Chapter 1
I. To be Humiliated
―Kuh-kuh-kroom, Kroom…!
The sound of the imperial star collapsing meant that the life of Delonas, princess of the Beakin Empire, was plummeting into the abyss.
Delonas von Lindeana Beakin.
The life of the princess, once called the continent’s greatest beauty, was not as dazzling as one might think.
“……Isn’t deliberately tormenting people to flaunt one’s authority something only those without true authority would do?”
She was someone who had lived close to the common people since childhood, unlike the other arrogant members of the Beakin imperial family.
“Execute the arrogant royalty of Beakin!”
“Execute them! Waaah!”
But such things had become meaningless ever since Beakin fell and she was dragged to Archion, a hostile nation.
‘Ah, Your Highness!’
As she was dragged to Archion, trapped in a barred carriage like a caged beast, the common people of Beakin pounded the ground, tore their clothes, and wailed.
And the holy knights of Archion, who had occupied Beakin…
‘Arrest them too!’
‘Kyaaak!’
They ruthlessly seized even those wailing commoners, branding their foreheads with the slave seal or dragging them off somewhere.
‘It’s dangerous, don’t come any closer!’
Her desperate cries from behind the bars were too feeble a voice to reach the citizens of the Beakin Empire—no, those who were citizens.
―Clatter!
How long had it been since she was dragged here, sitting on a rough, wooden-planked floor without even a cushion, let alone a piece of cloth, bumping against the bars?
“Waaah!”
Delonas opened her eyes at the sound of the roar.
The indoor dress she wore was already torn here and there, soiled with dirt and dust.
Under normal circumstances, she would never have stepped outside, let alone be seen by even a palace maid in such a state.
But more terrifying than that were the gazes of the frenzied people.
Her blurred vision scanned the surroundings.
“……Ah.”
So this was Archion.
Archion.
The empire that had long been in a hostile relationship with her now-ruined nation, Beakin, exchanging humiliations and nurturing grudges over a long period.
For a long time, Beakin had held the upper hand against Archion, but that changed in barely over a decade.
Archion, having reorganized internally around its temple, pushed into Beakin with weapons anointed with ‘Ephina’, a holy water of a god that Beakin didn’t even believe in.
‘Wh-what is that?!’
However potent the divine power of that holy water was, weapons coated with it tore through Beakin’s magical defensive barriers like paper.
Even through magically reinforced armor.
Just like that, Beakin crumbled instantly before Archion.
It was the result of arrogance.
‘Kheuk!’
‘Aak!’
The Beakin royalty, who had scorned Archion—which began as a union of desert tribes—as uncivilized barbarians and humiliated them generation after generation, were literally cut down.
But even then, Archion’s anger, forged over centuries of being thoroughly trampled, did not end.
They wanted the Beakin royalty to suffer exactly what Archion’s royalty and citizens had suffered when dragged to Beakin.
This was the result.
[Bring the last remaining bloodline of Beakin and humiliate them!]
If her older brother, the crown prince, had been the one left, he would be here in this place. If the empress or emperor had survived, they too would have suffered this fate.
Unfortunately, what fell into their grasp was Delonas—the most vulnerable, and the one who held the least ill will toward Archion’s citizens.
But how would Archion’s citizens know that?
―Thunk!
She saw a stone hit the iron bars and bounce off.
As a startled Delonas flinched, voices rose from among the people.
“The wicked witch of Beakin!”
“Boo!”
“Die, witch!”
To them, the so-called princess of Beakin was already nothing but an utterly vile embodiment of evil.
“……!”
Delonas felt her mind grow distant from the malice and murderous intent she was experiencing for the first time in her life.
What will become of me here?
From what she had heard on the way, she was being taken to the church.
The Church of Ephina, the God of Dreams, now wielded power surpassing even the imperial family in the current Archion Empire.
The problem was that the Pontiff himself had also lost family to Beakin, and his resentment toward Archion pierced the heavens.
“…….”
What will truly become of me?
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