CHAPTER -01
“Her Imperial Highness the Princess has passed away.”
My daughter was dead.
My only daughter—the princess of this empire—had drowned.
Su-ryeon forced her unsteady legs forward, pushing through the palace attendants who were sobbing uncontrollably. As she passed, they wiped away their tears and parted before her like the Red Sea.
Then she saw her.
Her little girl lay motionless.
Ordinarily, the child would have come running the moment she saw her mother, throwing herself into her arms with a bright smile.
The sight of her lying so still felt terrifyingly unfamiliar.
“Y-Your Majesty…”
One of the court ladies called to her through trembling sobs, but nothing could stop Su-ryeon’s footsteps.
She reached the bedside and slowly lowered her gaze.
Her daughter’s face was so pale it had already begun to turn bluish.
Su-ryeon’s hand trembled.
“Se-hee…”
With shaking fingers, she gently touched her daughter’s cheek.
The skin that had always been so soft and warm was now as cold as ice.
No…
She shouldn’t be this cold.
She needs to be warm…
Frantically, Su-ryeon pulled the blanket higher around the child’s body.
Nothing changed.
“…Se-hee?”
No matter how many times she called her name, there was no answer.
At last, Su-ryeon’s knees gave way beneath her.
“Your Majesty!”
A palace maid rushed forward and caught her before she collapsed completely.
Su-ryeon lifted her face toward the heavens and cried out.
Her scream echoed through the palace hall with heartbreaking despair.
“Why… Why!”
Only moments before she had left the palace, her daughter had been alive.
A child who had linked pinkies with her, making her promise to read a story by her bedside when she returned.
So why…
Why was she greeting her now as a cold, lifeless body?
Unable to bear the queen’s anguished cries, Jeong-ah—the princess’s senior nursemaid—collapsed to her knees.
“I-I deserve death, Your Majesty… The Princess suddenly wanted to play hide-and-seek, so… so I became ‘it’ and went to look for her…”
Tears streamed uncontrollably down Jeong-ah’s distorted face.
“But… no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find Her Highness. So everyone joined the search…”
Her voice faltered.
She lowered her head, unable to continue.
Another palace maid beside her finished the sentence instead.
“…When we finally found Her Imperial Highness… she was already floating motionless in the pond at Hyangwon Pavilion.”
“…Ah…”
A broken sigh escaped Su-ryeon’s lips.
Hyangwon Pavilion was a small pavilion built in the middle of a deep lotus pond.
She had warned Se-hee countless times never to go near it because it was dangerous.
But the princess had only been five years old.
How could a five-year-old truly understand such warnings?
It was a tragedy too cruel to comprehend.
“I deserve to die…! Your Majesty!”
Jeong-ah pressed her forehead against the floor, weeping bitterly.
Su-ryeon couldn’t bring herself to blame the nursemaid.
No…
The truth was, she no longer had the strength to blame anyone.
Even if she did…
It wouldn’t bring her daughter back.
The palace attendants continued speaking around her, but none of their words reached her.
Everything felt numb.
As though her entire world had collapsed.
Then—
“Your Majesty.”
Her husband arrived.
Lee Jun.
The husband of Empress Su-ryeon and the reigning Emperor of the Korean Empire, a constitutional monarchy that had endured for 133 years as of the year 2030.
“Where is the Princess?”
He must have rushed over the instant he heard the news.
His usually immaculate clothes were disheveled.
He hurried to his daughter’s side.
Just like Su-ryeon, he gently stroked Se-hee’s face over and over, as if refusing to believe what lay before him.
Then suddenly—
He stood.
Smack!
Without warning, his hand struck Su-ryeon’s cheek.
Forgetting the countless eyes watching them, he shouted in uncontrollable fury.
“What kind of mother were you?!”
“How could you not even realize your own daughter was dying?! What the hell were you doing?!”
Her cheek burned where he’d hit her.
More painful than the slap itself was that, instead of comforting her…
He blamed her.
Yet Su-ryeon couldn’t defend herself.
Because she, too, felt as though her daughter’s death was her fault.
Se-hee had been a miracle.
After years of IVF treatments, they had finally been blessed with a child.
Every child was precious.
But Se-hee had been especially precious.
Though the imperial family had looked down on her simply because she was born a girl rather than a son, both Su-ryeon and Lee Jun had loved her with all their hearts.
They had even worked to amend the imperial succession laws so that a princess could one day inherit the throne.
That was how deeply they cherished her.
Yet now—
Lee Jun’s anger only intensified.
His grief found its target.
His wife.
“I knew this would happen the moment you started that ridiculous women’s organization.”
It had been a women’s rights organization.
Su-ryeon had founded it because she believed that, for Se-hee to someday ascend the throne, women’s rights in the empire first had to improve.
It was one of the many things she had done for her daughter’s future.
But the Dowager Empress had always disapproved.
“Stop wasting your time and quietly fulfill your duties as a wife inside the palace. When women overstep their place, kingdoms fall.”
Faced with her husband’s condemnation, Su-ryeon remained silent.
Perhaps…
He was right.
She had done everything for Se-hee.
Yet in the end…
She had lost her.
If only I hadn’t left the palace today…
If only I’d taken Se-hee with me…
Then…
My daughter would still be alive.
Silent tears streamed down Su-ryeon’s face.
—
* * *
A heavy gloom hung over Taewonjeon Hall, where the funeral was being held.
Before the princess’s coffin sat Su-ryeon, staring blankly into space.
She still couldn’t accept that her daughter was truly gone.
The entire nation mourned the death of its princess.
At the same time, news broadcasts and social media overflowed each day with criticism and sympathy directed toward Su-ryeon.
It was suffocating.
She had long since grown accustomed to the media portraying her unfavorably.
Their criticism no longer mattered.
But every time she heard people say her daughter had died because of her…
It felt as though invisible hands were tightening around her throat.
As though this terrible tragedy truly was her fault.
As though she had killed her own child.
Hot tears rolled down her cheeks.
She couldn’t imagine how she was supposed to live in a world without Se-hee.
Slowly rising from the floor, Su-ryeon reached out and gently caressed the coffin.
“I’m sorry…”
“I’m so sorry, my baby…”
Before sending her daughter on her final journey, she whispered one last farewell to the child sleeping peacefully inside.
“In your next life…”
“I hope you find a mother better than me.”
Not a mother like her…
One too busy to play.
One too busy to stay by her side.
She wished Se-hee could have a mother who would read bedtime stories every night…
Who would hold her hand…
Who would take her to the playground…
A single tear fell from her chin onto the polished wood of the coffin.
Her hollow voice echoed through the vast funeral hall.
Then—
The Dowager Empress, Lady Min, entered.
Looking at her daughter-in-law, who seemed to have lost her soul, she clicked her tongue in disdain.
“This is why a family must be careful about who marries into it.”
“One wrong woman enters the household, and look at the disaster she brings.”
Despite losing her own granddaughter, there wasn’t the slightest trace of grief on the Dowager Empress’s face.
She had never cared for a princess who could not inherit the throne.
In fact, when Se-hee was born, she hadn’t even bothered to visit until Su-ryeon herself carried the newborn to her.
Without a hint of sympathy, the Dowager Empress delivered her decision.
“Once the funeral is over, go somewhere with clean air and recover your health.”
It sounded considerate.
In reality…
It was little more than exile.
Then, with a voice as cold as sharpened steel, she delivered the final blow.
“What man would ever want to look at a wife who let her own child die?”
