CHAPTER 1 – Illusion of Desperate Purity

Lillian had no surname.

She was a pitiful infant abandoned beneath the walls of the capital immediately after birth.

The only fortunate aspect was that Lillian was born in the capital during a time when the Ministry of Welfare in the prosperous regime worked diligently to alleviate poverty, aiming to restrain the newly crowned Emperor Hamilton IV.

She was entrusted to the  Ministry of Welfare’s orphanage and grew up there until she became an adult.

Lillian received her name long after entering the orphanage. It was a name given by someone in the orphanage who felt sorry for her situation—a kind tutor she encountered around the age of four when she began to learn to speak.

Lillian first met Cedric Edelgard when she was five years old. That day remained vivid in her memory, as it marked the beginning of her first recollections.

It was a season of lush greenery when the Duchess Edelgard was visiting the orphanage.

<Come, eat this.>

He was a seven-year-old boy who had come to volunteer at the orphanage with his mother, Duchess Edelgard.

<It’s not strange. It’s a delicious pie. But it’s too sweet and I don’t like it.>

A pie with a suspiciously black color.

But more than that, Lillian couldn’t take her eyes off the boy’s face.

Hair the color of honey and gold.

Beautiful green eyes.

He was the kind of boy you’d never see in an orphanage. Despite dressing modestly to blend in with the poor and practicing humility, his aura clearly indicated that he belonged to the prestigious aristocracy.

A dazzlingly beautiful and unfamiliar boy.

The warmth of his friendly favor on their first meeting.

‘This pie probably has poison in it. I’m sure of it. The young master must be trying to kill me for amusement.’

Even though Lillian was only five years into her time at the orphanage, she had enough insight not to naively rejoice at the kind treatment from a handsome boy.

She reluctantly accepted the black pie, but the wariness in her face didn’t disappear.

<If you don’t mind the sweet taste, it should be fine.>

After a few more words, the boy turned around, smiling brightly. His sleek robes fluttered, emitting a floral scent reminiscent of roses.

It was like some kind of magic seemed to have been cast at that moment.

When he was gone, Lillian eagerly devoured the suspiciously dark pie that undoubtedly contained poison.

‘It’s delicious!’

The black filling was soft and sweet, like the boy’s voice. Lillian savored every bit, even licking her fingers that were stained by it.

It lingered in her mouth for a moment, then disappeared in the blink of an eye, just like the boy.

‘It was really delicious!’

The grey life of the girl transformed into a vibrant rainbow after eating the ‘black pie.’

It was the pie that started it all, but the sweetness it bestowed was attributed to the boy who offered it.

‘Cedric Edelgard.’

He was the third son of a duke and scion of a great noble family, that wielded influence second only to the royal family in the capital.

On the days when his compassionate mother visited the orphanage, there was always a thorough cleaning, etiquette lessons, and a commotion, so it was impossible not to notice.

The girl, Lillian, had not forgotten the boy who had given her the delicious pie.  No, she couldn’t forget.

‘Why did the young master only give me the pie?’

From that day on, she waited for him to come, her mind racing with delusions.

‘Among all those many children…’

Due to a war that had persisted for decades, the orphanage was on the brink of overflowing. There were countless children in situations similar to Lillian’s.

‘Why just me?’

Brown hair, light ash-colored eyes. She wondered what it was about her that caught the young master’s eye.

‘Am I that pretty?’

She’d been told she had doll-like features. There was even a lady who wanted to take her because she looked pretty. However, it was all just talk.

Lillian tried to find her specialness somehow, but as she grew older, seven, eight, nine…… she gradually realized.

Cedric Edelgard had simply shown compassion to a beggar, and it happened to be in the orphanage. He had handed her a pie he was tired of. Nothing more.

His subsequent reactions made it clear.

He rarely appeared. Until Lillian turned eight, he visited the orphanage a couple of times, but even if he lingered in the vicinity, he never looked at her for more than a second. It wasn’t intentional.

To Cedric, Lillian was just a wall decoration, an ornament, or simply another ‘passing pauper girl.’

A young master too elusive to capture in her eyes.

A noble gentleman whose name is a sin to speak.

A person like him, unreachable no matter how much she wanted to reach.

Lillian came to her senses relatively quickly.

‘Let’s not dream in vain. He’s like seawater.’

No matter how much you drink seawater, it only increases your thirst and doesn’t quench it. Greedy people, like those who drink seawater, eventually die painfully. Therefore, she should not harbor greed.

Lillian recalled the moral lesson from the fairy tales told by the orphanage’s caretaker.

Luckily, giving up greed wasn’t too difficult for a girl who’d spent her entire life in the orphanage with a bunch of overgrown children.

Thus, the longing she had harbored for the nobleman she had coincidentally encountered in her childhood gradually faded.

But whimsical fate would not let Lillian off the hook so easily.

At the age of nine, the older children in the relatively decent orphanage were assigned to do the menial tasks of the palace, such as cleaning and laundry.

Lillian, cleaning the courtyard, spotted him, a squire in the Knights of the Holy Silver Cross.

‘Why is Cedric Edelgard here?’

Apparently, there was a sibling feud at the Duchy of Edelgard. Cedric, the third son, was just eleven at the time, a mere child compared to his well-built older brothers.

At his mother’s urging, he entered the imperial capital’s prestigious academy to study for priesthood, and his martial prowess led him naturally to join the Knights of the Silver Cross.

‘Oh my goodness. This is destiny.’