Chapter 01
Meia looked at the man seated across from her.
The beautiful man before her, with lovely blond hair and blue eyes, had once been her fiancé.
“I will pretend I didn’t hear that.”
He was stubbornly insisting on a request she could not grant.
“Meia, please reconsider.”
“You do realize it’s impossible, don’t you? I am already…”
Dressed neatly in a white uniform, he gazed at her with restless eyes.
Like waves trembling in the wind, his pupils quivered continuously, unable to conceal his tension.
“Meia… please.”
Her engagement with the former fiancé sitting before her had lasted ten years.
They had known each other for twelve, but this was the first time she had ever seen him so nervous and openly revealing his emotions.
“Your Highness Crown Prince Patsrery, I—”
“Please…”
Clinging to her desperately, Patsrery listened as Meia spoke the truth she had already settled in her heart.
“When I was struggling after our broken engagement, all the happy memories I shared with you tormented me greatly.”
How Patsrery had treated her as his fiancée. How gentle he had been.
She had been happy when they dined together once a week without fail, and afterward took walks while discussing the future of the Empire.
No—she had been happy.
Gently touching the handle of her teacup on the table, Meia smiled faintly as she spoke.
“I was very happy during our engagement.”
Hearing her speak in the past tense, Patsrery pleaded earnestly.
“I’ll do better from now on.”
He was in a position where he had to hold onto her at any cost.
“I regret it every day. I think about those happy and peaceful times with you every single day.”
He wanted to return to that time once more.
To those days.
To when they had no worries…
“But the memories of the happiness I shared with you no longer torment me. That’s right—they don’t trouble me at all anymore.”
Patsrery understood what her words meant.
That only made him cling to her more desperately.
“I will try to restore our relationship. I want to be happy with you again.”
Meia shook her head.
“It’s already over. With time, there will come a day when the time you spent with me will no longer cause you pain either.”
At her unmistakable refusal, Patsrery frowned. He had believed that if he begged, she would return.
“Please come back to me.”
“There is nothing more for me to say. And as you know, I already have a fiancé.”
Though Patsrery spoke with heartfelt desperation, his sincerity failed to reach Meia, whose heart was already closed.
“I love you, Meia. I realized it far too late.”
A confession of love.
Despite her telling him she had a fiancé, he spoke sweetly as though he had heard nothing. It made her deeply uncomfortable.
It sounded like an attempt to force her to accept his feelings simply because he had confessed.
“No matter how many times you say you love me, I cannot accept it.”
You should have treated me better while you had the chance.
Meia brushed back her radiant silver hair and looked at Patsrery—who clung to her in regret over their broken engagement—without a trace of emotion.
“Mei, what would it take for you to come back to me?”
At his question, Meia bit her lip firmly before answering with emphasis.
“Never.”
I will never return to you.
What had come back after the years she had trusted him was betrayal.
Was it not shameless to try to hold onto her now?
“I will not return.”
She had lived her life as a proud young lady of noble birth.
He did not know with what resolve she had relinquished her position as his fiancée.
And now he asked her to return to their former relationship?
“Even if I were to die, I would never return to Your Highness.”
Rather than becoming engaged to Patsrery again, she would rather die.
With a pale face, Patsrery refused to accept her words and clung to her even more.
“Forgive me.”
At his plea, Meia clicked her tongue inwardly.
“It is improper for someone who already has a fiancée to behave this way toward me. Please go to Lady Meryl.”
“I will break off my engagement with Lady Meryl.”
Meia glanced at the seated Patsrery indifferently and rose from her seat.
She had no desire to exchange another word with him.
“I will take my leave.”
“Please.”
His voice, calling after her desperately, was filled with regret and self-reproach.
“I clearly told you that I have a fiancé.”
Frustrated, Patsrery ran both hands over his face.
“I’ll help you, Mei.”
Meia narrowed her eyes.
“I heard everything from Lady Meryl. I know you were threatened by the Grand Duke of Florence and forced into this engagement.”
“Threatened?”
Unable to understand his words, Meia halted her steps and turned back to look at him.
“I know. The Grand Duke of Florence fell in love with you at first sight and threatened to erase the Carpen Empire from the map if you refused to marry him. That’s why you had no choice but to accept the engagement…”
Meia let out a small sigh and pressed her temple.
“I don’t know why Lady Meryl would say such a thing, but I was never threatened.”
“You can be honest with me.”
“I became engaged because I love His Grace the Grand Duke.”
At her words, silence filled the drawing room.
Hearing that she loved the Grand Duke of Florence, Patsrery felt even more suffocated.
She had been his woman from the beginning. Though he had let her go once, she was meant to become the Empress of the Carpen Empire.
Now that he was trying to win her back, she was refusing him.
“I will become the Grand Duchess of Florence of the Sirius Empire—not the Empress or Crown Princess of the Carpen Empire. No, I will.”
There was not the slightest trace of falsehood in Meia’s clear blue eyes.
With the expression of a man who had lost his nation, Patsrery looked at her in anguish.
“I should never have broken off our engagement… If I hadn’t, Meia wouldn’t have been forced into an engagement with such a man… Ha… This is all my fault.”
He bitterly regretted letting her go.
Only after losing her did he realize how precious she was.
He could never give up on Meia.
“I’ll find a way for you to break off your engagement with him.”
“I will not break off my engagement.”
“I’ll save you from that cruel and wicked Grand Duke of Florence.”
Patsrery’s voice rose.
“I would appreciate it if you refrained from slandering my fiancé. I will take my leave now.”
“Mei!”
After speaking, Meia turned away.
As she opened the drawing room door and stepped out, anger surged within her.
What do you mean, threatened?
She felt as if she had swallowed a dry scone that clogged her throat after a single bite.
Walking down the corridor, Meia sensed the presence of servants. She slowly covered her mouth with a handkerchief taken from her magical subspace.
The servants walking through the corridor bowed to her, looking at her pitifully as she pressed the handkerchief to her lips and the corners of her eyes.
To them, Meia appeared deeply sorrowful and fragile.
“Is she crying?”
“Poor lady.”
“They say His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived.”
“Yes, we thought he came to visit his fiancée, Lady Meryl…”
“But?”
“He was looking for Lady Meia. And quite desperately, too.”
“Desperately? You must be mistaken.”
“He looked utterly miserable!”
“Surely… His Highness wouldn’t be clinging to her, would he?”
“No way. Could he really be so shameless?”
“Even if he begged, Lady Meia has His Grace the Grand Duke of Florence by her side. It’s impossible.”
“Oh dear, seeing her cry breaks my heart. Such a kind lady…”
Meia staggered slightly and placed a hand on the wall.
Seeing this, the servants rushed toward her in alarm.
“Ah! My lady!”
“Call Sir Yudi at once!”
“Are you all right?”
“No, call a physician instead!”
The servants, pale with fright, examined her anxiously.
Pressing lightly beneath her eyes with the handkerchief, Meia smiled bitterly.
“I’m fine. Please return to your duties.”
“My lady…”
“I’ll go to my room first.”
“We will escort you.”
“No, it’s all right. I’m fine.”
Though she insisted she was fine, the servants looked at her with sympathy.
Meia Hatsbellua had been engaged to Crown Prince Patsrery von Mavro since childhood.
She was nine years old at the time.
Except for sleeping, Meia underwent rigorous lessons every day at the ducal residence to become the future Crown Princess—and eventually the Empress.
Having been educated from such a young age, she regarded studying as natural.
Naturally, her goal was to become Empress, assist Patsrery when he ascended the throne, and govern the Empire’s internal affairs.
There were times when she disliked studying so much that her head ached, but she did not want to disappoint her parents, who warmly praised and embraced her.
Political science, etiquette, horseback riding, hunting, piano, harp, violin, various dances, history, and mathematics… Amid all this, she even awakened an aptitude for magic.
Overjoyed, the ducal couple entrusted her magical education to Puring, one of the great mages of the Magic Tower with whom they were close.
Out of the twenty-four hours in a day, Meia devoted twenty to studying in order to become Empress.
She believed this was only natural.
Patsrery, her former fiancé, knew he needed the power of House Hatsbellua to secure his position as Crown Prince.
Such was the nature of political marriages among nobles.
Fortunately, Patsrery and Meia had grown close since childhood and became the representative couple of Carpen Empire society. People praised them as a perfect match.
As the Crown Prince’s fiancée, Meia assisted Empress Ellemin with the imperial court’s ceremonies and gained the trust of the royal elders by demonstrating her competence.
Patsrery also highly valued her abilities.
Both the Empress Dowager and the Empress cherished Meia. It was praise earned through her tearful efforts to maintain impeccable noble decorum.
Meia was known as the flower of Carpen Empire’s high society. Young ladies admired her refined elegance and wished to emulate her. Her lustrous silver hair, blue eyes, and fair skin made her a muse among many artists and designers.
Thus, she devoted herself wholeheartedly for ten years as the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
At nineteen, Meia awaited her coming-of-age ceremony.
In the Carpen Empire, both men and women gathered on the first day of their twentieth year to hold the ceremony.
When she turned twenty, Meia had looked forward to marrying Patsrery in a state wedding and becoming the Crown Princess.
But something happened that would drastically derail her life.
It was the death of her parents.
