Free Web NovelTalia stared into the mirror.
The face of the woman she had grown sick of seeing since the day she was born stared back at her.
If there was any difference between them, it was this: unlike the elegant smile and strangely seductive eyes reflected in the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) mirror she knew so well, the girl before her now possessed anxious eyes clouded with unease and dry, chapped lips.
After glaring at her own reflection with dissatisfaction, Talia turned toward her nursemaid.
“How do I look?”
“Like an angel itself.”
The nursemaid, who had been tirelessly brushing her hair, smiled until her eyes curved into crescents.
“Your Highness truly resembles Lady Senevier so much. Dressed up like this, you look exactly like her at eighteen.”
Talia slapped away the plump hand playing with her hair.
The nursemaid’s thoughtless habit of treating resemblance to someone else as praise irritated her beyond measure.
“That’s enough brushing. Just bring me the dress.”
With the face of a puppy kicked underfoot, the nursemaid waddled over to the chest.
Talia watched her with displeasure.
How could someone be so dull-witted?
After grunting and digging around inside the chest, the woman carefully lifted out a crimson satin dress and glanced at Talia for approval.
“Look at this. It’s the dress Lady Senevier wore when she first entered the Imperial Palace. She must have prepared it specially for Your Highness.”
A weary expression crossed Talia’s face.
“You even remember what Mother wore that long ago?”
“Of course I do! How could I ever forget that day? Lady Senevier didn’t seem human at all. I nearly cried just realizing someone so beautiful could exist in this world. Even His Majesty the Emperor couldn’t take his eyes off her.”
The nursemaid sighed dreamily, as though reliving a beautiful fantasy.
Talia swallowed a bitter laugh.
Did this woman truly believe the meeting between those two had been some legendary romance?
At the time, the Emperor already had an Empress he had shared six years of marriage with. Worse still, she had been close to giving birth. freeweɓnøvel.com
The meeting between Senevier and the Emperor had been nothing more than a sordid affair.
Even after the former Empress Bernadette died and Senevier became the official Empress, people had never forgotten.
As long as she existed, no one would ever forget the shameless sin they had committed.
Suppressing the sarcasm rising into her throat, Talia snatched the dress from the nursemaid’s hands.
“If you have time to babble nonsense, finish dressing me.”
“Of course. I’ll take care of everything.”
The nursemaid helped her into the beautiful velvet bliaut.
As she arranged her hair, Talia looked into the mirror once more.
Wearing her mother’s dress made her resemble Senevier even more.
Was that dangerously heavy aura of sensuality beginning to bloom inside her as well?
Talia stared fixedly at the upper curve of her breasts beginning to rise above the deeply cut square neckline.
No one could call it dignified.
But no one could deny it was devastatingly alluring.
Out of habit, Talia lifted her fingers toward her lips, then quickly lowered them again, worried she might ruin her makeup.
Tonight, more than anyone else, she wanted to look beautiful.
If possible, she wanted to be even more beautiful than her mother.
I want everyone to look at me.
I want no one to look at Aila.
A fierce hunger glimmered in the dark blue eyes reflected in the mirror.
It was not the sort of gaze an Imperial Princess should possess.
It was the gaze of a starving beggar scavenging in the streets.
Talia grabbed the candlestick sitting atop the table and mercilessly smashed it into the woman in the mirror.
With a deafening crash, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the surface.
The nursemaid, who had been arranging the hem of her dress, gasped and collapsed onto the floor.
Throwing the candlestick aside, Talia said coldly,
“I’m sick of that mirror. Bring me a new one.”
The nursemaid looked up at her with a pale face before silently pressing her lips together and standing again.
Then, as though nothing had happened, she draped a luxurious fur-lined cloak over Talia’s shoulders.
Talia stared at her reflection fractured into dozens of pieces across the mirror before abruptly turning away.
The moment she stepped outside the room, she saw one of the escort knights Senevier had sent standing rigidly in the corridor.
Ignoring the man’s flushed face as he stared at her, she descended the stairs. freewebnovel.cσ๓
Outside the detached palace waited a four-wheeled carriage trimmed in gold alongside eight guards.
Apparently, Senevier had no intention of allowing her eldest daughter to appear shabby.
‘She probably wants me to make her political enemies uncomfortable.’
Twisting her lips cynically, Talia climbed into the carriage.
Just then, a newly assigned guard knight approached to close the door and blurted out, as though vomiting up something burning in his throat,
“Tonight... you are truly beautiful, Your Highness.”
The longing in his voice made every hair on her body stand on end.
Talia shot him a sharp glare.
She had no need for praise from a man like this.
“Stop saying useless things and get moving.”
The knight closed the door with an embarrassed expression.
Soon, the carriage began to move.
Leaning deep into the seat, she gazed through the fluttering curtains at the blood-red sky.
How wonderful it would be if tonight’s banquet were stained in colors like that.
She wished some great uproar would erupt and ruin everything completely.
Unconsciously, she brushed her lips with her fingers before noticing crimson dye staining the tips of her nails. Startled, she quickly lowered her hand.
Her nerves felt as though they were being burned alive.
In contrast to her mood, beautiful melodies and brilliant lights poured endlessly from the main palace ahead.
After stepping down from the carriage, Talia frowned as she surveyed the broad road leading toward the banquet hall and the lavishly decorated gardens.
Hundreds of nobles dressed in silk ascended the marble staircase and entered the palace hall one after another.
Ignoring the knight who followed behind to escort her, she walked toward the entrance.
The moment people recognized her, they instinctively stepped aside.
Naturally so.
This palace was her home.
She had not the slightest intention of standing in line like ordinary guests.
Talia calmly addressed the servant staring at her in confusion.
“I came to celebrate my siblings’ birthday.”
The servant’s eyes widened.
Talia snapped irritably,
“Why are you just standing there instead of announcing my arrival?”
Only then did the startled servant hurriedly step beside a pillar and shout loudly,
“Her Highness the Second Imperial Princess, Talia Roem Gwirta, has arrived!”
An icy silence instantly filled the magnificent hall.
Talia lifted her chin proudly as she stepped into the brilliant banquet hall drenched in gold light.
She could feel hundreds of piercing gazes crawling over her from head to toe.
Quietly savoring their shock, anger, bewilderment, and reluctant admiration, Talia walked gracefully forward.
As though the tide itself were retreating, people distanced themselves from her.
Like I’m some kind of plague.
A malicious smile touched Talia’s lips.
Then someone blocked her path.
“What brings you here?”
She slowly looked up at the man’s face.
He was one of the witless fools who worshipped her noble half-sister, Aila.
Deliberately, Talia smiled in a strangely seductive way.
She had watched her mother enchant men like this thousands of times.
“Did I come somewhere I’m not allowed?”
The man’s rigid face, stiff with caution, instantly flushed red.
Startled, he took a step backward.
Talia advanced even closer than he had retreated and lifted her chin arrogantly.
“This is my father’s palace, and tonight’s banquet is for my siblings. What exactly is wrong with me being here?”
The moment she met his eyes directly, the man froze completely.
His nostrils flared visibly.
It seemed he was breathing in the scent of the rose oil the nursemaid had painstakingly worked into every strand of her hair.
As his gaze blurred like a man drunk on strong liquor, Talia felt both strange satisfaction and intense disgust rise within her at once.
Leaving behind the man who could only tremble soundlessly like an idiot, she walked toward the center of the hall.
