After her husband left, Yerena spoke to the waiting nanny. The princess’s dedicated nanny immediately bowed, picked up the princess, and left with a group of palace staff.

In the room, only Yerena and a few maids remained. She looked around the space where her family gathered before moving away. Entering her deepest private chamber within the Ivory Palace, she said,

“Let no one enter until I give the order. I want to be alone.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I shall withdraw.”

The maids bowed and retreated. The empress had been taking a few hours to herself once or twice a month for some time now.

Alone in the room, Yerena looked around her chamber. The well-decorated room was filled with traces of her family.

On the display shelf were flower crowns the twins had made and gifted her, on the bed was the white swaddling cloth that had wrapped her baby daughter, and throughout the room were neatly arranged gifts from her husband.

‘I told you to change the bed. Because you seemed uncomfortable.’

Yerena looked at the bed she shared with Roshan. Or more precisely, she glared at it.

The sun outside moved very slowly. Yerena’s face gradually changed as she continued glaring at the bed.

She suddenly whirled around. Then she knelt on the floor, as far away from the bed as possible.

“I’m sorry.”

She muttered weakly, staring at the empty space before her. Somehow, her retinas had captured a group of people—those who were no longer mentioned.

* * *

The princess had been resurrected. Having lost her family to her enemy and been deceived, she finally remembered everything.

“I no longer seek forgiveness.”

The princess’s dead family stood before her. She clearly saw her father wearing a blue cloak as on the last day, her mother dressed in a dark green dress, and her brothers in their armor.

When had the princess’s memories returned? When had the blessing of oblivion from the pure white water ended?

‘It’s a princess, Your Highness.’

The princess recovered her memories the moment she held and looked at her enemy’s daughter. Drenched in sweat and too weak to see clearly, she was about to smile at her baby’s face when the oblivion ended, and she withdrew her smile.

The princess thought it fortunate that she fainted right after. Otherwise, she didn’t know what she might have done to her daughter.

More than a year had passed since she recovered her memories. Yerena apologized once again to her family who appeared to her every day since her daughter’s birth.

“I’m sorry.”

The dead no longer appeared in their miserable state as before. They shed no blood, nor did their flesh rot to reveal bones. But still, Yerena couldn’t look at her family straight while standing.

To her dead family, she was nothing short of a traitor. Despite recovering her memories, she shared a bed with their enemy and raised his children. If she had any consideration for her dead family, she shouldn’t have done this.

“I couldn’t do it.”

Originally, if she were in her right mind, she should have taken revenge like the queen in old tales. That queen, whose parents and brothers were slaughtered by her husband, poisoned the children she bore with him and stabbed him to death with a sword stained with their blood.

Some called the queen cruel, shouting how she could poison her own children and take revenge on their father with their blood, but in Yerena’s eyes, the queen’s revenge was justified. With the abundant love she received from her parents and brothers, she should have done the same.

Yerena, still kneeling, slightly raised her head. Her face was already covered in tears. Her expressionless mother stared at her pathetic daughter. Yerena crawled forward and rested her head at her mother’s feet. She reached out to grasp the hem of her mother’s dress and made excuses.

“But Mother. I’m not saying I’ll forget you, Father, and my brothers and live on like this. I’ll try. I’ll inflict pain on him.”

Despite being the enemy’s children, she couldn’t cause even the slightest harm to the children she had carried and held in her arms. She was foolish and undutiful to her parents, deserving to be stoned, but she couldn’t hurt her children.

But not the man. The moment the princess recovered her memories, she understood why the emperor trembled with such anxiety, why he looked frightened and agitated every night.

So the princess intended to continue pretending to be the shell of the Empire’s empress, imitating a wife. And she planned to stimulate his anxiety and agitation by pretending not to notice them.

“……Let him suffer until his dying day. Let him feel his heart sink and sense someone chasing him.”

And the moment he realized she had recovered her memories, she intended to plunge a sword into his heart. The princess raised the corners of her mouth thinking of that day. But incongruously with her smiling lips, tears continued to pour from her eyes.

Her family became blurry through her tear-filled vision. And a moment later, they completely disappeared.

Yerena couldn’t hold onto her beloved family who were leaving. She knew. Someone who couldn’t even carry out a small revenge had no right to make such a request.

The princess, who had collapsed with no strength left, wiped her tears with her sleeve. But no matter how much she wiped, her blurry vision wouldn’t clear.

‘Am I really awake?’

Unable to see properly, she suddenly had this thought. Yerena stopped wiping her tears and stared blankly ahead before lowering her head. On her hand was a ring matching the enemy’s. Ridiculously, it was a special ring that joined together like her parents’ engagement rings.

In that moment, the princess, unable to contain her anger, bit her lip and moved her right hand to remove the ring. But strangely, the ring that usually came off easily wouldn’t budge now no matter how much force she applied.

Eventually, the princess gave up trying to remove the ring and stood up. Though she had done nothing but cry, her legs felt weak.

To hide her tears, the princess staggered to her vanity and sat down. As she wiped her disheveled face, the princess gradually began to fade away.

“I’ve truly gone blind.”

The princess muttered one last time. And soon, only the Empire’s empress—the companion of the emperor and mother to the princes and princess—remained in the mirror.

* * *

The empress began suffering from a serious illness.

The princes were now ten years old, and the princess only four. The entire Empire was plunged into worry over the empress’s terrible illness that struck at such a young age, and they prayed for her recovery. But her illness, with no apparent cause, showed no signs of improvement. Eventually, the empress spent most of her days lying in bed.

“Find a solution. If you don’t, I’ll kill not just you but your family too.”

The emperor lost his sanity as the illness deepened day by day. He, who had shown composure throughout his life, did not hesitate to threaten not only the palace physicians but also the clerics and priestesses who filled the palace.

Under the emperor’s threats, not only the physicians but also the clerics and priestesses trembled with fear as they tried to cure the empress’s illness. But it was useless. The visibly ill empress now gradually spent less and less time awake.

“Unable to cure a single illness. You don’t deserve the country’s salary.”

As winter had just passed and spring returned, the emperor, having lost his reason, drew his sword with bloodshot eyes. This was because the elderly physician who stepped forward as the representative of the palace physicians said the empress had little time left.

Palace staff trembled at the emperor’s fierce demeanor, and the princes and princess who had been crying by their mother’s side burst into tears. However, the emperor, who would normally have immediately comforted the children, did not diminish his intensity as he approached the physician.

“Stop.”

It was the empress who stopped him. Yerena, who had barely raised her upper body with the help of her maids and was leaning against the bed, looked coldly at Roshan and said,

“Roshan. Dismiss everyone. Now.”

Seeing his wife speaking with difficulty, the emperor threw down his sword and immediately nodded, sending everyone else away. When only her family remained, Yerena smiled as if nothing had happened and spread her arms wide toward the children.

“I need to talk with your father for a moment.”

Yerena, who had hugged each of the three children, spoke in a gentle voice. The princes, who had become much more mature since their sister’s birth, nodded despite shedding tears out of concern for their mother. However, the still young princess Aisha threw a tantrum, refusing to leave and bursting into tears.

“Aisha. I’ll read you a fairy tale tonight. So go play with your brothers for now.”

After a long while, the princess finally stopped crying and left. Yerena watched until the children disappeared through the door before turning her head to the side.

“Don’t do such things. What crime have those people committed that you threaten their lives so carelessly?”

“……Yerena.”

“If anyone dies by your hand because of me, I’ll give up my remaining time.”

“Yerena!”

Roshan raised his voice at Yerena, who spoke of something too terrible to even think about. Ignoring him, she said she had something to tell him and asked him to come closer. Roshan knelt beside the bed so his wife could speak comfortably.

His red eyes mixed concern with madness. Yerena burst into hollow laughter at her husband’s eyes, which seemed lost as to what to do. Such clear emotions. The man would surely go mad after her death.

‘Should I consider it fortunate……’

Before the physician mentioned it, Yerena already knew her life was coming to an end. After all, she had been seeing her dead family for longer periods.

Thinking that she truly didn’t have much time left, she removed the empress’s mask and threw it away. And in the complete form of the princess, she asked her enemy,

“Since when did you know?”

* * *