While Annette battled the demonic beasts, those who had been commissioned to escort her to the imperial palace of Arkhan Empire abandoned their duties and fled. However, she wondered if they would have returned to the kingdom safely while avoiding the constantly coming out demonic beasts… Even Annette was in a state of complete exhaustion as she had to throw away her broken arrow and deal with the magical beast with her bare body. Fortunately, she found the horse that escaped after killing all the magical beasts and was running towards the capital of Arkhan, but she suffered serious wounds on her back, left leg, and right arm, and was covered in the blood of the magical beasts all over her body. Because of this, her body was boiling with heat, and the pain was getting worse. It was so painful that she couldn’t even scream.
‘No matter how close it is to the Demonic Beast’s swamp… I can’t believe they are flocking in like this, as if they were targeted by demonic beasts.’
Doubts welled up in his head, but Annette couldn’t continue thinking, whether it was because of the serious injury or the blood of the demon beast, or because his heart was beating abnormally fast. In fact, she had not noticed any changes in her body. That’s why she didn’t find the overly long dress and the heavy hood strange even though her hem had been torn off, and kept pulling back the hood’s hat that kept blocking her view. She assumed that since the Hayworth Kingdom and the Arkhan Empire were facing each other, two days by carriage was enough, and since she had already traveled for a day and rode the horse, it would not be far to reach the imperial palace. As expected, the day dawned and the outer walls of the imperial palace began to come into view.
Was it because she felt relieved and relaxed?
Her strained body reached its limit and no sooner had she reached her destination than she lost balance and fell from her horse. Annette saw the gatekeepers guarding the great castle gates approaching her with a look of horror on their faces. She took out her envelope, which she had never removed from her person since she left the palace.
“This… To His Highness…”
It was an engagement pledge signed by her.
“I am Hayworth’s…”
Annette, who was trying to identify herself as her princess, Annette Hayworth, gasped for breath and then lost her strength and stopped speaking. This document alone wouldn’t prove her identity, but Annette wasn’t worried. From the moment she was born, she was her true self. Her red hair and her eyes both prove it. For the first time, Annette felt fortunate about this fact and let go of her dark side.
* * *
〈How is it that a demonic beast was born from the queen’s body!〉
24 years ago. The King of Hayworth looked at the newborn Annette and cried out in horror. The reason was that her hair and eyes were a very clear, vivid, and very ominous red color. Since ancient times, the border dividing the Arkhan Empire and Hayworth Kingdom in the south of the continent, and Bayendor in the north, was divided by a huge forest called the ‘Swamp of the Beast’. And the blood of the demonic beasts that lived here was extremely poisonous to humans. All who were exposed to the blood of the demon beast had to cleanse their bodies and undergo purification at the temple within a month. Otherwise, most of them died, and even if she managed to survive, the aftereffects were serious, such as her face and body turning black and hideous, her eyes turning red like a demonic beast, and she suffering from mania. There was no continental person who did not know this. And the King of Hayworth was astonished to see her daughter born with bright red eyes like her demonic beast. And red hair! Generations of the Hayworth royal family were born with beautiful silver hair, and the king was always proud of the silver hair of himself and his eldest son, Franz. However, Annette’s hair color was a rare color that could not be found even on the continent, even if it traced back to the lineage of her mother’s family, the Duke of Ricello.
〈It’s a disaster! It’s clear you’re in trouble!〉
When the beautiful and good queen died shortly after giving birth to her red-eyed and red-haired baby, the king poured all his anger on Annette. Even though he could not find a red-haired man around the queen who could have been her affair partner, he could not recognize Annette as his own child and shouted at her that she was the seed of a cursed demon beast. As a result, a scandalous rumor began to spread that the queen had intercourse with a witch, and the king, who had left his affairs behind and only drank alcohol, blocked the rumors about the queen who died belatedly. But he did not correct what he said to Annette. Although he was conscious of the public’s attention and recognized her as the princess, she was imprisoned in a separate palace far away from the main palace, as if he did not want to see even a single hair of her hair. It was definitely not a place for a newborn child to stay. She was sent there to die.
Annette’s birth also had an impact on Franz, who was the eldest son of the king and queen. Franz, who had been treated with great hospitality until then, lost his mother at one point and became a sickly child, and had to move from the Crown Prince’s Palace where he was staying to another palace. And there was no one in the palace who did not know that Queen Esther was behind the king who was so cruel to his own child. It was Esther, a maid in the queen’s palace at the time, who restored the king, who had been so anxious that he had abandoned government affairs. The king favored Esther, who was 10 years younger than him, and made her his queen as soon as she gave birth to her first child, Bridget. There was a new owner in the queen’s palace, and the king was indifferent to his first daughter, so Annette was ignored and ridiculed even by the palace maids. f Sarah, who was the queen’s close maid and Franz’s nanny, had not stepped forward to take care of Annette, she would have become an idiot who did not know how to read, let alone etiquette, or would have died long ago.
‘I’m sorry, Nanny. because of me…’
Young Annette always felt sorry for Sara, who suffered in the villa because of her. At least she wouldn’t be in so much trouble if she were just by her brother Franz’s side. As the maids said, she was afraid that she might really be the cursed seed of a demonic beast, so Sarah was the only one who stayed by Annette’s side as she had nightmares every night. Sarah felt sorry for Annette, who would not make eye contact with her, and held her fern-like hand affectionately.
‘The princess will definitely be happy. So she must endure even though it is difficult and painful.’
She always spoke with confidence. Annette was not destined to die trapped in a villa like this. She would definitely be happy. However, she died not long after Annette turned seven. She wasn’t terribly ill. She just didn’t have firewood to drive away the chill of the night, so she caught a cold, which developed into pneumonia, and she closed her eyes without getting a single check-up or medicine. Afterwards, Annette lived alone in her villa with no one except Franz, who visited her only occasionally due to her poor health. And 7 years later. She went to the king and asked to go to subdue the demonic beasts. She wanted to live a decent life even if she died, rather than living a meaningless life trapped in a villa.
Naturally, the king was very angry when he saw Annette appear without permission. A 14-year-old girl, at most, could subdue a demonic beast. He thought it was just a ploy or a struggle to get his attention. But soon he changed his mind. Annette, who seemed like a troublemaker with a tough life, thought it would be much better for her to die while subduing the magical beast. So he allowed Annette to join the royal knights. Without even knowing that seven years later, she would be called the best swordsman on the continent.
‘But even her glorious title became meaningless due to her injury.’
Annette felt very empty and a little sad, struggling with her lost mind. She endured and endured as Sarah said, but why was she not happy? When she first went out to slay demonic beasts, she was happy at the thought that she, too, was doing something meaningful. But it was only a moment. As the same days of killing and killing were repeated over and over again, at some point she became so bored that she couldn’t even tell if she was a human or a demonic beast.
‘The nanny is a liar…’
Annette, who muttered to herself as if she were complaining without thinking, was surprised. After Sarah’s death, she lived alone in her villa, became less talkative, and her emotional expressions disappeared. It got even worse after becoming a knight. A moment’s inattention could threaten her life, so she suppressed her heart and suppressed it, and it seemed as if her emotions had completely disappeared. But it felt so unfair and upset.
‘I feel like a child…’
〈My beloved daughter.〉
It was then.
“My precious child, you are going to be something amazing.”
Annette’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning at the sight of her voice, which she had heard for the first time. Kind words flowed into her ears.
〈Mom knows. That our daughter is stronger and a better person than anyone else.〉
* * *
“Mom… Mom? Don’t go, don’t go… Ugh!”
Annette, who had been screaming, opened her eyes with a groan. Her entire body, including her limbs, throbbed and tingled as if she had been beaten. However, her deeply sunken consciousness did not become clear easily despite the pain.
‘The voice I heard a little while ago…’
It was probably a dream born from imagination. There was no way a newborn baby, or a fetus in the womb, would remember her mother’s words. Again. After Sarah died, tears that she thought had dried rolled down her cheeks. She found herself funny for having this dream after she was twenty-four.
‘She would actually hate me.’
Annette thought to herself, feeling a pang of guilt for unconsciously calling her mother when the sweet voice she thought was the good queen just moments ago. Queen Seon must have felt unfair that she died giving birth to her, and because of the child she worked so hard to give birth to, she was implicated in dirty rumors, so she would most likely hate and despise herself. She, like her father by blood, King Hayworth.
“…”
Was it because it reminded her of the king who frowned and made a disapproving expression every time he saw her? Her consciousness, which had been sinking as if she had been hit by cold water, began to rise. Annette blinked her eyes as she stared at the ornate ceiling, but quickly raised her upper body when she felt the soft feeling surrounding her body. And as she looked around the luxurious bedroom, she realized that this was the imperial palace of the Arkhan Empire.
“Oh, thank goodness… hmm?”
Annette, who was sighing in relief, paused, saying that seeing that she had entered the imperial palace safely without dying, it was clear that her engagement vow had been confirmed. Her own voice was somehow strange. She thought it was fatigue, but the warm, soft blanket felt unusually heavy.
Annette, who lifted the blanket that was covering her neck to his surprise, had a blank expression for a moment.
“…What, what is it?”
Why did her body get smaller?
—————————————————————
Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on May, 8.
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