Prologue
WITH just a few words, my entire belief system seemed to crumble at my feet.
In front of me sat a man on a throne, legs crossed one over the other. Daniel Burleque of the Sunruta Kingdom. He looked down on me with his ice-blue or, more precisely, coldhearted eyes.
Once, he had sworn to make me happy, a carefree smile on his lips. But the expression on his face now…made him look like a completely different person.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty. But our marriage has been decided between our two countries and…”
“I told you this already. Your country is gone. Weren’t you listening?”
From his indifferent tone, it was clear he wasn’t kidding. My mouth dry, I tried to form words. But all that came from my throat was a parched, wheezing sound.
My country, my homeland, Najir…was gone?
I couldn’t understand it at first.
More precisely, my brain was refusing to process the implications.
If this was a joke, I wasn’t laughing. At all.
Just a few months ago, the citizens of my homeland had gathered to see me off, waving as I passed by. Everyone was so happy, so full of hope, celebrating the sure-to-be everlasting friendship between Sunruta and Najir.
“Hence, our marriage agreement is null and void. As the princess of a country defeated in wartime, I shall have you thrown in the dungeon.”
“You can’t—” I yelped, wide-eyed with shock.
The Sunruta Kingdom Imperial Knights moved forward in formation from their position behind me, seizing me before I could protest.
“Your Majesty, tell me! Have you…have you invaded my homeland?!”
“Take her away.”
“Your Majesty, please!”
My heartbroken cries echoed pitifully around the vast reception hall.
Ever the fool, I still nursed a small flicker of hope in the deepest recesses of my heart.
The hope that this was all just a dream and that I would soon awaken to find myself back in my normal, everyday life.
✦ ✦ ✦
PLINK… Plink... The sound of the dripping water seemed oddly magnified in the muffled dankness of my cell.
The steady, predictable plinking of the water droplets dripping down from the ceiling marked the passing of time like a metronome.
How many days—how many weeks—had I already spent locked up in this cold, dark place?
At some point, I’d lost track of time and now had no idea.
Sleeping in a queen-sized bed, wearing gorgeous gowns, being waited on hand and foot by an entourage of servants. That lifestyle had vanished into the ether.
I agonized over what I might have done wrong, but the answer was always just beyond my reach.
The air was so still. All I could hear, besides the plinking of dripping water, was my own hushed breathing.
Then heavy footsteps broke the quiet.
My head snapped up, and I swiftly pressed myself against the cell wall, peeking through the gaps in the barred window to the passageway outside. A pair of hulking, boorish-looking men, most likely guards, were coming down the passage, dragging a man between them by his armpits. The man had jet-black hair and seemed to have been beaten within an inch of his life.
“Ed…”
I instantly recognized the man, bloody and bedraggled though he was. It was Edoile Licht La Boulacherie, my guardian knight.
On the day it happened, he fought valiantly to save me even as he was surrounded by dozens of Sunruta imperial knights. In the end, seeing that I was already captured, he yielded to prevent me from being harmed and was himself seized by the knights.
In the dank light, I could just make out his face, swollen black and blue. His mouth was smeared with dried blood. The black anti-magic collar they’d fastened around his neck glinted wetly in the light of the flaming sconces. Fresh blood?
“Oh, what have they done to you…?”
I pressed my hands over my mouth to stifle my sobs.
There was barely a hint remaining of his once-handsome features.
“You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you? Enough of the tough guy act. Just tell us what you know already.”
The guards threw Ed roughly into the cell, then slammed the cell door shut with an exaggerated flourish. I could hear Ed slump to the floor, clearly too weak to stand. Then came the echoing clank of the heavy padlock being used to lock him in.
Through the gaps in the bars, I could just make out the figures of the guards looking down at Ed, collapsed in his cell. Then one seemed to think of something and smirked.
“Ah yes, here’s some news for you. The country you swore allegiance to, Najir, is no more. You know that. And now, its last little princess will soon be very dead. Oh, I should say ex-princess. Our brand-new future queen told us to stop feeding her unless she becomes more interesting. All your fault, you know. You can repent your actions at your leisure while you watch your beloved princess wasting away to nothing.”
“Haha, he’ll be dead long before that.”
“You’re right about that.”
As I watched the sniggering guards walk away, I tightly wrapped my arms around myself to keep from trembling.
I do not cry. I do not tremble. I am the princess of Najir and I am proud.
That’s right. The princess those horrible guards were sniggering about? That’s me.
My name is Annabel Nalia Gottenheim, the first princess of Najir, and, before all this happened, I was also the fiancée of Daniel Burleque, the young king of Sunruta.
Daniel was three years my senior, and we’d become engaged for political reasons when I was sixteen.
It seems unbelievable, looking back on it now, but Daniel was always sweet to me, right from the moment we met. And after we became engaged, he continued to be a perfect gentleman. Always smiling so tenderly, listening intently to everything I said. And when I was feeling anxious about leaving my home country, he pulled me into his arms and held me close. Upon our betrothal, he’d leaned in and whispered in my ear about how he was determined to make me a happy wife.
So naturally, I’d believed my future with him would be a happy one, and I came to this country with only a few attendants from home when I’d turned eighteen this year.
The royal families of two neighboring countries forming political marriages with their children… There’s nothing unusual about that.
The only unusual thing about this whole affair was that the Sunruta Kingdom had then gone on to invade Najir after the marriage had already been arranged. Relations between our two countries couldn’t have been friendlier.
I’d only been living in the Sunruta Kingdom for a few months, and wedding preparations were well underway when this happened.