Chapter 4. The First Marriage
Diana stared blankly.
The place Guiscard dragged her to was the blood-soaked palace of Panborough.
She still couldn’t accept the reality before her eyes.
What she could accept even less was—
“Your Majesty. We have captured all members of the Panborough royal family.”
They were all calling Guiscard “Your Majesty.”
Even in her dazed state, she understood what that meant.
This was the hidden prince who had slain the Poison Dragon,
the Hero King of Lodbrok who had returned with the sword in hand to claim the throne.
Up until that moment, Diana still held onto a foolish hope—
that the Guiscard she knew might show her some kindness.
That maybe he would pity her.
Disgustingly, she had entertained such thoughts.
“Is this the fiancé?”
“P-please, spare me!”
Before Diana could say a word, something flashed at Guiscard’s hip—
Thud!
His sword drove straight into Ferdinand’s chest as the man knelt on the floor.
Diana let out a small scream, her lips trembling.
It wasn’t as though she felt a strong bond with her fiancé—
in fact, she disliked him.
But still—
what kind of person kills someone’s fiancé right in front of them?
“Aaaack! Agh, ugh, aaah!”
With that strange, ragged scream, a fountain of blood spurted out.
This was a man she had once shared quiet conversations with in the palace.
Now blood pooled wide across the cold white marble.
Why was she standing here, watching this?
She looked up at Guiscard in a daze. His lips curled in a twisted smirk.
“What, are you sad?”
“……”
“Look, my lady. Isn’t this the prince you adored so much?”
As if mocking her shy, younger self, he let out a laugh.
Somewhere, the bound king shouted something.
Guiscard gave a cold smile.
“King, does it make you grind your teeth in regret,
seeing your country trampled by your nephew’s hands?”
“……”
“I have never once forgotten the way you trampled me.”
“……”
“So just as you once crushed me, I will crush you just as thoroughly.”
Guiscard kicked the king in the stomach.
The king doubled over, gritting his teeth, his body curling like a shrimp.
Guiscard smiled viciously. This was the end.
Diana witnessed the fall of her kingdom with her own eyes.
Its final moment was more hollow and pathetic than she had ever imagined.
She closed her eyes over Ferdinand’s lifeless body.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Your Majesty, I’ve brought them.”
Screams rang out from beyond the audience hall.
When Diana lifted her head toward the entrance, she heard the shouting—
“P-please spare me!”
“L-let go of me!”
She knew those voices.
Guiscard’s low chuckle followed.
When she turned to look—
“Father, brother!”
Diana suddenly realized why she was here.
This was for her to see.
Her fallen status, her complete ruin—
he wanted her to witness it all.
He truly had opened the gates of hell for her.
*
“Please, spare them.”
“……”
“Please, spare them.”
Strangely, Diana was not thrown into prison.
Confined instead to a heavily guarded guest room in the palace,
she had to listen to the date of her father’s and brother’s executions being set.
She wanted to save them. She had to save them.
When Guiscard came to her, she dropped to her knees without hesitation.
It didn’t matter that he had once been a slave despised and mistreated in her household,
or that he had been far beneath her.
They were family.
“Please, Your Majesty.”
She lifted her head, tears spilling from her silver-grey eyes.
Whatever petty pride she had once taken in lording over a former slave as a noble
was long discarded.
“Your men tried to abandon you and flee abroad.
They left you here as their shield.”
Diana flinched.
“And even so, you’re begging me to spare them?”
“…Yes.”
If that was the way to protect the family name, she understood.
If they lived, there could be a chance to plan for the future.
And she had to care for her youngest brother, Alexa.
Guiscard let out a deflated laugh.
He had rarely smiled before, but now he did so quite often.
“How amusing. A lady of noble birth, kneeling to a man who was once a lowly slave.”
He reached out and lifted her chin.
Her tear-stained face fell once again.
Time had carved sharper lines into Guiscard’s features,
but his eyes—those beautiful eyes she had once loved—remained the same.
“If I spare them, what will you give me?”
“……”
“What can a lady from a destroyed noble family possibly offer?”
Diana bit her lip, resolve burning in her gaze.
After the events in the audience hall, she knew he would never be kind to her.
She knew he had spared her only to repay the humiliation he had suffered as a slave.
So—what could she give this man?
Diana stood.
She let the shawl on her shoulders fall to the floor.
Beneath it, she wore only a thin chemise dress.
Moonlight spilled over her soft skin.
Though clothed, her body was as good as bare—
the collarbones peeking between the low neckline,
the curves of her chest, the slender waist, and delicate legs.
Guiscard’s expression hardened as he looked at her.
For a moment, something flickered in his eyes and vanished.
“I’ll give myself to you.”
“……”
“Please, spare them. Spare their lives.”
Her face was full of humiliation.
Tonight, she would offer her purity to this man.
Wasn’t it a noblewoman’s duty to do so for her family?
For the sake of her father and brother, she had to.
She knew how absurd this request was—
asking the man she called her enemy to save her family required a price.
She would sell her pride.
“You’re no different from a common whore.”
“……”
“And your payment is your family’s lives?”
He looked at her with open contempt.
“Yes, you are one of them.”
“……”
Her body trembled from the humiliation.
The taste of blood spread in her mouth.
Through her tears, she looked at him.
“My lady, are you under some illusion?”
“……”
“Bodies like yours are everywhere, trampled into the dirt.
They have no value.”
“……”
Her face turned pale.
Guiscard Lodbrok knew exactly how to crush her.
He didn’t accept the bargain—
only watched her fall further.
The next day—
her brother and father were executed.
Their bodies bore no unbroken part after days of torture.
They had been her family.
They had laughed together, eaten meals together.
To some, they were devils,
but to her, they were angels.
They had comforted her when she cried,
wished for her happiness more than anyone else.
But now they were gone.
Whom could she blame?
She swallowed her anger.
Even as a sheltered noblewoman,
she knew she could not blame Guiscard.
And so she buried her grief and waited for her own death.
But Guiscard had other plans.
*
Diana stared blankly.
She was wearing a pure white dress.
Snapping to her senses, she set her jaw and crushed the bouquet offered to her.
Marriage?
Marriage?
That bastard.
That insane bastard!
He hadn’t given her the mercy of a swift death.
When she was being taken to the Lodbrok kingdom,
she had heard she would marry him and tried to escape—
but failed.
The knight guarding her was beheaded,
and she was treated even more wretchedly.
Upon arrival, she fought with all she had,
but her struggles were in vain.
On the day of the wedding, she was forced into a bridal gown,
bound, and adorned like a doll.
“Get out! Get out of here!”
She screamed.
She had known she wouldn’t marry a man of her own choosing—
but she had never imagined it would be this cruel.
She had nothing left to protect;
her pride alone was being trampled for his amusement.
The maids exchanged uneasy glances.
The door burst open.
“Grace and dignity are nowhere to be found.”
“……”
“Leave us.”
At the man’s command, the maids left.
Diana, still standing, faced the man who entered.
Guiscard.
He gazed at her tear-filled eyes with indifference.
“Why… why are you doing this?!”
“……”
“You should’ve just made me a slave!”
“……”
“You insane bastard! Bastard! Bastard!”
She shouted through clenched teeth.
He didn’t flinch.
He only observed her face, as if studying her,
before speaking—
“Can’t you behave today?”
“Would you behave if it were you?! How—how could you!”
To marry the man who had killed her family—
death would have been a more fitting revenge.
This was a filthy curse.
“The Pope will attend a king’s wedding, won’t he?”
“……”
“Then I’ll tell him exactly what you’re doing!”
Bathed in sunlight, Diana was a breathtaking bride.
But her star-like silver-grey eyes gleamed with hatred—
hatred for the man who would be her husband.
His violet eyes regarded her without emotion.
Then he reached out and clamped a hand over her mouth.
Her jaw ached as though it might break.
Looking into her eyes, he whispered—
“Do as you please.”
“……”
“Because you’re going to marry the slave you so despise.”
Then he pulled something from his breast.
When she realized what it was, she shook her head desperately.
“Didn’t you say you’d rather be made a slave?
Wasn’t that the lady’s wish?”
Guiscard chuckled.
When the object closed around her neck, her strength left her.
She looked at him through tear-filled eyes.
Ah.
His revenge hadn’t even begun.
So that was it.
I was the target of his revenge now.
I would have to become the object of his scorn,
just as he had once been.
And as always, she did not reject Guiscard’s revenge.
She simply trembled, accepting whatever he wanted to give her.
And so the wedding began.
A beautiful ceremony, white petals drifting in the air.
Nobles and commoners alike gathered to witness
the marriage of the Hero King.
But when they saw the bride,
they laughed.
Around the bride’s neck was a slave’s collar.
The cunning king had turned even his wedding
into a display of his triumph—
showing off the spoils of Panborough to everyone.
The bride’s face, twisted with humiliation,
was met with scorn.
*
In the prepared bridal chamber, Diana stared blankly at the ceiling.
She had become a laughingstock, a target of ridicule.
Had Guiscard once felt the same?
She had always been pained to see what he endured.
She had wanted to protect him—
but she had never had the right to.
His revenge was justified.
Unfortunately, as part of the group that had wronged him,
she could only accept it.
That was what made Diana different from others.
She could be selfish and narrow-minded—
but not entirely.
She could separate her emotions from the facts,
and make cold, rational judgments.
It must have been the heavy responsibility
placed on her shoulders when she was twelve,
after her mother’s death.
She had always known she had to distinguish
between feelings and reality.
So she would accept this soiled honor, this disgrace.
The one fortunate thing was that Guiscard seemed to despise her body—
meaning he would not touch her.
There would be much more suffering ahead.
Hell awaited her.
She sniffled and leaned blankly against the wall.
Then, the door burst open.
No way.
She shook her head.
Footsteps approached, clear and unhurried.
In the candlelight, Guiscard appeared.
He was not in the armor or heavy clothing she had seen him in before.
Tall, with a body like a boulder—
