TPMPHMHF 02

♡ Chapter 2 ♡

‘Is this a dream?’

It has to be.

It must be a dream.

“I have been playing that game way too much lately. No matter what I dream about, it ends up being something like this… haha.”

I forced myself to think positively.

Careful not to drop the baby in my arms, I raised my hand and slapped my own cheek.

Smack!

“Ow…”

It hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes.

It felt like my cheek was swelling.

Which meant—

“…It’s not a dream?”

Me, a nanny.

A nanny in a trash game…?

I never imagined something like this would happen.

♡SYSTEM♡ Please choose the princess’s name!
※ The name cannot be changed later.

Ding!

The system window chimed again, urging me.

Right. The name.

Still unable to grasp reality, I almost blurted out the name I had been thinking of earlier.

“The young lady’s name will be ‘Cromwell, you—’”

I almost finished it with ‘you bastard’.

“—I mean! It should be a name that suits the surname Cromwell. I should think about it a bit more.”

I hurriedly corrected myself, glancing nervously at the system window.

Please don’t let her name become Cromwell You…

♡SYSTEM♡ Would you like to postpone naming?

[YES / NO]

Thankfully, a new window popped up.

I immediately spammed [YES]—so fast it looked like I was throwing punches.

♡SYSTEM♡ Introduce yourself to the princess!

Since I postponed naming, a new prompt appeared.

It meant I had to choose the player’s name.

If I picked something like “Please Stop Marrying Your Dad” or “Cromwell You Lunatic,” I’d probably get arrested for insulting a noble.

‘…Arrested for insulting a noble.’

It was strange how naturally I could recall the laws of this world.

It seemed the original owner of this body’s memories remained.

And honestly, I’d rather not get executed in a game.

Since this was a romance fantasy setting, a Korean name would be weird.

So I chose the name I had used up to my third playthrough.

“Lorelei.”

I looked at the baby and spoke.

“My name is Lorelei, Young Lady.”

Back when I first started the game—before I got used to the “marry your dad” ending—I used fairly normal names.

Of course, my heart was screaming that I wanted to introduce myself as ‘If you marry your daughter, you die.’

But sometimes, you have to compromise with reality.

Once I finished introducing myself, this body truly became Lorelei.

Her memories—specifically, the etiquette and rules of the Cromwell estate—flowed into my mind.

“Seriously, what even…”

And on top of that, this maid assigned as a nanny wasn’t the experienced veteran I expected.

She was as young as the current Duke of Cromwell.

About nineteen, maybe.

With Lorelei’s inexperienced body, the only thing I could do right now was avoid messing up and safely bring the baby to a room.

Since even the Cromwell estate hadn’t expected a new family member, they hurriedly assigned a guest room for now.

“….”

The princess in my arms had just been born.

She wasn’t even a month old.

The baby breathed softly in her sleep.

♡PROFILE♡

Name: Lorelei Kiss
Stamina: 100/100 Mental: 100/100
Reputation: 0
Level: 1

~ Active Quest (1) ~

Quest: (Hidden) Achieve the Imperial Princess Ending!
Time Remaining: 3 years
Difficulty: Hell

Reward: Return to the real world, 6 billion
Failure Penalty: ???

※ Difficulty [Hell] has no save feature.
※ Hidden Mode does not provide mid-term evaluations.

The profile window appeared.

Even if childcare was new to me, the game wasn’t.

I scanned the familiar interface.

“Since it’s only Day 1…”

My stats were pretty average.

More importantly—

Reward: Return to the real world, 6 billion

“…Six billion?”

Before I could even process the horrifying fact that I’d be stuck here raising a child for three years, that number caught my attention first.

Was the game company paying me?

Or would I somehow gain that money after clearing the quest?

“I don’t have any way to get 6 billion…”

I didn’t do crypto, stocks, or gambling.

Lottery?

“I do buy the same numbers every week…”

…It’s not in-game currency, right?

I wanted to think more about it, but—

“Waaah—!”

The nameless princess started crying.

♡ I Have to Stop the Princess from Marrying Her Dad

: Day 2 of Possession, Tutorial Day 1

♡SYSTEM♡

Stamina decreased by 50.
Mental decreased by 50.

“Waaah…! Waaah!”

I had forgotten for a moment.

This game is trash at its core.

Newborns supposedly sleep 20 hours a day—but thanks to the game’s overly realistic design, it became:

Sleep for 30 minutes → cry for 1 minute
Sleep for 10 minutes → fuss for 3 minutes

Endless interruptions.

In the game, it was just one line:

[You couldn’t sleep all night. Stamina and Mental decreased by 50.]

But I had lived through that single line for 16 hours straight.

“I’m going insane…”

At first, when I saw the 6 billion reward, I thought it was like those internet debates:

“Stay home for 3 years and get 6 billion vs just live normally.”

Turns out, I don’t love money enough to raise someone else’s baby for it.

Stamina: 50/100 Mental: 50/100

I stared at my stats with half-dead eyes.

Half gone in just one night.

The princess was still crying—but this wasn’t the time to soothe her.

If I kept going, my remaining stamina would drop to zero and I’d literally die of overwork.

I know. I’ve died plenty of times in-game.

Holding the crying princess, I stepped out of the room.

The path I had walked dozens of times in-game felt familiar.

A luxurious hallway stretched before me—but I had no time to admire it.

There was someone I needed to find.

“…!”

After walking for a while, I spotted a girl with orange hair in the distance.

This must be what it feels like to find an oasis in the desert.

♡PROFILE♡

Name: Mary Norris
View Level: 1
Occupation: Maid of the Cromwell Duchy
Relationship: Friend

Affection (Lorelei): 5/10
Affection (Princess): 2/10

Note: Has a younger sibling who is an apprentice apothecary. Recently worried her freckles seem to be fading.

“Mary!”

I called out happily.

In the game, she was just “the maid who refills water bottles every morning”…

Maybe because this was Hidden Mode?

Even background NPCs had profile windows.

“I heard you were assigned to the princess—huh?! Are you okay?”
“No…”
“What happened to your cheek?!”

I couldn’t exactly say I hit myself to check if this was a dream.

“Haha…”

I forced a weak smile.

Days 1–3 in the game were the tutorial period, introducing core mechanics and items.

Which meant—

‘Potion!’

The reason stamina and mental dropped so harshly…

was to teach potion usage.

But asking for items out of nowhere felt shameless.

If I thought about this realistically, I’d be stuck here for years.

Even if I couldn’t build deep relationships, I should at least maintain decent ones.

“I was surprised the Duke chose you yesterday. I was going to ask if you were okay… but I guess I don’t need to.”

“The young lady didn’t sleep at all last night…”

She kept crying, then sleeping, then crying again.

Even when I slept, it didn’t feel like sleep.

I spoke sincerely.

Even if I didn’t get a potion, I just wanted someone to understand this suffering.

“My youngest sibling was like that too when they were born. Oh! I have something that might help you!”

Mary rummaged through her pocket.

“My sibling made it for practice, but I think you need it more than I do.”

A small glass bottle appeared in her hand.

♡SYSTEM♡ You received a Crude Mid-Grade Potion!

In the game, this was a normal gift.

But experiencing this exhaustion firsthand…

Mary looked like a saint.

How could she just give away something this valuable so easily?

“Mary, thank you so much…”

Blushing, Mary even opened the bottle for me.

♡SYSTEM♡ You drank a Crude Mid-Grade Recovery Potion!

Stamina +30
Mental +30

“I feel alive again…”

The moment the liquid touched my tongue, all my fatigue and headache vanished.

Even the swelling in my cheek subsided.

Potions were essential items in <Bling Bling ♡ Raising a Lady>.

Especially in the early stages where stamina and mental were constantly drained.

It being a crude mid-grade potion was a bit disappointing—but I wasn’t in a position to complain.

As if sensing my recovery, the princess stopped crying.

“Oh, right. The head maid was looking for you.”

As color returned to my face, Mary added that.

Looks like Day 1 will be spent clearing the tutorial.

✧ʚ .·:¨༺♡༻¨:·. ɞ✧

The place I arrived at was the head maid’s office.

Olive-colored eyes behind glasses looked down at me.

“….”

Was it just my imagination?

She seemed annoyed.

Though, she was like that in the game too.

There were two main reasons to meet the head maid.

First—salary.

Wages were fixed.

Originally 50 gold, increased by 10 to 55 gold.

Though in a world without insurance, getting sick once could wipe out half your savings.

Still, getting paid at all was something.

‘But this game values realism…’

Maybe it increased a bit more?

‘Not too much… just 90 gold… no, even 80 would be fine…’

“An additional 5 gold will be added to your wages. You will receive 25 gold every Monday.”

♡SYSTEM♡ You received your wages!
Gold +25G (155G)

♡SYSTEM♡ Use gold to raise the princess!

Her businesslike tone shattered my expectations.

“…25 gold?”

Even considering Hidden Mode and Hell difficulty—that’s way too low.

In this world, 1 gold is roughly equivalent to 10,000 won.

That means I’m earning about a million won per month.

Since the game realistically simulates even useless things, I had hoped wages would scale exponentially as a nanny.

But even with just a 5 gold increase, the head maid acted generous.

Forget realism—just give me what the game gives!

How is the princess’s nanny this underpaid?! 😭