IWRY 01

Chapter 01

A peaceful morning in the Pentium Empire. The sky was filled with sunlight, yet a woman’s voice, as cold as ice and entirely out of place, echoed through the grand ducal castle.

“I will see His Grace the Grand Duke. Step aside.”

It was Ariel’s command—the Grand Duke’s fiancée and the only daughter of the prestigious Blante Marquis family.

However, the knights blocked her path as if refusing permission outright. For a brief moment, her brows furrowed, but the knights remained unmoved as one of them spoke firmly.

“My lady. We sincerely apologize, but His Highness wishes for you to rest comfortably in your room until tomorrow morning.”

“What!”

In the end, she let out a sharp, restrained laugh.

Rest comfortably while being imprisoned? What nonsense was this, some twisted joke?

“Move. This is the last time I will say it nicely.”

Ariel issued a chilling warning, but the knights guarding the door did not budge.

Still, Ariel did not grow more furious at them. She had already expected this.

And she had clearly warned them—this was the last time she would speak politely.

“My apologies. Please return to your room, my lady.”

“…If words don’t work, I have no choice.”

“Pardon?”

The knight who failed to catch her low murmur stepped forward—and in that instant, Ariel reached for the knight’s sword sheath.

Startled, the knight quickly grabbed her arm, but Ariel twisted his grip in return and, in one fluid motion, drew the sword from its sheath.

Screech—.

A chilling metallic sound rang out as the sharp blade was pressed against Ariel’s own neck.

“His Grace ordered you to confine me, not to kill me. Am I right?”

“M-my lady….”

The previously motionless knights finally began to panic, exchanging uneasy glances.

Ariel did not miss their hesitation and pressed the blade more firmly against her neck.

“Stop her!”

A knight shouted in alarm, but she calmly took a step forward.

“Back away. Otherwise, this blade will cut my throat. And then you will all become traitors who failed to protect the Grand Duke’s fiancée.”

“My lady, please don’t do this….”

“If you don’t want to lose your heads alongside mine, shut up and step back.”

She tightened her grip on the sword.

When a drop of blood stained the blade, the knights raised their hands and hurriedly retreated.

Clang—. At the same moment, Ariel threw the sword aside. As the knights’ attention shifted, she dashed down the corridor.

“My lady!”

Ignoring their desperate calls, she ran as if her life depended on it.

The place she ran to was the one man who was both her fiancé and the master of this vast estate—the office of Grand Duke Seiared.

At last, she reached the door and caught her breath.

“My lady… how did you get here…?”

The head butler, flustered, stammered in disbelief at someone who should have been locked in her room.

“My lady, your neck is bleeding….”

He rushed toward her in alarm, but Ariel wiped the blood with the back of her hand and said coldly,

“This is nothing. Inform the Grand Duke. Tell him I am here.”

“My lady, please calm down first….”

“If you cannot do it, I will.”

Cutting off the butler, Ariel moved straight toward the office door.

Before anyone could stop her, she grabbed the handle and swung the door open.

The door burst open violently, and the man seated at the desk frowned and lifted his head.

Jet-black hair like a void, dark eyes, and a face so flawless it seemed sculpted by the gods.

The overwhelmingly beautiful man was her fiancé.

Grand Duke Kailance Seiared—the emperor’s only nephew.

Ariel met his displeased gaze head-on.

His eyes, like those of a predator, were said to be terrifying to meet directly, but not for her. Those eyes had once always looked at her with warmth.

Though that was now in the past.

Feeling her skin grow cold under his gaze, she felt sweat form along her spine.

So this is why people feared you.

Still, she endured. She was not a stranger—she was his fiancée. At least, she still was.

As she bit her lip against the pain in her chest, the butler tried to intervene.

“My lady, even if you are his fiancée, this is—”

A cold voice cut through the room.

“Seo. That’s enough. Leave.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The butler withdrew quietly.

Ariel steadied herself and stepped further into the office. Though she had just been running frantically through the halls, her steps were slow—heavier with each one, as though weighed down by iron chains.

Shouldn’t it have been easy to walk toward her fiancé?

Yet at some point, it had become difficult to face Kailance, to speak to him.

Perhaps it had started the moment his gaze lost all warmth.

With a click, the door closed behind her. Swallowing nervously, she stopped before his desk.

His cold gaze briefly touched the wound on her neck, but only for a moment before his expression returned to irritation.

In the past, he would have rushed to her side in panic upon seeing such a wound. Now, all she received was his icy voice.

“I know why you’re here. But no. Go back to your room.”

“…You know why I’m here, and you’re just telling me to go back? Like it means nothing?”

“……”

“Is that really all you have to say to me right now?”

Ariel’s sorrowful voice filled the office, but Kailance only frowned slightly, as if annoyed.

Then he looked at her with indifferent eyes.

“Are you expecting comfort? Will you go quietly if I give you some?”

As if offering a pitying concession.

To be treated like a beggar—she had thought she was still his fiancée. But perhaps she was wrong.

Swallowing her rising emotions, she forced herself to speak calmly.

“I am the only daughter of the Blante Marquis family. No matter what you are to me, you cannot stop me from attending my father’s funeral. Under imperial law, I am still part of the Blante family.”

Kailance sighed as though tired.

“Yes. Legally, you are still Blante’s daughter. But isn’t that status now a poison to you?”

“…What?”

“You haven’t forgotten what your father was accused of, have you?”

Her eyes trembled violently, but he continued without pause.

“Marquis Blante supplied funds and imperial intelligence to the traitorous Grint faction, who have long sought to target the empire. He even connected them with the Kingdom of Breta, which is constantly in border conflict with us. So that Grint and Breta could join forces and invade the empire.”

“No… that’s not….”

His voice cut in like a blade.

“Denial won’t change anything. The evidence was solid. And as if to prove it, he took his own life. When treason is confirmed, not only the individual but the entire family is destroyed. He must have feared that. So he chose the coward’s way out.”

At those words, Ariel snapped.

“Don’t you dare insult my father!”

He was a righteous man who had devoted his life to the empire. A loving father who had always cherished her.

And Kailance knew that better than anyone.

And yet he said such things.

“Everything I waited for… was this?”

Tears finally spilled from her eyes.

“I thought there must be a reason. That when you accused him, when you personally led his interrogation, there had to be a reason… I believed in you.”

“But no. You believed the evidence, not him. And now you call his death cowardly. You know I would break if I heard that… but you don’t care at all.”

“I’m in pain because of the dagger you drove into me… but you… you feel nothing.”

She collapsed to the floor, sobbing, but Kailance did not move.

The office was filled only with her crying.

And then, at last, his cold voice came again.

“…I only did what I had to do.”

“Hah.”

“You will understand once you see reality for yourself.”

He pulled the bell cord. Soon, the door opened and the butler entered.

“Take the lady back to the Blante estate.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The butler helped the collapsing Ariel to her feet.

As she forced herself to stand on trembling legs and looked up, Kailance had already returned to his documents.

As if everything had become nothing more than an inconvenience. Not even a farewell.

“Ha….”

So easily, the love she had believed in shattered.

Ariel let out a hollow breath, her chest feeling as if it had been torn open, then turned away.

As she left the office, she realized something instinctively.

This was truly the end.