The path to the Crown Princess Palace of the Daehan Empire.
The Crown Princess Palace is a separate palace located apart from the Royal Palace.
It was inevitable for them to separate Kim Eun-ha, who was swayed by <Desire to Kill>.
Because of that, to reach the Crown Princess Palace, one had to go through the vast forests within the Royal Palace grounds.
The dense woods and hills formed the silhouette of the Crown Princess Palace.
“Yet, the air is clear.”
“……..”
“Isn’t that right?”
“……Yes, it is.”
“……Hmm.”
After midnight, as dawn approached, the expression on the Crown Princess’s face was not one of fatigue but anxiety.
The closer she got to the Crown Princess Palace, and the more familiar the path became, the more her inner turmoil surged.
“Crown Princess, are you still anxious because of the Desire to Kill?”
“……..”
“If that’s the case, just trust me──”
“……No, it’s not because of that.”
“Pardon?”
“Really… do you not know why I’m anxious?”
“……..”
W-What is it?
If it’s not because of the Desire to Kill, then what could it be?
Is this that thing? The drama-like line of ‘Oppa, do I look any different?’
What on earth should I say for the right answer…?
“You didn’t say the person we were to meet was <The Oppressor>.”
“……Well, I figured you had a rough idea about that.”
“I did. Yes, I did. But just having an idea and actually facing it is a different matter.”
Thud.
The Crown Princess, who had been walking on the forest path, stopped.
She looked up at me with trembling eyes filled with anxiety.
“Do you know what Namgoong Min is doing right now?”
“I’m here to save the Crown Princess.”
“You won’t be able to live in the Daehan Empire.”
“……..”
“Neither the Shadows nor The Oppressor will let you be once they realize they’ve been deceived. You might be safe in the Academy, but what happens after graduation? You won’t be able to set foot in the Daehan Empire for the rest of your life, and even if you go to another country, they will hunt you down.”
“……..”
“No matter how much I and your Older Brother try to protect you, this situation is far too enormous. In essence, it’s like pitting the Shadows against The Oppressor.”
“And that’s all because of me──”
“That also means a weakening of the Emperor’s faction.”
“…Pardon?”
I’m acting for Kim Eun-ha, and I know that once this is over, I won’t be able to return to the Daehan Empire.
But this was more than just valuable.
As a Crown Prince, he should know that better than anyone; he’s quick on the uptake.
“Well, you don’t have to worry too much. You don’t need to get involved with things like this, Crown Princess.”
“……Well, that might be true.”
“You also don’t need to worry about The Oppressor and Shadows targeting me.”
“This is not something you can just brush off so simply!”
“Or, how about resolving your Desire to Kill and then aiming for the throne? I can help you with that.”
What a joke.
Make the Empress once?
*
……Again.
You casually say those things without a care.
“Crown Princess?”
“……..”
You’re just a somewhat decent-looking and somewhat skilled Fortuneteller.
You’re involved with two twisted women and trapped in a muddy affair.
Even if you saved me, there’s an overwhelming gap in status between us.
‘Yet…’
For some reason, you’ve entered deep into my heart…
And you smile shamelessly, shaking someone else’s heart.
Every time I see that face, I feel this heart-shaking emotion.
I can’t quite figure out what it is.
It feels familiar, yet no matter how much I think about it, I can’t come up with it…
So all I can do is look at you.
‘…If only.’
If only I were not a Crown Princess.
If I were an ordinary girl who didn’t care about status or rank.
Then with you──
“Ah, we’ve arrived.”
“…It seems so.”
While I was distractedly looking up at Namgoong Min, we arrived at a small building enveloped in a gloomy atmosphere.
It was too small to be called a palace and too large to be considered an ordinary house.
To prevent anyone from seeing the Crown Princess Palace from the outside, it was built low, even though it was a ‘palace,’ lower than the towering trees.
And accordingly, beneath this palace lies a vast underground.
A place etched with Kim Eun-ha’s memories, and pain.
“……..”
Even during Chuseok, I intentionally ignore this place and refrain from visiting it.
As she got lost in memories, staring tenderly at the palace, Namgoong Min spoke.
“Wasn’t there a garden around here?”
“…Ah. There was one when I was young. But now, since it’s not maintained, it has all withered.”
But how did he know there used to be a garden here?
It must have been over ten years ago.
Before Kim Eun-ha could ponder that question, Namgoong Min stood in front of the door of the Crown Princess Palace.
“Could it be, is it locked?”
“Don’t worry, it’s open.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s a royal decree. I was commanded to unlock the door when I came here.”
“……..”
“Well, I haven’t been back since I left this place…… but still.”
Her words were proven true.
As Kim Eun-ha pushed the dusty main door, it creaked open with a rusty sound.
Creeeak.
On the other side of the opened door, shrouded in darkness, an empty lobby and hallway came into view.
And amid it all, there was a large painting hung on the wall.
“…Is that a portrait?”
“Correct. It’s my mother’s painting.”
“Of Her Highness Empress Lee Ha-neul…”
“It was a birthday gift. Whenever my mother couldn’t come often, I’d play in front of that painting, reminiscing about her.”
“……..”
“How fascinating. I never thought that all those events would be discovered by a Fortuneteller… Ah, I’m not trying to belittle you. I just find it amusing.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you for the comfort.”
Though she said thank you, the Crown Princess’s gaze was fixated solely on the portrait of the Empress.
Kim Eun-ha knew.
Comfort can only be given by those who have suffered the same pain.
How could someone who committed such a heinous act of killing their parents ever receive comfort?
Even if they did, it would only be hypocrisy.
Knowing that Namgoong Min was not someone who would perpetrate hypocrisy in such matters, Kim Eun-ha brushed off the comfort lightly.
If it were anyone else, she would have shot back in contempt, but this felt like a very mild reaction from her perspective.
“…Shall we go? We’ve wasted enough time.”
“Now that we’re inside the Crown Princess Palace, we don’t really need to rush. It won’t matter if The Oppressor and the Shadows collide, even if we act as quickly as possible; it will still be an hour later.”
“……Then, may I take a quick look around the palace?”
“Of course, as you wish.”
We walk.
On the dusty paths where debris lay scattered, the corridors composed of her countless memories.
“Ah, that painting. I remember. I spilled ice cream on it once when I was a kid.”
“Looks like a stain there.”
“I was told it would be a souvenir. My mother was- well, a person.”
While it was undeniably a dark and chilly place, she began to smile at the warm past that was resurfacing.
“That flower vase is still broken.”
“Did you break it, Crown Princess?”
“Of course not, if I had, it would have shattered into pieces. That was my Older Brother’s doing. He was very afraid of me back then. To the point of swinging the vase around.”
“……..”
The structure of the Crown Princess Palace was peculiar. The palace, structured into three above-ground floors, had a strangely low number of rooms, mostly filled with corridors.
Now I understand that this was a considerate feature for the young Crown Princess, who couldn’t play outside.
Countless memories spilled out of Kim Eun-ha.
Warm and beautiful past days.
“Look. This side corridor doesn’t have a chandelier, does it?”
“Seems so.”
“I broke that one. Once, when I went on a rampage, I came running up here, and the chandelier swaying from the ceiling was so beautiful that I dove at it and got knocked out. It was fortunate the servants fainted before I dragged them into my rampage.”
While some might see it as a twisted, disgusting, and abhorrent past,
For her, at least,
It was a memory that brought a smile to the Crown Princess quickly born into abnormality.
And she thought herself lucky.
That the person beside her now was trustworthy.
And that’s why………
“Here we are.”
“…This is the Crown Princess’s room.”
“Ah, how did you know?”
“I saw it in a Lucid Dream.”
“…I see.”
So that’s how he knew there was a garden.
She couldn’t remember it herself.
But in a Lucid Dream, she must have dreamed of the past.
“Do you see the bed here?”
“I can see it well. It’s covered in dust.”
“There’s a door beneath it.”
Creeeak.
She lightly lifted the dust-covered bed with one hand, revealing the iron door hidden underneath.
It was a door so heavy, weighing almost a ton, that no one but her could open it.
Beneath the door was a familiar sight.
The damp air of the underground, the humid moisture, and the chill.
Above all, a place filled with pure, impenetrable darkness.
But Kim Eun-ha hesitated not at all.
For it was a place she had come and gone from countless times as a child.
“Just follow me.”
“Yeah.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Unlike the Crown Princess Palace, which had some moonlight seeping in, there was not a speck of light in the underground.
Still, Kim Eun-ha advanced confidently, as if she could see through the darkness.
There was no other way.
As a child, she used to walk it so many times out of sheer boredom that she memorized the path.
Even in the pitch-black darkness, she could walk where she wished as if she were on a stroll.
Walking down the stone stairs, passing the railing-filled corridor, until she finally reached the end of that corridor.
There lay a small switch.
To be precise, it wasn’t visible, but she knew the switch was located there.
Click.
As she naturally pressed the switch, a moment of vacancy passed before light flooded the corridor.
An old lantern flickered and emitted a faint glow, allowing her to see her surroundings clearly for the first time.
“…It looks just like in my memories.”
The walls of the jail, stained and dried with blood, the red-colored floor, the rusty bars, and the eerie atmosphere.
There wasn’t a positive thing about it, yet Kim Eun-ha smiled wistfully.
And when she turned to look back,
“Crown Princess.”
“Namgoong Min…? What’s that?”
“Now, I’ll begin.”
In Namgoong Min’s hand was… a transparent glass kettle.
However, it was cracked and broken in various places, looking like it would shatter into pieces at any moment if used.
Water sloshed within the kettle and splashed onto the stone floor between her and Namgoong Min.
Special Skill <Water Divination>.
“───Ah.”
The water, rises.
It would only fill a small kettle, yet it flooded the entire underground prison.
Whether it was an actual occurrence or a hallucination visible only to her, she couldn’t say.
Yet one thing was clear.
The wave swallowed every memory, trace, and remnant she had left in that prison.
‘Ah……..’
Swallowed, she sank.
Before long, Kim Eun-ha was not just in the center of the underground prison, but she was sinking into an endless deep ocean.
There was no strength left in her fingertips, nor anywhere else.
Sinking down and down again.
Suddenly, she recognized something.
In the depths of the sea where she was sinking.
Down below.
…Something exists.
The incomplete shards of her being.
Her sealed true nature.
A skill she possessed since birth.
And something inseparable from the life of Kim Eun-ha.
<Desire to Kill>.
From down below, it reached out its arms──
‘Finally.’
‘I am.’
‘Complete.’
──With arms stained in darkness and blood, it crowned her.
“Ah, ah.”
“Crown Princess.”
“Ahhh, ah, ahhh───!!”
Her black eyes bled crimson.
Not in a Lucid Dream, but in this moment, blood surged from the depths below.
As if it were <Water Divination>, the overflowing blood frothed and surged, rising.
Behind a Kim Eun-ha, screaming with her head clutched, a terrifying figure formed.
A being wearing the same crown, with eyes glowing just as red.
Before the being, which represented a desire to kill someone, stood a single Crown Princess soaking in blood.
