Prologue; Fall

That day was the pinnacle of happiness.

Because it was the day I married my beloved amidst blessings, and we exchanged vows of eternal love.

But that night.

The moment I opened the door to the bedroom prepared for our first night, an unbelievable hell unfolded before my eyes.

My cousin sister Danae Yusten and the Viscount Leonard Klein, who had become my husband today, were lying on the bed, half-naked and tightly embracing each other.

What on earth is this situation?

I stood frozen like a statue at the doorway, staring at them with blank eyes.

Perhaps sensing my gaze, the two who had been whispering sweet nothings while showering each other’s exposed bodies with light kisses suddenly sat up.

My husband Leonard, who looked back at me with eyes as if he’d seen a ghost, and my cousin sister Danae, who slowly pulled up her fallen clothing. I glared at them in turn and slowly opened my mouth.

“…What, is this?”

“…”

“…Explain. Explain how this happened.”

I managed to speak, forcing my tongue that had stiffened from the great shock. My voice was trembling terribly.

I demanded an explanation from them who had made me like this, trying to maintain a calm attitude. But Leonard kept his mouth shut tight and lowered his gaze, while Danae turned her head sideways and just smiled strangely.

At that sight, I finally lost my composure and shouted loudly.

“I’m asking what the hell is going on here!”

“…Christine. First, calm down. This… well…”

At my outcry, Leonard hurriedly got out of bed. I backed away, avoiding Leonard who was trying to approach me, and screamed.

“Calm down? Do I look like I can calm down right now?”

“Christine!”

“How could you! You! How could you two do this to me!”

At that moment, Danae, who had been watching the confrontation between us, slowly got up from the bed. Then she said to me.

“Alright, now be quiet. Do you want to spread rumors to everyone in the castle that your husband was unfaithful on your first night?”

“…What?”

It was Danae’s sharp voice that I had never heard before in my life.

I asked back, dumbfounded. Danae snorted briefly and continued.

“You asked earlier what’s going on? …Yes, that’s right. I’m in love with that man.”

“…Ha. Since when?”

“It’s been a while. Maybe about… three months after you officially started dating him?”

There was not the slightest sense of shame or guilt towards me in Danae’s voice as she answered brazenly.

I stared blankly at Danae, at a loss for words. Danae shrugged her shoulders slightly as if mocking me and said.

“Oh my. Don’t look at me like I’m some shameless person, sister. I just loved this man and wanted to have him. So I acted according to where my heart led me. …You know they say love and sneezing can’t be hidden, right?”

“…So, you’ve been… meeting with this man since then? Behind my back? While deceiving me?”

“Deceiving? I was just being true to my feelings. The same goes for that man, Lenny.”

Danae answered with a gentle smile and lightly caressed Leonard’s bare shoulder with a tender touch. Leonard showed no movement, as if accustomed to her touch.

At that sight, I couldn’t hold back and burst out in anger again.

“How can you do this to me? How!”

“…Ah, really. You’re noisy, you know? Calm down a bit. Why are you so excited, sister?”

“…What did you say?”

“Who told you to come back an hour early? If you had come in after dawdling with those lowly maids pretending to be nice as usual, this situation wouldn’t have happened.”

“…Danae, you… You!”

I was at a loss for words at Danae’s brazen words, my mouth just gaping.

Seeing me like that, she sighed deeply as if to show me and continued speaking.

“And, if you saw, you could have just quietly closed the door and left. But did you have to make the situation so noisy like this?”

“…I made the situation noisy?”

“Yes. Am I wrong? It’s not like I said I’m going to take this man away from you right now, right? And even if I did, so what? Can’t you make this much concession to me as my older sister?”

“Danae!”

I shouted again at Danae’s attitude that was becoming more and more unreasonable. Danae smiled as if she found my reaction amusing, then folded her arms arrogantly and said.

“That’s right. How much has our father given you until now?”

“What…!”

“Who raised you all this time after the head of the family passed away and you were left alone? Wasn’t it our father? If our father hadn’t reached out his hand, wouldn’t you be living in a worse situation than a low-ranking baron in a crumbling remote estate by now? You were able to live as ‘the young lady of the Yusten family’ thanks to our father, right? I also treated you properly as my ‘sister’.”

“…Ha.”

“So consider that debt repaid by conceding this man to me. Isn’t that fine? Honestly, isn’t it a great benefit for someone in your position?”

At those words, I let out a hollow laugh, drained of strength.

A benefit, she says? I had never benefited from that deal.

Rather, it was my uncle who benefited. Until now, I had been devising all sorts of strategies as his advisor in place of my uncle, Duke Yusten. He raised me and used me to eliminate his political opponents.

He didn’t care how many people I hurt because of that, what kind of infamy I was branded with. He probably didn’t even want to know.

And yet, it was none other than Danae who brought up the ‘grace of raising me’ to me.

I kept letting out hollow laughs. It was truly absurd, ridiculous, and my situation was miserable. As I laughed like a madwoman, the anger that had been boiling up began to cool down coldly. I felt skeptical about everything I had done, which I had deliberately turned a blind eye to under the pretext of devotion to my fiancé and family.

Before I knew it, I stopped laughing. And I said to Danae, who was coldly mocking me.

“Right. A great benefit… Maybe it is. But Danae, what should I do?”

“…?”

“I want to stop that beneficial deal now.”

“…What?”

At my words, the expression gradually disappeared from Danae’s face.

I glared in turn at Danae’s frozen face and Leonard, who was staring blankly at us as if he didn’t understand what was going on, then walked out of the bedroom.

And I quickly walked down the corridor leading to the stairs to go to my bedroom. Then, someone who had chased after me from behind grabbed my wrist. It was Danae. I roughly shook off her wrist.

“Let go of this.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What?”

“You said you want to stop the beneficial deal. What does that mean? Are you going to betray our father?”

Danae asked that while grabbing me again as I shook off her hand.

I looked down at Danae’s anxious-looking face and answered.

“Well. Maybe I will.”

“Are you crazy! Are you in your right mind?”

“I’m completely in my right mind. …As soon as day breaks, I’ll go see His Majesty the Emperor. And I’ll tell him everything I’ve done for Uncle.”

At my words, the color drained from Danae’s face.

I pushed away the pale Danae again and headed for the stairs.

At that moment, I heard Danae’s voice behind me, as if muttering.

“…You think anyone will let you do that?”

Feeling goosebumps at her somehow ominous voice, I unconsciously turned around.

Danae, whose eyes met mine, smiled coldly and slowly approached me. Feeling fear at her unsettling appearance, I slowly backed away.

Danae giggled as if she found my reaction amusing and gradually closed the distance. I hurriedly fled to the empty bedroom next door to get away from her. However, Danae’s two hands, which had chased me into the room, grabbed my neck.

“Ugh!”

I struggled, scratching at Danae’s wrists that were gripping my neck.

But the more I did so, the stronger the grip of Danae’s hands choking my neck became. She spoke to me in a chilling voice.

“You’re getting cocky and acting up because I’ve been lenient, you insolent thing.”

“…!”

“Did you think you were something special just because people praised you for being a little pretty and smart? Don’t make me laugh. After all, you’re just a murderer.”

“…Ugh, …If… I’m a… mur…derer… Un…cle… is…!”

I struggled to fight back Danae’s words while resisting to survive.

Danae looked down at me mockingly and opened her mouth.

“That’s right. Our father is an even worse murderer than you. But you know what, sister? …The first murder that murderer committed was killing his own brother.”

“What?”

“Yes. Your kind and foolish father. …Our big uncle, I mean. You didn’t even know that and were loyal to our father? Watching you devote yourself and stain your hands with blood for the person who killed your father, I found it quite amusing.”

“That’s, that’s impossible…!”

“It’s such a shame, isn’t it? …Now I can never see that amusing sight again.”

At that moment, Danae’s hands gripping my neck let go, and my body floated in the air for a moment. Danae had pushed me out the window.

As I fell helplessly to the ground, I blankly stared at Danae’s bright face looking down at me. She said one last thing as if mocking me.

‘Goodbye. You fool.’

With those words, my body collided with the ground.

“Kyaaaah! Sister, sister!”

Shortly after, Danae’s piercing scream echoed throughout the castle.

I took in the sight of her screaming detestably as she looked down at me. My whole body throbbed with indescribable pain, and blood continuously flowed from my head, which had been crushed against the stone floor. I wanted to say ‘Save me’ or ‘Help me’, but my mouth wouldn’t move.

“Wh-what happened, young miss!”

“What’s going on, Danae!”

“Sister! Christine sister jumped out the window!”

“What?”

As if they had come running at the sound of the screams echoing in my ears, the voices of the servants and Leonard were heard one after another. Danae sobbed, saying ‘Sister had been depressed before the wedding,’ and Leonard comforted her.

I tried to open my mouth to shout at those detestable people, but it was in vain. My tongue just kept curling inwards as death approached. Tears that burst out from unbearable resentment mixed with the blood flowing from my forehead.

“…Ugh, ugh!”

I felt my breathing become increasingly labored and then slowly stop.

My consciousness gradually blurred. In my mind, all the memories of my life flashed by like a kaleidoscope. My happy childhood, and the uncle who took me in on the day I suddenly lost my father. I gave everything to be recognized by that uncle.

Uncle brainwashed me that making the family powerful was fulfilling my late father’s will. He also said that my schemes would only be used to corner evil people for the sake of the empire and the family. I devoted my whole heart to believing and following those words.

What about Danae?

She, who had followed me like a real older sister, said she was happy to become family with Leonard, my fiancé. She said she was grateful for him loving me, and that’s why she wanted to treat him even better. Leonard also said he was happy to have gained a little sister.

I was just glad that the two people I cherished and loved seemed to get along like siblings.

But it was all a lie.

In fact, uncle had murdered my father and used me only for his own benefit.

Danae knew all of this but remained silent, and after committing adultery with Leonard, she drove me to my death.

‘And when I die, uncle will blame all his wrongdoings on me.’

Not only have I been miserably murdered, but I will also be blamed even after death.

Thinking that, I gritted my teeth in anger. I regretted all the past days I had devoted to those who had murdered my father and deceived me.

‘No. I don’t want to die.’

I can’t die like this, it’s too unfair.

If I must die, I wanted to at least die together with those people who had betrayed and deceived me.

‘Shall I help you?’

At that moment, someone’s voice faintly reached my ears.