Chapter 2 :

This love is like a curse.

Thalia looked into the mirror.

There, she saw the face of the woman she had grown sick of seeing ever since the day she was born.

If there were a few differences between them, it was that the girl in the mirror had anxious, uneasy eyes and dry lips instead of an elegant smile and strangely sensual eyes gleaming with allure.

Thalia, who had been glaring at her own face with a dissatisfied expression, turned her head toward her nanny and asked,

“How do I look?”

“You look just like an angel.”

The nanny, who had been constantly brushing down her hair, answered with her eyes curved like crescent moons.

“Your Highness truly looks exactly like Lady Senevier. Now that you are dressed up with such care, it feels as though I am looking at Lady Senevier when she was eighteen.”

Thalia roughly slapped away the hand that was fiddling with her hair.

Irritation surged at the nanny’s insensitivity in thinking that being told she resembled someone was a compliment.

“That’s enough brushing. Bring me my clothes.”

The nanny waddled toward the chest with a face like a puppy that had been kicked.

Thalia shot her a displeased look.

How could someone be so dull?

The woman, who had been rummaging through the chest with little grunts, pulled out a red satin dress and glanced at her for approval.

“Look at this. This is the dress Lady Senevier wore when she first set foot in the imperial palace. She must have prepared it for Your Highness.”

Thalia made a disgusted face.

“Nanny, do you even remember what my mother wore that long ago?”

“Of course! How could I forget that day? Lady Senevier did not seem like someone of this world. I nearly cried at the fact that such a beautiful person could exist in this world. Even His Majesty the Emperor could not take his eyes off Lady Senevier.”

The nanny sighed with a dreamy expression, as though she were lost in a daydream.

Thalia swallowed a hollow laugh.

Did this woman think the meeting between those two was some romance of the century?

At the time, the Emperor had an empress with whom he had shared six years of married life, and she had even been on the verge of giving birth.

The meeting between Senevier and the Emperor was nothing more and nothing less than a sordid affair.

Even after the former empress Bernadette died and Senevier became the official Empress, people did not forget that fact.

As long as Thalia existed, people would never forget the shameless sin they had committed.

Thalia swallowed the sarcasm that had risen to her throat and snatched the dress from the nanny’s hands.

“If you have time to say useless things, finish dressing me.”

“Of course. I will do everything for you.”

The nanny dressed her in a beautiful velvet bliaut.

Thalia tidied her hair and looked into the mirror again.

Wearing her mother’s dress, she looked even more like her.

Was an ominously deep sensuality beginning to bud within her as well?

Thalia stared intently at the upper part of her chest that had begun to rise in a rounded curve above the deeply cut square neckline.

It could not be called dignified, but no one could deny that she looked irresistibly alluring.

Out of habit, Thalia brought her finger to her lips, then quickly lowered her hand, worried that she would ruin her makeup.

At least today, she wanted to look prettier than anyone else.

If possible, she wanted to look prettier than her mother.

I want everyone to look at me.

So I hope no one even glances at someone like Ayla.

A fierce hunger appeared over the dark-blue eyes reflected in the mirror.

It was not the gaze an imperial princess ought to have.

It was the gaze of a beggar begging on the streets.

Thalia picked up the candlestick on the table and struck the woman in the mirror without mercy.

With a loud crash, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the surface of the mirror.

The nanny, who had been straightening the hem of her dress, was so startled that she collapsed to the floor.

Thalia threw the candlestick to the floor and said coldly,

“I’m sick of that mirror. Bring me a new one.”

The nanny looked up at her with a pale face, pressed her lips tightly together, and rose to her feet.

Then, as though nothing had happened, she draped a splendid fur-trimmed coat over Thalia’s shoulders.

Thalia glared at her reflection, split into dozens of pieces across the mirror, then sharply turned around.

When she left the room, she saw the guard knight sent by Senevier standing straight on one side of the corridor.

Ignoring the man who was looking at her with a flushed face, she went down the stairs.

In front of the detached palace, a four-wheeled carriage trimmed in gold and eight guards were waiting.

It seemed Senevier did not want her eldest daughter to look shabby.

‘You want me to make your political enemies uncomfortable, don’t you?’

She twisted her lips cynically and climbed into the carriage.

Just then, the new guard knight who had approached to close the door spoke as though vomiting up something hot lodged in his throat.

“Today... you are truly beautiful, Your Highness.”

At the longing in his voice, every fine hair on Thalia’s body stood on end for a moment.

Thalia shot him a sharp glare.

She did not need praise from this man.

“Stop saying useless things and get moving.”

The man closed the door with an embarrassed face.

Soon, the carriage began to move.

She sank deeply back into the seat and looked up at the blood-colored sky through the fluttering curtains.

How wonderful it would be if tonight’s banquet were dyed in that color.

I hope a great commotion breaks out and everything becomes a mess.

She unconsciously fiddled with her lips, then saw red dye staining the tips of her nails and quickly lowered her arm.

It felt as though her nerves were burning to a crisp.

Unlike her mood, only beautiful melodies and dazzling lights were flowing out from the main palace.

After getting out of the carriage, Thalia looked around at the broad road leading to the banquet hall and the splendidly decorated garden, then furrowed her brow.

Hundreds of nobles dressed in silk were entering the hall of the main palace one after another along the marble steps.

She ignored the knight who had followed to escort her and stepped toward the entrance of the banquet hall.

Those who recognized her naturally cleared a path.

It was only natural.

The imperial palace was her home.

She had not the slightest intention of standing in line like the other guests.

Thalia calmly said to the attendant, who was showing signs of panic,

“I have come to congratulate my siblings on their birthday.”

The attendant’s eyes widened.

Thalia snapped irritably,

“What are you doing instead of announcing my arrival?”

Only then did the man hurriedly step aside beside a pillar and shout loudly,

“Her Highness the Second Princess, Thalia Roem Ghirta, is entering!”

In an instant, icy silence filled the grand hall.

She stepped into the radiant banquet hall dyed in gold and held her head high.

She could feel hundreds of stinging gazes sweeping over her from head to toe.

Thalia quietly savored their shock, anger, bewilderment, and reluctant admiration as she took light, graceful steps forward.

Then, as though the tide were receding, people put distance between themselves and her.

It is as though I have become a plague.

Thalia muttered inwardly with a malicious smile.

Just then, someone blocked her path.

“What brings you here?”

She looked straight up at the man’s face.

He was one of those foolish men who worshipped her noble half-sister, Ayla.

Thalia deliberately put on a strange, sensual smile.

She had seen her mother enchant men that way more than thousands of times.

“Have I come somewhere I am not allowed to?”

The man’s face, which had been stiff with wariness, flushed bright red.

He took a step back with a flustered expression.

Thalia stepped closer than the distance he had retreated and raised her chin high.

“This is my father’s palace, and tonight’s banquet is for my siblings. What exactly is wrong with me being here?”

When she stared straight into his eyes, the man could not move, as though he had frozen solid.

She could see his large nostrils flaring.

It seemed he was smelling the rose oil that the nanny had carefully worked into each strand of her hair.

At the sight of his gaze clouding as though he had become drunk on strong liquor, a strange satisfaction and a deep disgust surged through her at the same time.

Thalia walked past the man, who could not continue speaking and only trembled his lips like a fool, and headed toward the center of the hall.