After that day, Talia became unable to eat almost any food at all.

She simply could not trust what might be hidden inside it.

The nanny, unable to understand the reason, grew increasingly frustrated. She merely assumed Talia was being difficult.

Without explaining anything, Talia survived on the fruits and honey the nanny occasionally brought her as snacks.

Loneliness and isolation were no longer the problem.

In the most luxurious and extravagant place in the world, she had been forced into a battle against starvation.

Some days, the hunger became so unbearable that she reluctantly touched the food the servants brought her.

But without fail, she would find insects, rats, or sometimes tangled clumps of hair so grotesque she could not even guess whose they were.

After enduring that several times, she eventually reached the point where she could no longer put anything into her mouth.

Within a few weeks, she had wasted away pitifully.

At that point, even the unbelievably dull nanny finally seemed to realize something was terribly wrong.

She immediately sought out the Empress and raised a commotion, insisting that her only daughter was dying.

Thanks to that, Talia was able to see her mother again for the first time in months.

“How did you end up looking like this?”

Those were the first words Senevier spoke after finally visiting the detached palace, having ignored Talia for so long it seemed she had forgotten her daughter even existed.

Talia’s eyes reddened as she looked at her mother, who bloomed with radiant vitality like a summer flower despite her daughter’s ruined appearance.

Seeing that face, so bright it bordered on innocent, caused bitter fury to surge inside her.

She had intended to scream at her.

She had planned to demand how someone could possibly be so selfish.

But the moment she opened her mouth, sobs burst out instead.

Crying like an infant, Talia poured out everything that had happened.

The horrifying things the servants of the detached palace had done to her, the cruelty she had been forced to endure all this time—she confessed every last detail.

Throughout the entire story, Senevier merely sat beside the bed and listened in silence.

Talia believed she was restraining her anger.

She thought her mother had been rendered speechless by the terrible things done to her only daughter.

So Talia grabbed her arm roughly and pleaded desperately.

“Mother! Please make them stop tormenting me! You must ensure no one can ever hurt me again!”

“Why should I?”

Senevier tilted her head slightly as she spoke.

The unexpected answer left Talia stunned.

There was nothing on Senevier’s face except pure curiosity.

It was the expression of someone who genuinely could not understand why an abused child was asking her for help.

“Talia, this palace is your palace, and every servant in this castle belongs to you. You are already nine years old now. How can you throw tantrums to your mother simply because you cannot properly control your own possessions?”

Talia was left completely speechless.

Senevier cupped her daughter’s cheek with one hand and sighed as though sincerely disappointed.

“You are the Emperor’s daughter. I truly cannot understand why you are allowing insignificant creatures to treat you this way without resistance. Frankly, I am bewildered by how foolish and weak my daughter is.”

“M-Mother......”

Senevier gazed thoughtfully at the candle burning by the window.

Not even the slightest trace of anger over the abuse inflicted upon her daughter could be found on that eerily beautiful face.

There was only faint disappointment, irritation, and the expression of someone contemplating how best to enlighten a defective child.

Talia suddenly felt as though she were speaking to an insect merely imitating the shape of a human being. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

After sinking into thought for a long while, Senevier snapped her fingers.

“Let us do this instead. I shall leave behind a useful guard for you. He is a man I have spent a very long time thoroughly taming. If handled °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° properly, he should prove quite useful.”

As though that solved every problem, she rose from her seat.

Talia hurriedly grabbed the hem of her dress.

“I don’t need someone like that! I want to stay with you!”

At that desperate cry, a flicker of disgust briefly crossed Senevier’s face.

Talia’s complexion instantly turned pale with shock.

Senevier carefully peeled her daughter’s fingers from her clothing one by one, then bent down toward her.

Clicking her tongue as though she genuinely pitied her, she spoke softly.

“Talia, all of this began because of me. Yet do you know why nobody dares place rats in my soup?”

Frozen like a mouse before a serpent, Talia could not answer.

Senevier continued gently.

“Why my bathwater is always warm and fragrant, why my table is always overflowing with food...... Why they would never even dream of doing to me the things they do to you...... Shall I tell you the secret?”

Her blood-red lips brushed lightly against Talia’s ear.

“It is because they fear me so deeply that they cannot even imagine attempting such things. Some among them even feel reverence toward me. Of course, there are countless others who loathe and despise me as well. But even they view me as someone to fear, not someone to torment. Because I am a very dangerous existence.”

She stared directly into her daughter’s eyes.

And Talia glimpsed something dark and coiled deep inside Senevier’s gaze.

Straightening her body, Senevier offered her final piece of advice.

“Remember this. The strong and beautiful become objects of fear and envy. But the beautiful and weak are easily reduced to prey. Especially in this imperial palace. If you do not wish to be mercilessly trampled beneath the feet of the countless beasts that will come for you, then at the very least, do not let them discover that you are weak.”

With those final words, she departed.

Leaving behind the daughter who had already become unbearably fragile.......

That night, Talia turned those words over and over again in her mind.

The weak are trampled.

And Senevier seemed to have not the slightest intention of protecting her young daughter from being crushed beneath that brutality.

Was this how a defeated soldier felt after losing their final fortress?

Her entire body trembled with terror at the thought that even more horrifying things might await her.

Even if she were treated more cruelly than before, nobody would protect her.

If even her mother had turned away from her, would His Majesty the Emperor spare so much as a glance toward the illegitimate child who embodied his own disgrace?

Curled tightly beneath her blankets, she anxiously bit at her fingernails.

The servants’ feet she had seen while vomiting across the dining hall floor kept flashing through her mind.

Those indifferent feet busily moving around her broken form......

It was not difficult to imagine them crushing her beneath their heels like a worthless insect.

Her eyes burned hot as though on fire.

Mother is right. Soon, I’ll be crushed until nothing remains.

And the reason I ended up in this situation was because I had branded myself a sinner.

Guilt had made her weak.

The moment she began accepting everything with helpless resignation, as though she deserved whatever was done to her, they instinctively realized she would never resist.

From her shrinking posture.

From her intimidated eyes.

From her hesitant voice......

They discovered the shape of weakness within her and began indulging their cruelty without restraint.

By the time dawn finally arrived, Talia understood exactly what she needed to do.