Trembling with fear, covering her ears, she waited for a day.
Before she knew it, the sounds had ceased, and unfamiliar servants and a knight came to the tower where Lellia was staying.
They recognized Lellia's identity and returned.
Then, a few days later.
A servant took Lellia and headed toward the main palace.
'Emperor Perseus is looking for me.'
Lellia tried not to tremble as she followed behind them. Perhaps from hiding in the wardrobe the entire time without eating, walking was difficult.
The road to the main palace was in ruins. Traces of battle were visible everywhere, and the smell of burning corpses wafted through the air.
Fortunately, the stench disappeared once they entered the main palace building. Lellia looked around at the splendid interior. Aside from times she couldn't even remember, this was her first time coming to the main palace.
They entered the main palace, climbed the stairs, and were passing through a corridor painted in gold.
"Wait a moment."
When the servant walking ahead stopped, Lellia stopped as well.
"Is this her?"
Someone was pointing at Lellia and asking. Lellia instinctively held her breath. Her throat tightened.
Raising her head between the gaps of the servants, she saw two boys taller than her.
'Of all times....'
If Lellia's prediction was correct, no, there was no need to predict—it was certain. Those two were Emperor Perseus's two sons.
And....
'They're the obsessively doting older brothers who cherish Uriana extremely.'
At the same time, they absolutely detested Lellia.
"Move aside so I can see her face."
At those words, the servant who had been standing guard in front of Lellia stepped aside. Lellia clenched her fists tightly and looked at him.
She didn't want to hide or run away. She hadn't done anything wrong.
"Look at her acting all bold? Hey, I heard your mother harassed our mother so badly before she died.... Are you that shameless because you take after your mother?"
The one who spoke was Damian, the younger of the twin brothers.
"...."
Lellia had nothing to say. That Princess Iris had harassed Perseus's wife was a fact that appeared in the original work as well.
"Your Highness, if you have something to say, please save it for later. Right now, His Majesty first...."
"Quiet."
The anxious servant fell silent at Cedric's words. Now these two were, in name and reality, princes of the Auraria Empire.
They couldn't treat the ones who would become the empire's future carelessly.
Cedric took one more step toward Lellia. His cheek twisted.
"Lellia Auraria.... On the day you were born, my sibling died right after coming out of our mother's womb."
"...."
"My sibling died, yet here you are, alive like this. Isn't that too unfair?"
Damian, who had been listening quietly, also sneered and chimed in.
"That's right! Your mother, Princess Iris, and Lydios conspired to torment our mother to death! Our mother also passed away right after her stillbirth.... You daughter of a murderer!"
Cedric and Damian ground their teeth and glared at Lellia.
Despite their young age, their eyes were fierce. As Lellia hesitated without answering, they looked even angrier.
That was when it happened.
"Brothers!"
A cheerful and lively voice called out from afar.
At that voice, Damian and Cedric quickly turned their heads in surprise. There, Uriana was approaching while waving her hand.
Wearing a pretty yellow dress with her hair tied in two braids, Uriana looked cute and lovely at first glance.
"What are you doing here right now? You're not playing while leaving only Uri behind, are you?!"
"No way! N-nothing at all! Let's go, Uriana!"
Damian glanced at Lellia as if she might taint him with something dirty, then quickly blocked Uriana's view.
Then Cedric blocked her view once more.
"How dare you look, you filthy thing...."
Cedric said while gnashing his teeth as he looked at Lellia. Then he followed after Damian and Uriana.
"...Please, let's go."
The servant, who had barely caught his breath, spoke to the knight standing behind Uriana. Lellia began walking again, following the servant.
Thanks to the novel's content, she had expected it to some degree... but Cedric and Damian's first impression was truly the worst.
After walking for a while, they arrived in front of an enormous door. The servant knocked, then opened the door and entered.
It appeared to be the Emperor's office—spacious and splendid inside, yet an administrative atmosphere permeated the air.
A large mahogany desk was the first thing she saw. Then, a man sitting with his chin resting in front of the desk came into view.
'Emperor Perseus....'
The servant nudged her forward, so Lellia walked toward him hesitantly.
"...So you are Lellia."
It was a voice low and cold like a bitter winter.
The true master of the imperial throne. One who reclaimed the throne by raising a storm of blood, yet had the justification to do so. Cold and rational, with not a speck of mercy in his hands....
But to his adopted daughter Uriana, he became infinitely weak and revealed his wounds as a tender father.
Lellia raised her head and looked straight at him. Vivid blue eyes gazed at her like a wild beast.
It was a gaze filled with hatred, as if he wanted to devour her right this moment.
'And....'
Lellia clenched her fists tightly and looked at him without avoiding his eyes.
'My real biological father.'
Lellia stared blankly at Emperor Perseus, then lowered her head.
"...."
In the original work, she was a device created for certain episodes.
The first device was to show how overprotective Uriana's older brothers were, and the second device was this.
A person who inflicted great wounds and sorrow upon Emperor Perseus.
In short, a disposable character. An unfortunate supporting character created for Perseus's sake.
In the original work, Emperor Perseus learns the truth long after Lellia dies.
He suffers and falls into despair upon knowing that fact.... But his adopted daughter Uriana comforts him and becomes the hope that lets him live again.
'Honestly, I don't even want to think of him as my real father....'
Until now, she had deliberately ignored it, but actually seeing him before her eyes, she felt a strange sensation. It was different from the brothers who were simply childish brats.
"Your eyes resemble that man."
The eyes of the knight Princess Iris had loved were greenish, similar to Lellia's.
And Perseus's deceased wife, Lellia's biological mother Elizabeth, also had beautiful peridot-like eyes.
"...."
Lellia raised her head again to look at Perseus. He distorted his cheek as if in anguish, then turned his head away.
"Take her back."
Perseus said to the servant standing behind Lellia.
"Understood, Your Majesty."
The servant immediately approached Lellia and yanked her back by the nape of her neck. It was rudeness completely devoid of any respect, unworthy of an attitude toward a member of the imperial family.
However, no one pointed it out.
The Emperor turned his chair to show his back as if averting his gaze, and the other servants and knights simply looked at Lellia with cold eyes.
'It's absurd. What's the point of regretting it later?'
Lellia mocked Perseus internally as she returned to the tower.
In the original work, Emperor Perseus belatedly learns that Lellia is his biological daughter and regrets having hurt her.
But regret came too late. In the original work, Lellia had died.
Honestly, she sometimes thought about telling the Emperor the truth even now....
'There's no way.'
Without evidence, saying such things would get her treated as a crazy person.
'I can't reveal it until the nanny who disappeared appears.'
But the time when the nanny would appear was still far off. She had no intention of staying here blankly waiting until then.
'Before that, I'll be used for a political marriage.'
If she got married like being sold off to some strange fellow and then it was revealed she was his biological daughter, it would be useless.
'The only way is escape.'
Lellia made a firm resolution as she returned to the tower. Her body felt drained of energy, and she collapsed onto the bed.
'I'm exhausted....'
Having encountered Cedric, Damian, and then Emperor Perseus in succession, her energy had been sucked dry.
Lellia lay motionless, staring at the ceiling as she recalled memories of the original work.
'The nanny is the key to the secret....'
The nanny who had cared for young Lellia before suddenly disappearing one day. In the original work, the nanny's whereabouts were revealed much later.
She had been Princess Iris's maid, and under the princess's orders, she protected and lived with Lellia. Then one day, she suddenly received urgent news from her family. Her parents living in the countryside had been imprisoned, suspected of being heretics. Those branded as heretics could never escape execution. She immediately stole the princess's jewelry and fled. She took her parents and escaped beyond the borders.
No matter how much the princess had left final instructions, before the lives of one's family, nothing could be more important.
The nanny, the only person who knew the truth, would return to the imperial palace much later.
'And recalling the situation at the time, she would confess all the facts to Emperor Perseus....'
At that time, both Elizabeth and Princess Iris were pregnant.
Normally, there would have been a difference in their due dates, but unfortunately, Elizabeth gave birth earlier than expected.
Perseus was away on a campaign at the time, and his two sons were being cared for at Elizabeth's family home.
And around that time, an incident occurred where the current Emperor, Perseus's father, suddenly collapsed.
Everything was a scheme by Lydios, who coveted the throne. Even the fact that Perseus, then the Crown Prince, had gone on campaign.
Elizabeth, who realized all the facts, understood that Perseus might not return.
And that along with her own life, the child in her womb might not survive either.
Amidst this, Elizabeth's labor began, and she dismissed all the servants and gave birth alone.
Perhaps it was for the best. She had to smuggle the child out before Lydios's surveillance intensified.
Holding the child who had come into the world early without completing the full months, Elizabeth wept. But she couldn't just keep crying.
'What should I do...?'
She tried to think of someone to ask for help. But there was no one in the imperial palace who would help her.
Her mother-in-law, the Empress, had passed away long ago, her father-in-law the Emperor had collapsed, and her sister-in-law Princess Iris hated her intensely.
'There has to be a way....'
Elizabeth thought that even if she died, she absolutely had to protect this child, and left her quarters.
Late at night, the place she went was Princess Iris's quarters.
Coincidentally, Princess Iris had also just given birth. However, the princess's chambers were filled with gloom.
The moment she stepped inside, Elizabeth felt the shadow of death.
The child Princess Iris had carried to full term had died.
Princess Iris was writhing in pain and crying. Her beloved had died, and now even her last remaining child had died.
She had no will to live anymore.
Elizabeth knelt before the princess and begged.
"Princess Iris, please save this child.... As a mother yourself, show mercy just this once, please...."
Princess Iris glared at Elizabeth, whom she had always hated.
"In a situation where my child has died, you're asking me to save yours? Did you come here thinking I would listen to those words?"
Princess Iris wanted to kill both mother and daughter right then and there....
But when she saw the child held in Elizabeth's arms, her heart wavered.
Though her own child had died immediately after birth, still, she was a mother.
As someone's mother, she couldn't bring herself to harm that child.
Princess Iris wept for a long time, then made her decision.
"Leave the child and go."
"Princess Iris...."
Princess Iris received her dead child from her maid and handed it to Elizabeth.
Iris, who even had to send away her dead child's body, and Elizabeth, who had to leave her child behind.
That day, Lellia's fate was decided.
Elizabeth returned to her quarters, sobbing, holding the stillborn child.
Lydios heard this news late and rejoiced greatly. The child he had intended to kill immediately after birth had died without him lifting a finger. God was on his side.
Then he heard the news that Crown Prince Perseus, as well as his older brother's two sons, had all died.
Lydios had no more reason to hesitate. He fed Elizabeth poison as well, killed her, and took the throne that should have returned to his older brother, becoming Emperor.
Amidst that chaos, Princess Iris ended up raising Elizabeth's child in her place, but fell deep into illness and began to waste away.
Sensing her death, Iris entrusted Lellia to the only maid who knew the truth, asking her to take good care of her, and closed her eyes.
All of this was a tragedy for Perseus, and the lovely daughter Uriana who would heal him. A narrative prepared only for those two.
Lellia had absolutely no intention of becoming a tool for that narrative.
"...."
Lellia rose from the bed and quietly gazed beneath the wooden floor. Down there were the fountain pen and letters she had shared with her friends.
Perhaps more letters had arrived. But Lellia had no intention of opening that wooden floor again.
If she saw them, she might end up writing letters again.
'I don't want to make them feel betrayed for being deceived.'
Lellia turned her gaze away completely and burrowed into the blankets. The happy memories from the Temple felt like a distant dream.
Her own self, smiling brightly, seemed like a lie. Come to think of it, since returning to the main country, she had never laughed as loudly as she did back then.
That fact made her heart ache for no reason, but Lellia shook her head.
'Now isn't the time to play like a child. I need to come to my senses.'
Lellia recalled her original plan and pictured in her mind the cottage nearby.
The cottage left behind by Emperor Perseus's deceased wife Elizabeth, Lellia's biological mother.
'The food supplies should be running out around now anyway.'
There would be not only emergency rations but also quite a few useful magical tools there.
'Perhaps there might even be something that would let me learn magic.'
Mana affinity was often hereditary, so there was a possibility she might develop some ability.
'If I could use magic, I wouldn't need to wait until I'm bigger to leave the palace....'
She would be able to protect herself, after all.
Lellia chewed her lips anxiously.
The time when she would die in the original work was not far off.
'It was after the doll incident... so probably within two or three months.'
Just in case, she planned to stay holed up in the tower as much as possible during that time.
'I shouldn't even go near the pond. Even if I accidentally fall in, I won't die anyway.'
When she stayed at the Temple, Lellia had learned swimming from her friends.
Remembering that time, a smile naturally formed on her lips.
How hard she had tried not to reveal she was a girl. After swimming ended, she had taken all her friends' towels, wrapped herself up, and returned to her room.
It was a happy memory. The beautiful lakeside bathed in sunset, friends shouting and laughing noisily.
Thanks to them, she had practically mastered swimming.
'I might not die from falling into a lake or a river, let alone a pond.'
Remembering that time, she missed her friends even more. Lellia deliberately turned her thoughts elsewhere.
'It's late today... so I'll go to the cottage first thing tomorrow.'
Lellia looked out the window at the setting sun, trying hard to shake off her depression.
The next morning.
As soon as she woke up, Lellia washed and changed her clothes. Then, carrying a large bag over her shoulder, she left the tower.
She wandered a bit since she didn't remember the exact location, but she managed to find the cottage.
The wooden cottage was old but had charm. Lellia carefully opened the door and went inside.
'It's cleaner than I thought? Emperor Perseus must have visited.'
It seemed he had the servants dust the place.
Lellia began to carefully examine the interior, being as cautious as possible not to leave any traces.
Inside the small cottage, someone's careful handiwork remained everywhere.
Small picture frames with pretty landscapes painted on them, a tablecloth that looked hand-embroidered, charming decorations.
All of these were things touched by the deceased Elizabeth's hand.
'....'
Lellia was seized by a strange feeling in that space.
Until now, Elizabeth had been merely a character in a novel in her mind.
No matter how she was reborn into this world, her memories from her past life remained.
But entering this small, narrow space, her heart strangely fluttered.
The fact that there had been someone she could call mother touched her skin anew.
Coming here, she felt like she understood what kind of person Elizabeth must have been when she was alive.
Even in the original work, she was a person with a warm heart, lovely enough to capture Perseus's entire heart.
Lellia's chest swelled with emotion.
This place felt warm and safe, like the womb of the mother she couldn't even remember.
It was so cozy that it gave her the illusion that perhaps this space had been created for her sake.
Is this what it would feel like to be held in a mother's embrace?
For the first time, Lellia imagined what it would have been like if her mother hadn't died but had lived.
Elizabeth would have protected her child more preciously than her own life.
She would have loved her with all her heart and taught her all the beautiful and righteous things in the world.
That alone was enough.
"...."
Lellia stood there blankly for a while, just staring at meaningless spaces somewhere.