🔊 TTS Settings
CHAPTER 02
The day Lumiere was born.
Her mother was executed for uttering an ominous prophecy.
‘On the day the Black Hawk of the North spreads its wings, a shadow will fall over the sun.’
It meant that the black hawk symbolizing the Grand Duchy of Winterheim would cover the sun of the Wizer Empire.
For the Imperial Family, which held supremacy over the continent, this was an insult they could not tolerate.
Because of that, Lumiere had been shut away in a remote corner of the Imperial Palace, treated worse than even a commoner.
Even after the former emperor died about three years ago and her half-brother ascended the throne, her situation did not improve.
No, it became even worse.
From then on, whenever a party was held, she was forcibly dragged there and made into an object of ridicule.
“I’m seriously going crazy…”
Lumiere rubbed her face with both hands.
Once, twice, three times.
She repeatedly wiped her face, but nothing changed.
She had returned to that dreadful, unbearable Imperial Family.
She sat there blankly for a while before suddenly looking down at the invitation.
‘Wait. Since I received this just a little while ago…’
That meant the day she would leave the Imperial Palace was not far away.
In her previous life, she had been sent to the North exactly one month after this.
‘Then I’ll be able to see that person again soon.’
Searching through her distant memories, she thought of the man who would soon become her husband.
The master of the Grand Duchy that had guarded the border of the land inhabited by the most dangerous monsters in the world for hundreds of years.
Axid von Winterheim.
He was the man who had taken over as Grand Duke after the previous Grand Duke died. She did not have many memories of him from her ‘life.’
It was common knowledge, not merely a rumor, that anyone who carried the Grand Duke’s bloodline would be cursed and die.
Every Grand Duchess throughout history had died without exception after giving birth to an heir.
Terrified of that curse, she had fainted the moment she saw the Grand Duke. She had then stayed shut inside the carriage throughout the entire journey north, only to take her own life on the very night she arrived at the Grand Duke’s castle.
But it had been ten years.
For ten whole years after her death, she had remained bound to the Grand Duke’s castle and watched him.
Rather than resenting the bride who had chosen death to escape their marriage, he had been the one who lowered his head and pleaded with the emperor who mocked him as a barbarian.
He had asked him to bury the princess in the Imperial Family’s tomb.
He said that burying a princess who had turned her back on the world because she could not accept the marriage in the Grand Duchy would be no different from killing her a second time.
But the emperor flatly refused.
In the end, the Grand Duke had no choice but to bury her in the sunniest spot on the castle grounds.
What had that man thought as he stood before her gravestone until sunset every year on the anniversary of her death?
For a brief moment, her violet eyes became distant and clouded.
She did not know why she had returned to the past.
But one thing was certain.
She knew exactly how she wanted to live this life.
‘I want to repay the debt I owe him.’
It was not a debt that could be repaid with just a few words.
Because she had chosen death, the world had become even more convinced that the Grand Duke’s family was cursed, and people had come to regard him as an even more ominous existence.
Moreover, he had been the only person who remembered and honored the anniversary of her death every year.
Even if the time erased by her regression was gone, the comfort she had received back then had not disappeared with it.
Whether it was atonement or repayment, there was no way she could repay him except by staying by his side.
And since she knew that the curse was ‘false,’ there was nothing for her to worry about.
She looked at herself in the mirror once more.
Messy hair and dry, rough skin.
Dark circles beneath her eyes and a body reduced to little more than skin and bones.
A dress that had been washed so many times that its color had completely faded, carrying the smell of stale fabric.
‘I need to recover my health first.’
If she went out looking like this, she would certainly become a laughingstock.
More importantly, she did not want to look like a bride who was being sold off, at least not in front of the Grand Duke.
‘I should eat something first.’
After moistening her dry throat with the water on the bedside table, she pulled the bell cord.
But even after some time passed, no one came.
‘Well, I suppose that’s only natural.’
Who would sincerely serve a princess who had no power, let alone the authority to grant even a single reward?
She got up, her body creaking like rusty hinges, and walked outside.
There was a hazy layer of dust everywhere, along with an old and silent atmosphere.
She quietly walked down the shabby corridor, which looked nothing like a place belonging to a princess.
When she reached the empty sitting room, she frowned.
Those maids called servants were supposed to come running when their master called them.
Yet they had simply left their posts.
She let out a hollow laugh of disbelief and was about to continue walking when a familiar voice came from deeper inside the rear garden.
“…Those kinds of people really do have stubborn lives.”
“You can tell just by looking at her that she’s still breathing. She only pretended to die.”
“Exactly. If she had really intended to die, would a few handfuls of medicine have been enough? Of course not.”
“She’s going to die anyway once she gets married. She should just stay quiet and leave when the time comes. Honestly, I don’t understand why she’s acting like this.”
Pretended to die.
As she remembered everything they had done to her, a small sigh escaped her lips.
Her dusty room.
Her wrinkled dress that smelled stale.
Those things were nothing compared to everything else.
Not only had they given her leftover food and told her to eat it, but whenever she returned from a party, they would applaud and mock her, congratulating her for becoming a ‘flower on the wall.’
And on the very day she had tried to kill herself…
“Your Highness, there’s no need to be so depressed just because you weren’t chosen by Duke Trovitan.”
“Exactly. His Majesty the Emperor must care for Your Highness very much to personally find you a marriage partner.”
“Even if he is a foul-smelling barbarian, I’m sure he’ll be excellent when it comes to physical matters. You’ll probably have a wonderful time every night.”
They had shamelessly mocked and harassed her with words like that.
And they dared to act this way.
She had no intention of leaving quietly in the first place, but this was practically begging her to punish them.
‘Maybe this is for the best.’
They had handed her the perfect excuse themselves.
With a mocking smile on her lips, she deliberately made her presence known.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you by having such a stubborn life.”
“Gah! You scared me!”
The three women, who had been happily chatting, jumped in surprise.
“You should have just died instead of causing trouble. Don’t you agree?”
As Lumiere casually crossed her arms, one of the maids cleared her throat and spoke.
“…Ahem. If you had regained consciousness, you should have called for us, shouldn’t you? Someone who has just been lying in bed was so desperate to come all the way here just to eavesdrop on the words of her inferiors. It hardly suits your dignity.”
Well, look at this.
Were they really treating her like some kind of filthy rat?
“If you had come immediately when I called, there would have been no reason for me to come all the way here.”
“Is that so? You have so little presence that I suppose we didn’t realize you were calling us.”
The three women twisted their lips and giggled mockingly.
“…I thought you had no arms or legs since you never came when I called. Now I see that you simply don’t know your place.”
“Had Your Highness possessed the dignity befitting a member of the Imperial Family, we would have rushed to you immediately.”
Lumiere gave a small laugh.
They certainly had a lot of nerve. Their words sounded polished, but they were completely shameless.
Apparently, the years they had spent getting away with everything had made them far too arrogant.
It was time to shatter that arrogance once and for all.
“As it happens, I was thinking of showing you what Imperial dignity really looks like.”
They chuckled as if she had said something ridiculous.
After all, what could they possibly fear from her when she was nothing more than a princess in name?
But how long would they be able to remain so relaxed?
Lumiere spoke with a meaningful look in her eyes.
“Who will come with me?”
“Come with you? Where?”
All three stared at her with wide, bewildered eyes.
They seemed unable to understand what someone who had only just gotten out of bed could possibly be talking about.
But then…
“Where else would a princess who is about to be married be going?”
“……!”
The faces of the three women, who had been sneering at her with such casual arrogance, instantly stiffened.
Because they knew exactly what her words meant.
She was going to take them with her to the land of the barbarians they feared so much.
