IWPU 13

Chapter 13

The Bisade Palace was located in the innermost part of the inner palace and was famous for its vast garden and beautiful scenery. It was said to have been built by the third emperor of the Empire for his flower-loving empress, collecting flowers from all over the world so she could see them all year round. For that reason, the Bisade Palace came to be known as the “Crown Princess’s Palace” and was used by crown princesses for generations.

The Bisade Palace had been vacant for a long time. The current emperor had never gone through a crown prince phase, and the current crown prince did not yet have a consort. Until I married him and became the crown princess, the Bisade Palace remained without a mistress.

The crown prince led me to the garden. I followed him without resistance.

As the chief attendant had said, the garden of Bisade Palace was in full bloom with Raisha flowers. The sweet fragrance of Raisha filled the entire garden.

When the wind blew, the white petals of the Raisha flowers scattered like dancing snowflakes. It was a spectacular sight, like a heavy snowfall. He turned and looked at me. The fluttering white petals and his silver hair came together like a painting. At that moment, I stared at him, completely entranced.

And then…

He slowly walked toward me. He reached out his hand to my face. His long, pale fingers gently brushed against my cheek. He gave me a soft smile. My reflection was clearly visible in his golden eyes.

He withdrew the hand that had reached out to me. A petal that had landed on my cheek was caught by his fingers and fell away. He brought that petal to his lips and kissed it gently, then let the wind carry it away.

That was the moment I had fallen desperately in love.

Sirius Aysan Row Priston.

The crown prince of the Priston Empire and the future emperor. That was the name of the man I had once loved to the point of madness.

Looking back, I don’t think he disliked me from the beginning. He was not openly affectionate, but he wasn’t indifferent like the marquis either. He was someone raised from birth to be a crown prince. He knew better than anyone how to deal with people.

He treated me with proper courtesy. That courtesy felt more like a reflex—perhaps even a kind of occupational habit. After enduring so much from people since childhood as a crown prince, it was his way of dealing with others. I mistook his courtesy for affection.

At the time, I had never truly experienced genuine affection. I didn’t know the difference between being treated with courtesy and being treated with love. So it was perhaps natural that I misunderstood his actions.

I only realized the difference when he fell in love with someone else. The way he treated her was clearly different from how he treated others. His golden eyes looked at her as sweetly as honey, and his usual formulaic smile, which had become habitual, bloomed like a flower whenever it was directed at her.

If only I had let him go at that moment, when I witnessed with my own eyes what true affection looked like, maybe everything would’ve been different. But I didn’t want to admit it. I poured all my resentment onto the woman he loved.

He may not have loved me, but at least he had respected me as a future partner. So when did he start to despise me?

Back then, I blamed it all on her. I thought he had changed because of her.

Even though I refused to accept it at the time, I now know the truth. He had looked at me with disdain long before she ever appeared. I still don’t know exactly when that began.

I was too caught up in my own feelings to notice the change.

I claimed to love him, yet I never truly tried to understand him. I judged everything by my own standards. I never considered his circumstances or thoughts. It was a selfish and one-sided love.

“Miss, more flowers arrived from the palace!”

My nanny entered the room holding a large bouquet of Raisha flowers. The sweet scent immediately filled the room. With a cheerful expression, she looked around for a place to put the flowers. Flowers from the imperial palace had been arriving every other day, and the room was already overflowing.

“His Highness the Crown Prince must be quite taken with you!”

Finding a rare empty space between the tightly packed flowers, my nanny proudly placed the bouquet into a vase, her face full of pride and satisfaction.

“That’s not it.”

I tapped my temple with my fingers. The headache had been plaguing me ever since I returned from the palace. My nanny assumed that the crown prince had sent me the flowers, simply because they came from the palace. At the time, I too believed that they were gifts from a prince who had fallen for me.

But the truth was far more complicated than the naïve assumptions of two clueless women.

Raisha flowers were a symbol of the Bisade Palace. They represented the crown princess.

The reason the imperial palace sent me Raisha flowers was obvious. It was a warning from the emperor to the noble families. It was certainly not a romantic gesture from the crown prince.

The crown prince probably doesn’t even know that flowers are being sent to me from the palace.

Since our marriage had not yet been formally arranged, other noble families still had the opportunity to propose marriage to the marquisate. In fact, I’d heard that several families had already attempted discreet contact. Regardless of who I was as a person, being the “Lady of House Elliant” alone made me a very desirable match.

According to imperial law, women couldn’t inherit family titles, but sons-in-law could. I was the marquis’s only child. Unless he remarried and had another child, my husband would likely become the next marquis. Even if a successor did appear, I still had ties to the Count of Pison. He had only one daughter—my mother—and I was her only living blood relative. The count was old and had no children with the countess. Even receiving a portion of his astronomical wealth would be enough for someone to live in luxury forever.

Like ants drawn to sugar, people coveted me. The emperor was one of them—just a much larger and stronger ant.

By sending me Raisha flowers, the emperor made his intentions clear to the nobility. No matter how attractive a match I was, no family would dare pursue a marriage proposal if they didn’t want to go against the emperor.

Everyone misunderstood the situation.

Currently, the countess is pregnant. If the child is a son, he will naturally inherit the count’s title. Even if it’s a daughter, she would have priority over me. At most, I might receive part of the inheritance when the count passes away, but not the title or the businesses that symbolized the family’s wealth.

Of course, that’s assuming I don’t use the value of my name.

Even if there were no child, the situation wouldn’t change. The count had already designated an heir.

Just like the marquess’s wife, the count of Pison left behind a will when he died. He left part of his fortune to me and the countess—jewelry, gold, and some land. That alone was enough for most people to live a lifetime in luxury. But compared to the full wealth of the count’s house, it was a mere drop in the bucket.

The core of the count’s assets—his territory, businesses, and title—were passed on to his heir. People were shocked by the sudden appearance of this heir. He inherited the majority of the count’s property.

The collateral branches of the count’s family resisted most fiercely. They refused to acknowledge a successor they hadn’t even known existed. But their objections were in vain. The heir had legally signed documents bearing the count’s own seal and signature. Moreover, the countess—one of the people who lost the most in the inheritance—acknowledged him. After that, no one could call the heir a fraud.

The collateral family members tried to find a moment of weakness during the handover of the businesses but failed. The heir had already taken over the businesses before the count’s death. There was no room for interference.

Nothing was known about the heir. He had never appeared at any royal events. I had never even seen his face. My nanny raged, calling him some mutt who’d crawled in from nowhere, but I hadn’t cared. I was already obsessed with the crown prince back then.

I didn’t even have the slightest interest.

The inheritance didn’t matter either. I didn’t care about the count’s wealth.

My focus had always been on one thing—the crown prince.

Neglected by a cold marquess and a mad marchioness, I had always been starved for affection. I tried to fill that void with the crown prince. I wanted him to look only at me, to speak only to me. I wished he existed solely for me. It was no wonder he grew sick of me.

He came to hate and despise me. The more I clung to him for love, the worse it got. After he found a lover, my obsession only grew worse. In the end, I did something I should never have done.

When he found out, he didn’t even get angry. He merely gave me a cold, chilling look and ordered me to be confined. I resisted, shouting at the knights who tried to drag me away, cursing and blaming her for everything.

“The day I first met you was the worst day of my life.”

That was the last thing he said before walking away.

My legs gave out, and I collapsed to the floor. The knights dragged me off somewhere with rough hands, but I no longer had the strength to resist.

What had been the brightest, happiest moment of my life… he had called the worst.

Tears streamed down my face. I could endure his coldness and even his hatred, but that moment—I could not endure.

The moment that had meant everything to me was utterly rejected by him.

Remembering that day made me tremble. My mind was calm, strangely so, but my body was not. I hugged my arms around myself, trying to stop the shivering.

Before seeing him again, I had been so afraid. But when I did, the meeting had been surprisingly calm. He treated me with proper courtesy, just as he always had, and I was able to respond appropriately.

I had once loved him to death. I had believed he was my everything. There was no way our first meeting could mean nothing. Bionne’s heart thrashed wildly. In contrast, Ijia’s consciousness cooled my head. The two opposing emotions tore at me. My heart still said it loved him—but my mind refused that love.

It was a strange feeling. I was myself, yet not myself.

“Miss?”

I stood up. Startled by my sudden movement, my nanny called out to me while arranging the flowers.

“I’ll go for a short walk.”

The emotions I had for him couldn’t be figured out right away. For now, I was simply satisfied that I hadn’t reverted to who I used to be after meeting him again.

At the very least, I was no longer madly in love.

For now… that was enough.