She was a cursed seed.

Not content with k＊lling her father, she had mutilated the corpses of her stepmother and half-siblings beyond recognition and thrown them as food for beasts roaming the fields.

‘Vieta Lukbiche’

The illegitimate daughter of Duke Lukbiche, the woman destined to become Empress, was imprisoned in the underground dungeon of Amlmu.

Her bound hands had long been crusted with dried bl＊＊d, and her black hair, resembling the dark night sea, was tangled into a mass of dust.

Before her appeared the longtime lover of Esta Ariogen, whom one would be embarrassed to even call a love rival.

‘Hesion Rekton?’

Vieta silently called his name and slightly tilted her head that had remained motionless until then.

The wretched appearance of the man expected to become the new master of the Rekton grand ducal family breathed life into Vieta, exhausted from prison life.

One of Hesion’s eyelids was swollen beyond recognition, and his upper body was covered with hideous stab wounds.

Vieta mocked him with a hoarse voice that felt like it would tear.

His handsome appearance, once envied by all ladies, had been crushed.

And what of his upper body? The jealousy of Leytan, who loved Esta, was clearly marked there.

Though she was laughing loudly, in reality only shallow moans barely escaped her mouth.

The knight who had dragged Hesion in carelessly threw him down and locked the iron bars of the prison.

“There will be an execution ceremony at dawn tomorrow. Pray that you don’t go to h＊ll.”

The guard disappeared after spitting out those meaningless words.

Clear tears flowed from Vieta’s eyes as she lay collapsed on her side.

She smiled, steeped in madness.

Hesion shot her a contemptuous glance.

But his harsh green eyes had no impact on her.

She barely managed to raise herself by supporting her head on the floor and leaned her back against the damp wall.

“Grand Duke Hesion……Rekton.”

His name echoed emptily from her dry mouth.

Vieta’s tears created white paths on her ash-covered face.

“How does it feel when the conclusion of a love so pitiable it hurts the eyes is death?”

She paid no attention to Hesion’s twisted expression.

“I am different from you.”

“How are you so different?”

Vieta looked at Hesion as if genuinely curious.

“At least I didn’t kill people for petty love. Innocent people died because of your love games.”

“Do you think I killed people merely for love?”

She nodded as if having reached a great realization.

“That’s quite……unfair.”

Hesion spoke while looking at Vieta, who was laughing dejectedly.

“I despise your life. So don’t view me and yourself on the same level.”

“I despise my life too. How could I end up like this despite all that suffering?”

Hesion disliked Vieta’s attitude as she sneered for a long time over something he couldn’t understand.

Shouldn’t she at least show some remorse for driving his parents to their deaths?

But no trace of guilt could be found on her face.

Hesion felt a deep skepticism about being the same species as someone like Vieta.

“Even if I were born as you, I wouldn’t live like that.”

The composed expression on Vieta’s face crumbled.

She trembled with suppressed emotion and quivered her lips.

“You have a habit of speaking carelessly, Grand Duke.”

“I only speak the absolute truth.”

“Ha.”

Vieta bit her lip as she sensed nobility in his face, which was swollen with bruises.

“Someone like you, a cursed seed, is a villain who doesn’t even deserve the chance for reformation. That’s all.”

Vieta trembled with indignation, but only choking sounds emerged without tears.

However, she didn’t want to argue anything with Hesion who gave such arrogant answers.

Even Leytan, who had promised her a future, hadn’t believed her words.

What difference would it make to seek belated understanding when everything was already over?

After shaking for a long time, she lowered her head and quietly looked down at her skeletal legs.

“I hated being skeletal enough to die.”

Vieta twisted her lips and raised her head.

“So am I a person without any possibility of redemption?”

Hesion did not answer.

He remained motionless with his neck drooping.

Vieta instinctively knew. That he was dead.

The deep stab wounds proved the amount of bl＊＊d he had lost.

“I didn’t get to hear your final answer……Grand Duke Hesion Rekton.”

Unfortunately, Hesion met his death beside Vieta, the woman he despised most.

※※※

In the cold dawn, Vieta’s eyes opened to the sharp sound of iron bars.

Hesion’s corpse had disappeared, and only the dark stains remaining on the floor indicated he had briefly stayed there.

Without a word, the knight roughly grabbed Vieta and pushed her outside the cell.

The execution ground, filled with damp fog, created an atmosphere truly like the entrance to h＊ll.

A solid guillotine appeared before Vieta’s eyes.

When her bluish bare feet touched the steps leading to the guillotine, a voice she sincerely didn’t want to hear stopped her.

“Vieta.”

She couldn’t raise her head.

“There’s still time left. Just say it isn’t true. There’s no way you would try to kill Esta.”

Vieta thought Leytan’s words were useless since all evidence clearly pointed to her trying to kill Esta.

But if there was still a chance…

If Leytan would give her another opportunity to set everything right!

Vieta barely parted her dried lips.

“That’s right, Your Majesty.”

She finally raised her head to look at Leytan, the Emperor.

And beside him was Esta, gripping Leytan’s arm.

Esta’s delicate hand held Leytan’s arm tightly as if determined not to let go.

Her thoughts twisted, and this twisted thinking led her final chance in a different direction.

“I did try to kill Miss Esta. Because……”

She recalled her stepmother Winter Lukbiche, who had turned her childhood into h＊ll.

“I was afraid I would become like my late mother Winter Lukbiche. And afraid that the child in Miss Esta’s womb would become like me—”

Vieta couldn’t finish her sentence.

A hand that had always seemed gentle struck her cheek.

Unable to eat properly in prison, Vieta collapsed to the floor from just one slap.

She pressed her head against the cold stone floor and thought nothing.

Shame and lingering attachment were luxuries she couldn’t afford now.

“Pull her up.”

At the cold command, knights roughly dragged Vieta and secured her head in the guillotine.

Leytan walked to the front of the guillotine and met her eyes.

“Any last words?”

Vieta just wanted to end this terrible, persistent life quickly.

This life is too bitter.

In that moment, she ridiculously thought her final revenge was complete.

Vieta smiled faintly at how splendid it was to die without leaving a single seed of Lukbiche in the world.

“……Grant me death, Your Majesty. For this will be the salvation you promised me.”

With those final words, Vieta’s head fell and rolled to Leytan’s feet.

And on a day when heavy snow fell so thick that carriages couldn’t move, the cursed seed Vieta Lukbiche opened her eyes in her mother’s arms in the attic of the mansion.