Chapter 1

I Should Become a Troublemaker

Inside a terrace overlooking a garden blanketed in snow, a woman with glossy black hair and mesmerizing violet eyes sat at a small table.

Having just finished a satisfying meal, she was making the most of winter, wrapped in warm fur and seated before a portable heater as she took a sip of black tea blended to suit her taste perfectly.

Standing on the boundary between girlhood and womanhood, she was a person whose elegance overflowed even when she was simply sitting still.

The maids standing behind her to attend to her quietly marveled at her grace as they watched every one of her elegant movements—the way she lifted her teacup and smelled its fragrance, slightly parted her lips, held the black tea in her mouth, and swallowed it.

However, that tranquility did not last long.

A sudden noise had interrupted her rest.

At the sound of something being broken and smashed, Regina slightly furrowed her brow.

“What a commotion.”

“I’ll find out what happened.”

The maid attending to her left to investigate the cause of the disturbance, and it did not take long for her to return.

Princess Regina, who had been enjoying the fragrance of her tea while gazing at the snow piled up in the garden, set down the teacup she was holding as she looked at the maid, who wore a troubled expression.

“Um, well…”

“Did Theor cause trouble again?”

“…I’m sorry.”

At the maid’s apologetic bow, Regina let out a small sigh and rose from her seat.

It seemed only natural to her that, since her younger brother had caused trouble, cleaning up after him was her responsibility.

“Bring it.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Leaving the terrace, Regina handed the fur she had been wearing to another maid before taking what the woman called Una respectfully offered her with both hands.

The handle fit snugly in her hand, and whenever she held it, it brought her a sense of calm.

“I suppose I should go see my brother.”

“…I’ll accompany you.”

Selma, the head maid, who had been quietly standing by and watching everything until now, answered while casting a sidelong glance at the object in Regina’s hand.

It was slightly longer than the forearm of a fully grown adult woman.

Made from the exceedingly precious Dacon wood used exclusively to make furniture for the Imperial Palace, it was an item Regina had personally commissioned from a craftsman of the Imperial Palace, with her name, ‘Regina B. Alphear,’ engraved in gold upon it.

“Theor is working so hard, so I should move a little more diligently myself. Right?”

The object in her hand was a crudely shaped club, an item that was utterly incompatible with the beautiful princess.

A red hand strap made from Oltan leather, which was used exclusively to make reins for the Imperial Palace’s stallions, hung around her wrist as Regina gripped the handle and smiled brightly.

Looking at that smile, Selma thought:

It was truly beautiful, yet truly terrifying.

Princess Regina had regressed.

As could be seen from the Elias Empire’s proverb that God does not grant peaceful people a second chance, Regina’s life before her regression had been far from peaceful.

Regina had been born as the first child of the Empire and enjoyed a peaceful life, but her life began to twist from the moment her mother died.

The Empress had never been a woman blessed with a healthy body to begin with.

After the Empress conceived her second child, her physical strength deteriorated even more rapidly, and after giving birth, the bleeding would not stop.

Under Imperial Law, the Emperor was forbidden from entering a delivery room where the blood had not yet been cleaned away.

Because of that, the only person who stayed by her dying mother’s side was Regina.

After the Empress died, leaving behind a final wish that Regina take good care of her newborn younger brother, the Emperor came to see his dead wife only after all the blood in the delivery room had been cleaned away.

Overcome by guilt that he had been unable to remain by his beloved wife’s side during her final moments, the Emperor did something he absolutely should never have done, something that could never be understood.

[Why was someone like you the one who stayed by Silvia’s side?!]

If one were to make an excuse for the Emperor, though Regina had no particular desire to do so, then perhaps if he had blamed himself instead of someone else, the Emperor might have hanged himself and left his young children behind.

So the Emperor chose a very easy and cowardly method.

He decided to blame his daughter.

It was a petty thing to do, but because it was a desperate struggle to protect himself, the Emperor decided to be lenient with himself.

At least it was fortunate that he did not resent the newborn infant.

The problem was Regina.

Before the five-year-old child had even recovered from the shock of witnessing her mother’s death, she was fully exposed to the anger her father poured out.

There was no one to step between Regina and the Emperor, who was out of his mind with grief and rage, and save her.

The more the Emperor’s anger toward Regina grew, the greater his love for her younger brother, Theor, became.

Perhaps it was because of the guilt he felt over having turned away from Regina, or perhaps the fact that Theor was the child his deceased wife had left behind as her final gift to the world had stirred an even greater affection in him.

Whatever the reason, under the Emperor’s love, Theor was able to grow into an excellent troublemaker.

The fact that young Regina could grow into a beautiful and elegant princess despite such an unfair environment was nothing short of a miracle that could only have been possible through God’s protection.

At least, that was what the attendants and nobles who watched her grow all thought, and they would often pity her.

Meanwhile, time passed for Regina, and around the time she turned twelve, the Emperor summoned her to his study.

The Emperor, who kept his distance from his daughter and would not even accept her morning greetings, had summoned her first for the first time.

So Regina went to the Emperor’s study half happy and half afraid.

And there, a second misfortune came to greet Regina.

[You will become engaged.]

[What?]

[Your partner is the next heir of the Duke of Selveig’s House.]

[F-Father…]

[The people here are the Emperor and the Princess, not father and daughter.

If you understand, leave.]

It was a notification, not a request.

Regina had no choice but to bow to the Emperor, who did not even look at her, and leave.

The Duke of Selveig’s House was not an inferior marriage prospect.

After all, it was one of the two ducal houses in the Empire.

However, unlike the Duke of Vestain’s House, which was aligned with the pro-Imperial faction, the Duke of Selveig’s House had traditionally been the leader of the pro-noble faction and was a noble house that sharply opposed the Emperor.

It was obvious what hardships Regina, a member of the Imperial family, would suffer after marrying into that house, but the Emperor coldly ordered her to become engaged, and Regina had no choice but to accept.

[I am Herman Selveig, Your Highness.]

[It’s a pleasure to meet you.]

The fiancé she met at the engagement ceremony was a handsome young man one year her senior, with dark navy-blue hair resembling the night and clear sky-blue eyes.

The dreamlike situation of falling in love at first sight with her fiancé did not happen.

They were merely bound together for political reasons.

There was no need for something like love in their relationship.

Perhaps that was why she did not press him about marriage even after a considerable amount of time had passed since she came of age…

When she heard rumors that he had another woman, she was slightly displeased, but her younger brother’s condition as a troublemaker was too serious for her to worry about him.

Then came the third misfortune.

Theor was involved in an accident while returning to the capital after graduating from the Academy.

His carriage overturned and plunged into a lake in that state.

When Regina first heard the news, she felt as though her heart had dropped with a heavy thud.

He was a troublemaker, but he was her beloved younger brother.

Even if it had not been her mother’s dying wish, she loved her brother.

So when she heard that Theor had been rescued safely, she was able to offer a prayer of gratitude to God.

The problem came after the carriage accident.

The younger brother who had been a troublemaker known to everyone in the Empire before the accident had suddenly turned over a new leaf.

[I’m sorry, Sister. I’ve hurt you so much all this time.]

That day, Regina once again offered a prayer of gratitude to God.

She was so moved that she even shed tears of emotion, believing that all her efforts had finally borne fruit.

If you only heard this much, you might wonder why this was a misfortune.

Surprisingly, Theor’s reformation was the greatest misfortune of all.

The troublemaker who had previously gone wild without knowing moderation had once again changed without knowing moderation, becoming the greatest pushover in the Empire.

[I’m sorry, Sister. There was someone pitiful, so I couldn’t help it.]

If he had helped someone who was genuinely pitiful, it would not have been so infuriating.

Instead, he showered the Imperial family’s wealth upon people who were obviously scammers.

And he did not merely give it away.

He threw it around recklessly.

The Emperor tried to coax him, and Regina scolded him, but Theor’s spending only grew larger, reaching its peak in the year he turned seventeen.

The budget needed for the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet had been dangerously close to running out.

To put Regina’s feelings at the time into a few words, they were enough to make her long for her younger brother’s days as a troublemaker.

If only her misfortunes had ended there.

On the night Theor turned seventeen, the Emperor died.

It was a sudden death.

And Regina did not even have time to grieve her father’s death before she donned the regent’s crown in place of her younger brother, who had not yet come of age.

While struggling to survive on barely any sleep, buried under documents that arrived every day, she also had to clean up after her younger brother’s increasingly severe acts of foolish generosity…

Regina gritted her teeth and endured until Theor’s coming-of-age ceremony.

And what had her fiancé been doing during all this?

Wasn’t he Regina’s fiancé, and therefore supposed to be doing everything for her?

Yes, he had been doing something.

He had prepared something so grand that it was enough to make Regina lose consciousness for a brief moment.

[From this very moment onward, the Elias Empire no longer exists.]

On the day Theor turned eighteen and held his coming-of-age ceremony, Princess Regina’s fiancé and the Young Duke of Selveig, Herman Selveig, launched a rebellion.

[No! Theor!]

And he chose Regina’s younger brother as his first victim, cutting off his head.

Would Regina have been less unfortunate if it had been her head that was cut off instead?

Regina’s misfortunes were not over yet.