Estorea stared out the window, waiting for Haigu to come back.

Soon, she heard a knock on her door, "Come in." She said.

The door open, and in came Aelia and Haigu.

She turn to look at them, "Did you manage to register my name? How many people were there? Oh, yes, the information on the competition, if you please."

Haigu look over at Aelia, she then stepped forward, "Ahem," She cough, "I have counted all the people that were presented at the venue and there was a total of 435 people. 398 males and 46 females." She stepped back, gesutring for Haigu to now go on ahead.

Haigu had a brown paper folder in his gloved hands, he stepped forward, bowing slightly as he handed Estorea the folder.

Estorea took it with a smile, "Thank you for both of your works. I truly appreciate it."

She then open the folder, pulling out a bundle of papers.

She took her time to read it over paper by paper.

___

🕒 15 minutes past... 🕘

___

Estorea kept the papers back in the folder, making sure it was all in align.

She then placed it down on the table, tapping her finger on the armrest.

"Haigu." She called out.

"Yes?"

"Could you please prepare my outfit in a week's time, preferably, I would like to be a disguised as male considering this gender-biased society." She look over to Haigu. Her eyes staring straight ar him as a small smile graced her lips, "Would you?"

Haigu nodded, "Yes, I shall. Is there any specific requirements or needs?"

Estorea look at her flat chest, she look over back to him with a brighter smile, "No, since I don't have such big assets."

Haigu blush, hearing her bold words. He faked a cough, and excused himself, making Estorea chuckle.

Estorea then got up, 'Well, time to study. God, I thought I would never use that word ever in my lifetime. Well, its technically not my life.'

"I'm a genius and my profound knowledge here will be completely useless here since it's a different era and humans haven't discovered shit yet." Saying with a forlorn expression, she walked out of her room to head to the library.

What was written on the newspaper was an announcement that the Royal Family would be looking for a suitable tutor for the Second Prince which was said to be a quiet, timid and shy intelligent 9 year-old boy. Completely different from the corrupted Crown Prince.

It was said that the pair of siblings were not close due to their age differences and different mothers.

The Second Prince - Alen Gladian, was born from a concubine, whereas, the Crown Prince was, of course, born from the Empress.

Thus, the gap.

In the novel, a second prince was never mentioned, thus Estorea had no knowledge of this young boy.

But to get into the palace disguising as the prince's tutor. Would not there be valuable information stored there that could be of use?

....

"It's either I'm too smart to comprehend dumb things or this are entirely new things that my common sense can't understand." Estorea muttered as she held her hand in her hands, trying to understand the words written on the book.

She gritted her teeth, and clenched her fist. "Like I will be defeated... HAH, I WON'T! JUST WATCH ME!" A series of maniacal giggles could be heard in the library and the maids that walked by shivered.

And soon, rumours of a ghost or spirit haunted the library which made most of the severants reluctant to go in there and clean it alone.

Meanwhile, for the first time in life, Estorea was experiencing what you called, "All Nighter Study and Last Minute Study."

And boy did she come out of the library, sleep deprived and dark shadows were seen under her eyes. Making Haigu and Aelia worried for her.

They immediately forced her to bathe, lie in bed as they served and feed her food and keeping watch on her to make sure she doesn't try to sneak the library to study more.

***

"Let me study more! I'm not even finish yet undertaking the concept of magic here! I'm fine now! Look at me!" Estorea whined as she moved her body around, stuck to the bed since Aelia had applied magic to her to prevent her from moving about.

Haigu shook his head, "No way, Young Miss. If you want, I can let you study in bed. I need to keep watch over you to make sure you don't over exhaust yourself, you hear me?"

Estorea pursued her lips, showing a frown and scrunched eyebrows. A moment of silence passed before she sighed and nodded reluctantly. Haigu smiled and immediately ordered a maid to fetch some books on the topics that would be presented in the exam.

Since the competition for the Second Prince's tutor was 2 weeks away. Estorea had been studying everyday from morning to night, only pausing to eat and go to the bathroom to shower or do business.

Every night, she would be forced to go to bed at 11PM sharp, no excuses, nothing. She will be forced to sleep, have her books taken and locked away. And she would get them the next morning after she eaten and had a shower.

This was basically her routine for the 2 weeks.

Estorea took a while to understand the books that she was studying, the theories were much less logical which took out her brains because she had a hard time trying her best not to correct and questioned everything and instead just memorized it instead.

It would be a real trouble if the information in the book would affect her modern knowledge. She certainly doesn't want that. Although Estorea was logical, she has been forcing her brain and mind to accept the fact that some things that weren't applied to the laws of nature existed.

It was, not a good thing. But one can only survive if they were the best adapter. Not the strongest, not the smartest. Those who can adapt, will survive.

And soon,

The day of the competition arrived.