For the heart - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 2

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Thud, thud, thud.

The palace servants were startled when they realized only as she drew near that the one walking through the palace corridors was not a knight but a princess, and they quickly bowed their heads.

The tragic princess who would not die even in death, Nina Arsed.

Now a twenty-year-old adult, she had already proven her abilities in years of combat and risen to the position of Imperial Knight Commander at just nineteen.

Her blonde hair was cut short to just below her chin, unimaginable for a princess, but the harmony of her pale white skin, long eyelashes, and lips with a faint blush beneath her prominent nose was beautiful enough to evoke thoughts of a snow spirit.

When she appeared in the palace after a long absence with such a face, she always wore blood-stained battle attire, and this incongruity deepened the wariness people felt toward her.

Nina’s transparently blue eyes in particular always held a cold light, and no trace of emotional fluctuation had ever been read in them.

The rumor that such a woman could take someone’s life with just a touch of her fingertips, combined with that ruthless gaze, further fueled people’s fear.

When the wind coming through the corridor windows gently tousled her blonde hair as it passed, a young attendant came running and bowed his head.

“Have you arrived, Your Highness? His Majesty is waiting in the Audience Chamber.”

The attendant’s eyes briefly confirmed her disheveled appearance before turning his head away.

Nina’s battle attire, with only the upper body armor removed, was stained with dark red blood to the point where the original color was unrecognizable, and wherever swords and arrows had passed, the tough fabric was torn or mercilessly frayed.

It was an appearance that vividly conveyed the battle she had fought on the battlefield.

But Nina headed to the Audience Chamber without changing her clothes.

Clatter.

At the sound of something falling, both the attendant’s and Nina’s eyes turned to the floor simultaneously.

It was a gold-plated button that had been attached below the collar of her battle attire—the last remaining one had finally fallen off.

The moment Nina and the attendant both bent down and reached for the button, he was startled and tumbled backward.

The attendant quickly got up and bowed to Nina.

“S-sorry, Your Highness! I was so surprised that I…”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Nina picked up her button, put it in her pocket, and walked as if nothing had happened.

Only the attendant, who had been startled at the thought of his hand touching hers, was sweating profusely.

“I greet His Majesty the Emperor, the light of Arsed and the glory of this land.”

Upon arriving at the Audience Chamber, Nina knelt on one knee like any other knight to pay her respects to the Emperor and Empress, then immediately stood up.

“Oh, my daughter. Come here.”

“Imperial Knight Commander Nina Arsed reports her return after conquering Ordor.”

“How long has it been since you departed?”

“A little over five months.”

The Emperor, his face full of satisfaction, slowly looked Nina over from head to toe.

The battle attire his daughter was now wearing testified to the terrible battles she had fought, but there was not a trace of sympathy for his daughter in his eyes.

The suffering of his daughter, born with an immortal body without a heart, was no different from his own glory.

The more Nina devoted her body to fighting wars, the more he would be praised by the empire’s citizens as the emperor who had expanded the Arsed Empire’s territory the most in history, and he would be remembered throughout history.

The Emperor spoke in an affectionate voice with a smile at the corners of his mouth, but the content was not so kind.

“Stand firm as the Arsed Empire’s greatest weapon for life. Do not forget that this is your only usefulness.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

“And there is very good news.”

The Emperor, who seemed particularly pleased, gestured to the chamberlain standing beside him. The chamberlain then brought a piece of paper and held it out to Nina.

Nina’s eyes widened as she looked at the Emperor after scanning the contents.

At this sight, he burst into loud laughter.

“While you were on campaign, I obtained the Montregger Emperor’s seal on a declaration of submission. First Prince Casian Montregger, who is coming as a hostage, should arrive around today.”

What Nina saw was the Montregger Empire’s declaration of submission.

For Montregger, which had been more hardline than any other country, to suddenly become a vassal state of Arsed like this.

Seeing the contents written in the declaration of submission, Nina roughly understood what had happened to Montregger while she was conquering Ordor.

“The second prince, Evan Montregger, sent a secret letter directly to Arsed. Asking us to depose his father and put him on the throne. It must be a plan that came from that cunning empress’s head. I heard the empress was making a mess of the country by putting her son forward, but to think she would even bring down her own husband. Hahaha!”

“…”

“Even God is on my side in unifying the entire continent. It’s as if I received the largest continent as a reward. So you must push even harder in the remaining conquests.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

When Nina’s brief answer came out, Nina’s mother, Empress Catalina Arsed, who had been looking disapprovingly from earlier, clicked her tongue.

“Go away quickly before you appear in my nightmares. What harm would it do to have an audience in better condition? I feel nauseous from that disgusting smell of blood.”

“I will take my leave.”

Nina briefly bowed and immediately turned around and left.

Though she was Nina’s mother, Catalina had never once treated Nina the way she treated Nina’s twin sister Lillien.

At least not in Nina’s memory.

‘The princess with a warm heart shall become the emperor of the Arsed Empire, and the princess with an empty place where her heart should be shall devote her body for the empire.’

It was a blessing oracle for Lillien, and an oracle no different from a curse for Nina.

Since it was an oracle received before birth, her mother’s love might never have reached her for even a single moment.

“Even when I first breastfed her, how chilling it was. It felt exactly like holding a corpse. Well, how could something without a heart be called human?”

So Nina grew up drinking the milk of her wet nurse, Tila.

Though Lillien’s maids looked down on Tila for being from a servant background of a lower noble family, to Nina she was the one and only person in the world.

Because in this Imperial Palace, she was the only one who would hold her in her arms and smile at her.

Tila always noticed news of Nina’s return before anyone else.

She had probably floated mint and eucalyptus leaves in the bathtub today as well.

There was nothing better for washing away the smell of blood that had deeply permeated her body.

Nina, filled with thoughts of soaking her body in the bathtub, walked through the corridor faster than usual.

The Satellite Palace where she stayed was quite far from the main palace where the Emperor, Empress, and her twin sister Lillien resided.

When she reached the end of the long corridor, she saw several knights and two men in unfamiliar attire that was not Arsed entering inside.

One of the knights who spotted Nina quickly ran over and gave a military salute.

“Commander, we are currently bringing First Prince Casian Montregger from Montregger as a hostage. The one who came with him is the First Prince’s attendant.”

Even if he was a hostage, he was still an imperial prince, yet what a shabby entrance this was.

Nina turned her head toward Casian Montregger, who was called the First Prince, and her eyes widened in an instant.

The man who was a head taller than even Arsed’s knights, wearing the traditional Montregger long robe that draped diagonally from one shoulder, had a face she definitely recognized.

“Remember it. My face. If we meet again, it will be a terrible fate.”

So this was what he meant.

Nina’s blue eyes wavered like never before.

That day, the face hidden beneath hair that fell like a black curtain was as clear and intense as a single ray of light that flashed through darkness.

The deeply set eyes, the straight nose bridge that rose proudly, and unlike her own, the well-formed lips that held a lively, healthy color.

Every line was etched in her memory more clearly than any reality.

Now with even his hair cut short, fully revealing that fine appearance of his, there was no way Nina could fail to recognize him.

If nothing else, there had been only one person with such fiercely glowing red eyes.

Casian Montregger slowly approached while maintaining eye contact with Nina.

When he came close enough that nothing but his broad shoulders could be seen, Casian knelt on one knee and gently took Nina’s right hand, pressing his lips to the back of it.

“…?!”

As if the princess in blood-stained battle attire was some noble being, what a greeting filled with such deep respect.

No one had ever greeted her like this before.

At the sight of the man lowering his eyes so his long lashes cast shadows, and the unfamiliar yet distinct sensation of soft lips touching and leaving her cold hand, Nina unconsciously held her breath.

“We meet again like this. Your Highness.”

Casian, who straightened up and released Nina’s hand, showed a relaxed smile that was hard to believe came from a prince who had lost his country and been brought as a hostage.

Only then did Nina suddenly recall that none of the knights had ever used the title ‘Your Highness’ when addressing her.

‘From the beginning, he knew I was a princess.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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