Imperial Year 650.

A shadow of death fell over the once-peaceful Kingdom of Brivent.

“Ahhh!”

“An intrusion! Intruders! Protect His Highness!”

Screams rang out at the top of people’s lungs and chaos erupted everywhere. The palace, which had once been shrouded in silence, was now filled with desperate cries and the thick, iron-like stench of blood from those who were dying.

Flames surged through the palace halls. The thunder of running footsteps and the sharp clashes of swords echoed from all directions.

“—Kgh!”

Leticia collapsed to the floor, clutching her injured leg. She had no strength left in it and could only drag herself forward. Somehow, she managed to crawl out of the room and began searching frantically for help.

‘Arden… Arden.’

Leticia wiped the blood smearing her face with the back of her hand and hurried along the wall for support. Suddenly, she tripped over something and pitched forward, falling hard to the ground.

The situation had unfolded so quickly that she couldn’t think straight. Her mind went completely blank. And yet, Leticia searched for Arden.

He was in the most danger, standing against the invaders with a sword in hand. She had to find him.

Then—her body stopped abruptly.

At the end of the corridor, she saw a man cutting down others one by one.

The moment she saw him slashing through people with an emotionless face, she was seized by terror.

“…Arden.”

When he heard her utter his name, he stopped moving.

Blood trickled down the blade of the sword in his hand. Looking utterly exhausted, he slowly lifted his head and turned his gaze towards the person who had called his name.

The moment their eyes met, Leticia felt her heart plummet once more.

‘Is that… really him?’

She took a step back instinctively.

He had always kept his emotions under iron control. Yet now he was mercilessly cutting people down. The sight felt strangely unfamiliar — almost unreal.

His blue eyes met hers and gleamed sharply.

“Leticia.”

Arden’s deep voice echoed through the corridor. When Leticia saw him covered in blood, her face turned pale with shock.

She forced her trembling vision to steady and looked at him again.

Arden Levter — King of the Kingdom of Brivent.

And her husband.

The dark crimson blood staining his golden hair created a disturbing contrast. Without hesitation, he strode towards her and seized her wrist.

“Why are you still here?”

His voice was dry, utterly devoid of emotion. Leticia’s lips parted slightly.

“I… I…”

“I asked why you’re still here.”

Leticia’s eyes widened at the sharp voice that cut straight through her. She could not utter a sound. Tears simply fell, one after another. His gaze was as cold as frost, that of someone who had lost the ability to feel anything.

“Was it that difficult to understand when I told you not to get in the way?”

The look in his eyes as it fell upon her only deepened the pain in Leticia’s chest.

“I told you it would all end if only you were gone. I told you that all of this happened because of you.”

Arden glanced around at the carnage and let out a hollow laugh. His eyes seemed to be condemning her.

“Why didn’t you disappear when I told you to? For heaven’s sake, stop hovering around me and leave!”

Her chest hollowed out as though a great hole had been torn through it. With those words, everything she had been desperately holding together collapsed.

A crushing pain squeezed her heart.

Thump. Thump.

His relentless words struck her again and again, and tears continued to well up in her eyes.

“…I’m going to die anyway. So…—ah!”

Arden suddenly seized Leticia’s wrist with brutal force, causing her to cry out in pain.

Tear after tear slid down her cheeks and fell to the floor. In the already blood-stained corridor, her tears were impossible to distinguish.

Still gripping her wrist, Arden pulled her towards him.

“Who gave you permission to die so easily? Live. This happened because of you. Remember it—again and again.”

Leticia shook her head.

‘That’s not what I meant.’

Those were not the words she had wanted to say.

In truth, she was already dying. The way the pain was intensifying told her that she didn’t have much time left.

That was why she wanted, if only in a small way, to be of some help.

That was all.

She just wanted to be someone who could still be useful to the man who hated her, even if only one last time.

“Remember. And live.”

Arden was asking something she could not possibly do.

‘I only wanted to spend the end with you…’

Her wish was buried beneath his anger. Arden showed no intention of listening to her.

Leticia was dragged helplessly along behind him. She could not question or protest against what he said and simply swallowed the words that rose to her throat. All she could do was stare at the hand gripping her wrist so tightly.

What he said no longer mattered.

At this point, asking why he was saying such hurtful things to her would have been laughable. Instead, Leticia was troubled by the faint tremor in Arden’s bloodstained hand.

‘He’s reached his limit.’

He might not be able to hold out much longer.

“Ugh.”

As he dragged her along mercilessly, the pain in her injured leg intensified. Nevertheless, Leticia clenched her teeth and endured it.

Her once flawless, porcelain-white skin was streaked with tears, and her golden dress, now stained with blood, had lost all its former splendor.

And that was not all.

There were visible scratches on several places on her unblemished body.

“Your Majesty… there might still be something I can do. I want to protect Brivent as well.”

“I told you that Brivent would be better off if you simply did not exist.”

His words were like sharp needles, stabbing her in the chest once again.

Why was he pushing her away so much?

Before the Rysellon Empire’s invasion by Emperor Cadius, Arden had told her—

“From this day forward, Brivent has no queen. So leave the palace with your own feet. Right now.”

Leticia had never imagined that she would be forced to leave the place she had always thought of as her home.

If that were truly the case, she should have been cast out long ago.

She could not accept what Arden had said.

So she endured.

She remained in the palace, refusing to leave.

Not long after that, the Empire began its invasion.