Chapter 1

Once upon a time, there existed an emperor.

His hair was golden like that of the moonlight, eyes filled with a rich violet colour.

Such an emperor had a beautiful Empress.

The Empress’s skin was so clear and transparent that blue veins were visible, and she had silvery hair like white silk that seemed not to belong to anyone in the world, and sea-light eyes that crackled under the summer sun.

The two were a perfect pair.

Indeed, it was perfect.

The empress was the perfect empress,

The emperor completely hated such an empress…

Hate? No, that’s not it

The opposite of love is indifference, not hate.

The emperor was completely indifferent to the empress.

Even the moment when she was dying after drinking the poison in the emperor stead, he was staring down at her with a grim expression.

“Was I a great Empress?”

However, the empress died like that without hearing the answer to her will.

The perfect empress, who was kind and sweet to everyone, was the mother of all people.

As if it’s natural, the people gathered in the streets wearing black mourning clothes and watched her final goodbye.

He was an emperor who had been indifferent to her all his life, but guess he couldn’t help it at moments like this.

The emperor, who appeared in front of the people with black ashes under his eyes, shed tears and prayed for how sad and grieving that he lost his beloved companion.

And, like all high-ranking people, he put on such a wonderful performance that everyone fell for it.

However, those who knew how he actually treated the empress hid in the shadows and criticized him in secret.

The first words the emperor uttered on his return from the funeral were more heartless and cold than when his beloved dog died.

“It’s a waste”

Everyone in the room was appalled and felt goosebumps at the emperor’s words.

Is that really what someone would say to a person who played the role of the empress perfectly by his side for his whole life?

“How can they just put on a facade like that? A waste, a shame?! Before becoming the empress, she was your Majesty’s wife. Your one and only companion!”

The chancellor of the Empire and the emperor’s best friend was outraged on behalf of everyone who was there.

“Companion?”

The emperor tilted his head and made a puzzled expression, as if he had heard this word for the first time.

What on earth was the empress to the emperor?

And, like any other story, this story begins with the emperor, who was so heartless and indifferent toward the empress, started noticing her absence.

Let’s take a light example.

Until her last breath, she decided to stand beside the emperor.

“It’s just in time for the empress dowager’s younger sister to reach a marriageable age….”

He is the parent of the empress, who is pleading with him while rubbing his hands together.

Now the nobles are trying to fill the seat of the national mother of the country with their daughters since it is empty.

He felt disgusted when he stood in front of the masses of Desire of those who were trying to establish bonds with the emperor by their daughters in order to obtain power.

And for the first time, he realized her absence.

At least, from the outside look, with her, they were a perfect match.

And then one day, the emperor was in the library, while he was having a severe headache.

Is it someone’s curse? Or is it the empress’s resentment?.

Rumors that the emperor would complain of a headache whenever he entered the library quickly covered the entire imperial palace .

Before long, rumors of the emperor had to find the cause spread through the Imperial Palace’s heavy security and throughout the whole Empire.

The empire’s greatest wizards, priests, and sages, who were called to find the cause, came up with different reasons.

“The resentful curse of the Empress who died unfairly is obvious.” The priest said, pouring holy water on the emperor’s body. However, the emperor only caught a cold, and he still felt a headache.

“Is it possible that the smell of a book that is too old caused this?” The sage, who was coveting the imperial ancient documents, said with bright eyes.

But instead of giving the old books to the sages, the emperor built a new study and moved there.

The headache still persisted though. Even after the cold is over.

Afterwards, the sorceress at the clock tower touched the blossoms in his study and said, “ The flowers have changed, haven’t they? Although they were pretty, they have a strong scent that isn’t suitable for your study.”

” And who took care of the flowers in the library?”

“Did you forget that Her Majesty the Empress herself is the one who takes care of it?”

The emperor frowned and searched through his memory.

The flowers in the Imperial Palace seemed to have been managed by the Empress since the Emperor once said that they smelt nice and ordered her to keep on doing it.

One day, when he was fed up with disgust toward people and the awful smell of flowers that filled the Imperial Palace, the servant presented an old diary to the emperor. “I found this while sorting out the relics of the Empress.”

The emperor opened the diary with a gloomy expression.

There remained a part of the empress, written in elegant writing.