“Ugh…… Huu!”

The princess, imprisoned in a small guest room after being deprived of her original chamber, moaned. Both her wrists were bound by strong iron chains, tied to each corner post of the bed. But the physical restraints of reality could not control her unconscious mind. Princess Yerena swam through her past life with a burning fever.

‘Yerena, our daughter. Who should we send you to, and how?’

‘Father, Mother. Yerena is still young. I think you can consider such things slowly, a few years later.’

Yerena Sedas. As the only princess of the Sedas Kingdom, she was the royal family’s treasure, monopolizing their love as the cherished only daughter. Her affectionate father and mother adored her more each day, keeping her close, while her two brothers always doted on her. That was the majority of her memories, now at the age of twenty.

‘Your Majesty! The Empire has declared war. It is said that the emperor’s brother, Roshan Vistius, is leading the imperial army toward the kingdom!’

But her life, which seemed eternally happy, was destroyed six months ago. At the Empire’s sudden declaration of war. The kingdom tried to avoid the Empire’s wrath somehow, but there was no way.

‘Brother Allen…… You must come back alive. You must. Okay?’

‘Yerena. Don’t worry. Who am I? I’ll definitely return.’

‘Yes, Yerena. Stop crying now. If you keep crying, Allen will worry even on the battlefield.’

When the war broke out, her first brother Allen, and soon after, her second brother Antonio went to the battlefield. Even amid this, her family was preoccupied with taking care of Yerena. Her brothers comforted her, who was shedding tears, until the very end, and the king and queen embraced her tightly, soothing her as they sent off their sons to a place of death.

‘Y-Your Majesty. News has come from the battlefield……’

But all the promises her reliable brothers made were broken. Just over three months after the war began, news of her second brother Antonio’s death in battle arrived, and a month later, news of the death of Crown Prince Allen followed. The king and queen wailed at the deaths of their sons. However, they always tried to appear composed in front of their daughter, Yerena. Yerena found that even more heartbreaking.

‘Yerena! At least you must leave the palace! Hurry!’

The king and queen showed their disheveled appearance in front of her just before the palace was captured. Seeing the enemy troops gathered like black ants in front of the palace, they tried to help Yerena escape from the palace somehow. But there was no hole to escape through, and eventually, they had to hear the news that the imperial army had broken down the palace doors while they were with Yerena. And the reality that Yerena faced afterward…

Was devastating.

‘M-Mother, no. No. I too……’

The space that had seemed so real suddenly darkened, and both the people and background disappeared. But the sight of her mother in her arms remained. Yerena shouted, holding her mother who had followed her father, in the dark space. The queen, cradled in her arms, spoke while coughing up blood.

‘Ye, Yere…… na. My…… child. You…… only you must live. You must survive and……’

Her unkind mother squeezed out her voice, even as it failed her, to urge Yerena to live. Yerena shook her head and shouted that she didn’t want to, just like that day. She begged her mother not to leave her behind. But her mother’s warmth gradually faded, and even her form became increasingly dim until it eventually disappeared.

‘Father! Mother! Brother Allen! Brother Antonio!’

Desperate pleas burst forth countless times from the princess’s mouth. She called for her mother, her father, and her brothers who had left her behind. Of course, those who had already gone to Hades’s world could not respond.

“Don’t leave me behind, all of you!”

Yerena screamed and opened her eyes, trying to escape from a space with no one’s response. Golden eyelashes, the same color as her hair, fluttered, pushing out tears.

“Ah……”

But the darkness continued. It’s still a black space. Yerena blinked instinctively, but her blue eyes could see nothing.

‘You too shall be blinded. You shall not see.’

A chilling laugh came from somewhere, and then a playful voice whispered in the princess’s ear. With a sudden fear, the hellish reality she had experienced yesterday, which she simply could not accept, lifted her up like a fierce wave and then slammed her down.

Clank.

The chains on her wrists rattled with a metallic scraping sound as she suddenly raised her upper body. Unable to properly sit up, the princess let out a shrill scream.

“Aack!”

* * *

“Hey there! Bring more alcohol!”

“Did you all not see how I beheaded that bastard then?”

Noisy sounds could be heard from afar. Roshan looked outside while passing through a corridor on the first floor of the palace, with a clear view of the garden. The garden, filled with flowers, had been considerably damaged by the footsteps of imperial soldiers, including his own, but some parts still retained their beauty.

Roshan changed his course and entered the garden. The kingdom, located in the northeastern part of the continent, had fairly cool weather even in summer, unlike the center of the Empire. Thanks to this, summer flowers that would have already bloomed in the imperial palace still maintained their buds, swaying in the wind. Roshan looked at the flowers clustered together by species, then fixed his gaze on a single white double lily that had bloomed primly among the buds.

The multiple layers of petals stacked upon each other boasted an elegant yet pure appearance. Though Roshan had never shown interest in flowers before, somehow this one caught his eye, and he snapped off the blooming flower. The lily, which had been proudly displaying its beauty alone, was thus vainly plucked.

A fairly strong, somehow familiar scent lingered at the tip of his nose. Roshan tried to recall where he had smelled this scent before, and upon finding the answer, his expression became subtle.

‘……The princess, is it.’

The famous Princess Yerena of Sedas. A prisoner from the defeated nation and a woman to be offered to his half-brother. The superficial cause of this war. Roshan briefly defined the princess who was gently irritating his nerves and carelessly threw the flower he was holding onto the ground.

Thud. With a small sound, some of the petals fell off and scattered along with the scent. And in that moment, the first time he saw the princess vividly flashed in Roshan’s mind.

The moment Roshan beheaded the king of Sedas, he discovered the princess hiding behind the throne through the momentary empty space created between the king’s head and body. Held tightly by what appeared to be her nanny, the princess, with terrified eyes, was silently screaming with her blocked mouth, her eyes open to their limits, as her father’s head flew off.

‘Father!’

Her face, white to the point of being pale, her expression revealing shock and terror, came to him as vividly as if it were right in front of him. And when large tears began to fall drop by drop from the princess’s eyes, he unconsciously loosened his grip on the sword.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen the queen rushing toward him with a scream. It was just that his gaze, fixed on the princess, made everything around him flow by as mere background.

‘Mother!’

Roshan felt the hot blood spurting from the queen’s side touch his face, and only then did he grip his sword again. The time that had been flowing slowly for him returned to normal, and the blurry surroundings became clear again. He frowned unconsciously as he watched the princess running toward her mother, and then raised his hand to stop his subordinates who were trying to block the princess.

And their eyes met. Roshan stiffened unconsciously as he remembered that moment. For reasons he couldn’t understand, his mood twisted and his chest stirred.

At this unusual occurrence, Roshan’s brow furrowed. He clenched his fist slightly, then stepped on the white flower that had fallen pathetically to the ground, twisting and crushing it.

His low spirits subsided somewhat, but irritation surged at the continued inexplicable changes in his mood. Perhaps it would be better to drink wine alone and fall asleep early. He removed his foot from the completely ruined lily and turned to return to the king’s bedroom, which was now his. The scattered fragrance of the crushed lily followed him chaotically.

“Aack!”

It was when Roshan climbed the first step toward the corridor that a small scream mixed with crying pierced through the noise of the banquet and struck his ear.

The same voice as the screams he had heard so much yesterday. He turned his head toward the source of the sound. And unknowingly, he turned his feet in that direction before abruptly stopping.

Looking down at his feet, his expression froze coldly and tried to turn his body in the opposite direction. But another scream, followed by crying, pulled him in. Eventually, after a moment’s hesitation, Roshan moved toward the source of the screams.

His pace was somehow a little faster than usual. However, he didn’t notice this fact, nor did he realize that his red gaze continued to focus on one place.

* * *