Chapter 1

The Salvation of Plunder

[“Emperor Raud of the Lasol Empire Takes the ‘Attic Princess’ as His Secondary Consort!”]

The article published on the front page caused the imperial newspaper to sell like hotcakes.

The Lasol Empire was thrown into an uproar.

The furious reaction of the imperial citizens was only natural.

Raud, the strongest man on the continent and Emperor of the Lasol Empire, had taken the princess of the defeated kingdom he himself had brought to ruin as his secondary consort.

“Oh my, is that her?”

“Look at those burn marks on her face. How disgusting.”

Yet the person who was just as shaken on the inside was the princess herself.

Having been imprisoned until now, Theodor slowly walked among the people who kept sneaking glances at her, her unkempt black hair hanging loosely down her back.

Since she was still a princess of a defeated nation, heavy chains were fastened around her ankles.

Even as she limped from the weight of the chains, her blue eyes darted around through the strands of her hair.

The Imperial Palace of the Lasol Empire was enormous and magnificent beyond comparison with the Selene Kingdom where she had lived.

And that made her even more puzzled.

‘Why… did he make me his secondary consort?’

The emperor already had an empress with an excellent family backing her, as well as numerous beautiful women in his harem.

He was a powerful man whose name had spread throughout the entire continent. He had no need to keep someone like her as a secondary consort.

Is she merely a trophy?

Yet she was an unattractive princess who was hardly worth considering a trophy in the first place.

‘I’m nothing more than the attic princess.’

Nervously fidgeting with her fingers, Theodor followed behind a red-haired maid whose hair was tied up high.

Her mother had been a servant.

Not a noble-born lady-in-waiting, but simply a common maid who did menial work in the royal palace.

By sheer luck, that maid had caught the king’s eye and conceived a child.

That child was Theodor.

In a harem where one’s birth and the king’s affection were the sources of power, the only way for the two of them to survive was to hide away as though they were already dead.

Thus, even after her mother died when Theodor was seven, she spent thirteen years living in an attic at the very top of a high tower, in the most remote corner of the royal palace.

Other than the maid who came at regular times every day to bring her meals, no one ever came to see her.

She was accustomed to shedding tears from loneliness. Even when her mother had still been alive, she had never been particularly affectionate toward her.

During those years, Theodor nearly died several times.

A fire once broke out in the tower, leaving her burned. Another time, she became trapped inside the tower when it flooded during a torrential downpour. She had also been poisoned and suffered various accidents.

Yet every time, she somehow survived by sheer luck.

When the Lasol Empire started the war this time, she had been certain she would finally die.

But once again, Theodor did not die.

Hadn’t she survived even the catastrophe in which every member of the royal family was killed?

She was simply grateful that she was still breathing.

‘I don’t have any abilities. Will I really be all right from now on? No… more precisely…’

Theodor gently touched the necklace around her neck.

A necklace set with a blue gemstone.

It was the only keepsake her mother had left her, and something she was absolutely forbidden from removing.

‘Because I have to keep it sealed.’

The ancestors of the Selene Kingdom’s royal family were said to have come from the moon, which was why silver hair was revered among the Selene royals.

Theodor was the only surviving member of the modern Selene royal family born with naturally silver hair.

But great power always came with responsibility.

Perhaps because her mother lacked confidence that she could protect her, she had always dyed the child’s hair pitch-black.

Her innate magical power had also been sealed so that no one would discover it until she reached adulthood.

Her mother’s choice had made Theodor even more timid.

She had become so cowardly that she did not even dare imagine how great the potential within her might be.

“We’re here, Your Highness.”

After walking for quite some time, the maid stopped in front of a large room.

She opened both doors wide so that Theodor could enter comfortably.

“…Wow.”

An exclamation escaped her lips before she could stop herself.

The room was five times larger than the one she had occupied at the top of the tower.

And that wasn’t all.

From the magnificent chandelier adorned with jewels and the curtains to the teacups and dishes displayed in the cabinets, everything was clearly made of the finest quality, even to an inexperienced eye like hers.

‘I knew the Lasol Empire was wealthy, but…’

Her wide eyes wandered around the room.

After admiring it for quite some time, she bowed her head to the maid.

“Thank you…”

“You must speak informally to the maids, Your Highness. Otherwise, His Majesty will scold us.”

“Sc-scold you…?”

What the maid meant was that the emperor would scold her if Theodor treated the servants too politely.

But because Theodor had always been the one getting scolded, she shrank back like a frightened rabbit.

“How dare someone like you speak informally to anyone!”

Was it the sixth prince or the seventh prince?

No, perhaps both of them.

Once, she had asked a maid to bring her more food, and they had severely reprimanded her for it.

Yet here, she would apparently be scolded for not speaking informally.

Theodor didn’t want to come all the way to the Lasol Empire only to get scolded by someone.

She took a small breath and awkwardly spoke.

“All right, Ah—no, I mean, all right.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

The maid simply smiled gently at the flustered Theodor.

Then she suddenly noticed the chains around Theodor’s ankles.

“His Majesty said that he would personally remove the chains from your feet. We don’t have the authority to do so. I’m sorry.”

“No, I—no, it’s all right.”

“It must be uncomfortable, but please wait just a little longer. I’ll bring you some clothes to change into and something light to eat.”

“Yes. Ah, no… I mean, okay…”

As she answered, Theodor awkwardly lowered herself onto the sofa.

“Excuse me…”

She gathered her courage and called out to the maid, who was about to leave the room.

“Could you… tell me your name?”

“My name is Gentle, Your Highness.”

“Yes… Gentle. Thank you.”

She thanked her once again and slightly bowed her head.

At the same time, she quickly pulled her hair forward with a slight movement of her head, intending to hide the burn scars on her face.

Gentle tilted her head slightly in puzzlement before leaving the room.

Soon, she returned with several dresses, accessories, and some simple refreshments.

After Theodor finished her short meal, Gentle even overruled her insistence that she would bathe by herself and finished helping her with everything.

Then she handed Theodor a small jar.

“Please apply this.”

“…What is it?”

“It is from His Majesty the Emperor. It is an ointment personally made by the Pope.”

“The P-Pope?”

The Pope was the highest authority of the most revered religion on the continent.

Even the slightest touch from him could cause something to be praised as a holy relic, so there was no need to explain how precious something personally made by the Pope would be.

“Yes. It’s an extremely difficult ointment to obtain… When I told him about your burns, he gave it to me as though he had prepared it in advance. Your scars will probably disappear after applying it for just a few days.”

“Th-thank you… so much…”

Theodor’s cheeks flushed as she gently touched the jar containing the ointment.

Emperor Raud of the Lasol Empire.

She didn’t even know what he looked like, and every rumor she had heard about him had been unpleasant.

They said he was a tyrant, that he was obsessed with war, that he loved women so much that he had built a harem and lived among them, and so on.

But regardless of those frightening rumors, he had given a mere war trophy like her a beautiful room and even precious medicine.

For someone who had grown up without receiving much human warmth, it was only natural that she would develop favorable feelings toward him.

“Please apply it right away. If possible, it would be better to put it on before spending the night…”

“…Spending the night?”

“Yes. Since you’re his secondary consort, won’t you be spending the night together?”

At Gentle’s words, Theodor’s face became so red that it felt as though it might burst.

She had considered herself a war trophy so naturally that she had never imagined he would actually come to spend the night with her.

“But someone like me…”

“Someone like you? It’s only because you’re so thin and you’ve been scarred by the burns. Once the burns heal and you put on a little weight, your beauty will reveal itself immediately.”

With a gentle smile, she personally applied the ointment to Theodor’s face.

Amazingly, wherever the ointment passed, the horribly raised scars gradually began to fade.

“Look at this. It works well, doesn’t it?”

“…Thank you for saying such kind things to me, Gentle.”

“It’s nothing.”

While the nobles of the Lasol Empire were making a fuss mocking the princess of the defeated nation who had become a secondary consort, Gentle found herself strangely concerned about this princess.

“Then I’ll be leaving. His Majesty the Emperor will be coming soon.”

After finishing applying the ointment, she put the jar away and stood up.

Theodor hurriedly grabbed the hem of Gentle’s clothes as she turned around.

“W-will I be all right meeting him alone?”

“I can’t stay with you… can I, Your Highness?”

“…Yes.”

“Are you frightened?”

“…Yes. I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t apologize. It’s only natural to be frightened on your first night.”

She had heard that the princess had lost her mother at a young age, but she had never imagined that the princess would be this innocent and ignorant of such things.

Then again, just by looking at Theodor’s emaciated body and scarred face—hardly what anyone would expect from a princess—it was obvious how she had been treated in her kingdom.

Gentle sat down once again in the place where she had been sitting moments earlier.

She couldn’t give the princess a full education on such matters, but she could at least give her some warning about the emperor.

“His Majesty may seem cold, but he is very capable at his work, and he genuinely cares about his people.”

That was why the war with the Selene Kingdom had been so unexpected.

He had never before completely annihilated an entire royal family.

“If you’re frightened, tell him that you’re frightened. He will probably… take that into consideration. And… perhaps there won’t be anything for you to be afraid of. He may not come because he is too busy with work.”

“Oh, he might not come…”

“Yes. Anyway, I’m telling you not to worry in advance.”

“…Okay. I feel much better now. Thank you.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I’ll come back tomorrow morning.”

Only then did Gentle finally leave the room.

Theodor waited anxiously for time to pass.

Just as Gentle had said, she desperately hoped that perhaps the emperor would be too busy with work and forget about her.

But as soon as she had that thought—

“His Majesty the Emperor is entering!”

The door opened at the sound of the aide’s voice.

The moment the doors opened, the first thing she encountered was a brilliant, piercing red that seemed capable of swallowing her whole.

“Gasp…!”

Feeling a strange destiny in those suffocatingly crimson eyes, she became helplessly entangled within their red light.