TVRC 01

Chapter 01

Leblanc Trisiban had never realized that her life was unhappy—at least not until she experienced true, complete love after meeting her partner, Erkis Trisiban.

Erkis was her light, her salvation, and her reason for existence. He soothed Leblanc, who had always considered herself insignificant and useless, with endless love, teaching her to love herself. To her, who had lived each day merely enduring life without truly wanting to live, he gave rest, tenderness, and peace.

To Leblanc, Erkis was not merely a spouse. He was a godlike being who taught her the happiness of living, showed her the value of each day, and revealed the beauty of love itself. Within the territory, there was no one who did not know how much Leblanc had changed after meeting Erkis, nor how deeply the two loved each other.

Thus, it was only natural that Leblanc could not keep her sanity intact after the sudden death of her partner. Twenty days had already passed since Marquis Erkis, the lord of the territory, died of illness. Yet strange rumors circulated throughout the land: that the marchioness, unable to accept his death, had not even held his funeral and instead stayed day and night by his corpse.

The most beautiful hall in the estate—the Lavender Hall, where Leblanc and Erkis had spent the most time together while he was alive—was now filled with cold, desolate air. Once bathed in warmth and bright light refracted through crystal, it now held a wide wooden coffin at its center, beautifully covered with red roses.

At a glance, Erkis lay there as though in a deep sleep. Only his body, cold as ice, and the dark blotches that clothing could not fully conceal testified to his death.

“Erkis, my love…”

Leblanc gently wiped his body with a cloth dampened with water, then pressed a kiss to his cheek. Having barely eaten for days, she was gaunt to the point of emaciation, no less so than Erkis had been after his long illness. Her eyes, so dry that no more tears would fall, gazed at him endlessly with aching tenderness.

“I should send you off soon…”

Her hand brushed through Erkis’s hair. Feeling the strands slip softly through her fingers, Leblanc once again turned away from the reality of his death.

“Lady Leblanc!”

At that moment, the door burst open and a knight, his face deathly pale, stumbled inside, gasping for breath. With each unsteady step he took, dark red blood dripped onto the floor. Startled by the sight, Leblanc leapt to her feet and hurried toward him.

“Shasha, what is this…?”

“Run, quickly! Duke Arnetio has come in person, leading his knights to seize the territory…! And judging by the number of priests he brought with him, it looks like he intends to finish everything today. I’ll try to hold them off here somehow, so please, escape while you can…”

“No, then what about Erkis?”

“This is no time to worry about the late lord! Funeral or not, it’s all over now! They intend to burn the entire estate to erase the traces of the black magic you used. So please—hurk!”

Before he could finish, he suddenly vomited a mouthful of bright red blood and collapsed forward, crashing down onto Leblanc. As his weight pressed down on her, horror spread across her face.

“Shasha?”

The longsword that had pierced through him stabbed shallowly into Leblanc as well. Only after his lifeless body fell completely to the floor did Leblanc notice the man standing behind him.

“Tsk. For someone so insignificant, you were stubborn. It’s been a while, Leblanc.”

“Father…”

Leblanc’s eyes, sharp and vicious, burned with fury. Clenching her trembling hands, she glared at Duke Arnetio standing before her. The two bore a striking resemblance to one another, yet the hatred between them was greater than with anyone else.

Behind Duke Arnetio, armed knights held their swords as though ready to cut off her very breath at any moment.

“You truly are a child who brings nothing but disgrace and humiliation upon your father until the very end.”

“Is that why you came here in person—to restore it? Do you think killing your only daughter with your own hands will revive your dignity?”

“What nonsense is that? Why would the death of someone like you restore my honor? This is simply what I must do. I should never have spared you back then…”

Duke Arnetio swept her with a look of contempt. That child, Leblanc, had sullied everything he stood for and smeared the sacred name of Arnetio. His loathing was plainly etched across his face.

He truly regretted sparing Leblanc’s life years ago. Becoming a cruel father who killed his own daughter would have been preferable to bearing the disgraceful title of a witch’s father. A thin, sinister smile spread across the duke’s lips.

“You asked the priests to conduct your husband’s funeral, didn’t you? I’ve come to grant that request.”

Leblanc could only let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity. Like so many in the Empire, she had merely wished for her partner to rest peacefully under the priests’ blessings.

However, when the priests arrived at the estate and saw Erkis’s blackened condition, their faces hardened. Declaring that he had been cursed by black magic, they not only refused to conduct the funeral but even attempted to set his body on fire.

So it was only natural that Leblanc burned with rage at Arnetio’s words.

“You insulted us before, and now you come crawling back? Thanks to you, my husband has been unable to receive a proper funeral and is still wandering this world.”

“It was you who used black magic on your husband. And it was you who slaughtered every knight sent to retrieve the body with black magic.”

“I’ve told you countless times—I have never used black magic. Those damn knights were obviously going to defile my husband’s body. Was I supposed to just stand by and let that happen?”

Leblanc’s eyes flashed wildly. In the Empire, corpses tainted by black magic were to be cremated by law. But cremation left bodies grotesquely burned, unable even to be properly buried in a coffin, making it the most abhorred funeral rite among the people. Leblanc could never bear to watch Erkis’s body be consumed by flames.

“Your crime began with that vile act in the first place. Who do you think you’re blaming now? Take the body.”

At Duke Arnetio’s gesture, the priests began chanting spells in unison, and at the same time the armed knights strode forward.

Leblanc immediately drew upon her power to ward them off. Black smoke poured from her body, viciously blocking their path.

“Lay even a finger on Erkis, and I’ll tear you limb from limb.”

Her face was icy, devoid of any emotion, and the knights hesitated for a moment. Watching this, Duke Arnetio shouted irritably.

“What are you all doing? I said take the body!”

“Don’t come any closer!”

Just then, the priests finished their chant. A flash of light erupted, and a massive hemispherical barrier formed over the hall. In that instant, Leblanc felt as though her power had been sealed—she could not move at all.

“What is this…?”

“After all the knights you’ve killed, do you really think we would come without preparations?”

Having eaten almost nothing for days, Leblanc was unable to put up much resistance. Her hair was seized, and she was forced down to her knees before the duke.

“If you’re going to lay hands on Erkis, then kill me instead! Don’t disturb my partner’s eternal rest with such a filthy method!”

Leblanc glared up at her father, her eyes blazing. From eyes so dry it seemed nothing more could flow, red tears mixed with blood streamed down her cheeks. Yet Duke Arnetio did not so much as blink as he roughly tapped her cheek.

“Those who stain the name of Arnetio must receive their due punishment. You and your husband will be punished so that even in death you cannot rest in peace.”

“Shut your mouth!”

It happened in an instant. Leblanc, who had been kneeling before him only moments earlier, snatched up the sword of a fallen knight and drove it into Duke Arnetio’s body. But her body, already exhausted beyond its limits, lacked the strength to end his life in a single blow.

“You damn bitch!”

Enraged at being stabbed, Duke Arnetio tore a sword from a nearby knight and slashed Leblanc down.

“So, I underestimated you. If you’re that worried about your husband’s cremation, then you should watch it with your own eyes. Set fire to the body and the estate!”

“No!”

Before Leblanc could do anything to stop it, flaming arrows rained down like a storm upon Erkis’s coffin. Spitting blood with every step, Leblanc nonetheless ran toward him without hesitation.

“Foolish woman.”

Clicking his tongue, Duke Arnetio turned away and led his knights out of the hall.

“E-Erkis…”

Leblanc could not believe what she was seeing. Massive flames surged as though ready to devour Erkis whole. The preservative oil applied to prevent decay only fed the fire, making it burn even more fiercely. Leblanc felt her vision gradually blur. The flames that began at the coffin spread to the carpet and surrounding objects, growing ever larger.

Her vision dimmed, her heart felt as though it would burst, and the wounds from the blade had gone numb. Only the metallic stench of blood lingering in her mouth reminded her that this was a cruel reality. Finally collapsing where she stood, Leblanc weakly reached out toward him.

“No, Erkis… Please, open your eyes… Erkis, please…”

Each time she opened her mouth, blood gushed forth, yet she could not stop calling his name. At the fading edge of her consciousness, Leblanc murmured with desperate fervor.

“Damn god of Chaos, please. Grant me just one more chance… Turn everything back. Bring Erkis… back to life…”

Before she could finish her plea, Leblanc’s hand dropped limply to the floor. And so, within the raging flames, Leblanc Trisiban and Erkis Trisiban were burned away together.