Although it was daytime, the weather felt bleak and ominous.

Dark clouds covered the sun, and a damp wind blew through the air.

Rosetta stood quietly, her gaze fixed on the entrance to the Marquis Montero estate.

‘Soon now.’

She would finally leave this hellish place.

“You’re being married off to the Land of Monsters. What are we going to do, Rosetta? Are you really going to be all right?”

Vivianne spoke as though on the verge of tears, her brows drawn together in an act of feigned concern. Yet the faint curl of her lips betrayed the mockery lurking beneath her act.

Rosetta had never understood why Vivianne hated her so much.

“You’re the one who has everything. Why do you resent someone who has nothing? You were loved by everyone. Why do you despise someone who has never known that kind of love?”

People cherish you simply for existing, so why can’t you leave me alone now that I’ve been condemned for doing the same?

Now that I’m finally being sent away to marry the ruler of a land where ordinary people can’t survive, can’t you spare me even a shred of pity? Why do you insist on mocking me until the very end?

Rosetta spent years wondering.

But soon, the answer would no longer matter.

“They say it’s a place worse than h*ll. Don’t even think about running away.”

The Marchioness Montero spoke coldly.

‘H*ll?’

A laugh almost escaped her, but Rosetta replied as the obedient child she was expected to be.

“Yes.”

She doubted there could be a h*ll worse than this place.

‘Anywhere would be better than here.’

Without taking his eyes off the front gate, Marquis Montero spoke.

“There had better not be any pointless nonsense coming out of your mouth. No one would believe a word you say anyway.”

Rosetta answered obediently once more.

“Yes, Marquis.”

At that moment, a carriage bearing the crest of the Archducal House of Eizenwald drove through the front gates.

For a carriage sent to collect a bride, it was astonishingly grim.

Forged from steel and painted a deep black, the strange vehicle radiated an oppressive presence. Four powerful black stallions pulled it forward, each adorned with a matching black harness. Even from a distance, the sight took one’s breath away.

Rather than a wedding carriage, it resembled something bound for a battlefield.

As she watched it approach, Vivianne lowered her brows, looking concerned.

“Oh my. To send that kind of carriage to receive a bride. They say the Archduke is obsessed with war. Perhaps he ordered them to bring you to a battlefield instead. Are you really going to be all right?”

Whatever nonsense Vivianne was spouting, Rosetta simply stood in silence and watched the carriage approach.

The closer it came, the more details she noticed.

Deep marks resembling long claw scratches were etched across various parts of the carriage.

Eventually, it came to a stop before them.

“How terrifying. If it were me, I’d rather hang myself than go to the Archduke’s castle—”

Vivianne’s words died in her throat.

A man had stepped down from the carriage.

With his teal hair and striking good looks, he seemed an unlikely passenger for such a fearsome vehicle.

His sun-kissed, bronze skin complemented his bright, handsome features. His large, round eyes had vivid green irises that were as clear and refreshing as spring leaves. He strode forward with a naturally kind and approachable air.

He stopped in front of the Montero family, bowed respectfully, and spoke.

“On behalf of His Highness Archduke Kaelion Eizenwald, I have come to escort Lady Rosetta Montero. My name is Louis Silvaren. May I ask which of you is Lady Rosetta Montero?”

For a fleeting moment, Vivianne wanted to claim that she was Rosetta.

But then she remembered that this beautiful man was not the Archduke himself.

She glanced at Rosetta.

“I am Rosetta.”

As Rosetta stepped forward and answered, Louis reached into his coat and produced a small box.

“As previously agreed upon with the marquis’s family, the ceremony will be replaced by the exchange of a ring here.”

The thought of Rosetta receiving a wedding ring without even having a proper ceremony—and from a man who was not even her husband—made it difficult for Vivianne to suppress her laughter.

But the moment she saw the ring inside the box, an involuntary gasp escaped her lips.

“Hah!”

The gemstone set in the ring was larger than a thumbnail.

But it was not its size that left her stunned.

The pale, sky-blue gem shimmered with an ethereal light, as though a piece of the sky had been captured within it: Celea.

It was a legendary gemstone found only on the islands beyond the Eastern Sea — a region overrun by countless monsters.

Its value was immeasurable — it was worth anywhere from dozens to hundreds of times more than a diamond.

Even the tiniest Celea stone ornament, no larger than a seed, would make its owner the center of attention at any banquet.

Such was its rarity that most people would go their entire lives without seeing one.

And yet…

The Celea stone set in this ring was unimaginably large.

‘Why would they give something so precious to someone like her…?’

Rosetta was just as surprised, but she did not show it. Instead, she extended her hand, palm facing upward.

“I’ll put the ring on myself.”

“Of course.”

Louis obediently placed the ring gently into her palm and stepped back.

Rosetta slid the ring onto her own ring finger.

Louis then spoke.

“You are now Her Highness the Archduchess. Your Highness, please board the carriage. I will ensure you arrive safely.”

As he opened the carriage door, Rosetta walked toward it.

Then, suddenly, she stopped and turned around.

Ignoring Vivianne, who was staring greedily at the ring on her finger, Rosetta looked at Marquis Montero and his wife.

“Do you have anything you would like to say to me?”

The Marquis frowned in irritation. Then, perhaps mindful of the people watching, he quickly smoothed his expression and replied,

“Travel safely.”

“Is that all?”

“Live well.”

The Marchioness Montero kept her lips tightly sealed, offering nothing but a displeased look.

Rosetta quietly gazed at the two people she had once believed to be her parents.

Then she turned away.

This time, she did not stop as she climbed into the carriage.

After helping Rosetta aboard, Louis closed the door and returned to the seat beside the coachman.

Speaking through the small window between the driver’s seat and the carriage, he said,

“Then we shall depart, Your Highness. If there is anything you need, please knock on the window at any time.”

“Yes.”

As the carriage began to move, Rosetta slowly closed her eyes.

‘No one is going to apologize to me.’

She deserved countless apologies, but she never received any of them. They remained buried deep within her heart, festering into wounds that would never heal.

It was only when she stepped into the carriage that Rosetta finally understood.

To the Montero family, those things had never mattered at all.

They were so insignificant to them that the idea of remembering them would have seemed absurd.

A flood of cold, bitter memories swept through her.

Fear.

Terror.

Sorrow.

Loneliness.

Yearning.

Emptiness.

Despair.

These were the feelings she had experienced every day since the moment she was born.

“Would you do something about that unpleasant expression?”

The cold voice that greeted her whenever she smiled, hoping to be loved.

“You really can’t do anything right, can you?”

The blows that came flying even for the smallest mistake.

“Try to endure it. If you do, I’ll hug you today.”

The only reward she received for enduring senseless torment without shedding a single tear was a fleeting embrace.

When she was young and knew nothing of the world, she yearned desperately for that brief warmth.

She fought with all her might not to cry.

She was only five years old.

An age when children should be free to cry when they are hurt and laugh when they are happy.

Yet Rosetta learned to suppress everything.

She held back her tears.

She endured.

And she endured again.

She silently accepted every hardship that came her way.

“Magic is hereditary.”

“Magic blooms through pain and despair.”

It’s all because of theories like that.

A renowned scholar had proclaimed ideas that had never been fully proven, and it was all because of him.

Rosetta’s life was turned upside down.

Years ago, the Marquis Montero approached the House of Enervel, a family known to have produced a mage in the past.

The moment the Viscountess Enervel gave birth to a daughter, Montero succeeded in switching the two infants.

Rosetta had long since come to accept that the emptiness and despair she had felt upon discovering the truth would stay with her forever.

Vivianne, who had been raised with love as the Enervel family’s daughter, was eventually returned to her biological parents, the Marquis and Marchioness Montero.

Rosetta, however, was never given the same chance.

By the time she learned the truth, the Viscount and Viscountess Enervel had already passed away.

There was nowhere left for her to return to.

Rosetta had never wanted to be the daughter of a marquis.

She had simply been born into it.

It was their ambitions that altered her life before she was old enough to understand.

After discovering that she was not their biological daughter, she tried to empathize with them.

She truly did.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t.

Fine.

She could accept that they had exchanged children for their own reasons.

But if that was the case, why couldn’t they have shown her a little kindness?

She had never expected them to love her as their own daughter.

She had never asked for that much.

Couldn’t they have shown even the slightest hint of remorse?

The slightest trace of compassion?

Could they not have treated her with basic decency?

‘If they had…’

Rosetta slowly raised her hand.

A blue light wrapped around it before fading away.

‘I would have given you exactly what you wanted.’