CHAPTAER 01
It was a quiet mealtime.
Seraphine quietly cut her steak, feeling the attention directed at her.
“I heard you were the one who first brought up breaking off the engagement with the Crown Prince.”
The silence was broken by the Duke of Luvia.
Seraphine’s father addressed his daughter, who was dining with perfect decorum and grace.
At his words, her brothers immediately turned to stare at her with open curiosity, as if they had been waiting for this.
“Yes.”
Her answer was simple and calm.
The Duke of Luvia listened carefully, hoping for a more detailed explanation.
But Seraphine said nothing more. Instead, she took a small bite of her steak.
“This is a marriage alliance with the royal family. It’s not something you should decide on your own. At the very least, you should have discussed it with me.”
“……”
“If things go on like this, even if you wish to be engaged to His Highness again in the future, it will no longer be possible.”
“I don’t care.”
“You don’t care?”
It was an answer that Seraphine would never have given in the past.
Her older brother sat silent, her younger brother glared at her, sullen.
And her father, staring at the daughter who had suddenly changed her attitude, was filled with complicated emotions.
Seraphine looked at each of them in turn, then calmly set down her knife and fork.
“I’ve made up my mind. I won’t be changing it—ever.”
“You used to be so in love you were practically dying for him. And now you say you won’t change your mind?”
Joshua, her younger brother, snapped at her as if she were spouting nonsense. Seraphine nodded at the memory of those past days.
“You’re right. Pretending to die for him so many times made me realize just how foolish I was.”
She dabbed at her lips elegantly with her napkin and continued.
“When I come of age, I plan to leave the family. That’s why I brought up breaking the engagement.”
“……”
“And wouldn’t it be better for you too, Father, if someone like me—the shame of the family—just left?”
“Seraphine! Where did you learn to speak like that?”
“If you’re going to scold someone for their tone, you should direct that at Joshua. Not me, Father.”
She looked coldly at her father and stood from her seat.
“I’ll excuse myself first.”
Turning her back on her family without hesitation, Seraphine thought:
This is the right thing to do.
Because she was no longer Seraphine von Luvia, daughter of the Duke of Luvia.
The story truly begins about a month ago.
***
Before she became Lady Luvia, Seraphine had been a princess of the kingdom.
The king had three daughters. Seraphine, the second, lacked the talents and brilliance of her sisters.
She wasn’t unattractive, but compared to her dazzling sisters, she had little presence.
But more critically—
Though of divine blood, she was born without wings—unlike the rest of her family.
To be born with wings was considered as natural as having arms and legs.
Their kind called themselves descendants of gods, so mighty was their race.
The people took great pride in their rulers.
But how could the royal family rule without wings?
To outsiders, Seraphine appeared to be an ordinary human, and many doubted her lineage.
“The second princess must be illegitimate. She’s no different from a lowly human—banish her!”
“Your Majesty, a wingless princess is a stain on the royal authority!”
Complaints poured in, but the king simply shook his head—not to protect her, but because he didn’t care.
“Leave her. She’s of no consequence anyway.”
It was utter indifference.
She was raised in that cold neglect—and so she lived, up until her coming-of-age ceremony.
“Father, have you heard of weapons that possess a soul?”
On the day she came of age, Seraphine requested a private audience with the king and presented him with a cross-shaped spear.
It was a weapon unlike anything the world had ever seen.
Even someone who had never taken a life could wield it and easily carry out a massacre.
With its creation, Seraphine’s life seemed to change.
“Thanks to you, we’ve claimed another victory in the war!”
The kingdom, empowered by this new weapon, secured an easy victory.
The king, fervent in his conquests, demanded more weapons from the princess.
But to create such weapons, a powerful soul was needed.
Each weapon required a life.
Wicked woman. Witch. Monster.
Time passed, and what had once seemed like it would remain forever secret was revealed.
“That witch! She made weapons by killing people?”
“Disgusting villainess. Just sharing the same air as her is horrifying!”
The power that had brought victory to the kingdom was discovered to be the result of inhumane means.
Everyone condemned her.
Despite the harsh criticism, the princess continued crafting weapons, believing the war would soon end.
But even after creating eight weapons, there was no sign of peace.
Instead, driven by greed, the king escalated the war, and far more people died than expected.
When she realized her delusion, the princess declared she would make no more weapons.
But the king, now addicted to power, refused to give up what he had gained.
“Daughter, tell me the secret of creating weapons with souls. Just one more. One more weapon, and the world will be ours!”
Despite the king’s constant pestering, the princess remained silent.
He tried to coax her, but it was futile. Her heart had already closed.
Her open defiance made the king nervous.
‘What if she turns against me and makes weapons for another kingdom?’
Her weapons had given the kingdom its dominance.
But now that she had turned her back on him, there was no telling when she might betray him.
Panic consumed the king.
‘If only she were gone, all eight weapons would be mine alone.’
In the end, the king shoved his own daughter into a vat of molten steel.
Her body, submerged in the blazing liquid hot enough to melt iron, perished without even a scream.
Or at least—it should have.
‘Then why…?’
It was cold.
Her vision rippled as if seen from beneath water.
‘Wait—water?’
The moment she realized it, she couldn’t breathe. Bubbles escaped from between her lips.
“S… Seraphine!”
A voice called to her. She couldn’t clearly see the face—it was blurred.
But that didn’t matter. She was suffocating.
She kicked frantically toward the surface, desperate to survive.
Someone reached out to her, and she grabbed the hand.
“Haah…!”
Luckily, the water wasn’t deep.
Soon, cold air filled her lungs.
Cough, cough.
Relief at being able to breathe was short-lived. She had swallowed so much water, it hurt.
Soaked like a drowned rat, she scowled and coughed violently.
The person in front of her asked curtly:
“Are you alright, Lady Luvia?”
“…‘Lady’? Are you talking to me?”
She finally focused and looked at the person before her.
Their uniform was unfamiliar.
Especially the badge on their chest—she couldn’t tell which country it belonged to.
They looked somewhat like a guard, but she wasn’t sure.
The title “Lady” felt foreign to her, so she asked again—but the man only seemed more flustered.
“You can feign ignorance all you want, but you’ll be punished according to the law. Lady Luvia, you’ve damaged national property. You’ll have to come with us.”
Damaged what?
And where exactly were they taking her?
She couldn’t even understand why they kept calling her “Lady Luvia.”
Everything was a blur of questions.
But all those thoughts vanished the moment cold metal clasped her wrist.
Clack.
Handcuffs.
“…?”
Dragged away, she was thrown into prison—just like that.
