Morning light stabbed through my eyelids.

  …Too bright. So it’s already morning.

  I tried closing my eyes again inside the bed, but it didn’t help.

  My mind was awake; my body felt heavy. Same as always.

  No sound.

  No footsteps.

  No knock at the door.

  No voice asking if I needed anything.

  …Right. I stopped asking for that years ago.

  I let out a small yawn.

  When I pushed myself up, my nightgown slid off my shoulder.

  Too tight again. Annoying.

  「Guess I need a new size. Again.」

  I muttered it under my breath and fixed the strap, then set my feet on the floor. Cold as always.

  On the chair waited my training uniform, folded neatly from last night.

  No lace. No ribbons. Just clothes I could move in without thinking about who might be watching.

  That was enough.

  My hair…

  No. I didn’t want to look at the mirror today.

  Yesterday I managed to ignore it. Today… probably not.

  Someone would say it again. That I looked more and more like her.

  My mother. Queen Nerys.

  I was sick of hearing it.

  I couldn’t even remember her voice.

  I had no memories of my own.

  Only portraits, fragments of techniques, and everyone else’s stories.

  Still…

  I think a part of me once wanted to ask her what kind of person she was.

  …But it doesn’t matter now.

  I gathered my hair without looking.

  No appetite. Not even a trace of it.

  Mana still pressed against my insides—tight, uncomfortable.

  There was no way I could eat like this.

  Today was their anniversary.

  My father’s. My mother’s. Both of them.

  The ceremony would start before noon.

  Back then, everything was prepared for me without question—hair done, formal dress put on, placed in front of everyone and—

  They pretended to be in mourning.

  That’s all it ever was.

  But then I learned the truth.

  It wasn’t a tribute.

  It wasn’t remembrance.

  It was 「positioning.」

  The regent said it plainly:

  「For balance.」

  「As a seal of succession.」

  「To secure the future.」

  To a fourteen-year-old girl.

  Everything broke in that moment.

  No one was grieving my parents.

  The only one who believed any of it was me.

  I was just an ornament.

  After that day, I started training.

  Every morning I walk the corridor between the tower and the training hall.

  My legs know the path. My mind… brings back things I don’t want.

  The conversation from that day.

  How it wasn’t a request—it was strategy.

  A cage pretending to be open.

  I said no.

  Clearly. With my teeth clenched.

  And from then on, I wasn’t 「the princess.」

  I was something else.

  A problem.

  Smiles changed.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Looks changed.

  No one talked to me about magic anymore.

  Or lessons.

  Or the future.

  They only told me to maintain posture.

  Composure.

  As if that was all that mattered.

  When catalysts shattered in my hands, at first they made excuses:

  「The device was defective.」

  「There was a flaw in the channel.」

  「A calibration error.」

  Then… nothing.

  Silence.

  Eyes that didn’t see me—only evaluated me.

  One instructor vanished without warning.

  Another was reassigned to some distant frontier.

  My magic wouldn’t behave.

  Sometimes too strong.

  Sometimes warped.

  Sometimes simply out of control.

  Catalysts burst.

  Spells overflowed.

  And when something finally worked… it wasn’t graceful.

  It was rough. Violent. Uglier than anything I wanted to see.

  Even I didn’t know why.

  And no one tried to help me understand.

  I was the crack in the castle.

  The one everyone preferred to ignore.

  Today was the anniversary.

  But I came here.

  If something was going to break, I wanted it to break because I chose it.

  The royal family’s training hall had once been the most reinforced space in the entire castle.

  Not anymore.

  Ever since I trained here alone, no one stepped inside.

  No instructors.

  No overseers.

  No assistants.

  Just a guard posted outside, like staying too close to me for too long was dangerous.

  The hall had everything—

  focus orbs, linked grimoires, control gauntlets, engraved rods, double staves—

  I’d destroyed them all.

  Today, four new catalysts sat in a perfect line on a low table.

  The first was a gauntlet with amberite inlays.

  I slipped it on. Fit perfectly.

  I breathed in and let mana flow.

  For a moment, it responded.

  Then it twisted. The gauntlet flashed, trembled—

  and exploded.

  Fragments slammed into the wall.

  I clenched my fist.

  Not out of fear. Habit.

  I brushed off the pieces and picked up the next one.

  A compact grimoire, black leather with silver runes.

  I opened it. Channeled.

  A spark. Another.

  Then the pages ignited.

  I threw it to the ground.

  It turned to ash the moment it touched stone.

  My expression didn’t change.

  My breathing did. Heavier.

  The third: a thin white crystal rod.

  I focused.

  Mana rose up my spine, down my arm, gathered at the tip—

  No.

  Not like that.

  Too much.

  The rod cracked. The tip shot off and embedded itself in a column.

  The rest of the mana scattered through the air, making the whole room vibrate.

  I didn’t move.

  But the tears were already there.

  「What if I’m wrong…? What if this power should never have awakened…?」

  Not pain.

  Anger.

  Anger at not understanding.

  Anger at being alone.

  At screaming in a place built so no one would hear me.

  The fourth catalyst.

  A pure harmonite sphere. Perfectly tuned.

  I held it with both hands.

  Mana surged.

  Tears fell.

  「What’s wrong with me…?!」

  It answered.

  For the first time, something answered.

  Mana rushed out.

  Wild. Unrestrained.

  The spell fired straight, like lightning trapped in crystal.

  The reinforced wall—built to withstand explosions—shattered instantly.

  A shockwave tore through the tower.

  The sphere didn’t explode.

  It dissolved. As if it had never been enough to contain me.

  Columns shook.

  The upper section collapsed.

  Part of the inner wall gave way.

  The blast echoed far beyond the castle.

  I fell to my knees. Not from weakness.

  I had emptied everything.

  I stayed there a moment, breathing.

  Dust floated in the air.

  The floor runes flickered like dying lights.

  I lifted my head.

  The rubble.

  The broken wall.

  The gap opening toward the outside.

  …That was it.

  I’d decided.

  I couldn’t stay here anymore.

  I stood up.

  Took nothing.

  Didn’t look back.

  And I ran.