Translator: Nox

Chapter 6

It was not even fifteen days after she had left the Taren family estate to enter the Imperial Palace.

Her mother rejoiced, saying that her daughter’s name would finally be inscribed in the imperial genealogy, but Talia felt nothing but resentment at being brought to such an unfamiliar place. Her anxiety grew even more acute as Senevia’s attention was consumed entirely by the task of refurbishing the castle.

Contrary to what she had heard from her mother, the Imperial Palace was a desolate and terrifying place. Sharp, judging gazes followed her everywhere she went, and the servants attending her were colder than the staff back at the Taren estate.

She felt like a child who had lost her way. So, whenever the opportunity arose, she would sneak out of her room and wander near the Separate Palace.

She frequented the area near the Rear Garden in particular. Because Senevia had ordered every flower and tree in the castle uprooted to erase all traces of the former Empress, the garden had been turned into a complete wasteland.

At least at the entrances to the Main Palace and the Separate Palace, rose bushes and colorful, ornate shrubs were beginning to fill the empty spaces one by one. However, in the back garden where landscaping was yet to finish, piles of dirt were still cluttered about. Thanks to that, no one ever visited the area.

Whenever Talia grew weary of the people’s whispering and their stinging glares, she would spend her time dazed in a corner of that ruined Rear Garden.

That day, too, she was out in the back garden of the Separate Palace to escape her nagging Nanny and the maid who would aggressively jab her scalp with a sharp comb while claiming she was styling her hair.

Not a single worker was visible in the garden due to the rain that had started falling at noon. Talia crouched in a corner of the empty Rear Garden, staring blankly at the falling raindrops.

She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there when she heard a faint whistling sound from somewhere.

After looking around with a puzzled expression for a moment, Talia moved toward the edge of the castle grounds as if drawn by something, walking through the drizzling rain. In the spot where a massive, ancient tree had stood just this morning, there was now only a deep, hollowed-out pit.

Talia approached the high mound of dirt and looked down. A small bird was floundering in the muddy slush, letting out pitiful cries.

‘Did it fall from the tree?’

The bird looked as though it could die at any moment.

Heavy raindrops were relentlessly battering its soaked brown body, and clumps of dark red mud, thick as tar, were viscously swallowing its fragile legs and scrawny wings. The bird’s persistent cries eventually turned into a faint trembling.

Gazing down at the sight while hugging her knees, Talia found herself stepping into the pit before she knew it.

It was a foolish thing to do. Even though she stepped carefully, the ground—which had turned into a swamp from soaking up the rain—instantly swallowed her shoes.

She twisted her body to pull her foot out. In doing so, she lost her balance and slipped into the mud.

Talia fell face-forward into the puddle. Feeling the fishy taste of muddy water seeping between her lips, she shook her head irritably.

The green dress her Nanny had newly made for her was ruined, and mud was matted into her neatly braided hair.

A surge of annoyance rose within her.

She pushed herself up, muttering a small curse under her breath.

“Who cares about some bird? Why did I do something so stupid…”

As she grumbled and tried to climb out of the pit, she heard that faint cry again. It was a sound so weak it was hard to notice unless one listened closely, yet to Talia, it sounded as if the bird were screaming.

In the end, she took a few more steps across the black puddle. There, she saw the pathetic brown wings submerged in the muddy water and a small, drooping head.

‘…Did it die already?’

As she picked up the young bird with a cautious hand, she felt the tiny, rain-soaked body pulsing faintly. It was still alive.

She cupped the lukewarm, cooling body in both hands and blew warm breath onto it. The limp bird flickered its tiny brown beak and flapped its scrawny wings piteously. It seemed to be struggling with all its might to survive.

Watching it, something tightened in her chest.

Talia didn’t know what that emotion was. She couldn’t understand why it pained her heart to see this young bird—displaced from its home, abandoned by its mother, and floundering in the mire—finding rest in her palms.

She cradled the bird carefully and tucked it against the warmest part of her neck. Then, she looked up at the steep slope of slippery mud with bleak eyes.

The mounds of dirt had grown even softer due to the increasingly heavy rain. She tried taking a few test steps, but it seemed impossible to walk up. To get out of here, she would have to crawl up on all fours like a beast.

Talia bit her lip hard. She couldn’t bring herself to abandon the little bird she had just saved, nor could she cast aside her dignity as an Imperial Princess to crawl through the mud like livestock.

So, Talia just stood there for a long time, enduring the cold, drizzling rain.

It was then. A boy emerged through the hazy, mist-like rain.

He was very tall, wearing a black robe like those worn by monks with the hood pulled over his head. Yet, through the white veil of the downpour, Talia could clearly see his pale, glowing blue eyes. They were strikingly beautiful eyes.

“What are you doing there?”

The blue-eyed boy asked, leaning toward her. It was a chilling voice that didn’t match his delicate face, which still held a hint of childhood. Talia felt a shiver run down her spine.

At the time, she thought it was merely because of the cold. But looking back now, she felt she had sensed it vaguely the moment she heard that voice. That the boy with the indifferent face looking down at her would push her life into a hellish agony…

If she had clearly recognized the true nature of that distant sensation that day, Talia would have thrown the small bird gasping piteously in her hands back into the muddy water and crawled up the mud on all fours like a pig that knew neither filth nor shame.

Then, she would have run far, far away from the blue-eyed boy. She would have erased the very fact that she had ever seen him from her mind forever.

But the eight-year-old Talia had no idea the boy appearing through the rain would become her despair. And so, she looked up at him and snapped in her usual thorny tone.

“Can’t you see? I fell into the pit and I can’t get out.”

The boy’s eyes narrowed. He looked as if he wanted to ask why she had gone in there in the first place.

But instead of asking a question, he slid down into the pit where she stood, unconcerned that his well-tailored trousers and expensive-looking leather boots were being soiled by the mud.

Talia stared at him with a startled expression. She hadn’t expected such an action from a boy with a face so cold it seemed he wouldn’t bleed even if pricked.

He trudged through the swamp-like muddy water. Up close, the boy looked even taller and more slender than he had from below. He seemed to be at least a head taller than her.

Approaching her with long, supple legs, the boy reached out a hand and spoke.

“Grab on.”