Provoking a Graceful Bloom

Having grown up together, Selena Campbell and Frederick Lancaster were childhood sweethearts known as the perfect golden couple.

To support him, she planned every step with painstaking care and calculated each move to perfection. She eliminated every obstacle in his path and paved the way for him to become the only Warbringer in Aurensia.

Selena thought their love would eventually lead to marriage.

But one day, a plain-looking young woman suddenly walked into Frederick’s life.

At first, he said, "A mountain girl like her? She's beneath you, hardly even worth a second glance."

Later, he said, "She's simple-minded and naive. Don't bother with her, Lena."

But Selena slowly came to realise that the way Frederick looked at her was growing colder by the day. And when he looked at that young woman, there was a spark in his eyes—like he'd come alive again, full of the passion and recklessness of youth.

One day, Frederick turned to her with a weary look and said, "Selena, how's our picture-perfect life treating you? Because honestly... I think I'm getting a little tired of it."

That very night, Selena tore up the betrothal contract and left without a backward glance.

"You won't survive without me!" Frederick roared furiously.

But Selena smiled softly. "No. You're nothing without me, Your Highness."

The first time Selena Campbell saw Freya Talmar was the very moment the latter tried to assassinate Frederick Lancaster, Selena's fiancé.

Though Freya was quickly captured after her failed attempt, Frederick did not punish her. Instead, he found something unusual in the ragged, fierce young woman.

"Are you really Henry Talmar's daughter?" Frederick asked, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the disheveled girl before him. "Lift your head so I can see you."

Frederick was a prince and Warbringer of Aurensia, a man whom every soldier obeyed without question.

But in the face of his anger, Freya stood proud and unyielding. "Kill me if you will. If I so much as frown, I have no right to call myself the daughter of the Desert Hawk."

Her spirit was unbreakable, her pride fierce. That image was etched deeply into Frederick's mind.

He grabbed her chin and lifted her grimy face. "To dare speak so boldly before me means you truly are unafraid of death."

"Let me go!" Freya snapped, struggling but unable to break free. "You scum! If you have the guts, then kill me!"

Frederick did not take offense.

Instead, his thin lips curved into a faint smile. "You are the first woman brave enough to curse me. How interesting."

Selena felt her heart tighten for reasons she could not explain.

The exchange between Frederick and Freya made her feel like nothing more than a background character in their story. And as time went on, Frederick's actions only made it clearer that Selena had become entangled in the twisted bond between the other two, a pawn in a game of love and war.

To force Freya to reveal Henry's remaining allies, Frederick imprisoned and