🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 01
It was a peaceful morning in the Pentium Empire.
A cold woman’s voice, one that did not suit the sun-filled sky, echoed through the Grand Duke’s castle.
“I will see His Grace the Grand Duke. Move aside.”
It was an order from Ariel, the only daughter of the prestigious Marquis Blante family and the fiancée of the Grand Duke.
However, the knights blocked her path as if they had no intention of allowing it.
A slight frown appeared between her brows, but the knights remained firm.
“My Lady, please forgive us, but His Grace wishes for you to rest comfortably in your room until dawn tomorrow.”
“Ha!”
At last, she let out a bitter laugh she had been holding back.
Rest comfortably after being locked up?
What kind of nonsense was that?
“Move. This is the last time I’ll ask nicely.”
Ariel’s warning was icy, but the knights standing before the door did not budge.
Still, she did not become any angrier.
She had expected this.
And she had clearly warned them.
This was the last time she would use words.
“We apologize. Please return to your room, My Lady.”
“…If words don’t work, then I have no choice.”
“Pardon?”
The moment one knight stepped closer, unable to hear her quiet muttering, Ariel reached for the knight’s scabbard.
Startled, the knight quickly grabbed her arm.
But Ariel twisted his wrist instead and drew the sword from the scabbard in one smooth motion.
Shing—
The chilling sound echoed through the corridor.
The sharp blade turned toward Ariel’s own throat.
“The Grand Duke ordered you to confine me, not kill me. Am I right?”
“M-My Lady…”
Only then did the previously unmoving knights begin to panic and exchange nervous glances.
Ariel did not miss that moment of hesitation.
She pressed the blade even closer to her neck.
“No!”
A knight shouted in alarm, but Ariel calmly took another step forward.
“Move aside. Otherwise this sword will cut my throat. Then all of you will become criminals who failed to protect the Grand Duke’s fiancée.”
“My Lady, please don’t do this…”
“Unless you want your heads to roll with mine, shut up and move.”
Her grip on the sword tightened.
The moment a drop of blood appeared on the blade, the knights hurriedly stepped back with their hands raised.
Clang!
At the same time, Ariel threw the sword away.
While the knights’ attention shifted toward it, she sprinted down the corridor.
“My Lady!”
Ignoring their desperate calls, she ran as if her life depended on it.
The place she was risking her life to reach was where her fiancé—and the master of this vast estate—was.
The office of Grand Duke Seyard.
At last, Ariel arrived before the office door and struggled to catch her breath.
“M-My Lady… How did you get here…?”
The experienced butler stammered in shock.
After all, she was supposed to be locked in her room.
“My Lady, your neck is bleeding…”
The butler hurried toward her in alarm.
Ariel wiped the blood running down her neck with the back of her hand and spoke coldly.
“A wound like this is nothing. Inform the Grand Duke that I’ve come.”
“My Lady, please calm down first—”
“If you can’t do it, I’ll do it myself.”
Cutting off the butler’s words, Ariel headed straight for the office door.
Before the butler could react, she grabbed the handle and threw the door open.
The man seated behind the desk frowned and looked up at the sudden intrusion.
Black hair as dark as an abyss.
Black eyes.
A face so beautiful it seemed crafted by the gods themselves.
That overwhelmingly handsome man was her fiancé.
Grand Duke Kailance Seyard.
The Emperor’s only nephew.
Ariel met his gaze directly despite the displeasure openly displayed on his face.
His eyes resembled those of a beast.
People often said they were too frightening to look at directly.
But Ariel had never felt that way.
Because the black eyes that looked at her had always been gentle.
At least, they used to be.
As she stared into those emotionless black eyes, Ariel felt her skin grow cold.
Cold sweat ran down her back.
So this is why everyone feared you.
Even so, she could still endure it.
She was not a stranger.
She was his fiancée.
At least, for now.
As Ariel bit her lip against the throbbing pain in her chest, the butler approached to stop her.
“My Lady, even if you are his fiancée, this is—”
Kailance’s cold voice interrupted.
“Seo. That’s enough. Leave us.”
“…Yes, Your Grace.”
The butler quietly withdrew.
Ariel gathered herself and stepped into the office.
Yet her steps were unbelievably slow for someone who had just raced through the corridors moments ago.
One step.
Then another.
As though heavy iron weights were attached to her feet.
Shouldn’t it be easy to approach her own fiancé?
Yet at some point, it had become difficult.
Difficult to face him.
Difficult to speak with him.
Perhaps it had begun the day she could no longer find any warmth in his eyes.
Click.
The office door closed behind her.
Swallowing hard, she stopped before his desk.
His cold gaze briefly landed on the wound on her neck.
Only briefly.
The irritation on his face did not change.
Once upon a time, he would have rushed to her side in panic at the sight of such an injury.
Now all she heard was his icy voice.
“I know why you’re here. But no. Go back to your room.”
“…You know why I came, and that’s all you have to say? Just go back to my room?”
“…”
“At a time like this, is that really all you have to say to me?”
Her sorrowful voice echoed through the office.
But Kailance merely furrowed his brows slightly as if annoyed.
At last, he looked at her sadness with indifferent eyes.
“Are you hoping for comfort? If I give it to you, will you stop causing trouble and quietly return?”
As if, should she beg enough, he might throw her a small act of charity.
So that was how he saw her now.
Like a beggar.
Even now, she had still believed she was his fiancée.
Apparently, that wasn’t true anymore.
His cruel words stabbed into her chest.
Ariel felt tears welling up, but she fought not to break.
Forcing herself to stay focused, she spoke her true purpose.
“I am the only legitimate daughter of Marquis Blante and my father’s only child. No matter how much you are my fiancé, you have no right to stop me from attending my father’s funeral. By imperial law, I still belong to the House of Blante.”
Kailance let out a tired sigh.
“Yes. Legally, you’re still a member of House Blante. But isn’t that status poison to you right now?”
“…What?”
“Have you forgotten what crime your father committed? Or why he suddenly chose death?”
Ariel’s eyes shook violently.
But he continued without hesitation.
“Marquis Blante supplied money and imperial intelligence to Grint, a criminal organization constantly plotting against the Empire. He even connected them with the Kingdom of Breta, the nation that is always fighting border wars with us.”
“No…”
Her voice trembled.
Kailance drove the final nail in.
“Denying it is pointless. The evidence was conclusive. And as if to prove it, the Marquis took his own life. Once treason was confirmed, not only he but his entire family would be destroyed. He was afraid. So he chose the coward’s way out and died, taking all his crimes with him.”
A coward’s death.
The moment he insulted her father, Ariel exploded.
“My father would never do such a thing! Don’t you dare insult him!”
Her father had been a man of integrity.
A man who devoted himself to the Empire.
A man who never resorted to shortcuts no matter how difficult the path.
And to her, he had always been a warm and loving father.
She loved and respected him deeply.
Kailance knew that better than anyone.
Yet now—
He was insulting him right in front of her.
Ariel hated him.
Resented him.
A memory surfaced.
“Hatred and resentment only destroy the person who carries them. Never waste your heart on hatred.”
It was something her father always used to say.
But now, she could not follow that advice.
Kailance was too cruel.
At last, she shouted.
“So this is what came from all my patience and waiting. When I first heard that you were the one who reported my father, I still believed there had to be a reason. Even when I heard that you personally handled his interrogation, I believed there had to be a reason!”
“…”
“The evidence made no sense, but I told myself you must have had no choice. I waited because I trusted you!”
“…”
“I thought you would prove my father’s innocence. Because no matter what, you were my fiancé…”
The dam she had desperately held together finally broke.
Tears poured from her eyes.
“But I was wrong. You believed the evidence instead of my father. You’re even insulting his death. Calling it the end of a coward instead of a cry of injustice.”
“…”
“You know hearing those words would destroy me. Yet none of it affects you.”
“…”
“My heart feels like it’s being torn apart by the knife you’ve driven into it… but you… you don’t care at all.”
At last she collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.
Yet Kailance did not move.
He simply watched her.
The office remained silent except for her crying.
Listening to her own desperate sobs, Ariel finally understood.
There was no going back.
The tears blurred her vision, making it difficult to see his face.
Perhaps that was for the best.
If she saw his cold expression clearly, she might not survive it.
Finally accepting the truth she had desperately tried to avoid, Ariel forced herself to stop crying and released a long, trembling breath.
Then, as if he had been waiting for that moment, Kailance spoke.
“…I only did what I had to do.”
“Ha.”
“Once you see it with your own eyes, you’ll understand reality.”
He pulled the bell cord.
Not long afterward, the office door opened and the butler entered.
“Escort Lady Ariel to the Blante estate.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
The butler helped Ariel to her feet.
She forced strength into her trembling legs and looked up.
By then, Kailance had already lowered his gaze back to the documents on his desk.
As if the entire situation were nothing more than an annoyance.
He didn’t even offer a simple goodbye.
Surely he wouldn’t be this cold even to a complete stranger.
“Ha…”
The love she had believed was destiny had collapsed in an instant.
Feeling a hollow emptiness in her chest, Ariel let out a faint sigh and turned away.
As she left the office, she felt it instinctively.
This was truly the end.
