The Portrait of Pride — Chapter 1

Diana's story truly begins in suffering, and this chapter makes sure we feel every year of it. We meet her not as the poised spy from the premise, but as a blind maid worn down by seven years of cruelty under her young lady. The rumor that her blindness came from poison hangs heavy over every panel, and the servants' gossip that she stays only because she has nowhere else to go paints a heartbreaking picture of endurance without hope. Yet Diana is far from passive. Her quiet resilience, her ability to remain composed while being mocked and tormented, shows an inner strength that cruelty hasn't managed to break. The plot moves quickly from misery to mystery. When Madam Clara de Fier hands Diana her wages, the kindness feels wrong, too generous, too final. The line that it will be her last payment instantly shifts the mood from domestic drama to something far more dangerous. Diana is being discarded, or worse, sold. That dread follows her into the nighttime study scene, which is the emotional and narrative centerpiece of the chapter. There, under questioning about her past in Hilde, Diana is exposed and vulnerable. Hilde, known as a brothel town, adds a layer of shame and secrecy to her guarded history that both Madam and the mysterious stranger are eager to exploit. The arrival of Eisen Montreur, the Second Prince, changes everything. Calm, calculating, and intrigued, he decides to buy her for his elder brother, turning Diana from a dismissed servant into a pawn in a royal game she doesn't yet understand. Artistically, the contrast is stunning, the warm, shining home Diana dreams of returning to versus the cold, shadowed study where her fate is decided. Her unseeing eyes remain incredibly expressive, carrying longing, fear, and a flicker of defiance that makes us want to root for her survival in the palace ahead.