The corridor stretching from the greenhouse adjoining the king’s office to the Grand Audience Chamber was a veritable madhouse.
The Grand Audience Chamber, which had seemed endlessly grand and beautiful in times of peace, now felt nothing more than a vast, frigid tomb as the ashen-faced officials and terrified members of the royal family crowded into it as though fleeing for their lives.
The king slumped upon the throne, staring blankly into space, while the ministers lined up below him could do nothing but tremble, not one of them daring to open his mouth.
Prince Joseph, the princess, and I stood on the dais right beside the throne, holding our breaths.
‘Why was I dragged here?’
My mother was clutching the queen’s hand and trembling violently, while I held Amy’s hand as she quaked like a leaf.
Bang-!!
At that moment, the massive iron doors of the Grand Audience Chamber were thrown open with a harsh crash.
Crossing the threshold were soldiers of the Empire, clad from head to toe in pitch-black armor and accompanied by the dense stench of blood.
“St-stop! This is His Majesty’s presence! Disarm yourselves at once and—!”
The royal guards stationed by the entrance shouted as they crossed their spears.
But their voices had already cracked at the edges, warped by fear.
“……”
The black-armored soldiers did not stop walking.
They merely stared silently at the guards, their eyes gleaming beneath their helmets with a murderous intent that seemed to belong to men who had torn dozens of people apart.
Faced with those terrifying gazes and overwhelming physiques, the guards faltered, trailing off mid-sentence as they slowly backed away and opened a path without a sound.
With only a handful of Imperial soldiers, the heart of the kingdom was utterly trampled beneath the pressure they exuded.
Clank, clank.
Bloodstained boots crushed against the marble floor as they advanced to stand directly before the throne.
The knight at their head, a massive sword strapped to her waist, tossed off her helmet.
Clang-!
From atop the pitch-black helmet rolling across the floor, jet-black hair freed from its confines spilled down like a waterfall.
At that moment, muffled gasps burst from every corner of the Grand Audience Chamber.
I, too, instinctively drew in a breath.
‘…She’s beautiful.’
The face hidden beneath the helmet was so overwhelmingly beautiful that it took my breath away.
Strong, well-defined features flowing in smooth lines, pale cheeks spattered with blood, and above all, cold violet eyes that gleamed with a fierce intensity, like a beast glaring down its prey.
The moment one laid eyes on her, there was no other word to describe her but heroine—a woman possessing a beauty both savage and noble.
“My name is Victoria von Argenheim.”
Her voice was cold as ice and powerful enough to reverberate through the entire chamber.
“I am the eldest daughter of His Imperial Majesty, the emperor of the Great Empire, as well as the supreme commander of the Imperial Army and the leader of its vanguard. I stand before you today as an envoy bearing His Imperial Majesty’s will to this wretched Sterling Kingdom.”
The Empire’s First Princess. The heroine known as the Emissary of the Battlefield.
I remembered who she was. In the original novel, she had made a brief appearance while trampling and tormenting the battered princess.
Victoria arrogantly looked down at the trembling king seated upon the throne and raised her chin.
“The messenger I sent ahead to spare your lives should have announced your surrender. I believe I gave you more than enough time to assess the situation and confer before the Imperial Army kicked down the gates of this royal castle.”
“E-Envoy… The messenger arrived less than an hour ago. Th-that is why…”
As the king stammered out his excuse, blatant contempt surfaced in Victoria’s violet eyes.
She snorted and sneered.
“It took so long for news from the front to reach the capital? What a weak and incompetent nation, one that cannot even maintain a proper messenger system. Then again, I suppose that is why you were slaughtered without being able to stop even one of my cavalry units, despite having twenty times our numbers.”
The military officials’ faces reddened at the undeniable humiliation, but not one of them dared to speak.
Victoria clicked her tongue briefly.
“There is no time to waste. Surrender or death. Choose.”
“We… will surrender. You may blame me for my incompetence, but please spare the innocent people. We will submit to the Empire’s judgment.”
The master of the throne lowered his head and declared his surrender.
At that moment, muffled sobs erupted from every corner of the Grand Audience Chamber.
Victoria stood crookedly with one hand resting on the hilt of her sword, looking down at the king as though mocking him.
“How cowardly and pathetic. You are the very embodiment of the weak, lacking even the slightest shred of courage or fighting spirit to defend your country. But… well, you have shown wisdom by perfectly recognizing your place and bowing down, so I shall give you that much credit. You have spared us the trouble of slaughtering you.”
She immediately began reciting the merciless terms of surrender.
“First, all ports of the Sterling Kingdom shall be opened free of charge to the Imperial Army and Imperial merchant vessels. Second, forty percent of the kingdom’s total annual tax revenue shall be offered to the Empire as tribute. Third, the Empire shall be granted the exclusive right of first purchase for all magic stones and specialty goods produced within the kingdom.”
Every one of the terms was harsh, but the king could do nothing except bite his lips until they bled and nod.
“And finally.”
Victoria’s gaze passed over the throne and turned toward us standing beside it.
“One of the Sterling king’s children shall be taken to the Empire and held as a semi-permanent hostage. Should the kingdom’s attitude toward serving the Empire become unsatisfactory, or should even the slightest rebellious movement be detected, the hostage confined within the Imperial Palace will immediately be subjected to equivalent suffering. Then their head will be cut off, their body pickled, and the remains returned to your kingdom.”
“Urgh…!”
A pained groan escaped the king.
Victoria looked back and forth between Joseph, Amy, and me with indifferent eyes, then spoke dryly, as though selecting an object.
“I will offer you one piece of personal advice. Of the two princes standing there, I recommend sending the one who is not the crown prince. That way, we will be able to ascertain the kingdom’s sincerity beyond doubt.”
‘…Wait, did she think I was a prince?’
A chill ran down my spine.
I had been dragged away in a daze in the middle of a tea party, and the fact that I had been standing right beside the king’s family had become my downfall.
“If you send that daughter of yours as a hostage, I will accept her. But should you do so, His Imperial Majesty will judge that there is a serious problem with the attitude of the Sterling Kingdom, which serves the Empire.”
“Wh-What are you talking about?! Whether son or daughter, they are equally precious blood of mine!”
The king raised his voice, but Victoria’s gaze grew even colder.
“Do not lie. From what I have seen as the Empire trampled countless nations, there have been innumerable wretched kings who sacrificed their daughters like baggage to preserve their own lives. But I have never once seen a kingdom sacrifice its son. At least, not in all that I have witnessed.”
Her frigid voice froze the Grand Audience Chamber solid.
“It does not matter if you send your daughter. But remember this: if the hostage you send displays such a deceitful attitude, that girl will suffer horrors in the Empire beyond anything you could possibly imagine.”
The princess went pale and collapsed to the floor.
That was the opening of the original novel.
The princess’s suffering had been foreshadowed by the Imperial Princess’s warning. It was no mere empty threat—she was saying, in essence, that the princess would be subjected to the same horrific abuse she had endured in the original story.
‘…They abused her horrifically, then returned her only after both her body and mind had been destroyed, leaving her a wreck. She spent the rest of her life caring for a child who did not even know who its father was…’
Ellie, whimpering in a corner, kept catching my eye.
“That is all. From this day forward, you will become loyal subjects of the Empire and devote yourselves to its service.”
Having said everything she came to say, Victoria picked up her helmet from the floor and placed it back over her head.
Her violet eyes flashed fiercely through the gaps in the helmet.
“You would do well not to consider betraying the Empire. If you harbor any other intentions…”
She paused, then casually threw a dark, grimy pouch from her waist onto the floor.
Thud.
The blood-soaked, heavy pouch came undone, and a brutally severed human head rolled out.
Its eyes had rolled white in death. The head belonged to the Margrave of Lancaster, the shield of the kingdom who had guarded its northern frontier.
“The heads your kingdom will offer shall not end with this one.”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!!”
The moment the severed head rolled to a stop at the steps directly below the throne, a scream tore through the Grand Audience Chamber.
The queen, confronted with the severed head head-on, foamed at the mouth and fainted on the spot, while the remaining ministers collapsed to the floor and began retching.
Leaving behind the enemy kingdom’s heartland, now transformed into a scene of utter chaos, Princess Victoria turned around without hesitation and walked out of the Grand Audience Chamber.