The emperor was dead. The empire plunged into chaos. Accusations followed one after another that the crown prince, long since designated, was not the emperor’s biological son.

“It is His Highness Albert, of true imperial blood, who rightfully deserves to ascend the throne!”

The empress’s father cried out his claim.

“Are you saying His Highness Cyril is not of imperial blood, Marquis Ferithid?”

Duke Berthier stepped forward. He was the only close friend the late emperor, a man whose true thoughts no one could ever read, had ever trusted.

“Do you intend to wriggle out of this, Duke! Her Majesty the Empress had long since sensed the scheme between you and the late emperor, yet she had no choice but to suffer alone in silence!”

“Your Majesty the Empress. His Highness Cyril carries the blood of the imperial family. I stake my word on it.”

The empress smiled coldly. Who in the empire did not know that Duke Berthier and the emperor were in league? She had never once forgotten, not even in her dreams, the day the emperor brought Cyril home.

‘Your Majesty, that child…?’

‘He is my son. I will name him crown prince in due time and have him succeed the throne, so the empress will raise the child with full devotion.’

The emperor was insufferably brazen. There was not a trace of guilt over his infidelity.

It was not a marriage born of love, but the emperor’s declaration that he would have the empress of the empire raise an illegitimate child, and on top of that, pass the throne to that child, went far beyond the pale.

‘If Your Majesty commands it, I will become the child’s mother with all my heart. But the throne, at least…!’

The empress cast aside her dignity and pleaded with the emperor. Her family was nothing more than a count’s house. The emperor had not wanted an empress whose family held strong influence. When he married her, he had granted her family a marquis title as a matter of appearances, but it was an empty rank with no real power.

‘You talk too much. I chose you because I dislike noise. Do you intend to make me regret my choice?’

‘…No……’

‘The child’s name is Cyril. I leave his upbringing entirely to the empress. The empress is the mother of the empire, so if she keeps a broad mind and refrains from any foolish schemes, I will treat her accordingly.’

So the empress waited. She gave birth to Albert, and held her breath in patience until that child grew and gained power.

At last, the wretched tyrant was dead. The serpent that had lain flat on the ground lifted its head high and showed the world, without restraint, that it too had venom.

The crown prince’s palace. Cyril flipped through the petitions calling for his abdication, his face expressionless. The empress and Marquis Ferithid were formidably capable. They had played their hand perfectly, feigning complete indifference to the throne.

“Your Highness. Duke Berthier has requested an audience.”

“What can Duke Berthier possibly do at this point?”

“Duke Berthier was the late emperor’s only close friend, and a word from him will surely carry weight.”

Cyril let out a short laugh. It was true that Duke Berthier had been close to the late emperor. For that very reason, Duke Berthier had never aligned himself with any faction.

Duke Berthier had been thoroughly alone. Just as Cyril now had to endure all of this humiliation alone.

“The empress and Marquis Ferithid have already extended their reach everywhere. I’ll be lucky if I can beg Albert to at least let me keep my life.”

“Your Highness!”

“Dager. I have no desire for the throne. If Albert is the crown prince this empire wants, I will step down willingly.”

The old chamberlain let out a loud sniffle.

“There was a time I believed the crown prince’s position was His Majesty’s affection for me, but it was all my own delusion.”

Whenever Cyril thought of the emperor, a chill settled in his gut. The emperor had given him nothing beyond the position of crown prince. Even when the empress, who despised Cyril, raised him and treated him worse than a dog, the emperor never intervened.

“Looking back on it now, I was His Majesty’s blemish.”

“If the late emperor had thought of Your Highness that way, he would never have named you crown prince.”

“It was nothing more than a passing whim. Hard to believe, but even he was human, so he must have felt some guilt. My birth mother probably made an audacious final wish on her deathbed. If His Majesty had truly cared for me, he should have entrusted my upbringing to someone he chose himself, not the empress.”

Cyril rolled up his sleeve. It was covered in ugly scars. Every one of them was a whip mark. The empress had performed the role of a gentle mother in public, but behind closed doors, she abused Cyril.

“All I can do is hope Albert does well.”

Cyril held no particular resentment toward his half-brother. Albert had always pitied Cyril and made every effort to repair his relationship with the empress.

The more Albert tried, the more the empress despised Cyril, but knowing Albert’s sincerity, Cyril could not bring himself to blame his half-brother.

“Dager. When night falls, leave the palace.”

“Your Highness!”

“My life is finished either way. Even if Albert does not wish it, the empress and Marquis Ferithid will not be able to stop themselves from k*lling me. You, at least, must survive.”

The old chamberlain burst into loud, heaving sobs, without a shred of shame.

***

At the mage tower, a woman shattered a crystal ball with a piercing scream.

“I failed again.”

The woman was a mage. She could have gone down in history as an unprecedented genius, but the empire crumbled day by day under a puppet emperor.

Family, friends, colleagues died in wars without cause or justification. To protect the people she held dear, the woman had used forbidden magic.

She turned back time and gave those responsible for the empire’s ruin the chance to choose differently. But every one of them walked the same path as before.

“What is wrong? Why do the emperor, the empress, and the crown prince keep making the same choices?”

The mage’s power was nearly spent. Only one chance remained. A name suddenly crossed her mind. A woman who had nothing to do with any of this.

“There is no one else left. Even Duke Berthier did not change. She is the only one remaining.”

The mage made her decision. She wrapped a black cloak around herself to hide her face and slipped out of the tall mage tower.

And time flows backward.

Lady Adelaide Charlotte Berthier. She had carried that long name from the moment she was born, and right now, she was doing laundry.

“Adelaide, aren’t you being a bit too greedy?”

A colleague she was not close with came and sat down beside her. Her eyes went wide at the pile of laundry Adelaide had brought over.

“Whether I’m greedy or not is none of your business. Go do your own work.”

At Adelaide’s sharp tone, the girl pouted and moved off to join the cluster of other colleagues. They were almost certainly huddled together talking about Adelaide behind her back, but she did not care in the slightest.

She had been called just “Adel” for nearly ten years now. Once, she had been the noble Lady Adelaide of House Berthier, but after the age of seventeen, her life changed completely.

The illegitimate child Duke Berthier brought home had been the root of it all. Duke Berthier announced that he would name the illegitimate child as the next Duke Berthier.

On that day, Adelaide pushed the illegitimate child down a staircase. Unfortunately, he survived, and Adelaide was thrown out of the house.

“D*mn old fool.”

Adelaide swung the washing bat with force. Under her blows, the murky gray water gave way and ran out.

Thrown out of the house, Adelaide went exactly three days without eating before she started begging.

Then someone hired her as a restaurant server, saying her pretty face would be good for drawing in customers. It was a decent enough job, right up until she cracked the head of a customer who grabbed her backside.

After getting fired, Adelaide had every last coin she had saved stolen from her. Driven by hunger, she went to a wig shop intending to sell her hair, and there, to her surprise, discovered she had a talent for working with her hands.

Not wanting to go hungry anymore, Adelaide worked diligently, but the shop owner’s husband set his sights on her.

Adelaide left that man with even less hair than he already had. The shop owner refused to take Adelaide’s word for it and, under the guise of a settlement, refused to pay her the wages she had earned.

After that, she got into a fight with a fishing boat captain who spouted nonsense about women on board bringing bad luck, and became a fisherwoman. Adelaide held on for three months aboard a fishing boat that was said to kill even healthy, able-bodied men.

Her tenacity earned her recognition, and she was promoted to delivering the catch to shops. Had it not been for an unlucky cart accident, Adelaide had no doubt she would have gone on to great success as a fisherwoman.

No fishing boat wanted to hire Adelaide after she developed a limp. So she decided to become a laundry house maid.

Through countless misfortunes and hardships, Adelaide had survived with her head held high. She never once entertained the thought of going to Duke Berthier and begging for mercy.

Adelaide Charlotte Berthier was the kind of person who would sooner die than do something she would regret.

On a dark night, a mage climbed a hill through a driving downpour. At the top of the hill stood a gravestone with a chipped corner. She caught her breath and stood before it.

Between the irregular flashes of lightning, the mage’s face came into view. She looked utterly exhausted.

‘I, Adelaide Charlotte Berthier, lived a life without regrets.’

The mage read every word carved into the gravestone carefully.

Adelaide Charlotte Berthier. The Berthiers no longer existed. An unprepared emperor could not govern a nation. He swayed like a reed and broke with ease.