How to Perfectly Break Up with You

Sienna, who had been responding flatly, laughed mockingly.

[You don’t know your place… How dare you mention my mother?]

[Show some respect. This person is now the Emperor of the country.]

Marianne snapped angrily, but Sienna didn’t even blink.

[I was never taught to show respect to those beneath me.]

She stopped mid-sentence and turned to Joseph. As she slowly approached him, Joseph’s eyebrow twitched upward.

Looking down at him, Sienna coldly raised the corner of her mouth.

[But I do know how to treat a thief.]

As soon as she finished speaking, she spat phlegm at him. In that moment, a silence as cold as ice water descended upon the room.

While everyone was frozen, even Marianne, who had been criticizing Sienna’s behavior just moments ago, was too shocked to speak.

Aside from the fact that the princess’s action was something only street thugs would do, the target was none other than the new Emperor of this country.

In an empire where insulting the Emperor was equivalent to insulting the empire itself as stated in the law, it was something one could only do if they were insane.

After a suffocating silence, it was Joseph who spoke.

[As you said, my current situation isn’t very optimistic.]

Despite the great insult he had suffered, there was no particular change in his voice. His face, as he wiped off what had landed on him, only showed that his disgusting smile from earlier had disappeared without a trace.

[So I think it wouldn’t be bad to make an example out of people like you on this occasion.]

He muttered in a low voice and then called in the soldiers standing outside the door. Immediately, armed soldiers rushed into the room.

[Exile Princess Sienna to the monastery in Lopwell and ensure she never sets foot outside of it for the rest of her life.]

What should have been a solemn time instantly turned into chaos. Amidst all this, the princess, who was the cause of everything, maintained her upright posture until the end.

Everyone gathered in the room inwardly thought Sienna’s actions were stupid, but at least she herself didn’t regret her actions one bit.

[I’d like to hang you in the middle of the square like your mother, but that wouldn’t be respectful to my late father.]

At his attitude of seeming to bestow great mercy, Sienna laughed silently.

Even if it hadn’t been today, Joseph would have certainly cast her out someday. Perhaps it was better that it was today, as she might have saved her life.

If it wasn’t still the Emperor’s mourning period, she might have really lost her head. In that sense, she even felt relieved.

[Speak properly, why don’t you? Your position is already unstable, and you wouldn’t want the infamy of killing your own blood kin on top of that.]

[Indeed, you’re clever.]

Joseph said in a dry tone.

[But don’t be too arrogant. There will come a time when you’ll think it would have been better to die.]

It was quite a serious warning, but Sienna disregarded it.

She already knew better than anyone how people who have turned their backs on the world become distorted in people’s memories. That’s why Joseph’s words didn’t instill any fear in her.

She thought that moments when death might seem preferable would never come in her lifetime.

At least, that’s what she thought then.

****

Lopwell, located in the northernmost part of the empire, was a desolate and barren land. Past emperors, fearing invasion from other countries, had people form villages and live there, but in Lopwell, even life forms couldn’t properly survive.

Livestock, of course, and plants died before they could even sprout. Even humans were no exception.

Hunger alone would have been bearable. However, the fundamental problem in Lopwell wasn’t just a simple food shortage.

That winter, Sienna witnessed people eating corpses for the first time. Not dead animals, but dead humans.

Lopwell was a place where the stench of decay filled the air with every breath. Just stepping out onto the street, the smell of rotting corpses and something that used to be human being cooked permeated to the depths of one’s lungs.

The people of the monastery, despite their status as clergy, turned a blind eye to all of this.

Occasionally, relief food would arrive from the capital, but it was only used to fill the stomachs of the clergy.

Theodore regularly obtained food for Sienna from them, but after witnessing cannibalism, Sienna couldn’t swallow anything for days.

Everything in Lopwell was simply disgusting to her.

The groans of the dying flowed into her ears day and night, and the screams of those on the brink of death calling out to God shook the ceiling.

All of these sights completely ate away at Sienna’s already fragile mental state.

She, who first set foot here in spring, spent the winter watching countless processions of corpses. That hellish time was just the first year of the many years she would have to endure in Lopwell.

It was around this time that man came to this place.

****

As life in the monastery approached its first year, news of victory rang out from the not-so-distant border region.

It was news that the war, which had been dragging on for years, had finally ended in a great victory. In a land where people were dying of starvation due to lack of food, it wasn’t particularly noteworthy news.

However, when word spread that the army would stop by Lopwell on their way back to the capital, the situation changed.

More than the news of the army’s return, people were more interested in the fact that Declan Monferrato, the army’s commander-in-chief, would set foot on their land. He was praised as a hero of the empire and called a living god of war.

Lopwell was abuzz with the news of his arrival. Hopeful rumors began to blossom in the land that had been devoid of vitality.

[Maybe the army will share some food with us.]

[Surely the hero will show mercy to us as well.]

The day the army arrived in Lopwell was the most chaotic atmosphere Sienna had witnessed since coming here. From early morning, people gathered on the castle walls to see the returning soldiers.

[There they come!]

At someone’s shout, even Sienna, who was standing far from the crowd, looked down. She could see the empire’s flag waving below the castle walls.

As she stared blankly at the scene, her gaze turned to the man at the very front.

The features, as if carved by a skilled sculptor with a well-honed knife, were familiar to Sienna.

People welcomed him with deafening cheers, but the man himself didn’t even glance at them. Not only that, there was no emotion on his unrealistically beautiful face. Not excitement, not enthusiasm, not even a hint of joy.

[You’d think he’d spare a glance at least once, but he’s completely indifferent,] Sienna muttered to herself. The man at the front of the long procession truly didn’t look like a soldier returning from a victory that would go down in history.

Or perhaps this was already familiar to him?

Suddenly, such a thought occurred to her. What could Joseph offer to this man who already possessed vast wealth and honor?

Perhaps this time, Marianne might finally win over the one she had been pining for all her life. And that would be beneficial to the Grand Duke, certainly not detrimental.

In a position where he couldn’t rise any higher, if he were to take the princess as his wife, it was unimaginable how much more formidable his influence would become. But whatever happened, it was clear that he would gain power that no one would dare to challenge.

Comparing her own situation – forgotten by people, stuck in this awful place, waiting for death – Sienna’s mood plummeted.

‘What an enviable life.’

Recently, it was said that Joseph had elevated his half-sister to the status of princess in the imperial palace. Consequently, Sienna’s rank had naturally been pushed back.

From the empire’s one and only princess to the second princess. Everything Sienna had enjoyed now became the share of the sister she despised.

Would anyone in the capital even remember her now? Sienna’s gaze darkened as she looked at the man.

At that moment, the man’s gaze turned upward. Despite the sudden eye contact, Sienna didn’t avert her gaze. And neither did the man. He looked up at her for a few seconds and then slightly nodded his head.

It was then that Sienna’s previously dry gaze suddenly changed.

Why hadn’t she thought of it earlier?

A way to trample on Joseph’s honor while completely destroying Marianne’s pride.

It might be possible with that man. No, there was no better card to play.

Sienna slowly retreated behind the castle wall. The man’s gaze was still fixed on Sienna, but she turned completely and came down from the wall.

As she turned away, her lips curved into a wide smile. Realizing this unexpected method, her heart swelled with uncontrollable excitement.

She wasn’t hoping for anything grand. She certainly didn’t have the presumptuous desire to win his heart or anything like that. She simply wanted to use him to return to the capital.

At that time, Sienna desperately wanted to escape that hellish land. Next, she earnestly wished to somehow get back at those who had confined her there.

So the feelings that grew in an unexpected direction could only lead to misfortune.

****

Sienna unconsciously caressed somewhere on the back of her hand. It was a habit that had developed unknowingly since Declan returned to the capital.

After the army left Lopwell, nothing changed dramatically. After Declan’s departure, Sienna felt relief along with a subtle sense of loss. The latter mostly outweighed the former.

All day long, she shut herself in her room, ruminating over lost time and the brief moments with the one who had left. Declan had gone back to the capital, and she remained here, so in a sense, the objective had been achieved.

He would likely fare even better in the capital, but the problem was herself, left behind in Lopwell.