Previously
Helio Carlo surprises the court by attending Liliana's appointment ceremony as a Queen, a gesture that provides her with significant political protection. He walks her back to the Emerald Palace, showing a rare, gentle side despite his teasing and accidental roughness.
Helio gave a low chuckle, stirring an uneasy feeling in his attendant, who cautiously ventured a question.
At that, the servant gave an obvious nod.
Helio’s curt retort sent a cold sweat down the servant’s spine. What could the princess possibly have done, then? Would trouble arise if she refused her bath, or rejected the scented oils?
Still, the servant dared not ask further.
He feared Helio when he laughed to himself like that.
Even so, Helio was pondering something far more amusing.
Helio thought back to the moment Liliana had said those words, remembering just how lovely she had looked.
He wondered how things would be now that they were officially husband and wife.
Instead of signing the final document, he tore it in two, tossed the pieces into the air, and rose from his seat.
❈❈❈
Liliana sat quietly on the bed. Like a doll adorned with a sachet of perfume, she was exquisite and delicate, and against her prominent collarbones—extending past her neck—diamonds gleamed along the curve of her chest.
It was a sight no one could deny was as gorgeous as a painting, but inside Liliana’s mind, reality sounded quite different.
‘I feel like my neck is going to snap.’
Liliana naturally possessed a frail, slender frame. The heavy diamond necklace made it an ordeal to even turn her head. She began massaging her neck, only to earn an immediate scolding from the Head Maid.
Liliana grumbled, but the Head Maid answered her composedly.
Liliana shook her head in exasperation and waved her hand dismissively. The Head Maid took a step back and stood at a distance. Clearly, she intended to watch over Liliana until Helio arrived before finally departing.
‘I have to set up my space before Helio gets here…’
That single thought consumed Liliana’s mind. It was the only way her plan could unfold naturally. Keeping her mind focused, she parted her lips and spoke.
The Head Maid parted her lips to reply but hesitated, likely about to lecture her on dignity, decorum, and showing proper respect to the Emperor.
Yet the truth was that on a consummation night, what mattered most to any empress or queen was entirely different.
Liliana asked in a subdued voice, deliberately tugging down the bodice of her dress.
The Head Maid inhaled deeply and stood in contemplation for a long while. It was her duty to guide Liliana so she would receive the Emperor with grace tonight.
And yet… Liliana’s words were not wrong. Though she was now a Queen, her circumstances differed from those of other consorts.
When Liliana offered her sincere gratitude, the Head Maid seemed thoroughly convinced. She gave a slight curtsy before leaving the room.
As soon as the Head Maid left, Liliana slipped off her tight shoes first. Then she paced barefoot across the rug, mulling over the matter one last time. In the end, the answer was plain.
Picking up Choo Choo—disguised as a doll on the side table—Liliana stepped out onto the terrace. She approached the balustrade and gazed out into the distance, where lantern lights were illuminating the dark path.
The retinue lighting up the path belonged, without a doubt, to Emperor Helio, who had come here tonight.
Liliana rested her hand on the railing and gave a light nod toward Helio.
Catching sight of the movement, Helio halted his stride for a moment and tilted his head up. When he saw her, a faint smile spread across his lips, as though pleasantly surprised.
Liliana murmured in genuine admiration. Right then, the doll of Choo Choo in her grip lightly tapped her palm and spoke.
At Choo Choo’s words, Liliana snapped to her senses completely. Right, now was not the time to be admiring Helio’s good looks.
Before learning the arts of spirit magic, she had asked Choo Choo a specific question.
She had been unable to procure any contraceptives, which had left her at a loss—until she met Choo Choo, which proved to be a golden opportunity.
Liliana had devised a daring plan using the power of the wind, and she had joined forces with Choo Choo to carry it out.
And today was the decisive day. Liliana waited until Choo Choo clamped down firmly on her finger, then deliberately leaned her entire weight against the railing.
Just then, Helio opened his mouth to shout as he watched the sight.
An ominous creak came from the balustrade where Liliana leaned, her grip on Choo Choo tight enough to nearly suffocate the fairy.
The railing gave way all at once, and Liliana plunged forward with its collapse.
As she plummeted through the air, she curled her body and made a desperate plea to the wind spirits. Please, protect her, even just a little, just a tiny bit…
Answering her fervent plea, a gust of wind coiled around her fingertips.
Feeling a brief wave of relief, Liliana looked down. Though she was falling, the world seemed to move in slow motion. And within that scene stood Helio.
Helio’s face was as pale as a corpse.
‘You can make that kind of expression, too?’
Liliana thought, caught off guard by the sight.
Then she slammed into the ground, and a cry burst from her lips in far more agony than she had anticipated.
Though the fall had been cushioned slightly, the impact was nowhere near safe.
She could hear Choo Choo weeping in her hand.
Liliana wanted to reassure and stroke the fairy, but she lacked the strength to twitch even a finger. Her consciousness was slipping away on the spot.
And as darkness began to consume the world and the light faded, she felt someone sprinting desperately toward her.
Liliana thought it might be Helio—a completely absurd fancy.
❈❈❈
Liliana’s mother was beautiful. Even so, being a working-class maid, she had been nothing more than a passing fancy in the King’s life.
Having no family backing her meant there was never a reason for the King to remember her again. A dancer summoned at royal whim was, after all, no different from any ordinary maid.
In the palace where Liliana lived with her mother, there were only two servants: one very old, and the other very young.
And so, while the two maids went about their chores, Liliana ate meager meals unfit for a princess and drank flavorless tea.
Even then, Liliana was happy. Unlike life in the other palaces, she lived beside her mother, shared a bed with her, and could drift off to sleep every night in her mother's embrace.
When morning came, the young maid, Sophia, would play with her, and the old maid would tell her ancient tales.
Liliana’s narrow little world was brimming with happiness.
Yet as Liliana grew a little older and her world began expanding beyond the walls of her palace, it ceased to be so joyful.
When the Fourth Princess, Fischel, approached her, Liliana felt a thrill at finally meeting a sister. What was more, Fischel was close to her own age, merely a year older.
Liliana’s delight at gaining a playmate her own age was beyond words, and she smiled brightly.
Fischel shoved her away in disgust, shaking her hands as though she had touched something repulsive.
She pushed so hard that Liliana tumbled to the ground, staring up in wide-eyed shock.
Liliana was a sweet girl who desperately wanted a new friend, so she forced another smile and spoke.
Her mother had always told her that when she smiled like that, she looked as lovely as a blooming flower.
Yet Liliana’s pretty face only seemed to enrage Fischel further, and she raised her hand high to strike.
The young girl’s slap was sharp, aching down to the bone. Liliana clutched her cheek, trembling.
Liliana hesitated a moment before slowly pushing herself up, bowing low just as her mother had taught her. But at her clumsy curtsy, Fischel kicked her in the leg, sending her sprawling once more.
Fischel spat on the head of Liliana, who lay crumpled on the ground.
With time, Liliana came to realize that those venomous words stemmed from Fischel’s own deep-seated inferiority complex regarding Liliana’s beauty.
Yet back then, she could not understand it. The words pierced her.
They tore through her heart like a dagger.
Returning to her palace, Liliana ran to her mother and asked,
Her cheek was flushed red, her hair smeared with dirt, and her legs mottled with dark bruises, yet she did not cry.
Her mother’s heart broke all the more seeing her daughter that way. Watching her mother weep in silence, Liliana slowly came to an understanding.
‘If I hear those hurtful words—filthy, disgusting, trivial—I must only cry in silence.’
Hardly thoughts befitting a princess of the realm.
Yet Liliana had been forced to learn that lesson far too young.
From that day on, slaps to the cheek, kicks to the shins, and shoves from Fischel became Liliana’s daily routine.
On the days Fischel refrained from striking her, she settled for mockery instead. The contrast between Princess Fischel’s finery and Liliana’s plainness was stark for all to see.
Yet Liliana felt no shame in that truth. She had grown so numb with exhaustion that she no longer resented the things she had never been granted.
Listening to Fischel’s barbs, Liliana merely thought that today, she would like to pick dandelions and blow the seeds away with her mother.
Seeing Liliana like that only drove Fischel mad with fury. She wanted Liliana to weep. She was a monster driven wild by her own inadequacy.
Yet Liliana seemed to simply wait in silence until the storm passed.
Crossing her arms, Fischel sneered down at Liliana.
“You call yourself a princess? Your mother is a filthy woman. How could she lie to him when she was carrying some other man’s brat in her belly?”
At those words, Liliana snapped her head up.
The only reason she had endured Fischel’s words until now was that she had been beaten for so long, and it took time for an open wound to scar over.
Yet the moment Fischel dared call her mother filthy, Liliana could endure no more.
She raised her hand, and Fischel let out a startled shriek, thinking she was about to be struck.
In the end, Liliana did not hit her. It was all too obvious that if she struck Fischel, her mother and the two palace maids would pay the price. So Liliana lowered her hand.
Once again burying her bitter fury deep in her heart, she bowed as low as she could.
Liliana fled back to her palace, but Fischel would not let the matter rest.
Fischel ran to her mother, and soon Liliana was dragged out into the palace courtyard and whipped before the eyes of passing servants and maids.
Her mother’s agonized screams hurt far more than the sharp lashes cutting into her legs.
‘Don’t cry!’
‘Don’t cry!’
I will be more patient next time, so I will surely survive.
Surely….