Chapter 1: The Brother I Never Had
Han Seo-yeon had been an orphan for as long as she could remember.
She did not remember her parents' faces, nor did she miss them. People came and went in orphanages, and she learned early not to cling to what would eventually disappear.
She had never wished for a mother.
She had never wished for a father.
What she had always wanted was a brother.
Not someone to protect her from above, nor someone to guide her like a parent—but someone who would stand beside her. Someone who would walk the same path, argue with her, share meals, and face the world together.
That wish was never fulfilled.
Seo-yeon died quietly, just like she had lived.
And then—
She opened her eyes.
The world was unfamiliar. The bed was too large. The ceiling was too high, decorated with old golden patterns that belonged to another era.
Her body felt wrong.
Too small.
Too light.
When she tried to speak, only a soft, broken sound escaped her throat.
She was three years old.
Memory flooded her mind all at once—this body, this place, this fate.
The Second Princess of the Noctis Empire.
A powerless child born into a world where magic decided one's worth. A princess considered normal—a word used only for those who were useless.
Ignored. Forgotten. Treated as if she did not exist.
And then another memory surfaced, heavy and suffocating.
The Empress had died in childbirth.
The door creaked open briefly, only to close again. No one entered. No one stayed.
The palace was in mourning—but not for her.
Her eyes slowly shifted to the cradle placed near the bed.
Inside slept a newborn boy, wrapped in dark silk.
Prince Kael Noctis.
The Third Prince.
The child blamed for the Empress's death. The one the empire would fear, abandon, and eventually create into a monster.
In the novel she once read, he would grow into a villain who burned cities and destroyed the empire that ignored him.
No one came to hold him.
No one came to look at him.
Just like her.
Elira Noctis—no, Han Seo-yeon—climbed down from the bed, her small legs trembling as she approached the cradle. The baby stirred, tiny fingers curling instinctively toward warmth.
Toward her.
She reached out and gently held his hand.
In that moment, she did not see a future villain.
She saw the brother she had never had.
"If no one wants us," she whispered softly, her childish voice shaking, "then we'll stay together."
The empire had already forgotten the Second Princess.
But from this moment on—
She would never abandon her brother.