Chapter 1
There was a saying that went like this.
Even a small ax can fell a large tree with enough chops, and over time, incessant dripping wears away the stone.
So keep knocking, and the door shall open.
"Dad!"
Everiel called as she fiercely pounded on the tightly closed door.
However, sadly, the child's hand was too small compared to the large and rugged door. No matter how hard she tried, only a feeble 'thud thud' noise resulted.
Worried it might not be heard inside, Everiel raised her voice even louder.
"I know you're in thwere!"
Her pronunciation faltered, and Everiel's cheeks flushed crimson in an instant.
It was an unavoidable embarrassment. Everiel was yet to fully adapted to 'this body'.
‘Oh, how awful. Why did I have to revert to this childish stage?’
Everiel glared resentfully at the high door handle.
‘At least if I were six years old, I could have reached that doorknob with my own hands!’
Once again, she stretched her hand as far as possible, but the miracle of the doorknob lowering did not occur.
"Dad, are you listening?"
Despite her desperate call, 'dad' inside remained as silent as ever. In the face of his consistent lack of response, Everiel felt her strength drain away from her hands and feet.
'Could there be a more cowardly father than him.'
For days now, since Everiel began visiting, her father had been in a state of withdrawal.
The child leaned her forehead against the door. The chill in the air cooled her face.
"Please..."
Everiel whispered earnestly, struggling to swallow the words swirling on the tip of her tongue.
'You need to get up from that sickbed, or I won't survive!'
* * *
The dawn was still far away in the night.
Startled by the sound of the door opening, Everiel rose from her slumber. The first thing she saw in her blurry vision was the flicker of a lamp.
"Get up, Lady Solgren."
Under the flickering light, the intruder's figure dimly appeared, showing a face the girl recognized.
"Your Highness?"
Bright golden hair and fiery crimson eyes seemed vivid even in the darkness.
The boy before her was unmistakably the sole prince of this empire, Tezerick Keswyder Wilnarion.
Tezerick briskly lifted Everiel from her bed.
"Wait, what's happening all of a sudden…?"
"No time for explanations. You need to leave the palace immediately."
The boy draped a dark cloak around Everiel's thin nightclothes and urgently pulled her out of the room, as if being pursued.
Everiel couldn't find her indoor shoes and ended up following Tezerick.
A misty night lay over the chilly corridor. The faint window shadows on the floor seemed as dense as the bars of a prison window.
Guided by Tezerick's hand, Everiel walked, suspecting she might still be dreaming.
But the smooth feel of the marble beneath her bare feet and Tezerick's warmth grasping her wrist were too vivid to dismiss as a dream.
Ah, perhaps he's up to another cheap prank. The crown prince always enjoyed teasing Everiel.
"Are you planning to drop me into the fountain? Or maybe lock me in the wardrobe again?"
Anxious, Everiel asked, tension coiling within.
"Where are we going?"
No answer returned, yet Everiel, familiar with the palace's layout, soon realized where the boy was heading.
Tezerick was heading to the palace chapel.
“Why the chapel...”
“I'll tell you once, so listen carefully. There's a secret passage under the organ seat.”
“Huh?”
“When you enter there, don't turn to corners, just keep going straight. Then you'll be able to leave the palace before daylight.”
Tezerick kept spouting nonsense. Eventually, Everiel forcibly stopped her steps.
“Why do I have to leave the palace?”
Only then did Tezerick turn to Everiel. Within his vacant expression, indescribable emotions lingered.
“Because if you don't, you'll die.”
Everiel froze as though she was splashed with cold water.
‘Die? Me?’
Tezerick quickly added an explanation.
"Two weeks ago, the eastern part of the shield was broken. The Duke of Solgren failed to contain the pouring miasma, resulting in the corrosion of half the northern expanse."
Solgren. A duchy at the northernmost edge of the empire, the place where Everiel was born and raised.
Everiel recalled the nights spent under an unceasingly cold sky.
Vast expanses of dense blue coniferous forests, and the white tundra like a canvas yet to be painted.
At age nine, she had ventured there alone, yet the landscape remained vivid in her mind even with closed eyes.
'But for Solgren to corrode...'
When the spawn of the malevolent 'darkness' takes hold, the soil begins to rot.
Such a phenomenon is referred to as 'corrosion.'
Once the land is tainted by darkness, if purification is missed, it emits toxins.
Plants perish from the land's poison, then herbivores lose their sustenance, followed by carnivores.
'And eventually, even humans.'
Despair settled over Everiel's countenance.
"Ah, is my father safe?"
It had been five years since she left Solgren with her governess.
In Everiel's memory, her father's face was blurred like a smudged watercolor.
Her father had always been secluded within the confines of his room due to his poor health.
The northern duke, struggling to maintain even his own estate, had no resources left to spare for his daughter.
‘Could Father really be safe amidst the corrosion?’
But her ominous premonition proved true. Tezerick shook his head with a grim expression.
"Communications with the Duchy of Solgren have ceased since a week ago."
Everiel clenched her nightgown, suppressing her breath.
"What about support? Just with the forces stationed in the north—"
"We never sent support. The imperial family plans to officially abandon the north."
"That's... unthinkable."
"Now the emperor will punish the Solgrens for failing to protect their territory. By killing you, the last surviving Solgren."
Listening, Everiel suppressed a bitter laugh.
'The corrosion was just an excuse. They're trying to get rid of us, the thorn in their side, using this opportunity.'
Everiel's father, Duke Herwin Solgren, was the emperor's younger half-brother.
Twenty years ago, during the emperor's coronation, when a massive purge swept through the palace, Herwin was the only noble to survive.
He escaped the emperor's blade because he was not only of noble blood but also a 'Solgren.'
The four noble families, including the 'Shield'; the Solgrens, swore allegiance alongside the first emperor, founding Veloyton under God’s name, Shaia.
Under the 'Oath of Guardianship', the imperial family and the four noble houses couldn't infringe upon each other's bloodlines.
There was only one case where this oath could be broken.
'When failing in the duty as a guardian.'
The emperor won't miss this pretext. His half-brother, a thorn in his side, had finally committed a grave mistake.
Everiel bit her lip hard to hold back the bitter tears.
By then, the entrance to the chapel began to appear dimly in the distance. Tezerick's steps quickened even more.
Everiel stared silently at the back of the boy leading her.
She thought if he hadn't woken her up, she would still be unaware of the situation and slept soundly.
"Why are you helping me?"
Tezerick stopped abruptly at her words. Everiel cautiously spoke once more.
“You hate me, don’t you…?”
The boy who had been rushing all along fell into a prolonged silence.
As if a thick cloud had descended, the outside darkened suddenly. The boy murmured quietly into the darkness.
“…I never hated you.”
There was no room to ponder the meaning of the inexplicable response. Tezerick pushed open the doors of the chapel.
A chilly breeze brushed past her cheeks.
Once again, moonlight seeped through the clouds, casting a mosaic of colors as it passed through the stained glass.
Beneath the faint light, the towering ceiling, the grand pipe organ, and the statue standing tall in the center were revealed.
Everiel quietly gazed at the statue.
‘The first light, Shaia.’
The deity held four stars in one hand, a veil draped over her face.
The only thing revealed was her lips. Due to the statue’s secretive and mystical nature, rumors circulated within the palace that Shaia’s statue would occasionally smile or turn down its lips sadly.
"So, sometimes people tried to guess whether good or bad things would happen based on Shaia's expression."
Everiel muttered to herself.
Unconsciously, Everiel glanced briefly at Shaia, shrouded in darkness.
But just before the girl could inspect the face of the deity, a voice cut through the air.
"It doesn't seem like either of you came here to pray."
Tezerick and Everiel froze.
Emerging from the darkest shadows of the chapel, a man stepped forward.