Chapter 1 (Part 1)
Meia looked at the man sitting opposite her.
The beautiful man with lovely blonde hair and blue eyes across from her was once her fiancé.
“I will pretend I didn’t hear that.”
He was stubbornly making a request that couldn’t be granted.
“Meia, please think about it once more.”
“You know it’s impossible, right? I am already…….”
Dressed in a white uniform, he looked at her with restless eyes.
Like waves swaying in the wind, his eyes kept trembling, unable to hide his nervousness.
“Meia…, please.”
The engagement period with her former fiancé sitting in front of her was 10 years.
They had known each other for 12 years, but it was the first time she had seen him so nervous, showing his emotions so plainly.
“Crown Prince Patzraelli, I….”
“Please….”
To the desperate Patzraelli, Meia revealed her resolved feelings.
“When I was struggling after our breakup, all the happy memories with you tormented me greatly.”
How Patzraelli treated his fiancée. How kind he was.
Once a week, they would have dinner, and then take a walk and talk about the future of the empire, feeling happy.
No, she had been happy.
Meia fiddled with the teacup handle on the table and said with a faint smile.
“I was really happy during our engagement period.”
Looking at Meia speaking in the past tense, Patzraelli spoke earnestly.
“I’ll do better from now on.”
He was in a position where he had to hold onto her no matter what.
“I regret it every day. I think about the happy and peaceful times with you every day.”
He wanted to go back once more.
To that time.
To that time when there were no worries….
“But now, the memories of being happy with you, Patzraelli, don’t torment me anymore. Yes. I’m not troubled at all now.”
Patzraelli understood what that meant.
So he clung even more and said.
“I will try to restore our relationship. I want to be happy with you again.”
Meia shook her head from side to side.
“It’s already over. As time passes, there will come a time when the time you spent with me won’t trouble you anymore.”
At the clear rejection, Patzraelli frowned. He thought she would come back if he clung to her.
“Please come back to me.”
“I have nothing more to say. And as you know, I have a fiancé.”
Patzraelli spoke earnestly, but his desperation did not reach Meia, who had already closed her heart.
“I love you, Meia. I realized it too late.”
A confession of love.
Even though she said she had a fiancé, he sweetly said he loved her as if he hadn’t heard it, which made her very uncomfortable.
It only sounded like a coercion to accept his feelings just because he confessed.
“No matter how much you say you love me, I can’t accept it.”
‘You should have done well when you had the chance.’
Meia brushed her shimmering silver hair once and looked at Patzraelli, who was desperately clinging and regretting the past breakup, without any emotion.
“Mei, what can I do to make you come back to me?”
At Patzraelli’s words, Meia bit her lip tightly and spoke forcefully.
“Nothing.”
‘I will never go back to you.’
What came back during the engagement period she trusted was betrayal.
Isn’t it too shameless to try to hold onto me now!
“I won’t go back.”
She lived a life of pride as a noble lady.
He didn’t know. He didn’t know the feelings with which she had given up her position as his fiancée.
And now he wants to go back to the past relationship?
“I would rather die than go back to you, Your Highness.”
She would rather die than be engaged to Patzraelli again.
Patzraelli, with a pale face, couldn’t accept her words and clung to her even more.
“Please forgive me.”
At his words, Meia clicked her tongue inwardly.
“It is not right for someone who has a fiancée to act like this towards me. Go to Lady Meryl.”
“I will break off the engagement with Lady Meryl.”
Meia looked indifferently at Patzraelli sitting down and then stood up.
She didn’t want to talk to him anymore.
“I will leave first.”
“Please.”
Patzraelli’s voice, desperately calling out to her as she left, was full of regret and self-reproach.
“I clearly told you I have a fiancé.”
Patzraelli rubbed his face with both hands in frustration.
“I will help you, Mei.”
Meia’s eyes narrowed.
“I heard everything from Lady Meryl. That you got engaged because you were threatened by Grand Duke Florence.”
“Threatened?”
Unable to understand what he was saying, she stopped her steps and looked back at Patzraelli.
“I know. Grand Duke Florence fell in love with you at first sight and threatened to erase the Carpen Empire from the map if you didn’t marry him, so you had no choice but to get engaged to him….”
Meia let out a small sigh and pressed her temples.
“I don’t know why Lady Meryl said that, but I was not threatened at all.”
“You can be honest with me.”
“I got engaged because I love the Grand Duke.”
A moment of silence fell in the reception room at Meia’s words.
Hearing that she loved Grand Duke Florence, Patzraelli felt even more frustrated.
She was his woman from the beginning. Though he let her go once, she was the woman who would become the Empress of the Carpen Empire.
Now he was trying to get her back, but she was refusing.
“I will not be the Empress or Crown Princess of the Carpen Empire, but the Grand Duchess of the Sirius Empire. No, I will be.”
There was not a trace of falsehood in Meia’s clear blue eyes.
Patzraelli, with a look of a lost country, looked at her with pained eyes.
“I shouldn’t have broken off the engagement……. If I hadn’t, Meia, you wouldn’t have been threatened into engagement by such a man……. Ha…… it’s my fault.”
He regretted letting her go madly.
He realized how precious she was only after losing her.
He could never give up on Meia.
“I will definitely find a way to break off your engagement with him.”
“I will not break off the engagement.”
“I will save you from the ruthless Grand Duke Florence.”
Patzraelli’s voice rose a tone.
“Please do not slander my fiancé like that. I will leave now.”
“Mei!”
Meia spoke to Patzraelli and turned her body.
Leaving the reception room, Meia felt a surge of anger.
‘Threatened?’
It felt like eating a dry scone that choked her with just one bite.
Walking down the corridor, Meia sensed the presence of the servants and took out a handkerchief from her magical space, covering her mouth as she walked slowly.
The servants walking down the corridor looked at her with pity as she pressed the handkerchief to her mouth and eyes and greeted her.
In their eyes, Meia looked very pitiful and sad.
“Is she crying?”
“Poor lady.”
“I heard the Crown Prince is here?”
“I thought he came to see his fiancée, Lady Meryl….”
“You thought?”
“But he was desperately looking for Lady Meia.”
“Desperately? You must be mistaken.”
“He looked so pitiful!”
“Could it be… the Crown Prince is clinging to her…?”
“No way? Would he be that shameless?”
“Even if His Highness clings, Lady Meia has Grand Duke Florence by her side. It’s impossible.”
“Oh, seeing her cry breaks my heart. Such a kind person….”
Meia staggered slightly and placed a hand on the wall.
Seeing this, the servants rushed to her in surprise.
“Oh my! Lady.”
“Call Yudy immediately!”
“Are you okay?”
“We should call a physician, not Yudy!”
The servants, pale with fear, checked on Meia.
Meia pressed the handkerchief lightly under her eyes and smiled bitterly.
“It’s okay. Just go about your business.”
“Lady….”
“I will go to my room first.”
“We will escort you to your room.”
“No, I’m fine.”
The servants looked at Meia, who said she was fine, with pity.
* * *
Meia Hatzbellua got engaged to Crown Prince Patzraelli von Mavro when she was young.
It happened when she was 9 years old.
Meia received rigorous lessons at the Ducal residence every day to become the future Crown Princess, and eventually the Empress, except for sleeping time.
Having been educated from such a young age, Meia considered studying as a matter of course.
Naturally, Meia set her goal to become the Empress, assisting the future Emperor Patzraelli, and overseeing and managing the empire’s internal affairs.
Though there were times she disliked studying because it made her head hurt, she didn’t want to disappoint her parents, who warmly praised and embraced her.
Politics, social etiquette, horseback riding, hunting, piano, harp, violin, various dances, history, and mathematics… Among these, her talent as a Mage also emerged.
The duke and duchess were very pleased and asked Puring, one of the great Mages of the Mage Tower, who was a close friend, to teach Meia magic.
Meia studied hard for 20 out of 24 hours a day to become the Empress.
She thought it was only natural.
Her fiancé, Patzraelli, knew he needed the power of the Hatzbellua duchy to maintain his position as Crown Prince.
Because isn’t that how noble arranged marriages usually are?
Fortunately, Patzraelli and Meia had been close since childhood, establishing themselves as the representative couple of the Carpen Empire’s social circles, and people praised how well they matched.
As the Crown Prince’s fiancée, Meia assisted Empress Ellermin and the imperial court’s events, showing her competence and gaining the trust of the imperial elders.
Crown Prince Patzraelli also highly valued Meia’s abilities.
Both the Empress Dowager and Empress Ellermin thought highly of Meia. It was praise that could be heard because of Meia’s tearful efforts to continue striving with the demeanor of a noble.
Meia was the flower of the Carpen Empire’s social circles, and young ladies admired and wanted to learn her noble demeanor. Her fine silver hair, blue eyes, and white skin were considered a muse among many artists and designers.
She did her best as the Crown Prince’s fiancée for ten years.
And 19-year-old Meia was waiting for her upcoming coming-of-age ceremony.
In the Carpen Empire, both men and women gather to celebrate their coming-of-age ceremony on the first day they turn twenty.
Meia was also looking forward to the time when she would become the Crown Princess by marrying Patzraelli when she turned twenty.
But something drastically deviated in her life.
It was the death of her parents.
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