Second Female Leads' Playbook

I did some experiment with my power. As I thought, something was wrong. The limit of my power had greatly reduced. I could now only control one drop of water without getting sick and coughing out blood.

One drop. I thought controlling a tea cup of water was lame. Now guess what happened to my power? One should be satisfied with what one had. If only I understood this earlier on. Then I would not have complained. If that's the case, would my limited power still stay with me?

Joking aside, I believed it had something to do with my rebirth. I traveled back in time, the balance of the world had to take something away from me. And that was my power. I think that was fair.

Today was my 17th birthday. So I guessed I should stop thinking about boring stuff. (That water control power wasn't really a necessity in my life to be quite honest. Seemed like my dress could no longer stay tea stain free though.)

Adrian and Jesse were coming back early from their work. Father too! Mother and I already went shopping this afternoon.

It's good to be 17 again. I missed this. Family gathering together. People celebrating my birthday. If I did not change the future, this was going to be my last birthday dinner with my family.

I was not going to allow that to happen.

----------------------------

I was not at all surprised with what my brothers and Father gifted me (as it's not the first time I experienced this). They weren't creative, so they gave me a necklace, a pair of earrings and a novel recommended by Adrian's fiancee.

What surprised me was that Prince Sebastian sent me a gift. That didn't happen in my previous life. I looked at Mother, did she write to the prince already?

"Oh, has the Prince recovered?" Mother asked. She guessed what I was thinking and shook her head. "No dear, I didn't ask him to send you a present. I didn't even know he has recovered!"

"He is getting better, he still has to stay in bed, but he can manage some paper work now," Adrian said. He worked for the King and the Prince.

"What did he send you, Liana? That is one huge box! And from the look of the footman, really heavy too," Jesse piqued.

I eyed the large box curiously and lifted the lid off. My jaw dropped.

My family saw my expression and sneaked closer to take a look at what was inside the box.

Jesse took out one of the books and read the words on the cover out loud, "Encyclopedia of Arerin, Volume I."

He put the book back into the box. All of my family simultaneously took two quick steps back. Apparently they wanted to distant themselves from the entire set of Encyclopedia.

"Liana, see the prince cares for you!" Mother said in a squeaky voice and gave two awkward laugh.

"Liana, the prince rarely gives out presents... So... eh..." Adrian faltered off.

Was this a prank? No matter how poorly versed the prince was on the art of gifting, he could not have chosen an entire collection of encyclopedia. Granted I admitted that the encyclopedia had really nice covers. But still... encyclopedia as birthday gift?

"Is there some weird gossip floating around saying I like reading encyclopedia as past time?" I asked cautiously.

"No, I don't think so. At least Marie didn't recommend me to buy you a set of encyclopedia?" Adrian answered.

Marie was his fiancee. They decided to marry next year. When he was killed in my previous life, Marie had been so devastated, she passed away shortly after that.

I would not allow that to happen again.

"Well... at least the Prince sent you something," Jesse gave me a pat on my shoulder. "I'll help you carry the box to your room."

Was this a prank? That's the only thought in my mind as I eyed the box at the corner of my room.