Chapter 2
In the noble society of Elarion, the capital of the Cardia Empire, opinions on Helena Winston varied greatly.
Her friends, for one, described her as “the funny one.” Not “fun,” but specifically “funny,” with emphasis.
Respectable people usually referred to her as “the troublesome young lady of House Winston,” accompanied by affectionate yet slightly troubled smiles.
There were others too.
A few men who had been thoroughly toyed with by her could never forget Helena, calling her a “femme fatale” and proudly claiming to be her admirers.
And several women who believed Helena had stolen their lovers cursed her with a much simpler title:
“That bitch.”
As for Helena herself, she described herself like this:
“I’m actually a very ordinary person.”
Of course, that was only Helena’s opinion.
With her exceptional wit and silver tongue, she was a darling of high society, and whenever people listed the beauties of the capital’s social scene, her dazzling looks were always mentioned.
That beauty and flair came from her mother, Sandra.
Her mother had once been a dancer so stunning that she turned the entire capital upside down.
Rumors even claimed the Emperor himself had courted Sandra, yet the man she chose was Adrian Winston—a perfectly ordinary man who at the time did not even possess a title and barely stood out among the nobility.
The shocking marriage caused another uproar in the capital, but sadly, her married life did not last long.
Only five years after the wedding, Sandra abandoned both her husband and daughter and left the Winston household.
Secretly.
With a new lover.
Sandra left behind an indelible humiliation for her husband and an enormous stain upon the prestigious Winston family, but she left one good thing to her daughter Helena:
A breathtaking beauty identical to her own.
However, Helena had never once felt grateful for it.
In her opinion, handsome men were rare, but beautiful women were common enough to trip over in the street.
And the fact that she never got along with Mia—the stepmother who entered the family as the second wife after her mother ran away—was probably an equally ordinary story.
Helena was the daughter of the disgraced first wife who had tarnished the family name and fled in the night.
On top of that, she looked exactly like that first wife, and had inherited her fierce temperament as well, making her extraordinarily difficult to raise.
If Helena and Mia—a textbook noblewoman—had somehow understood each other and lived happily together, that would have been the truly unbelievable story.
Helena believed that her stormy adolescence had therefore been a perfectly natural outcome.
So what if she occasionally drove the gentle Count Winston into furious rage, or made her prickly, hedgehog-like stepmother—who was actually soft-hearted inside—burst into tears?
Helena herself thought it wasn’t a big deal.
After all, the phrase “the storm and stress of youth” existed for a reason.
Still, even Helena had to admit that perhaps this time she had gone a little too far.
The aristocratic pale face of Count Winston usually turned red because of Helena, but this time the redness was alarming.
“…Helenaaa…!”
The count squeezed the words out as he grabbed the back of his neck and staggered.
“My dear!”
Mia Winston cried out in horror and rushed to him.
While supporting her husband, Mia shot Helena a surprisingly fierce glare.
Helena almost glared back out of habit, but stopped herself.
Oops.
When she had been younger and foolish, she fought her stepmother by screaming back just as loudly.
But now Helena knew exactly what worked best on Mia.
She let her shoulders droop and lowered her head with the most pitiful expression she could muster.
Mia, who secretly carried guilt for not embracing young Helena warmly enough, collapsed instantly under that single attack.
Helena could practically see the strength melting out of her stepmother’s eyes.
In the end, the countess clutched the back of her neck alongside her husband and cried out:
“I truly can’t live because of you…!”
The reason the Count and Countess Winston were so furious was none other than the scandal involving Helena and the Empire’s Crown Prince, Rufus Arpend.
At that moment, the imperial capital was in complete chaos because of the scandal.
The rumor was that “Helena and Rufus were discovered together by Her Majesty the Empress and Lady Byard, the Crown Prince’s fiancée.”
The problem lay in the phrase discovered together.
Objectively speaking, it sounded harmless enough.
But thanks to both of their reputations in high society, the scandal had spread rapidly, inflated endlessly by the vulgar imagination of gossip-loving people.
And Helena felt wronged.
After lowering her head for a moment, she looked up and spoke clearly.
“But I didn’t sleep with His Highness the Crown Prince.”
At her words, Count Winston’s face turned beyond red into the color of dried plums, while the countess let out a shrill scream.
“Eliza, Ira, Henry! Get out! Leave immediately!”
Helena turned around.
Through the crack in the study door, she could see the clustered little faces of her beloved younger siblings.
Young Henry shouted cheerfully:
“Big sister says she didn’t sleep with him!”
Smart little Eliza promptly covered Henry’s mouth and dragged him away.
Once Helena confirmed the study door had shut, she continued her explanation.
“So, you see, if we say there are stages A, B, and C, we didn’t even get to A—”
“Helena, enough!” Count Winston cried tragically with his dark red face. “I have absolutely no interest in hearing about your love life!”
Rolling her eyes, Helena replied:
“Y-yes, naturally. I just wanted to say I definitely didn’t do anything serious enough for this to become such a huge issue…”
Since the count looked close to collapsing, the countess spoke instead.
“Helena, whether it was A or C isn’t the important part. What matters is that His Highness the Crown Prince already has a fiancée, and that you were caught together by Her Majesty and that fiancée!”
Helena immediately fell silent.
Truthfully, she still had excuses she could make.
Adela Byard—the Crown Prince’s fiancée—was infamous throughout high society for seeming ninety-one years old despite being only nineteen.
And everyone also knew that the Crown Prince absolutely could not stand her.
The prince behaved like a man who would die the instant he married Adela, indulging in endless romances with noble ladies throughout the capital.
Helena believed that if all the women who had fallen into his clutches gathered in one place, they could easily fill the entire imperial grand ballroom.
Of course, Helena herself had not fallen victim to the Crown Prince.
Their relationship was different.
As Helena moved a chess piece, she spoke.
“There’s only one thing I want. To become happy, even if I have to do it alone.”
At her words, Crown Prince Rufus Arpend looked at her and asked:
“Does that mean you want to live alone without getting married?”
“Hm. It would be nice if I could. Realistically, though, that’d be difficult.”
Near the window overlooking the beautiful nightscape of the imperial palace, Helena and Rufus sat before a chessboard, speaking in low voices.
The tower above the imperial ballroom was a secret refuge they had frequented since childhood.
Whenever the suffocatingly formal banquets became unbearable, Helena and Rufus would sneak up to the tower and chat like this.
“People always say this, don’t they? Just get married. Even people with rough edges gradually wear each other down as they clash, becoming more rounded with time. They talk about it as though it’s some beautiful process.”
“A common theory.”
“But to me, it sounds like hurting each other through endless fighting and compromise until you lose what makes you yourself.”
Looking at the queen, which could move anywhere on the board, Helena continued.
“Could I really do that? Be faithful to one man, bear his children, and live some picture-perfect life?”
She paused before adding quietly:
“What if I end up running away like Sandra?”
At those words, Rufus reached out and gently patted her shoulder.
Their relationship was somewhat unusual.
Since Helena had caught the Empress’s attention as a child and frequently visited the palace, she had become as close to Crown Prince Rufus as a childhood companion.
In other words, they had grown up seeing every embarrassing side of one another.
Perhaps that was why.
Only in front of Rufus could Helena honestly reveal the deep and bitter feelings hidden inside her.
In a gloomy voice, Helena continued:
“I don’t think I can live with someone else.”
