Episode 2

* * *

The northern sky was gray as ever, snowflakes scattering on the biting wind.

A black flag was slowly being lowered to the restrained strains of a funeral dirge.

“Isn’t that the daughter of House Cardel?”

“Wasn’t she said to have gone missing after her divorce, her life or death unknown?”

“Seems she was alive after all. When her father was searching for her so desperately, she never showed so much as the tip of her nose…”

“Shouldn’t we inform the Ducal House of Cardel?”

“And why does she look like that?”

Only belatedly did Odellie register the murmurs rippling around her.

But whatever they chose to say, it did not matter to her in the slightest.

Odellie’s gaze was fixed solely on the coffin placed forlornly in the center of the hall.

As though drawn by something, she moved forward with unsteady steps.

When she drew close to the coffin, an unbelievable sight etched itself clearly into her vision.

He lay surrounded by pure white flowers, as if merely asleep.

Rudvil Excepcion, her former husband.

The traces of the battlefield, once tangled with blood and dust, had vanished, leaving him only neat and still.

As though only after death had he found peace and rest.

Odellie recalled the conversation she had shared with the aide in the carriage.

“Every specialist said they could not determine the exact cause of death. There is much talk of suicide and murder, but the truth is something only His Highness the Grand Duke would know.”

Even as he said that, the aide had seemed to expect that Odellie might know something.

But Odellie knew nothing about Rudvil.

From the beginning, theirs had been nothing more than a contract marriage.

So…

In truth, they were no different from strangers.

‘Then why did you do it?’

Odellie simply could not understand why Rudvil had left her his entire inheritance before departing this world.

Not even now, as she stood in the funeral hall.

“Odellie, as of today, my contract with you is over.”

“This is the compensation I promised. Take it.”

“Anyone would have done, as far as I was concerned.”

“We will never see each other again.”

Was this what he had meant when he said they would never see each other again?

She wanted to ask.

But there was no one left in the world who could answer that question.

Only after the black coffin slowly descended into the earth could Odellie accept it.

The fact that he was truly dead.

Until the funeral came to an end, she could not move at all, as if nails had been driven through her feet.

Only the hem of her black skirt fluttered feebly in the cold wind.

* * *

Odellie first met him six years ago.

That day, the square seethed with the heat of a festival.

For every year around this time, a grand ceremony was held.

“Look over there!”

Atop the castle walls, mages in white uniforms stood arranged along a circular ritual array.

“O one who has inherited the ancient blood, beacon of purification.”

“Protect this empire from all that is impure.”

As the incantation was repeated like a hymn, the man standing at the center stood out above all others.

His sacred silver hair streamed in the wind, and his low, firm voice rang out through the crowd.

“In accordance with the primordial covenant…”

Gawin Cardel, heir to House Cardel and the one called the messenger of God.

Hundreds of years ago, the Luminere Empire had been driven to the brink of collapse by grotesque beings that harbored evil energy.

In the midst of that crisis, the dragon revered as a divine beast cast a barrier over the entire empire with ancient magic, and that barrier perfectly blocked all threats from the outside, protecting the empire.

But as time passed, the barrier began to lose its power…

And just as the people’s unease deepened, they appeared.

The Ducal House of Cardel.

The only family capable of wielding ancient magic.

Each year, Cardel presided over the ceremony to repair the barrier, and the people began to call that day the “Day of Protection.”

And that tradition had been passed down to the present.

“Raise the sacred barrier once more.”

Beneath his feet, ancient characters shone as though alive and moving, and a pillar of golden mana soared high into the sky.

At that moment, the barrier faintly revealed itself overhead.

A dome-shaped wall that shimmered like a vast membrane of glass.

Proof that the empire still stood beneath the dragon’s protection.

The crowd gazed up at the sight with eyes full of awe.

“…With the chains of eternity, I bind this empire.”

It was the moment Gawin uttered the final incantation.

The light that flowed from the mages’ fingertips joined as one and split the sky.

A golden flash spread along the castle walls, and the outline of the barrier was clearly engraved all the way to the far reaches of the distant sky.

As the golden flash faded, the barrier, too, turned transparent and concealed its traces.

But everyone knew.

That protective wall would guarantee another year of peace.

“Long live House Cardel!”

“Descendants of the dragon, blood of heroes, long live!”

“Glory to the Luminere Empire!”

The square was engulfed in cheers and the clamor of the festival.

But far below it, in a place of unfathomable depth.

Odellie was imprisoned in a secret space that could only be reached after passing through a complicated security process.

“Cough…!”

The hem of her white dress soaked red.

When she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, crimson blood dripped between her fingers.

This was Odellie’s role.

Descendants of the dragon? Ancient magic?

That was the fraud House Cardel had carried on for hundreds of years.

All that talk of ancient magic protecting the empire was an illusion, nothing more than a well-crafted script.

There existed only the sacrifice who ground down her own body to make this entire play look convincing.

‘This year is a bit… harsh.’

Odellie muttered inwardly as she swallowed the blood.

It felt as though her throat were burning away.

In each generation of Cardel, only one person was born with the “ability to purify.”

The family named those capable of purifying every impurity in the world “Purifiers.”

And every year on the Day of Protection, they drove everything defined as evil into the body of the Purifier.

The one-sided sacrifice of a single person for the sake of a family that had endured for hundreds of years. That was the truth behind the ancient barrier of which Cardel was so proud.

“Hk, cough!”

Odellie vomited blood again.

The lifespan of a Purifier was not very long.

At most, around thirty years…

And once they died, a Purifier with that power would unfailingly be born in the next generation.

As if even the heavens supported this cruel cycle.

‘How much longer can I hold out?’

Leaning back against the wall, Odellie slowly closed her eyes.

Afterimages of light hovering behind her eyelids spread like flames.

That was when it happened.

Clack—

She heard the sound of a lock turning.

In this place where no one could enter.

‘Is it Gawin?’

What tyranny had he come to commit this time?

Odellie struggled to open her eyes.

Within her faintly wavering vision, the other person’s face gradually grew clear.

And then…

“…”

Her eyes met those of a man she had never seen before, yet who did not feel unfamiliar.

Rudvil Excepcion.

The iron-blooded Grand Duke who ruled the North.

He was a famous figure in many senses.

Odellie wondered why on earth he was here, but she did not even have the strength to ask.

Rudvil stared down at her, then spoke as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

“I have a proposal for you.”

“…”

“The term is five years.”

He sounded as though he had made this sort of proposal hundreds of times before.

In a dry voice that revealed not the slightest trace of emotion, he continued languidly.

“If you safely perform the role of mistress of House Excepcion for five years, I will sever all ties between you and House Cardel.”

“…”

Was this, by any chance, a proposal?

She thought it was madness. Thought it made no sense at all.

But the words that followed made Odellie falter.

“At this rate, you will die within a year.”

Odellie blinked. The man before her did not disappear.

Which meant he was not a hallucination.

‘Five years…’

When she did not even know whether she could survive this year, it seemed like far too distant a span of time.

Even so.

“It seems I have no reason to hesitate.”

If, before she died, she could stand beneath the warm sunlight and feel a cool breeze.

If she could live through an ordinary day.

“…No. I suppose I don’t.”

“Good.”

Light. Salvation.

He was a man utterly far removed from such words.

“Can you stand?”

“Yes.”

“Then stand.”

“…Yes.”

There was no gentle comfort, nor did he offer her his hand.

And yet, strangely, his presence felt vivid and distinct.

Odellie slowly raised the body that had been collapsed powerlessly on the floor.

Rudvil did not even wait for her to stand before turning away at once.

He strode out without hesitation, passed through the secret room, and opened the locked door.

“…!”

Light so strong it made her eyes ache came pouring in.

Odellie instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

When she was finally able to open them again, she saw a ray of light and golden dust drifting like waves.

“…”

It was a life in which she had abandoned both expectation and hope.

So why had she suddenly, for no reason at all, begun to think she wanted to try living?

For the first time, Odellie drew in a long, deep breath.

Within it was a faint hope.

Very small.

But certain.