Chapter 3
Then he was gone.
Cassian disappeared with a light bow, leaving Nina staring after him with a confused gaze. He had likely gone to the Emperor’s audience hall.
“Haah…”
Nina leaned against a pillar in the corridor and exhaled quietly.
That strange healer who had treated me on the battlefield… he was the First Prince of Montreger? What on earth had possessed him to help me?
“Nina.”
Someone called her name.
Looking up, Nina saw her twin sister, Lilien, approaching with two attendants.
Wearing a bright light green dress with a pearl-adorned necklace and a lace shawl draped over her shoulders, Lilien moved with elegant grace.
If not told they were twins, no one would guess it. The two princesses differed in clothing, hair, appearance, and even body type.
“Heh, a mess, isn’t it?”
Seeing her sister in a battle-stained uniform, Lilien laughed brightly, her eyes crinkling with delight.
Nina lowered her eyes, noticing the hand mirror held in her sister’s hands. The pink, glossy nails caught her attention today.
Clenching her own blood-stained nails, Nina nodded slightly.
“I just came from the battlefield.”
Of course it’s a mess.
Suppressing the words she wanted to speak, Nina glanced at the two attendants standing beside Lilien. Only then did they offer her a polite curtsey.
Since childhood, Lilien’s attendants had barely acknowledged Nina as a princess. No one had ever reprimanded them for it.
“You always return safely. Truly impressive. Ah, perhaps it’s natural for someone with a cursed immortal body?”
“….”
“Having met my returned sister, I can’t just let you go empty-handed. This was handmade by Mother for my birthday—want it?”
Nina looked at the ruby-studded ribbon-shaped hairpin Lilien was pointing to.
“Her birthday must have been mine too.”
The hairpin matched Lilien’s long, curly red hair perfectly. It was likely the handiwork of the meticulous Empress, who had always made every little thing for her daughter.
But such care had never extended to Nina.
A question from her childhood resurfaced:
“If I had a heart, would my parents have loved me like they love Lilien? Would I ever receive gifts filled with so much affection?”
She had never believed she would. Perhaps she realized too early that a heart she never had could never be made.
“Well… the heart is surely there. If you believe so… either someone deceived you, or you deceived yourself.”
For some reason, Nina recalled Cassian’s words. Though technically incorrect, his low, confident voice had imprinted strangely deeply in her memory—alongside his face.
“Hey! Aren’t you going to answer me?”
Ah, he had asked if she would take the hairpin. Nina shook her head.
“No. I’m fine.”
She knew Lilien wanted to see her hurt.
Until her early teens, she had unwittingly shown envy or pain, but after countless battles where lives were cut down around her, ribbons and dresses no longer fell within the scope of things Nina desired.
“Now, there’s nothing I want, only things I want to discard.”
The nickname Frozen Blade, the expectation of sacrifice, the prophecy she considered a curse… even the pain she might wish for had become familiar and mundane.
Lilien, seeing Nina’s indifferent gaze, burst out laughing.
“Of course! That short hair of yours would make a jewel hairpin look ridiculous. I was too kind-hearted, sorry~!”
Short hair was convenient. Nina dismissed the thought in her head.
Her birthday had been over two months ago. Even as a twin, the birthday had only been Lilien’s. Nina had never received a birthday gift or even a congratulatory word from her parents. After her first campaign at fourteen, she was mostly at war, leaving no time for birthdays.
“The pin suits you well. I’m jealous. Well then, I’ll go.”
The fragile, theatrically delicate Lilien had run all the way here; even if Nina could not indulge her act, she could give the small acknowledgment she desired. Tossing a casual “I’m jealous” over her shoulder, Nina turned to leave.
“You heard, right? That proud Montreger is now a vassal of Arsed.”
“Yeah.”
“The First Prince, previously heir apparent, is now a hostage. Today, I’ll make him kneel before me. It’ll be fun to see him humiliated, won’t it?”
Giggling with delight, Lilien’s attendants echoed her laughter.
Nina turned silently and let out a quiet scoff.
“I doubt he’s the type to be humiliated by that.”
After all, he had already knelt and kissed her hand before vanishing.
The bath was filled with warm water, infused with the scent of mint and eucalyptus Tilla had prepared.
Sitting in the water, Nina thought of the man she had earlier assumed to be a strange healer—the prince of Montreger.
He had seemed to plan carefully and contacted Arsed in advance. Was he in exile, then?
She remembered his dust-streaked clothing and roughly cut hair, which seemed ill-suited to his status.
It was well-known that the cursed princess of Arsed roamed battlefields. On the day he had healed her, he must have recognized her as Arsed’s princess. Hence, he had said their next meeting would be a fateful encounter.
While Arsed had absorbed Montreger without a war due to the Second Prince’s ambition, a real conflict would have cost countless lives in both nations.
Standing at the forefront, surviving endlessly, and ultimately conquering Montreger—that would be her. The conqueror and the conquered, meeting face-to-face, made it a bitter destiny.
In that case, he shouldn’t have healed her so willingly; he should have tried to eliminate her by any means…
“Weird person.”
Nina wiped her wet face with both hands, tilted her head back, and exhaled deeply.
“Princess, would you like some soup? I’ll bring a tray over the bath.”
Tilla entered, carrying mushroom soup with a rich aroma.
Approaching the bath, she smiled at Nina, whose face brightened in the water.
“Even as a baby, and now when you bathe, our Princess looks most beautiful—more beautiful than anyone in the world.”
“You’re the only one who says I’m beautiful, Tilla. So, it doesn’t convince me no matter how many times you say it.”
“Well, no one else has ever seen you like this.”
Tilla set the tray across the bath. As she turned, she reached to brush wet hair from Nina’s forehead. Nina instinctively flinched.
“Sorry, force of habit.”
Hearing this, Tilla’s face fell in disappointment. Nina closed her eyes and offered her face obediently.
Tilla gently brushed her wet hair aside, sighing softly.
“Why do such awful rumors spread? I fed and raised you, Princess. Does that make me a ghost already?”
“They just believe anyone who touches me will die. If someone nearly touches me, they’re startled, and I feel sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for!”
“But it’s better if I move away first. I can’t show displeasure outright since I’m a princess. And healers die because of me… so the rumor isn’t entirely wrong.”
Nina’s calm voice made Tilla’s eyes sting.
Pretending not to notice, Nina lowered her gaze to her chest.
Proof that she had no heart.
A thorned circular chain pattern, like an ancient shadow, remained faintly inside her chest. Now so faint it was almost invisible unless candlelight flickered, today it appeared unusually distinct.
Nina gently traced the scar with her fingertips.
“Tilla.”
“Yes, Princess?”
“This mark on my chest… since when has it been there?”
