She had set the fire from the first floor, so all the passages were blocked. Ulrich would not be able to come up right away.

This had bought her some time.

The sound of thundering hooves that followed shortly after put her at ease.

The imperial knights had arrived, it seemed.

For the first time, she was grateful that he was the emperor of the empire. Even if that crown was stained with the blood of her father and brothers.

Either way, because of it, the knights would stop Ulrich even at the cost of their own lives.

No one could interfere with Viveke now.

Her heart felt considerably lighter.

She wanted to go to her family soon.

Even if that place was hell.

Perhaps because she had already breathed in so much of the smoke filling the room, her mind was growing hazy.

She had even prepared sleeping pills in case the survival instinct overtook her reason and drove her to flee the fire without thinking.

Those were no longer needed now.

Viveke lay quietly down on the bed.

Her eyes fell shut on their own.

Past memories swirled through her mind like a dream.

Fragments of a past she could no longer return to played out before her eyes.

Until the very moment her breath slipped away, she could not understand.

Why, of all things, it was that day that came to her in her final moment.

***

It was a day in late summer.

That morning too, in the imperial palace of the Uvrik Empire, the whole family dined together as they always did.

No matter how busy they were, they made a point of gathering as a family at least two or three times a week.

It was a warm and tender sight rarely seen in other royal households.

But the atmosphere that day was somehow a little different.

Whatever the serious topic was, the faces of the imperial men were somewhat stiff.

When the youngest princess, Viveke, arrived last at the breakfast table, they all turned around at once, their expressions brightening.

“You’re here? Come sit. Are you hungry?”

“Viveke Johannesen, you overslept again, didn’t you?”

“Leave her alone. They say beauties are sleepyheads. Do you know she’s been sleeping in every day since she heard that?”

Unlike Frederik, the eldest, who greeted her warmly and pulled out her chair, the twin brothers were busy teasing their youngest sister.

Even that was really just their way of not knowing what to do with how adorable they found her.

“That is not why!”

Viveke shot back, flustered.

Her cheeks, flushed with indignation, turned a soft rosy pink.

“Will you two not stop? Fellows, making a lady uncomfortable is not the conduct of a gentleman.”

Emperor Gudmunt scolded his foolish sons, though it was plain he was struggling not to laugh.

Her father taking her side, the youngest stuck her tongue out at the twin princes with a look of smug satisfaction.

“Well, it’s not wrong, is it? Our daughter is the greatest beauty not just in the empire but beyond it, so of course she needs her sleep.”

“Father!”

The men all burst out laughing at the princess shooting him a betrayed look.

Frederik handed her a fork as she sat down beside him and said in a soothing tone.

“Eat this and let it go.”

“Do you think I’m still a child? That sweets will fix everything?”

She had turned nineteen and was now an adult, yet her family still treated her like a little girl rather than a proper lady, and Viveke found it thoroughly disagreeable.

She was the youngest princess, a late child born into the Johannesen imperial family, which had only sons.

The twins alone were nine years older than her, so perhaps it was only natural.

It felt like just yesterday she had taken her first steps, yet she had grown into a beautiful young woman. Viveke was the only female in the imperial family.

It was because the Crown Princess, like the Empress who was their mother, had died young from illness.

The emperor felt sorry for his eldest son, saying he had taken after his father even in losing a spouse.

Frederik, who had cherished his wife as deeply as his father had cherished his mother, did not remarry.

Since there was already a Crown Prince born of the late Crown Princess, the ministers could not protest too strongly.

In any case, one way or another, Viveke was inevitably the one and only presence in the Johannesen imperial household, and she had grown up with that much overprotection.

Even the young Crown Prince was filled with a sense of mission to protect his aunt.

“These are the berries Dustin and Viktor went to the forest to pick at dawn to make the cake.”

“At dawn?”

Viveke looked up at the twins in surprise at Frederik’s words.

The two cleared their throats awkwardly and looked away.

“It’s not like six in the morning is dawn. My eyes just opened early and there wasn’t much else to do…….”

“We went out hunting and happened to spot a fruit tree, so we picked some.”

They made it sound like nothing, but she understood immediately why they had gone to such lengths.

The week before, Viveke had suffered a bad stomachache after a meal.

It was summer, so ingredients spoiled easily, and she had been born with a frail constitution and had been prone to minor ailments since childhood.

At the kindhearted princess’s request, the cook and the palace attendants were spared punishment, but they began managing the ingredients far more strictly.

Even so, Viktor had been worried and today had gone himself to pick only the freshest fruit he could find with his own eyes.

Even if it was a forest within the palace grounds, it was unheard of for members of the imperial family to do what the attendants did.

She could easily picture the attendants beside them, unable to stop the princes and fretting helplessly.

Viveke barely managed to hold back the sigh that threatened to escape.

‘You didn’t have to go that far.’

Those words almost slipped out.

“Thank you, brothers.”

“Look at that, our baby has grown up. We’re actually getting formal speech from our little tomboy.”

“That’s right. She’s ready to be married off.”

The twins’ playful words brought the mood back to warmth and laughter.

Viveke smiled brightly to put her father and brothers at ease and forced the cake down bite by bite.

She felt like she might get indigestion, but she did not let it show.

***

“Married off? I can’t escape from here even after I’m married.”

Viveke complained, resting her head against the carriage window frame.

She had eaten without knowing whether it was going into her mouth or her nose, and sure enough she had gotten badly indigested.

Her maid Ingrid sat beside her and listened to the princess’s grumbling as she always did.

“Why else would they be choosing the princess consort from foreign royalty and nobility? Everyone in the empire knows Father and the brothers are excessive.”

Viveke was a beauty who could make anyone, young or old, fall in love at first sight.

She was popular with the public as well, and there was not a young nobleman who had not harbored feelings for her at some point.

Yet no one dared propose to her rashly.

With good reason. The position of princess consort was one that most high-ranking noble families found unappealing.

Even sons other than the eldest, who were not needed to carry on the family line, were reluctant to become a princess consort.

Not only was the princess consort barred from holding official posts, but while it was customary for a princess to move out of the palace upon marriage, the emperor wanted his son-in-law to come and live in Viveke’s quarters.

Even now, the moment anyone approached the youngest princess, the imperial men kept watch with blazing eyes, and anyone who picked a fight with her in a marital dispute would fear losing their head.

On the other hand, lower-ranking noble families who dreamed of rising in status were naturally not to the emperor’s taste.

And so candidates had been summoned from foreign countries with friendly ties to the empire, and a selection of a royal consort was to be held.

“You know what he said earlier? If I really can’t find a man I like, I don’t have to get married at all. Is he telling me to spend my whole life watching my great-grandnephews get married and die alone?”

“Oh, could he have meant it that way? He’s saying don’t feel pressured. That you don’t have to get married just because it’s an international event.”

Viveke knew Ingrid was right.

She had just been in a bad mood and said whatever came to mind.

She knew full well it was all out of love for her.

But at the same time, she could not deny that she felt afraid.

At this rate, the imperial men’s overbearing presence might frighten him off before he ever appeared in Viveke’s life.

A man who would love her just as she was.

“You received portrait paintings of the consort candidates, didn’t you? Was there anyone who caught your eye?”

“No. No one has drawn me in yet.”

“Portraits can be deceiving. Meeting in person might feel quite different.”

“But I want a fateful love.”

“A fateful love?”

The maid held back a laugh at the princess’s pure and guileless wish.

“The kind where you can’t help but fall in love the moment you lay eyes on each other.”

“That’s the sort of thing that only happens in books.”

“That’s exactly why I want a special love like the ones in books.”

“You mean a romance novel where a knight falls in love while rescuing a princess?”

“Nobles and princes are boring. We know each other too well and everything is predictable. I want a man who is strong and scarred and rough.”

Watching Viveke’s eyes light up the moment the subject of novels came up, she shook her head.

“A person with many scars tends to inflict many scars on others as well. Our princess shouldn’t fall for a bad man.”

“That’s exactly what makes it so agonizing and so moving. A man who never knew love, devoted to one woman alone.”

“He has to be handsome enough to make the princess fall in love at first sight, and strong on top of that, with a unique background and a heartbreaking past, yet devoted to only one woman?”

“Yes! That’s exactly it!”

“Princess, no such man exists in this world.”

Ingrid said flatly.