A long, long time ago, there was a princess who loved only one person—the prince. From the earliest days of her childhood, she followed him, her every thought consumed by him. She did nothing else but dream of him, adore him, and nurture her love until she had almost forgotten herself entirely.
"I like you, Kael."
Her cheeks burned crimson as she avoided looking directly at him, her voice barely above a whisper.
Only the wind responded, rustling softly around them, while Kael continued to avoid her gaze. Seraphina's heart thumped anxiously in her chest as she waited for his reply, but instead of the words she had longed to hear, the silence stretched cruelly between them.
"I'm sorry… I don't like you."
The words struck her like a physical blow. Seraphina froze. She had never expected such a response from the one she had cherished with every fiber of her being.
For a moment, time seemed to stop. The wind that had once played gently with her hair now felt icy, still, and indifferent. She almost felt herself sink to the ground under the weight of what she had just heard.
"W-why…?" she asked, her voice trembling, weak and fragile. Her mind couldn't comprehend it—she had dreamed of this love, imagined it countless times, yet she had never, not once, prepared herself to hear those words aloud.
Kael remained silent, his gaze fixed somewhere far away, distant and unreadable, as though he carried some private, bitter thought that weighed heavily on him.
Pain surged through Seraphina's chest. The love she had cultivated for her entire life, the devotion she had tended like a fragile flame, seemed to disintegrate into ash. Yet strangely, rather than tears, a peculiar warmth began to bloom within her chest. A fire of determination, quiet but unyielding, took root where heartbreak had threatened to consume her.
"If that is the truth, Kael," she said softly, her voice steady despite the tremor beneath, "then perhaps I cannot win your heart today. But that does not mean my worth disappears. That does not mean I vanish from your world—or lose myself in the process."
Before relief could touch her, she felt it—Kael's gaze. Heavy, lingering, complicated. It was not cold or judgmental, but something else entirely, something she could not fully decipher. A hidden emotion, tightly controlled, flickered beneath the surface, leaving her curious and unsettled.
"Seraphina…" he murmured, almost a whisper. And then, without another word, he turned and walked away, leaving her alone in the pale, dying light of the afternoon.
She watched his silhouette retreat, feeling the familiar ache in her chest. And yet, despite the pain, a small, defiant smile began to form on her lips.
Days passed.
Seraphina knelt silently as she watched them—the perfect match the world expected. Ophelia Brightwell, flawless in every way, had claimed Kael Ardyn, the crown prince, as her own. No matter what Seraphina tried, no matter what schemes she devised to separate them, nothing changed. Even when she aided the villainess in her plans to win Kael's affection, the outcome remained the same.
Exhausted and defeated, she turned to leave.
Suddenly, a pair of soldiers blocked her path. She knew immediately why they were here. They had come to make her pay for her transgressions.
"Seraphina Valecrest! You are under arrest for the attempted murder of Miss Ophelia Brightwell!"
She did not resist. Instead, she lifted her gaze to the couple standing before her. Kael now held Ophelia in his arms, their closeness a cruel reminder of everything she could never have. His eyes, once a source of hope and comfort, now glimmered with cold disdain.
Seraphina remained silent.
She raised her head slowly, allowing the shackles to close around her wrists. Fear had left her long ago; what remained was a weary acceptance, a quiet resignation. She was tired—tired of a fate that seemed determined to push her aside no matter what she did.
The story had already been decided. She could only watch as happiness found its place with someone else. Even her sacrifices, her relentless devotion, her own name—none of it had changed the outcome.
Her gaze fell upon Kael one last time. There he was—the prince she had loved since childhood, the center of her entire world. And yet now, he held another woman in his arms as though Seraphina herself was nothing but a blemish to be erased.
The weight of his disdain pierced her heart. There was no hesitation in his gaze, no trace of regret.
Something inside Seraphina finally shattered.
This was her ending, she realized, weakly. She never even made it to the last page of her own story.
As the soldiers began to pull her away, a single tear slid down her cheek. But it was not for Kael.
It was for the self she had long forgotten, the self that had existed only to love and serve another. That self was now gone, and the loss was hers alone.