The doctor babbled regretfully towards Kalaian. Aris took a step back, exhaling in bewilderment. The doctor’s words were clearly intentional, no matter how you looked at it.

Kalaian, who had been listening silently, looked at Aris with creased eyes.

“How will you deny it now, Empress?”

“N-No. This is a false accusation… Your Majesty, please believe me! Please…”

Kalaian let out a long sigh. At the contempt embedded in it, Aris could no longer speak.

“It seems such lowly acts are done without hesitation in the East. To think such a shameless woman is my wife, I’m utterly disgusted now.”

At his words, Aris’s green eyes moistened. Kalaian looked at her, seemingly fed up, then turned away.

“The most unnecessary existence in my life is probably the Empress.”

“Your Majesty…”

“Confine the Empress to her bedroom and cut off all her incoming and outgoing communications.”

Aris’s memory of what happened next was blurry.

Kalaian left, and the knights grabbed Aris’s arms and roughly pushed her into her bedroom. They were  treating her like that of a criminal, only that the place wasn’t a prison.

‘No, it wasn’t me. Why won’t you listen to me…’

Her husband, the servants–no one. There was no one who took Aris’s side. The servants who only came to bring meals started openly criticizing Aris.

The newspapers they brought, whether out of consideration for her or to show her, were full of articles fiercely criticizing Aris and petitions demanding her dethronement.

And always, next to the content slandering her, there were articles praising Kalaian with his image drawn large.

[Fear escalates with increasing monster attacks. But the hero emerges victorious again this time.]

As a married couple, they were truly contrasting figures. However, being branded as a villain by the entire nation and being called the Glass Empress wasn’t so painful.

What tormented Aris the most were the words Kalaian had left behind. His words shattered Aris’s heart. Almost every night, whenever she recalled that incident, Aris wiped away her tears.

She felt so weak and pathetic that crying was all she could do. But she couldn’t help the piercing pain that felt like it was tearing her heart apart. Aris was lost in thought alone in the dim room.

‘…You were regretting your marriage to me.’

You found it horrible that I was your wife.

And I, not knowing this, not knowing that you disliked me, kept yearning for your affection…

Did I end up tormenting you as much as I tormented myself?

I think I’m too tired now. I know that you, the hero of this empire, are too good for me, and that I am an utterly inadequate person.

You told me to follow the Western ways, but I’m someone who only knows how to do refined Eastern pastimes like flower arranging and embroidery.

‘I’m sorry for making you take someone like me as your wife.’

I’m sorry, Your Majesty.

I’m sorry…

Aris stopped writing the diary she had been emotionally penning. Even this felt so pathetic, she bit her lip hard in self-contempt.

Instead of holding back tears, Aris went to the bed and took out a broken glass shard from under the pillow. It was a fragment from a vase she had accidentally broken earlier and secretly hidden.

‘If the world were black and white, would there be a place for me somewhere…’

With trembling hands, she gripped the sharp glass shard tightly and brought it to her throat. The blood flowing from her cut hand felt lukewarm.

Just like this, Aris’s death would be lukewarm too. Perhaps no one would mourn, and only joyful people might exist at her funeral.

Aris slowly closed her eyes.

‘Goodbye, Kalaian…’

Just as she was about to slit her throat.

“Th-The walls have been breached! Everyone evacuate! It’s a monster attack!”

From outside, an urgent voice along with the loud sound of an emergency trumpet was heard.

Startled, Aris put down the glass shard on her diary and approached the window. She lifted the curtain that dimly covered the window, and the scene outside came into view.

It was a sight Aris had never seen in her life before.

The sky dyed completely red, the collapsed city walls in the distance, and the knights fighting monsters in such close proximity to the imperial palace…

“How could this happen…”

Just as Aris muttered in bewilderment, the door to her bedroom burst open. The servants called out to Aris in panic.

“Your Majesty the Empress, you must evacuate! Please come out quickly, it’s His Majesty’s order!”

The maid who somewhat rudely pulled Aris out started taking her outside the Empress’s palace.

“Where is His Majesty, where is he?”

“He has gone to battle! They say the Western front was breached all at once due to the large number of monsters!”

She gaped at the unbelievable news. Such a thing had never happened in the history of the empire.

After quickly going through several thoughts, Aris urgently grabbed the arm of the maid leading her.

“Did His Majesty stop by the sacred hall? Did he take that sword with him to battle?”

‘That sword’ Aris mentioned was undoubtedly necessary in a situation close to disaster like this.

Already in a chaotic situation, the maid burst out in irritation as Aris became bothersome.

“Ah, I don’t know! Don’t think about such things and let’s evacuate first!”

“……”

Aris instinctively sensed it. That he had not stopped by the sacred hall in his haste to go to battle.

When she stopped while being pulled by the maid, the maid vented her frustration, annoyed.

“Oh, really. Why are you doing this? Are you going to take responsibility if I die too because of you, Your Majesty the Empress?!”

Aris silently stared into the eyes of the maid who was shouting rudely. The angry maid flinched and closed her mouth.

“If your life is so precious to you, then go alone. If I entrust my life to you, I feel like I might become bait to save you.”

She shook off the maid’s rough grip and started running back the way she came.

‘The sacred hall where that sword is kept is closest to the Empress’s palace.’

A sword imbued with holy power strong enough to slay any monster. The name of that sword was the ‘Sword of Time’, said to have been forged by the gods in a twisted timeline long ago.

Aris headed towards the sacred hall to find the Sword of Time. All the people in the imperial palace were rushing past her to evacuate, and most of the knights guarding the palace had gone to battle.

After running for a long time, Aris finally arrived in front of the sacred hall. She entered without even taking time to catch her breath.

‘It was in this direction. The Sword of Time should be there.’

Aris’s footsteps echoed unhindered through the quiet sacred hall. After panting, she entered the vast hall where the Sword of Time was kept.

The moment she entered, it was as if all the noise from outside was swallowed up, leaving only silence.

In the center of the dim hall, floating alone on a high place like an altar, a sword emitting a mysterious light could be seen.

Looking again, the light illuminating this hall was not from the torches decorating both walls. It was all the radiance emanating from that mysterious sword.

‘As I thought, His Majesty didn’t have time to come get the Sword of Time…’

Aris swallowed dryly and began climbing the stairs leading to where the sword was, one step at a time. As she approached, her heart beat faster and faster.

For good reason, it was said that the sword, passed down through generations in the imperial family, could not be carelessly touched by anyone not of direct imperial lineage.

‘It will probably be accompanied by terrible pain…’

Fear suddenly bloomed. But Aris shook her head vigorously and quickly approached the Sword of Time.

‘If I don’t act, many people might get hurt. I have to bring this sword to His Majesty…!’

That might be Aris’s only usefulness, perhaps.

Aris reached out towards the sword floating in the air. At that moment, a pain like lightning spread through her palm. She reflexively almost threw the sword away but gritted her teeth and endured.

‘It feels like my hand is burning…!’

As if it wasn’t just an illusion, she could see her palm gripping the sword’s handle turning black and charred. It was the hand that was already injured from gripping the glass shard when she had tried to take her own life.

Aris, holding back tears that threatened to fall, reached out with her other hand and gripped the sword handle with both hands, pulling it down from the altar.