Queen Pyramia of Peronica sat on the balcony, her mind sadly drifting back to the day's ceremonies.

The princess's room, with its grand old dress on a large mannequin, and the king's throne, haunted her memories.

Though her bones ached, she stood and walked. Her reflection in the crystal walls mirrored her loneliness as she passed them.

The cremation ceremony for her husband, the King of Peronica, had just ended. Her black gown, weary from soaking her tears, felt heavy, and her sandals seemed stuck, like a broken-down carriage.

It was late afternoon, the sunlight dim and melancholic. The whisper of the rooms was quiet, only the mournful music from across the town pierced Queen Pyramia's grieving heart. She walked barefoot, her shoulders slumped, holding the king's crown as she moved through the chambers.

As she passed the princess's room, she suddenly heard a noise—a rattling sound, like someone forcefully trying to open a cabinet, like a thief.

Pyramia's response: She grabbed a heavy sword from a statue, slowly entered the room, and investigated the sound. Her fingers still smelled of candles as she wiped away the tears on her cheeks.

Her hair looked like an abandoned bird's nest, but in the queen's mind, she was ready to fight, even with a heavy heart.

The queen saw the cabinet moving, like a wild beast in her daughter's room.

Queen Pyramia slowly reached for the doorknob, hesitant like a porcupine.

The queen's sword pointed forward like a scorpion's tail. When she opened it, the pale face of a woman appeared, her lips white as if covered in ice, and her breath whispering as if from a deep well.

"Herllynd Emesis?" The queen's eyes widened, the sword clanged to the floor like a broken branch, and time seemed to stop for a moment. "Is that really you???" She stepped back, filled with doubt, wondering if she was hallucinating.

"Mama!!!" Perlend called out, her voice slow, as if carrying the weight of the world.

*SLAP!!!

Instead of a hug, Queen Pyramia delivered a slap, leaving a bruise on Perlend's cheek. Anger and shock drove her to slap Perlend, something she would never have done before, not even allowing a fly to land on her. But now, Queen Pyramia couldn't stop herself because of Perlend's past disappearance.

However, upon seeing her daughter, she remembered the curse and felt pity and guilt for hurting her. She then walked away from Perlend.

Pyramia couldn't yet make out if what was strapped to Perlend's back was a baby. Pyramia avoided getting close, as if she had seen a leper, but Perlend persistently approached, crying and trying desperately to get her mother's attention.

Despite her struggle, Perlend chased her mother until she reached the doorway. Perlend felt her mother's anger, especially since she was only showing herself now after a year, when everyone had presumed the princess was dead.

"You had a secret passage??" Perlend merely nodded to Queen Pyramia's question, as if she had no tongue to explain the revelation of the secret.

Perlend's vision swayed like an earthquake, and her head ached as if splitting. She wanted to explain but was ashamed of the truth that she had defied her parents.

Perlend's mother rolled her eyes, unwilling to look at her. Pyramia's eyes fixed again on the cabinet, the reason Perlend had been able to leave unnoticed back then. Even Perlend's father had been unaware of this, all because of the maiden's mischievousness, ready to do anything to follow her heart's call.

Before, Queen Pyramia had always been strict about her daughter venturing outside the palace. The queen had a strong suspicion back then that no man would dislike her princess daughter.

Fearing the phoenix's curse, she chose to be a strict mother. However, the princess felt suffocated by the queen's excessive worry about the curse.

At this moment, Pyramia slowly accepted her own mistake, which led Perlend to marry and elope with another man. But she couldn't fully understand why their kind and quiet daughter would elope and hurt their feelings when their only desire was Perlend's well-being.

"Mama, I heard about Papa... and," Perlend said when she saw her father's crown in Queen Pyramia's hand.

Perlend's fingers trembled, and her breathing became labored. The curse's grip on her tightened due to the sorrow she now felt, and red rashes appeared on her pale skin.

Perlend heard about the death of the King of Peronica a week ago, which coincided with the birth of Pyramus. This was another reason for Perlend's rush to return to Peronica, even though her health was deteriorating.

Before she even reached Peronica, she struggled to walk; thankfully, her personal attendant ceaselessly assisted her, and now she had left him outside the secret passage to wait for her.

"He grieved for so long when you disappeared from Peronica, he couldn't accept your absence. Everyone thought you were dead or eaten by a wild beast near the stream, a secret spot where maidens go, and all because of that cursed passage!" Queen Pyramia's tears flowed again as she recalled her husband's intense longing for their lost daughter. "If only you knew, your father didn't stop searching for a single day and didn't sleep a single night thinking about you."

Pyramia hugged the crown, knowing she would never be with the king again. "And now you only show up when your father is dead?" The question hung in the air, a huge blow to Perlend's being.

Perlend burst into tears upon hearing what happened to her father, it felt like a knife twisting in her heart, especially hearing her mother's story. She collapsed at her mother's feet, begging for forgiveness.

"Forgive me... forgive me..." she repeated, bitter tears falling onto her mother's feet. But those tears freshly kissed the queen's feet, and Perlend's earnest plea was felt.

Yet, her mother's cold and sad face only asked why she had done it. Her parents had not been lacking, but what Perlend did was worse than pushing and pulling someone into a ravine.

"Why??" A question that even historians would ponder deeply—they know what happened in history but would still ask why it happened.

But for Perlend, only tears and regret were her answer. Her lips emitted no sound, only a hum that couldn't be heard even with her mouth open.

"Why did you do this to us, Perlend?"

Silence reigned for a few seconds, both consumed by their own regrets. However, the baby's cry shattered their quiet.

Queen Pyramia's heart clenched upon hearing the innocent baby, a consequence of Perlend's stubbornness. But when she saw Perlend's face, her feelings hardened again, and she asked Perlend: "Who is the father of that child?"

The queen's eyebrows rose again, scrutinizing every tear flowing down Perlend's face.

Perlend gasped and wiped the tears from her cheeks, battling her sadness. Her eyes were brave as she looked at her mother, like a daring woman.

"I loved Xerxez." The queen's eyebrows clashed like swords when she heard the familiar name. "The father of my child is a king of Thallerion."

"Xerxez?" Queen Pyramia's lips trembled as she uttered Xerxez's name, and she nearly fainted, as if struck by a heavy hammer, because Perlend bravely revealed the baby's true father.

"The wedding in Thallerion—was that your wedding?" She sat on the bed, collapsing like a sandcastle washed away by waves.

"How did that happen?" Queen Pyramia couldn't fully grasp the truth that Xerxez was the sole reason for their princess's disappearance back then. The queen's eyes were like a charging army—questioning why the king had done this to them.

In Queen Pyramia's eyes, Xerxez seemed like an enemy holding a hostage. However, Xerxez was unaware of Perlend's deception, and now the queen believed Xerxez was the cause of everything. "I will make the King of Thallerion pay!!!" The queen's fingers bled as she clutched her husband's crown, her eyes wide and fiery. Perlend saw how disappointed her mother was, so she decided to make it clear to the queen that Xerxez was not the cause of everything—she herself was!

"Mama, Xerxez is innocent!!" Perlend cried. She sat next to the queen and slowly held her hands to prevent her from hurting herself with the crown. "Me. I'm the one who lied!" The queen looked at her, as if rejecting Perlend.

"Enough, Perlend!!!" Queen Pyramia exclaimed, almost covering her ears from the bitter revelations Perlend shared. "You've hurt me repeatedly!" Tears had already washed away the queen's makeup, and fresh tears continued to stream down her cheeks.

"Mama, I was afraid that—" Perlend stammered, breathless and hoarse. "That you would hinder my dreams in life—I love Xerxez!"

"Are you insane???" Pyramia shrieked, like a sword violently plunged. "Don't you hear yourself?" She pulled her arm away from Perlend's grip and then snorted sharply.

This is continuation for the solemn and grief that tore her family broken. Because of one thing, lie. Her daughter lie to them that she was dead. Everyone thought she is dead already.

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