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[1] Prologue
Fernciana slowly drew her sword.
Her hand ached, but it was a familiar pain. Blood spurted from where she pulled it out, staining her clothes and cheeks. In front of her lay a sumptuously dressed man with his eyes wide open.
No, perhaps it was not appropriate to say he was lying there. His breath had already ceased.
What should I do now?
Fernciana thought blankly, sword hanging limply, but nothing came to mind. It wasn’t a life she could imagine after achieving revenge, like a sweet fantasy. She pulled down the black cloth covering her mouth with painstakingly slow movements.
She exhaled a breath. Through the cold air, something like shards of ice seemed to awaken, as a fleeting, opaque mist frosted over and vanished.
Blood seeping from the man’s body spread to her feet. Fernciana slowly bent down and picked up a crescent-shaped blue fragment. It was called the Emerald Tabula, and at the same time, it was what she had been searching for all along.
Pocketing the item, Fernciana dragged her sword on the ground as she slowly moved. She opened the door to the emperor’s bedchamber, but the palace, submerged in pitch-black darkness, was dreadfully still. Only the sound of her sword tip scraping the floor could be heard.
What should I do now…?
Fernciana let go of the sword she was holding. Clang, a loud noise echoes through the hall.
Should I die now?
Having assassinated the emperor, she could not survive. Even if she claimed the righteousness of her revenge, not a single person would listen, and there was no one to share a glass of commiserating wine with her. She had retrieved the desired item, but she did not know what to do with it either.
Fernciana walked aimlessly. The internal geography of the imperial palace, which she had crammed into her head until she felt nauseous, arbitrarily led her.
Her head was dazed. She hadn’t thought she would be dreamily joyful after taking revenge, but she hadn’t thought it would be so devastatingly hazy either, to the point of being unjust.
But if this wasn’t it, if this was wrong, what would become of my life? What would become of this life that had only looked forward to this revenge?
As Fernciana walked blankly forward, she suddenly raised her head upon seeing the enormous portrait before her eyes.
It was a woman wrapped in a golden cloth dress from head to toe. A woman with hair like laundry spread out to dry looked at her standing before the portrait with a noble expression. Fernciana blinked and stared at the portrait.
The woman in the portrait looked exactly like her, as if she had been the model. The only difference was the eyes. The woman in the painting had blue hair and blue eyes looking down at her.
Fernciana knew this person.
It was none other than her mother.
Fernciana raised her hand and pulled out the pin that had twisted her hair. Her hair cascaded down like a waterfall. It was blue hair that could be distinguished even in this place where the only light was moonlight.
Fernciana grasped her hair and gazed at the portrait. She had no idea why such a painting was here.
At that moment, there was a presence behind her. Fernciana whirled around.
“…Ah?”
“Em…press?”
It was a man narrowing his eyes and glaring at her as if to scrutinize her. His softly tousled cream-colored hair seemed to exude an elegant atmosphere, but his attire was perfectly tailored as if cut with a knife. Down to the black eyes studying her, he was also a man she was well acquainted with.
The man who had been the biggest obstacle and enemy in her infiltration of this palace, the greatest information merchant known to be aware of every ant crawling on imperial land as the crown prince’s right-hand man, Ilyas Seyran.
From a distance, the sound of soldiers running began to echo. The man came to his senses and approached her.
Fernciana merely looked at the man grasping her arm. She had achieved all she had aimed for, and she had not dreamed of what came after, so she was now drifting like a ship with torn sails.
“No, you couldn’t be the empress… Who are you?”
“…”
Who am I?
Such a thing had meaning many years ago. It had been so long since she had been called by her own name or uttered it aloud that her tongue stumbled, and even if it hadn’t, she had no will to speak, so no voice came out.
The sound of soldiers running from afar began to be heard more closely. Ilyas, who had briefly turned his head toward the corridor, looked at Fernciana again. But Fernciana only gazed at Ilyas with a blank expression.
The sound of soldiers running grew closer and closer.
“What in the world are you doing here…?”
Ilyas, who had been looking around, bit his lip once and pulled her to open the door of a nearby room. It was a place with a balcony window where moonlight streamed in directly.
It smelled strongly of dust as if it hadn’t been used for a long time. Ilyas coughed but still led her toward the balcony.
It seemed he had tried to interrogate her identity in a quiet place somehow, but Ilyas’s intention was foiled. There was a flickering candle leaning against the balcony window.
A figure hidden in the darkness sensed their presence and rose. It was difficult to discern the face in the dim candlelight, but it was clear that the other person was a man. He held a thin book in his hand.
“Sir Seyran? How did you find this place? Who’s behind…?”
He was probably going to ask who the woman behind Ilyas was. However, as the drifting clouds slowly parted and moonlight shone down on Fernciana, the man could not continue. He could only utter one word.
“…Mo…ther?”
Fernciana slowly blinked at the unfamiliar word. The revealed moonlight illuminated the man’s appearance as well.
He was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties, wearing light sleepwear. The man was looking at her with the same face as hers. The only difference between them was the color of their hair. It felt like looking into a strange mirror.
Mo…ther?
She repeated the word the man had called, but recognition was slow and understanding was even more lacking.
From afar, the sound of soldiers running began to echo even in the room. The man came to his senses and approached her.
Fernciana merely looked at the man grasping her arm. As he came closer, his appearance became clearer. He looked exactly like her, as if an artist had copied her.
“You, who are you?”
“…Who are you?”
The emperor had been utterly bewildered upon seeing her face, as if witnessing a miracle. And his death was like offering his heart to her blade.
Why was that? How could that be?
Who is this man?
“I am Terenciana, the 2nd prince of the empire. Who are you?! Damn it, Sir Seyran? Who is this woman?!”
“Prince…?”
Only then, having come so close, did Terenciana seem to notice the blood staining the woman’s body he was grasping. Terenciana gripped her shoulders.
“Who are you?! To have the same face as Mother…, as me…!”
“…Mother…?”
Fernciana looked at the man before her eyes with a confused expression. The 2nd prince, Terenciana. And the prince’s mother. Ilyas had called her “Empress?” upon first seeing her.
The man shook her while gripping her shoulders, urgently interrogating.
“Who are you?! What did you do here?! Sir Seyran, who is this woman?!”
But Ilyas Seyran also had nothing to say. He only glared at her with narrowed eyes. Fernciana stammered.
“I…I’m Fernciana. To avenge…Ser and Mother…”
“Ser? Mother? Who are they… Who did you avenge…?”
Why did I keep thinking something was strange?
What was strange?
Why did the emperor kill Mother and Seollim?
Why did he have to kill them? Why did I never call Seollim “Father”? Why was Mother “Mother” but Seollim was “Seollim” and not “Father”?
This prince…who?
Fernciana clutched her forehead. It felt like everything was tangled. She felt that something was wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.
She had already thrust the blade into the emperor’s heart. It had become irreversible. But it was impossible for something to be wrong now.
“Could it be that you…His Majesty…?!”
Fernciana staggered backward. Her vision blurred.
The emperor could have called for someone upon seeing her face, upon seeing an assassin coming. But instead, he dismissed everyone. Even as he turned pale at her words of coming for revenge, he took something out from his chest.
“But…but no matter what you do, His Majesty cannot be murdered. The Emerald Tabula… I don’t know what’s going on, but for now, abandon your intention and let’s talk…”
Fernciana took out what she had kept in her bosom. A crescent-shaped green jewel, none other than the Emerald Tabula. Ilyas’s eyes changed and he reached out for it, but Fernciana staggered and avoided his hand.
“How do you have that…?!”
Fernciana held the Emerald Tabula in her hand and leaned against the balcony window. Prince Terenciana reached out to her.
“I can’t let you go without knowing what’s going on. Or who you are!”
“Already…”
The emperor was already dead.
Fernciana looked at the prince with a dazed expression.
The emperor cannot be murdered. It wasn’t a legend, a metaphor for majesty, or a common figure of speech. It was precisely because of this jewel, the Emerald Tabula, which was said to have been received by the founding king from the fairy king according to legend. Poisoning or assassination was impossible. Because this protected its bearer.
It was commonly thought to be a superstition, but Fernciana knew. Because she had come this far to retrieve it.
The emperor had personally placed it in her hands. That’s why she was able to kill the emperor.
At that moment, the balcony window Fernciana was leaning against could not support her weight and flung open.
Wind gusted in through the opened window. The sudden wind extinguished the candle. Fernciana staggered backward. Her back hit the balcony fence.
The first to react was not the prince but Ilyas Seyran.
“Could it be that you’re Her Majesty the Empress’s…? No, Her Majesty the Empress’s death was not His Majesty’s intention…”
“What nonsense are you…”
Ilyas hastily reached out his hand. But Fernciana did not take that hand.
A man who looks exactly like her is here. A man who is said to know everything in the empire is talking about the murder of her mother.
Who really is this man? Who is this “Her Majesty the Empress”? If it wasn’t the emperor who killed my mother and Seollim, then who?
Her mind was in such a jumble that she couldn’t think straight.
“Hey!”
“No… Already…”
It couldn’t be. It had to be right. It shouldn’t be like this. The emperor was already dead. He killed Seollim and Mother, so I killed him…
At that moment, the door to the room where the three were burst open with a fierce sound.
“Your Highness?! Sir Seyran! Are you all right?!”
“Seize her! She is the assassin of His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Ah, wait! Hold on!”
Prince Terenciana raised his voice urgently, but the soldiers rushed in in an instant.
“Her…Her Majesty the Empress…?!”
But even those soldiers stopped momentarily upon seeing her, unable to hide their shocked expressions. Fernciana looked at the soldiers filling the room and at Terenciana and Ilyas standing in front of them. While Terenciana confronted the soldiers, Ilyas was reaching out to her.
Something had gone wrong.
Fernciana thought so even as she staggered. And at that moment, lightning struck, and rain began pouring from the clouds that had rolled in again.
“Don’t think rashly and come back!”
Ilyas calls to her in an earnest voice. Fernciana, holding only the jewel tightly in her hand, unknowingly grasped the balcony fence.
At the same time, lightning struck once more. A blinding light, and it was right at that moment that the staggering Fernciana fell over the fence.
“No!”
Ilyas and Terenciana running toward her seemed slow. Fernciana did not reach out her hand even as she fell.
As she lost consciousness, the last thing she saw was a thunderous roar that seemed to shatter the world and lightning striking as if to scorch her nerves.