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Episode 2
Five Years Later
Five years later, the Chaos Upper Citadel of the Terran Empire.
The Chaos Upper Citadel, which used the black rose as its symbol, appeared on the continent one day like a comet.
They led the latest trends, and anything they planned or created became desired by everyone.
Products that fueled human desires were so popular that they could not be sold fast enough.
The Chaos Upper Citadel absorbed smaller guilds and merged with collapsing large guilds, growing in size.
Now, it had grown so wealthy it could rival a nation.
And it was just a guild.
Even the nobles and royal families who once mocked it could hardly believe the overflowing wealth of the Chaos Upper Citadel.
Naturally, the powerful tried to make the Citadel submit to them, and some nearly succeeded.
But the real winner was Roze, the hidden force behind Chaos.
Partially, at least.
Roze knew she was dreaming.
Still, this dream filled her with deep despair.
As if sensing her heart, the Emperor of Arga appeared from the darkness.
His bright blonde hair and blue eyes were filled with deep, dark desire as he stared at Roze.
“Lugentia… so you really are alive.”
He laughed as if he were watching something amusing.
But Roze could see the anger boiling inside him.
It seemed he could not bear that his honor had been humiliated and that he had been deceived by Roze.
‘This… is a dream.’
Even forcing herself to be brave, Roze, who had suffered for so long, felt like a frog before a snake—completely frozen.
She was terrified.
She was so helpless she could not even think.
Step by step, the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder.
The Emperor was coming closer, yet Roze could not move.
Finally, he stopped right in front of her, his eyes twisted like he was looking at a bug.
“Die. Just as it was meant to be.”
In an instant, the Emperor turned into a massive serpent and swallowed her.
“Huh!”
Roze woke with a start, drenched in cold sweat.
Her hands trembling, gripping the blanket, she panted heavily.
Her ash-colored face, soaked in sweat and pain, seemed as if it could tear apart at any moment.
As her breathing slowly calmed, her anger, fear, and terror also began to fade.
“Thank goodness… it was just a dream.”
She laughed bitterly at her own relief.
But there was no reason to relax.
For years, Roze had been having prophetic dreams in which Emperor Hin hunted her.
No matter how far she ran, just like when she had to become the Deposed Empress, the Emperor would eventually find her and consume everything.
Her life.
The Chaos Upper Citadel she built.
Even the people who supported her.
She gripped her damp clothes as if tearing at them, letting despair pour from her tightly pressed teeth.
“Damn it.”
She held her throbbing head.
“Damn prophetic dreams.”
Her childhood memories were blurry. At first, dreams were fun and fascinating.
When the things she saw in the prophetic dreams came true, she enjoyed them like playing with toys.
But reality was harsh.
After her mother died, the quality of food in the side house gradually worsened, and even the expensive gifts from her father disappeared.
The maid in charge of meals was suspicious, but there was nothing the young illegitimate Roze could do without her only protector.
In that situation, the only things Roze could trust were the jewelry and objects hidden away because her mother, who hated her father’s gifts, forced her to keep them safe.
Yet, for a child who had never seen the outside world, deciding to go out was far from easy.
After much hesitation, it was the prophetic dreams that finally pushed five-year-old Roze into action.
She muttered to herself:
“Even if it weren’t a dream, I would have died anyway.”
After dreaming, she spent half a day half-crazed, then put on her most worn clothes and slipped out of the side house through a small opening.
At first once a week, then twice or three times, she gradually adapted, enduring countless hardships and even narrowly escaping kidnapping.
The world showed no mercy to a child.
The years of fighting to survive were enough to turn a roughly grown child into a determined young girl.
Yet, at ten, she was still too young to plan even a simple business.
She desperately needed a trustworthy adult to manage money, and at that time, she met Grey, who had been on the verge of suicide.
Her eyes, always frowning, softened as she told him her plan, and he gave a faint smile.
“So… you want to start a business? With me?”
The despair in the ten-year-old girl’s eyes was met with a faint, hazy smile.
Though her clothes were tattered, he took coins from his pocket and handed them to Roze, gently stroking her head.
“My child, you make me laugh. At the end of my life, I’ve heard a very good joke.”
“Who said it’s a joke? I’m trusting my life to you.”
“What?”
Roze handed over the bundle of her entire inheritance, speaking boldly:
“Since we’re all going to die anyway, why not entrust your life to me? You won’t regret it.”
After a few struggles, Grey finally agreed to work with Roze.
He often looked back and admired that day, but Roze knew she could only have done it because of the prophetic dreams.
With some caution, Grey steadily built up the guild, and Roze guided him to secure the future business in advance through her dreams.
Two years later, in winter, she had saved enough to escape the Count’s household.
Just as she was about to live independently, her father summoned her.
Roze clenched her teeth, recalling that day:
“And then I met the bastard of my life.”
The boy who would later become Emperor Hin of Arga, and the one who would make Roze the Deposed Empress, was just a small, insignificant puppet prince beside her father.
He looked beautiful and frail, but the blank, doll-like expression on his face was eerie.
Roze relied on her instincts and stayed as far away from him and her father as possible.
The Count, gathering all legitimate and illegitimate children, proudly introduced them to the prince:
“I have many children. Surely, the bride you desire is among them.”
Roze held a faint laugh as the prince’s eyes suddenly stopped on her.
The young prince quickly moved away from her father and approached her.
“Choose her.”
Her father, expecting the prince to accept immediately, was surprised and shook his head.
“Lugentia lacks the education. What about another child?”
Surprisingly, the prince refused to give in.
After a brief standoff, her father eventually respected the decision and allowed the marriage.
Thus, Roze became a bride to the prince, facing obstacles she never wanted.
She hoped the prophetic dreams might help, but as always, the dreams soon showed her the future of dying as Deposed Empress.
At first, she thought she could change it.
Once, twice, thrice… after ten failures, then hundreds, even Roze could not help but feel despair.
“No matter what I choose, the future of being the Deposed Empress and going to the guillotine does not change.”
The prophetic dreams repeatedly warned her: they could never be stopped.
Moreover, as an illegitimate child, Roze became a prospective prince’s bride through her father’s influence, drawing all forces in the world against her.
The Count only cared for his own benefit, so she could rely only on Grey and the guild.
Despite all her resources, she could see no way to escape.
Recalling the days she cried in frustration, she bit her lips.
“All I could do was wait.”
Perhaps that helplessness was why Roze became obsessed with freedom.
Finally, in the spring of her twenty-first year, when she marked the end of her life as Deposed Empress in Arga, she remembered the day the spies rescued her from the guillotine and replaced her with the alchemist’s doll.
Even then, the cursed prophetic dreams tried to entangle her with the Emperor again.
“Ha, damn it.”
If gods had personalities, they would be complete bastards, Roze thought.
She cursed loudly as she got out of bed.
This was not unexpected.
Roze had defied the Emperor and even sullied the honor of the Arga Empire.
Not only that, she had relocated her base to the enemy Terran Empire and operated the Chaos Upper Citadel.
She knew the Emperor would cut her down the moment he found her.
“Still… I can’t just die, can I?”
Roze was no longer a weak Empress or a pitiful Deposed Empress.
She was the head of the Chaos Upper Citadel, a power controlling continental wealth.
She bit her lips and stood by the window.
“I’ve run enough. If I can’t hide anymore, I’ll break through.”
Even though the prophetic dreams could not destroy Arga, one way still remained.
Having settled in the Terran Empire, she recalled the person who would become her escape.
He would be her way out.
Though tired and weary, her eyes still shone brightly in the dark.
The timing was perfect.
A cold smile spread across her lips, chilling anyone who saw it.
If this insane prophetic dream meant that she and the Emperor of Arga were destined for conflict…
If it could not be avoided…
Then she had no choice.
She would fight.
Risking everything she had.
The white-haired Duke Aitan, Klaus, was faced with an unexpected visitor.
It was the Chaos Upper Citadel, claiming they could solve a long-standing problem.
This was not surprising.
But the person commanding the vast wealth of this guild was not Grey, now in his late forties.
It was a twenty-five-year-old woman.
To prove it was no lie, Grey stood behind her as her protector.
The Duke narrowed his black eyes and studied the bold young woman before him.
“Roze, you said?”
“Yes, Duke.”
“The daughter of a fallen Baron family?”
The ash-skinned woman with black hair remained calm.
Her beauty was striking, but Klaus had seen enough life to not be swayed easily.
“Are you saying you can solve the problems of my territory? Many have tried and failed. Over half the year is spent battling the brutal northern winter. I’ve already been disappointed countless times. I don’t want to be disappointed again.”
“I have never said I could do what others could not. But I have one question first.”
“Speak.”
“If you solve the problems, can I trust the Duke’s name to guarantee all terms of the Chaos Upper Citadel?”
Klaus nodded without hesitation.
“You may trust it.”
The Duke’s steward quickly brought a contract, detailing the agreement between the Chaos Upper Citadel and Duke Aitan.
If they solved the winter issues, the Duke promised to honor one condition of the guild.
“If you fail with these terms, I will not forgive it in the name of Aitan. Do it properly.”
“I will not disappoint you.”
Klaus felt curious as he watched her smile confidently.
He had served three generations of Emperors and survived countless political schemes.
Even if Terran fell, the Aitan family would remain secure.
Yet this young woman sparked something unfamiliar in the iron-blooded Duke.
She had the ability to create the Chaos Upper Citadel.
She faced the Duke boldly.
She dared to attempt what many had failed before.
Normally, she would need to hide her gender to lead the guild.
“Do you regret having to hide that you are a woman?” Klaus asked.
“Regret is too small a word to capture the absurdity of reality.”
Her sharp yet polite reply made Klaus unable to look away.
“Excuse me.”
She bowed quietly, and they concluded the contract without further discussion.
Klaus frowned slightly as she left.
Recently, his heart had been beating unusually slowly; even breathing felt odd.
He reflected carefully on emotions he had never been allowed to experience and smiled faintly.
“Finally… the end may be near.”
Rubbing his aching chest, he returned to his study.
As the door closed, the thin steward approached the window.
Jack, with milk-brown eyes, muttered harshly:
“Let’s see how capable she really is.”
The carriage disappeared from view, but he did not leave the window.
Jack’s loyalty to his master was matched only by his fiery temperament.
Soon after, the Chaos Upper Citadel visited Duke Aitan again.
They carried out large-scale renovations and constructions to fulfill their promise.
Even the residents, who had ignored others before, watched in curiosity at their bold work.
The elderly man was shocked as the young guild members demolished old buildings without hesitation.
He noticed something unusual:
“Hey, what are you doing over there?”
The young guild officer turned to him.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Why are you connecting the furnace to that large area? That seems like a room. How will smoke and other things be handled? Is this a mistake?”
“No, sir.”
The officer smiled proudly.
“This installation will keep winter warmth perfect, and smoke will be handled safely. No worries at all.”
“Don’t lie. I’ve been here all my life. No one has solved this like that. Can it really work?”
“Yes, sir. The master assured us it would work. Trust it.”
He oversaw the workers installing the heating system, and it soon became reality.
After more than a year, the Chaos Upper Citadel completed the massive construction and fulfilled the promise to Duke Aitan.
Upon receiving reports on the heating project, Grey immediately went to the study where Roze stayed.
“Come in.”
“Roze, someone has come from Aitan,” Grey said.
She turned from the sunlit window.
“All promises have been fulfilled,” Grey reported.
“Then it’s my turn to claim what I’m owed,” Roze said, smiling as she reviewed the new contract.
The Aitan Duke, the dream of every knight on the continent, was an exceptional person.
And what she wanted most was…
“Finally, I’ve caught Duke Aitan.”
Because the person she wanted was the Duke himself.
