The Princess Who Ruined the Story
"Sister... *hic*, waaaah!"
The moment the heavy door to the royal chambers closed, the young Third Princess, Ceres, burst into tears, burying her face in the arms of the First Princess, Yuno.
Ceres’s dress was caked in dirt, and one of her shoes was missing. As Yuno cradled her little sister’s terror-stricken face, her heart sank.
"Ceres, it's okay. I'm here. What happened?"
"They were monsters in black armor! Scary, smelly men with axes poured out of the garden shed... Even the Royal Guard knight who was so nice to me when I got lost in the palace... he was hit by an axe and bled... *waaaah!*"
Yuno’s eyes trembled at her sister's stammered words.
Poured out of the garden shed?
The moment the realization struck her, Yuno bit her lower lip until it bled.
That shed housed the entrance to the abandoned secret waterway—the final escape route known only to the Europian royal family.
Eurosola, the impregnable fortress, had been breached through its sole internal vulnerability.
The escape route is blocked. No, the enemy used it to infiltrate us!
Yuno’s mind went completely blank.
Every plan she had painstakingly devised through sleepless nights since hearing of Grand Duke Chronos’s death—the final path to saving Europia—had just been obliterated.
From the moment the defensive line fell, Europia’s defeat had been a foregone conclusion.
She had been preparing to send a secret envoy, planning to persuade her father and coax the nobles into offering their surrender to the Valerian Kingdom.
Even if they had to strip the kingdom of its sovereignty and reduce it to a mere duchy, she had to prevent the slaughter of her people.
As the price for that humiliating peace, she, the First Princess, was fully prepared to be sold to Valerian as a hostage and a pawn in a political marriage.
She believed that by sacrificing herself, she could at least preserve the nation.
But the enemy had breached the palace before even touching the outer walls.
This meant they—Sabre—had no intention of negotiating a treaty.
They had sent their harbingers of death with the sole intent of wiping out the royal bloodline and erasing Europia from the map.
Crash!
The door burst open, and a blood-drenched Royal Guard collapsed into the room.
"Your Majesty! It is an ambush! The palace gates have fallen, and they are heading straight for the inner chambers!"
"Who on earth could have known the way into the palace?!"
King Ades leaped up from his throne, his voice cracking with panic.
The knight trembled violently, his eyes wide with terror.
"L-Lasen! I saw him with my own eyes! It was the traitor of Europia, General Lasen!"
Lasen.
The moment the name echoed through the chamber, Yuno closed her eyes.
The wretched secret waterway where workers had been buried alive decades ago to keep it hidden.
Lasen, the man they had discarded like a useless hound to protect their own power, only to turn him into the enemy's most lethal weapon.
Europia's sins... are finally sinking their teeth into our own throats.
The karmic retribution brought by Europia’s arrogance and sins had finally reached the heart of the kingdom.
Shring.
Amidst the suffocating despair of the inner chamber,
Yuno’s younger brother and the First Prince of Europia, Hadeon, drew the sword from his waist.
"Sister."
Hadeon placed a hand on Yuno’s trembling shoulder.
Unlike their terror-stricken father or the despairing Yuno, Hadeon’s eyes shone with resolute courage despite the fear.
"Do not worry. I will protect Father, you, and Ceres."
"Hadeon! No!"
Yuno grabbed his arm.
The enemy was the notorious Lasen.
A monster who had slaughtered even their commander-in-chief, Chronos.
He was not an opponent a sheltered prince, who had only held a sword for a few years, could ever hope to defeat.
"You cannot fight him! Going out there is suicide!"
Holding Hadeon back, Yuno turned to the trembling King Ades.
A cruel, yet brutally realistic plea burst from her lips.
"Father! You must step forward and surrender to Lasen yourself! It is the King's life he wants. If you surrender and accept Valerian's judgment... Hadeon and Europia can survive!"
"Y-Yuno! How dare you speak such treasonous words to your own father...!"
"Hadeon must live to preserve our bloodline and our history! Please... Father, die for Europia!"
But to the old king, who had spent his entire life consumed by greed for power, his daughter's plea to sacrifice himself for his children and his country sounded like nothing but monstrous betrayal.
King Ades stumbled backward, shaking his head in denial.
"You... you ungrateful wretch...!"
"Sister! Stop this!"
Hadeon stepped between them, shielding his father.
He was a prince of boundless loyalty and filial piety—the very embodiment of Europia's noble future.
Because of that, Hadeon could never accept sending his father to the slaughter just to beg for his own life in disgrace.
"I am a prince of Europia. If we defile today just to secure tomorrow, there will be no pride left in our future."
Hadeon brushed Yuno's hand away.
"I will take Lasen's head myself and slaughter these insolent invaders."
"Hadeon! Please!"
Ignoring Yuno’s desperate screams, Hadeon led the last remaining guards out of the chamber.
As the doors swung shut, her brother's retreating figure looked like nothing more than a blind moth flying straight into a flame.
How much time had passed?
An hour that felt like an eternity dragged by.
The screams of the guards and the clash of steel outside gradually faded, replaced by a suffocating, deathly silence that enveloped the chamber.
King Ades cowered on his throne, trembling, while the Queen prayed with a face drained of color.
Yuno covered Ceres’s ears, her eyes fixed on the heavy double doors.
And then...
Step. Step. Step.
Heavy, blood-soaked footsteps echoed from the corridor.
They stopped just outside the door.
"So... this is where the King of Europia is hiding."
It was Lasen.
"*Whew*... He was a tough one. Prince Hadeon..."
Through the thick wood, they could hear Lasen panting, muttering to himself.
The moment those words reached their ears, everyone in the room knew Hadeon was dead.
"Maybe... killing Hadeon before King Ades is what it takes to truly end this war. Persistent bastard."
"N-No... Hadeon...!"
Unable to bear the terror, King Ades shrieked and tumbled off his throne.
As he crawled across the floor, a dark stain spread across his trousers, pooling onto the rug.
"Your Majesty... Oh, heavens."
The Queen watched him in horror. She was younger and had not lost her wits, which only made the reality more agonizing.
Slowly, she drew a dagger from her robes, looking at Yuno and Ceres with hollow, defeated eyes.
"Yuno. It is over. Rather than be defiled by the enemy... let us die with the honor of Europian royalty."
It was the most common, yet most tragic escape chosen by the women of fallen kingdoms.
But as Yuno took the dagger from her mother, she only stared blankly at the gleaming tip with trembling hands.
If we die here... what changes?
Hadeon was dead.
Her noble brother, who had fought so hard to protect Europia's future, had likely been butchered by the traitor's axe.
Her father was crawling on the floor, completely out of his mind.
Her mother was preparing to end her own life.
And if she, too, slit her throat in the name of honor?
The Valerian army would ravage a leaderless Europia without mercy.
With no one left to negotiate, the innocent citizens and tens of thousands of soldiers would be slaughtered like cattle.
Yuno looked down at Ceres, who was trembling in her arms, barely able to breathe from terror.
I must save Ceres. I must save at least one more citizen of Europia.
A grim resolve froze the trembling in Yuno's eyes.
"Mother."
Yuno spoke, her voice chillingly calm.
"Cover Ceres's eyes and ears."
Startled by Yuno’s strange demeanor, the Queen quickly pulled Ceres into her embrace.
Yuno stood up.
The dagger was gripped tightly in her hand.
She turned toward her father, King Ades, who was still groveling on the floor, muttering incoherently.
Hadeon is dead. Uncle Chronos and his family are dead. And Father is reduced to this.
If Lasen breached that door, the royal family would be annihilated.
But if she became the last monarch of Europia before the door opened...
Even if she held the throne for a single day—no, a single hour.
If she ascended the throne and officially surrendered to Valerian...
She could guarantee the safety of the remaining citizens.
To do that, the reigning king had to die here.
He could not die a useless death at the hands of the enemy. She, the next in line, had to sever this incompetent and miserable past with her own hands.
"Y-Yuno? What are you doing with that knife...?!"
King Ades tried to scramble backward as Yuno approached.
But Yuno only looked down at her father with tear-filled eyes, raising the dagger without a shred of hesitation.
"For Europia... please die, Father."
Thuck!
"*Gurgle*... *Agh*...!"
The short blade plunged deep into King Ades’s neck.
However, a woman's slender strength and a short self-defense dagger were not enough to sever an adult man's neck in a single blow.
Just as Lasen had once been forced to saw through Jupiter's neck with Sabre's dagger,
Yuno, drenched in crimson blood, had to saw through her thrashing father's neck.
"*Aaaargh!* Yu... Yuno!"
King Ades’s dying screams echoed through the chamber.
Crunch.
Squelch.
The sound of tearing flesh and grinding bone chipped away at Yuno’s sanity.
Her father's warm blood sprayed across her face, soaking her dress.
Unable to wipe away her tears, Yuno grit her teeth and twisted the blade, sawing until the head finally came free.
To show their surrender even a second faster.
To save even one more Europian life.
The princess took the sin of patricide upon herself and severed her father's head.
"Ah... *ahhhh!*"
Witnessing her daughter behead her husband, the Queen let out a horrific shriek and slit her own throat with her dagger.
"Sister... *hic*..."
Unable to bear the shock, Ceres’s eyes rolled back, and she collapsed into unconsciousness.
And at that exact moment...
Click. Creak.
The heavy doors to the chamber swung open.
Drenched in blood and sweat, Lasen stepped into the room, his axe dragging in one hand.
Behind him, five of his executioners stood waiting, radiating murderous intent.
"King Ades. I've come to end this long war..."
The moment I looked up, I froze.
Even the ragged breath in my throat caught.
I had expected to find an old king cowering behind his throne, trembling and begging for mercy.
But instead...
In the center of the room, right on the red carpet beneath the throne,
King Ades’s head, crudely hacked off, lay rolling on the floor.
Beside it, the Queen lay dying, blood pooling from her neck, while young Ceres lay unconscious in the corner.
And then there was Yuno.
Drenched in crimson from head to toe, holding a dripping dagger in her hand,
Princess Yuno collapsed forward, panting heavily.
"...What in the world?"
I stared at the gruesome scene, completely dumbfounded, forgetting even the weight of the axe in my hand.
The war I had tried to end quickly by walking a path only I could tread...
Yuno, the female lead of the original novel, had ended it by walking the most horrific path imaginable.
The female lead had just become the traitor who ruined the story.