Episode 3. The Unexpected
2023.08.03.
It was the first thing Jürgen had said inside the carriage carrying Rowel.
The circumstances confirming that Rowel’s father had shown signs of rebellion against the imperial family had been verified, and Jürgen’s explanation extended as far as to say that the mansion of House Hesen had burned as punishment. It was shockingly monotonous. There was no twist whatsoever. And so, nothing reached Rowel.
But what lay before her eyes was unmistakable reality.
“The fire is merely a warning shown to the other nobles. A warning that not only the Hesen family but all those related to them shall not escape death.”
At Jürgen’s composed voice, Rowel tightly clutched the hem of her skirt over her thigh.
“So I…….”
“That is why I hid you. If it becomes known that a member of House Hesen still lives, they will certainly try to kill you.”
Rowel closed her mouth again. No, she clenched her molars. Only when her jaw had grown numb was she barely able to open it again.
“I cannot understand it.”
Her voice, flowing from her deeply bowed head, trembled faintly. Tears fell heavily onto the back of her hand clutching the skirt hem.
“My father was not that kind of person. Even if my father was guilty, there was no need for the others to die as well. All those many people…….”
Rowel had loved her family, the people of Hesen Manor. Even if they had not expected her recovery, even if they had occasionally shown signs of exhaustion from her battle with illness, there was no denying that Rowel had received much from them.
Rowel could vividly recall the last scene she had seen before leaving.
[“I hope there will be good results, my daughter.”]
[“They say your brothers will arrive tomorrow, so by the time you return, the whole family will be gathered together for the first time in a while.”]
[“My lady, if you grow hungry on the road, please take this out. It is a sandwich spread with plenty of the jelly you like.”]
Her father with a worried expression, her mother forcing a smile. Her nanny who had carefully packed small items. And the maids who used to sit by her side and read to her on nights when Rowel could not fall asleep.
For Rowel, who could not go outside, the world was Hesen Manor, and all the people of Hesen Manor were no different from family to her.
Yet all of it had burned away in an instant.
For the reason that rebellion against the imperial family had been detected, for the reason that her father was guilty, and for the reason that they would be made an example of.
No reason reached Rowel. No words could serve as a reason they had to die.
That fact was so heartbreaking and unjust that Rowel wept aloud for a long while inside the carriage.
It was the day Rowel’s world burned.
* * *
Ten years had passed since then.
“Must you really enter the palace?”
At the voice from behind her, Rowel, who had been lowering her veil, suddenly turned her head.
Before her stood her adoptive brother, Rene. Rene’s face, his silver hair neatly combed back, wore the kind smile she remembered from some time ago, but today was different. Today, clear worry was etched across his entire face.
“Say you’ll stop even now. It is not too late.”
“……I do not understand why you are so worried, Rene. Did not the Emperor say he would take a noble woman with black hair as his bride?”
Rowel countered as such, sweeping back the hair revealed beneath her veil as if to show it off.
Black hair like ebony, which no color could dye.
Wearing a pure white dress like flowers filling the room, with a white veil draped over her face, Rowel was strikingly beautiful even in the unadorned white dress. Perhaps it was because the black hair flowing down beneath the veil formed a vivid contrast with the white dress.
Even if mixed among a group dressed so gorgeously that onlookers found it breathtaking, the atmosphere unique to her—silent and cold like a frozen river—would draw gazes.
“I have met the conditions, so there will be nothing to find fault with. Do not worry.”
“You know that condition itself is absurd, do you not? How is it any different from being told to bring green grapes in the dead of winter?”
At Rowel’s calm anger, Rene eventually furrowed his brow and rubbed his face.
Just a few days ago, an emergency had befallen all nobles.
The Emperor, who until now had stubbornly refused to take even a consort, let alone an empress, had suddenly declared he would take a bride.
Instead, the condition was attached that the bride must be a noble woman with hair entirely pitch-black like ink. He said if they brought a bride who did not meet the condition, he would kill her and cast her out.
“A noble woman with black hair…… It is absurd.”
In the Belpeu Empire, hair color is proof of bloodline. Those called of noble lineage are born with light hair regardless of gender.
“Until now, there has not been a single black-haired noble. This is…….”
“Why say there is none, Rene? There was one.”
At Rowel’s retort, Rene let out a sigh. She was right. There had indeed existed exactly one known black-haired noble.
“If you are speaking of the Emperor’s first love, she died. And for treason at that.”
“……That is right.”
“Exactly. Thus, the Emperor publicly declared that unless they could bring back the dead, he had no intention of taking a bride. Yet if you become the Emperor’s bride…… you will have to bear all that anger. If something happens within the palace, there is a limit to how much I can protect you. You…….”
“Enough, Rene.”
Rowel, who had been listening silently, opened her mouth.
“I am fine.”
Unlike Rene, who could not hide his worry, Rowel was calm.
It was only natural. Her entering the palace was not due to anyone’s coercion, but her own choice. Rene looked at Rowel with a distorted expression for a long while and asked.
“……Are you not afraid of death?”
“Well. It would be a lie to say I am not afraid of death. But you know it too, Brother. That my life does not have much left.”
“But…….”
“I must go now.”
Before Rene could catch her again, Rowel turned around first and stepped out the door. Outside, an ornately decorated carriage was waiting for her.
Rowel boarded the carriage and looked beyond the rattling window, thinking.
*If I ride this carriage…… will I be able to return?*
Rene’s worries were not unfounded. Rowel had also heard many stories.
The current Emperor, Peter Ponderaien Belpeu.
He was a tyrant who had purged countless people including his own father and ascended to the throne.
The rumor that such a man terribly hated women was already an openly known fact.
*I heard the women who tried to seduce the Emperor all died.*
The reason was simple. The Emperor could not forget his first love, who had died.
Women who knew this fact well dyed their hair black and imitated the first love to try to deceive the Emperor, and paid with their lives.
*And now, perhaps that will be my future.*
Was I not afraid of death? There was no way I wasn’t afraid. But fighting the fear of death was something Rowel did every day.
The reason was simple. Rowel was terminal.
*Didn’t the doctor say about half a year was the best I could hope for?*
Every time she occasionally had seizures, every time she groaned with excessively high fever, she felt the terror of death. For her, whose skin ached with cold beneath the surface at the mere brush of wind, the fear that she might not see the morning sun was as natural as a shadow.
More than anything, there was something she had to do even prepared for death.
Killing the Emperor.
Ten years ago, Jürgen had hidden her identity and brought her to the capital.
He had suggested giving Rowel enough money to live in hiding, but she refused and clung to him.
[“Please take me in. I am not asking to be accepted as your adopted daughter. It is enough if I can repay your grace at Your Grace the Duke’s side.”]
After much deliberation, Jürgen took her in as his adopted daughter, and thus she became not ‘Rowel Hesen’ but ‘Anet Martinek.’
There was only one reason she refused the chance to spend the rest of her days in peace.
*I will have my revenge.*
Revenge upon the Ponderaien Imperial Family who had burned her world.
Before that resolve, ten years were meaningless. The Emperor who had burned Hesen, and Jürgen who had made Rowel into Anet, were both dead. Time had changed many things, but Rowel’s desire for revenge had not waned in the slightest.
“It does not matter who the Emperor is.”
“As long as it is the hateful Ponderaien. If only I can sharpen my fury into a blue blade and pierce their throats.”
For that alone, Rowel chose to walk into the lion’s den. From the moment she decided, there were no other lingering attachments.
*……No, there is one.*
Rowel alighted from the carriage and passed through a corridor decorated with white flowers, suddenly recalling the past. The boy who had held her hand and met her eyes in the past.
[“Wait for me. I will surely return to you…… I will save you.”]
Yes, Peter. Only you are my lingering attachment.
*……I had wanted to meet again someday.*
Now it had become a dream that could not be fulfilled. Since entering this place, what awaited her was nothing but the Emperor’s death and her own death.
At the end of the dark corridor, as Rowel stopped walking, an attendant slowly opened the door.
And beyond it, the Emperor would be waiting.
Rowel stepped inside, steeling her resolve.
*I must seize the opportunity somehow.*
If need be, she could fawn, she could grovel. She had no intention of staying still. If she could somehow make the Emperor lower his guard and plunge a knife into his neck, she could do anything.
But the moment Rowel entered the room and saw the Emperor standing there.
She felt every resolution she had made turn blank in an instant.
In her whited-out mind, her blankly parted lips uttered a single word filling her brain.
“……Peter?”
It was a reunion she had not expected.