200 years of love ~The noble lady, betrayed by the prince and banished to the past~ - Chapter 1
1.A day in court
It is the middle of winter in the Kingdom of Guilford, and the snow is falling heavily.
In the Trial Hall of the Rosary Cathedral, the grave voice of the High Priest resounded within the walls of the hall.
“Lunaria Farris, you are thereby sentenced to be transferred to the past.”
The Marquise daughter Lunaria Farris who received the sentence, who was desperately trying her best to restrain her trembling hands, quietly looked at the First Prince Ares and baron’s daughter Nora standing beside the High Priestess.
The handsome blond-haired, blue-eyed prince and the pretty young lady with a pretty pair of pink eyes and peach colored flaxen hair, were standing hand-in-hand in the cathedral. The scene was as beautiful as a painting, but their expressions were twisted with a vicious joy.
“Lunaria Farris! You should have been beheaded for plotting to assassinate a member of the royal family, but we’ve been so kind as to sentence you to be transmitted to the past. You should be grateful for my generosity.”, the prince said in a mocking and condescending tone.
“You did this just because you didn’t get Ares-sama’s affection!? You’re a horrible woman!”
Ares and Nora looked down at Lunaria, who was dressed in a shabby inmate outfit, as if they were looking at something filthy.
‘…… I’ve been set up by Ares-sama…’
Lunaria fought back the tears that were threatening to flow and thought back to the nightmare of the past week.
A week ago, she had been relaxing at the Marquise’s mansion when the royal palace soldiers had suddenly appeared and captured Lunaria. Her parents and younger brothers had tried desperately to protect her, but she had been roughly grabbed and taken away, charged with a crime she didn’t even know she committed, such as attempting to assassinate the first prince, and kept in a prison in the royal palace until today’s hearing.
No matter how much she pleaded her innocence, no one would listen to her. Just when she thought she was finally out of jail, she was told that her engagement to the first prince had been annulled and that she would be sentenced to be transferred to the past.
‘Ares-sama must have been so infatuated with that young lady that I became a distraction. In addition, the Marquise of Farris, who had complained about his recent aggressive behavior, may have become displeased with him and tried to take him down.’
For the past few months, Ares has certainly been acting strangely. Although Lunaria was his fiancee, he seemed to have fallen in love with the baron’s daughter, Nora, and frequently gave her expensive dresses and jewelry and spoiled her. Furthermore, taking advantage of the fact that His Majesty the King had recently become ill, he acted as if he were the King and did as he pleased.
He seemed to be annoyed with Lunaria’s father, the Marquis Farris and his frequent warnings, but she never imagined that he would take such a step.
Her desire to trust his fiancée had only clouded her judgment, and there might have been plenty of time for her to notice but it was too late now.
The footsteps coming closer and closer to Lunaria stopped in front of her, and Ares’ merciless voice sounded.
“The sentence will be carried out soon. We spared your life! You will live and suffer in the past where no one knows you. That is, only if you manage to escape the deep forest. It’s a world full of beasts and bandits. As a woman, you may suffer worse than beheading, but you must accept it as your redemption.”
There was a faint giggle, and when she looked in the direction of where she heard it, her eyes met Nora’s. She was smiling faintly, as if mocking Lunaria for being betrayed by Ares.
The engagement between Ares and Lunaria was indeed a political arrangement, and there may have been no love there. Despite this, Lunaria had worked hard to become a person who would not be an embarrassment to her fiancée and maintain the dignity of a royal family member.
No matter what Ares said about her behind her back, such as that she was a “petty woman” or that she was a woman whose only merit was her face and family background, she believed that if she treated Ares with sincerity and kindness, they would one day be able to understand and love each other. But what awaited Lunaria was this miserable and unreasonable treatment.
Ares said that he would only spare her life, but it is a well-known fact that the punishment of past transmigration is practically a death sentence.
There was no way that a person with no family or acquaintances could easily survive being thrown into the past by themselves. It was hard to believe that she would ever make it out of the forest or mountains.
The only thing she could find in the royal family’s history book, which was written more than a hundred years ago, was about a woman who was supposedly sentenced to past transmigration, but it was concluded that she was executed for going crazy and trying to sneak into the royal palace.
Lunaria clenched her fists as she thought about her own fate after the past transfer. Her hands would not stop shaking. Was it despair, anger, fear, or all of the above? It must have been all of them.
“Take Lunaria Farris to the transmigration chamber.”
The High Priestess deathly voice ordered, and a priest in white and a magician in black robes came and took Lunaria straight to the transmigration chamber.