Chapter 3
An Unexpected Reunion
2023.08.03.
That was the first thing Yurgen said inside the carriage carrying Lowell.
Yurgen’s explanation was surprisingly simple: evidence had surfaced that Lowell’s father harbored opposition to the imperial family, and as punishment, the Hessen estate had been burned down. There was no twist to the story. Nothing about it felt real to Lowell.
But what lay before her eyes was undeniably reality.
“The fire was nothing more than a warning to the other nobles. It was a message that not only the Hessen family but everyone connected to them would not escape death.”
At Yurgen’s calm voice, Lowell clenched the hem of her skirt against her thigh.
“So that’s why you…”
“That’s why I hid you. If it were known that a member of the Hessen family survived, they would surely come to kill you.”
Lowell closed her mouth again—no, she ground her teeth together. Only when her jaw began to ache did she manage to open her mouth once more.
“I can’t understand this.”
Her voice trembled faintly as it spilled from her bowed head. Tears pattered down onto the back of her hand, which still clutched her skirt.
“My father wasn’t that kind of man. Even if he committed a crime, that doesn’t mean others should have had to die with him. All those people… every one of them…”
Lowell had loved her family, and the people of the Hessen estate. Even if they had never truly hoped for her recovery, even if they sometimes showed signs of weariness at her long illness, she couldn’t deny how much she had received from them.
She could vividly recall the last scene she saw before she left.
[I hope it brings good results, my daughter.]
[Your brothers will arrive tomorrow. By the time you return, it’ll be the first time in so long that the whole family gathers together.]
[My lady, if you get hungry on the way, take this out and eat. It’s a sandwich with your favorite jam.]
Her father’s worried face, her mother’s forced smile. The nanny who carefully packed little items for her. The maids who sat at her bedside reading books to her when she couldn’t sleep.
For Lowell, unable to leave the house, the Hessen estate had been her entire world, and everyone within it was her family.
But all of that had burned away in an instant.
Because her father had allegedly spoken against the emperor. Because he had committed a crime. Because the empire wanted to make an example.
None of those reasons meant anything to Lowell. None of them justified why her family and everyone she loved had to die.
That truth was so bitter, so unjust, that she wept her heart out inside the carriage.
That was the day Lowell’s world burned.
Ten years later.
“Do you really have to go into the palace?”
At the voice behind her, Lowell, who had been about to lower her veil, turned her head.
Her adoptive brother, René, stood before her. His silver hair was neatly combed back, and his face still carried that familiar gentle smile she remembered—but not today. Today, a heavy worry sat upon his features.
“Say you’ll stop. Even now, it’s not too late.”
“…I don’t know why you’re so worried, René. Didn’t the emperor demand a noblewoman with black hair be brought as his bride?”
As she replied, Lowell swept back her hair beneath the veil as if to display it.
Hair like pure ebony, untouchable by any dye.
Wearing a dress as white as a room full of flowers, with a veil draped across her face, Lowell looked strikingly beautiful even without a single ornament. Perhaps it was because her black hair cascading beneath the veil stood in stark contrast to the whiteness of the dress.
Even amidst a dazzling crowd, she would draw eyes with her atmosphere alone—silent and cold, like a frozen river.
“The condition is met. There won’t be anything to criticize. Don’t worry.”
“You know just as well as I do that the condition itself is absurd. It’s like demanding green grapes in the middle of winter.”
René’s brows furrowed, and he ran a hand down his face, unable to contain his frustration.
Just days ago, the entire nobility had been thrown into panic.
The emperor, who until now had vehemently refused even to take a concubine, suddenly declared he would accept a bride.
But the bride had to be a noblewoman with hair as black as night. If someone brought a bride who didn’t fit the condition, she would be executed.
“A noblewoman with black hair… it’s impossible.”
In the Velp Empire, hair color was proof of lineage. The so-called noble bloodline was marked by light-colored hair, regardless of gender.
“No noble has ever had black hair. This is…”
“Why not, René? There was one, wasn’t there?”
At her quiet rebuttal, René sighed. She was right—there had been one noblewoman with black hair, known to history.
“If you mean the emperor’s first love… she’s dead. Executed for treason.”
“…That’s true.”
“Yes. So what the emperor declared was essentially that unless the dead could return, he had no intention of marrying. And if you go in as his bride… you’ll bear the weight of all his wrath. Inside the palace, even my protection will have limits. You—”
“Enough, René.”
Lowell, who had been listening quietly, spoke.
“I’ll be fine.”
Unlike René, who could not hide his worry, Lowell was calm.
Of course she was—entering the palace had not been forced on her. It was her choice.
René stared at her twisted expression for a long moment before asking softly:
“…Aren’t you afraid of dying?”
“Well. To say I’m not would be a lie. But you know, don’t you? That my life doesn’t have much time left anyway.”
“But still…”
“I should go now.”
Before René could stop her again, Lowell turned and walked out. Outside, a carriage adorned with flowers was waiting for her.
As she climbed in and gazed out the rattling window, a thought flickered.
‘If I take this carriage… will I ever return?’
René’s worry was not without reason. Lowell had heard many rumors as well.
The current emperor, Peter von Deraien Velp.
He was a tyrant who had purged countless people, including his own father, to claim the throne.
It was also an open secret that he loathed women.
‘They say every woman who tried to seduce him ended up dead…’
The reason was simple: the emperor could not forget his first love, who had died.
Women who knew this dyed their hair black, trying to mimic her and deceive him—and paid with their lives.
‘And now… that may become my future too.’
Was she afraid of death? Of course. But fighting that fear was nothing new for Lowell.
The reason was simple: she was terminally ill.
‘The doctor said… six months at best.’
Every time a seizure struck, every time a fever raged high, she felt death close at hand. For someone whose body ached even at a passing breeze, the fear that she might not see tomorrow’s dawn was always present.
But above all, there was one thing she had to do, even at the cost of her life.
She had to kill the emperor.
Ten years ago, Yurgen had hidden her identity and brought her to the capital.
He had urged her to take money and live in hiding, but she had clung to him.
[Please take me in. I’m not asking to be your daughter. If I can stay by your side and repay your kindness, that’s enough.]
After much deliberation, Yurgen had adopted her. Thus, she ceased being “Lowell Hessen” and became “Anette Martinek.”
The only reason she had refused a peaceful, quiet life was this:
‘I’ll have my revenge.’
Revenge on the Velp imperial family that had burned her world.
Ten years had not dulled that resolve. The emperor who burned Hessen was dead, and even Yurgen who had saved her was gone. Time had changed much, but her hatred had not lessened in the slightest.
‘It doesn’t matter who the emperor is.’
As long as he was Velp. As long as she could drive her sharpened hatred into their throat, that was enough.
For that, she chose to walk into death itself. Once she decided, there was no room for regret.
‘…No, there is one regret.’
As she stepped from the carriage, passing through corridors adorned with white flowers, Lowell thought of the past. Of the boy who once held her hand and looked into her eyes.
[Wait for me. I’ll definitely return to you… and save you.]
Yes, Peter. You are my only lingering regret.
‘…I had hoped we’d meet again one day.’
But that was an impossible dream now. Having entered this place, all that awaited her was the emperor’s death—and her own.
At the end of the dark corridor, Lowell halted as a servant slowly opened the door.
Beyond it, the emperor would be waiting.
As she stepped inside, she steeled her resolve once more.
‘I must find an opportunity, no matter what.’
She was willing to act coy, to grovel, to beg—anything, if it let her catch the emperor off guard and strike his neck.
But the moment she stepped inside and saw the emperor standing there—
All her vows scattered into nothing.
Her mind went blank, her lips parted in disbelief, and she breathed a single word.
“…Peter?”
It was a reunion she had never expected.
