Episode 1
The sound of a baby crying and Millie’s anxious voice made Laniarne’s head throb.
“Lady Laniarne! Lady Arne! Please open your eyes! Even if you’re sleepy, you can’t fall asleep! Everyone’s worried!”
Thinking that Millie was probably the only one in the cursed Duchy of Renigrad who truly cared about her, Arne tried to curl her lips into a bitter smile—but her body wouldn’t move.
She was exhausted. Completely drained.
She had just given birth—of course she would be.
And even more so with a body that had already been declared terminal.
“Lady Arne!”
The piercing scream made the surrounding maids flinch.
“Tch. They said she didn’t have long to live anyway. Someone who’s going to die will die—why all this fuss?”
“Hey, how can you say something like that?”
Thick tears spilled from Millie’s eyes. Her voice trembled with resentment.
‘Why are you crying, Millie…?’
Arne swallowed the words she couldn’t speak with lips that wouldn’t move.
Thinking Arne had lost consciousness, the maids who had snapped at Millie began talking freely, without restraint.
“They said she couldn’t even get pregnant in the first place. Even healthy ladies die in childbirth—what a show.”
“What did you just say?! Just wait until His Grace returns—every last one of you—!”
“Returns? What difference would that make? He left for the battlefield right after the wedding. Do you really think he cares? There hasn’t even been a single message.”
“T-that’s because the battlefield is too dangerous for messengers to reach—”
“Hah. Wake up. She’s been abandoned. If you stick by a discarded duchess, you’ll end up dying just like her.”
Mocking laughter filled the room.
Millie bit down on her lip, clenching her shaking fists.
She was furious—but she had nothing to say back.
Because it was all true.
The last time anyone saw the duke and duchess together was the night of their wedding.
The duke hadn’t sent a single letter.
Maybe this was only natural.
Cedric Spendha de Renigrad hadn’t married Arne out of love.
The marriage happened because Cedric’s fiancée, Amelia, had an affair with Arne’s fiancé, Kael.
“Lady Arne, don’t you want revenge on Kael for betraying you? I do.”
“Are you suggesting we cheat in return?”
“Why not? They showed us no respect—why should we show them any? Or are you hesitant because of the rumors that I’m cursed by a demon?”
“You do know I’m called the Empire’s mad villainess, right? The woman who slapped Kael for cheating.”
For the first time, Cedric’s stiff lips curved upward.
So handsome it was almost unreal—no wonder people whispered he might have been sculpted by a demon.
“I like that you’re a mad villainess. Compared to a demon, a villainess is cute, don’t you think? Are you afraid of demons?”
“That doesn’t matter anymore. I was recently told I don’t have long to live.”
“…Then we should hold the wedding immediately. There isn’t much time.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
The duke’s eyebrows lifted.
His sharp jaw and tightly set mouth showed how serious he was.
His eyes swirled with anger and an urgency she couldn’t understand.
Under his intense gaze, Arne slowly opened her lips.
“Alright.”
It was an impulsive decision.
Orphaned at a young age, Arne had always dreamed of having a family.
Her magical talent had been recognized by Marquis Ronia, and she was adopted into House Ronia—but she never truly belonged.
“We don’t even know where you crawled out from. Don’t dare think someone with filthy blood like yours is family.”
Her adoptive mother and sister hated her.
She tried her best not to be hated.
She even went to war without complaint whenever the marquis ordered it.
For a war orphan, the battlefield was familiar.
She hid her name and fought as Ronia’s secret knight.
Her achievements elevated the Ronia family from marquis to duke.
She didn’t care that the credit wasn’t hers.
She just didn’t want to be thrown away.
Didn’t want to be hated.
No—she wanted to be loved.
When she returned from war, the only praise she ever received was the duke’s satisfied expression.
She trained until her body broke, staying up through the nights.
Being sick felt natural.
She couldn’t stop—she was afraid that falling behind even a little would mean being abandoned.
Only after receiving a terminal diagnosis did she realize how completely ruined her body was.
“Father… I’m so tired.”
The words she had never once dared to say were swallowed with her tears.
Her head rang. Her consciousness faded.
A sharp voice cut through her ears.
“Tch. They say a daughter’s fate follows her mother’s—guess this kid will be an orphan too.”
“Exactly. Bad luck. The baby’s got red eyes too. Stop crying, you’re noisy! So what if her mother’s a great mage? She’s dying—useless.”
The baby whimpered, startled by the maid’s irritation.
Millie snapped back, her voice shaking with fury.
“Why are you taking it out on the baby?! What did the child ever do?!”
“Hey, I’m giving you advice. What are you planning to do, sticking around an orphan with no parents? The collateral family will take over this place soon. Pick the right side.”
“No one has died yet! And even if she did, the duchy belongs to the baby—what are you talking about?!”
The maids burst into laughter at Millie’s naive words.
Then the head maid, who had been silent, finally spoke.
Rumor had it she was having an affair with Count Renal—the most influential member of the collateral line—and arrogance dripped from her voice.
“Millie, stop pretending to be nice. It’s annoying. What can an orphan baby do? She’ll just get used and tossed around—if she’s not assassinated first. You think the collateral family would let a thing like this live?”
Lost in her delusion of becoming the next duchess, the head maid muttered without thinking as she looked at the baby.
“An orphan bitch.”
The room fell silent.
The head maid flinched, realizing the words had slipped out—but what of it?
The duchess was basically a corpse already.
But the silence was heavy. Too heavy.
The other maids were frozen stiff.
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
She snapped and turned around—and finally understood why the air had sunk.
Laniarne, the duchess, was looking down at her.
“…‘Orphan bitch.’ One of the things I heard most growing up. Thanks to you, I’ve come to my senses. I thought I was dying.”
“D-Duchess…”
The head maid panicked—but decided to act shamelessly.
After all, Arne looked like she could die at any moment.
Her already pale face was bloodless, ghostlike. She had lost too much blood.
The head maid had seen many women die just like this.
Arne read that thought easily and smiled lazily.
“I’m really glad I’m a great mage. Magic never betrays me. Do you know what the first magic I ever awakened was?”
She slowly snapped her fingers.
“Healing magic. On the battlefield, no one saves an orphan.”
Soft violet mana bloomed and wrapped around Arne, warm and gentle.
It had always been with her.
It had always protected her.
She snapped her fingers again.
The head maid’s knees buckled, her head slammed to the floor.
“Ghk—Duchess, please—!”
The head maid writhed in pain. Looking up, she saw Arne smiling brightly—as if she had never been near death at all.
“Seems it’s not my time yet. How could I close my eyes knowing my daughter—who’s done nothing wrong—might live the same life I did?”
Arne grabbed the head maid’s chin.
Her gaze was cold as ice.
The maids trembled.
Laniarne was infamous across the empire as the mad villainess.
There was no way she would let this slide.
As Arne raised her fingers again, the head maid turned deathly pale.
“Duchess, I was wrong! Please, spare me! I’ll never say such things again!”
Arne didn’t move.
Then.
BOOM.
Everyone turned toward the window.
A massive flying monster had crashed into the barrier.
“Lucky day.”
Arne released the head maid and looked at the monster.
The cursed Duchy of Renigrad, where the duke’s father and grandfather both died mysteriously.
A land saturated with demonic energy, constantly attacked by monsters.
She thought it was strangely quiet.
As Arne stepped forward, violet mana surged upward.
The flying monster burned instantly, crumbling into ash.
The head maid gasped.
“Millie.”
“Yes!”
Arne looked down at her hiccupping daughter, about to say her name—then stopped.
Her husband never named the child.
She didn’t even know if he was aware that the baby existed.
“Millie, stay in this room with the baby. The barrier is strongest here. I’ll be back.”
“By yourself, Lady Arne?”
“Isn’t that how it’s always been?”
She had begged Duke Ronia repeatedly to send even one mage to defend Renigrad—no response.
Most of the soldiers had left with her husband to war.
The few who remained had already died fighting monsters.
Arne walked alone through the familiar corridors and opened the banquet hall doors leading to the main gate.
“…Cedric?”
Was she hallucinating?
Why was her husband—who should be on the battlefield—here?
But it was unmistakably Cedric.
The same handsome face from that first and last night.
The same gentle smile.
“Laniarne.”
It wasn’t a hallucination.
As Cedric moved, chains clinked against his body and the door.
“Laniarne… It’s really you. My wife.”
His voice was far too tender. Just like that night.
No. She wouldn’t fall for it again.
He had whispered so gently that night—then vanished for an entire year without a single letter.
“Why were you crying?”
When his fingers brushed away the dried tear marks on her face, something inside her collapsed.
“Why ask that? You don’t care what happens to me. You act like you love me.”
“That can’t be true. I fell for you the moment I first saw you.”
He pulled her into his arms.
She couldn’t understand him.
His armored hand wrapped around her shoulders. Something cold pressed against her, metal clinking.
“Arne. I don’t have much time left. There’s an Aderin herb in the duchy garden. We should brew it and drink it together.”
He strained to hand her a bloodstained box.
Only then did she see the spears piercing his back.
His eyes were sunken with exhaustion.
The hall was filled with spell circles.
And beyond him, the gate was shaking from relentless impacts.
“Cedric, what is going on?”
“If anything happens, go to the Mirror Room. It will grant your wish.”
“What is going on?!”
“But you must wish carefully. You only get one chance—and you must pay with what’s most precious to you.”
“Cedric!”
The gate shattered.
An overwhelming swarm of monsters flooded in.
Cedric pulled her close, kissed her deeply—tender and fierce.
Then he pushed her away and smiled, tired and languid.
Dark blood stained the dress where he had touched her.
“Goodbye, my unbearably beautiful wife.”
He pulled the chains connected to his body, and the doors slowly closed.
The sight of endless monsters and Cedric’s relaxed smile didn’t make sense together.
Nothing made sense.
Why was he here?
What was the Mirror Room?
A wish?
What she understood least of all was what lay inside the box he left behind.
A dragon’s heart.
The greatest medicinal ingredient in the world—capable of curing any illness.
…Why would you give me this?
