Chapter 1 – Broken Engagement (Part 1)

Her gaze always lingered on him.

“I love the Lady Bellaruse of Zeraon.”

“… … I beg your pardon?”

The woman who is now hearing such harsh words from her fiancé is Reubellina Asillious, the daughter and only heir of Duke Asillious.

The man spewing these words is Inferno Freynante, the Second Prince of the Freynante Empire, and had been in a long-term relationship with Reubellina.

Today was a very important day. After a decade-long engagement, their union was finally going to be sealed in marriage. At the imperial banquet today, the two of them were to officially announce their wedding date to the world.

But what on earth was going on?

When her fiancé, who was supposed to pick her up, doesn’t show up after hours, she goes looking for him, only to be met with cold, cruel words.

The ‘Lady Bellaruse’ he was talking about was a young lady that Reubellina had seen a few times. Every time Reubellina saw her, she felt strangely self-conscious, but she dismissed it as just her imagination…

Inferno’s final words fell on Reubellina, who was shocked by the betrayal from her beloved.

“Let’s break off the engagement.”

“Break the engagement…?”

“Let’s break it off. I can no longer maintain my engagement to you, now that she and Grand Duke Speraum are separated.”

Bellaruse was the daughter of the fallen Baron of Zeraon. She was a woman who grew up under a father who only held the title of Baron.

Even Reubellina, a woman herself, thought Bellaruse was a delicate and beautiful woman like a single daffodil. Her blue eyes were praised as natural gems, and her soft pink hair was said to be so sweet that one would want to taste it. Moreover, her gentle disposition was so refined that she was called the reincarnation of a saint.

However, she was nowhere near the caliber of Reubellina. A woman known as a gentle and wise woman, and her radiant beauty had made her the center of attention.

Reubellina was praised as shining as bright and beautiful as the red sun. She was betrothed to Inferno at an early age, promised to the imperial family as a prospective princess, beloved by the Emperor and Empress, as well as by the servants of the palace. She was not someone who should be hearing such words.

“I confessed to her that I loved her, that I wanted her to be with me instead of the Grand Duke Speraum… But she refused.”

“What on earth are you saying…”

“Not long after, I heard that she got engaged to Grand Duke Speraum. So I gave up and… focused on you. I proposed to you with all my heart. But…”

Inferno, who was calmly speaking, began to tremble more and more, shaking his hands. To Reubellina, he seemed like a madman. But Inferno, drunk on his own emotions, didn’t even care about the pale Reubellina and continued speaking rapidly.

“But this morning, I found out that she had broken off her engagement with him. I went straight to her and confessed my feelings again. She embraced me softly with tears in her eyes. It was like a dream…”

“Inferno…… stop……!”

To Inferno now, Reubellina didn’t matter. He was only worried about Bellaruse waiting for him somewhere in the banquet hall. He had to resolve this situation quickly and go to her.

“Bellaruse has already accepted my proposal.”

“She accepted…… your proposal?”

‘Does this even make sense?’

Reubellina laughed in despair.

She and Inferno had been engaged for 10 years.

Everyone in the Freynante Empire knew that Reubellina would become a princess. They were such a public couple that Reubellina couldn’t understand how Bellaruse could have so quickly accepted Inferno’s proposal.

The long engagement was a solid promise between the imperial family and the ducal family. There was no way a Baron family could come between them. No matter what, Inferno was only the second prince. There was no way he could break the betrothal promised by the Emperor.

Reubellina tried to convince herself that Inferno was talking nonsense, joking under the influence of alcohol, but his gaze was too determined.

Inferno whispered to the speechless Reubellina.

“I thought you, a kind woman, would understand.”

No. Reubellina had never said she understood. She wanted to shut Inferno’s mouth, to stop him from talking nonsense.

Finally managing to open her lips, Reubellina said desperately.

“We’ve been engaged for 10 years now. We’ve spent so much time together.”

“I know. That’s why I need your help not to lose the person I’ve now found love with.”

“Was the time we spent together nothing to you?”

“Yes. Not even for a single moment did my heart beat for you nor did I feel the excitement of love.”

Reubellina wanted to scream at Inferno for casually hurting her, but she couldn’t say anything.

She wondered how she would ever be able to hold her head high in society if they were to break up like this and have her man stolen from her by a daughter of a Baron.

Reubellina had endured rumors that the second prince continued to buy jewelry and secretly met other women behind her back. She had ignored those rumors because she had never seen them with her own eyes.

She had never seen Inferno meeting Bellaruse, let alone talking to her. They were two people who didn’t even look at each other when they met at the banquet hall, so she had thought it was groundless suspicion. But it was all a disguise to deceive her.

When Reubellina finally asks Inferno about the jewelry directly, he scoffs, saying how could the future princess ask about such luxuries. But it was all for Bellaruse, it seems.

Many thoughts were running through her head, but she came to only one conclusion. 

‘I couldn’t let him go like this.’

Reubellina closed her eyes tightly and opened them. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t give up. She loved Inferno too much.

Her throat kept getting dry from tension. She swallowed the dry saliva and forced herself to speak.

“……I’m in love with you.”

“No. Don’t you understand? I’m in love with someone else.”

Inferno’s voice echoed mockingly in the stairwell, demanding to know why she couldn’t think straight and that it was embarrassing for her to hold onto someone who didn’t love her.

“I’ve never seen you as a woman.”

“Inferno.”

“Don’t call me by my name anymore. Our engagement is soon to be broken, so you should maintain the etiquette befitting of the royalty.”

‘How dare you say this to me?’

Their engagement had lasted for 10 years. She was 24 years old. She had waited far beyond the marriageable age. Because of Inferno’s words that it was not ladylike for a woman to bring up marriage first, she had waited without saying anything.

She had been in and out of the imperial palace since she was young, received a strict education from the Empress, and had been close to Inferno’s elder brother the Crown Prince, and his younger sister the Princess, almost like her own siblings. She had spent as much time in the imperial palace as the imperial family themselves.

‘And now, he suggested breaking off the engagement? Because he loved someone else?’

‘What about my time? My efforts? My… feelings?’

‘If it ends like this, who will recognize it?’

Her thoughts flowed like water. She thought of her parents and the servants of the ducal family, who had supported her with everything on the assumption that she would become a part of the imperial household, and as their faces flashed by, she couldn’t let go of Inferno even more.

She closed her eyes tightly again, and determination was evident in her eyes when she opened them. She whispered to Inferno, in a very soft voice.

“Please don’t do this, Inferno. We… are not supposed to part like this.”

“Stop being so pathetic. Haven’t you realized yet? You mean nothing to me.”

“If you leave now, you won’t be able to see me again. Are you still going to leave?”

“I’ve said it many times. I’m going to Bellaruse.”

“You’re leaving me for her? Because of a daughter of a Baron who broke off an engagement with someone else?”

“Reubellina.”

Inferno’s voice lowered warningly. Without feeling the ominous aura in his voice, she poured out her words.

“I am the only daughter of the only Duke in this empire.  The House of Asillious is a noble family far above a mere Baron’s house. Unless there is a Duchess, no one can force me, and no one can treat me disrespectfully. Not even you.”

“How dare a mere daughter of the Duke interfere with what a Prince of this empire is trying to do?”

“‘Mere daughter of the Duke?”

“Even though Bellaruse is just the Baron’s daughter now, she will soon become my wife and join the nobility. She will sit in a much higher position than you could ever dream of.”

“How dare you speak to me like that!”

Inferno lifted his face towards Reubellina. His eyes were filled with disdain and contempt.

Seeing the emotion in his eyes, she bit her lip. It was a habit that Inferno disliked, but she couldn’t help it at this moment.

The moment blood threatened to seep from her bitten lips, his eyes turned cold.

“I, Inferno Freynante, prince and noble of this empire, love Lady Bellaruse, not you.”

“…”

“So just step aside quietly.”

“…You want me to step aside?”

“If you harm Bellaruse, no matter how noble you are as the Duke’s daughter, you won’t get away with it.”

“Are you… threatening me? Me, whom you’ve been engaged to for 10 years?”

“You were only a fiancée, not a princess and you haven’t won my heart in ten years.”

Inferno snorted. As he turned away coldly, Reubellina’s last words fell out.

“I told you, if you leave now, you won’t see me again. Requesting help from the Duke Asillious family will be useless. Our connection ends here.”

She could no longer say she loved him; it was the last of her pride and dignity.

Reubellina gritted her teeth, watching Inferno’s retreating back as he continued up the stairs, leaving her behind.

Alone on the stairs, her shoulders trembled.

“You… bastard.”

Streams of anger and sadness flowed down her cheeks.