Chapter 19 · Unconditional Sacrifice

There was no hesitation in Isadel’s steps toward the underground prison.

To be precise, it was desperation that allowed no room for hesitation, pushing her roughly forward.

“…Hek!”

At the sight of the deposed princess, who should have been confined, strolling freely through the imperial palace corridors, every one of the palace attendants froze.

The imperial guards on sentry duty also showed clear signs of bewilderment, but none drew a sword to block her way.

‘Foolishly… she should have just run away…’

There was no need to see what state Roshe had been reduced to after being dragged to the underground prison.

It was obvious. After harsh torture, her whole body would be ruined, barely able to keep any human form.

It would be fortunate if she were even still breathing.

At last, she reached the entrance of the underground prison.

As Isadel approached, the imperial guards crossed their spears and blocked her path.

“This is a restricted area. Without His Majesty’s order, no one may—”

Thwack!

Isadel struck the left soldier’s jaw without hesitation.

As the soldier tumbled to the ground with a dull thud, she glared at the remaining one.

“Move.”

“Y-Your Highness the deposed princess cannot enter this place!”

“…Don’t make me say it twice.”

Intimidated by Isadel’s murderous aura, the soldier reluctantly withdrew his spear and cleared the way.

Rumors had already spread among the soldiers like ghost stories that the deposed princess had recently escaped the tower where she was confined and brutally slaughtered over a dozen imperial guards.

Recruiting new guards to protect Isadel’s quarters had been difficult enough—so a mere gatekeeper could not possibly stand in her way.

Leaving the guards behind, Isadel stepped down the dark underground stairs.

With every step down, a cold chill rose from her ankles.

The damp, musty smell of mold, and the metallic stench rising from dried bloodstains, pierced the tip of her nose.

Isadel scanned the dark prison cells beyond the iron bars, one by one.

‘Please… please just be alive.’

Searching frantically through the prison in pursuit of Roshe’s traces, she only came to a stop once she reached the end of the dead-end corridor.

In the low-lying darkness, a single shadow collapsed in the corner.

“…Roshe.”

At the name echoing low, the body huddled on the floor flinched.

“Your Highness…?”

Roshe, who barely raised her head, was in a state beyond wretched.

Bloodstains were caked over her eyelids, swollen blue, and her once-neat brown hair was matted with blood into a sorry tangle.

The limbs revealed between her clothes were covered in bruises, as if to prove the merciless beating she had endured.

At that wretched sight, Isadel silently clenched her fist.

At that wretched sight, Isadel silently clenched her fist.

You should have just run.

If you had abandoned someone like me and fled far away, you would not have met this end.

What sin do you have to be suffering like this here?

Roshe, propping herself on the floor, painfully approached and grasped the bars.

“Your Highness…? Is that you, Your Highness?”

“……”

“Are you all right, Your Highness? Have you… have you eaten? Hek, your dress…”

The moment Roshe spotted the bloodstains on Isadel’s dress, her face turned ashen.

With trembling hands, she reached out and tried desperately to wipe the marks away, but the more she wiped, the wider the blood spread.

Isadel quietly looked down at Roshe, who was frantically rubbing at her dress.

Through her suppressed breath, a rough voice forced its way out.

“Hey.”

“Yes…?”

“Who told you to do this?”

“Your Highness…”

“Who told you to do this?!”

Isadel’s scream rang sharply through the air.

“You should have just looked after yourself, why did you step forward! You’re just a maid, what right do you have to worry about me! You should be worrying about your own survival, so why!!”

The words spat out roughly seemed directed at Roshe, but in truth they were aimed at Isadel herself.

Knowing that Roshe was suffering because of her, she poured out sharp reproach instead of confessing her guilt.

“Why are you doing this to me…”

The cold mask built up over a lifetime crumbled helplessly before the sight of Roshe’s ruined face.

Tears she could no longer hold back flowed quietly from the corners of Isadel’s eyes.

“Don’t cry, Your Highness… The floor is cold, please get up…”

Even in that state, Roshe was worrying about the knees of the Isadel who sat on the floor, not her own wounds.

“Your Highness, look at me. Hurry.”

At the voice that soothed and insisted, Isadel barely raised her head.

“I’m really fine. I look a mess, but it doesn’t hurt that much.”

There was not a single trace of resentment on Roshe’s face.

Rather, she smiled brightly, as if relieved that her master was safe.

That innocent smile finally tore Isadel’s heart apart.

You foolish girl.

Curse me instead.

So that I could ease this heavy heart even a little, you should have betrayed me and left.

* * *

Roshe had originally been a commoner, a girl sold to a slave market under the debts her parents had left behind.

The only future permitted to a child barely six years old was to be sold to a brothel and slowly die as someone’s plaything.

It was Princess Yuseria, who had crossed a distant road for a royal marriage with a Rastain prince, who rescued her from the cliff’s edge where even despair was a luxury.

Before the starving, staggering girl, the princess offered a warm feast and dressed her in silk instead of rags.

Not only did she grasp without hesitation the hand soiled with filth, but she even gave her the name ‘Roshe.’

And at last, as if she had decided to keep that small life by her side, she took her to the imperial palace.

From that day, Roshe swore to the gods every night.

That for that person, she would gladly offer her life and soul.

That earnest oath was finally fulfilled when, as the years passed, the empress gave birth to a child.

Roshe wept hot tears and rejoiced as if her own child had been born.

Feeding and clothing that fragile life with her own hands, raising it with utmost care, became for Roshe a mission nobler than anything in the world.

Even after Princess Yuseria’s tragic death, Roshe did not collapse.

The single legacy left behind by her life-saving benefactor—Princess Isadel.

Protecting her was the last repayment she could offer the empress.

As long as her breath remained, she would never betray the oath of that day—she had repeated it thousands of times and endured.

And that resolve had not wavered in the slightest, even at this very moment.

Roshe reached out and grasped Isadel’s cold hand.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I hid the seal somewhere no one knows. Even if they search the entire imperial palace, they’ll never find it.”

“Who told you to hide it? Why are you bringing trouble on yourself by doing something no one asked you to do!”

“Well… serving Your Highness is my job.”

The words, spoken as if nothing were more natural, gripped Isadel’s heart even tighter.

“I was truly… so worried that you might have passed away while I was gone, or that you were breaking apart tormented by nightmares again. Someone with no will to live—I was so afraid something might have happened to you…”

“……”

“But it’s all right now. You’re safe like this. Seeing your face, it seems you’ve slept a little, and I’m relieved you seem to have eaten.”

“Roshe, please…”

“Don’t worry. I will never hand over that seal. Even if they pluck out both my eyes and cut off my limbs, I will not reveal it. I swear.”

The words, spoken as if her own life were nothing, without a shred of hesitation.

A tenacity that went beyond loyalty, bordering almost on madness.

Who on earth could step forward like this for another, even at the cost of their own life?

In that moment, Isadel’s choice had already been made.

A hollow seal was meaningless.

It could not even be compared to a child who offered her life without hesitation for her sake.

“…I’m just going to give it to them.”

“Give what? Surely not the seal?”

“Yes…”

“Absolutely not!”

Roshe shook her head violently.

“That adjutant bastard said he’d trade the seal for my life, didn’t he? No. The moment that declaration is stamped with the seal, Your Highness truly loses all your authority!”

“…I know.”

“I don’t mind dying here! As long as I can protect Your Highness…!”

“No, don’t. It’s unavoidable anyway. You know as well as I do that Erhan won’t give up just because I’m being stubborn.”

Despite Isadel’s desperate persuasion, Roshe coughed up blood and stubbornly shook her head.

There was only one way to break Roshe, who was more stubborn than she looked.

Isadel gripped the iron bars tighter to hide her trembling hands.

And then she spoke a cowardly lie she had never told in her life.

“I won’t stamp it. I won’t. I promise—no, I swear.”

“……”

“So tell me, Roshe.”

Isadel’s eyes sank quietly.

“The seal. Where did you hide it?”