NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 - Love is in the Same Context as Delusion
“His Majesty cherished me and loved me greatly.”
“I don’t know why you’re speaking in the past tense, but my love for you hasn’t changed. It never will. So please, come back, Laurencia.”
Laurencia couldn’t believe his words of love, knowing that the desperate look in his sweet voice was a lie.
“Your Majesty, I have no intention of returning to the Empire.”
“You mean to refuse me when I’ve come here personally? Laurencia, you’ve always been a child who listened well to me. Why are you acting this way?”
“No matter what you say, I can no longer remain by your side.”
You handed me a cup of poison without hesitation.
Foolish as I was, I drank from it gladly, knowing it was poisoned, because I believed it was love.
“I will not return.”
“Laurencia, why are you being so stubborn?”
“This is not stubbornness.”
At Laurencia’s firm response, silence fell. His expression began to show signs of unease as he realized that this silence was not in his favor.
Laurencia was the first to break it.
“I’ve found a future where I can survive, and that’s why I cannot return to the Empire.”
Not to receive the poisoned cup from you, but to ensure there is a future where I can hand that poisoned cup to you instead!
“Though Your Majesty may not understand, I have made sacrifices greater than my own life to reach this moment.”
“What are you saying? Sacrifices? What sacrifices have you made? Don’t tell me… No, it can’t be.”
What do you think a sacrifice greater than my life might be?
“Laurencia, your ability to see the future… It hasn’t disappeared, has it?”
This foolish man thought that my sacrifice was merely the loss of my foresight.
“If my ability to see the future is gone, will you assume I refuse to return to the Empire simply because I am no longer useful to you?”
“Don’t joke about such things.”
“Do you even realize how you look right now, Your Majesty? Like someone who’s lost everything.”
“What nonsense are you speaking, Laurencia?”
With a deep sigh, he approached slowly, his expression betraying his thoughts.
“I gave up my ability to see the future to survive. I can no longer be of use to Your Majesty. So, please, return to the Isuter Empire.”
“Even without your ability, my love for you remains unchanged.”
“Did you just say… love?”
“Yes, I love you, Laurencia. My Roa.”
Once, I believed his sweet declarations of love. And the pain I received in return was double what I had given.
“I’m sincere. Come back, and become my one and only queen.”
“A lowly illegitimate child like me cannot be a queen.”
“Don’t worry. You are the only one who can be my queen, Laurencia.”
“But… the love I envision…”
Laurencia bit down on her trembling lips to hide it. She couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from curving upward at the story she was about to tell him.
“…is in the same context as delusion, Your Majesty.”
Laurencia. A stalker may tell people, “I loved them,” but no one believes the stalker’s words. Do you know why? Because their love stems from delusion. Honestly, I think love from non-stalkers isn’t all that different.
Until the bitter end, I believed in his love. So much so that I didn’t question my death.
“My love is not a delusion. Your Majesty, you said you loved me too!”
“Yes, I’ve always said I loved you. But if you misunderstood that as sincerity, that’s your fault, Laurencia.”
His final words were enough to break the me who overcame the fear of death through love.
“You’ve endured so much. Now, Laurencia, die for me. Thank you. I loved you.”
“Even your gratitude wasn’t sincere.”
“Laurencia, do you remember when we first met?”
“I remember.”
“Then let me tell you what I truly meant to say back then.”
Love will make someone weep, and sincerity will drive someone mad.
“Your crimson hair is as ominous as blood, and your eyes are utterly repulsive.”
With those words, I finally understood the reason for my death. And I realized something. Dying for love is no justification for death.
“Every time Your Majesty says you love me, all I hear is, ‘Don’t delude yourself.’”
“Laurencia… How could you…?”
“I told you already.”
Laurencia smiled with deep satisfaction as the mask of a desperate lover he had been wearing slowly began to fall away.
“I chose the path where I could live.”
A voice brimming with emotion echoed, emerging from the lips of a priest dressed in a pristine white robe.
“In the name of the goddess Ella, may she protect us. Bestow upon us her sacred power so that we may overcome the wickedness of the vile.”
As the priest finished his prayer, he gestured toward Laurencia, and the knights began to approach her. Laurencia struggled desperately to escape, resisting with all her might, but her arms were firmly restrained, and she was dragged before the priest.
Laurencia’s long hair, cascading down to her waist, was cut away mercilessly.
The terror of impending death gripped her, causing her entire body to tremble. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably, and her jaw quivered violently.
“Laurencia.”
Amidst her dazed expression, Laurencia locked eyes with a man standing beyond the priest and the knights.
“Your Majesty, Luance…”
The Emperor Luance, who had been silently watching Laurencia’s suffering, rose from his chair and slowly approached her. His face, to anyone else, appeared filled with anguish and sorrow. But Laurencia saw it clearly—the joy flickering in his eyes. She couldn’t help but lower her head.
“Do not lower your head, my Roa.”
Luance cupped her chin and gently lifted her face.
“Your Majesty! You must not touch the witch so carelessly!” the priest exclaimed urgently to Luance.
“It’s fine. This witch loves me far too much to curse or kill me.”
At his words, tears began streaming down Laurencia’s cheeks. Luance stared blankly at her tear-streaked face. Only then did Laurencia fully understand—he had abandoned her.
“It can’t be helped, Laurencia. I can’t save you, a witch.”
“I am not a witch.”
“Laurencia, there’s no way you aren’t. Think about the evil deeds you’ve committed… killing my family, starting a war that claimed countless lives. And still, it wasn’t enough…”
“That was… to help Your Majesty…”
Laurencia tried to explain, but before she could finish, the priest poured holy water over her head.
“Step back, Your Majesty. You might fall under the witch’s spell! While the holy water may have dampened her powers, she remains a dangerous being.”
“That’s right. She’s a vile creature capable of any lie.”
At their words, Luance stepped back. A priest, his hand soaked in holy water, struck Laurencia’s face and head repeatedly.
Laurencia squeezed her eyes shut. Her mouth split open, blood spilling out, and her skin swelled painfully with each blow. The physical agony was overwhelming, but what hurt more was Luance’s betrayal—his manipulation of her heart.
“You said you’d die for me, Laurencia,” Luance whispered softly in her ear before stepping away.
“Then I trust the Holy See will carry out the witch trial thoroughly.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Once again, thank you for reporting this witch in the name of the goddess Ella. The Holy See will never forget this act of devotion.”
“Reporting a witch is only natural, no matter how much I loved her…”
Luance gazed at Laurencia with a pained expression, as though he were heartbroken.
“In the name of the goddess Ella, I pray that in her next life, she will be born a person and not a witch.”
When Luance left, Laurencia’s torture began in earnest. The brutal treatment left her unable to speak or remain fully conscious. She was dragged into a courtroom, a place reserved for high priests and the pope alone, where they declared her to be the most infamous villainess and witch in history.
“I am not a witch!”
“If you’ve reached this age without having your first menstruation, you are certainly a witch.”
“Declaring me a witch just because I haven’t had my first menstruation is cruel. I swear I’m not a witch!”
Laurencia pleaded, but no one listened.
“A woman who cannot bear children is cursed by the goddess Ella. This alone is proof of her wickedness as a witch!”
“High Priest, executing a witch recklessly may bring curses upon us. It would be wiser to imprison her.”
Laurencia was locked in a pitch-dark cell where no light seeped in. Though she initially felt relief that the torture had ceased, it was short-lived. The cell offered no water, no food, and no visitors. She howled in hunger, her strength dwindling with every moment. Her eyelids grew heavy, her body like lead, and she felt utterly drained.
In her hazy consciousness, the image that came to mind was not of the man she had trusted and loved—Luance. Instead, it was of steaming, warm “potato soup.”
‘How did it come to this? Where did it all go wrong?’
Luance was the only person in the world who truly cared for Laurencia. From the very beginning, he delighted in taking care of her. Laurencia, who had never experienced such kindness from anyone, felt her heart fill with happiness each time he looked after her.
But when did it begin? The moment that happiness no longer filled her heart…