[Episode 1] Broken wreaths and the shadows of a chilly night
2026, Imperial Palace of the Korean Empire
The heart of the empire, shining brilliantly as if it had gathered all the light and wealth of the world, was chillingly cold and bizarre under the winter rain at the imperial palace, chillingly cold to the bone.
Beyond the massive glass window adorned with ornate gold leaf, gray clouds lay low, and raindrops relentlessly tapped the window like someone's pent-up tears.
In the inner workings of the Empress, Min Si-eun, the only daughter of the Minseok Group, the top-ranking member of the Korean Empire's business world, and the only queen of the empire, sat motionless in front of the mirror.
The ornate sling that pressed down on her slender neck and the layers of red ceremonial attire were nothing short of a flamboyant restraint that stifled her breath.
The 27-year-old empress reflected in the mirror was as cold and perfectly beautiful as a piece of ice, but deep shadows of despair flickered within her empty eyes.
"I am concerned that Sieun Mama Okche might be damaged. Why don't you have a cup of tea?"
The nanny, who had been by Si-eun's side since childhood, placed warm chrysanthemum tea down with trembling hands.
The wrinkled nanny's eyes always held a deep sense of regret for Si-eun.
Sieun blinked slowly instead of answering.
Her gaze was fixed on the pitiful chrysanthemum leaves floating in the teacup.
Those petals, helplessly swept away by the hot water and stripped of their fragrance, felt as if they were in their own situation.
"It rains, and I remember that day. I'm talking about the first time I wore this breathtaking red dress."
The nanny couldn't bring herself to answer Si-eun's murmuring and lowered her head.
At 13, when everything in the world seemed beautiful and hopeful, Si-eun was the only daughter of Min-seok Group Chairman Min Hyun-seok, who would not be hurt even if she were put in his eyes.
Sieun deeply admired the kind young Crown Prince Yoo Jong-seok, whom she had encountered by chance at a royal banquet during her childhood.
That pure unrequited love, combined with the thorough political calculations of adults, was packaged under the name of "arranged marriage."
The imperial family needed the massive capital of the Minseok Group, and the Minseok Group needed the power of the empire.
Sieun, at 13, was so overjoyed that she couldn't sleep at night at the thought of her kind older brother, who used to smile at her, becoming her husband.
Wearing a ceremonial robe larger than her own size and a heavy cloisonné crown, Si-eun firmly vowed to dedicate her life to this man.
However, the gaze of the young groom, 15-year-old Yoo Jong-seok, who greeted her at the end of the altar, was not the warm spring breeze that Si-eun remembered.
It was cold and dry, like the harsh Siberian plains.
The deceitful gaze that greedily scanned only the wealth of the Minseok Group should have instinctively realized it then.
The fact that the crown he wore was actually an invisible crown of thorns, and that those thorns would dig into his heart for the rest of his life, causing him to bleed.
When Si-eun, at the age of 13, was slowly withering away in a splendid cage, a completely different breed of beast was growing in the darkest and most humid bottom of the imperial palace.
At the same time, Shinari, a 12-year-old orphanage on the outskirts of a slum, was lying face down on the cold mud floor, enduring the director's beatings with venomous eyes.
The world of Ari, filled with hunger, violence, and extreme poverty, was entirely gray, and she had never experienced someone's unrequited kindness even once.
"It's not my fault, the world is just a mess."
Clenching her bruised hand tightly, the 12-year-old Ari repeated it thousands, tens of thousands of times in her mind.
While the other children cried and fell asleep from hunger, Ari resolved to somehow survive, escape this sewer-like place, and place the world beneath her feet.
For Ari, stealing a friend's bread and fabricating terrible lies to please the director, who was trying to shift the blame onto others, was a survival instinct as natural as breathing.
Thanks to her venomous and meanness, and her strangely captivating, forlorn beauty, Ari was able to pass the selection of low-ranking court ladies and set foot in the imperial palace.
To Ari, who started at the lowest point at the age of 12, the imperial palace was a vast hunting ground.
She, with an angel's face, thoroughly trampled, slandered, and used others, gradually climbing upwards.
And finally, he succeeded in catching the eye of Emperor Yoo Jong-seok, the very top prey.
Ari, who instantly saw through Yoo Jong-seok's arrogance and vanity, became the sweet poison he most desired, perfectly seizing control of his reason and power.
That hellish orphanage was not just filled with Ari.
There was a boy named Kim Min-hyuk, who lived like an animal with a blood-red wound that he had to silently watch his parents, the only survivor of an old noble family who were framed for treason and annihilated overnight, witnessing their heads be severed through the cracks in the closet.
The moment a single ray of warmth seeped into Minhyuk's frozen world, which had been held on with anger and a desire for revenge against the world, was when he saw 13-year-old Min Si-eun, who had accompanied her father to an orphanage sponsorship event.
Cuddled in a corner covered in dust and casting a wary glance, Si-eun approached Min-hyuk without hesitation and handed him her white handkerchief.
"Don't be sick, it's okay to cry."
In a world where no one ever cried for her, the girl shed tears of pity for the first time, and at that moment, an indelible brand was imprinted on Minhyuk's heart.
Minhyuk escaped from the orphanage that night and, with the feeling of vomiting blood, rolled around in the dark alleys, learning martial arts.
Even amidst the pain of broken bones and torn flesh, the sole thought was to meet Min Si-eun again and become her shadow.
And ten years later, Minhyuk, who passed the hellish training at the top, became the elite agent of the Imperial Guard of the Korean Empire and finally stood by Si-eun's side.
Even though she is in the miserable position of empress, spending every night in tears as the wife of another man, Minhyuk pledged to remain a shadow cast at her feet and to keep her kindness for the rest of her life, staking his blood and soul on a vow of silence.
A low, heavy voice shattered my thoughts.
The curtains of the inner room were lifted, and Han, Si-eun's personal secretary, entered with a stern expression.
Behind him, the imposing silhouette of bodyguard Kim Min-hyuk, standing without a single moment's disarray, with his wet hair neatly combed back.
Si-eun's gaze briefly lingered on Min-hyuk before turning back to Secretary Han.
"What's going on, Secretary Han?"
An urgent message has arrived from Secretary Kim, who is on the side of the Queen Dowager. "Tonight, it is reported that His Majesty is secretly meeting with outside figures at the Shinari residence. This is intelligence that the atmosphere is unusual."
Sieun's eyes hardened coldly.
Recently, I was secretly tracking through Secretary Han about circumstances where a significant amount of funds were leaking out of the imperial family to an unknown location.
"I will prepare and go to the Emperor's residence."
"Your Majesty! Where are you going at this late hour? His Majesty must be furious."
Although the nanny tried to dissuade her, Si-eun was already getting up from her seat.
Shedding the hostility that felt like a bond and wearing a black silk gown, her steps carried no hesitation.
"It's not about seeing His Majesty. I'm going to catch up on the tails of thieves who steal from me."
Minhyuk silently followed Sieun as she walked down the dark corridor.
Only the sound of each other's breathing mixed with the sound of rain echoed through the long corridor, and finally arrived at the most secluded, secret annex in front of the Emperor's private residence, Gyotaejeon.
In front of the secluded annex, where even the security had been withdrawn, a faintly sweet and sticky laugh, almost disgusting, flowed out through the gap in the half-open window.
"Your Majesty, are you really planning to take over the Minseok Group? If the Empress finds out..."
It was Shin Ari's coquettish voice.
In that captivating voice, there was an indescribable sense of satisfaction and greed that could not be hidden.
What can you do if that woman finds out? "It's just a foolish doll that has been crying while holding onto my pants leg since I was 13."
The arrogant sneer from Yoo Jong-seok that followed felt as if Si-eun's heart was freezing to the point of being shattered into pieces.
"The 500 billion won from the national treasury, already embezzled under the guise of a royal restoration project, has been perfectly laundered into a nominee account under your name. Tomorrow morning, the cabinet will be moved to frame the Minseok Group and the Empress as the mastermind behind all this embezzlement. Once we end the life of that heinous old man Min Hyun-seok, the seat beside this empire will be entirely yours." My pretty Ariah.
Ah~ Your Majesty's grace is immense. I long to see the arrogant Empress kneel down, shedding tears and snot, and being dethroned as soon as possible.
Thunder rumbled, instantly illuminating the annex.
Si-eun's face, standing in the darkness outside the window, was pale without a trace of color.
It was a moment when even the pure affection of a 13-year-old and the meager sense of duty I wanted to fulfill as a wife were thoroughly trampled upon and violated over 14 years.
The heinous deception of Si-eun, who, beyond abandoning herself, was trying to drive even the father and family who gave birth to her into the abyss of ruin, trembled with shock and betrayal.
Just as it seemed as though her legs might give way and she would collapse at any moment, a large, rough hand firmly wrapped around Si-eun's slender shoulders.
At the end of Si-eun's gaze, startled, stood Kim Min-hyuk with a beastly look that gleamed in the darkness.
Minhyuk's gaze was silently shouting towards Sieun, who was about to collapse.
"Your Majesty, please do not fall under any circumstances, and do not cry."
Sieun bit her lip tightly and suppressed the tears that were about to flow.
Her lips were split, and a metallic taste of blood spread throughout her mouth, but for the first time, a sharp blue flame was ignited in her empty eyes.
Yes, if you wish it so much, I will gladly wash this imperial family with blood, Yoo Jong-seok!
It was the moment when Si-eun was about to turn away with cold, chilled eyes.
Minhyuk, gasping for breath, took out a leather notebook covered in red blood from his bosom and handed it to Si-eun.
Sieun's eyes widened in astonishment.
The cover of the notebook was stamped with gold leaf in the emblem of the Imperial Treasury, and the end was drenched in someone's blood.
"What is this... what is this?"
When Si-eun asked in a trembling voice, Min-hyuk knelt down and bowed his head.
A deep scar was revealed on his rain-soaked shoulder, and red blood was dripping down with the rainwater.
"This is the original ledger of the 500 billion won embezzlement that Shinari's subordinates were trying to take out."
Minhyuk slowly raised his head and looked up at Si-eun.
In his eyes, there was a bizarre mix of bloody murderous intent and beast-like loyalty.
"Tonight at midnight, an assassination squad, having received secret instructions from His Majesty, will be deployed to the chambers of Chairman Min Hyun-seok, the father of Your Majesty."
The shock of her heart stopping made Si-eun's pupils tremble violently.
It wasn't just a simple conspiracy that was choking him.
This was the brutal declaration of war by Yoo Jong-seok and Shin Ari tonight, aiming to bring everything to an end.
"Please give me an order so that I can end their life for the sake of Your Majesty."
Lightning struck Minhyuk's back as he lay bleeding and prone.
The bloodstained ledger in his hand, and the assassination squad Si-eun, who was still approaching her father at this very moment, no longer trembled.
The sadness and sense of betrayal were shattered into pieces, sharpened by the blade of revenge.
She slowly bent down and cupped Minhyuk's cold cheeks, which were covered in blood, with both hands.
In the impious and poignant moment when the Empress of the Empire shared her body heat with the face of the most humble bodyguard, Doshieun's red lips curled up in a cool arc.
"Bite all the emperor's hunting dogs, and don't let a single one live."
Instead of the broken crown, the empress's brutal counterattack, picking up her own blood-stained crown of thorns, was beginning its grand opening under the torrential night sky of the empire.
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2026-11-02 17:00:04
