Chapter 01
“Take that girl away immediately.”
The Emperor gave the order in a cold voice.
The knights who received the command approached Elia.
“Y-Your Majesty…?”
Frightened, she staggered backward, only to be seized by the knights.
Why…?
Late at night, Elia had rushed here as soon as the emperor summoned her.
Something felt strange.
The face of the father who she believed would greet her with a smile was as cold as ice.
Why were knights trying to restrain her?
Why were the attendants standing nearby maintaining expressionless faces without any sign of surprise?
He must be very worried.
Even as she walked toward the emperor, Elia could not hide her concern.
The Empire of Amaranta.
The empire that had once enjoyed a golden age was now suffering from great chaos after a sudden catastrophe.
One day, the sun disappeared.
No—
It had been swallowed.
A black dog appeared and devoured the sun.
No one knew where the enormous dog had come from, but it devoured the sun and disappeared just as mysteriously.
The entire world fell into darkness.
Only artificial lights faintly illuminated the pitch-black night.
But creating light using mana stones had its limits.
Because of that, the empire’s most renowned scholars, priests, and even magicians were all scrambling to find the cause.
The emperor had no peace of mind, and Elia, as a princess, also worried about the future of the empire.
When she was summoned, she had secretly wondered:
Could it be that Father needs me?
Her heart fluttered with excitement.
Among the talented descendants of the imperial family, Elia was the useless princess who possessed neither special talent nor intelligence.
“The emperor’s useless finger.”
That was Elia’s nickname.
But she never denied the insults.
Because they were true.
Even though she was constantly compared to her half-brother and younger sister, she always lived with feelings of gratitude and apology toward her family.
Elia had not been born a princess.
She had believed all her life that she was the illegitimate child of Count Rapasha.
A dancer who was the count’s mistress.
And the child born from the emperor who slept with that dancer.
One day, the emperor suddenly declared he would search for his bloodline.
That was when the truth was revealed.
That child was Elia.
Even the count himself had never known.
I finally have a real family.
After entering the imperial family, Elia enjoyed immense wealth and the love of her new family.
Not only the emperor, her father, but also the Empress, whom she thought would hate her—
as well as the Crown Prince and the youngest princess—all cherished her.
But now…
Was that icy gaze really the look of a father toward his daughter?
“At last, the play is over. I’m sick of it.”
The Emperor turned his back on the knights.
His flat voice pierced Elia’s ears.
A play…?
Elia’s struggling suddenly stopped.
She stared up at the emperor with disbelief.
The purple eyes that were the same color as hers were frozen cold.
“Th-That’s a lie… right?”
Elia muttered in shock.
Meanwhile, the knights faithfully carried out the emperor’s orders.
“Let go! I said let go!”
Elia desperately struggled.
But the knights did not budge.
After being dragged for quite a while, Elia was shoved down a staircase leading underground like a criminal or a sack of cargo.
I-I’m scared…
The bottomless darkness looked like the throat of a beast waiting to swallow her.
Where… is this…?
Elia arrived in a black chamber.
While she sat collapsed on the floor, people began entering through several connected corridors.
They were all familiar faces.
“Violet…? Canus?”
Her half-sister and her fiancé were standing there together.
Even though Elia clearly called their names, the two ignored her and chatted affectionately as if they could not hear her.
“Thank goodness. I thought I might actually have to marry that filthy woman.”
“Goodness, what a joke. That was only for appearances. The real fiancée is me.”
Violet laughed sweetly as she snuggled into Canus’s arms.
She then spoke to her older brother, the Crown Prince Valan.
“Brother, you’ve worked hard all this time.”
Valan did not reply.
He simply looked at Elia with cold eyes.
Elia could do nothing in her confusion.
What… are they talking about?
Shocked, she began to deny reality.
Violet and Canus… they’re strange. This must be a dream. Yes… it has to be.
Just as she tried to call out to the man she loved again—
“Canus…!”
“How noisy. Gag her.”
“Can— mmph!”
At Canus’s irritated command, the knights immediately obeyed.
In the center of the large dark chamber stood a massive stone altar.
With her mouth gagged, Elia was dragged onto it.
At that moment, the imperial prophet stepped forward.
“Now is the time. During the perfect moment of darkness, if someone with royal blood is offered as a sacrifice, the sun will shine upon the Amaranta Empire once again.”
When the man who had predicted every future except the catastrophe announced it, the gathered crowd cheered.
Sacrifice.
The missing sun.
Royal blood.
The three pieces slowly fit together in Elia’s mind like a puzzle.
In the Berios Imperial Family, only two royal children were born in each generation.
Regardless of gender, the law of blood dictated this.
Therefore, illegitimate royal children did not exist.
The first person to break that rule…
was Elia.
She had believed the emperor brought her into the family because royal heirs were rare.
But—
“Begin the ritual.”
At the emperor’s command, the magic circle beneath the stone altar began glowing red.
At the same time, Elia’s body writhed.
The stone slab grew hot, as if it had been heated in flames.
“Mm—! Mmmph!”
Burning pain spread through her body.
The unbearable agony was devouring her consciousness.
Yet she could not close her eyes.
Seeing her wide eyes, Violet laughed.
“Did you really think you were our family?”
The people who had claimed to be her family—
even the fiancé she loved—
had all deceived her.
Only at the moment of death did Elia finally realize it.
It was all a lie.
Everything felt meaningless.
Yet at the same time, everything filled her with hatred.
Her screams grew weaker.
Her consciousness began fading.
Then—
BOOM.
RUMBLE!
“What’s happening?”
A massive tremor shook the black chamber.
The emperor asked the astrologer, but even he could not answer.
The tremor grew stronger.
Finally, the layered barrier shattered, and black haze began to swirl in the air.
“So the noble royals prepared such a filthy trick.”
A man tore through the void and appeared before the royal family.
Pitch-black hair.
Glowing red eyes shining in the darkness.
He was a terrifyingly beautiful man.
His appearance was mesmerizing like sparks in the night.
But the aura around him was filled with malicious energy resembling death.
A grim reaper…?
To Elia, he looked like a messenger of death—or a fallen angel.
Someone among the royals murmured:
“Axion Mahart…”
A notorious killer who possessed cursed power.
The name alone carried enormous weight.
Ignoring the murmurs of the royals, Axion walked toward Elia.
“It’s already too late for this one.”
After checking Elia’s condition, he clicked his tongue briefly.
He picked her up and extinguished the flames clinging to her body.
But her body was already beyond saving.
“Insolence! How dare you interrupt this sacred ritual!”
The emperor shouted.
But Elia’s senses were focused entirely on the man holding her.
Axion gently covered her eyes with his hand.
“S-Stop… please… kill… me…”
Even while dying, her consciousness remained.
So the pain continued.
If she could not live, she wanted to die.
Axion answered her plea.
“I’ll grant your wish.”
Black magic wrapped around Elia’s body.
It was magic that everyone called cursed.
But to Elia, in this moment, it felt like a warm night embracing her.
It’s warm.
For the last time, Elia felt the warmth of another person.
When Axion withdrew his hand, Elia never opened her eyes again.
Before those she had believed to be her real family—
Elia died in the arms of a stranger.
