“Let go of this!”
Astria grabbed the struggling Sena with one hand and urged the horse onward.
“Let go of this! Sylvia, Sylvia!”
“Stop it!”
Astria, who had been holding back, shouted.
But even she was surprised by her own loud voice. After a moment of silence, she spoke again.
“…Respect the loyalty of your knight.”
Only after hearing those words did Sena finally shut his mouth.
He knew how childish his actions must seem right now.
Yet… even knowing that, he could not comprehend it.
Why? Why must Sylvia be the one to sacrifice?
Did Cruyff have to go that far?
Where did it all go wrong?
It took quite some time for Sena to calm down.
“Are you calm now?”
He slowly breathed in the dark, cool night air and spoke.
Sena, burying his face in Astria’s back.
“You’re good at riding horses.”
“It’s strange for royalty not to know how to ride.”
“You said last time you didn’t know how.”
“Not knowing how to ride and not wanting to ride are two different things.”
Sena lifted his head.
He felt like he would go mad if he didn’t engage in even such trivial conversation.
“Can’t you tell me?”
“Alright.”
Perhaps noticing his need, Astria quietly began to share her story.
“I once fell off a horse.”
“Isn’t that common when learning to ride?”
He thought it strange that she became so afraid of riding from something so minor.
“It is common. However, the problem was elsewhere.”
“What was it?”
“…My mother saw it.”
“Is that really such a big problem?”
“She got angry. And I was locked in the stable for about a month.”
“Huh?”
His eyes widened at the unexpected revelation.
“No water, no food, nothing was provided. I had to drink the horse’s water and chew on hay to survive.”
In the quiet dawn air, only her voice could be heard softly.
“I still can’t forget the taste of that hay. Since then, I couldn’t ride horses at all. My mouth felt bitter and heavy.”
“How old were you then?”
“I was six.”
Sena’s mind was overwhelmed by shock.
To think a six-year-old child would be treated that way for falling off a horse.
That meant she must have endured many other severe things as well.
“Why… go that far?”
“My mother was an empress. An empress who couldn’t bear a child. By the time I was born, the crown prince position had already been determined.”
“Is that the reason?”
Sena said with a slightly angry tone.
Astria, recalling her past, smiled faintly.
“It’s a sufficient reason. Every time she saw the crown prince and the empress, she must have thought, ‘That should have been my place.’ My mother couldn’t endure that. So, she demanded perfection. She wanted to show overwhelming talent in any way possible to overturn the succession plan.”
‘Now that I think about it, I don’t know anything about Astria.’
It would be a lie to say he hadn’t been curious all this time.
A girl who became empress at just 13 years old.
And all the rumors that swirled around her.
Sena tightened his grip around Astria’s waist.
“Please tell me more. How have you lived until now?”
Clop-clop-.
Astria suddenly turned her head back.
After a moment of closing her eyes, she began to speak.
“Father did not dislike me. On the contrary, he cherished me a lot.”
It was around the time she was seven. The late Emperor called Astria to him and praised her greatly, even using the words “the future of the empire”.
That day, she saw Marianne’s smiling face for the first time.
But that smile didn’t last long.
“We had many private meetings. He treated me very well. After all, it wouldn’t hurt for someone skilled in swordsmanship to emerge among the royals. However, I gradually began to feel it.”
Astria still vividly remembers.
– With that exceptional swordsmanship, become an excellent knight who protects your brother.
Although she was young, she understood instantly.
“Father had no intention of passing the throne to me.”
The late Emperor Constantine prioritized the order of succession over ability.
Moreover, Astria’s older brother, Drawei, had no shortcomings either.
In such a situation, there was no way they would pass the throne to Astria, who was neither the firstborn nor even a male.
By the time she turned ten, Astria already knew that fact.
Astria’s mother, Empress Marianne, realized it a bit later.
“When my mother learned that, she was furious. She understood that all her efforts had been in vain. The spark of rebellion was ignited from that point.”
Marianne was genuinely committed to making Astria the Empress.
To achieve that, maintaining connections with various influential figures was essential.
However, compared to the crown prince, her influence was not significant.
Regardless, it seemed that the next emperor had already been decided in the eyes of the world.
But Marianne understood the core of the matter well.
“Mother. No, Marianne made one single choice.”
Granz Kairos.
The Guardian Knight of the late Emperor and the strongest knight in history.
Marianne brought him in.
Not as an empress, but as a woman.
“He was good-looking.”
Astria’s expression darkened for a moment.
That was when hell began.
Marianne did not want Astria to be satisfied with just becoming the Empress.
She required absolute obedience.
She needed a perfectly functioning puppet that could move according to her will.
Marianne relentlessly pressured Astria.
If Astria even slightly offended her, she would commit unspeakable acts.
Astria complied. She was too young.
But the spark of anger quietly grew.
By the time that day came, the flame in her heart had grown immense.
“On the day of the rebellion, I took up my sword.”
The original plan was for Granz to pave the way for Astria to become empress.
Astria’s role was merely to walk proudly, sword drawn, over the bodies disposed of by Granz.
“One day earlier than planned.”
Astria executed the plan she had been holding onto for so long.
“I wanted to repay everything that had been done to me.”
She struck down everything in sight.
In truth, she didn’t care if she died in the process.
She never thought she would reach her father after cutting down so many imperial knights.
She just wanted to show it.
Just once, she wanted to throw off Marianne’s shackles.
“Amidst wildly swinging my sword, I realized one thing.”
Astria smiled with her teeth bared.
To Sena, she looked like a wild beast.
“There is no one stronger than me in this world. When I regained my senses, all that remained was a calm pool of blood and the terrified figure of Father sitting there.”
Madness.
An uncontrollable madness consumed her.
The moment Astria looked into her father’s eyes, which she could hardly bear to face, she instinctively felt an impulse.
“Father pleaded with me. Just spare my life. I will hand over the throne to you. But I saw something beyond that terrified smile.”
-Smile.
Marianne would place Astria in front of the mirror at regular intervals.
And she would forcefully pull up the corners of her mouth to the same position.
Astria complied with Marianne’s wishes. But her eyes trembled with anger.
“I looked at myself.”
Her own eyes, planning for the future.
The grotesque expression she had confirmed in the mirror every day.
It reflected the late Emperor Constantine perfectly.
Realizing that, she killed her father with her own hands.
“Thus, I became Empress. The Empress of a rebellion that no one acknowledged.”
The first thing she did after becoming empress was to take revenge on Marianne.
“I decided to cut the Achilles’ heel and exile her. However, in the process, Duke Kairos strongly opposed it.”
At first, she had intended to kill Granz.
But after trying her sword a few times, she realized he was an opponent she couldn’t defeat at the age of thirteen.
In the first place, she was able to defeat the late Emperor Constantine because of his tacit consent.
“I had no choice but to negotiate.”
Ironically, for someone plotting a rebellion, Granz was a loyal subject.
He held a belief that no matter what happened, he could never kill the Emperor of the Empire.
Of course, it seemed he had thrown that ridiculous belief away now.
At that time, he made one demand.
He would accept everything else, but one thing.
Please do not kill Marianne.
Just allow him to be with her.
Astria smiled and agreed.
“How amusing. I never intended to kill my mother from the start. Isn’t that rather happy?”
Instead, Astria cut Marianne’s Achilles tendon.
The image of Granz wailing madly was still vivid.
However, originally, her plan had been to send Marianne to a brothel as her place of exile.
“Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. My mother’s place of exile became Duke Kairos’ residence. So, how about it? Was my life story entertaining?”
Astria said this as she turned around.
Sena had fallen into a deep sleep.
Asking her to tell a story and then falling asleep just like that. How arrogant.
As Astria narrowed her eyes to wake Sena, she felt a dampness on the back of her neck.
Something was wrong.
She touched her neck, feeling as if her heart had stopped.
“Sena.”
She sensed a very faint breath.
Astria felt relieved yet bit her lip.
The breath she had just felt was far too faint.
**
[8]
He kept losing and regaining consciousness.
He felt his body growing weaker with each passing moment.
The words Astria had spoken before losing consciousness echoed in his mind.
He should have listened until the end, but in the end, he couldn’t hold on.
Was she angry?
Sena, holding onto his faint consciousness, slowly opened his eyes.
In a small hut, he saw a blonde girl uncomfortably asleep in a chair.
‘She’s beautiful.’
As he idly thought this, Astria slowly opened her eyes.
When their eyes met, it felt as if time had stopped.
“Sena.”
Astria urgently grabbed Sena’s wrist.
“Have you finally regained your senses?”
“Yes, cough.”
As soon as he managed to produce a voice mixed with a metallic sound, he began to cough.
The coughing didn’t stop easily.
By the time he finally calmed down, the white blanket was stained red.
“Don’t say anything.”
Astria was at a loss for what to do.
Sena smiled awkwardly.
He felt something warm in his chest.
Perhaps this was divine power.
After he lost consciousness, Astria must have called for a priest.
“Where am I…? How long have I been unconscious?”
Cough, Cough.
Sena started coughing again.
This time, it was a more severe cough than before.
It was clear that Sena looked in pain, and he truly was.
Astria panicked and hugged Sena.
“Just wait a moment. I’ll go get a priest.”
Just as Astria was about to step outside.
Sena urgently grabbed her wrist.
His consciousness was fading.
‘Please, just this…’
Sena grasped his fading mind and barely managed to say.
“Birkender… please take me to the territory. That’s all I desire…”
He couldn’t finish his words, and his body slumped.
