Whoosh-
It was a chilly dawn under the moonlight.
The platinum palace was engulfed in red flames.
‘The Kingdom of Krianet.’
The historic palace was burning high like a torch illuminating the dark night.
This was the price of defeat in the war against the Great Empire of Neweiton.
“Save, save me……. Please save me……”
In the midst of the hot flames, there was just one person. A girl still alive.
[Your name is Sharti, right? Sixteen years old. Listen carefully.]
Unable to move an inch, the girl named ‘Sharti’ curled up her body.
[I am Princess Arisviyan of the Kingdom of Krianet. And you and I are half-sisters.]
Sitting in the middle of the palace where the flames hadn’t yet reached, Sharti was a mess.
Disheveled hair and chains binding her wrists and ankles. Like a criminal, Sharti was bound as hallucinations swirled in her ears.
[You seem surprised. Although we’ve never met before, the same royal blood of Krianet flows in your body as in mine.]
Sharti wore an expensive but loose dress, and her shoes had fallen off somewhere as they didn’t fit, leaving her barefoot. Her light wheat-colored hair was becoming dirty with ashes carried by the wind.
[Royalty has obligations from birth. The same applies to you, Sharti.]
The sound of the merciless fire devouring everything around mixed with the hallucinations, creating an eerie echo.
Her dark red eyes became stained with tears.
“Ugh, ugh……!”
The flames would become dangerous if they spread further.
Trying to stand up, Sharti put strength in her legs, but they easily gave way.
“……haa, haaa…….”
Her throat felt like it was burning up. The heat distorted Sharti’s dark red eyes with pain.
[Since you were born from your lowly-blooded mother who dared to seduce the King of Krianet, you too must naturally bear the obligations of royalty, Sharti. It has to be that way. That’s why I found you. So it would be best if you quietly follow my words.]
Creak. The girl’s nails scratching at the chains turned red with blood.
She slammed her wrist shackles against the floor with all her might to try to break them, but it was useless.
‘Soon the flames, the flames will…….’
The corpses strewn around and the blood-soaked carpet were disappearing into the flames.
[The Kingdom of Krianet has been defeated, but as the princess of the kingdom, I absolutely cannot let the royal bloodline end. But the barbaric Empire of Neweiton demands a price for defeat, so what choice do I have?]
“Sob…….Save me, please save me……”
Sharti’s thin body crawled on the floor.
Soon the fire would devour her too.
[Fortunately, you and I aren’t too different in age, and you, my half-sister, looks like me………Today, for one day, you will become me, Princess Arisviyan, the last surviving member of the Krianet royal family, to greet the War Demon of the Neweiton Empire.]
When tears flowed, her eyes stung.
Her throat was dry, making her increasingly thirsty.
Her throat had long since burned up with anxiety and fear.
[Don’t be so afraid. If the Empire’s War Demon, the Grand Duke, is someone who can pity a princess of a defeated country, won’t you survive tonight? If you want to live, beg or plead, do whatever it takes. I allow that much to you, who is standing in for me, Princess Arisviyan.]
Sparks carried by the wind fell on the delicate girl’s instep.
“……aaghk!”
More and more sparks began to catch on Sharti’s dress, starting to turn it into rags.
“Sob, please save me…….sa-, cough, cough……!”
Why did she have to face this situation, in this state, in this place?
It was unfair and desperate.
[So you’re the Princess of Krianet.]
Another hallucination. This time, a cold, low voice was heard.
The girl’s small body trembled involuntarily.
[The royalty of Krianet, who were so arrogant when declaring war, now begging for their lives at my feet. Quite different from the mindset of the imperial family of Neweiton.]
The meeting with the owner of the voice in the hallucination had been at midnight, when only the cool night air surrounded the platinum palace. Alone, trapped in the palace, Sharti was brought before the man and trembled, bowing down.
All she remembered were someone’s military boots.
A man exuding such an oppressive aura that she dared not even raise her face stood before her.
[We have confirmed the tear-shaped mole of Princess Arisviyan. She is the last one.]
The Grand Duke’s subordinate, who had forcibly brought her and made her kneel, mistook her for someone else just because of a tear-shaped mole.
A mere tear-shaped mole, something that could easily be drawn with ink.
But Sharti couldn’t refute.
[What shall we do, Your Grace?]
The man before her was such a distant and large presence that she dared not raise her head to look at him.
Sharti realized, as she silently shed tears.
Everyone had fled. Leaving only one person. Sharti, locked in the palace as a sacrificial lamb.
An ominous premonition of death crawled up her spine.
[We should make certain. Hey. Are you really the Princess of Krianet?]
The man called Grand Duke confirmed again.
It was because Princess Arisviyan, said to be eighteen this year, was too small and thin.
Even the girl knew that was her last chance.
However, the foolish girl couldn’t lie.
[I, I…… have inherited the blood of the Krianet royal family……]
She couldn’t tell a lie to someone asking for the truth.
Hadn’t the princess, her half-sister whom she met for the first time before the soldiers of the Neweiton Empire burst in, told her repeatedly?
Even if only half, the blood of the Krianet royal family flowed in her body.
[My, my name is………]
But there was one fact that needed correction.
She didn’t want to die under a false identity, even if she had to die.
Sharti desperately tried to overcome her trembling body and pressed her hand against the floor.
[Arisviyan……]
[I see.]
In the face of the fear of death, Sharti tried to gather courage one last time, but the man who was the Grand Duke of the Empire didn’t listen to her further words.
As if finished with his business, he turned away without attachment, and his voice echoed through the bloody palace.
[Then let the last of the Krianet royalty fulfill their final duty. Begin.]
The imperial soldiers who answered loudly immediately brought torches.
[Wait, wait……!]
The moment Sharti belatedly raised her head, the soldiers threw the torches all around the palace.
Whoosh-! Fire began to spread to everything – the garden, furniture, palace walls, carpets.
[Your Grace. His Majesty the Emperor ordered us to bring back the head of the Krianet royalty?]
Hearing the voice through the flames, Sharti trembled and curled up her body again.
Because of this, the gaze of the man called the Grand Duke of the Empire fell upon her bent back once more.
[Isn’t becoming ashes along with the palace better than a severed head as the best trophy from a defeated country?]
Creeak-. Boom-!
“……ah.”
The hallucination of imperial soldiers sealing all exits and the reality of palace walls collapsing and hitting the gates overlapped.
The flames that had reached right in front of her flickered before Sharti’s eyes.
Hot tears flowed down her dry cheeks.
“I am, I am, cough! Cough, cough……!”
I am not Princess Arisviyan.
“I am Sharti…… I am Sharti…….”
I am just the illegitimate child of the King of Krianet, a half-princess who served as a stand-in for a day, brought here by the real Princess Arisviyan.
Her cracking voice gnawed at her throat.
BOOM-!!
“……aagk!!”
Her leg was trapped under a collapsed wall pillar fragment.
The chain binding her ankle broke, but at the same time, hot flames engulfed Sharti’s leg.
“Save me……sob…….”
She couldn’t breathe. Hot, acrid smoke choked her fragile airway.
“Aaaghk……!!”
Her throat tore as she screamed.
The flames finally consumed even Sharti’s hands.
As all strength left her body, Sharti thought of her half-sister.
[Sharti Krianet. Ah, my half-sister. Why did you have to catch my eye?]
She had been such a beautiful princess.
To think that this being, praised as a noble princess, was her half-sister.
[Don’t resent me too much for driving you to your death. I merely gave my pitiful half-sister a chance to live as a noble princess.]
“Kugh, kek, ke huk……!”
It was the first family I ever met.
A family worse than strangers.
[Your insignificant life will save mine, so today must be the most valuable day of your life.]
Kidnapped and dragged here without knowing what was happening, she couldn’t maintain her sanity from the moment she opened her eyes.
The smooth-talking voice gave her goosebumps.
Those who wanted to save the princess forced her choice with one voice.
[Come on, you must answer? My half-sister.]
The fear of the ruler, something she had never felt in her life, seeped into her delicate skin, making her unable to move.
“Save…… save me…… save me please…….”
Her vision was becoming blurry.
Her blurry vision was all red.
Was the fire consuming even her consciousness?
“……ah,……ah…….”
But perhaps it wasn’t so bad to fall asleep like this.
Hadn’t it always been a repetition of ordinary, unremarkable days? Struggling with money, suffering from hunger and cold day after day.
‘There’s no one waiting for me anyway.’
Her grandmother, whom she had learned about recently, came to mind, but only for a moment.
Her skin hurt. As if continuously waking her fading consciousness, the hot flames touched her.
‘……still…….’
Still, she didn’t want to end like this.
She didn’t want to die bound and imprisoned like a criminal when she had committed no crime.
She didn’t want to disappear sharing the last moments of this strange place called a palace that she had visited for the first time.
“I, I…….”
Sharti’s lips quivered.
Her vision repeatedly became clear and blurry.
The last thing she saw was the palace ceiling collapsing.
CRASH! THUD-!
The palace, once beautiful in platinum, was engulfed in flames along with the duty shouldered by the Princess of Krianet, burning until the end of dawn.
Krianet, praised as a kingdom with deep history, thus ended its chapter in history as a defeated country.
****
Five years.
That was how long it took for the Great Empire of Neweiton to wage a major war expanding its territory, starting with the Kingdom of Krianet.
The imperial capital was hot with a festive atmosphere day after day. This was because of the news that the hero who had led the Neweiton Empire to victory was returning. Many imperial citizens flocked to the capital to see the return ceremony.
“It’s been nothing but return ceremony articles for days already.”
“I know. And the ceremony is tomorrow.”
Thanks to the extensive promotion, news reached even the remote mountainous area far from the capital.
The hero in the promotions was Leodelt Gwendhill, the Grand Duke of the Neweiton Empire.
The imperial citizens praised and also feared him.
-Have you heard? About Grand Duke Gwendhill, they say he’s a Swordmaster or something?
-Is that all? They say he’s also immune to magic.
Grand Duke Gwendhill, perfect in both strength and constitution, had no weaknesses. That must be why he could lead many wars to victory.
“Celebrating the return of the War Demon who’s obsessed with blood. Tsk, tsk!”
The small village in the mountainous area was bustling with rumors again today.
“…….”
There was someone who quietly left the store, avoiding the noisy crowd.
It was a woman who wore a hooded robe that covered her face.
Ding- There were too many people in the store, so she failed to make a purchase again today.
‘Sigh…….’
Rubbing her stinging throat, the woman looked around cautiously.
Dark red eyes briefly visible from inside the hooded robe. And wheat-colored hair hidden from view.
It was Sharti, who should have ended her life with the Krianet palace.
