Previously
After the Kingdom of Niita is defeated by the Carlo Empire, Emperor Helio Carlo demands a princess as a hostage. The King of Niita chooses his forgotten fifth daughter, Liliana, whose mother was a lowly maid.
The royal palace’s reception hall was deathly quiet. The King of Niita stood facing the throne, and behind him stood his five daughters.
Surrounding the reception hall were the ladies-in-waiting, the maids, and Helio’s knights.
Helio sat cross-legged upon the throne as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
He appeared to be in his mid-twenties, yet an aura of sheer power and majesty radiated from him, enough to overwhelm everyone present.
Tapping his fingernail against the armrest, Helio shook his head.
It was a seat crafted for the sovereign of a nation, so it could hardly have been made small. Yet to the Emperor of Carlo, it must have seemed cramped, shabby, and utterly beneath him.
There was no malice in Helio’s voice.
He spoke with utter matter-of-factness, as if stating that the sky was above and the earth lay beneath one’s feet. That only made the King of Niita feel all the more humiliated, yet there was nothing he could do.
Helio looked around, his gaze settling upon Liliana’s pink hair. A low chuckle escaped him.
The King of Niita bowed low, as befitted the monarch of a conquered land, and asked politely.
Helio clapped his hands together with a sharp crack. A collective shudder ran through the room at the sound echoing across the silent hall.
The man before them could wipe this country off the map at any moment. The only reason he had not done so was simple: he had no need to go that far.
Helio leaned forward, bringing his body closer. The King of Niita watched his handsome face draw near and trembled with dread.
The King of Niita asked blankly, but Helio continued as though he had not heard.
Standing behind the King of Niita, Liliana looked as though she were chewing on filth at those words.
What did he mean, ‘cherish’? He hadn’t even known her name until today.
Liliana kept her head bowed, unaware that Helio was watching her intently.
Helio easily caught the furrow of Liliana’s delicate brow. That alone made it blatantly obvious that the King of Niita was lying.
Resting his chin in his hand, Helio let his eyes half-close languidly.
It made no difference to him which princess he took.
If a kingdom on the brink of ruin were spared without giving anything in return, the entire continent would look down upon the Empire—an outcome far too dangerous to permit.
Yet if he simply seized the mana stone, the Kingdom of Niita would collapse anyway, which was no different from destroying it outright.
Besides, Helio needed a woman to become his empress. As long as she held no political sway in the Empire, any princess would do.
If possible, it would have been better to take Princess Riley, the King’s favorite and the highest in line to the throne.
Tap, tap, tap.
Helio tapped against the armrest several times. The ring of his fingertips throughout the hall made everyone’s mouth go dry. Including Liliana’s.
‘Please, just take another princess!’
Liliana prayed with all her heart, clasping her hands tightly against her stomach.
Helio was watching her every move.
It was comical watching her wring her fair hands so fiercely that they turned red.
He even caught himself wondering if she didn’t resemble a cornered hamster.
A faint smile brushed Helio’s lips before he resumed his arrogant demeanor and turned his gaze back to the King of Niita.
The King of Niita’s eyes went wide. No one had ever known his eyes could open so wide. Straining to blink as if his eyeballs might pop out at any second, he gritted his teeth.
The King of Niita barely scraped together the courage to protest, but Helio gave him no heed.
A wave of shock rippled through the reception hall.
Never in history had succession rights been granted to the offspring of an imperial bride married abroad—not even to a third child. There were four other princesses in their own country.
Yet, as was said time and again, the Kingdom of Niita stood on the verge of ruin, so this demand had to be accepted as an act of imperial grace.
What could anyone do if the Emperor had already made up his mind?
Thus, the King of Niita had no choice but to bow deferentially through clenched teeth.
Liliana came to understand firsthand what it felt like when one’s status skyrocketed overnight.
Until now, the palace had paid her no mind. But suddenly, people whispered about her wherever she went, and they presented her with a lavish gown meant only for display by the other princesses.
She had only ever had one maid, Sophia, but suddenly her attendants swelled to ten; their frantic fussing over her was dizzying enough to leave her utterly exhausted.
‘It must be because of the succession rights Emperor Carlo mentioned.’
Those words had been a thinly veiled threat to swallow the entire kingdom whole whenever it pleased him.
One way or another, Liliana was now the woman who might become the mother of the future king. It was only natural that the way they treated her changed.
This extraordinary treatment persisted right up until the day she departed the Kingdom of Niita.
The King of Niita provided Liliana with his most luxurious carriage, but the moment Helio saw it, he ordered it cast aside.
The kingdom’s finest carriage was shoved into a corner, replaced by a far grander, more magnificent carriage pulled up before Liliana’s palace.
Liliana felt a heavy weight pressing down on her as she prepared to board, having to muster all her courage just to step inside. Once seated, she was thoroughly bewildered, feeling as though the plush cushion were about to swallow her whole.
Sophia, her favored maid, climbed into the carriage to accompany her and spoke.
Of course, being the wife of an emperor was better than being a princess of a defeated kingdom. Even Liliana’s father, the King of Niita, had wept bitter tears at the thought of losing another daughter he actually loved; framed that way, her role as a hostage seemed far more appealing.
‘If only I weren’t destined to die in childbirth…’
Liliana stared out the carriage window, laughing bitterly at her own plight.
What on earth was she supposed to do now?
A tall figure rode at the front of the procession.
Liliana let out a heavy sigh as she gazed upon his brilliant golden hair.
The crazed father from a childcare novel.
That was precisely how Liliana viewed Helio.
❈❈❈
No matter how luxurious the carriage was, the journey remained grueling.
The rhythmic stomping of the foot soldiers and the clattering hooves of the knights gave her a splitting headache, and her hips ached from sitting in the same posture for so long.
Liliana longed to be left behind, to return to her quiet palace.
A voice drifted in through the carriage window, which had been cracked open to relieve her motion sickness.
Liliana jumped in shock, startled out of her skin.
Helio offered her a faint smirk.
Liliana shrank back nervously.
She quickly tried to shut the window, only to freeze when a broad hand reached across the frame.
Liliana looked outside properly. Helio sat atop a brown steed, peering down into her carriage.
Those blue eyes, which had mesmerized her the very first time she saw them, were now narrowed with suspicion.
Liliana pulled her head back, looking bewildered.
Liliana protested, sounding genuinely wronged. Helio let out a low chuckle, his expression shifting to one of curiosity.
Folding her fingers down one by one, Liliana counted off everything she was incapable of doing to survive by herself.
Then, as if remembering something, she looked up, her eyes sparkling.
Her earlier words had been clear and confident, but her voice trailed off into a mumble, leaving him unable to catch the rest.
Helio found himself listening intently before asking,
Liliana waved her hands dismissively, offering an awkward smile.
He could hardly tell whether this woman was a coward or remarkably bold, speaking so candidly right to the face of the man who had seized them.
In truth, Liliana had once been far more timid than she appeared now.
Having lived like a ghost in the royal palace, such timidity was only natural. Yet when her memories of her past life returned, the world around her felt like a book, and she had naturally grown bolder.
Her maid, Sophia, was terrified because Liliana was acting completely out of character, but Helio simply took her for an eccentric princess.
There was nothing surprising about her falling out of favor. Yet seeing her speak so eloquently without overstepping the bounds of propriety made him curious about where such a personality had come from.
Noticing that Helio lingered beside her carriage, Liliana seized the opportunity.
Placing a hand on the carriage window sill, Liliana leaned a little closer.
Helio answered with a brief hum.
“Which means I hold no value whatsoever as a hostage. Do you know which princess would do no harm to send back? That princess is me!”