The emperor and the knights entrusted the surveillance of these people to one man, saying they would look around the palace more.

It was time to solemnly face the approaching death with the emperor’s return. The man who was checking the faces of the royalty approached and whispered.

‘You are not a member of the Charliee family.’

‘……’

‘Escape, this is your only chance.’

What about Princess Tisha? Aren’t they looking for Princess Tisha?

Such curiosity flashed through her mind for a moment. A sharp sword cut the rope that was tightly binding her.

What Cayena needed was determination and courage. She had been unable to crave survival due to guilt that she might kill Natasha, but when the opportunity to escape came, her body moved on its own.

She ran and ran.

Leaving behind screams that seemed to tear apart.

She left the palace, but had nowhere to go. People were overwhelmed by the fall of the royal family. Street vendors and innkeepers all hid in their homes, waiting for peace to come.

There was nowhere for a stranger to go. Even wandering the streets was no longer possible. After contemplating, Cayena finally returned to her hometown.

As expected, she was not welcomed at home.

‘You stupid girl! You crawled out of there on your own? Money, money! What about my money! Ah…! You’ve never been of any use, useless thing!’

It was because Cayena could no longer bring money as before since she had left the palace. The royal family had fallen and the palace had collapsed. It was useless to say she could no longer work, or to lament that she had almost died. It didn’t reach their ears.

Having returned home, she had to start working again. Although they weren’t like family, Cayena Ten was the only one who could feed her parents with dementia and her lazy siblings.

She applied to houses that had posted job advertisements, highlighting her experience working at the palace. However, while other maids were all hired, no one called for Cayena. It was because of her commoner birth. She was too humble and plain to serve a noble lady.

Then, very belatedly, news of acceptance came. The Asthart Duke’s family. The family of the knight who had saved Cayena had hired her.

On the day she received the letter, Cayena spent all her money to head north.

‘You were a maid at the palace?’

‘Ugh, how dirty. No wonder she looks so rustic. Why did His Excellency put someone like that with us?’

The environment at the duke’s residence was not much different from that of the kingdom. The haughty imperial ladies were busy tearing down Cayena, who had entered as their peer.

Firstly, because she was a maid from the fallen palace, and secondly, because she was of commoner, not noble birth. There was no protector like Natasha to defend her here, so there was no intervention.

“The princess is doing well. For a few months, she stayed cooped up in her room, struggling, but lately she’s been acting more lively. She even earns some living expenses with part-time work, and does housework quite well. A smile has started to appear on her face.”

It was on one such day. A letter from Sir Dante arrived for Cayena, who was working at the duke’s residence.

He had been searching for work near the kingdom and struggling to move near the empire when he happened to hear news of Cayena.

The stories of Natasha that she often encountered in the letter were very welcome. Sir Dante also said he would relay Cayena’s story if she wanted, but she indirectly declined.

In fact, the woman’s existence didn’t sit entirely well with Cayena. She partly resented Natasha for living humbly but happily.

I ended up like this because of you, so why are you living happily?

She had such thoughts from time to time. Was it because there was no one else to blame? The vicious feeling of hatred was unknowingly aimed at her beloved friend.

Try as she might to discard it, it just wouldn’t go away. The emotion of hatred, fed by its owner’s negativity, had grown too large to control.

So when the woman said she was marrying Sieghart, worry was overtaken by happiness. She thought there could be nothing but unhappiness from marrying an enemy.

‘Cayena!’

However, the duchess she reunited with looked happier than ever. She shone beautifully like a princess. She was still an amazing person, respected and loved by all.

Why are you happy here? I was only unhappy here… This place was only cruel to me…

Moreover, when the life of a maid who had been disregarded due to the princess’s treatment improved, Cayena felt like her world was crumbling. At this rate, it was no different from the past.

“Don’t you deserve to be hated? I almost died because of you. My life became completely miserable after that day!”

So, she did it.

She persuaded and sowed discord to keep those who would harm the princess close.

She tried to put her in a difficult situation with an assassination attempt by poisoning on the coronation day. When it seemed the plan would fail, she changed the target to the duchess and threatened her life.

She pushed the woman off the terrace, hating her for surviving with tenacious vitality.

After realizing that God did not want her death, she decided to plunge her into the abyss of misery herself.

By framing her for adultery, completely dropping Sieghart Asthart’s trust and affection for the duchess.

“So you should live miserably too. You should find each day arduous like me. Why on earth!”

“……”

“Why are you still living happily?”

Now even that plan had failed.

God desires her happiness. It was clear that He who cast Cayena into the pit of hell favored the woman.

“Of course you deserve it. I almost died because of you… Why are you living happily, why?”

Cayena Ten found this fact truly lamentable.

Why couldn’t she be loved by God? Why couldn’t she shine like her?

Why couldn’t she escape from that day’s misfortune?

“…So that’s why? You betrayed me over and over again because you couldn’t stand to see me happy?”

Natasha asked in a hollow voice as she faced the other who spoke of her happiness.

To ask why only she was living happily.

Natasha was shocked, not knowing that Cayena, who had comforted her about how difficult things had been, had been thinking such thoughts.

Happiness?

I…

was happy, she says.

“Yes! I hated seeing you smile prettily before me, approaching shamelessly saying you loved me!”

“So you joined hands with the emperor, who is no different from my enemy?”

“Yes, I thought he would behead you as he did to the other royals!”

Cayena poured out her true feelings, snarling like a beast. Saliva repeatedly flew from her mouth, unable to contain her excitement.

Lies.

Natasha, who had been quietly gazing at such an opponent, muttered to herself.

It was the same even when I wasn’t living happily. Even when I was cornered and couldn’t do anything, you betrayed me just like in this life.

‘I’ll release the wench in consideration of the madam’s sincerity. But know that you owe me? I’ll collect this debt slowly over a very long time.’

You made my affection to save you by joining hands with Kyle Letius into worthless trash,

‘If we leave for the duchy, won’t the child be in danger too?’

‘I suppose so. If things go as planned, the journey to the duchy will be very arduous…’

It was the same even when a sudden pure love became my last spark of hope.

You always, shamelessly, wished for my unhappiness.

Just because I was alive…

Natasha grasped the iron bars. The coldness of the chilly iron bars crept up her skin.

“I didn’t want to live!”

She finally cried out.

“Not even once did I want to live. I wanted to die instead. I wanted to die rather than live like this. I was the one who wanted to ask God why He was so desperate to keep me alive!”

As she spoke forcefully, her voice split into several strands. Towards the end, only a metallic sound remained, to the point where her voice could hardly be heard properly. The voice that had been as clear as the morning dew had degraded into the sound of a ferocious beast.

I should have never left that day. I shouldn’t have bought that birthday gift for Alex Ludrio, that man.

I should have stayed in the palace and faced death. What awaited her, who had defied her given fate and left, was betrayal and deception.

The betrayal of the man she loved and the friend she cherished was like a rotten apple planted in her heart. One that inflicts such immense pain that death would be preferable, before departing.

“You stabbed my heart repeatedly with a cold blade. You smiled happily even as you saw me drenched in blood. I wished for death again and again to the point where I wouldn’t feel any regret at the crossroads of life. Even if I were to die drinking poison on those days full of hope, I wouldn’t have felt any regret at all…!”

“……”

“Yes, isn’t this enough? I was destined to die after all. I, I! I survived only to be unhappy anyway… I thought it wouldn’t be so bad to depart from life when things were at least a little better than the unhappy future ahead.”

Natasha’s face contorted greatly.

At some point, her face had become covered with a transparent liquid. The tears flowing down her chin kept falling without a chance to wipe them away.

Suddenly, Cayena’s face that she met was blurry. She wrinkled her eyes to squeeze out the last remaining tears.

The expression on Cayena’s face that she confirmed next was exactly the same as before. She was staring at Natasha with a face full of contempt. She looked as if she didn’t want to understand the other’s words.

Only then did Natasha realize. That her pleas would only seem like petty excuses to the other.

The sincerity in her heartfelt lament doesn’t reach her friend. The conversation that went against the past was merely a detailed excuse, or an appeal to emotions.

“When I completely reversed who I should be wary of and who I should be close to. When you mercilessly pushed me off the railing when I was drunk, and yet pretended to care for me the next day.”

Her voice gradually weakened as she continued.

“When you deceived me saying we had spent the night together. When you announced my pregnancy in front of His Excellency… If only you had stopped just once.”

“……”

“Then we wouldn’t have come this far.”

Subsequently, the strength in her hands gripping the iron bars dissipated.

As she lowered her gaze, she saw countless droplets pooled on the floor. Even her dress was wet and darkened with moisture.

“Why should I stop? There was nothing to stop, and there won’t be!”

“……”

“The time I’ll stop is when you’re finally dead.”

It was evidence of futile emotional expenditure.