Prologue
When I was little, I remember my mother holding me in her arms and reading me books.
“Elena, my lovely daughter.”
Her voice was always gentle and warm. Like the soft spring breeze after a long winter, her voice wrapped around me as she read fairy tales.
“You are the most precious and special child in the world.”
She kissed my forehead and told me I was as special as the girls in the storybooks.
The girls in those books were always brave and beautiful. Even witches and monsters loved them. And in the end, they always married a prince.
Every time we finished a story, I would say:
“I want to marry a prince too!”
Then my mom would scribble something in the book, muttering, “So, that’s what inspires you… let me make a note of it,” and then smile.
“I’ll make it happen for you.”
What did she mean by “make it happen”? Most mothers would just laugh and say, “How cute,” but my mom was different. Thinking about it now, she was never an ordinary person.
Back then, I didn’t understand her words. I just thought, “Mom loves me a lot.”
And it was true—my mom was very smart. She knew things no one else knew.
But people outside always called her:
“A weirdo.”
To me, she was kind and warm, but others said she used to be a terrible woman before I was born. She came from a noble family but had a bad temper and even hit people. Then suddenly, she changed one day, and people called it the “Miracle of Glaudi.” Still, because of her past, many continued to call her strange.
After leaving her family, she started her own business. Everyone thought she would fail, but she succeeded. She invented things nobody imagined—new ways for transport, building, and everyday life. People even called her a genius. She always answered every question I asked, no matter what.
“You’ll grow up to be a beautiful lady and marry a prince,” she often said.
When I was five, I believed her. I dreamed of living in a palace, wearing dresses, and meeting a handsome prince, just like the storybook girls.
But as I grew older, I realized her words were unrealistic. When I nervously asked if I could really marry a prince, she would just smile and say, “Of course!”
When I asked how she knew the future, she laughed and replied:
“Because this world is built from my dream. That’s why you’re special, Elena. You’re the only one outside the system. Well… except for your father.”
At six years old, I couldn’t understand her. Honestly, even now I don’t. But by then, I already knew I could never become an empress. Our family, the Kalstadt family, wasn’t powerful like the great dukes and archdukes. We were only minor nobles, living in a small territory near the monster-filled Gray Mountains. Our income was modest—most of it came from mercenaries and adventurers passing through. In truth, the money my mom made from her inventions was far greater than what the family earned.
And I wasn’t especially beautiful either. Just an ordinary girl.
Could a girl like me really become an empress? Of course not. The only special thing about our family was the wealth my mother created. She always joked, “Even your father fell in love with me because of my money.”
By the time I was seven, I stopped dreaming about becoming an empress. But my mom didn’t stop preparing me. She gave me advanced education, as if I would one day stand in the palace. In truth, all I wanted was to become a doctor or alchemist to heal my father.
The lessons were hard, but strangely, whenever I drank the medicine Mom gave me, my tiredness vanished and I remembered everything I studied. People called me a genius, but… I wasn’t so sure.
Then, when I turned ten, my mom left home for three days. When she came back, she was carrying a bundle. Usually, she returned with some invention or new idea. But this time was different.
“Come, say hello,” she told me.
Inside the bundle wasn’t a new machine or magical tool.
“…A boy?”
He had gray hair like buckwheat flowers and golden eyes that shone when Mom lifted his eyelids. He looked about my age.
“This is… Claudiel Tenes Adeboil.”
When I was young, Mom always said I would become the empress of this empire.
And now, she added:
“He is the illegitimate son of the current emperor.”
It seemed… she wasn’t joking after all.
