Chapter 05
“I killed your parents and siblings with my own hands.
They were the first cut down in a single stroke.”
That day, Dmitri had stared at his bloodstained palms for a long time, as if savouring the memory of murder.
Ariella gazed at the man seated before her.
The long stretch of sunset spilt over his face, staining it crimson.
And over that face, she saw again the man who had climbed to the top of her tower, who had stood before her only to announce Forenze’s ruin.
His voice, his expression etched into her soul.
“You will remain here,” he had said.
And Ariella had screamed until her voice broke.
Dmitri had not stopped with Forenze.
He made her homeland the staging ground of war, from which Trifina spread its dominion to the very edges of the world.
The northwest had already fallen a century earlier.
With Forenze seized, Dmitri all but ruled the entire continent.
And in the process, he became the most fearsome tyrant the world had ever known.
They said nothing survived where Dmitri and his armies passed.
That rivers ran red with blood, that the fields overflowed with corpses.
His sword spared neither man nor woman, young nor old.
The cruelty defied description.
Of course, even tyranny dressed itself in the pretence of reason.
For Forenze, Dmitri had chosen the flimsiest of excuses.
Three years into Ariella’s captivity, her brother, the crown prince of Forenze, Freddie, had come to Trifina, seeking to free her.
When the Emperor refused to release his sister, Freddie had drawn his blade.
He was swiftly subdued by the imperial guard, and the matter should have ended there.
But it did not.
Two years later, that single rash act was proclaimed an act of war.
A hollow, disgraceful pretext.
And yet… so this had been the hidden truth.
Then Dmitri pulled a handkerchief from his coat, reaching toward her face.
Ariella’s body reacted before her mind she slapped his hand away.
Their startled gazes clashed in the air.
“ I-I’m fine,” she stammered.
Dmitri tossed the handkerchief onto the table with a careless flick and rose to his feet.
“Once this marriage is annulled, you will return to your homeland.”
His empty eyes betrayed not even a trace of displeasure.
“Is that true?”
Her chest surged with sudden, unbearable hope.
Could it be?
Would she really go home?
But then, the image of him came back to her the Dmitri who had once sought her in the tower.
He had been older then, already past twenty, and strikingly beautiful.
His gilded hair shone like the sun itself, spilling into that place where sunlight had never fully reached.
It was as though he had carried daylight into her prison.
But his eyes, those eyes, had been hell.
Black, merciless hell.
If the marriage was broken… if she returned to Forenze… what of her family?
What of her nation, her blessed homeland, forever green beneath God’s grace?
Dmitri gave no answer.
He simply turned his back.
And at the sight of it, she heard her own voice echoing from the past the cries of the girl she had been.
“Why…?
Why are you doing this to me?
What have I done?
What sin did my family commit?”
“Don’t worry.
It won’t take long.”
“Don’t leave me here alone.
Please, just kill me too.
Please!”
Even as she coughed up blood and pleaded desperately, Dmitri stepped right out the door.
Just like now.
“Take me with you… Mother, Father… Freddie, Renier…” The fragments of that day bound Ariella in place.
Hell was repeating itself.
“Princess, I brought your breakfast.
Today I went to the kitchens myself.
I still don’t know who’s who among the maids here, and I wanted to see the layout of the palace as well… Princess?”
Reina froze in shock at the sight of the empty room.
Last night, the moment her head touched the pillow, she had fallen into a deep sleep too exhausted to fight it.
Fortunately, she had woken early and hurried to prepare before coming here.
“What on earth…?
Princess!”
Ariella wasn’t in the adjoining dressing room either.
Her luggage was still untouched, just as it had been left.
The trunks brought in by carriage had only arrived late at night, and Ariella had decided to unpack them the next day.
She had taken out nothing but a nightgown, prepared herself for bed, and returned to her room.
But now where could she possibly have gone?
In this strange and foreign land?
A sudden unease prickled at Reina.
The princess had never suffered such treatment in her life.
How deeply wounded must she feel?
She should have been at her side, soothing her heart…
Flustered, Reina hurried to the wardrobe.
Perhaps the princess had thrown on a cloak and slipped out for a walk?
“Princess!”
Ariella was inside the wardrobe.
With no clothes hung there yet, she was curled up like a child, knees drawn to her chest.
“What are you doing in here, Princess?”
“Ah, Reina… you’re here?”
Clutching the pillow she had been resting on, Ariella slowly sat up.
She let out a long yawn, which made it clear she had slept there.
“You slept?
In the wardrobe?”
“Mhm.”
“Why…?”
“It was too bright to sleep in the room.”
“What do you mean?
The garden lamps were all extinguished last night.
The only light was the moon…”
“Exactly.
That moonlight was far too bright.”
“Then you could have just drawn the curtains!”
Ariella jumped down from the wardrobe to the floor.
“Not that either.”
When night fell and she was left alone, a crushing terror gripped her.
She feared that if she closed her eyes, she might wake to find herself once more imprisoned in that tower.
Yet she couldn’t bring herself to shut the curtains.
Nor did she have the courage to open the door and step out onto the balcony.
Her body was bone-weary, but her eyes remained wide open.
Ironically, it was only when she curled up inside the wardrobe that she felt some measure of safety.
She lay there for a long time, staring at the sliver of light filtering through the crack in the doors, until at last sleep claimed her.
The next morning, Ariella stretched long and hard on the balcony.
Her cramped body ached and protested with every movement.
All night she had wrestled with the same relentless question:
Why had she been chosen to be the crown princess of the Triphina Empire?
Was it truly possible that the emperor had sealed a political marriage with Forenze just to bring in a foreign bride?
And of all nations Forenze, the very land that had driven the crown prince’s mother to her grave?
The empire could have allied with other nations.
There were plenty with strong faith and powerful ties to the temple, perhaps even stronger than Forenze.
So why, of all places, had it been her homeland?
“You’ve been acting strange since yesterday.
Quieter than usual.
Though, I suppose it’d be stranger if you weren’t,” Reina sighed, bustling about the room.
“Anyway, come eat first.
I prepared your breakfast the way you usually like it.
Starting tomorrow, the maids will bring meals at the proper times.
Honestly, I don’t know how they let things be so disorganised here.”
Ariella chuckled softly at Reina’s grumbling.
Complaining meant she was alive there was comfort in that.
“Just hold out until the wedding.
I hear there’s a separate palace for the crown princess.
You’ll only be here temporarily.”
“No.”
With a firm bite of bread, Ariella answered flatly.
“There won’t be a wedding.”
“…What?”
“I intend to annul this marriage.”
“P–pardon?
What do you mean?”
For a marriage to be annulled under imperial law, three conditions had to be met.
First, the couple must not spend their wedding night together.
That, at least, was an easy promise to keep.
Second, both parties must agree to dissolve the union.
So far, it seemed the prince himself would not object.
But the third condition was the problem.
“Is this because you want to go home?
I do too, of course, but something this serious…”
“No.
I won’t be returning to Forenze for the time being.”
“What?
What are you saying?
And why are you eating with your hands?”
Even in her shock, Reina snatched the bread from Ariella’s hand and placed it properly back on the plate.
“Honestly, what’s gotten into you?
You’re like a different person.
Did you see a ghost in that wardrobe or something?”
Worse than a ghost.
She had come face-to-face with the man who, five years from now, would destroy everything.
The man who had handed her a handkerchief yesterday had been flawless in every respect.
His bearing was impeccable, his courtesy balanced perfectly with the natural pride of his royal blood.
It was hard to imagine such a man turning into the tyrant who would one day slaughter without mercy.
But his eyes, those pitch-black eyes, held nothing.
No warmth, no spark of human feeling.
And that emptiness frightened her most of all.
It was as if, deep within, he was concealing the cruelty of the monster he was destined to become.
And so, whatever face he chose to show the world now… it changed nothing.
Even if Dimitri carried some tragic past within him, it could never justify the horrors he was destined to commit.
A tyrant must never be given a story to soften his cruelty.
Ariella vowed this to herself.
Nothing mattered more than protecting her family and her homeland.
To do that, she had to remain here until she was certain they would all be safe.
She tore the bread in her hands straight down the middle.
Steam curled up from the freshly baked loaf, warm against her face.
The palace she had been assigned lay at the farthest edge of the imp
erial grounds.
So distant and quiet that one might not even know she lived within the royal citadel at all.
But she could not remain hidden away forever.
If she meant to save her country and those she loved, she had to draw closer, step by step.
Closer to Eldengrave, the emperor’s stronghold.
The place they called the Dragon’s Heart.
