From the Cradle to the Grave - Chapter 1

“…….”

Serendia stared blankly out the window.

Thick raindrops pounded relentlessly against the glass. Each time thunder boomed, dust fell from the cracks in the ceiling and walls.

Rumble-. Boom!

Even as the entire building swayed in the fierce storm, Serendia didn’t bat an eye.

It was due to the strong medication she was taking.

Serendia Icewind.

Now twenty-six, she was born the youngest daughter of Duke and Duchess Icewind, who ruled over the vast northern territories.

‘Always be kind. Even to those who beg in the streets like filthy beggars. Those born with nothing are the ones who appreciate even the smallest kindness the most.’

‘…Yes, Father.’

‘Serendia, your luxurious life is merely a stroke of luck, having been born with divine power. So do not grow arrogant. Act responsibly as a saint, so as not to tarnish our family’s honor. Do you understand?’

‘…Yes, Mother.’

Blessed by the Moon Goddess with divine power, she was revered as a saint outside, but within her home, she was merely an endlessly lacking and immature child.

‘Have you truly fallen for that heathen’s spawn? Do you know how much money we spent to prevent the false rumors of you trying to elope with that beast from spreading!’

‘They say you shouldn’t take in beasts with black hair…! When the sailors brought that beast to the ducal castle, I should have ordered them to cut off its head!’

After the disgraceful incident, she had to remain confined within the house until the event was forgotten by people’s memories.

What pained Serendia the most was the reality of not being able to confirm the life or death of the one she loved.

Had that child crossed the sea safely?

Had they survived and obtained the freedom they dreamed of?

One night, she spent sleepless hours weeping.

Serendia, who had fallen into disgrace within the family, was presented with a once-in-a-lifetime event that her parents would welcome.

‘Father, Mother! They say Moonstone has been discovered in the mines!’

‘Is that truly so, Isgal?’

‘Good heavens. Ever since we took in that Serendia, it’s been nothing but misfortune, but finally, the cruel goddess looks upon our family with favor.’

‘Moonstone’ had been discovered in the northern mines.

The Duke and Duchess found a new use for their daughter, whose usefulness as a saint was waning, thanks to this discovery.

The oldest alchemy, mixing noble blood with power, was a political marriage.

The Duke and Duchess proposed a political marriage to the imperial family, using Moonstone, which contained the source of magic, as bait.

In an era where magic had all but vanished, the value of Moonstone was immeasurable.

Thus, Serendia, who became engaged to Prince Andrew, headed to the imperial capital, Hylark, with her mother alone for bridal training.

That was three years ago…

Serendia’s life was unhappy. It was filled with such terrible pain that it could be defined by the single word ‘unhappy.’

Furthermore, three years of life in the royal capital were enough to shatter the soul of a woman who had grown too accustomed to unhappiness.

The Saint of the North.

The Prince’s fiancée.

The future Empress who would one day bear the responsibility of the Empire.

She had endured, stitching together her broken soul with nothing but the sense of duty to fulfill the roles assigned to her. But then…

‘It is said that intruders in the palace attacked the Prince’s fiancée.’

‘Is that true? Outside the capital, heathens are stirring up trouble all over the continent, and even the palace isn’t safe.’

‘Oh, dear. Watch your tongue. The Empress is already extremely sensitive due to the issue with those heathens.’

While her fiancé was immersed in pleasure, buried in the ample bosoms and soft flesh of other women.

Serendia waited alone for her fiancé. She waited endlessly, and then waited some more.

Like a dog waiting for its master.

All she, in her incompetence, could do was sit still and wait. Until the unhappiness, now like a part of her own body, befell her.

‘Haa, it’s a good thing the guards noticed. If they had been a moment later. Ugh, I don’t even want to imagine it!’

‘…….’

‘Hey, Serendia! Are you listening?’

‘Yes, yes… Oh, Mother. I, I’m listening.’

‘You never excelled at anything since you were little. Still, you managed to keep your virginity. Well done.’

Well done.

The Duchess praised Serendia for the first time.

It was because her daughter, after a frantic struggle, had managed to protect her chastity from the attackers.

However, as if that incident was the final nail in the coffin, Serendia was completely broken.

This is all my worth amounts to.

Though she had merely been fulfilling the roles assigned to her early on, a puppet acting according to a script handed to her by others.

‘Ah, aah… Aaaah…!’

‘Your Grace, the young lady is having another episode!’

After that incident, Serendia suffered from seizures.

The childhood traumas she had tried so hard to forget resurfaced, suffocating her.

Her festering inner wounds overflowed beyond her skin. Serendia felt like her body was a decaying corpse.

She always had nightmares at night and always woke up screaming.

Daytime was no different.

A pain as if something invisible was tightly constricting her throat. She would often faint after hyperventilating.

Fearing that the engagement, painstakingly arranged, would be broken due to Serendia’s illness, the Duchess began giving her strong medication.

The drug’s effect was truly remarkable.

As long as she took it, no pain in reality could affect Serendia.

She drifted further from reality with each passing day.

“Serendia! Serendia!”

At that moment, someone shook Serendia’s arm forcefully. Serendia slowly lifted her head.

It was the Duchess.

“The Prince has returned, what are you doing sitting here like an idiot?”

She meant for Serendia to charm the Prince and win his favor. Serendia barely managed to lift her drugged body and went to greet her fiancé.

“Oh, you’ve… you’ve returned, Your Highness.”

“I thought you were barren, but you’ve turned into a complete imbecile.”

Andrew scanned Serendia’s emaciated body up and down and muttered in a displeased tone.

“If only you had been violated by those attackers that day, you wouldn’t be suffering like this.”

“Don’t mind what His Highness says, dear. He must be saying things he doesn’t mean because his journey was arduous.”

The Duchess patted Serendia’s back.

Andrew scoffed at her disingenuous act.

“Ha! You must not be understanding me properly either, having accompanied him on a grueling journey.”

A tense exchange ensued between the mother and the fiancé, but Serendia, due to the strong medication, couldn’t sense the sharp atmosphere.

It was perhaps for the better for Serendia.

Every time they argued like this, her heart felt like it would leap out of her chest.

“You two mother and daughter are nothing but lies. I even suspect that she’s pretending to be an imbecile to mock me.”

“When a woman almost lost her chastity, isn’t it natural for her to be out of her mind?”

Andrew, completely forgetting the scandals he himself had been involved in, was busy blaming Serendia. The Duchess, who responded to him, was equally shameless.

“Are you telling me to look after a sick person during wartime? To tend to a patient, me, a noble Prince?”

“Oh my, is Serendia just anyone? She is the child who will become Your Highness’s wife. Sigh, if only she had her beloved fiancé’s affection, she would recover in no time.”

The Duchess stroked her daughter’s silken silver hair with a look of pity.

Her tone resembled that of a merchant lamenting a prince’s lack of discernment for a rare treasure, rather than a mother worrying about her child.

“I’m sick and tired of being tormented by a pair of con artists!”

Andrew shouted, throwing his cloak down in irritation. The expensive cloak, now sprawled on the floor, was damp with rainwater.

The Prince and his soldiers had been stranded at an old castle on the outskirts of the capital due to the heavy storm that had raged for days.

“Con artists? There’s no evidence that our family falsified the Moonstone output, is there?”

Andrew’s handsome face contorted at the Duchess’s shameless attitude. As she said, there were only suspicions, no concrete proof.

“If only it weren’t for that damned heathen!”

Andrew gritted his teeth. If not for that, he wouldn’t be suffering like this, a noble prince!

As suspicions arose that the Moonstone output in the North might have been manipulated, the engagement that had lasted for three years was on the verge of being broken.

For Andrew, who had always disliked Serendia and her mother, this was welcome news.

However, the moment an investigator was dispatched, a disaster-like terror swept across the continent of Pantea.

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