Chapter 03
Of course, Elizabeth had never even considered emigrating.
No matter how gifted a prophetess might be, leaving her homeland over a single remark was simply absurd.
More importantly…
‘There’s no way that woman knows my secret.’
Her father had assured her of it. Aside from their family, not a single person knew the truth.
So it was probably just needless worry. Elizabeth promptly forgot Sybilla’s warning.
A month passed, and one day, Elizabeth attended a tea party hosted by her close friend, Devon Sorel.
“Welcome, Ellie! I’m so glad you could come!”
“Oh, what perfect timing! We were just complimenting the brooch you wore last time, my lady.”
Everyone welcomed Elizabeth, the woman widely expected to become the next queen of Ikardzan’s high society.
As always, Elizabeth resolved to keep smiling in order to uphold her family’s dignity.
That was, until she heard the next remark.
“By the way, have you heard about the youngest son of Count Tael, who was recently appointed to a position in the Imperial Palace?”
“I have. I heard he was dismissed after it came to light that he was illegitimate.”
Illegitimate.
Elizabeth swallowed involuntarily.
In the Empire of Ikardzan, illegitimate children were considered lower than commoners.
Before the founding of Ikardzan, the man who had opposed the first emperor until the very end was none other than his half-brother, who had been born illegitimate.
In the end, he even summoned an evil being from the underworld in an attempt to seize control of Ikardzan.
However, with the help of the goddess Elistass, the first emperor drove them out, and peace finally came to Ikardzan.
Perhaps because of this history, the empire had despised and looked down upon illegitimate children ever since its earliest days.
Once a child was born illegitimate to a noble, the consequences were severe. Men were not only barred from inheriting their family titles but were also strictly prohibited from entering public service.
Women were better off abandoning any hope of a respectable marriage. Becoming a nobleman’s mistress was considered the best they could hope for.
Given these circumstances, some nobles went so far as to pass off their illegitimate children as legitimate heirs and register them in the family records.
This was especially common among nobles who had failed to produce legitimate heirs with their lawful wives.
Even if the deception was discovered, the noble in question would not face legal punishment. However, the illegitimate child would suffer a form of social death.
Any title or official position the child had received would be revoked, and there were countless cases in which their marriages were annulled as well.
“I heard Lady Sybilla exposed him. She really is an incredible prophetess!”
“I always thought it was strange that he was so much younger than his brothers. His engagement will probably be called off, too. Poor thing.”
“Poor thing? I think it’s disgraceful that a mongrel like him dared to pretend to be an Ikardzan noble!”
…Mongrel.
As she listened in silence, Elizabeth unconsciously clenched the fabric of her dress in her fist.
“Oh my! Lady Liernett, are you all right?”
Someone suddenly fussed over Elizabeth with exaggerated concern.
Elizabeth turned to her, her face deathly pale.
“You look unwell! Have we been discussing something too vulgar?”
“…No, my lady. I think something I ate this morning has upset my stomach…”
“Oh dear, then you must rest. Shall I escort you to the powder room?”
“No, I’m fi—”
“She’s here! The prophetess!”
At that moment, someone shouted, drawing everyone’s attention toward one side of the garden.
Sybilla had arrived, her straight black hair half tied up.
The appearance of the prophetess, who enjoyed the Empress’s favor, was greeted with enthusiastic cheers.
“…”
There was only one person who did not join in.
Elizabeth.
“If you don’t leave within a month, I’ll expose every secret you’d rather take to your grave.”
Sybilla’s final words kept swirling chaotically through Elizabeth’s mind.
Suddenly, she was overcome with anxiety.
‘…Surely not.’
Just then, Sybilla, who had been looking around, met Elizabeth’s gaze.
It was almost as though she had come specifically to find her.
‘I suppose I need to speak with her again.’
Unable to bear the growing unease any longer, Elizabeth was just about to approach Sybilla when—
“I!”
Sybilla’s clear, ringing voice echoed through the gathering.
“I have come here today because there is something I wish to tell all of you.”
Everyone eagerly awaiting a prophecy quickly turned their attention to her.
Amid the silence, Sybilla once again met Elizabeth’s gaze directly.
Elizabeth’s heart began to pound violently.
“The villainess who will bring turmoil to Ikardzan is here among us.”
At Sybilla’s unexpected declaration, the crowd began to murmur.
The louder the whispers grew, the more thoroughly Elizabeth’s thoughts descended into chaos.
What on earth was she planning to say?!
Elizabeth was taking one step after another toward Sybilla, intending to stop her, when—
“Who is it, Prophetess?”
“That woman over there!”
Sybilla pointed her index finger directly at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth froze in place, her face stricken with shock.
“You have all been deceived by that woman’s mask. Elizabeth Liernett!”
At the unexpected mention of her name, everyone began whispering among themselves.
And no wonder. Elizabeth Liernett was a noble and beautiful young woman, beloved by all and widely regarded as the future queen of Ikardzan’s high society.
How could such a woman be wearing a mask? How could she possibly be the seed of discord?
Just as everyone struggled to make sense of the accusation, Sybilla uttered a single sentence that left the entire gathering horrified.
“She was born the illegitimate daughter of a prostitute, yet she dared to become the adopted daughter of Marquis Liernett!”
“Lady Bailey, the young lady has returned.”
Bailey had been drinking tea when Elizabeth arrived home much earlier than expected. Surprised, she rose from her seat.
The tea party should have continued for quite some time.
‘How dare she ruin my tea time!’
I’ll find some excuse to make her suffer for this.
Scowling, Bailey began speaking before even looking at Elizabeth as she entered the sitting room.
“My lady, what on earth is that appearance of you—”
“Are Father and my brothers…”
It was the first time Elizabeth had ever interrupted her.
Bailey was so astonished that she forgot her original plan and stared at the girl in a daze.
Elizabeth was deathly pale, looking as though she might faint at any moment.
“They won’t be back for a while, will they?”
The men of House Liernett had departed a month earlier to subjugate the monsters that had appeared in the northwestern region of the empire.
Monster extermination missions took a considerable amount of time. Even without accounting for the journey home, they would be gone for at least another two months.
When Bailey nodded dumbly, Elizabeth finally let out a trembling sigh of relief.
At the same time, Bailey regained her composure and tried to resume her scolding.
“My lady, what on earth is the meaning of this app—”
“Do not let anyone enter my room.”
But Elizabeth interrupted her once again and walked past her with unsteady steps.
After enduring one unprecedented insult after another, Bailey could only gape at her in disbelief.
“My lady! What do you think you’re—?!”
Before she could even finish expressing her anger, Elizabeth had already disappeared.
For the next several days, Elizabeth remained shut away in her room, never venturing outside.
She ate barely enough to keep herself alive and spent the entire day sitting motionless, as though her soul had left her body.
All the while, the horrifying events that had unfolded at Devon’s tea party replayed endlessly in her mind.
“Please look at this document proving that she is an illegitimate child.”
How on earth had Sybilla managed to obtain it?
Along with a birth certificate that Elizabeth’s biological mother had registered in order to blackmail her biological father, Sybilla had produced the death certificate of the late legitimate daughter of Marquis Liernett, as well as Elizabeth’s medical examination report from a year after her adoption.
The examination was mandatory for all seven-year-old noble children throughout the empire. Elizabeth’s report contained an unusual note stating that her physical development was so advanced compared to other children her age that she appeared to be ten.
“I could no longer stand by and watch her deceive us all with that revolting mask.”
And every word Sybilla had said was true.
Elizabeth was the illegitimate daughter of Viscount Musk and a prostitute.
For the first five years of her life, she had been called Anne—a name her mother had chosen carelessly, as it was one of the most common names in the empire—and had endured her mother’s constant abuse.
After her mother died of illness, she was sent to her biological father’s household, where she spent the next four years being treated like a lowly servant.
Then a devastating fire broke out at the Musk estate, killing everyone inside.
Everyone, that was, except Anne, who had been out running an errand at the time.
As fate would have it, Marquis Liernett happened to be visiting his friend, Viscount Musk, when he discovered Anne, left all alone.
Moved by the sight of his friend’s only surviving blood relative, a child who had nowhere else to go, he adopted her.
And so Anne became Elizabeth Liernett, the daughter of the marquis who had died abroad three years earlier while seeking treatment for her health.
The deception had been possible because the marquis, unable to bear the thought of losing his daughter, who had died at the tender age of three, had continually postponed registering her death.
Since Elizabeth had been very young when she left for treatment, and since she had been away for so long, no one questioned her identity when she finally returned.
‘Remember this well. You must never tell anyone that you were adopted.’
Her father had insisted on it.
Elizabeth had interpreted his words to mean that she must never allow the disgrace of her illegitimate birth to tarnish the reputation of House Liernett, the empire’s illustrious family of guardians.
‘Since you are living in the place of the real Lady Elizabeth, you must behave in a manner befitting her.’
Bailey, who had become her governess, had likewise insisted that Elizabeth must always strive to become the real Elizabeth.
And Elizabeth had obediently followed those instructions.
When she was told that she must appear to be a fine young lady, she swallowed every word she wanted to say.
When she was told that she must have no excess fat, she suppressed even her most basic appetite.
When she was told that she must become a beautiful young lady whom everyone adored, she forced herself to endure anything rather than act on her own desires.
When she was told that, as someone from the lowest depths of society, she must never reveal her lack of intelligence, she studied as though her life depended on it.
The servants, including Bailey, did not know that she had been born illegitimate. Yet they treated her with the utmost coldness simply because she was not the real Liernett daughter.
‘If you fail to become someone worthy of House Liernett, the master will eventually disown you and then have you killed.’
There was enough truth in those words to make Elizabeth work even harder.
And the reason she had come to believe such a thing in the first place was none other than the way the men of House Liernett treated her.
