Her Melancholy Story Of Lies and Deceit

Iris felt her whole body shivering. She could see nothing but darkness.

Iris felt herself drifting through space. Her whole body trembled and she could only see darkness...

Was she dead?

She must be.

She was feeling an excruciating pain through her head. It continued until she saw a spark of light. After that spark, a rapid flow of images invaded her mind. All these images she was familiar with. They were incidents of her life. As she looked at the incidents, she realized that she truely was very naive and ignorant all this time. It could easily be seen what high class white lotuses her sister and step-mother were. The fake affection of her husband was also clear.

Then this darkness, was it for her to reflect on her errors?

To see where she was wrong?

Where she made the wrong decisions?

And where she became blinded by the deceits of these people?

This emptiness, must be her Karma for being so stupid.

Now, she was left with just endless regret and longing for revenge...

...

Iris Silcia was the daughter of the 3rd Prime Minister, Azer Silcia. He was one of the 4 Prime Ministers of the kingdom of Wistel who was in charge of the North. He was heavily respected due to his contributions in rapidly improving the situation of the North, which was nothing but barren land loaded with poor villages.

Azer had 3 concubines and 1 main wife. One of the concubines was Iris's mother, Riya Vinsa. However, this was not how it used to be. The Vinsa family was a prestigious family of generals and they agreed upon the marriage of Riya and Azer on the condition that Riya would be the main wife. However, Riya's first child was Iris, the 3rd daughter. She did not have any other child after that. Due to not giving birth to a heir for the Prime Minister, Azer demoted Riya to a concubine and made one of his concubines, Libera, the main wife as she had conceived a son. Libera was also the mother of Aria, the first daughter of the Prime Minister.

Afraid of a revolt from the Vinsa family, Azer sent Riya and her 4-year-old daughter Iris to the North saying that Riya's health was not good and she needed to recuperate. He made her stay there for eleven years and called her back when Iris was 15.

During the stay there, Riya's health began to rapidly decline as she suffered depression and had to survive on her own with her daughter without any means to contact her family. When she came back home, she was already very weak. Iris had grown up supporting her mother and herself.

Once back from the North, Iris met with all her family members. She had never learnt any etiquette as she had no-one to teach her. Thus she was humiliated over and over by her other sisters and relatives.

Very soon, Riya passed away. Now Iris had to face everything alone as she struggled to survive in high society. During those difficult times, only her step-mother Libera and step-sister Aria showed her care and concern. They defended her in front of their grandmother and father and protected her from the scoldings of others.

Iris was wholeheartedly grateful. She would always listen to and obey this mother daughter pair as a loyal servant.

Who knew, this kind-heartedness was just a facade to hide their true vicious personality!

Iris's mother's death was caused by them, thinking that she was a threat to their main wife position. They also completely destroyed the image Iris had in front of her father, making him believe that she was an arrogant good-for-nothing who only knew how to stir up trouble. They even stripped her of her inheritance!

In a final attempt to get rid of her, they plotted and married her off to the sixth prince, Leon Alphesta. This prince was the most talent-less and worthless of all princes, totally unfavoured by the Emperor and a commonly-known trash.

Naturally, Iris had heard of his reputation.

But in front of the tears of her sister, she was completely submissive, and married the prince without a second complain.

Here, there was another unexpected occurring.

The prince labelled as useless by all, was actually a gem in disguise! He was an extremely cunning man whose every move was planned. He spread those rumors about himself so that he would remain protected in the dark while his enemies would be out in the light. Leon's ultimate plan was to ascend to the throne.

After marriage, Leon discovered something about Iris. The girl that was rumored to be ignorant was actually awfully similar to him, absolutely intelligent and strategic. Her only flaw was he naivety. Leon would never let a useful person go. He showered her in love and affection, made her use her tactical and strategic mind to help him ascend the throne. She became a military general, accumulated alot of fame and glory and gave up everything for him. With such a powerful ally, he one by one removed his rivals from the competition and safely ascended the throne.

Iris who was shown such endearing affection, devoted herself to this man, working relentlessly to protect him and shed alot of blood and fought alot of wars, all for him. With his ascendance, she thought she would become the Empress and would finally live in peace and happiness, with no more hardships.

Yet peace was the furthest from what she got.

After becoming Emperor, Leon crowned Aria Empress and made Iris a lowly side-concubine! With endless sorrow and confusion, Iris confronted Leon who told her that he had only ever cared for Aria, and that she was only a chess piece to him. She never entered his sights.

Fearing her strength and power, Leon and Aria colluded to frame her with the crime of betraying her country and rebelling and pushed her into prison, finally executing her. Only after so much suffering did Iris realize that she was just a meaningless existence to those she loved, and that her whole life was lived as a chess piece. She wanted to extract revenge, wanted to live again, and protect those that had sacrificed themselves for her...