I have always been branded as one of the guys, a tomboy, even a man lady, for as long as I can remember. Probably because I'm built like one: tall, muscular, an angular face, and fierce phoenix eyes. I was a far cry from those gentle, feminine types as soft as water. Not that I mind. I like to brand myself as valiant and heroic instead. For one, because I am. And second, because these very features led me to the best decision, in my opinion, that I have ever made in my life.
My name is Bai Feng Jiu. Yep, the same as that nine-tailed red fox from that certain drama. I am the current captain of the Special Forces of Country Z. It's a tough life, being in the military. But for an orphan like me, it was the best place to be. It was where I found my family.
Family. Hmm. Yep, they were the only family I had. What about starting my own, you ask? Nah. I scare off the guys half the time. Err, all the time, actually. It's rare for men to prefer women who are more masculine than they are. Something about feeling emasculated, or whatever bullshit that is. Which is freaking lame, if you ask me. So, frankly, I gave up on that a long time ago. If it comes, it will. If not, I could still work with that too.
Although I may be a skeptic about my own personal lifelong happiness, that doesn't mean I hate romance. Au contraire, dear readers, I love romance. Romance dramas, romance comedies, films, novels, I love them all. I'm a masochist who loves getting served dog food. Ha ha ha.
I firmly believe that a good romantic tale could change a person's life.
And guess what? It changed mine, from a structured and organized militaristic lifestyle to something totally bonkers and beyond my wildest imagination.
Okay. Maybe not really bonkers. More like totally cliché and typical. Still slightly bonkers. But definitely unrealistic.
It all started on my holiday. A forced holiday. My superior gave me an absolute order to take a few days off. Why? Because watching my dedicated self spend every waking moment on missions outside or duties on base was making him question his own work ethic, or so he claimed. He thought it was time I had a life. Though I knew the old geezer meant well, I was still pretty miffed about it. The military was MY LIFE, okay?
What's more, before I could even work my way out of that order, my team hauled my ass off to an island resort, leaving in their wake the commander-in-chief's threat of recalling my firearms if I left the resort before my holiday ended. Heh. A bunch of gutsy rascals colluding with an old geezer. I might not be able to touch the chief, but I could still make the rest of them question their life decisions once I got back. At least, that was what I thought at the time.
The island resort was pretty great, genuinely five-star, all white sand and turquoise water and drinks with little paper umbrellas stuck in them, but I ended up trying out everything it had to offer on the first day. Diving, kayaking, the zipline course, all of it. So I stayed in the hotel room the next day out of sheer exhaustion. And voilà. Boredom at its finest.
I was in the throes of slouching on the soft bed, munching on tropical fruits served by the hotel, contemplating life as I scrolled through my phone. It was strange, having nothing to plan for and nowhere to be. My body kept waiting for an order that never came. That was when I saw a web novel recommendation on my reader app.
The Princess Knight's Rival. It was the story of Princess Adelaide von Resse, a princess who walked the path of a magic knight and supported her smart, righteous brother in becoming Emperor. Aside from the political struggle, there was also her own hardship as a magic knight and the slow, ambiguous relationship brewing between her and the heir apparent of House Trier, Carlisle von Trier.
The novel was pretty chill. No heavy drama, loaded with romance. Hilarious too. Immersive. Totally my type of read. So, expectedly, I ended up reading every chapter over the course of my vacation.
The ending was still vivid in my mind.
[Adelaide gazed at Carlisle and their son with an amused look. Never would she have expected that the man she once could not stand would become someone she could not live without. The world was a strange place, alright. And love was even stranger.]
It was such a good ending that I got a little teary-eyed. With a content sigh, I closed my eyes to sleep.
'Hah. It's not just the world that is strange. Life. Life itself is strange.'
Those were my bumbling thoughts as I drifted off to dreamland, expecting that the next day I'd be back at base, beating up those rascals.
Except I wouldn't be able to. Why, you might wonder.
It's because I woke up like this. Completely different from where I was, and who I was.