The Forgotten Field - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 2
Act 1. This love is a curse.
I gazed into the mirror, studying the face of a woman I’d grown weary of seeing since birth.
If there was any difference between us, it was that the girl in the mirror possessed an elegant smile and eyes gleaming with sensuality, whereas I bore anxious, unsettled eyes tinged with impatience and lips parched with discontent.
Scowling at my own reflection, I turned toward the Nursemaid and asked.
“How do I look?”
“Like an angel, my lady.”
The Nursemaid, who had been ceaselessly combing through my hair, answered with her eyes crescent-shaped in a smile.
“Your Highness bears such a striking resemblance to Senevir. With such care taken in your appearance, you look just as she did at eighteen.”
I brushed away her plump hands as they fussed with my hair, irritation rising at the Nursemaid’s thoughtlessness in treating a comparison as a compliment.
“That’s enough with the combing. Bring me my dress.”
The Nursemaid waddled toward the trunk with the eager face of a puppy.
I watched her with disdain. How could she be so hopelessly dull?
The woman rummaged through the trunk with soft grunts, then withdrew a crimson satin dress and glanced at me cautiously.
“Look at this. It’s the dress Senevir wore when she first set foot in the Imperial Palace. She must have prepared it for you, Your Highness.”
I made a face of disgust.
“You remember what Mother wore all those years ago?”
“Of course! How could I forget that day? Senevir was like no one of this world. I wept at the mere existence of someone so beautiful. And the Emperor—he couldn’t take his eyes off her.”
The Nursemaid sighed, her expression dreamy as though lost in reverie.
I swallowed a bitter laugh. Did this woman truly believe their meeting was some grand romance of the ages?
At that time, the Emperor had a wife of six years, and she was heavy with child. Senevir and the Emperor’s meeting was nothing but sordid infidelity—nothing more, nothing less.
Even after the former Empress Bernadette died and Senevir became the legitimate Empress, people never forgot. As long as I existed, they would never forget the shameless sin they had committed.
I swallowed the sarcasm rising in my throat and snatched the dress from the Nursemaid’s hands.
“Stop wasting time with idle chatter and finish dressing me.”
“Of course. I’ll see to everything.”
The Nursemaid draped the beautiful velvet gown over my body.
I adjusted my hair and gazed into the mirror once more. In my mother’s dress, I looked even more like her.
Had that ominous, deeply sensual aura begun to bloom within me as well? I stared intently at the soft swell of my breasts rising above the deeply cut square neckline.
While one could not call it dignified, no one could deny it was utterly captivating.
I habitually brought my finger to my lips before catching myself, fearing I would ruin my makeup. Today, I wanted to appear more beautiful than anyone else. If possible, more beautiful than Mother.
I wanted everyone to look at me. I wanted no one to spare a glance for someone like Aila.
In the mirror, a fierce hunger blazed in my deep blue eyes—a gaze unbecoming of an imperial princess. It was the look of a beggar scrounging in the streets.
I seized the candlestick from the table and struck the woman in the mirror without mercy. With a thunderous crash, the mirror’s surface fractured into a spiderweb of cracks. The Nursemaid, who had been arranging my skirts, gasped and collapsed to the floor.
I hurled the candlestick to the ground and spoke coldly.
“I’m tired of that mirror. Bring me a new one.”
The Nursemaid looked up at me with a blanched face, then pressed her lips together and rose to her feet. Without a word, she draped an ornate fur-trimmed coat across my shoulders.
I stared at my fragmented reflection scattered across the broken mirror, then spun sharply on my heel.
As I left the chamber, I saw an escort knight sent by Senevir standing rigidly in the corridor, his face flushed as he gazed at me. I ignored him and descended the stairs.
Before the Separate Palace, a gilded carriage and eight guards awaited. Senevir clearly had no wish for her eldest daughter to appear diminished.
‘So you want me to make your rivals uncomfortable, is that it?’
She twisted her lips in cold disdain as she boarded the carriage. At that moment, a new knight of the guard approached to close the door, his words spilling forth like something scalding caught in his throat.
“You are truly beautiful today, Your Highness.”
At the yearning in his voice, every hair on my body stood on end.
Talia Roem Guerta shot him a sharp glare. I had no need for this man’s flattery.
“Spare me the empty words. Just depart.”
The man closed the door with an embarrassed face.
Soon the carriage began to move. I sank deep into the seat, gazing up at the blood-red sky through the fluttering curtains.
How wonderful it would be if this evening’s banquet were drenched in such a color. I wished for some grand commotion to erupt, for everything to descend into chaos.
I found myself absently touching my lips, then quickly lowered my arm upon noticing the red dye staining my fingertips.
My nerves felt as though they were burning away. Yet contrary to my agitation, the Main Palace emanated only beautiful melodies and brilliant light.
Descending from the carriage, Talia Roem Guerta surveyed the broad avenue leading to the Banquet Hall and the lavishly adorned Garden, her brow furrowing. Hundreds of nobles in silk garments were ascending the marble steps in succession, filing into the Main Palace’s grand hall.
I ignored the knight who had attached himself to escort me and proceeded toward the Banquet Hall entrance. Those who recognized me naturally parted to make way.
It was only natural. The Imperial Palace was my home. I had not the slightest intention of queuing like the other guests.
Talia Roem Guerta spoke calmly to the flustered attendant.
“I have come to celebrate my brothers’ birthday.”
The attendant’s eyes widened in shock.
Talia Roem Guerta snapped irritably.
“Why are you not announcing my arrival?”
Only then did the man hastily step aside beside a pillar and cry out in a loud voice.
“The Second Imperial Princess, Talia Roem Guerta, Your Highness, has arrived!”
In that instant, a chilling silence filled the grand hall.
I stepped into the brilliant Banquet Hall bathed in golden light, my head held high and proud. I could feel hundreds of pairs of piercing eyes scrutinizing me from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes.
Talia Roem Guerta savored their shock, their anger, their bewilderment, and the reluctant admiration they could not help but utter, walking forward with measured grace. Like a receding tide, the crowd withdrew, distancing themselves from me.
As though I were a plague itself.
I murmured inwardly, my lips curved in a malicious smile.
Then someone blocked my path.
“What brings you here?”
I looked up at the man’s face. He was one of those besotted fools who followed my noble half-sister, Aila.
Talia Roem Guerta deliberately offered a seductive smile. I had witnessed my mother enchant men in precisely this manner countless times.
“Is there somewhere I am forbidden to be?”
The man’s face, rigid with caution, flushed crimson. He stumbled backward in confusion.
Talia Roem Guerta stepped closer still, raising my chin higher.
“This is my father’s palace, and this banquet is for my brothers. What objection could there possibly be to my presence here?”
As I fixed my gaze directly upon his eyes, the man froze as though turned to ice.
I could see his large nostrils flaring. He seemed to be breathing in the scent of rose oil that my Nursemaid had so carefully worked through each strand of my hair.
A strange satisfaction and profound revulsion surged through me simultaneously, as though intoxicated by potent spirits. I passed by the man, whose lips trembled uselessly like a fool, and walked toward the center of the hall.

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