Chapter 1

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 1

Chapter Title: The Empire's Last Day

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The burning Imperial Capital.

The clashing of weapons and piercing screams echoed from all directions.

A new moon night stained with chaos and terror.

Leona, a maid of the Imperial Palace, staggered forward with a dazed expression.

Corpses littered the path she took, and priceless treasures lay shattered and scattered about.

The once splendid and magnificent Imperial Palace was nowhere to be seen.

Wails of grief scattered into the empty air, while the beautiful gardens spewed black smoke and burned fiercely.

In a desperate bid for survival, maids, servants, and even knights had discarded their weapons and fled toward the city gates—but most fell to the enemy blades before they could reach them.

Leona headed toward the heart of the palace, going against the tide of fleeing people.

The angel of death pursued her from behind, yet she walked on silently at a steady pace.

With the entire Imperial Palace turned into a hellscape, no one stood in her way.

She entered the Crown Prince Palace without hesitation.

The masterless Crown Prince Palace was eerily silent and desolate, without so much as a single flickering light, like an abandoned ruin.

Leona took a long, deep breath. Being here made the slaughter raging outside feel distant and unreal.

Leona headed straight for the rear garden of the palace.

In the center of the garden, filled only with tall, ungainly trees, stood a massive ancient tree.

The moment she stood before the ancient tree, Leona collapsed to the ground.

She stroked the cold earth beneath it for a moment, then cast aside the mask-like expressionlessness she had maintained until now and burst into sobs.

“Hic...!”

She clutched handfuls of dirt in her fists and wept bitterly.

It felt like all of this had happened because of her—a crushing sense of guilt weighed her down.

“Hic... Your Highness Imperial Grandson...”

The young Imperial Grandson buried beneath this ground came to mind.

“Euhk...... Hic.......”

What had been the point of living?

Leona pounded her chest as she asked herself.

Looking back on her life, it was stained with sin from start to finish.

The power she had so desperately craved now seemed nothing more than a lump of filthy muck, and the position she had gained by harming and trampling others was a swamp filled with rotten water.

She had wallowed in the filth without realizing it, simply rejoicing that she possessed strength and had risen high.

Leona bit her lip and swallowed a scream.

The more she recalled her past, the more pain surged within her.

In her pursuit of more than others, of climbing higher, she had committed countless wrongs.

She regretted it all, but the most egregious sin was what she had done to the Imperial Grandson.

From the moment that innocent young life, guilty of nothing, was extinguished, a massive boulder had settled on Leona's heart.

From then on, she had begun to wonder if she was on the wrong path.

And she realized.

How filthy and twisted she truly was.

Once she became aware of it, it felt like a foul stench emanated from her entire body—she could no longer bear it.

But it was too late to turn back; she was already mired too deeply in the swamp.

Flames had by now spread to the rear garden of the Crown Prince Palace.

Crimson fire began devouring everything around her, but Leona did not move from her spot.

There was nowhere left for her to go, nor did she want to.

She wished to meet the end of her life before the Imperial Grandson's grave.

“Look, there's a little rat hiding here!”

Suddenly, a sharp blade pierced through her back and out her stomach.

Leona accepted death sweetly, without so much as a groan.

Imperial Year 534, December 29th.

The mighty hegemon of the continent, the Hamel Empire, falls to the invasion of the allied forces.

Shortly after the fall of the Hamel Empire, a dark shadow begins to loom over the fate of humanity.