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Chapter 01
The city walls collapsed.
It was the fall of the Rosetea dynasty, the greatest humiliation of the Kingdom of Rosetea, and the beginning of suffering.
At the ear-splitting roar, several people clutched their heads and sank to the ground. Cutting through the thick clouds of dust, the Trahaput Empire’s troops in dark navy uniforms surged in like a tidal wave.
“Your Majesty, you truly must leave now. This place will be taken any moment!”
As the deep-blue legion drew closer to the inner keep, the knight’s voice grew higher and more frantic.
“Your Majesty’s safety is the future of the kingdom! Please think of Princess Vivian and Prince Noah. If even Your Majesty is lost— guh!”
The knight urging Iella forward suddenly gasped for breath. At some point, she had turned around and was looking straight at him.
Standing with the bright window at her back, her face was cast in deep shadow, yet even within it her eyes gleamed sharply.
What froze the knight was Iella’s left eye. The gentle golden hue had vanished without a trace, replaced by a blazing red.
‘Change.’
Faced with it in reality, the knight could only stare blankly into those crimson eyes.
“I know. We must leave. But not like this.”
From behind the frozen knight, Iella slowly took out a long bow and several arrows.
“Shouldn’t we at least stab a dagger into them? So they can’t be happy in a world built on our downfall.”
Smiling faintly, Iella passed the knight and gently stroked the heads of the two children who were staring at their mother as if seeing her for the first time.
“Vivi, Noah. Just wait a little.”
The silver bracelet around Iella’s wrist glimmered blue as it passed over the children’s heads. In that brief moment, the imperial army had truly reached the very doorstep of the inner keep. Screams from the Rosetea soldiers desperately defending the main gate and the Trahaput troops trying to break through mingled chaotically in the air.
Bang! Bang!
As long as the empire possessed firearms, the kingdom’s losses were inevitably far greater.
Looking down upon the horrific scene, Iella spotted a man calmly lifting his head amid the chaos. He wore a white uniform unlike the common soldiers, and a mask that concealed his face. Toward the man who had taken her husband’s life, she drew her bowstring.
At that moment, their eyes met.
Twang!
Shaken just before release, the arrow Iella fired grazed past his mask. A sharp crack split the white mask that covered more than half his face.
“Your Highness! Are you unharmed?!”
“An archer!”
“I’m fine. Soldiers, ignore it and advance.”
Staring intently at Iella as he adjusted his mask, the man spoke. Upon hearing that their commander had been attacked, the imperial troops pushed forward even more fiercely.
“…A monster.”
Even though the arrow had brushed past him, there was not the slightest trace of agitation in those blue eyes. The word monster escaped her unbidden.
Hamel Batirenium. The First Prince of the Trahaput Empire, who personally led a war of conquest on the eve of his investiture as Crown Prince. No one had ever seen his face, yet he was praised as perfect in every respect.
There were whispered rumors that he was born under circumstances too tragic to recount without tears. But even if that secret were true, Iella had no tears to spare for a prince of a neighboring empire.
Hoping that this arrow might erase the heartless man before her eyes, Iella drew the bowstring once more.
Twang!
After witnessing the arrow strike the masked man as he retreated from the inner keep, Iella left the royal castle with her precious children, Vivian Rosetea and Noah Rosetea.
An arrow fired with the intent to kill—unless a miracle intervened, he would die. If that curse still held true.
One year after leaving the royal castle.
More precisely, it was the one-year anniversary of the Kingdom of Rosetea’s subjugation under the Trahaput Empire.
Declaring it a joyous day on which the people of the kingdom could now live under the benevolence of the empire, the Emperor’s august representative, Second Prince Andrew Batirenium, ordered a festival to be held. At the start of the fifteen-day celebration, the entire capital was abuzz.
Young Vivian, who had been living in a small, secluded hut after fleeing the castle, could not suppress her curiosity at the lively news and slipped outside without Iella’s knowledge.
From the hill near the hut, she looked down at the village and saw that the festival was already in full swing.
People singing and dancing, groups enjoying curious games, and children her age holding puppy-shaped balloons.
Had there really been so many fun things in the world?
After watching the noisy streets from afar, she realized the sun was already setting.
It’s gotten this late already…! I’d better hurry home before Mother scolds me.
Quickening her steps, Vivian suddenly froze when she heard unfamiliar voices coming from the hut—where no one ever visited.
Circling around and creeping closer, she saw the source of the voices.
Several soldiers, each with a gun slung over them, were standing in front of the hut. Vivian barely managed to hide herself.
“Promise me you’ll spare Noah.”
“Looks like you don’t understand the situation.”
Through the soldiers surrounding the small hut, she could see her mother—and Noah, crying hysterically.
“Do you want to protect the child?”
When her mother nodded, a soldier who seemed to be of higher rank silently took out a gun that fit neatly in one hand and dropped it to the ground. Kicked lightly, it came to a stop in front of her mother’s knees.
“They say the First Prince went missing because of you. Since you did that to someone so precious, repay it with your body. Then maybe we’ll let the brats live.”
No. Mom. Don’t.
No.
“…….”
“If you don’t like it, then don’t. We can just find the kid and the woman who ran away and kill them.”
The moment Iella raised the gun to her own head, her eyes met Vivian’s. Forgetting that her hair was tangled in the bushes, Vivian shook her head wildly.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of her violently pounding heart felt as though it might burst out of her body.
“I’m sorry.”
Iella mouthed the words soundlessly, at an angle only Vivian could see. Her clever daughter would understand.
A burning numbness rose from Vivian’s toes and seized her entire body. Golden tears streamed down her face, and the time that had felt unreal finally began to move.
“Vivi. I’m sorry. I love you.”
Bang.
The dreadful gunshot shattered the silent world of the hut.
“Wow. She really did it. What a vicious woman.”
“Marquis Cranse, what should we do?”
“I’ll take care of the child quietly. That woman’s corpse may still be useful, so deliver it to the Governor.”
Without even removing their boots, the soldiers barged into the hut and dragged Noah out as he screamed and cried.
Vivian did not emerge from the bushes until they disappeared with the sobbing Noah and Iella’s lifeless body. She couldn’t. She couldn’t move.
Through the night and until the sun climbed high again, time remained eerily frozen—as if it alone had avoided Vivian.
At last, there was no longer any sound of marching boots.
The girl’s tightly curled body trembled. Slowly, Vivian opened the eyes she had squeezed shut.
Everything’s the same… there’s no way Mom and Noah are really gone.
It was just a bad dream. It had to be.
But the moment she saw the soldiers’ haphazard footprints in the yard and the floorboards stained dark red, Vivian had to accept it was not a dream.
The child ran blindly in the opposite direction of the hut. Even when her breath caught in her throat, she didn’t stop, running toward a destination she didn’t know.
Her small feet, barely supporting her, finally lost balance and she fell. Her pale dress was soiled with dirt.
“Ah… it hurts…”
Only then did Vivian release the sobs she had been holding back. In doing so, she failed to notice someone nearby.
A soldier who had been watching her uncertainly for a while approached and grabbed her by the hair as she lifted her head.
“Aah!”
“Sir, I think we’ve found her.”
“Don’t! Aaah!”
The soldier gripping her blond hair bent down, peered at her face, and smiled in fascination.
“So it’s true. One eye really is red.”
“A curse or something… can that really be done?”
“That’s enough. Stop talking nonsense and kill her.”
“Yessir. Loyalty!”
“Hk… ngh…”
Bang.
Bang—!
Two gunshots echoed from afar just as Vivian, resigned, squeezed her eyes shut.
When the hands that had been dragging her up vanished, Vivian collapsed to the ground. The faint, acrid smell of gunpowder drifting over was unbearable.
Footsteps—just one person’s—slowly approached.
“Princess.”
At the long-unheard title, Vivian’s eyelids slowly lifted.
“You’ve changed. You should hide your eyes.”
“Wh-who… go away. Go!”
Seeing that the man who addressed her carried a metal object similar to the soldiers’, Vivian awkwardly scooted backward.
“My, you’ve lost all your dignity. Well, a year is a long time for a child.”
“You… hngh.”
“Look properly.”
He placed the gun into Vivian’s hand. Startled, she tried to let go, but he held down both her small hand and the cold metal together.
“Let go!”
“Look properly.”
Unable to bear the weight of the life held in the metal in her hand, the child instinctively tried to release it—then suddenly felt the warmth of the hand covering hers.
Vivian nodded faintly.
“Is it still scary?”
“…….”
“If you’re only afraid, nothing will change.”
“…….”
“I am the leader of the Rote Association.”
Slowly bending down to meet her eye level, he extended a scar-covered hand to the child.
“Let’s take it back together.”
“…What?”
“Everything that you, Princess, have lost.”
