Why didn't you ask for help?

– To whom? They wouldn't even listen to me, And even worse, they would laugh at me for refusing "such an opportunity" – at the last words, the girl eloquently rolled her eyes.

– That's how it is.

«Terrible. If they didn't make me the main character, then they could at least make me a man.» Yang Yulan was seething with indignation. She couldn't stand the inability to somehow influence the lawlessness that was happening here. How many other girls in the palace are also being abused and can't answer anything.

– It's already in the past. Don't bother your head, Your Highness – Chu Qi stretched out and went out to bring food.

Yang Yulan still wouldn't let go of this incident, but she could only accept it. She couldn't change anything right now.

Yang Yulan sent the maid away and quietly began her preparations for escape. First of all, she found her bow. It turned out to be hidden by someone under her bed. Then she folded her workout suit under the pillows. Despite the promise given by Chu Qi, the girl did not want to go for a possibly long walk in an uncomfortable long robe.

The parade started early in the morning and Yang Yulan found out that on this day Chu Qi would be helping in the palace all day, which is why her escape could go unnoticed.

«Everything is going as well as possible. I'll watch the lovebirds for a couple of hours and come home.»

After waiting for the next morning and sending the worried Chu Qi away, the girl quickly frightened the other maids and ordered them not to disturb her during her morning nap. Then, closing the front door tightly, she dressed, slung her bow over her shoulder and took a small bag of money, which had been kept in the dusty locker of the first princess until now.

– Well, now everything seems to be ready!

– The system!

A pink scoreboard suddenly opened in front of the girl.

– An option. Moving to the "Big Parade" event

Immediately after her words, a bright light flashed in the room and the girl immediately disappeared, leaving behind only a small handful of shiny dust.