Chapter 101 – It’s True, I Am That Illegitimate Daughter

The illegitimate daughter of His Majesty Chris Hatter, King of Gryffin Kingdom, was going to attend the March Royal School of Magic as a transfer student!

There were no secrets that could last forever. Not to mention, for the sake of preventing Alice from meeting with any unnecessary bullying or harassment at school, Catherine did not instruct the magic academy’s dean and teachers to keep this matter a secret.

Hence, although the dean and teachers had held themselves back initially, it didn’t take long before some of them started spreading the secret. They probably thought that since so many people were in on the secret, they wouldn’t be found out even if they were to spread it. Thus, on the same day as Catherine told them the secret, the matter of the king’s illegitimate daughter had also spread across the entire magic academy.

Naturally, after so many people had found out about the matter, it didn’t take long before information got leaked onto the internet. Meanwhile, when netizens learned that King Hatter, who had always maintained a good reputation and didn’t even have a queen, had suddenly gained an illegitimate daughter, the human realm’s internet quickly exploded into an uproar. After all, gossiping about the private life of public figures was something everyone liked doing.

Alice also had the fortune of witnessing this grand gossip fest the human realm’s netizens hosted. Though, she did feel a little weird joining in on the fun, seeing as she was the gossip’s cause and all.

Apart from information about her fake identity, Alice found that one of the teachers had even leaked her photo that was on her letter of admission. So, her appearance quickly spread across the internet. The good news was that nobody had suspected her of being the Hero or Demon King, just like she had previously expected. The bad news was that her cute appearance matched the word “princess” perfectly, so it took almost no convincing for the internet to recognize her as the Gryffin Kingdom’s “princess”…

What baffled Alice even more was that some busybodies had used her image to dig through her history. Then…they found the fake orphan identity the demons had created for her…

Thanks to this, netizens had filled the gaps in Alice’s history and even posted their deduction online in the form of a story:

“Chris Hatter had fallen in love with a blonde girl when he was young. The handsome Hatter and the beautiful girl (presumed according to Alice’s appearance) fell in love with each other and did even the most intimate things together.

However, due to Hatter’s career, his family forced him to separate from the girl. Although Hatter had refused to part with the girl, the kind girl decided to leave in secret for the sake of her lover’s future. Depressed by this, Hatter vowed never to marry.

What Hatter did not know was that the blonde girl was pregnant with his flesh and blood. To avoid interfering with Hatter’s career, the girl gave birth alone in a remote countryside. However, the conditions in the remote countryside were too backward, so the poor girl’s body rapidly deteriorated after giving birth.

Knowing that her remaining time was short, the girl tearfully placed the young Alice at the doorsteps of an orphanage. Then, she chose to pass away quietly in an unknown location, all by herself. As for Alice, she was taken in by the orphanage.

Later, with the passage of time, Hatter inadvertently came across Alice and found her resembling her missing lover a lot. Then, after learning of Alice’s situation from the orphanage and guessing who Alice’s mother was, the saddened Hatter brought Alice back and decided to pour all of his love for this beloved daughter of his. Hence, when Alice enrolled into the March Royal School of Magic, Hatter had warned the academy’s dean and teachers so that Alice wouldn’t suffer any bullying from her schoolmates.

(The above story is purely speculation.)”

“This…”

Alice was rendered speechless when she finished reading the made-up story. She never thought that the fake identity the Four Heavenly Kings came up for her would come into play like this. Even Catherine probably never expected such a development to occur.

However, Alice nonchalantly shared the LINK post using her Hero’s LINK account a moment later.

It was just a fake identity, in any case. Alice didn’t think much of it.

Not to mention, while it might seem like Alice had gained a father in the eyes of outsiders, Chris definitely wouldn’t dare to treat himself as Alice’s father. Alice was the “Hero,” after all. He would become humanity’s sinner if he got on Alice’s bad side after getting cocky.

While Alice was browsing LINK on her hospital bed with great enthusiasm, she suddenly received a message from Zauna. The content of the message was also the same as she surmised:

“Alice, how did you become the king’s illegitimate daughter?!”

Zauna naturally knew of Alice’s origins. After all, Zauna was the first person Alice had met after coming to this world. Alice had even lied, saying that she had lost her memories and couldn’t remember who she was back then.

Thus, Zauna must’ve been suspicious when she first saw the news of Alice being King Hatter’s illegitimate daughter. However, when she saw that the orphanage the netizens uncovered was located in a village near the Gryffin Forest, she had probably lost confidence and wondered if Alice really was King Hatter’s illegitimate daughter and that she had suffered amnesia after getting lost in the Gryffin Forest.

With a playful smile on her face, “The rumors on the internet are true. I am Chris’s illegitimate daughter.”

“Then…should I start calling you ‘Your Highness’ when I meet you now?” Zauna replied, ending her message with a weary emoji.

“You didn’t react so nervously when you found out that I was the Hero, so why are you getting nervous after finding out that I am a princess?”

Alice couldn’t help but find her friend’s reaction funny. Not only did Zauna not get nervous after finding out that she was the Hero, but the other party had even continued calling her “Alice.”

“I was also nervous back then, okay? It took me a few days before I got used to it,” Zauna replied, her message conveying her dissatisfied tone. “Moreover, how can a Hero and a princess be the same thing? Heroes typically don’t concern themselves with the affairs of ordinary people, while the actions of a princess have a direct impact on the lives of ordinary people.”

Reading Zauna’s reply, Alice felt that her friend’s reasoning made sense. It was just like how farmers living in the countryside didn’t care about Chris’s personal affairs. After all, Chris’s personal affairs wouldn’t have any impact on their daily lives. However, these farmers would definitely be concerned about their village chief’s affairs. This was because the village chief’s every action would more or less impact their lives.

“Alright, don’t get too hung up over it. The princess thing is a lie. It’s a cover to help me avoid harassment and annoying situations in the academy.” After giving the matter some thought, Alice decided that it was best that she told Zauna the truth. “You know that many noble children are attending the academy, right? These people are bound to get into conflict with students from normal families at some point. Meanwhile, a certain someone worried that I would get involved in those hassles, so she came up with this fake identity for me to use as a deterrence.”

“I see.” Realization dawned upon Alice. However, her following words dumbfounded Alice a little. “But I’m afraid that person has made a well-intentioned mistake. You might not know this since you haven’t come to school yet, but almost every noble student has been told to return to school today by their respective families because of you. This is probably the first time since the academy’s inception that so many noble students have come to school before the official start of classes.”

It was Saturday today, and classes would only officially begin on Monday. Going by their habit, the noble sons and daughters should be relaxing at home right about now and only return to the academy on Monday. Yet, almost all of these noble sons and daughters had returned to the academy today at the behest of their respective families.

Why didn’t I think of it… Harassment doesn’t necessarily need to come from a hostile party. It could also come from someone trying to curry favor…

Alice palmed her face when she realized this fatal flaw. While having an influential and powerful identity could help her avoid getting targeted for no good reason, it could also lead to her facing the harassment of noble students trying to curry favor with royalty.

It seems I’ll have to behave less friendly in the academy and hope that these people will leave me alone.