“Please, let my death lead them to ruin.”

In the dead of night, at the very top of the highest spire in the Imperial Palace.

Standing upon its railing, Erenia looked down at the dizzyingly silent drop stretching beneath her feet.

“Help me, Mother.”

Erenia prayed to the mother whose face she had never even known.

Today, it would all end.

A life spent anxiously begging for love from those who despised her.

A lifetime of being offered up as a sacrifice for the peace of the Empire.

“Y-Your Highness, the Princess?”

A maid must have spotted Erenia standing precariously atop the spire, for she let out a scream.

“Inform His Majesty the Emperor! Hurry!”

Below the spire, the servants of the Imperial Palace scrambled about in terror, desperately trying to prevent Erenia’s death.

But it was not for Erenia’s sake.

They were struggling solely to preserve their own peace.

If Erenia died now, the Empire would lose the princess they intended to sell off to the enemy nation’s grand duke as a hostage under the guise of a marriage alliance.

And then the Empire, already defeated in the war, would lose its final chance at negotiation and begin its inevitable descent toward destruction.

“E-Erenia! Sister! What in the world are you doing up there?”

Just then, Joanna came running from the distance with her ladies-in-waiting, shouting as she approached. As though she had forgotten her position as the Empire’s first empress regnant, she had not even properly dressed herself.

“Come down! Please, come down, Sister!”

Her beloved half-sister, who had effortlessly passed over Erenia—the eldest daughter of the imperial family—and ascended the throne.

Unlike Erenia, who had lived as an object of hatred and contempt, Joanna had been showered with the Empire’s love from the moment she was born, blooming like a beautiful flower.

Yet even she could not hide her panic at this moment.

Everyone in the Empire who despised Erenia adored Joanna beyond measure.

The nobles, the people of the Empire, even the late emperor himself.

It was a kind of affection Erenia could never have dreamed of receiving.

She was the daughter left behind by a deposed empress who had plotted treason with the backing of her own family. Branded with that disgrace, Erenia had grown up with her head bowed, forever treated as a sinner of the imperial family.

And yet, not once had Erenia ever envied or hated Joanna.

If anything, she loved her more than her own life.

‘Joanna. I thought you were… the only family I had who truly cared for me.’

Erenia could still remember it vividly.

That day in childhood when Joanna had first reached out to her as she withered away in the cold, lonely Imperial Palace.

“Sister, come play with me! I’m so happy I have you!”

And so Erenia had made a vow.

Even if it cost her life, she would protect Joanna.

Erenia gave Joanna everything she had.

Her knowledge and strategies, even the only man she had ever secretly loved.

She had never regretted giving any of it away.

‘That was why I was willing to marry Grand Duke Devlin.’

Even her decision to be sold as the wife of an enemy conqueror in order to peacefully end the war caused by Joanna’s diplomatic blunder had been made for Joanna’s sake.

“Sister, I’m so sorry. Hic… You’re the only unmarried woman left in the imperial family, so there’s no other choice…. But I found a clue that your mother’s family might have been falsely accused of treason. If you can bring this war to a peaceful end, I’ll stay here and investigate it more thoroughly.”

Of course, the hope that she might finally be able to clear the disgrace that had tormented her all her life had played some part in her decision as well.

Under the original plan, Erenia was supposed to leave the Imperial Palace the next morning and head for the border.

For Joanna’s sake.

And perhaps for the sake of herself and her maternal family, who might have been falsely accused all along.

But then—

“Why on earth does Grand Duke Devlin want that wretch Erenia? She’s far too insignificant to be the sole condition of a peace treaty.”

“Mother, really. Why does the reason matter? All I have to do is hand that foolish woman over and keep this throne.”

Just moments earlier.

Erenia had gone to see Joanna and, in the garden of the Emperor’s Palace, overheard a horrifying truth.

“Isn’t it ridiculous? No matter how hard she tries, there isn’t a single person who would ever love her. Give her the slightest bit of warmth, and she practically falls over herself begging for affection, ready to give you everything she has.”

Joanna, who had always worn such an innocent expression and treated her with apparent affection, had been playing with her all this time.

The pain was as though a red-hot blade were carving her heart to pieces.

But that was not the end of it.

The other woman laughed softly.

“That stupid girl will never know, not even until the day she dies, that the late emperor and I framed House Helias for treason.”

Erenia could not breathe.

‘I knew nothing….’

All her life, she had endured every humiliation with the heart of a sinner atoning for her maternal family’s treason.

She had done everything she could, believing that sacrificing herself for the Empire was the only way she might earn even a little forgiveness.

Above all, she had worshipped Joanna as her salvation, never knowing that Joanna was the daughter of her enemy.

Like a fool.

But thanks to the ugliness they had revealed, the blood in Erenia’s body had gone cold, and she immediately realized what the greatest revenge within her power would be.

‘If I am the condition for the peace treaty, then I will gladly disappear.’

“Sister! Sister, don’t do this! Come down first and talk to me! I’m begging you!”

“…….”

“What are you all doing?! Hurry! Save her! You absolutely cannot let her die!”

Seeing Joanna desperately trying to stop her from dying only strengthened Erenia’s resolve.

‘As I thought. If I die, you’ll be in trouble too, Joanna.’

“We’ll meet in hell. I’ll be waiting.”

Erenia murmured in a frigid voice, a cold sneer curving her lips as she stepped forward without hesitation.

For the first and last time in her life, it was her turn to repay those who had deceived her all along.

“Aaaah!”

Joanna’s scream rang out.

Erenia’s brilliant platinum-blond hair scattered through the air as she fell.

The irreversible step came to its end in an instant.

Everyone rushed toward Erenia’s fallen body in utter panic.

“No! Princess!”

Then—

A man’s voice, familiar yet strangely foreign, pierced Erenia’s ears.

As her vision gradually dimmed, she saw the face of a man with pitch-black hair and blood-red eyes.

He was running toward her, roaring as though in anguish.

‘…Grand Duke Devlin?’

The conqueror of the enemy nation who held the Empire’s very lifeline in his grasp.

Grand Duke Devlin, Seirn.

His face, usually so expressionless that it seemed perpetually cold, was now steeped in profound despair.

He looked nothing like the man who had mercilessly trampled the entire Empire and entered this Imperial Palace only days ago.

As though he had become an entirely different person.

“Please. Please, don’t die!”

Seirn carefully gathered Erenia into his arms and cried out in anguish.

‘…Why are you acting like this? To you, I’m nothing more than a spoil of war. What could you possibly lose from my death?’

There was no reason for the iron-blooded grand duke, a man who was always composed and unruffled, to crumble before her death.

“Save the princess, no matter what it takes! Hurry!”

Seirn was more desperate than anyone.

“Do whatever you must to keep her alive! If the princess dies here, not a single person in the Hyen Empire will survive!”

That was precisely what Erenia wanted.

“Princess! Stay conscious! Please, please look at me!”

And yet Erenia still could not understand.

They had barely even spoken to one another, so why was he clinging to her with such desperation?

Still, a small corner of her heart grew warm.

At least it seemed that someone would mourn her death.

“…….”

And so, cradled in the arms of the enemy nation’s conqueror, Erenia drew her final breath, still shrouded in unanswered questions.