“Lorencia. This isn’t like you. You’ve always listened to me before.”

“I used my power not long ago. If you give me time to recover, as soon as I do…”

“Can’t Lorencia endure even that much pain for me? Would you rather I die like this?”

“No, Prince Ruans.”

Lorencia’s face turned pale at his mention of dying. A moment of silence passed.

“To be honest, lately I’m not sure what the benefit is of meeting with you, the illegitimate child of the Pol Heredian Count family. As my mother said, I’m thinking it might be better to meet and get engaged to a young lady from another family than the current situation.”

It was a painful statement, like countless needles piercing her heart.

“If that’s what you want, Your Highness, go ahead and get engaged to a young lady from another family. After all, I…”

Lorencia looked at Ruans with an empty feeling as she spoke. But he seemed very displeased.

“That’s not what I meant! Lorencia Pol Heredian!!”

Lorencia flinched and shrank back slightly at Ruans’ shout.

“But…”

“Do you think I can meet another woman when I love you? Is that what you think? Do you really think I’d abandon Lorencia and get engaged to someone else? Please think before you speak. This is why everyone looks down on you, Lorencia.”

Lorencia felt strangely stifled in her chest, even though she heard Ruans say he loved her.

“But Your Highness…”

“But? What? You keep saying ‘but’ frequently, I told you not to say that in front of me. Have you already forgotten? Why do you keep repeating the same mistake!”

Lorencia bowed her head deeply at his raised voice. Ruans let out a big sigh.

“I’m sorry for raising my voice. But I got angry when Lorencia told me to get engaged to a young lady from another family. How could you say such a thing to me when you know how much I cherish and love you?”

“I was short-sighted. I’m sorry.”

Seeing Lorencia’s restless behavior, Ruans smiled and stroked her hair.

“Just as you only have me, I only have you, Lorencia. So don’t ever say such things again. Understood?”

“I was wrong.”

Lorencia lowered her eyes calmly and apologized to Ruans as if squeezing out her voice. Apologizing was the only thing that could suppress her current anxious feelings. Even though she clearly knew she was loved, why did his love feel so burdensome? Why did her heart feel so uncomfortable and painful? What was the reason?

“You love me, don’t you, Lorencia?”

“…Yes.”

“Then I’ll ask you once more. Can you check whether Crown Prince Adrian dies or not according to my plan, and whether I’m suspected or not?”

Lorencia felt her chest tighten with anguish.

“Your answer?”

“I’ll do it.”

“Lorencia is really kind.”

Ruans gazed at Lorencia for a long time with an even gentler smile than usual. Seeing him smile, Lorencia let out a small sigh. Then she began to fiddle with the thumb-sized purple amethyst necklace around her neck.

Lorencia, the illegitimate child of the Pol Heredian Count family. Her mother, who was the only one on her side, suddenly died when she was 11 years old, leaving behind only a purple amethyst necklace.

The memory Lorencia had of her mother was looking out the small window in the tower room. Her mother’s beautiful lullaby spreading through the open window made her heart feel at ease. Around that time, small cute birds would gather. When the lullaby ended, the birds would fly away out the window again. Lorencia would gaze at the flying birds and say,

“Mother, I want to go outside like the birds.”

When she was young, she didn’t understand well, but thinking about it now, she and her mother had been locked in a high tower and never gone outside the room even once. Out of frustration, she asked to go out, but her mother never went out.

“Lorencia. We must not go out to keep our destined fate.”

It was incomprehensible, but when her mother said that, she became very depressed. She even hugged Lorencia and cried. At those times, Lorencia would kiss her mother’s forehead. Then her mother would smile brightly and stop crying.

“Roa.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“You may face many hardships in the future, but remember this one thing.”

“Yes!”

“That you are a child of the goddess Ella.”

Life confined to the room was stifling, but Lorencia wasn’t lonely as long as she was with her mother. However, after her mother’s sudden death, loneliness along with sadness began to fill her heart numbly. She started biting her nails, which she hadn’t done before.

Thinking she might be able to leave the room, she asked the maid who brought food under the door if she could go out, but no one answered her question.

All Lorencia could do was open the window and sing the lullaby she learned from her mother. The small birds that visited the room whenever she sang the lullaby became Lorencia’s friends. But they couldn’t fill the void left by her mother.

One day, her father Brant, who had never properly shown his face, came to visit and asked an absurd question.

“Do you ever see… future events that might suddenly happen, or have dreams like that?”

“The future?”

“Yes, the future.”

“I don’t see such things, Father.”

How could a person see the future! She thought it was an absurd question. Lorencia was puzzled as she watched Brant’s disappointed reaction to her answer.

That’s when it happened.

-Slap!

With a violent cracking sound, Lorencia’s head turned sharply. With trembling hands, she cupped her slapped left cheek and looked up at Brant who had hit her.

“Father? Did you just call me Father? You illegitimate child, how dare you!”

Brant pushed Lorencia’s shoulders with both hands, knocking her down. With a thud, Lorencia fell helplessly to the floor, her face filled with fear.

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

“A useless girl, just like your mother.”

“I was wrong.”

“That red hair. Those eyes really disgust me!”

Seeing Lorencia kneeling and begging, Brant, unable to control his anger, finally raised his right hand high.

Time passed mercilessly. Lorencia was still confined in the room in the high tower. She grew accustomed to Brant’s verbal abuse and physical violence during his occasional visits. One day, as she was pondering what reason she had to live…

“Is this the room?”

A young male voice different from Brant’s came from outside the door.

“There’s a lock on the door.”

-Bang!

“Is there someone in this tower? If so, answer.”

Lorencia felt afraid of the stranger knocking on the door. Soon, she heard the sound of the lock falling, and with a creaking sound, the door opened.

Curled up in the corner, Lorencia’s eyes met those of a man with slightly curly blonde hair and green eyes, who looked kind. For Lorencia, meeting someone other than her mother and Brant was a first in her life.

“So there was a person locked up. It’s good I came up to check.”

“Wh-who are you?”

Lorencia asked the man before her. He was looking at her with a smile in his green eyes.

“My name is Ruans von Isuter. What’s your name?”

“I’m Lorencia.”

“Why are you locked up here, Miss Lorencia?”

“Because I’m an illegitimate child… They said I shouldn’t show my face because I’m a disgrace to the family.”

“The illegitimate child of the Pol Heredian Count family? I’d heard about it, but I didn’t know it was you.”

Lost in thought for a moment, Ruans slowly approached Lorencia, who was huddled in the corner.

“Your hair color is like a red rose.”

Remembering Brant’s words, Lorencia squeezed her eyes shut and trembled.

“Your hair is really beautiful. Your eyes are as lovely as amethysts.”

Lorencia’s trembling stopped at Ruans’ words.

“You say… it’s pretty?”

Ruans was the first person besides her deceased mother to call her pretty.

“It’s really pretty. But aren’t you curious why I came here?”

Lorencia nodded.

“It was you who always reached out the window to call the little birds, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I was intrigued, so I came up here to see. Have you been alone here all this time?”

“Yes.”

“You must have been lonely.”

At his words, Lorencia felt a lump rise in her throat.

“Miss Lorencia.”

“Yes?”

“Will you be my friend?”

“Friend?”

After that, Ruans continued to visit Lorencia’s room. Lorencia couldn’t hide her bewildered feelings. But each time, Ruans won her over by offering sweet treats she had never tasted before.

“Try this too. It’s pastry with chocolate.”

While Lorencia liked Ruans coming, she was always anxious about what might happen if Brant found out. And that anxiety became reality. But things unfolded differently than Lorencia had imagined.

“Y-Your Highness?!”

Brant bowed to Ruans instead. As it turned out, Ruans was the 20-year-old Second Prince of this empire.

As Lorencia learned Ruans’ identity, her confinement came to an end.

Ruans spoke to Brant and had Lorencia officially registered as a young lady of the Pol Heredian Count family. Lorencia was more afraid of the suddenly changed life. But Ruans gently embraced Lorencia and reassured her.

When Lorencia first went outside, she looked at the blue sky and green leaves. The clouds floating in the sky she gazed up at with her head tilted back gave Lorencia great excitement. When she stretched out her arms and sang the lullaby she learned from her mother, squirrels hiding in the trees and small birds began to gather around Lorencia.

“As I thought, Lorencia is amazing.”

“Am I amazing?”

“The ability to call animals is not something just anyone can do.”

Lorencia’s cheeks flushed at Ruans’ praise.

“You’re lovely. I’ve been drawn to you since I first saw you.”

Her heart fluttered at his words. Her heart pounded.

The night she heard his confession.

For the first time, her mother’s heirloom, the purple amethyst necklace, began to glow. At the same time, she started having a high fever and nosebleeds. Objects around Lorencia began to move on their own. Brant called her a ‘monster’ when he saw her like that.

But only Ruans comforted Lorencia.

“It’s okay, Lorencia. Try to calm your mind.”

Ruans held Lorencia’s hands tightly to soothe her. That’s when it happened. Lorencia’s amethyst necklace began to glow. And before her eyes, she saw a brown-haired maid putting white powder into food. That food was then served right in front of Ruans.