âHe said he didnât need it. Believed that no one would call him. I said that having a name doesnât mean anything. But you know, thereâs no such thing as something meaningless in this world. My brother⊠he didnât want to put meaning into a name. It becomes just another loss if you get attached to it somewhere in the back alley.â
Kynthia paused for a moment when he heard a sound, from outside. Anakinâs feet were very fast. He did, everything quickly and came back.
â⊠Thank you for making it meaningful to him.â
Kynthia smiled thinly. Although the two were not blood brothers, somehow his appearance resembled Anakin.
There were times when she whispered love. And the days when she believed in the end of a fairytale where she would be happy forever.
Melpomene sometimes thinks about what it would have been like if she had a different future. And when the idea came into shape, Kratos appeared.
A man who was destined to marry her even before she was born and the man who will be buried with her even if she died right now.
âCome here, Melpomene.â
Melpomene refused his orders today. As she stubbornly fixed her gaze out of her window, Kratos strode up to her and pulled her close by the waist. He buried his face in Melpomeneâs neck and whispered softly.
âDonât make me scared. Youâve made my hair white,
too.â
âYouâre the one whoâs scared.â
Melpomene looked straight at Kratos. A terrible man. Melpomene didnât want this man to die. Instead she wanted him to feel so much pain that he wanted to die.
However, she didnât want Kratos to actually die. This is because she knew the sadness of losing him would be more powerful than anything else.
How did this happen? Melpomene started recalling the past.
The first time they met. It was early winter.
It was a cold day where you could see white puffs as you exhaled. The cheeky young Melpomene was walking away from the imperial palace, from the bonds of adulthood. Although there were no flowers because it was winter, the snow-covered garden had its own charm and was beautiful.
Melpomene, who was walking alone in the large garden, suddenly thought. Are you going to run away like this?
After today, if she enters the imperial palace, and marries a man she does not know, she will never come out again.
Melpomene had a lot of things that she had not done yet. She wouldnât be able to see her mother and father often anymore. When she realized this, her heart sank.
She would have to beg and plead her case. Once she gets out of this place and goes back to her home, sheâd have to beg and pray that she doesnât have to come back. With that in mind, Melpomene grabbed her thick skirt and was about to depart.
Someone grabbed Melpomeneâs wrist.
Her staggering body suddenly twisted into the arms of the person holding her.
â Donât go.
A beautiful boy with blond hair and blue eyes said so, She had met him for the first time that day. With a sad face, he held Melpomene and whispered gently,
â Stay here. Please
Melpomene recognized the boy who held her. Dressed in regal clothing, only few in the palace could come close or even touch his body.
His desperate voice penetrated Melpomene. She understood. No one stays here because theyâre happy.
Melpomene realized. Even those born and raised as princes hate this desolate place, but canât get out of it. Thatâs what duties and responsibilities are like.
Pity is often a feeling that can be confused with love. But Melpomene definitely fell in love with that wretched face while in his warm arms, unlike his cold hands.
She was so happy when she had their first child, Laetatio, and when she was pregnant with her second child, Alecto, she had nothing more to wish for.
During the day, when she confessed before Alecto had been born to the two people she loved the most in the world, even the sky cleared up like a blessing to them.
Her best friend, who was introduced by Melpomene and married Count Antebellum, heard the news and sent her hand-knitted children socks. Count Antebellum also sent a congratulatory letter. The two became her treasures.
If her life was a book, she thought it would end with sentences like âAnd they lived happily ever afterâ. Though it wasnât an exciting story filled with ups and downs, the soft and happy ending would still make anyone smile.
But then everything changed so drastically.
He allowed Laetatio to die in vain. When she held onto her dying sonâs body she couldnât even cry as her stomach contracted painfully as if it was tearing apart.
Her amniotic water burst early, signaling a premature birth.
âNo, my babyâŠ.
She couldnât lose both children in a day. In order not to lose consciousness, she grabbed the blade that Letatio used to stab himself.
The servants screamed and carried Melpomene in their arms.
The memory behind it flickered. But when she opened her eyes again, she could breathe a sign of relief when she saw her little child lying next to her.
There was one more person in the room besides her. It was a white-haired kratos.
â Why did you come in here?
â You gave birth to a son. Thatâs a great job.
â You killed my son, and you dare come face to face with me?!
Even in her fury when Melphomene threw random objects around, Kratos did not avoid it. Kratos stared at the child next to Melpomene with numb eyes. Rather than looking at his child, it was more like he was looking at non-living things like stones.
â Now that you have this child, you donât have to worry about the successor.
-âŠâŠ You knew that, right? You knew it! I knew he wasnât at fault, but you killed him without doing a proper investigation!
Kratos approached Melpomene, who was still screaming. He knelt down and hugged her. As she struggled and rebelled, he had to lock her into his arms before answering grimly.
â Empress, I wasnât interested in children from the beginning. You gave birth to him because you needed him, and I was glad that you were happy.
â What? NowâŠâŠ Now that isâŠâŠ.
-I donât care if this child, just born to the Empress, dies. If I need descendants, wouldnât it be enough to sow the seeds of other concubines and then harvest them?
The boy I remembered, who had been tormented by saying that he could not stand this place, had grown up quickly. Melpomene was terrified of his unfamiliarity. Kratos muttered as he kissed the corner of her eyes.
â I only need the Empress to stay with me. All I need is the power to seize the Empress. To that end, I will even join hands with someone worse than the Marquis.
Melponeme thought she should have protested then that day that she didnât like the Imperial Palace.
â Donât even think about dying. Or Iâll cut off the life of the girl you saved and begged for.
Oh, she did. She still had three lives to save. Alecto, her close friend Clotho, and the Antebellum familyâs child in Clothoâs body.
Melpomene had to put up with it in order to fulfill the desire to stab this man in front of her with a sharp knife.
Melpomene did her best to love Alecto, her only child left. Because there are only a few things left for her to love in this ugly palace.
But as Alecto grew up day by day, it became even more difficult. Alecto looked so much like Kratos.
Even though she was obsessed with him, when she saw Alecto, she naturally remembered Kratos and her heart was shaken. The more Alecto grew to resemble Kratos, the longer she kept away from him.
Her empty heart was drawn to Helena, the daughter of Clotho, who is now Alectoâs maid.
The child was kind and innocent. Looking at the childâs pure image, she felt like she was getting what she had lost back.
That young self who knew nothing but loveâŠ
So Melpomene used to call Helena and talk. Listening to her story, Melpomene tried to forget everything, even Alecto.
Melpomene knows sheâs a bad mother. But she couldnât stand it.
She loved Letatio so much. She missed the days when she was with her eldest child and didnât know anything. Melpomene still dreamed of Letatio, who died.
Then âthat childâ entered the palace to become the partner of Alecto. With her father who took Melpomeneâs happinessâŠâŠ.
Melpomene looked at Eris, who greeted her shyly, with a cold look.
It was unacceptable that the child of the man who killed her son dreamed of marrying his daughter to her other son.
The harder Eris tried to become the crown princess, the more Melpomene did not like Eris.
Clotho told her gossip whenever they met, saying that Eris was toxic. Coming from her, Eris seemed cunning and vicious, and a woman who was blinded by power, trying to entice the crown prince.
Helena, who is kind-hearted, used to defend Eris, saying she was not such a child, but Melpomene thought that Helena only looked at the world so beautifully.
Melpomene knew a child like Eris well. A vulgar person who doesnât know the subject and craves the power of men or by-products that fall in love with their own self-worth
Melpomene constantly tested Eris. She intentionally rebuked her, asked for impossible favors, and insulted her by comparing her to Helena, who did not have the same status.
This was one of those days. Pretending to be a benevolent mother-in-law, Alecto lied to Melpomene, saying that he had no interest in Eris and wanted to marry Helena.
Telling Eris, If she keeps going like this, she may lose her position, so Melpomene wanted to advise Eris to dress up like a prostitute on the street and seduce Alecto. If Eris were to become pregnant, wouldnât Alecto look at her? Melpomene lashed out at Eris with her sharp tongue. Melpomene wanted Eris to cry
But she didnât cry. Eris just nodded gently and said she would listen to Melfomeneâs advice wholeheartedly. She may have been offended, but she did not lose control, like a woman who has already become accustomed to the Imperial Palace.
Melpomene found it disgusting. She held onto her smile until she told Eris to leave.
Kynthia: A boy who lives with Anakin
Meaning of the name âKynthiaâ : In Greek Baby Names the meaning of the name is Moon.
Melpomeneâs name was derived from the Greek verb melpĂŽ or melpomai meaning âto celebrate with dance and song.
Melpomene, in Greek religion, one of the nine Muses, patron of tragedy and lyre playing. In Greek art her attributes were the tragic mask and the club of Heracles. According to some traditions, the half-bird, half-woman Sirens were born from the union of Melpomene with the river god Achelous.
Krytos: The current Emperor, the father of alecto, has extreme obsession with the empress to the point he will kill his son by joining hands with the marquis.
In Greek mythology, Kratos (or Cratos)(a) is the divine personification of strength. He is the son of Pallas and
Styx.
Kratos is characterized as brutal and merciless, repeatedly mocking both Hephaestus and Prometheus and advocating for the use of unnecessary violence. He defends Zeusâ oppressive rule and predicts that Prometheus will never escape his bonds.
Clotho Antebellum: Mother of Helena, hates Eris and her family because they killed her husband and destroved her family. She is the nanny of the crown prince and best friend of the empress.
Clotho was one of the Three Fates or Moirai in Greek mythology, her sisters being Lachesis and Atropos. She was the one who spun the thread of the lives of all mortals, as well as the one to decide when a person would be born or killed, along with other similarly important decisions.