At the end of his hand that parted the crowd stood a woman. Then his heavy call fell.

“Empress.”

Valentine’s eyes trembled at those words.

The woman too seemed surprised by that call, at first widening her eyes. Then, as if she had gained the whole world, a dazzling smile spread across her face like light.

Disheveled brown hair. Red eyes looking at Cassian filled with tears. She was a woman Valentine had seen once before.

Amaryllis, who was said to be Liam’s fiancée, took Cassian’s hand with her trembling right hand. At that moment, in her soul’s eyes, she saw a small child awkwardly standing while holding Amaryllis’s left hand.

Perhaps three or four years old at most.

‘…….’

If Valentine’s forever-lost child had been born safely, they would have been exactly that age.

“Ah, Your Majesty…”

A lily blooming with joy shone with incomparably pure eyes. Eyes that doubted who the person holding her hand was, what reality was unfolding before her.

Her trembling voice asked for confirmation.

“Are you finally… acknowledging us?”

From her red-rimmed eyes that held only Cassian, tears finally rolled down.

“Bastian, and me… Are you finally acknowledging us as Your Majesty’s people?”

Her voice, full of emotion and joy, flowed thus.

The blue eyes looking down at Amaryllis were calm in contrast to that joy. In the midst of countless people, their joined hands were supremely reverent.

“…Who else but you could be my Empress?”

Cassian’s voice came somewhat belatedly. Those words, chosen with such difficulty.

‘Why…’

At the sound that denied Valentine, she truly cried out. The voice that wouldn’t come out, the sound that couldn’t be transmitted to living humans, echoed round and round inside her.

‘Why, why, why…!’

The place beside Cassian should have been Valentine’s. If he was Emperor, she should have been Empress, if he was a commoner, she should have been his wife.

And yet…

‘You said you would be with me.’

The lips of the dead remembering past memories trembled. The voice of Amaryllis, living in the present and full of emotion, shook with joy.

“Your Majesty…”

“It won’t be an easy position.”

“I was prepared for that.”

Like wedding vows, the two exchanged unbreakable promises. All those attending the coronation became witnesses, lending their ears to the two’s oaths. Every face was filled with satisfaction.

Yet the more people were moved, the more Valentine’s soul fell into corruption. Her soul, turning pitch black, stepped into an unfathomable hell.

‘You said we would honor each other’s names, speak of love and devotion, share even small daily moments… and give boundless trust.’

“I won’t be a good husband. Because I will prioritize duty and responsibility over speaking of love and affection.”

“I know what kind of position this is. I will faithfully fulfill the duties and responsibilities Your Majesty has entrusted to me.”

Amaryllis’s face, full of emotion, brightened even more. Unlike Valentine who had fallen from hell into another purgatory, Amaryllis, who had stepped into an incomparable paradise, swallowed her overwhelming tears.

‘You… you. You said you loved me.’

In Valentine, who watched the two with burning eyes, one word clearly rose up.

─Lies.

“All I can give to the Empress is the name of Sehera.”

“Anything, I will give anything for Your Majesty. I will always try my best.”

As if he had long prepared for this situation, Cassian spoke calmly and deliberately. Only Amaryllis couldn’t contain her overwhelming emotions.

“As Empress, I will only make many demands. Would that still be alright?”

“Of course, Your Majesty. If I can only walk beside Your Majesty… I will endure any path of thorns.”

It was the feeling Valentine once held. No, it was the blind devotion that remained unchanged even at the moment of her death by Liam’s hands.

Therefore, these were words that should not be uttered by anyone but her.

‘Even if I end my life today and fall into hell, you said you would only love me…’

─Lies.

“Going forward, there will be more things I cannot do for you than things I can.”

“Whatever it may be, I will gladly take Your Majesty’s hand. As long as death does not separate Your Majesty and me, I will not let go of this hand.”

“Thank you for saying so, Mademoiselle de la Sienne.”

Cassian gestured to the small child. His voice softened considerably.

“Bastian, come here.”

Bastian hesitantly looked up at Amaryllis. When Amaryllis nodded, he took small steps to approach Cassian.

Cassian lifted the child into his arms. Someone let out a low exclamation seeing the two standing side by side. The pale golden hair, the blue eyes. Their neat features and warm impression were surprisingly similar.

Cassian met Bastian’s gaze once. Then he turned to the Holy Father.

“Your Holiness, though late, please acknowledge Bastian as of Sehera’s bloodline.”

“Given the special circumstances, I will gladly do so. No one will be able to say Prince Bastian was born of an impure union.”

The Holy Father nodded readily. His large hand was placed on the child’s small head.

“God’s blessing upon Bastian Pendragon.”

‘Only me…’

─All lies.

Valentine watched with trembling eyes as Bastian received the prince’s crown. She watched as the Holy Father, who had spewed curses at her and her lost child, bestowed blessings upon them.

All those attending the coronation watched that scene happily. Then she remembered the small medicine bottle Amaryllis had given her.

‘They say it’s good medicine for the fetus.’

The whisper reviving in her ears at that moment. Her heart, which would no longer beat, seemed to throb bizarrely.

Valentine, finally realizing the truth, desperately shook her head.

‘…No, no.’

The physician’s verdict to her brushed past her ears.

‘Regrettably, Madame Marguerite, you will not be able to conceive a child again.’

‘This can’t be.’

The words Cassian had spoken after hearing about Valentine’s condition invaded her mind.

‘To me, you are more precious than any unborn child. Only you are precious.’

Her fingertips brushed over her empty lower abdomen.

They killed it.

It wasn’t Astaire. It wasn’t Solice of Ingrid. It was Amaryllis. It was Cassian.

Upon hearing of her pregnancy, they deliberately fed her medicine, killed the child and made it so she could never conceive life again.

Because Amaryllis was carrying Cassian’s child then. That child who even received the name Bastian…

Though not well known in Gabrienne, there was one widely known fact in the Blumir territory. The truth that Grand Duke Pendragon had proposed to the Duchess of Blumir.

Therefore, if Valentine’s child existed, Amaryllis’s child couldn’t have been acknowledged even as a bastard.

There could be no greater betrayal than this.

The sweet whispers, the warm actions… they were all lies. The reason she had endured by Astaire’s hellish side was a lie. The child too, even the child, even the life that carried his blood…

Everything was a sandcastle built by him, by Cassian Pendragon.

The wave of truth crashed in. The sandcastle of lies crumbled. Everything that had supported Valentine was swept away.

‘Nooooo─!’

Valentine truly screamed. She could no longer endure with a sound mind.

The love that had made her dream, made her hold hope, shattered miserably. She stood on those cruel fragments, swallowing her groans and tears. She wept as a soul.

The clearly welling bloody tears fell and shattered on the ground. At that moment, a sweet voice echoed in her ears.

— Do you desire revenge?

The demon wrapped in dark gloom appeared before Valentine and showed the sweetest temptation.

— Speak your wish.

Valentine, shedding bloody tears, gladly took the demon’s hand. The demon lurking within her thus revealed red eyes to the world. Only burning revenge sustained her.

Liam who killed Valentine, forgetting the grace of taking him in when he was an orphan.

Count Glastia, who wouldn’t even let her corpse lie in a grave.

Astaire, who provided the cause for Cassian to use her, and who had desired Valentine.

Amaryllis, who killed the child that had barely made its existence known in the womb, and ruined Valentine’s body.

And Cassian, who used all of that and thoroughly deceived her.

‘Cassian…’

Valentine ground her teeth. In that single moment, endless love turned to terrible betrayal.

Though she hated them all, the one she found most unforgivable was Cassian. Thus Valentine de le Blumir swore to the pale moon.

That she would kill him who had desecrated her love and devotion.

1. Valentine de le Blumir – Lacrimosa of the Black Rose End