When everything quieted down, Roshan spoke in a voice that clearly showed his annoyance. Hayden quickly handed him a rolled-up paper and commanded Brick.

“The king of Sedas shall kneel and receive His Majesty the Emperor’s edict.”

Brick trembled and then slumped down, kneeling. Bianca, who had been standing behind him, also knelt after observing the situation.

“The title of count of the Empire is bestowed upon the king of Sedas. This teaches that the king of Sedas is a subject who must offer loyalty to the great Emperor, and it is also a stern warning not to be disrespectful to the Empire anymore.”

Roshan read the text written on the paper without even giving a glance to Brick. As soon as he finished reading, he passed the paper to Hayden. Hayden received it respectfully and handed it to Brick.

Brick received the edict from Hayden but then hesitated, not knowing what to do next. Finding her son’s behavior frustrating, Bianca quickly spoke up.

“It is an honor. We will be loyal to the Empire and His Majesty the Emperor from now on.”

As though he had just noticed Bianca’s existence, Roshan gave her an indifferent look. At his lord’s gaze, Hayden quickly reported.

“She is the mother of the King of Sedas.”

Roshan showed no particular reaction to Hayden’s explanation and slowly rose from his seat. Feeling snubbed, Bianca’s face flushed red. But before her was the only brother of the emperor of the Empire and the conqueror of the kingdom. Bianca said nothing and bowed her head.

“Your…… Your Highness!”

It was when Roshan was about to turn away without saying anything, considering the matter finished that Brick, who had been quiet until now, somehow found the courage to address Roshan first. Roshan turned only his head to look at Brick, who was still kneeling.

“May I ask where my si-sister…… that is, Princess Ye-Yerena is?”

At the name Yerena, light dwelled for the first time in Roshan’s eyes, which had been subdued until now. He turned his body completely toward Brick and asked.

“Why do you ask that?”

Brick took a deep breath, overwhelmed by the pressure of the man standing before him. But soon, with clenched fists, though trembling, he continued to speak about Yerena.

“My si…… sister is my precious family. I heard she was ill, and I’m wo-worried……”

Though estranged from his father and other half-siblings, Yerena, who was only a year apart from him, along with the dead queen, had been quite kind and friendly to Brick. She couldn’t treat Brick as a brother, but at least she regarded him as a cousin and protected him.

His father who treated him as if he didn’t exist, his always neurotic mother, and the cold gazes of others…… Though he couldn’t meet her often because of his half-brothers, Brick liked and followed Yerena, who looked after him. That’s why, even as he turned white with fear, he maintained eye contact with Roshan until the end.

“……The princess is safe.”

Roshan was irritated by this scarecrow of a new king. He disliked that this man, who couldn’t even withstand the knights’ presence and was manipulated by his mother, would address him and demand explanations.

“Ah….. Then may I ask when I might be able to see my sister?”

Failing to notice Roshan’s increasingly twisted mood, Brick asked in a pleased voice. Roshan looked down at him and bluntly stated.

“You cannot see her.”

“Pardon?”

Brick’s eyes widened. Roshan, looking into eyes of a similar color to Yerena’s, told him the princess’s future.

“The princess will soon go to the Empire with me. So you will not be able to see the princess anymore.”

“Wh-what do you mean……”

Neither Yerena, the person concerned, nor Brick knew, but the original reason the Empire started this war was Princess Yerena. The emperor of the Empire, upon hearing rumors about the princess of Sedas, immediately demanded that the king of Sedas offer Yerena as the emperor’s concubine. But the king of Sedas, unable to watch his beloved daughter become a mere mistress, refused and tried to find another way, which angered the emperor, who then ordered Roshan to conquer the Sedas Kingdom and bring the princess.

“Shouldn’t at least one of the Sedas royal family be taken as a prisoner of the Empire to ensure the kingdom’s continued loyalty to the Empire? Therefore, we intend to take the princess as a prisoner to the Empire.”

“B-but my sister…… my si-sister cannot!”

“Then would you go as a prisoner instead of the princess?”

Brick appealed to Roshan in a fairly loud voice. But Roshan coldly rebuffed his words. Hearing the suggestion of going as a prisoner instead, Brick bowed his head and fell into deep thought. In truth, this position didn’t belong to him, a bastard. What was the point of arguing now that they had been conquered? But if one were to follow the legitimate order of succession, the priority would be Princess Yerena, not himself.

“How could that be? No!”

Bianca, who had been watching Brick, sensed anxiety in her son’s expression and stepped forward. Brick turned to look at his mother at her sudden outburst. Bianca glared at her son with reproachful eyes for a moment before changing her face to a sweet smile and addressing Roshan.

“If the princess alone can show loyalty to the Empire, then of course that’s what should happen. It’s the proper course of action.”

“Mother!”

“Be quiet! Are you trying to ruin your future for the sake of a mere half-sister?”

Brick couldn’t help but call out to his mother. But at Bianca’s sharp voice, he soon closed his mouth and bowed his head again.

“Tell me whenever you change your mind.”

Roshan twisted his lips and mocked that pathetic sight. Hayden looked at his lord with a surprised face at this unusual behavior. But Roshan paid no mind as he coldly looked down at Brick’s red hair before turning away.

* * *

It was a completely black world. She couldn’t see anything—not what was in front of her, not her future. She couldn’t tell how time was passing, whether she was breathing, or if she was even alive to begin with.

In her floating consciousness, Yerena had a blank expression with her face resting on her knees. Her pale face, visible at an angle, looked empty. She appeared so hollow that she might disappear at any moment if the bed canopy was removed and sunlight poured in, driving away even the small shadow that hid her tiny body.

Someone repeatedly came and went by Yerena’s side, occasionally reaching out a hand. But Yerena showed no reaction. No, it might be more accurate to say she couldn’t. She felt no stimulation, no sensation. She just sat quietly, hitting an invisible wall, trapped alone in that day’s hell.

‘Father! Mother!’

The repeated memories of that day were so horrific that Yerena barely reacted to or suffered much from losing her sight. Each time the scenes of her father and mother collapsing replayed, her mind crumbled, collapsed, and finally crumbled and scattered like sand.

Yet even as she felt herself breaking, she had no choice but to remain in hell. Because when she woke up, even that would be gone. Only in that hell could she see her father’s worried gaze as he watched over her from behind the throne until the moment he nearly collapsed at the hands of that pitch-black monster, and hear her mother’s voice as she spoke to her until the very end.

Trapped in that hell, Yerena was repeatedly slashed by horrific scenes. Every vivid memory in her head tortured her every second.

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

Among all the continuing memories, the most painful was her mother’s final request. To survive? When she had lost her mother, father, and brothers, she had to live alone?

In truth, if she could have, Yerena would have already followed her family. But since waking, she had been unable to do anything on her own. Her eyes that couldn’t see couldn’t find even a tool to stab herself, and her bound arms made it impossible even to feel her way to the window.

Perhaps because she had no tears left to cry, giggles escaped her lips. As Yerena let out a hissing laugh along with the sound of air escaping, the expressions of the women attending her hardened. They were all thinking the same thing.

‘The princess has gone mad.’

Those currently serving Yerena were all women from the Empire brought by the imperial army. After Yerena opened her eyes, her nanny and former maids were driven away from her side, fearing they might provide poison at their lady’s request.

The imperial women were mostly those who had followed the harsh battlefield for money, so they were generally tougher and colder than most women. However, seeing the princess’s state naturally evoked sympathy.

“You should at least drink some water……”

One of the women, unable to bear the sight of Yerena’s parched lips, brought water. But Yerena behaved violently as soon as someone invaded her space.

Thud.

“Ah!”

Yerena swatted away the approaching hand. With a crash, the cup broke. Simultaneously, one of the scattered fragments scratched the back of the standing woman’s hand, drawing blood.

The woman who had offered the cup to Yerena was also scratched by Yerena’s nails. The women who saw the blood clutched their hands and made tearful faces. But none of them got angry. They actually thought this reactive state was better than the powerless way she had been in their care for the past few days—at least now she seemed more human.

It was while the women were looking at each other, sighing, and cleaning up the cup fragments that a passing knight abruptly entered the room, apparently having heard the noise from outside.

The knight, with golden hair even darker and more splendid than Yerena’s, was as radiant as a flower despite being a man. True to being a knight, he was tall with a good build, but his first impression was strongly reminiscent of a beautiful woman. However, his emerald eyes, slightly upturned at the corners, were as cold as ice, and his face, alternating between looking at the broken cup on the floor, the injured women, and the princess, was severely creased.