IWAP - Chapter 13

The Visad Palace was located deep within the inner palace complex and was famous for its spacious garden and beautiful scenery.

It is said that the Third Emperor of the empire had flowers from all over the world gathered to create a palace for his flower-loving Empress so that she could see flowers all year round. Perhaps for this reason, the Visad Palace is also known as the Crown Princess Palace and has been used by successive generations of Crown Princesses.

Visad Palace had been empty for a long time. The Emperor had never experienced life as a Crown Prince, and the current Crown Prince did not yet have a consort. Visad Palace remained without an occupant for a long time until I married him and became the Crown Princess.

The Crown Prince led me to the garden. I followed wherever he led.

Just as the chamberlain had said, the Leisha flowers were in full bloom in the rear garden of the Visad Palace. The sweet scent of the Leisha filled the entire garden.

As the wind blew, the white petals of the Leisha flower fluttered here and there as if dancing. It was a magnificent sight, just like heavy snow falling. He turned around and looked at me. The fluttering white petals and his silver hair harmonized like a painting. At that moment, I was captivated by this sight and stared at him.

'Whoa...'

He slowly approached me. He reached out his hand toward my face. His long, white fingers lightly brushed against my cheek. He smiled sweetly at me. My reflection was perfectly visible in his golden eyes.

He withdrew the arm he had extended toward me. A flower petal clinging to my cheek was caught by his fingers and fell off. He lightly kissed the petal and let it blow away in the wind.

That was the moment I fell into such a terrible love.

***

Serious Aisan Low Priston.

The Crown Prince of the Pristin Empire, who would later become the Emperor. That was the name of the man I loved madly.

Looking back now, it wasn't that he disliked me from the beginning. He wasn't overtly affectionate, but he wasn't as indifferent as a Marquis. He was a man educated as a Crown Prince from birth. He knew better than anyone how to treat people.

He treated me with appropriate courtesy. Such an attitude of his seemed to be a bit of an occupational hazard. It must have been his own way of coping, having been harassed by many people since childhood as the Crown Prince. I mistook his courtesy for affection.

At that time, I had never received proper affection. I did not know the difference between treating someone with courtesy and treating them with affection. It was perhaps only natural that I mistook his courtesy for affection.

I realized the difference when he found a lover. His behavior toward her was distinctly different from how he treated others. His golden eyes looked at her as sweet as honey, and even his rigid, habitual smile was as splendid as a blooming flower when directed at her.

If I had let him go back when I saw with my own eyes what true love was, perhaps everything would have been different. But at that time, I refused to admit it. I poured all my resentment onto the woman he loved.

'When did he start to despise me, even though he used to treat me with respect as a partner, even if it wasn't affection?'

At that time, I looked for the cause in the woman he loved. I thought that he had changed because of her.

Back then, I still refused to admit it, but now I know. He had been looking at me with contempt long before he met her. Even now, I don't know exactly when that was.

'It’s because I was so focused on my own emotions that I didn’t notice his change at all.'

Even though I said I loved him, I didn't actually try to get to know him. I thought and judged everything based on my own standards. I didn't consider his situation or thoughts at all. That is how I loved selfishly and unilaterally.

"Miss, flowers have arrived from the Imperial Palace again!"

The nanny entered carrying an armful of Leisha flowers. The sweet scent of the blossoms instantly filled the room. With a gleeful expression, she looked around the room, searching for a place to place the flowers. My room was already overflowing with flowers arriving from the Imperial Palace about every two days.

"It seems His Royal Highness the Crown Prince took a very liking to the young lady!"

The nanny, having managed to find an empty spot amidst the dense flowers, placed the Leisha flower she was holding into a vase and decorated it.

A sense of pride and satisfaction was on her face.

“It’s not like that.”

I tapped my throbbing head with my fingers. It was a headache that had started after I returned from the Imperial Palace. Nanny assumed that the Crown Prince had sent me flowers simply because they had been delivered from the palace. At that time, I, too, just like Nanny, thought it was a gift from the Crown Prince who had fallen for me. However, this matter was not as simple as two naive women thought.

Leisha is a flower that is a symbol of the Visad Palace. This was because the emblem symbolizing the Crown Princess was the Leisha flower.

The intention behind the Imperial Palace sending the Leisha flowers to me was clear. It was a kind of warning from the Emperor to the nobles. It was certainly not being sent by the Crown Prince, as the nanny had suspected.

'The Crown Prince probably doesn't even know that the palace is sending me flowers, does he?'

Since the marriage proposal with the Crown Prince had not yet been formally finalized, other noble families could certainly propose marriage to the Marquis's family. In fact, I know that several families had secretly attempted to make contact. Regardless of who I was, the 'Daughter of Marquis Elliot' was an attractive marriage prospect in itself.

Under Imperial law, women could not inherit a family line, but sons-in-law were permitted. Currently, I am the Marquis's only child. Unless the Marquis took a second wife and had children, it was highly likely that my husband would inherit the Elliot Marquisate. Even if the Marquis were to have an heir, the Pison Count family remained for me. Count Pison had only one daughter. I was the sole blood relative left by that daughter. Count Pison was elderly and had no children with his Countess. Receiving just a fraction of his astronomical fortune would have allowed most people to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

People coveted me like a swarm of ants drawn to candy. The Emperor was also one of those ants. The only difference was that he was the largest and strongest king ant.

The Emperor revealed his true intentions to the nobles by sending me the Leisha flower, the symbol of the Crown Princess. No matter how attractive a potential marriage partner might be, no family would have the audacity to propose marriage to me unless they intended to antagonize the Emperor.

Everyone was unaware of the truth and was mistaken about me.

The Countess is currently pregnant. If the child is a son, he will naturally succeed Count Peaceon. Even if it is a daughter, she would have priority over me. Even if the Count dies, while I might inherit a portion of the estate, the merchant guilds, which are symbols of title and wealth, will not come to me.

'Of course, that is on the premise that I do not boast about the value of my name.'

It was the same even if there were no children. The Count already had a designated successor.

Following the Marquise's footsteps, the inheritance was distributed after Count Pison's death. He left a portion of his estate to the Countess and me, respectively. Jewelry, gold coins, and a small amount of land were all there was. That alone was enough for an average person to live comfortably for the rest of their life. However, compared to the entire fortune of the Count's family, it was a drop in the ocean.

The trading company, territory, and title—which could be considered the center of the Count's family—passed to his successor. People were astonished by the sudden appearance of the successor. He inherited most of the property owned by Count Pison.

The collateral branches of the Count of Pison's family reacted most fiercely. They refused to acknowledge the Count's successor, whom they were unaware even existed. However, their resistance ended in failure without any results. This was because the successor held in his hands legal, formal inheritance documents bearing the handwritten signature of the deceased Count. Furthermore, the Countess, one of the two people who would have suffered the greatest loss due to his appearance, sided with him. The collateral branches could no longer brand the Count's successor as a fake. They attempted to seize an opportunity to cause instability during the transfer of the trading company to the successor, but that, too, proved impossible.

The successor had already seized control of the trading company even before the Count died. There was absolutely no room for the collateral relatives to squeeze in.

Nothing was known about Count Pison's heir. He had never even appeared at imperial parties. I, too, had never seen his face. My nanny was furious, asking where this rascal had come from, but at that time, I was already obsessed with the Crown Prince, so I didn't even think to find out who the Count's heir was.

'I didn't even care.'

The same went for the inheritance. The Count's fortune was of no concern whatsoever.

My only object of interest was the Crown Prince.

Having been practically abandoned by the indifferent Marquis and the mad Marchioness, I was always thirsty for affection.

I tried to quench that thirst through the Crown Prince. I wanted him to look only at me and speak only to me. I wished that he would exist solely for me. It was only natural that he was sick and tired of me.

He despised and loathed me. The more I craved his love, the worse it became. After he got a lover, my obsession and stubbornness intensified, and eventually, I ended up doing something I shouldn't have.

When he found out the truth, he didn't even get angry at me. He simply ordered my confinement with a cold, icy gaze. I shook off the knights trying to drag me away and screamed. I shouted what I had done wrong, blaming him for everything, cursing and spewing out curses.

'The day I first met you was the worst day of my life.'

He left me, leaving only that one word behind. My legs gave way, and I slumped to the ground. The knights dragged me somewhere with their rough hands, but I no longer had the strength to resist.

He said that the most brilliant and happiest moment of my life was the worst moment for him. Tears streamed down my face. I could endure his coldness and his criticism, but I could not bear that moment.

That moment, which was everything to me, was rejected by him.

My body trembled as I recalled that moment. My mind was surprisingly calm, but my body’s reaction was anything but. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to calm myself down.

Making the fear I had trembled before meeting him seem pointless, the meeting with him was calmer than I had expected. He treated me with the same respect as before, and I was able to handle the situation smoothly.

I loved him to death. I believed he was my everything. There was no way my first meeting with him could have been anything but ordinary. Bjornne's heart was pounding like crazy. In contrast, Lee Ji-ah's ego kept my mind cold. Two conflicting emotions consumed me. My heart said it still loved him, but my head rejected that love.

It was a rather strange feeling. It was me, yet it felt like I wasn't me.

"Miss?"

I stood up. Startled by my sudden movement, the nanny, who had been engrossed in flower arrangements, called out to me.

"I'll be right back after a quick walk."

My feelings for him were not something I could figure out by thinking about it now. I decided to be satisfied that meeting him did not cause me to return to the person I was back then.

At least for now, I am not crazy about love.

That's it for now.

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