Chapter 2
It’s Not a Power Just Anyone Can Have.
2024.02.02.
“Laurencia. You’re not acting like yourself. Usually, you always listen to me.”
“I used my power not long ago. If you could just give me a little time to recover…”
“Laurencia, are you saying you can’t even endure a bit of pain for me? Do you want me to just die like this?”
“That’s not it, Your Highness Luanse.”
At the mention of his death, Laurencia’s face turned pale. A short silence fell.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what the advantage is anymore of meeting a bastard daughter from the Count of Pol Heredian. I’m starting to think Mother was right—that I should just get engaged to a lady from another noble family. It might be better than this current situation.”
His words pierced her heart like a hundred needles.
“If that’s what you wish, then please do get engaged to another noble lady. Either way, I—”
Laurencia looked at Luanse with an empty expression. But he looked visibly displeased.
“That’s not what I meant, Laurencia Pol Heredian!!”
At his harsh shout, Laurencia flinched and shrank back slightly.
“But…”
“You think I could love you and still see another woman? Is that what you think? Do you really believe I’d leave you and get engaged to someone else? Please, use your head before you speak. This is exactly why people look down on you.”
Even as he said he loved her, Laurencia always felt suffocated.
“But, Your Highness Luanse…”
“But? What? Laurencia, I told you not to use that word in front of me. Did you already forget? Why do you keep making the same mistakes?”
His raised voice made Laurencia bow her head deeply. Luanse let out a heavy sigh.
“I’m sorry for yelling. But hearing you tell me to marry someone else—of course that made me angry. How could you say that when I care for you so much, when I love you?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”
Seeing her nervous expression, Luanse smiled faintly and stroked her hair.
“Just as I only have you, Laurencia, you’re the only one for me too. So never say things like that again, alright?”
“I was wrong.”
Laurencia lowered her eyes and forced an apology through her tight throat. Apologizing was the only way to calm her anxious heart.
She knew she was loved—so why did his love feel so heavy, so painful? Why did her heart ache so much?
“Laurencia, you love me, don’t you?”
“…Yes.”
“Then I’ll ask you again. You can check for me, right? Whether my plan will actually kill my brother, the Crown Prince Adrian—and whether I’ll be suspected or not?”
Laurencia felt her chest tighten painfully.
“Answer me.”
“…I’ll do it.”
“You’re such a good girl.”
Luanse smiled more gently than usual and gazed at her for a long time. Seeing his smile, Laurencia let out a small breath and began to fiddle with the small amethyst pendant at her neck—no bigger than a thumbnail.
Laurencia Pol Heredian, the illegitimate daughter of Count Pol Heredian. Her only ally, her mother, had died suddenly when Laurencia was eleven, leaving behind only that amethyst necklace.
Her memories of her mother were of gazing out the tiny tower window together. Her mother’s lullabies, carried out through the open window, always brought peace to her heart. Small birds would gather to listen, and when the song ended, they would flutter away again. Laurencia used to watch them and say,
“Mother, I want to go outside like the birds.”
Back then, she hadn’t realized it—but she and her mother had been prisoners in that tall tower, never once stepping outside. When she begged to leave, her mother refused every time.
“Laurencia. We mustn’t leave. To protect the fate that’s been decided for us.”
Laurencia didn’t understand, but whenever her mother said that, she would look unbearably sad and hold Laurencia tight, sometimes even weeping. Laurencia would kiss her mother’s forehead, and then her mother would smile again and stop crying.
“Roa.”
“Yes, Mother?”
“You may face many hardships ahead, but remember just one thing.”
“Yes!”
“That you are a child of the goddess Ella.”
Life inside the room was suffocating, but as long as her mother was there, Laurencia wasn’t lonely.
After her mother’s sudden death, however, loneliness and grief filled her chest until she could barely breathe. She began biting her nails—a habit she had never had before.
She once asked the maid who slid her food under the door if she could ever leave the room, but no one ever answered her.
All Laurencia could do was open the window and sing the lullaby her mother had taught her. The little birds who came became her only friends—but they couldn’t fill her mother’s absence.
Then one day, her father—Brant—came. She had barely ever seen his face. And he asked her an absurd question.
“Do you ever see things that are going to happen? Like… visions? Or dreams?”
“The future?”
“Yes. The future.”
“No, Father. I can’t see anything like that.”
How could a person possibly see the future? She thought it was ridiculous. Brant’s expression soured with disappointment, and Laurencia was confused—until,
—Smack!
Her head whipped to the side with the sound of a sharp slap. Trembling, she clutched her burning cheek and looked up at him.
“Did you just call me Father? You bastard child—how dare you!”
He shoved her shoulders violently, and Laurencia fell to the floor with a dull thud. Her face filled with fear.
“I—I’m sorry…”
“Useless, just like your mother.”
“I was wrong…”
“That red hair, those eyes—they disgust me!”
Unable to control his rage at her kneeling figure, Brant raised his hand again.
Time passed cruelly. Laurencia continued to live locked away in the tower, growing used to Brant’s insults and blows.
One day, as she wondered if there was any reason left to live—
“Is it this room?”
She heard Brant’s voice outside the door, along with another, younger man’s.
“There’s a lock on it.”
—Bang!
“There’s someone in there? If there is, answer me.”
Terrified, Laurencia didn’t respond. Then came the sound of the lock breaking, and the door creaked open.
Huddled in a corner, Laurencia looked up—and met the gaze of a man with slightly wavy blond hair and gentle green eyes.
This was the first person besides her mother and Brant she had ever met.
“There really was someone locked in here. Good thing I came up.”
“W-who are you?”
He smiled softly, his green eyes kind.
“My name is Luanse von Ishter. And yours?”
“Laurencia.”
“Why are you locked up here, Lady Laurencia?”
“Because I’m a bastard… They said I’m a disgrace to the family and must never be seen.”
“The bastard daughter of Count Pol Heredian? I’ve heard the story—but so it was you.”
After thinking for a moment, Luanse slowly approached her.
“Your hair—like red rose petals.”
‘Filthy red hair! Those disgusting purple eyes, just like your mother’s!’
Brant’s voice echoed in her mind. Laurencia squeezed her eyes shut and trembled.
“Truly beautiful hair. And eyes like amethyst.”
Laurencia froze.
“B…beautiful?”
No one had ever called her beautiful—except her late mother.
“You really are. But aren’t you curious why I came here?”
Laurencia nodded.
“You’re the one who always reaches your arm out the window to call the birds, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I thought it was amazing, so I came to see for myself. You’ve been alone here all this time?”
“Yes.”
“You must have been lonely.”
His words made her throat tighten.
“Lady Laurencia.”
“Yes?”
“Would you like to be my friend?”
“Friend?”
After that, Luanse continued to visit her room. Laurencia didn’t know how to handle the feeling, but each time he brought her sweet treats she’d never tasted before.
“Try this one too. It’s pastry with chocolate.”
She liked his visits—but always felt anxious. What if Brant found out?
Eventually, he did.
But instead of punishing her, Brant bowed to Luanse. Shockingly, Luanse was the empire’s Second Prince, twenty years old.
Once his identity was revealed, Laurencia’s imprisonment came to an end.
At Luanse’s request, she was officially registered as a legitimate daughter of the Count of Pol Heredian. Her life changed overnight, and the sudden freedom frightened her. But Luanse reassured her, wrapping her in his gentle arms.
For the first time, Laurencia stepped outside. She looked up at the blue sky and the green leaves of the trees. The clouds drifting overhead filled her with joy.
When she stretched out her arms and sang the lullaby her mother had taught her, squirrels and little birds began to gather around her.
“As I thought—Laurencia, you’re amazing.”
“I am?”
“Having the power to call animals isn’t something just anyone can do.”
Her cheeks flushed at his praise.
“You’re lovely. I was drawn to you from the moment I first saw you.”
His words made her heart race.
That night—the night he confessed to her—
Her mother’s keepsake, the amethyst pendant, began to glow for the first time.
At the same time, she was struck with fever and nosebleeds. Objects around her started moving on their own.
Brant called her a monster.
But only Luanse comforted her.
“It’s okay, Laurencia. Just calm your mind.”
He held both her hands tightly. Then, her amethyst pendant shone even brighter—
—and she saw a vision:
a brown-haired maid sprinkling white powder into food…
food that would soon be served before Prince Luanse.