INST 01

Chapter 01

“I’m seriously losing my mind.”

I lay sprawled across the bed, looking around the barracks I was in.

Luxurious furniture, soft bedding, rare fruits, and fragrant tea.

It was a place thrown together with nothing more than cloth laid over bare ground, yet there was nothing even remotely uncomfortable about it.

So why did I look so miserable?

Because this was the last place I would stay in this world.

I was about to be offered as a sacrifice to a goddess.

And not even for myself—but in place of my half-sister.

So, to explain from the beginning……

The Catalon Empire, where I was born and raised, was once the most prosperous nation on the continent.

Fertile farmland, abundant natural resources, beautiful tourist sites, a powerful military—a country everyone envied.

But now, it was nothing more than a cursed land.

Dry rivers, crops frozen to death, hailstorms that fell without warning.

Dead volcanoes erupting, and a terrifying plague sweeping across the entire nation.

“Honestly… how did a country once praised for receiving the goddess’s blessing turn into this living hell……”

Most people assumed the reason was the goddess’s wrath.

After the death of the 28th Saintess, the next one who was supposed to succeed her had not appeared for thirteen years.

Even the imperial family seemed uneasy about that theory and tried every possible method.

They donated huge sums to the temple, distributed clothes and food to the poor in the name of the goddess, and even the Emperor personally led prayer rituals.

But the disasters never stopped……

“So this is the final card they pulled—human sacrifice.”

They decided to appease the goddess’s wrath by offering pure virgins under the age of twenty as sacred offerings.

To avoid criticism of being an inhumane nation that offered living sacrifices, they dressed it up as selecting “the goddess’s chosen tributes.”

In reality, they were simply being thrown as feed to the so-called “envoy of the goddess.”

Yet quite a few people volunteered.

Because those chosen as the goddess’s tributes were given substantial compensation from the imperial family, impoverished commoners ended up offering their daughters.

But even after years passed, there was no sign the disasters would end, and public sentiment grew increasingly volatile.

“This country is in this state—what are the royals and nobles doing!”

“Look at the girls chosen as tributes. They’re all commoners! Not a single noble has offered their daughter!”

“They enjoy all the privileges, yet when the country is in crisis, they force sacrifice only on us commoners!”

The Empire quickly tried to control the situation.

They issued an order: each noble house must offer one daughter.

The nobles had no choice but to comply, but they resorted to a trick.

They offered their illegitimate daughters.

After all, they could not bear to send their legitimate daughters, who carried noble blood, to become food for a “messenger of death.”

However, there are always exceptions.

In rare cases, even a legitimate daughter was sacrificed in place of a dearly beloved illegitimate one.

That was me—Shaen Beloche.

“My goodness, the Duke is truly heartless. To sacrifice the legitimate heir just to save a bastard child… Where in the world is there such a law? Oh, the poor young lady……”

I swallowed a sigh as I watched my nanny clutch her hands and cry her heart out.

“Yeah. I can’t believe it either.”

I was born as the only daughter of the sole duke in the Empire, and had been raised as the heir since I was five.

My mother died in a carriage accident when I was six, and right after the funeral, my father brought a commoner mistress into the house.

Even when a child born between them, my illegitimate sister, ran freely through the mansion as if it were her own playground, I didn’t care.

Why?

Because I was the legitimate heir.

Because I was the one who would inherit this dukedom.

All those trivial things could be swept away once I inherited the title.

But what kind of cursed fate was this?

To be sacrificed in place of a bastard child.

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even cry.

But I had already been designated as the offering.

Even if I complained now, nothing would change.

Instead, I hugged my sobbing nanny tightly.

“Stop crying, nanny. What can I do about my fate? No matter how I look at it, my life is absolutely screwed—but I was able to endure it because of you. Thank you.”

Then I handed her a rather heavy box I had prepared in advance.

“I sorted through my personal assets a few days ago. This is what I set aside for you. You’ve taken care of me all this time—thank you for everything.”

“My goodness, why are you giving me something like this? What good is money when you’re about to die!”

She threw the box aside roughly and hugged me again, crying even harder.

Seeing the woman who was like a mother to me collapse like that made my already resigned heart ache.

It was then, as I patted her back with red, swollen eyes—

“Shaen.”

A familiar voice polluted my ears.

And of course, when I looked up, there was a face I hated seeing more than anything.

“…Father.”

What did he come here for?

To see what expression his legitimate daughter would make right before being thrown to her death instead of the illegitimate one he cherished?

Or to offer some late, hollow apology?

Even as I sneered internally, I assumed it must be the latter.

Though he never gave me a shred of affection, he wasn’t the kind of trash who would dump responsibility for my death onto me.

Just a normal, emotionally distant father-daughter relationship that existed everywhere.

But what I learned about him at the brink of death was truly astonishing.

“I just checked your personal assets earlier, and it seems there’s nothing left. Did you dispose of everything?”

“…Yes. Why?”

As I replied casually, as if asking why he even cared, the duke furrowed his brow.

“How could you dispose of it on your own? Even if they were your personal assets, they originated from the family!”

……What did I just hear?

I stared blankly at him as he raged, then asked in disbelief.

“So… you came here because of my assets? Because you’re upset I disposed of them?”

The moment I said it aloud, it sounded even more absurd.

“What kind of person is this?”

My own father was about to lose his daughter, and the topic of our final conversation was money.

I felt pathetic for ever having thought of this trash as my father.

When I looked at him with contempt, he hurriedly waved his hands, realizing too late.

“No, that’s not what I meant—!”

But before he could even finish his excuse, another voice cut in.

“Oh my, sister. How can you say that? Of course Father came because he’s worried about you. He only asked because he was concerned that someone with bad intentions might have taken advantage of the chaos and interfered with your assets. Isn’t that right, Father?”

A beautiful girl with neatly styled pink hair and sky-blue eyes.

She was clearly a beauty raised with all the love of her parents at a glance.

My half-sister.

“Melina, you’re here too.”

“How could I not come see you on your final journey, sister?”

Melina replied with drooping eyes and grabbed my hand tightly.

“The goddess is truly cruel. Even if you are a tribute, to take such a bright young lady… and the only heir of House Beloche……”

Tears fell like broken beads from her eyes, so pitifully that I almost believed her for a moment.

“You should stop pretending now, Melina. We won’t be seeing each other again anyway—why keep acting until the very end?”

“What are you talking about, sister? Pretending? I’m just… I’m just so sad for you……”

“Melina. That dress you’re wearing—isn’t it mine?”

“Ah, sis! This is… um……”

At my sharp remark, Melina panicked and stammered.

She clearly wore it on purpose just to get under my skin.

“How low can you go, taking someone else’s belongings without permission. Just like your mother, who shamelessly occupied the duke’s residence without knowing her place.”

Melina’s expression instantly hardened.

It made sense—she had spent her entire life carrying the inferiority of being a half-blood noble.

But I felt no guilt.

Wasn’t she the bastard daughter who relied on the duke’s affection and brazenly tormented the rightful heir?

‘Compared to what I’ve endured, this is nothing.’

Seeing her always-arrogant lips trembling made me feel oddly refreshed.

But soon, another interruption appeared.

“Shaen! How dare you act so vile! Your only sister is crying in concern for you, and yet you mock her sincerity and even insult her mother!”

The trash finally stepped in, enraged that his beloved daughter had been hurt.

I let out a small laugh.

“Concern? What concern? Pushing me toward death while spouting pretty words?”

“What did you say?”

“If you’re so concerned, why don’t you become the sacrifice instead? Ah, or would Father stop that too? You couldn’t possibly watch your beloved daughter being torn apart by a lion, could you? Right?”

“Shaen, you—!”

His face turned red like a rotten tomato, but I didn’t care.

I leaned comfortably into the sofa and asked,

“So, do you even have time for this?”

“What?”

“Seems like you only checked my personal assets, but that’s not all I disposed of. I sold off and donated all the family assets too.”

“…What?”

“Didn’t expect that, did you? I figured.”

I watched as shock slowly overtook his face, and smiled faintly.