The Price Of Breaking Up - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Prologue

Clearly, it was a joke made by God.

Everything changed overnight.

Those who had been talking to me nicely turned away from me, bearing cold expressions on their faces. I was no longer presented with the tea that made me feel refreshed in the early morning. No one looked out for me.

Everything was because of what the deputy minister said a few days ago with an awkward face.

He had looked at me with a slightly troubled face and said,

“The oracle has changed.”

I had to give up the Crown Princess’ seat.

The position was no longer mine.

What did that mean to me, who had been raised to be the Crown Princess since the moment I was born?

But I did not utter such a question.

Nothing would have changed even if I’d asked.

As soon as the changed oracle was known around, I stood tall with my back straight even when I received cold eyes from people, saying I was a fake.

The power, the status, and the people’s perspective were all different, but I believed he wouldn’t change.

“I wish to annul the marriage.”

Yes, I believed he wouldn’t change.

He said, lifting the afternoon tea with his extended hand.

His gaze slowly touched my head.

I would have been wearing a tiara with a big red diamond that could only be used by the royal family, but not today.

Since the oracle changed, the maids had no longer placed the tiara upon my head.

He silently stared at my empty head.

“I feel sorry for you.”
“Your Highness.”

I called him, not knowing what to say.

In a voice that was never apologetic, he told me he was sorry.

The warm tea was not helping today. I felt like I had thorns poking all over my body.

He stared at me for a while.

He watched my eyes as if he wanted tears to flow out of them.

But I didn’t shed tears or lose my temper.

Since nothing would change by them, I decided to keep my pride.

Having been with me for 18 years, the Crown Prince let me go with no hesitation.

That happened a month before our wedding.

That’s how our relationship came to an end.

Chapter 1

There was no one who wouldn’t be aware of the story.

According to the oracle, a girl with pink hair would become the Crown Prince’s companion.

Pink was thought to be a valued color in the temple.

It was because the first saint, who helped the Emperor build the empire, had pink hair.

The oracle had said, ‘a child with the same hair color as the first saint, who healed tens of thousands of people and stopped the waging war in one word, would become the Crown Princess and bring peace and balance to the empire’.

But to find the one girl having pink hair appeared impossible.

When everyone questioned it, news arrived that my mother had given birth to me.

That time, my father, who just had inherited the title of Duke, and my mother, who became the Duchess, both had white blonde hair that seemed to resemble the color of honey and milk.

From those two individuals, a girl with pink hair was born, and everyone praised me, convinced that I was the child of the oracle.

I was also welcomed as a child blessed by a divine God, but since I was born as the precious daughter of a Duke, it was needless to say how eagerly people welcomed me.

But now, I couldn’t find the glory of that time.

I guessed it would be so.

An unprecedented occurrence – the oracle changed overnight.

I could hear them whisper about me being abandoned by God.

After leaving the title of Crown Princess, my pace slowed down by itself.

No maid followed me anymore, so there was no one to correct me if my slow steps were unfitting.

“It’s our first time meeting in the audience room.”

Walking further than usual, I uttered without knowledge in the emptiness.

It was a place to meet guests, not a place to greet the family.

But as I wasn’t a family member, I felt like I was just a guest to the Crown Prince.

My head without the tiara weighed light. As I moved my head slightly, my pink hair fluttered mercilessly in the breeze that carefully flowed in through the open window.

As I turned to the window, I saw the servants and maids moving busily outside.

Although I could not hear them because of the distance, it was easy to infer from the smile upon their faces that they were quite excited.

“What’s so good?”

Again, I muttered to myself that no one would hear.

Perhaps they were busy welcoming the new Crown Princess.

There didn’t seem to be any reason for me to stay here.

“Maybe I should go pack my things.”

I didn’t know if it’d be a heavy load.

The thought of beautiful jewels and dresses passed through my mind. But since they all were arranged by the Imperial City for the Crown Princess, they didn’t seem to belong to me.

I came back to my room and looked for my luggage, but nothing caught my eye.

“I never thought I’d leave this room like this.”

I thought I would leave this room only after the Crown Prince became the Emperor and I became the Empress to come to the castle.

I was three when I first entered this room of the Crown Princess.

I didn’t know because I was so young, but I remembered one thing for sure. The Imperial Fortress, away from my beloved parents, appeared as a foreign and cold place.

And the first warmth I felt here was the touch of the Crown Prince.

Unlike the Duchy, the Imperial maids were not sociable. They always attended their duties silently.

Perhaps that was the reason why I really liked the Crown Prince who smiled at me, kindly spoke to me, and cared about me.

Whenever I used to have a hard time, I remembered his whispered words of comfort and his hand holding mine.

I thought it was love.

But seeing that we broke up without any hesitation, that feeling wasn’t love.

Suddenly, the face with which he was telling me he was sorry floated in front of me.

He didn’t look sorry at all. I couldn’t read a single bit of tenderness in it. The reality that everything collapsed overnight came to me.

Ever since I was a child, I was told by everyone in the empire.

《 You are the one and only companion of the Crown Prince. 》

At that time, I just smiled with a puzzled expression as I didn’t know what it meant. But from some point on, it became my destiny to be a Crown Princess.

He was my everything, and I had been trying to be his perfect partner.

Now that I was going to become the future Empress, they told me the oracle was incorrect and that I should return being a daughter of a common duke.

It sounded ridiculous.

“–Oh, My Lady! No, you can’t!”
“Please wait for a moment!”

I heard a little commotion outside.

It caused me to open my eyes gently, which I had kept closed as if I was trapped in a box.

My long eyelashes moved smoothly like butterfly wings as I blinked, casting a shade over my pale skin.

“My Lady!”

I heard the loud ringing of the bell outside.

I rose from my bed, pressing my temples as a rush of fatigue came over.

How dare they raise their voice near the Crown Princess’ room.

I might have said so, but I was no longer the owner of the title. Even so, I was the only daughter of a Duke.

When I opened the door to confront those who spoke up without honor, I couldn’t help but freeze at the sight before me.

Pink hair swirled over in front of my eyes. When I came to my senses, pure golden eyes were facing me.

“Greetings, Princess.”

A pleasant voice flowed slowly into my ears.

Only then did it strike. Like a drop of hot water on a cold ice.

This woman, who was rudely smiling at the figure in front of her eyes, seemed to be……

“Finally, we meet each other.”

She seemed to be the woman who would replace me as the child of the oracle.

“This is Nevea Lurhtella.”

I had no choice but to be surprised by the appearance of the unexpected guest.

The vivid pink color of her hair alone explained her existence.

The color was a little darker than mine.

“Princess?”

Come to think of it, it has been a long time since I’ve been called a princess.

They had always called me ‘Your Highness, the Crown Princess’. Except for the depressed servants of the Duchy who called me ‘Princess’ until the time of my departure to the center of the empire.

“What are you doing here?”

This woman would sit where I was supposed to sit in the future.

I knew a lot about Marquis Lurhtella, but I didn’t have much information about their daughter. This was because the title of the house of Marquis was not so high.

I might have faced her several times on official occasions, but I didn’t seem to recall this face of hers.

She wasn’t ugly, but I felt strange when I saw this lady – a young Marquis who was not that exceptionally pretty.

“I came here to see the Princess.”
“I don’t think I ever gave you the permission to come here. This is not a place where you can enter recklessly.”

It did not occur to me that this lady could live well in this Fortress, which was so desolate and devoid of affection.

Many people’s fate came and went because of God’s mischief.

“That can’t be possible. This is the room I’m going to live in from now on. I just wanted to have a look at it.”

She grinned. Then, she craned her toes high a little to check the wide room over my shoulder.

She smacked her lips like a beast did in front of its prey and checked out the room as her eyes got filled with huge ambition.

I could guess what she saw.

This precious daughter of Lurhtella wanted the valued tiara, jewels, sparkling gold, and fluttering dresses.

And this room.

Ah, I couldn’t believe I have to give her everything.

Maybe I hated it a little……