Contract Marriage Rewritten
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
1. Marriage Contract
“That is the Imperial Palace of Nervanan, known as the heart of the continent, Princess.”
At the maid’s words, Laniakea looked out the window at the colossal structure.
The heart of the continent.
Some might think the moniker arrogant, but anyone seeing the palace for the first time found themselves agreeing with it.
That was just how vast and magnificent the Empire’s Imperial Palace was.
The maid, too, seemed to expect Laniakea to be awestruck.
Laniakea Priatra.
A princess of Priatra, a kingdom nestled deep within the eastern Gigantes Mountains at the very edge of the continent.
Having lived in such a remote land, it would only be natural for her to be overwhelmed upon seeing the Imperial Palace for the first time.
‘Walking around this place will be completely out of the question.’
That was Laniakea’s honest impression upon first laying eyes on the palace.
Of course, she couldn’t say what she was actually thinking, so Laniakea composed an expression of moderate awe and wonder before replying.
“It is truly beautiful. Far more magnificent than I ever imagined.”
Was she unsatisfied with Laniakea’s calmer-than-expected reaction?
The maid began rattling off explanations about the Imperial Palace in a somewhat more urgent tone.
This gate they were passing through had been built during the reign of the First Emperor; that garden over there had been commissioned by so-and-so, Empress of such-and-such Emperor, and on and on…
Half-listening to the maid’s commentary, Laniakea watched the scenery of the Imperial Palace glide past the window with detached eyes.
A palace that was to become her new home, yet stirred not a single ripple of emotion within her.
* * *
The carriage carrying Laniakea rolled through the Inner Palace.
Though called the Inner Palace, it comprised over a dozen sprawling, mansion-like estates.
The carriage came to a halt before the largest and most lavish among them.
“We have arrived at Her Imperial Majesty the Empress’s palace.”
The Empress’s Palace.
At the maid’s words, Laniakea’s throat tightened.
That she, a princess of a small kingdom, had come all the way to the Empire was entirely by the Empress’s design.
Two months ago, a letter bearing the name of the Empress of the Nervanan Empire had arrived at the royal court of Priatra.
Everyone in the royal family had been so shocked that they checked repeatedly to confirm whether the messenger who brought it was truly an envoy from the Nervanan Empire.
And for good reason: Priatra was a tiny nation tucked away in a corner of the world, completely incapable of influencing continental affairs.
Situated within the notoriously rugged Gigantes Mountains, it possessed no significant resources to tempt anyone’s greed.
Still, among the many kingdoms across the continent, Priatra was fairly well-known.
That was because Priatra was the oldest existing kingdom, and its royalty carried the blood of the Fairy Tribe said to have once inhabited the Gigantes Mountains.
As proof, the Priatra royal line was born with bright silver hair and green eyes, known as the traits of the Fairy Tribe. Furthermore, they were all so breathtakingly beautiful that one glance made them impossible to forget.
Had that been all, other kingdoms would have trampled them long ago. After all, beauty is something everyone desires.
But the royalty of Priatra had also inherited the fairies’ power.
Most of the royal family could wield Spirit magic, an art now nearly lost to the world, and its power was formidable.
The only drawback was that their power could only be properly manifested within Priatra’s borders.
Looked at another way, however, it meant that within Priatra, they were more powerful than any royal or imperial lineage. Thanks to this, Priatra had endured for over a thousand years.
To think that, while they were living quietly amongst themselves, a sudden personal letter would arrive from the Empire.
The royal family had immediately unsealed the Empress’s letter. Though it was a long missive filled with elaborate pleasantries, its core message was simple.
She wished to take Laniakea, the third daughter of the King of Priatra, as the wife of 1st Prince Hyperion of the Nervanan Empire.
At those words, everyone fell silent, exchanging cautious glances.
For they understood immediately what the Empress of the Empire wanted.
The Empress wanted to saddle the 1st Prince—who was not her own son—with a powerless puppet of a Crown Princess who had no backing whatsoever.
Otherwise, there was no reason to specifically single out Laniakea among the king’s three daughters.
Laniakea Priatra, the weakest of the three princesses of Priatra.
Unlike her older sisters, whose Spirit magic was so formidable they were praised as incarnations of the founding king, Laniakea was barely distinguishable from an ordinary human.
The only Spirits she could summon were the lowest tier, and even then, she could not call more than one at a time.
Even in appearance, unlike her sisters who possessed flawless silver hair, Laniakea had platinum-blonde hair tinged with gold.
To people of other kingdoms, it would have been praised as a lovely hue, but within the Priatra royal court, it was whispered to be a tainted, impure color.
Thus, she had always been the princess standing quietly in the corner at royal banquets, merely keeping her seat before slipping away.
Of course, Hyperion, who was to marry such a princess, was also a prince in an ambiguous position.
Hyperion’s mother was the late Empress, who had passed away when he was young. The Emperor then took a new Empress—the current Empress of Nervanan.
The current Empress bore three more sons. With three additional heirs, the Emperor cherished her deeply. As her favor deepened and the Emperor grew frail with age, the Empress’s authority swelled.
And so, when Hyperion turned eight years old, the Empress sent him away to a monastery on the frontier.
The ostensible excuse was that he had fallen ill from grieving his late mother, so he was being sent away to recuperate.
Hyperion, exiled to the fringes, was only permitted to step foot in the Imperial Palace again last year, at the age of twenty-five.
In the meantime, it was only natural that his entire foundation had crumbled while the Empress seized real power.
Now, no one believed he could ever become Emperor.
Even so, the Empress wanted to eliminate even the slimmest possibility with absolute certainty.
That was why she had sought a bride for Hyperion who looked impressive on paper but offered zero substance.
And that bride was Laniakea, Princess of the Kingdom of Priatra.
When this marriage was decided, Laniakea had considered what she could do.
Of course, refusing the marriage had never been an option to begin with. Nor could she dare defy the Empire’s demand.
Above all, what made Laniakea resolve to go through with the marriage was her family.
The moment she saw her parents and sisters looking delighted at the thought of finally being rid of the family nuisance in such a convenient manner, Laniakea realized it was time for her to leave.
‘Once I marry, at least I can leave Priatra.’
Even now, well into adulthood, her family had been worse to her than strangers.
Strangers at least maintained standard courtesy toward a princess, but her parents and sisters had always treated Laniakea as a disgrace to the royal house.
That was why, ever since she was young, Laniakea had harbored a single wish:
that one day she would leave the palace that treated her like defective goods—no, leave this entire land of Priatra.
But how?
It was customary for Priatra royalty to marry domestic nobility. An unmarried royal was forced to live locked away inside the royal palace for the rest of their days.
And yet, a marriage proposal had come from abroad—and from the Empress of the Empire, someone Priatra could never casually refuse.
Laniakea thought of the circumstances surrounding Prince Hyperion, the man who was to become her husband.
A man without any faction to his name, who returned to the Imperial Palace at most once or twice a year. A man who surely wouldn’t welcome this marriage either.
Thus, even if she came to the Imperial Palace, he would certainly keep his distance.
Someday, when one of his younger brothers ascended the throne, he would have to move his residence outside the Imperial Palace.
Naturally, Laniakea would follow him to some remote estate in the Empire’s countryside.
‘If so… wouldn’t I be able to live quietly forever?’
Hyperion was bound to harbor plenty of dissatisfaction with this marriage as well. Perhaps he might even demand a divorce before they ever left the Imperial Palace.
Of course, there was another possibility: what if, against all odds, he took a liking to Laniakea?
‘Even so, it’s far better than marrying some noble in Priatra.’
The nobles of Priatra had already been gossiping loudly about who would take Laniakea as a bride now that she had reached marriageable age.
Though she might fall short of her sisters, Laniakea’s beauty was more than enough to stir the lust of others.
Moreover, since she was treated as an outcast by the royal family, they snickered that she wouldn’t be able to utter a single complaint even if they treated her roughly.
Unlike her powerful sisters, Laniakea was not someone they needed to fear.
That was why noble houses across Priatra had been drooling over Laniakea, eyeing her like an ownerless scrap of meat.
“If we have several children with the Third Princess, at least one might be born with strong blood. An heir capable of Spirit magic—how wonderful would that be?”
Overhearing their chatter from the corner of a banquet hall, Laniakea had sworn that, no matter what, she would escape Priatra.
‘So this is an opportunity.’
Laniakea made up her mind.
She would go to the Empire. And she would hole up in a corner of the Imperial Palace, living as though she didn’t even exist.
* * *
“You have worked hard traveling such a long way.”
The Empress addressed Laniakea, who stood before her, in an affectionate voice.
She was unmistakably the mother of three grown princes, yet she did not look the part in the slightest.
But in stark contrast to her youthful, lovely face, her eyes gleamed with a sharpness surpassing that of seasoned ministers, setting Laniakea on edge.
“Not at all, Your Majesty. I was so captivated by the beauty and grandeur of the Empire throughout the journey that I scarcely felt any fatigue.”
At Laniakea’s polite response, a smile spread across the Empress’s face.
“These are sights you will be seeing every day from now on. You will grow accustomed to them soon enough.”
From the very start, the Empress naturally spoke down to Laniakea as if addressing an inferior.
The imperial wedding had not yet taken place, and no matter how powerless the Third Princess was, Laniakea stood here as a representative of the Kingdom of Priatra.
“You will also be seeing me often, so there is no need to be so tense.”
There was no way she did this out of ignorance.
A woman standing at the very epicenter of an Imperial Palace teeming with intrigue would never make such a careless mistake.
From the outset, the Empress was sending a clear message: Laniakea had no say in this marriage, and Priatra held no power to protect her.
“Looking at you now, I see the legends of Priatra were not unfounded after all. Wouldn’t you all agree?”
At the Empress’s words, the maids standing nearby nodded in agreement.
Inwardly, they were astonished.
Everyone knew the rumors regarding the Priatra royalty:
that they were blessed with beauty equal to their formidable power.
Yet word had it that Laniakea, arriving today, was the plainest among the three princesses.
Thus, they had expected her looks would be nothing remarkable despite her royal blood. But the moment the supposedly unremarkable Laniakea stepped into the Empress’s palace, she commanded everyone’s gaze.
Radiant platinum-blonde hair that seemed to have gathered pure sunlight, paired with green eyes resembling the lush verdure of midsummer.
And the face that held them possessed features so impeccably refined one could only marvel at their perfection.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door. Upon receiving the Empress’s permission, an attendant entered the room, immediately approaching the Empress to whisper something into her ear.
At his words, the Empress spoke with a startled look.
“The 1st Prince is here? Already?”
Dismissing the attendant, the Empress turned to Laniakea and asked:
“Princess, this may seem sudden, but surely you are aware of the Marriage Contract?”
