YOUR HIGHNESS I DONT NEED FAVOR!! (REBORN)

CHAPTER 1

The air was bitter with winter, but it wasn’t the cold that made her shiver. Chains clinked with each movement as Elira Virellan knelt before the royal palace. Her once-elegant gown was tattered, soaked in slush and blood. The snow fell silently, a cruel contrast to the screams that echoed in her mind.

A crowd had gathered, nobles in fine furs and commoners alike, all watching her like a spectacle. The noble daughter of House Virellan, branded a traitor. Her name the one she once wore with pride now spat with venom.

The royal guard stood on either side of her, swords unsheathed, as though she still posed a threat.

Her eyes found him on the marble steps, tall in ceremonial armor. Crown Prince Kaelion Thorne. The man she had once loved. The man she’d protected. The man who let them take her away without so much as a word.

“Elira Virellan,” the High Chancellor’s voice rang out, “you are hereby sentenced to death for high treason against the Crown. You conspired with foreign enemies, stole classified documents, and endangered His Highness.”

The words rang hollow in her ears. She didn’t scream. Didn’t beg.

All she did was look at Kaelion.

“Do you believe this?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper. Her throat ached from days of silence, from screaming for justice that never came.

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away.

But he didn’t speak.

That silence... it was the last betrayal.

A tear slipped down her cheek. Not out of fear, but out of finality. He had chosen the lie. Chosen to protect the crown’s image over the truth. Over her.

“Any last words?” a guard asked, sword poised.

Elira lifted her chin, regal to the very end.

“I was foolish to think loyalty mattered in a place like this.”

The blade cut through the air.

Darkness followed.

Burning pain.

A blinding light.

Then—

A gasp.

She bolted upright, breath ragged. Her hands trembled, touching her chest, her face. No chains. No blood. No snow.

Her eyes scanned the room. Rich drapes, familiar furniture, sunlight spilling through crystal-paned windows. This was her chamber... in the Virellan estate. Not a prison cell.

She scrambled to the mirror and froze.

The reflection that met her gaze was not the broken woman from the execution courtyard. It was her. Young. Barely eighteen. Eyes wide and full of innocence—innocence that had yet to be shattered.

This was the day before the Crown Prince’s engagement announcement. The day everything had started.

Elira staggered back from the mirror, heart racing.

“I died,” she whispered. “I was killed.”

But she was here. Alive. Back in time.

And she wasn’t the same.

Not anymore.

Elira sat by the window as morning light crept across her room. Outside, servants moved through the garden, busy preparing for the ball that would soon announce her engagement to the prince. Her stomach turned at the memory.

In the past, she had been nervous, giddy even—naïvely hopeful that her quiet devotion would be enough. That if she stood beside him, gave him her loyalty, he would see her.

Now she saw the truth.

Kaelion never saw her. Not really. She was a tool, a noble daughter to keep close, a shield against political storms. And when the storm came—he let it crush her.

Elira rose from the chaise, her reflection sharper than before.

She would not attend the ball as a doe-eyed bride-to-be. She would not wear white and pretend to be honored by the royal favor. Not this time.

She would live differently.

She would live for herself.

“Lady Elira,” her maid said as she entered, holding out a gown of pale gold, “this is for tonight’s announcement. His Highness requested—”

“Burn it,” Elira said, voice like ice.

The maid gasped. “My lady—!”

“I will not wear his colors,” she said simply. “I will not go.”

But the prince—

“I am not his.” Her voice didn’t tremble. “Not anymore.”

The maid hesitated, then bowed and left in silence.

Elira turned back to the window, watching the world begin again. This time, she would not chase fate. She would shape it.