It was the tail end of spring, not long before Sienna’s seventh birthday, when everything began. On a peaceful afternoon like any other, armed soldiers burst into the Empress’s inner chambers.
The intricately embroidered carpet was ruined under muddy military boots, and the sound of porcelain shattering in the soldiers’ hands was deafening. The inner chambers, located in the deepest part of the imperial palace where normally only birdsong could be heard, instantly turned into chaos.
Amidst the sudden commotion, Sienna could only clutch the hem of the Empress’s skirt, frozen in place.
They strode back and fastened silver shackles around the Empress’s wrists.
[By order of His Majesty the Emperor, you are under arrest on charges of treason.]
For Sienna, this was an unacceptable situation. Even a child ignorant of worldly affairs would know that treason was treated as the most serious crime in the empire.
It was nonsense to suggest that her mother had committed such a heinous crime.
Standing beside the Empress, Sienna cried out in a feeble voice.
[Treason? Mother would never do such a thing.]
[Your Highness, we are merely carrying out His Majesty’s orders.]
The response was stiff and utterly formal.
Her beautiful and benevolent mother. The most noble person in the world. To Sienna, she was the foundation of her entire world.
But the Empress was bound without even managing a proper protest. If anything, she seemed composed, as if she had already anticipated this situation.
[No matter what happens, you must obey His Majesty, Sasha.]
Her face showed no emotion as she said this. Her empty gaze was just that – empty. She murmured faintly, as if in a daze.
[Surely he wouldn’t abandon the child born of me…]
A voice that seemed to be both laughing and crying. That was the last voice Sienna heard from her mother.
And that was only the beginning.
After the Empress was imprisoned, her family, the House of Ricata, was wiped out overnight for allegedly participating in the Empress’s rebellion. It was a pitiful downfall for a powerful family that had enjoyed centuries of influence since the founding of the empire.
Before she could even process the shock, misfortunes continued to befall her endlessly. Naturally, as her maternal family that had protected her crumbled, Sienna’s position in the imperial palace became precarious.
When the Empress’s treason charges were acknowledged, her perfect bloodline instantly transformed into that of a filthy traitor.
She became both the Emperor’s daughter and a criminal’s child.
Time continued to pass as if she were walking on a tightrope. The Empress readily admitted to the charges, and without exception, the death penalty was demanded.
Upon hearing this news, Sienna ran to the Emperor’s quarters, crying and begging him to spare her mother’s life. However, the Emperor not only failed to sympathize with his daughter but completely shattered her, who had already been as fragile as a candle in a storm.
[No one who plots treason can survive. No matter who they are.]
His face was utterly stern as he said this, and his usually gentle tone was as cold as frost.
Faced with an attitude so different from how he had always treated her, Sienna instinctively realized: This was a warning from the Emperor of the great empire to the daughter of a traitor.
Her father, who once seemed capable of giving her the world, had personally stabbed her in the back. Needless to say, the way others treated her was even worse.
After her mother was imprisoned, the name a ‘traitor’s daughter’ and accompanying whispers followed Sienna.
In the face of such insults, there was no one to protect her.
****
On a day in early summer, the Empress was hanged in the middle of the square, pelted with stones thrown by countless people.
As the thick hemp rope entangled her neck and lifted her into the air, her delicate feet that had never known hardship writhed in the air. Cheers erupted from all around, but Sienna stopped breathing.
What was merely a few minutes felt like an eternity. Not long after, when the feet’s movements completely stopped, the cheers grew even louder.
As the guards confirmed the Empress’s death, a thunderous roar erupted from the crowd. At the same time, her young daughter, mixed among the crowd, let out a blood-curdling scream that reached no one’s ears.
Under a cloudless, bright sky, the weather was warm, but for Sienna, it was harder to endure than any bitter cold. Even under the blazing sun, she trembled like an aspen tree, her teeth chattering.
People began throwing stones wildly at the body hanging limply in the air.
Amidst the cheering spectators, Sienna covered her ears with both hands. People screamed madly and threw stones at the motionless body. The sound of stones hitting her mother’s body and falling pierced her savagely.
“Please stop…”
Sienna was powerless among them.
Who would think that a child standing alone without even a proper guard was the Imperial Princess? In the surging crowd, no one paid attention to Sienna.
They merely cheered at the demise of an evil woman and shouted for the eternal prosperity of the imperial family.
That was the nature of power she learned at a young age. A cruel and absolute force that could kill a woman loved for a lifetime without hesitation.
Deep in her heart, a fear sprouted that someday this might be directed at her. And it grew throughout her life, gnawing at her mind.
After witnessing her mother’s end, Sienna couldn’t sleep at night even at the faint sound of footsteps beyond the wall, and she distrusted everyone except herself.
Nevertheless, the world surrounding Sienna remained luxurious and brilliant. No matter what whispers followed behind her back, she was still the noble Imperial Princess, someone no one dared to treat carelessly.
However, the world reflected in her eyes was no longer an innocent fairy tale.
****
Time flowed ceaselessly. During that time, the world diligently took back what had been given to her. As if it had never been hers to begin with.
After that day, the Emperor never sought her out. Sienna would occasionally linger near his study, but even if they happened to meet, he wouldn’t even spare her a glance.
Though repeatedly hurt by her father’s coldness, Sienna still thirsted for his affection.
Whether on snowy days or rainy days, she habitually circled around the Emperor, but the father who once welcomed her with love was nowhere to be found.
She finally stopped her regret-filled steps after a new half-sister was born. On the day Dahlia was born, Sienna completely abandoned hope of ever being loved by her father again.
Dahlia wasn’t particularly pretty, but she had a gentle nature and smiled often. Even Marianne and Joseph, who treated Sienna like vermin, were kind to this child without malice.
The woman of lowly maid origin didn’t seek treatment beyond her station even after bearing the Emperor’s child, so Joseph and Marianne had no reason to bear ill will towards the mother and daughter.
The Emperor’s uncharacteristically clear treatment of Dahlia’s birth mother also had an influence. As if to emphasize that the affair with the maid was just a one-night indiscretion, he never sought her out afterwards.
Even after hearing about the pregnancy, he merely had her adopted into a duke’s family for the sake of the illegitimate child to be born, showing no further interest in the woman.
A few years later, the maid ended her short life in the duke’s family, and the Emperor’s illegitimate child born to a maid grew up in the Lowell duchy. Having grown up outside the capital, Dahlia had the least presence among the Emperor’s children.
Moreover, Duke Lowell wasn’t foolish enough to put his young niece forward among the siblings who were already fiercely opposing each other. Joseph didn’t care much about his much younger sister.
After all, the reason they had so despised Sienna and the Empress was that they had taken away what should have rightfully been theirs.
But Sienna was different. She intensely disliked the newly born illegitimate child.
Especially when she saw them getting along like an ordinary family, excluding her, she felt an indescribable emotion boiling up inside.
This often turned into longing for her dead mother, and sometimes led to resentment towards her father who had ultimately abandoned her.
‘After all, they’re just lowly bastards.’
Even as she repeated this to herself, on days when she saw the Emperor spending time with Dahlia, she would quietly sob alone at night.
After the Empress’s death, she became thoroughly alone. The Emperor paid no attention to Sienna, and the nobles and servants, realizing that the Emperor’s favor had faded, began to look down on her more openly.
As such days continued, Sienna became more obsessed with what she had left.
Things like her noble bloodline and grand status, which had long since lost their luster. Nevertheless, she trembled with anxiety, wondering if these things could truly protect her life.
As time passed and the Emperor’s body visibly aged, her anxiety intensified.
The empire’s inheritance law principally dictated that only sons could inherit titles, regardless of legitimacy, and even the imperial family couldn’t be free from these outdated laws established at the founding of the empire.
For instance, although the Emperor had never officially designated a successor, it was taken for granted that Joseph, his only son, would inherit the throne.
On the other hand, Sienna, despite being the Emperor’s only legitimate daughter, was excluded from the line of succession.
In other words, if the Emperor were to die now, Sienna would have no guarantees. This drove her into endless despair. Thinking of Joseph, who made no effort to hide his hostility towards her, no future seemed hopeful.
Sad🥺😔