~Chapter 128~
I bit my lower lip and muttered,
“They’re rushing even more than I expected.”
Nocturne warned me,
“It could be moved up again. Even after announcing the execution date, they might try brainwashing, or even carry out the execution suddenly with no warning.”
“Would they really do that to their fiancée?”
“Easily. Minette is an important figure for the princess’s side.”
“The princess’s side…?”
Princess Ariadna is already dead, so does that even mean anything? …Now, legally, I am the only princess left.
‘So the only reason the princess’s side can still exist is because of me… Am I the symbol that can go against Padva now…?’
Suddenly, I felt dizzy. The problem that always felt like someone else’s suddenly became my own crisis.
I pressed my fingers to my temples and said,
“So, today is basically the golden time.”
“Yes. If we wait any longer, we can’t guarantee Minette’s life,” Nocturne said.
Just then, there was a polite knock at the door. When Nocturne answered, Lance appeared with another man.
“The teleporter has arrived.”
Nocturne checked the new person and looked at me. I nodded with difficulty.
“Alright. Let’s leave right away.”
There was a special group in the Empire called the “Seven Electors.”
They had the highest authority and decided who would be emperor.
The emperor could pick an heir, but that only made someone a candidate.
The real emperor had to get the approval of at least four out of the seven electors.
If the candidate didn’t get enough votes, the emperor had to choose another person.
No one could become emperor without the electors’ approval.
Because the royal family always trained their heirs carefully, there had never been a case where the electors blocked a candidate completely.
Still, the electors were not just for show.
They always did strict background checks and held elections. They were the main power that kept the emperor in check.
The Seven Electors were made up of three founding noble families and four kings. One of them was the Meyer family.
Minette Meyer was an A-rank mental-type Eshafe and was expected to become the next head of the Meyer family.
Padva probably got engaged to Minette to win the Meyer family’s support in the election for emperor.
Minette, the eldest daughter of the Empire’s greatest noble family and now the prince’s fiancée—when their engagement was announced, the nobles whispered that Minette might become the most noble woman in the Empire.
“Ugh…”
Minette’s light eyelashes trembled. She opened her eyes with difficulty and saw a small window. Outside the iron bars, a little bird landed.
Chirp chirp.
Minette stared blankly at the bird and scratched her neck.
“Ouch.”
She stopped because it hurt. When she looked at her hand, the tip of her fingernail was red. She touched her neck and felt rough scratches.
“I keep scratching without noticing. Is it because of the control ring…?”
Some Eshafes have bad reactions to wearing the control ring. Maybe she was one of those cases.
‘Or maybe it’s just withdrawal from not drinking…’
“Ugh…”
Minette leaned on the hard bed and forced herself up. They probably called this a bed, but it felt no different from the floor.
Thud!
“Ow…”
She barely got up, but her legs gave out and she fell to the floor.
She looked around at the cold, empty room—just a bed, a desk, and a private bathroom.
It was clean for a prison, maybe to treat her like a noble, but it was still a prison.
She had been locked up for ten days now, but it never felt normal.
Every morning, she woke up expecting her bed in the Meyer mansion, but all she saw was the bleak prison.
Everything felt like a dream—unreal.
‘How did Minette Meyer become a traitor…’
The control ring blocked Eshafe powers, and for mental-type Eshafes, their powers came from mental strength. Since wearing the ring, Minette felt her mind getting weaker.
That took away the last thing she was holding onto after the war.
She couldn’t even drink anymore. She couldn’t sleep properly either. Every day in prison felt endless, boring, and exhausting, and her heart kept racing for no reason.
A day in prison felt like forever.
Maybe that’s why—after so many tough interrogations and mind-readings by other Eshafes, Minette thought back on how she ended up like this.
If she hadn’t put poison in the prince’s tea, if she hadn’t tried to go against the prince’s power, if she had just obeyed her father… If she kept going back, she would always return to the same beginning.
Minette muttered inside,
“All of this started because of… Ariadna.”
“I became like this all because of you, Ari.”
I was born greedy and calculating.
Even my friendship with you, Ari, had a purpose.
I got close to the princess because I knew it would help me.
My father told me to do it, to be nice to you. And it was easy, because you, always surrounded by people, were actually a lonely child.
‘Hey, can you give this invitation to the princess?’
‘Do you think the princess would like this?’
‘Minette, how did you get so close to the princess?’
People always came to me to talk to you. It made me proud to be called your best friend.
That’s what made me feel alive—feeling special, proud, successful.
Sometimes I felt jealous. You were a stronger mental-type Eshafe, and you were born more noble than me…
‘You know better than me, Minette.’
‘Today is our 10th anniversary as friends.’
You always cared about me so purely.
When my father remarried and I almost lost my place as heir, you comforted me in every way and shared my pain and happiness.
You were like that to everyone—always kind, always thinking of others first.
Wasn’t it tiring to live like that?
‘I’ll give you your 20th anniversary present!’
‘I’ll help you when you’re having a hard time, too!’
‘Thank you. You’re the most precious friend to me.’
I tried to match your kindness, but honestly, I was just pretending.
Sometimes I hated myself for saying things I didn’t mean, just to make you like me.
I got a lot out of being your friend, but I never wanted to live like you.
Even following you into the war was a big deal for me.
‘Ari, you…!’
‘Are you okay, Minette?’
On that horrible battlefield, I couldn’t erase your memories and take them on myself.
So I ran away.
Right before the last battle, I held onto you and cried, saying I wanted to stop.
Even though I knew you had it harder, I was still a coward.
My dreams, my family, myself—they were all more important to me than you.
We were just friends, after all.
Even the closest friends are still just other people.
So…
I never thought my life would fall apart just because you died.
I never thought I’d end up drunk every night, thinking about death, because you were gone.
Now I’m glad for all the fake kindness I gave you.
I’m glad I pretended.
I wish I could take back all the honest, weak things I said.
I shouldn’t have done them.
I was a coward, pretending to be mean.
I wish I’d talked with you more, even if it felt childish or embarrassing.
I wish I’d risked my life for you, even if I thought it was too much.
“If I had known it would end like this… I would have stayed with you until the very end.”
