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II.

“Oh my, Lenasia. What on earth is this wretched state you’re in?”

It was the voice of the Fourth Queen. Lenasia floundered for a moment, then forced her back straight and drew her chin in.

Early in her time posing as the princess, Lena, who came from a servant background, would instinctively shrink her shoulders and bow her head whenever the Fourth Queen scolded her.

But each time, the queen’s face would only grow sterner and her reprimands colder.

<Do not even dream of showing such a craven attitude. Until Regnos takes his rightful place, you are the princess of this nation.>

After that, even when she made mistakes, she would await her reprimand with her posture held straight. Yet for some reason this time, even with her posture perfectly befitting royalty, the Fourth Queen did not ease her rigid expression.

“Bearing the title of Princess of Aitalos, and yet showing yourself in such a vulgar state. And in a place where not only your own people but the enemy nation’s people had gathered, no less. Heavens, you are beyond shameful.”

“Your Majesty…”

“Your Majesty?”

The queen’s always composed smile twisted strangely.

“Are you not the daughter of a lowly servant? Your very actions prove your bloodline. I regret the day I brought you into Regnos’s chambers.”

“Y-Your Highness!”

Rip. A thin, fluttering outer dress was torn away by the queen’s hand. For some reason, what was revealed beneath the torn dress was a chemise worse than the rags she had worn when thrown into the prisoner procession.

“Look. How lewd and filthy you are.”

Before she knew it, her hair was hopelessly tangled, and mud clung to her hands and feet.

Faced with an appearance that anyone could see did not belong in the royal palace, Lena scrambled to leave. But each time she sprinted the short distance, she kept colliding with people she wanted to avoid.

“My, what a sight. Worse than a cheap w***e.”

A tall, gaunt young man with silver hair smirked as he looked at Lena.

“If you were going to reveal your true colors in such a state, you might as well have thrown yourself into your older brother’s arms long ago.”

He was the Second Prince, the one who had waged the most brutal war of attrition in the Aitalosian succession struggle. The prince’s eyes, carrying the same insidious gaze he had occasionally shown, crept up Lena’s exposed legs.

“No!”

Lena gathered up her slipping clothes and fled, only to run straight into the king this time.

“Who is this?”

An old man with a white beard grown down to his chest, his crowned brow resting on his hand.

His forehead was furrowed from the headaches he had suffered half his life, and his wrinkled face was full of an irritable temperament.

The pale blue eyes he had passed on to this generation of Aitalosian royals emitted a light as cold as ice.

“The sixth princess, I see. Compared to your older sisters, your talents are meager and your demeanor stiff, but I overlooked it, finding that tolerable face of yours rather pleasing.”

“…”

“And so you used that face to make seductive eyes at the enemy nation’s scoundrel?”

“N-No, I did not. Your Majesty… I did not.”

Lena collapsed onto the ground and begged desperately. Facing the king was always terrifying. The fact that she was deceiving him by posing as his false daughter pressed down on her as a crushing weight.

Surely the king would not have seen through the deception she had kept hidden her entire life.

That hope shattered into pieces the next moment under the old man’s furious roar, which struck down like lightning.

“You wench, a fake daughter, using that body of yours to bring disgrace upon Aitalos? I will kill a wretch like you with my own hands this instant.”

The king drew the longsword he always carried. At the terrifying sound of it sliding free, Lena screamed and fled.

Catch that wench! I will kill her. The king’s shouts gradually warped into a grotesque metallic sound, which soon became the clashing armor of the soldiers coming to seize her.

Running until her breath rose to the very top of her throat, Lena heard Regnos’s voice at some point.

“Lena.”

She froze, forgetting even to flee. The prince’s voice was thick with deep disappointment. When she turned around, meaning to offer some excuse, her heart plummeted straight down.

The Fourth Queen, the Second Prince, the king. And countless other royals lay collapsed on the marble floor. Their severed heads rolled about, spewing blood. At the sight drenched in fresh gore, Lena screamed helplessly.

“Aaack!”

She opened her eyes to find herself inside the jolting carriage. Neither the ghosts of the royals nor their vicious words could be seen or heard any longer.