Chapter 1
[It was all over]
It was always cold and dark inside the tower.
It was impossible to even count the date on the stone floor, where you could not feel a handful of warmth. During the first few days, she would cry and yell that it was unfair.
Judith, who was lying on the hard stone floor like scattered luggage, forcibly lifted her closed eyelids at the sound of someone’s footsteps approaching from afar. After being left unattended in this place for a year, where even drinking water is a luxury, let alone water to wash one’s body, Judith’s appearance was so horrible that you couldn’t even open your eyes to look at her.
“… It’s possible. Just a moment… I have something to say…”
From outside the door with thick bars, she could hear the chattering voices. Then, along with the sound of coins clinking against each other, the sound of the guard’s footsteps faded away.
Judith slowly raised her body. At the same time, a black shadow flickered across the stone floor, but Judith could not see who the owner of the shadow was. Because she had been locked in a dark tower for too long, without being able to see proper light, her eyesight was already deteriorating.
“Who…”
Judith, who was trying to let out a voice that wasn’t coming out, closed her lips and swallowed her breath at the terrible hoarse voice coming out of her throat. After a series of rustling sounds and sighs, a voice could be heard from a lower place, perhaps crouching down to Judith’s eye level.
“Your Highness, it’s me. Samona.”
“Samona…”
“Your Highness, I made some medicine. Please take it.”
Judith crawled on the damp stone floor and approached the steel-barred door. But the hand fumbling on the floor could hardly find the medicine bowl that was right in front of her. Tears welled up in the corners of Samona’s eyes as she saw her once clear sky-blue eyes clouded over.
“How… How could this… Where on earth is the guard…”
“Samona, Samona. Don’t cry. Don’t cry… because of m-me. This place… Why did you come here? Why? Cheraan… How is Cheraan?”
At Judith’s urgent question, Samona could not bear it and burst out sobbing.
Cheraan was the handmaid of the Royal Princess Consort, Judith, and the only daughter dearly cherished by the Marquis of Evelta. When everyone ridiculed Judith as an unfaithful woman and insisted that she be hung, only Cheraan interfered and defended Judith.
Her efforts were fruitless as Judith was imprisoned in the tower; but Cheraan continued to send her own maid, Samona, to the tower from time to time to check up on her. Samona had not appeared for a long time, so Judith was most concerned about Cheraan’s safety.
“Your Highness, the Young Lady… The Young Lady has passed away. The Queen… executed Young Lady Cheraan for s-spreading false rumors about Prince Claude. The Master and the Lady have been out of their minds for a few days already due to the shock…”
Judith’s hands, desperately holding the iron bars, slipped. Blood was oozing out as the rusting and peeling iron dug into her weakened skin, but Judith couldn’t even feel the pain.
“Also… Your Highness.”
Samona let out a weeping breath. Judith’s hazy eyes, which had lost focus, stared into the void.
“Prince Franz has been imprisoned.”
“W-what? How… How come?”
Prince Franz… There are rumors that he was trying to assassinate Prince Claude. I don’t know the truth, but I think it’s probably true from what people say. Perhaps Prince Franz, maybe because of that, Prince Claude…”
“T-That can’t be. There’s no way he could do that. No way… That person…”
“The Queen said that Prince Franz’s madness had gone too far and imprisoned him in a spire in the middle of the Black Forest. Your Highness… Princess Judith.”
Samona wept, but Judith could no longer hear her words. No, she didn’t hear them.
At that moment, the guard returned with a clattering sound. Judith couldn’t even shout at the guard not to do so as he dragged Samona out, as she was asking for a little more time.
“U-ugh… awk…”
Judith, who was curled up like an animal, trembled terribly. Not being able to stand the cold wind, the cracked and wounded fingertips scratched the stone floor, which was dusty and was turning black in a few spots.
“Argh! Argh, a—!”
Judith, whose voice couldn’t even come out properly, let out a wailing shriek. She did not stop her movements, even though blood gushed out from her fissured mouth and her hands scratching the floor were badly wounded.
“Wh-what’s wrong! Hey, you! Hey! Come this way! Seems like this bitch has finally gone crazy!”
She heard the guard who was guarding the entrance of the prison shouting towards the bottom of the stairs. Clenching her hands that had been scratching the floor, Judith burst into laughter.
It was all over. Her life was so insignificant.
All she did was be trampled on, be humiliated, and be insulted.
“No…”
The guards, who rushed over at her seizure-like scream, stopped moving at the same time without opening the barred door.
As they looked at Judith with her head raised, there was fear in their eyes unlike ever before. Shining glaringly between the strands of hair, which one could no longer know what the original color was, her eyes, which had already lost their vision, aroused a frightening eeriness.
“Never…”
Her lips, with dried-up blood, moved slightly.
“I will never forgive you. Whatever I become, no matter what… I will never forgive you.”
“W-wait! You bastard, open this door quickly! If this bitch dies, the Queen will…!”
Suddenly, there was the sound of something breaking.
At the same time, Judith’s small body collapsed, spilling a handful of blood from her mouth.
Judith, who had been frowning at the rough touch on her cheek, opened her eyes. At the same time, a bright light flooded her vision like a waterfall.
How?
Judith looked around with a bewildered expression. Everything looked clear. Even though her eyes had long since become blind as a bat and she could not distinguish between day and night, right now, she could clearly identify everything in front of her.
It was an unfamiliar place. No, it wasn’t unfamiliar. Judith knew immediately where she was.
It was her room. It was the room where she slept in and woke up every day from her childhood to the age of seventeen, when she was still the Princess of the Tien Kingdom.
“A dream…?”
Judith muttered in a low voice, sticking her tongue out of her mouth and touching it with her hand. The tip of her tongue was intact with no wounds. Not only that, but her lips were also smooth, although slightly chapped. There were no dirty spots on her hands, face, or hair.
As soon as she realized that, Judith frantically got up from the bed and looked for the mirror. There was only one mirror in her room. It was always covered with a cloth.
Judith, who mercilessly removed the silk covering the long mirror, looked at her reflection in the smooth glass with disbelief.
Standing in the mirror was a shabby-looking girl. Although she was wearing a chemise with soft lace and embroidery, she looked rather pitiful because of her skinny body and pale skin. She even looked melancholic because of her frustratingly long bangs and her features that looked like she had not yet grown up.
“Miss Judith, have you woken up?”
Judith, who stood blankly in front of the mirror, turned her head as if she had seen a ghost. The maid, who looked lovely with her hair up on both sides, came in with water and a cloth to wash her face. As she saw Judith, she had a puzzled expression.
“Miss Judith, is something wrong? Your expression…”
“Marianne?”
The maid, who was blinking her eyes, burst out laughing.
“My Princess, looks like you had a strange dream. Yes, yes, I am Marianne. Come this way. I will wash your face.”
“Marianne, I…”
Judith, who was speechless, couldn’t take her eyes off Marianne’s face, which was exactly as she remembered. She wanted to take her with her when she left the Tien Kingdom, but she was a person who could not request anything from anyone at that time. So she couldn’t take Marianne, who cried, saying she would follow her.
“Miss Judith?”
“Marianne, you… H-How old are you right now?”
Marianne, who was putting down the washbowl made from silver, frowned slightly. Her eyes were full of concern. With a cloth soaked in water, Marianne walked over to Judith.
“Miss Judith, are you really alright? You’re not sick, are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m not injured. So, tell me. Marianne, how old are you now?”
“Miss Judith, really. I’m sixteen years old. I am one year younger than the Princess.”
Marianne is sixteen years old.
Then, she…
“Miss Judith?”
“How could this be…”
“Really, what is wrong? I’m getting scared. Are you really alright? Shall I call the therapist?”
Marianne asked urgently, but Judith did not answer. No, she couldn’t answer.
She turned around again and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She could now vividly feel the blurry memories slowly returning, one after the other. She knew that girl in the mirror. A shabby, weak, and gloomy girl that was afraid of everything and cried often.
When everything was over, she returned.
Becoming the 17-year-old Judith Loerbinev.