Frontier’s Redemption: The Unexpected Rise of a Villain

March 22, Year 853, the Duskwood Manor, a few hours before the courtroom drama. A young lady, Lillian, rushed up the grand, winding staircase into her room on the first floor after breakfast with her father and brother. Until she was ten years of age, she had lived in the innermost room on the ground floor, a dim and cramped space that she had to clean by herself while wearing old, torn dresses, the only ones she had. If not for a few kind-hearted maids who served her mother who had given Lillian their hand-me-downs, Lillian would have most likely frozen to death without proper clothing during winter as her shabby room had no fireplace. Eventually, the kind-hearted maids were fired for trying to urge the duke to take good care of kid Lillian. With the kind-hearted maids fired, her life had been a daily struggle for survival, marked by poor sanitation and a constant battle against hunger and despair.

Her fortunes would finally change with the engagement between the young master of the Demontfort family and the first daughter of the Sterlings. This union had sent shockwaves through the aristocratic faction, causing the Duke, her father, to panic; for the Duke had miscalculated and engaged Domnick to a daughter of a count in his faction so that he could make sure to hold his powers firm. With the death of his wife, who was the last living noble in her family, her family territory had now become a part of the Duskwoods to ensure there would be no uprisings within the territory his wife had given him. He expected this to help him become the second most influential family in the kingdom after the royal family. But the unexpected alliance between the Demontforts and the Sterlings threatened to unravel his carefully laid plans.

Driven by desperation, the Duke was forced to use someone to solve his problem: his estranged daughter, Lillian. She was the child he had long avoided, the child he blamed for the death of his beloved wife. The mere thought of her had always filled him with disgust, a loathing so deep that he could scarcely bear to look at her. To him, she was a demon, a constant reminder of his loss. Disgust was the only thing he could feel as he had guessed when he saw a kid who bore no resemblance to him or his wife if not for her hair and eyes. If her grandparents were alive they would tell Lillian that she looked exactly like her mother for you see, Duchess Elara Duskwood, who was Lady Elara Elmsworth at the time had a big growth spurt towards the end of her teenage and if one were to look at her portrait as a child, it would have been very difficult to recognize her. It was no different for Duke Victor Duskwood who had never seen a portrait of the former Duchess Elara Duskwood.

Elara was known for her compassion and gentle demeanor. She was intelligent as well so strikingly beautiful that she had captivated many, but it was her kind heart that truly set her apart. Despite her delicate appearance, she possessed a resilient spirit. Traits which she had passed on to her precious daughter Lillian. For you see when she was forced to choose between her daughter or her life, despite her husband's pleas she chose her daughter's. How could she not love her daughter more than herself? After all, she was on cloud nine when the doctors informed her that she was having a daughter. She would have done everything for her daughter. If only she had been alive, Lillian's life would have been a paradise.

Lillian, who had no idea of how much her mother loved her, had been overjoyed by the mere fact of her father finally acknowledging her existence on her tenth birthday. For the first time, he had moved her to a room on the first floor, a space filled with light and warmth. He had bought her clothes fit for a princess, and she had dared to dream of a life filled with love and happiness.

However, her newfound joy was short-lived. Along with her new status came the rigorous education and etiquette classes she had missed during her isolated childhood. Every day was a relentless cycle of lessons in proper behavior, speech, and manners. She struggled to keep up with the demands placed upon her, her body and mind pushed to the brink of exhaustion.

But Lillian didn't necessarily hate it. In fact, she was elated that her father was finally showing her attention and she would go above and beyond to excel in her late education to the point where she surpassed the expectations of her teachers. But of course, it was never enough for the Duke who wasn't even interested in looking at her. Having set unachievable deadlines, he would instruct the butler and maids to punish Lillian harshly every time she failed to meet the deadline. Finally, when she completed her education in a record 2 years time, the Duke informed her about her engagement to the crown prince Silvanus. It was the first reward her father gave her.

If one were to ask various young ladies across the empire, getting close to his highness Silvanus Nocturnus was a bad idea and one that risked consequences they'd rather not think about, because you see, Silvanus was one to have a short temper. Cross short temper with the authority as the crown prince one might be able to understand the countless young maids that barely made it alive out of the palace. If not for the generous compensation that the empress dished out to the maids every time it happened, not only would the truth of him being a madman come to light but his authority as the crown prince would have been snatched away from him. While the common folk had no idea and the high society kept its silence, the notoriety of the crown prince was a known but unprovable truth in the gossip circles of the young ladies. But unlike the other ladies of the high society, Lillian who had finally felt like she got recognized by her father couldn't help but hold her engagement dear and pour her heart and soul into getting emotionally attached to her fiancé. She would soon painfully learn to never get attached to anyone ever again in her short life at the academy.

Lillian had to spend the whole day suffering from indigestion and occasional vomits as the maids had not only laced her food with laxatives but had also used rotten ingredients. Lillian's body which had become used to fighting parasites from rotten food on a regular basis stood up to protect her by forcing Lillian to throw up the food she ate. But she had no time to waste. Her education to become the crown princess was reaching its final stages and any mishaps now would cause her more scars on her back. With her unyielding spirit, she pushed on hoping that one day all her hard work would bear fruit.

It was around this time that a notorious Empress would meet with a certain child of Flakenberg Barony. She had planned this meeting at a time when every house was busy preparing to reach the royal court so that she could throw any spies hidden among the imperial family maids off guard. While the courtroom would not go as she had planned, her meeting with Serge was quite fruitful.