Like any other Empire story, there will be one outstanding individual who will change the current status of the Empire and bring hope to the fallen Empire. But before that hero emerges, a tragedy has to happen first.

The First Empress of the Empire, Olivia, was an ordinary girl with only half noble blood. She lived in terrible conditions when she was younger, in a small village before discovering her royal blood. At first, she did not fit in very well with the palace rules, and her family considered her an outcast. None of her siblings considered her as a threat to the throne. But that was their mistake.

Olivia was very popular with the village people. Everybody saw her as a kind and yet strong lady. While Olivia still felt odd about her situation, she studied the customs well. It did not take long before others started to compare her with the current heirs to the throne. But it was not until she personally ended a war did people begin to call her out as a candidate to be the Empress.

It was a position that would unify the scattered members of royalty in the Kingdom. A position where she could make changes. While the Empire was not in ruins then, nobody could lead, and thus there were many barren lands. Many people did not have any homes or work.

So Olivia accepted it and became the Empress, the first thing she did was to unify the nobility and create a round table of families that would become the pillar of support to the Empire.

With the seven ruling families lending aid to the imperial family, it was the world’s strongest Empire.

The first family, with the emblem of the red lily

Second family, with the emblem of the blue wisteria

Third family, with the emblem of the yellow pegasus

Fourth family, with the emblem green eagles

Fifth family: with the purple lions

Sixth family: with the orange phoenix

Seventh family with the black diamonds

A different color can identify each ruling family. They all ruled in harmony under the First empress of the Empire and lived peacefully but only for a single generation. After the death of the First empress, the Empire fell into ruins. Chaos reigned the lands, and the seven ruling families gradually became corrupted.

The existence of an eighth family emerged shortly after the Empress’ death. They had no color and called themselves ‘blanks.’ These blanks acted submissive to the seven royal families, but many suspects that they have something to do with the empress’ death.

For years, nobody could assume the Empress title since only those born with a special “characteristic magic” could become the Empress.

Five years after the first Empress’s death, there was the birth of a girl with a strange birthmark in the second ruling family. It was different from the First Empress power, but it was a power that could make those submit.

The girl’s parents did not want to reveal this information and kept it to themselves. They tried to hide the girl away from the rest of society. But the moment she turned twenty-five, she received a ruling from those temporarily in charge.

After the first empress’s death, the elders of the Empire isolated themselves in the magic tower. From there, they maintained a neutral stance and simply watched over the Empire. They were mere puppets who could not do anything.

For years they remained silent, but after they discovered the girl.

‘You must become the Empress.’

Unknown to them, another girl was born with a unique mark; that girl chose a different path.

…

After the First Empress’s death, one family among the seven had a vast amount of power. The ageha family with a red lily as their emblem. The first ruling family with the most prestige and history. But unlike the other ruling families, this family dealt with matters of the underworld. All children born into this family are trained as high-level assassins that the imperial family could use.

The family became more corrupted and, at some point, started to deal with shady businesses such as drugs and human trafficking.

The main trigger of that change was the birth of a young girl with mysterious eyes. But right as they discovered this girl’s right to be Empress, they received word about the other girl. They decided quickly, and they would train this girl to be Empress first and have her compete. Yet, they did not think for a moment that she would refuse. When the girl was old enough to walk and talk, the first thing she said was, ‘I will never become the Empress.’

So she chose another path, not the path of assassination, but the path of being a general in the imperial family. Many in the family scorned her for submitting, but some understood her personality.

She chose the path to be a general to see the wars up close, to be on the battlefield—a path of bloodshed and constant terror that is the path she Ageha Lilian chose.

In an underground torture chamber in the Ageha mansion, a woman with long black hair and bloodshot red eyes entered the chambers without a single lantern. Her father’s men who saw her tried to give her a light source, but she shook it away.

“There is no need.”

The darker it is, the better. Unlike the eyes of the Empress, her eyes were cursed. She could control others, but there was an issue, her limited eyesight, limited only to the dark. She mainly saw in the dark during the day; her eyesight was monochrome.

“General t—those things around you—?” One of the soldiers stuttered.

“Hmm? These?” She raised her fingers. A stream of red lilies surrounded her. It was the flower of separation, hundreds of red spider lilies.

“Are they—al-” the solider didn’t finish his sentence before the red spider lilies headed in his direction. In the next few minutes, nobody could hear anything else but the sound of consumed flesh.

Her lips curve to a smile. “Mischievous creatures aren’t they? The moment they see a bit of blood, they go a bit crazy. ”

The remaining soldiers all had pale faces, but they silently led her to the main chamber.

“Is the news true? Did you confirm who the prisoner was?” Lilian asked the head guard.

“Yes, mam. It is the rumored missing Prince from the yellow Dantalias.”

“Prince Pierre?” She recalled the name her father mentioned to her before.

“Correct, mam.”

When she heard the news, Lilian personally wanted to go and torture him. She has no personal connections with him, and it would be her first time meeting the Prince. But once she heard the connection he had to the new Empress, she became interested.

Stepping into the chamber, she expected to see the man chained up. But instead, she saw an empty sight.

She frowned when she saw the broken chains. “Where is he?!!”

“We do not know ma–”

“Where is he?” Lilian repeated.

“Mam, we just received word. This guy let him escape.”

Her gaze darted towards the other guy on the ground. Based on his clothing, he was a mere civilian, but she noticed the papers scattered. A news reporter? Ah, it took her a few moments before she recognized the guy. It was the editor in chief of the Empire news source Liam.

A deep sigh escaped her lips when she looked at the pathetic creature on the ground. She slowly walked over to him, and an agonized screech was torn from his lips as she gradually stepped on each finger.

“Father granted you permission to do interviews around the estate, but instead, you let the prisoner escape?”

“You personally came here. Is this guy that special General of the Empire Miss Lilian?” Liam mocked.

Beads of sweat clung to his already pale face. It seemed like the head guard already tortured him before she came here. She saw wip signs on his arms.

Lilian saw a defiant look in his eyes. But his eyes looked like a mere child to her. This won’t be fun, but it will do until the guards find the escapee. She slowly lifted her feet from each of the kids’ fingers. Despite only stepping on it a few times, she noted how some fingers bent backward.

What a weakling, she has yet to do anything too.

Lilian raised her hand, and the guards lifted Liam from the ground and shackled him onto the wall.

“Now then, I suppose since you are here, you might as well answer my questions.”

“Like I will tell you an-” Liam paused mid-sentence as he looked at what she just picked up. In her hands were a few candles. “Wh–what do you plan to do?”

“Did you know the ageha family are trained assassins? We specialize in quickly killing our enemies. But if the imperial family still wants something with them, they ask us to do the interrogation. They give the orders, but they don’t have to do anything and keep their hands clean. Isn’t that strange?” She slowly tipped the candle above the boy’s head, and he screamed in agony.

“So each head of the family decided we will include our own rules, instead of a normal interrogation we can play around with the captured individual. The others do their own thing, but I prefer this method.”

She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Torture them until they are half dead-” Her sentence fell short when the young boy broke free of the shackles. He took something out of his pocket and sprinkled it across her eyes, and rushed off.

The soldiers on the sidelines did not move despite seeing the situation. Why would they have to?

He is indeed a child, what childish and naive methods.

But did he think he could escape? She loosened the shackles on purpose, idiot.

With one lift of her finger, a stream of poisonous red vines emerged from the ground and shackled the young boy’s feet.

Lilian walked over. “To see you struggle more is my greatest pleasure in life. But unfortunately today I have to rush things, I have something bothersome to attend to.”

But that bothersome thing could potentially turn out to be interesting.

Torture them until they are half dead, heal them, torture them again, and set them free. Give them that foolish hope that they can escape, and when they rest comfortably in their own homes again, they get killed.

Such is the way of the family she lives in.

But this young boy is more fun to torture than she thought. After she lets him go, she will let him live for a bit longer instead of killing him immediately.

A quick and swift death is boring; Ageha Lilian prefers to prey on her victims until nothing is left. Prey on them until she hatters their soul, and there is absolutely nothing but a lifeless puppet.

Lilian watched as the red spider lilies around her headed towards the boy and slowly bit by bit the vines pierced into his flesh. The screeching of a young boy with such a defiant attitude pleased her, but she felt disappointed. Torturing that Prince would have been a lot more fun.

“Make sure to heal him so he can move later on and fix his stuff. Afterwards, send his family a message. The ageha family will not tolerate such behavior again.”

“Yes, mam.”

She wonders why these things obey her. Is it because she is the strongest in her family? No other member of her family can handle these creatures. Nobody would choose them as their familiar creatures that serve their master. Others often chose creatures such as dragons or goblins. But instead, she picked this flower, and it felt like something was calling out to her.

Her thoughts broke off when she heard a large horn sound come from the small window’s direction. Lilian turned to the young boy. “You’re really lucky today, and it seems you can escape sooner.”

She turned away and headed towards the exit, but at the last moment, she took a small dagger from her pouch and threw it. It landed exactly in the spot she wanted it to, just right above his stomach and just barely missing his heart.

“It is time to greet the new Empress. I wonder how long she will last?”