Apollonia’s father, Gaius, had always hated her. He may have tried to hide it, but he was definitely cold-hearted towards her. No, perhaps it was even on the level of despise.

Apollonia noticed this for the first time when she was three years old after seeing him give her a creepy mocking smile instead of helping her up when she fell over and reached her hand out to him. She only had a vague feeling at that age of course, but as she got older, her suspicion turned into conviction.

He delighted in her failures, no matter how trivial, and denied her achievements. He may have slyly hid the fact he did so in front of others, but Apollonia could feel his twisted hatred towards her from the way he looked at her, handled her, and treated her.

Yet, she did not know the reason behind his hatred.

It was her maternal grandfather, Pascal III, who raised her for the most part, with her mother, Princess Elenia, looking after her every so often. She didn’t even see her father Gaius or her brother Perris that often.

One time, she asked her grandfather, Emperor Pascal, why her father hated her so much.

“Does Father only love Perris?”

She thought without a doubt he was going to tell her that wasn’t true, but he gave her an unexpected answer.

“It seems so since Perris is his heir, but you don’t have to worry about such things.”

“What about me then?”

“You’re not even comparable to Perris! You’re my heir after all.”

He wore a kind smile on his face as he replied. It seemed as if he only loved Apollonia and didn’t care much for Perris, as opposed to her father who only loved Perris and hated her.

Indeed. While he never officially announced it, Apollonia was the emperor’s heir, whom he taught directly. By seniority, her mother Elenia should be the first in line to the throne, but she had refused the status of the heiress early on because of her hatred of politics. ‘EleniaDespite that, something was strange about the emperor’s explanation.

“Why isn’t Perris your heir, Grandfather?”

“I’ll explain once you get older.”

He didn’t say a thing as he patted her, and that was the end of it.

Apollonia devoted herself to her studies, including the disciplines of kingship, after that. She was quite smart. She already knew how to speak the four languages that were used in the continent by the time she was nine and was well-versed in history, politics, and the economy. The throne was clearly hers and she never doubted that for a second.

That was, until her father deprived her of everything front of her eyes.

* * *

It was the day she went to take her grandfather’s test. Pascal III tested his granddaughter with every chance he got. It would’ve been easy if he simply gave her a book and made her solve problems from it like other teachers, but unfortunately, his tests weren’t that simple. It was common for him to make her memorize an entire shelf full of books in one month and make her solve random questions from them. It also wasn’t surprising for him to make her write an essay criticizing the achievements of all the previous emperors in another language that she had only been learning for half a year.

He would even throw her into a complicated maze and see if she could find her way out from time to time. Every time, Apollonia would starve for days before barely making her way out, but he didn’t seem to regret it. He was of the mind that he had to be harsh on her because she would be facing much more danger if she were to become the empress.

She was six when he made her memorize all the noble families in the empire including their symbols, traits, history, names of their heads including the former ones, and even their portraits.

On this particular day, she was taking yet another troublesome test.

“Find seven or more of Pascal I’s flaws and report them to me along with an example for each one.”

It would’ve been easy if Pascal I was an infamous tyrant, but unfortunately, he was one of the wisest in the empire that defeated the great pirate, Leila Luperion, bringing fertility and peace to the land. There was a reason why his name was used again for three of the later generation monarchs.

Even in the library in the emperor’s palace, there were only records that praised and worshipped him’.

So, Apollonia headed to the palace that her mother lived in. The library there was smaller than the one in the emperor’s palace, but it sometimes had rare books that weren’t found in the emperor’s palace’.

She wanted to hide in her mother’s room and surprise her while she was at it. She was mature for her age, but she was still a young girl, so she played those kinds of tricks sometimes.

She had no idea that she would witness her mother’s final moments there.

* * *

Crash!

Shards of a teacup scattered across the floor. Princess Elenia was breathing heavily, falling on the stone floor.

She couldn’t believe the blood seeping out of her mouth, and the pain that squeezed her heart.

Above all, however, she couldn’t bring herself to believe that the man leisurely smiling at her from the sofa as she was suffering was real.’

That man didn’t seem surprised even when he saw Elenia collapse after drinking the tea he gave her.

“Gaius, why…?”

“Poor Elenia.”

Gaius stood up and walked over to her, his arrogant gaze and slow footsteps reflecting Elenia’s standing within his heart. He didn’t hide the fact that he found it bothersome to take a few steps to walk over to his dying wife.

HerElenia’ husband, to whom she had devoted her life, let out a deep sigh as if he had made an important decision and got down on one knee. He began to stroke her hair as she groaned. She couldn’t tell’ whether that was his last mercy for her, or if he was ridiculing her.

She pleaded with him as she cried.

“I gave you everything… you said you loved me! I raised Perris as I would my real son, like a prince! But why…?”

“That’s right, you did. You were such a good mother. Thanks to you raising Perris like your real son…” Gaius smirked. “He’s going to become an emperor instead of a prince. He’s my son, after all, mine and Satin’s.”

Elenia was shocked as she heard him say his former lover’s name that he had not mentioned even once in the past decade..

“Satin Arietta…?”

Satin Arietta was Perris’s real mother that nobody knew. When Elenia met Gaius for the first time, he was a single father who was raising a son in secret, and he told her that the boy’s mother had died of an illness.

Being in love with Gaius so much, Elenia accepted Perris as her own daughter and raised him as a prince. When Elenia and Gaius had a baby together, she believed that Perris would grow up splendidly and support his sister, who would later become empress.

“I believed you loved me…”

“Love, huh…?”

Gaius laughed suddenly.

“‘What an idiot. Why would I ever love you when you’re nothing but a stupid kid whose only redeeming qualities are her family and her looks?”

“How could you… how could you of all people say that to…’’”

“I can’t believe you fell that deeply in love just because I played along for a bit… looks like the imperial family isn’t that great after all, seeing as they would let in a boy who isn’t even related to them because they were blinded by love.”

He was cold to his dying wife.

“If you’re looking for someone to blame, blame your father. Satin died because of him. Her whole family was wiped out because they were said to be partaking in treason.”

He looked at Elenia with bloodshot eyes, getting angrier the more he spoke.

“So, now your father will have his empire taken away by my son. Isn’t that fair?”

Elenia felt like her whole world was being turned upside down as tears fell from her eyes.

“Elenia.”

Suddenly, Gaius spoke gently and reached out to touch her cheek, causing her to feel false hope as she looked into his kind, golden eyes.

“Please, Gaius… tell me this isn’t true! Tell me you’re joking, please!”

Smack!

He shoved her face with the same hand that was touching it gently and Elenia’s head hit the cold marble floor. With that, even more blood streamed from her mouth.

“Hahaha! What did you even expect? Looks like you’ll remain a fool until the very end.”

As she struggled, he grabbed her chin and made her look sideways so that he could whisper in her ear.

“I. Never. Loved. You. One. Bit.”

Elenia’s lips trembled as she threw up blood once more. Gaius still didn’t care for her, getting up as he brushed his knees off and shrugged like he had done everything he needed to do.

“You don’t know how thankful I am that you raised my son for me, but in doing so, you only washed away one of your father’s countless sins. That doesn’t mean you and your father deserve to live.”

“…Nia.”

“Huh?”

“Apol-Apollonia, my daughter…”

Elenia repeated the same name over and over as she stared blankly. Gaius laughed when he finally understood what she was trying to say.

“Nia’s my daughter as well, so I’ll try my best not to kill her. It’ll be useful to marry her off when she gets older so she can contribute to our—my and Perris’—empire.”

The princess started to convulse after she heard his words and seemed like she wanted to say something as she muttered, looking at the corner of the room with crazed eyes. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t speak properly. Gaius only rose an eyebrow in boredom as he watched her final moments. Eventually, her body stilled as she took her last breath.

“It’s finally over.”

Gaius checked her pulse to see whether she was still alive and swiftly left without any regret once he was sure that she was dead.