Previously
During her exile, Irenia's carriage is ambushed by assassins, forcing her to flee into a dark, rainy forest despite her leg injury. Just as an assassin prepares to kill her, Caesar suddenly appears and slaughters the attackers.
I had never seen such a terrifying weapon before. A chill ran through me as I wondered: who could I possibly stab with these frail hands and a crippled leg?
Musk burned in the hearth, releasing a pungent scent that hung over the heavy stillness of the room. There was nothing to occupy a bride left alone in her bridal chamber without a groom.
“Ah…”
I let out a sigh, having lost count of how many times I had done so.
Today, I—Irenia Flores, an illegitimate daughter of the Flores ducal family—had married the First Prince and Crown Prince of the Empire, Caesar de la Rosa Constantini Fiore.
The Flores ducal family was one of the three great noble houses, having earned their title when the Great Wizard Cosimo Flores slew a winged dragon. Born of an illicit liaison, I spent the first seven years of my life roaming the streets before I was adopted. From that moment on, I lived under the roof of a family that never once treated me as one of their own.
My place in the manor was always lower than that of the servants—perhaps even lower than that of the horses or hunting hounds. Then, when I turned eighteen, the Duchess, Celestina, summoned me to the reception room.
It was on that day I learned the true reason they had kept me around despite their endless contempt. Her smooth, luxurious tone was enough to make my stomach churn.
“The Flores family has always provided empresses to the Empire, and this time, you have been chosen to wed the First Prince, Crown Prince Caesar.”
A marriage? My younger half-sister, Bernadetta, had not yet come of age, but my older half-sister, Giovinetta, was not even betrothed. How could an engagement be arranged for the illegitimate second daughter?
It made no sense. And that man… was the Crown Prince, heir to the throne. There was no way they would bestow such an honor on someone they regarded as the lowest of the low.
Yet I understood. Everything had been prepared for this exact moment.
Though my years of isolation kept me from knowing every rumor, I had heard enough.
The First Prince, Caesar, was frail and seldom seen in public. He was the son of Empress Adelaide, who had lost her mind and taken her own life shortly after giving birth to him.
From then on, dark rumors clung to him.
The Monster Prince.
They said his hideous form had so terrified his own mother that she chose to leave this world.
They said he was born to devour her flesh, not to be loved.
The Cursed Prince.
And being cursed, no one was willing to marry him.
Prospective matches with foreign princesses fell through, prompting the Imperial Palace to turn its gaze toward the domestic nobility.
When a marriage proposal arrived from the imperial family, it could not be easily refused. That was why nobles rushed to marry off their daughters while they were still young, or took in orphans with no true blood ties.
That was precisely what my family had done to me. They had not plucked me from the streets out of charity, but to groom me for this very sacrifice.
Rumor had it that four of the Prince’s former fiancées had met their deaths. No one knew why, but everyone whispered the same thing: it was the Prince’s curse.
Though it sounded prestigious on the surface, the offer was nothing more than a losing hand.
What if Caesar died after our marriage?
What if I were accused of his murder?
I might end up locked away in a dark tower for the rest of my days.
Alarm bells rang in my head.
It was a trap.
Poison laced with honey.
To taste it meant certain death.
“Do you mean… I am to become the Crown Princess?”
My voice came out faint, vanishing like a dense fog that masked everything beneath it.
Marrying a man I had never laid eyes on? A cursed prince?
Fearing I might refuse, Celestina quickly added,
“Yes, and you will become the most noble woman in this entire empire.”
Her words were like a serpent whispering venom into my ear.
Yet I was no child to be swayed by fairy tales.
I knew all too well that nothing came without a price.
“…Then…”
Even so, I had no choice but to take the poisoned chalice.
There was no other way.
“I will do it.”
That was all I could bring myself to nod to.
Perhaps there was a faint flicker of hope inside me… or perhaps it was an illusion.
Behind it loomed heavy shadows of dread.
“I will marry the Crown Prince.”
And if I perished, at least I would die a noblewoman.
It would be a fleeting, blinding, deceitful flash of glory.
Terrified that I might change my mind, Celestina hurriedly brought out the documents.
I signed my name, pricked my thumb with a small blade, and sealed the blood oath.
“Now it is settled. You will be the Prince’s wife. Isn’t that wonderful?”
The look in her eyes at that moment… her breath heavy with relief… etched itself into my memory.
Yet I knew I had to forget it.
I had to bury that memory if I wanted to survive.
“I am… the Crown Princess…”
Yes, this was my choice.
Even if it was a poisoned cup, I wanted a taste of power.
Even if the taste was putrid, foul, and unbearable.
Even if it led straight to my ruin.
Even though we were married today, I never saw the groom until the ceremony itself.
Prince Caesar, notorious for his poor health, did not attend the wedding. A masked surrogate stood in his place.
The rituals, the blessings, the vows—all of them were exchanged through that proxy.
The ceremony was cold and bizarre, devoid of the dignity befitting royalty.
Yet I had neither voice nor standing, so I held my peace.
A fleeting thought crossed my mind: would the Prince at least show up in the bridal chamber?
Before long, I was escorted into the room, adorned from head to toe.
And so I sat all alone on the edge of the bed strewn with red rose petals.
The flickering candlelight cast a strange, eerie glow over the chamber.
Suddenly, the clanking of iron sounded from behind the heavy ebony door.
Then the door was flung wide open.
He was here.
I turned my head slowly, steeling myself, but the sight gave me such a shock that I trembled as if struck by lightning.
Caesar was not alone.
Carried on a stretcher by four knights, accompanied by a servant—
No, he was unconscious.
And his body was bound tight in heavy iron chains.
With every step of the stretcher, metal clinked against metal.
“Wh… what?”
A stunned gasp escaped my lips.
Yet neither the servants nor the knights spared me a glance.
“Wh-who is this?”
I asked anxiously, and the servant replied in a flat voice,
“This is Prince Caesar.”
“Yes…”
I recognized him.
His hair as black as a winter night, skin pale as marble, and striking features matched the portrait sent to me before the wedding perfectly.
Yet that was not what I was asking.
I wanted to know: why?
Why was the Crown Prince brought in like this? Bound in chains, completely unconscious?
The knights swiftly lowered him onto the bed and began unfastening the chains.
The moment they unlocked the final clasp, they retreated in haste, like men concluding a hazardous mission.
“Wait!”
I called out after them, astonished that they were simply walking away. One of the servants turned back toward me.
“He will awaken shortly.”
With only that, they walked out the door without the slightest hesitation. The heavy bridal chamber door swung shut behind them, and to make matters worse, I heard the sharp click of the lock and the slide of a deadbolt fastening firmly from the outside.
“What in the world is happening…?”
The daytime ceremony had been far from a conventional wedding. From the very beginning, I had entered this union without proper preparation, so I had already anticipated that the wedding night would be unusual as well.
Even so, I could never have imagined it would look like this.
I turned back toward the Crown Prince, First Prince Caesar.
Could he possibly be… dead?
Fortunately, his chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. It seemed he was merely asleep.
The knights had just said he would awaken shortly. Did that mean they had drugged him to sleep?
“Hah…”
A bitter laugh escaped me in the suffocating silence. I no longer knew what I was supposed to do. None of the bridal etiquette lessons had prepared me for a situation like this.
My mind was a blur. The world was spinning around me. What was I supposed to do now?
And right at that moment…
FADE OUT