CH 1

“This is your house now.”

Diana’s oldest memory was the back of her mother leaving her behind.

She first knew that she had a father that day.

“You’re my daughter?”

Her biological father, Viscount Susfield, coughed in vain with a face embarrassed by the sudden ‘mistake’ of the past.

The same was true of his wife and son.

The Viscount, who was a merchant but made a huge amount of money to buy the status of a noble, despised illegitimate children as aristocrats from birth.

“It can’t be helped. Come on in.”

Worried that there would be a scandal if they recklessly kicked the child out, the three reluctantly accepted her into the mansion.

Rather than allowing the risk factors to travel outside, they were determined to lock her in the mansion.

Despite that, the superiors showed signs of discomfort, so the employees did not respect Diana.

From the guest room on the second floor, to another room on the first floor.

From the room on the first floor to a warehouse of a separate building.

It didn’t take long for Diana to become a non-existent person in the Susfield mansion.

But she didn’t die.

Diana managed to survive and managed to grow.

So it was one day when she turned 20.

“I heard there’s going to be an amazing guest today. You might be able to get some leftovers.”

That day was a little different from usual.

The mansion was noisy from dawn, and the Viscount himself came to urge her to stay in the separate building today.

‘You’re telling me to make sure there’s nothing for the guest to see here.’

After roughly accepting it, Diana squatted down in the back building.

She stared at the dust whining that she was hungry and tilted her head.

“By the way, what are you? I haven’t heard that there was such a thing as dust to call it a spirit…”

Beep! Beep!

At the words, it jumped angrily like a black dust ball on Diana’s lap.

Diana hurriedly grabbed her clothes with her limbs when the wind blew.

“Sneak into the kitchen and check if there’s anything left for me to eat later. Don’t stand out from people’s eyes. I’ll feed you when you get back safely.”

Beep.

“Okay? You’re nice.”

Diana smiled and tickled the dust ball with her fingertips.

Immediately after, a strong wind suddenly rose.

Diana hurriedly grabbed the dust ball that was about to fly in the wind and closed her eyes.

“Huh?”

It was then that an unfamiliar scent flowed into the tip of the nose.

Diana opened her eyes wide to a good scent that she had never smelled before.

I unconsciously turned my head to the side where the wind blew.

And I saw her standing in the sun.

“Wow.”

Diana was amazed that a word came out of her mouth without realizing it.

The snowy silver hair shone on the woman’s shoulders.

Eyes of a color that looked just like the sky above their heads were surprisedly enlarged.

Diana admired the beauty of the unknown woman.

Her mother was also a pretty famous beauty in the village.  However, she did not look noble from birth like that woman.

What surprised Diana was she stood there for a while, and soon approached Diana.

“Hi.”

The blue eyes of the woman against the backdrop of the windy garden were beautiful.

The woman put her hair behind her ears and smiled brightly.

“Can I ask who you were talking to just now?”

At that moment, Diana’s heart dropped.

Diana thought blankly as she heard the sound of her heart beating so loud that it filled her ears.

Oh, maybe it was the feeling of falling in love.

That was the first meeting between 1st Princess Rebecca Dune Bluebell and Diana Susfield.

~*~

5 years after that.

Diana acknowledged bitterly, looking up at Rebecca with her kneeling down on her knees, not much different from then.

Her feelings at that time were nothing more than an imprint.

“Diana Susfield, who dared to poison the emperor… Will be beheaded.”

Tang. Tang.

The sound of the judge clutching the wooden rod and smashing it hard rang in her ears like thunder.

Diana stared blankly at Rebecca, who sat on her high throne behind the judge’s back and looked down at her expressionlessly.

‘Your Majesty…’

The day she first met first princess Rebecca at the Susfield mansion.

Diana was immediately attracted to Rebecca and gladly went under her.

Rebecca was originally cruel in nature, but she was tolerant only to her own people.

Diana learned a lot thanks to her.

It is said that only five attributes of spirits remain now, but there was a story about the dark attributes of spirits somewhere in the Temple.

What she thought was just dust was the lower spirit of darkness, ‘Hillasa’.

With Rebecca’s support, Diana learned a lot, and in the end she became a great swordsman.

If it was Rebecca’s will, she was just a blind sword that followed her without even thinking about it.

It was Diana Susfield.

[You are special, Diana, and you’re easy to be sold off because it’s strange that something special with unclear roots is with you.]

Rebecca warned her not to reveal the Dark Elementalist until she found her clear records.

It was because the spirits of the dark element were violent and the color of their power was somehow reminiscent of a monster.

So Diana has lived in Rebecca’s shadow for the last five years.

On the outside, she pretended to be an illegitimate child who was lucky enough to take the position of a maid, but behind, she was called to the battlefield countless times to deal with Rebecca’s enemies.

And she finally came the day after Rebecca ascended to the throne.

Diana was framed for trying to poison the new emperor and she was dragged away.

[There was a report that you were using a special power! Don’t talk and follow me!]

The power of the dark attribute without clear evidence or data.

And the day after the new emperor’s accession, an unidentified poison was found in a teacup.

The two were very similar, and Diana was imprisoned without ever having the chance to explain anything.

[What…is this! Please let me see Her Majesty! Your Majesty!]

With magical restraints on her limbs, all Diana could do was hold her grate and shout.

She, of course, was embarrassed at first, but she wasn’t terribly disturbed.

Undoubtedly, Rebecca was the first to recognize that she had a dark spirit, sparing her power and putting it under her.

Besides, Diana’s blind loyalty was quite famous even before.

Soon, the 1st princess, no, the emperor, will come to know this. She should be furious if they dared to touch her handmaiden.

Diana believed so and waited for Rebecca.

But a day and two went by.

No matter how much time passed, Rebecca did not appear. She didn’t even leave a letter.

Eventually, by the time Diana was unable to overcome her anxiety, she was dragged to the courtroom.

She then met Rebecca’s gaze as she sat on the highest point there and looked down at her indifferently.

Diana suddenly felt suffocated by Rebecca’s gaze as if she were left behind.

‘I won’t leave you alone.’

‘You don’t even know how surprised and anxious I was.’

She said she would cherish her the most in the world.

‘Why didn’t you come to me?’

‘Why did you leave me alone?’

Words of resentment lingered in Diana’s mind.

However, it was even difficult to say it because her lips trembled with anxiety.

So, Diana was silent.

The cold question fell above her head without notice.

“Why did you do that?”

Diana stopped breathing for a moment.

Obviously, she heard it with her own ears, but she couldn’t believe it. Her head refused to accept it.

‘Right now, what did she say?’

“I asked why you did this.”

However, as if Rebecca were shooting a confirmed shot, the question came up again without hesitation.

It doesn’t mean “explain” or “is it really what you’ve done?”

The moment she looked up and made eye contact with Rebecca, Diana instinctively realized.

“Ah.”

A false laugh leaked out like the wind.

“It’s you.”

‘You made me like this.’

Like pushing a hound into a pot after hunting.

‘Now that you’ve become the emperor, you don’t need me, who has been in charge of things that were as good as yours.’

As if to prove Diana’s thoughts, there was no emotion left in Rebecca’s eyes, who had always looked at her with a warm face.

Diana realized that Rebecca had already cut her off so she lost her will to explain completely.

She was used to being abandoned. Her biological mother, and then her biological father.

Rebecca, who was watching her, turned her head and spat out a distorted arsenic.

“You don’t even make excuses.”

“…”

“Nevermind. Drag out the sinner.”

Diana did not persistently pay attention to Rebecca until the moment she was dragged out.

Rebecca also did not move in the posture of turning her head.

It was the end that resembled a parting.

~*~

Clank clank!

The prison door opened with the creepy sound of iron.

The guard, who threw Diana roughly spat.

“I thought you were young from the beginning, but you were aiming for Her Majesty. You should’ve been grateful for Her Majesty taking you on the subject of an illegitimate child who was of little use. You’re so ungrateful.”

The guard said a few more swear words while frowning at her, then slammed the door and disappeared to the other side of the hallway.

Diana was swept by a rough stone floor and raised her body by moving her limbs.

She struggled to straighten her head because it was difficult to move since her hands were tied tightly behind her  back.

“Life is so hard to understand. I didn’t know that the person who put me here would actually share the room next to me.”

A familiar voice caught my ears. Diana turned her head at the sarcastic tone.

Over the bars, black eyes were staring at her.

The black-haired man was firmly bound to the prison cell next to her while looking like a wreck. The chains filled in both wrists and ankles stood out.

He was in a situation worse than her, but the unusual energy flowing out of his body still lingers.

Diana frowned at the fact that even at this moment, there was no hatred or murder in his eyes.

“…His Majesty Cayden.”

Cayden Seyric Bluebell.

He was the biggest stumbling block for Diana to raise Rebecca to the throne, and had a spirit who was as powerful as the first five spirits.

[Don’t you want to be under me, Susfield girl?]

And with the exception of Rebecca, he was the only one who showed human interest and sympathy for her.

Cayden looked at Diana’s lifeless face and clicked his tongue.

“It would be nice if you came quietly when I asked you to come. Well, there’s no way it can be turned around now.”

His tone was friendly, and his voice and expression were relaxed. At least he didn’t have the kind of attitude that was deep anger and resentment.

Diana, who was staring at him blankly, asked.

“Why don’t you…hate me?”

The words were uttered unintentionally, but they were sincere.

For Rebecca’s sake, Diana tore Cayden down to hell, because there was still no emotion of hatred or resentment in his eyes.

Cayden narrowed his brow at Diana’s question and tilted his head.

“Hate… Well.”

He muttered a little, as if he didn’t know, and then immediately let out a liberated smile.

“It’s strange. Actually, looking at the situation, it would be normal for me to break your neck here, but I don’t really want to do that.”

“…”

“When I think about it, I didn’t have a bad impression of the miss from the first time I met her. Rather…”

After a moment’s silence, he ended the conversation with a bright smile.

“It was good. I wanted to be friends.”

“Hah.”

At that moment, Diana let out a helpless laugh without realizing it.

At the same time, tears welled up in her dry eyes.

‘Friend.’

Her heart ached as if she was being overcome by those words she had heard for the first time in her life.

The person whom she had devoted her whole life to abandoned her.

He was a person she always avoided because she thought she shouldn’t be around him.

It was so funny and painful to reach out to him even when she can’t control her own body.

“Haha.”

Diana laughed and shed her tears. Her belated realization and regret came, making it difficult for her to breathe.

As she laughed and cried like her heartbreak, Cayden made a bewildered face.

He reflexively shook his body, as if he was about to jump over the cell at any moment.

“No, I didn’t mean to make you cry, don’t cry, miss.”

Cayden was fidgety enough to be a little funny. The emotion in his black eyes was obviously embarrassment and worry.

Somewhere in the world, he must have been called a madman when he was a prince. Diana whispered softly between her laughter and tears.

“Actually, I didn’t hate His Majesty either. It was weird.”

“…”

“If we could be friends…then things would have been a little different now.”

“…”

Cayden looked up at Diana with trembling eyes. An emotion that could not be described in words came to his mind in a flash which could be seen in his black eyes and then disappeared.

However, Diana couldn’t hear an answer from him.

It was because the soldiers who immediately entered the prison dragged Cayden out, saying it was time to execute him.

“Take him out!”

Diana was decapitated the next morning, on the spot where Cayden died.