Previously
A flashback reveals the fall of Sienna's mother, the Empress, who was executed for treason when Sienna was seven. This tragedy stripped Sienna of her father's love and her family's power, leaving her isolated and paranoid within the palace.
How to Break Up with You Perfectly, Chapter 16
With the passage of time, Sienna grew into an undeniably beautiful woman.
Porcelain skin set off against ink-black hair. With features favoring a mother famed for her peerless beauty and an aristocratic aura inherited straight from her father, she was, by anyone’s measure, an exquisite beauty.
Yet no matter how breathtaking her appearance, what did it matter?
Enduring her mother’s death, the cold dismissal of strangers, and her father’s fickle scraps of affection had shaped Sienna into a young woman encased in cynicism and twisted pride.
Distrustful of others, she lived in perpetual dread that someone might harm her, clinging to her noble blood and royal station with an unhealthy obsession.
Her mother’s death hovered continually at the back of her mind, whispering, ‘What guarantee do you have that you won’t share her fate?’
Born of that fragile psyche, her insomnia steadily worsened, eroding her piece by piece day after day.
* * *
During a hunting contest held amid unseasonal torrential rains, the Emperor contracted a virulent pneumonia.
Though in his youth he was the kind of man who relished hunting through downpours, now well into his middle years, he could not easily shake off the illness.
When a month passed with no sign of recovery from his sickbed, murmurs concerning the next imperial succession broke out among the aristocracy.
Of course, there was hardly anything to discuss. The Emperor possessed only one son. Even if he were born of an illegitimate union, the nobles merely gave thanks that the legitimate child sired of a traitor was not a son.
As the Emperor’s condition grew grave, momentum shifted decisively in Joseph’s favor.
Even the nobles who had kept silent began stepping forward, one by one, to align with Joseph.
Though Joseph maintained an unreadable demeanor, his only full sister, Marianne, carried herself with blatant triumph, as if her brother had already ascended the throne.
Every bit of it squeezed the breath from Sienna’s chest.
“Your Highness, have you heard?”
It was the day the young ladies of the social circle gathered at the imperial palace to celebrate the New Year. With the empire’s highborn maidens assembled together, Marianne—who would ordinarily have gone out of her way to look through Sienna—approached her with an insolent look on her face.
Though she was the sort to offer even perfunctory greetings with an offensive sneer, today her expression was unusually radiant.
“My brother has been appointed as a commander in the Battle of Bunrosher. His assignment is none other than the army led by Lord Monferrato. Detached from worldly affairs as Your Highness may be, surely you know how magnificent the Grand Duke is?”
Her tone carried an unmistakable sneer. It was obvious she wished to preen before the crowd by parading her brother’s rise, but Sienna had no intention of indulging her.
Sienna replied without expression.
“Is that so? How fortunate for him.”
“Indeed. It seems His Majesty is finally granting my brother a share of military authority.”
Even as she rattled off words deliberately chosen to get under her skin, Marianne’s eyes darted busily, watching Sienna’s face for a reaction.
Sienna let out a breathless, hollow laugh at the brazen impudence. Now that her brother was treated as the heir, Marianne apparently believed there was nothing left on earth to fear.
Rumors had been circulating openly that the Emperor would not survive the year, and Sienna had heard ample talk of sycophants flocking to flatter Joseph, yet she never expected the girl to flaunt her designs so shamelessly.
Having languished without a proper title merely for being a bastard, only to suddenly have noble after noble bowing and scraping before her, Marianne’s arrogance was hardly surprising.
The surrounding noblewomen watched the two of them, their expressions an uneasy braid of apprehension and curiosity.
When Sienna stayed quiet just to see how far she would push, Marianne seemed to take it as proof that the princess felt thoroughly slighted, and she babbled on with even greater relish.
“And that is hardly all. My brother intends to take this opportunity to ask the Grand Duke…”
Chattering away in high spirits, Marianne suddenly clamped her mouth shut with a belated look of dismay. Yet the flush creeping up her ears made it painfully obvious what she had been about to say. Sienna could not suppress a smirk.
“What? Is he going to use this chance to ask the Grand Duke to take you as his wife?”
A ripple of suppressed chuckles leaked from the surrounding crowd. Marianne’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
“Your brother must cherish you dearly.”
The remark was half genuine wonder, half pointed mockery. Even someone as removed from high society as Sienna knew well enough that the young master of the Grand Duchy had shown no interest in women, even well past his twentieth year.
She had heard of several families quietly hinting at marriage proposals, yet he had remained unwed to this day. Still, if the proposal came from the imperial house, no man, no matter how proud, could turn it down so easily.
Believing she had suffered pointless humiliation, Marianne crumpled her face in a scowl.
“Is it not because we weathered so many hardships together from childhood? Even if it were not for my sake, forging a bond with the Grand Duke would give my brother an invaluable ally.”
She paused, twisting her lips into a cruel, knowing smirk.
“Of course, it is hardly any concern of Your Highness. Still, if you wish, shall I ask my brother to look into finding a suitable match for you as well?”
“Thank you, but I must decline the thought. As things stand, it is only proper that you attend to your own marriage before worrying about mine.”
Her patience was running thin. Sienna answered in a dry tone and waved a dismissive hand.
“Enough with this overreaching meddling. Take your leave. Facing each other on the New Year brings little joy to either of us, does it?”
A dark disgust seeped over Marianne’s face at the unexpected rebuff, but she quickly smoothed her expression, offered a polite curtsy, and obediently stepped back.
There would be countless opportunities to pay back the insult later anyway. Sienna also knew that today was merely the opening act.
After returning from the gathering that had dragged on under a strained air, Sienna turned the earlier conversation over in her mind, and the memory of a haughty man’s face drifted into her thoughts.
A striking appearance ill-suited to a mere soldier, alongside the vast authority and renown he held.
Just as Marianne said, if his only sister became that man’s wife, Joseph would essentially secure an invincible ally.
The influence wielded by the commander in chief of the military was formidable. More than just his rank, the sheer presence the Grand Duke commanded on his own was immense. Among the imperial citizens, was he not revered almost on par with the Emperor himself?
Considering that high-ranking members of the Imperial Knights had previously overseen the armed forces, he was the first soldier from the regular ranks to rise to the supreme command.
His exceptional lineage certainly played a part, unlike the vast majority of common-born soldiers. Yet given that the Grand Ducal house had once stood on the brink of complete ruin, this ascent was an achievement he had forged entirely on his own.
The Imperial Knights were prone to throwing their noble weight around and looking down on common soldiers, so it was only natural that the rank-and-file soldiers threw their unwavering support behind a grand duke who bled beside them on the battlefield.
Moreover, the man was steadfastly loyal. Those who resented him often sneered that he was a dog willing to lick the Emperor’s boots, but Sienna found herself quite drawn to him.
The Emperor was deeply suspicious and prone to erratic emotion; lowering oneself past all dignity was the surest way to ease his paranoia. In that respect, the Grand Duke’s conduct had been singularly wise.
Commanding supreme military might, he simply obeyed his master’s directives without ever betraying an ounce of personal ambition. Where could one find a more magnificent hound?
The more she turned it over, the clearer it became that he was an exceptional piece on the board. Sienna needed someone like that.
A steadfast, exalted figure who could serve as an impenetrable shield under any circumstance.
When her thoughts traveled that far, a bitter knot of indignation twisted in her gut.
As the foremost grand noble of the empire, why would he ever take the side of a princess branded as the daughter of a traitor?
And unlike Sienna, who shared no ties with him, Joseph had grown close enough to him to hunt at his side. Not to mention Marianne, who openly pined for his favor.
Sienna felt little excitement over the man’s looks, which everyone praised with one voice, but she held high regard for the shrewdness of his survival.
While the deaths of the previous Grand Duke and Duchess had been officially ruled an accident, it was obvious whose scheming lay behind it.
Yet instead of raising a rebellion against the Emperor, the Grand Duke had meekly marched to the front lines, eventually returning as a war hero. Securing him, then, was no different from securing the entirety of the military.
Unlike Joseph, who had the might of the Grand Duchy poised at his back, Sienna was at a complete disadvantage on every front. To survive, she needed to win over forces to shield her and someone holding military command, but what noble would take the side of a hollow princess?
Though she was treated as an imperial princess for now, whispers already abounded that the frayed thread keeping her aloft would snap before long.
Even the houses that once swore fealty to the Duchy of Ricata had turned their backs on her long ago, to say nothing of the other aristocrats.
In the end, the solution had to lie elsewhere.
* * *
With the line of succession tipping decisively toward Joseph, Sienna stood a far better chance of challenging the empire’s antiquated succession laws than trying to win nobles over to her side.
So she began gathering any materials she could find on the inheritance laws of other nations. Her aim was to prove just how absurd the empire’s current statutes were.
Drafting formal petitions backed by the evidence she had amassed, she submitted them in person, but the council dismissed her arguments at every turn.
Though well aware of the inequalities in the legal code, they clearly chafed at the audacity of a princess daring to meddle in their exclusive prerogatives.
They turned her away every time with the same rehearsed excuses: ‘While we understand Your Highness’s distress, tampering recklessly with the imperial code would be improper.’