STE 01

Chapter 01

Romain Yanulis was the Emperor’s loyal subject and nephew, as well as the fiancé of the beautiful and elegant Princess.

Although he was the adopted son of Lady Helene Yanulis, the Emperor’s sister, he had been formally registered as a member of the family and was treated with the same respect as the Emperor’s nephew. And since he was also the Princess’s fiancé, he was practically a member of the Imperial Family already.

With an appearance so beautiful it was almost mesmerizing, a cool and discerning mind, and a nature that could be arrogant at times yet fiercely loyal at others, he was undeniably charming.

Charming enough to captivate Princess Tethys, a flower delicately raised in a warm greenhouse beneath the tender love of the Emperor and Empress.

But—

“The Emperor has been attacked. It appears to have been the work of the Kingdom of Lomdra, so we need to request that Duke Romaire mobilize his troops.”

An unexpected tragedy befell Tethys’s future, which had seemed destined to be filled with nothing but happiness as her marriage to Romain drew near.

The news that her father had been attacked struck her like a bolt from the blue.

“But Romain, we need the Emperor’s imperial seal to mobilize the Duke.”

“You know where the seal is.”

“What? I-I don’t have the authority to use it.”

“The survival of the Empire is at stake. Tethys, do we have another choice?”

Something felt wrong, but Tethys had no choice but to follow his instructions. He was her fiancé, the man she trusted so deeply that she could ignore even the warning bells ringing in her head.

But the price of her foolishness was horrific.

On the very day Tethys found the imperial seal, the deaths of the Emperor and Empress were announced that evening, and Crown Prince Theodore was captured as a traitor who had colluded with the Kingdom of Lomdra.

Thanks to the swift actions of Romain Yanulis, who was the captain of the Imperial Guard, the Crown Prince was executed the following day. His arms and legs had been severed, leaving only his torso, which was impaled on a spear and hung from the castle wall where everyone could see him.

“O-Opp—Oppa…!”

When Tethys heard the news too late and secretly rode her horse to the castle wall, Theodore was still barely clinging to life, his body being torn apart by wild birds while he struggled to draw each breath.

“Ah… Ahh… This can’t be….”

His two strong, sturdy legs and his flexible arms, which had effortlessly wielded even difficult bows, had been hacked off with a poorly maintained axe. Even the severed ends had been horribly mangled.

Her dignified elder brother, whose face had once been too high for her to see even when she lifted her head, had been reduced to a body so small that she now had to bend her waist just to look down at him.

Black, sticky blood flowed from his severed limbs and the eye that had been gouged out, soaking the dry ground beneath the castle wall with filth.

But Tethys paid it no heed and ran toward Theodore.

“No, Oppa…!”

She simply could not believe it.

She could not believe that her beautiful elder brother was hanging from the castle wall in such a state.

Nor could she believe that the faint, fragrant scent of scented oil that had always lingered around him had been replaced by the musty stench of a corpse.

Tears blurred her vision, but Tethys refused to give up and drew her dagger.

She jumped repeatedly with her slender legs, trying to cut the rope suspending him from the castle wall, but she could not sever the thick rope wound tightly from his neck down to his shoulders.

Eventually, her fragile body, which had never properly exercised even once, began to run out of strength until it became an obstacle itself.

There was nothing she could do.

Nothing at all.

“No, no… No! Hngh…!”

Her muttered denial of reality soon turned into a scream.

Perhaps he had regained consciousness in the meantime, because Theodore, despite his horrific appearance, struggled to open one eye.

“Tethi…s.”

“Ah! Oppa, h-hic, you’re awake? I-I’ll get you down right away. Please, just hold on a little longer. Hic….”

“No…”

His voice, which had always been gentle, was hoarse beyond recognition, and there was no life left in the eye looking at her.

There was not much time left.

Even though Tethys had never witnessed death firsthand, she instinctively knew.

“It’s… better this way….”

Whenever he opened his mouth, black blood that he could no longer swallow spilled out in heavy drops.

Tethys did not even think to avoid it. She simply shook her head as his blood covered her.

“What are you saying…? Uuugh… Everyone knows. Everyone knows you were framed, Oppa! I-I’ll testify. I’ll tell them that you were falsely accused… okay…?”

“Don’t… ngh… defy him. Survive… You must… survive, even if… by his side….”

“No, no! Don’t say that! Hngh… Please don’t say….”

Afraid that he might not be able to hear her, Tethys screamed and sobbed with all her strength.

If only he could hold on a little longer.

If only he could stay conscious just a little longer…

But despite her desperate wish for her brother not to leave her, Tethys did not know what she could do to make him endure any longer.

She was a frail woman who had secretly slipped out alone. A flower raised in a greenhouse, ignorant of the ways of the world.

She could not even comprehend what she was capable of doing.

“There’s… something I want… to ask of you.”

As though offering Tethys a signpost to follow, Theodore murmured in his fading, frail voice.

Tethys, drenched in his rotten blood, looked up at him helplessly through her tears.

Theodore smiled.

His once-fair white skin was horribly marred by rough sword wounds, yet there was no way Tethys could fail to recognize that expression.

“Kill me… now.”

Theodore’s voice came in broken fragments, but his plea reached her more desperately than anything he had ever said.

Fresh tears spilled from Tethys’s eyes.

She wanted to ask what he was saying.

She wanted to tell him to hold on.

She wanted to tell him that someone would come to save him.

She wanted to comfort her brother with even those lies, but seeing how painful it was for him simply to remain alive for another moment, no words would come from her throat.

“Please….”

“Ahh… Uuugh… Oppa….”

Her delicate arms had never even properly held a sword.

Yet even if she could not awkwardly leap high enough to cut the tightly bound rope, she thought she could drive the dagger into her wounded brother’s neck.

The fact that she could actually do it made Tethys even more desperate.

A scream resembling the mournful cry of a beast escaped her again and again.

“Oppa… Hic… Uuugh… How can I? How could I…?”

“P-Please….”

His lips pressed tightly together.

Then his eyes slowly closed.

His brow furrowed ever so slightly.

Her kind and beautiful elder brother seemed to have already made his decision.

“Hngh… Aaaah…!”

Tethys, who had been screaming, finally made up her mind and bit down on her lip.

It felt as though blood tears were flowing from her eyes, yet she felt she did not even have the right to cry now.

“I’m sorry, Oppa. H-Hic… I’m sorry for everything. I’m… I’m sorry for it all. I’ll… I’ll repay you for everything….”

Forcing herself to memorize Theodore’s final appearance, Tethys stretched out her arm.

Then she forced her heavy feet forward and leaped.

Thud!

“Ghk.”

…Splatter.

Black, rotting blood burst from Theodore’s mouth.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The blood soon traveled down the dagger she had plunged into him and soaked into his robe.

“Hngh… Ugh….”

The trembling spasms of his body were transmitted directly through the dagger embedded in him.

But soon, even those tremors stopped.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Oppa, I’m sorry….”

Tethys wept endlessly before the body from which the soul had departed.

Unable to bring herself to further desecrate his corpse, she pulled the dagger from his neck.

She wanted to throw the dagger away immediately.

But this was the weapon that had killed her brother.

And it was also the object stained with his final blood—a weapon that would make him branded a traitor, preventing even his corpse from being properly taken down and laid to rest.

With trembling hands, she carefully put away the dagger.

At last, Tethys collapsed onto the ground.

A weak voice escaped her as she screamed uncontrollably.

Instead of ordinary sobs, groans filled with tightly suppressed pain poured from her throat.

“Hngh… Oppa… Oppa… Huuuuugh…!”

Her mother, who had been planning the New Year’s celebration only a few days ago.

Her father, who had promised to give her the dress she would wear that day.

Even her elder brother, who had promised to escort her one final time in place of her fiancé…

They were all dead.

No.

She had killed them.

And so, now, she alone remained.

‘It was Romain.’

The realization she had stubbornly refused to face because she was blinded by love weighed heavily upon her.

She had loved Romain.

She had trusted him.

But what he had given Tethys was not a happy future.

It was treason built upon the blood of her own family.

Her beloved father and mother, who had supposedly been murdered by the Kingdom of Lomdra…

No.

There had never been an assassin in the first place, had there?

A hollow smile spread across Tethys’s lips.

Caw! Caw!

A flock of black crows flew overhead.

Before Theodore’s blood had even grown cold, it seemed the beasts had already sensed his death.

The reality she desperately wanted to deny—that she had lost everything—came crashing down upon her like a bolt of lightning.

“…The palace has been in an uproar because you disappeared. And yet, you were here.”

At the quiet voice coming from over her shoulder, Tethys blinked.

Only when the tears pooled in her eyes ran down her cheeks did her vision finally clear.

In the dark of night, she saw her only elder brother hanging from the wall, impaled like a skewer.

And behind her stood the man she had missed even while looking at him.

“Ah…….”

How desperately she had craved Romain’s attention.

His love.

The audacious man who had succeeded in seducing the flower of the Imperial Family had always been kind, yet strangely, he had never seemed willing to give her his entire heart.

Tethys, who had never been denied anything in her life, became stubborn and clung to Romain even more.

She trusted his words and followed them as though they were the words of a god.

Whenever he narrowed his brow and wore an expression of displeasure, she would change whatever it was until it met his standards.

An arrogant man who would not even bend his knee before a Princess.

Perhaps that was why she had considered him even more noble and had admired him from the bottom of her heart.

She had done everything he told her to do.

Even when something seemed suspicious, she had deliberately erased her doubts.

She had believed so firmly that he would devote himself and remain loyal to her, just as he always had—for her sake and for the sake of her family.

‘Why did you kill them?’

My father cherished you.

Whenever I felt hurt or upset because of you, my mother comforted me.

And my brother considered you his friend.

Why?

Why did you do this?

Why?

Her lips trembled as she fought the urge to spit out all the injustice burning inside her.

“Tethys.”

Romain urged her on when she remained silent for so long.

It was truly strange.

The voice she had loved so dearly was no longer beautiful or elegant.

Hearing it again, she realized that the voice calling her name was, in truth…

So vile.

But—

“Even if he was a traitor, I still have to say my final farewell.”

After wiping away her tears, she slowly turned around.

She answered him in her usual gentle tone, wearing the same clear, innocent expression she always had.