Chapter 2

2

Silence swallowed the courtyard once more.

Briony looked at me with a hollow smile.

“I always thought Garrick was cold because he spent years on bloody battlefields,” she murmured. “I thought he was simply numb to romance.”

“Now I see he was never numb. He just never cared for me.”

“I truly believed I had touched his heart.”

My mind flashed back to two years ago.

Garrick had secured victory on the borders, gaining immense popularity among the commoners.

Threatened by his rising influence, the new emperor constantly summoned Briony to the palace as leverage.

That royal favor provoked the Empress’s wrath.

Hearing that Briony had once worked as an acrobat in the slums before marrying the General, the Empress ordered her to perform.

A giant bronze tree adorned with bladed ladders was erected in the royal gardens.

Underneath it, roaring fires were lit until the metal glowed red hot.

The person forced onto the tree would either be scorched by the blazing bronze or plunge straight into the flames below.

The Empress called it walking through hellfire.

She forced the court, including Garrick and me, to sit and watch.

I still remembered Briony standing at the scorching top of that bronze tree, giving me a reassuring smile despite the blistering heat.

Before climbing, she told me that as spirits who had endured heavenly lightning, mortal fire could not break her.

Yet her trembling frame and blood-drained face told a completely different story.

Garrick held out until I was ready to storm the stage and save her myself.

Only then did he finally surrender his command seal to the Emperor in exchange for her life.

Later that night, as I treated Briony’s charred, dead skin, tears streamed down my face.

She gently wiped my tears away. “We came here to win his heart. If we don’t offer true devotion, it would just be deceit.”

“Besides, he gave up his most prized military authority just to keep me safe. A few burns are worth it.”

Back then, her face glowed with the triumphant joy of a woman who thought her love had finally conquered all.