EVHE 53

Chapter 53

“Milady, milady! Please try this too. It’s a flower tea Father brought home!”

“Ah, thank you.”

The young lady fussing in front of me was named Siri. She had invited me to House Espan because she wanted to spend time together, so here I was.

At her urging, I took a sip of the tea. The first taste was bitter, but as it lingered, a faint sweetness spread gently across my tongue.

But still… where in the world is Oz’s Garden?

Just yesterday, I had received a letter from Reshell, saying that Oz had been opened and inviting me to go with him.

But aside from hearing it from his lips, I had never once encountered the name “Oz.” I even looked at maps and asked the maids, but no one knew of such a place.

Isn’t there someone who knows geography better?

As I pondered, my eyes landed on Siri. She had once told me she loved books and enjoyed studying.

“Siri, do you happen to know where Oz is?”

“Oz? Hm… I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before…”

Siri closed her eyes, thinking hard. She groaned and furrowed her brows for quite a while, until I was just about to tell her not to worry.

“Ah!”

She clapped her hands with a burst of realization.

“Just a moment!”

Siri jumped up and dashed out of the room. Before long, she returned hugging a thick book.

A… a history book?

The title was impossible to miss—The Empire’s History in One Night.

So Oz is significant enough to appear in a history book?

I began to worry that I’d asked something I shouldn’t have.

“Here it is. It says it used to be the place criminals were kept before execution.”

“Criminals…? So it’s a prison?”

My eyes widened at the unexpected answer.

“Oh, no. More precisely, it was a place where traitors were confined. For example, a former Emperor imprisoned his uncle there until the day of his execution.”

“Ah…”

So it wasn’t just an ordinary prison, but a holding place for high-ranking traitors—those too important to be placed with common criminals. Now I understood.

But then why would Reshell…?

Something didn’t add up. Reshell had spoken of Oz as if it were precious to him. Why would a prison for traitors mean so much?

“Milady! Look at this!”

Siri’s excited voice pulled me from my thoughts.

She had set aside the history book and spread several posters across the table.

“Here. This place is incredibly popular these days!”

At the end of her pointing finger was a picture of a breathtakingly beautiful sea.

“I’m planning to visit soon!”

The posters also showed other resorts that looked like heaven itself.

Her bubbling joy was infectious, and I found myself smiling too.

“I’d love to go as well!”

We exchanged cheerful laughter. For now, it was time to set aside complicated thoughts and simply enjoy the day.

My carriage rattled along the road within the Imperial Palace. Oz was apparently located deep inside, past the outer paths of the palace grounds.

Just as I was starting to nod off from the long ride, the carriage suddenly stopped.

“From here, you’ll have to walk.”

Following the attendant’s guidance, I walked down a twisting path for quite a while until a large iron gate came into view.

The attendant unlocked it but did not step inside. It seemed entry was forbidden to all but me.

As soon as I crossed the threshold, the gate shut firmly behind me. I quietly turned my head to take in the garden.

Reshell hadn’t been in the carriage with me, so I assumed he had arrived first—but he wasn’t here either.

I’ll just look around until he comes.

Oz’s Garden was, indeed, a vast garden.

But unlike ordinary gardens, it was completely walled in, with barriers more than twice my height.

There had been no upkeep—tall weeds ran rampant, flowers grew wildly, and tangled vines climbed the stone walls.

I strolled around slowly. A broken swing that no one had touched in years, a dried-up pond that looked forgotten, everything here bore the marks of time.

In one corner stood a two-story house, so decrepit it looked ready to collapse at any moment.

It feels almost like a post-apocalyptic world…

I used to love stories like that in my previous life. And Oz carried that same air—a once-loved place now swallowed by ruin, like returning to a hometown after the end of the world.

“What’s this place?”

I approached the crumbling house and pushed the door open.

“Ugh—ahchoo!”

Dust exploded outward, making me sneeze uncontrollably. After a bout of coughing, I finally managed to breathe again.

“Inside… it’s just an ordinary house.”

Not the disguised prison I half-expected.

Aside from the wallpaper sprouting weeds and the furniture lying broken and scattered, it was no different from any home.

After a short look, I lost interest and stepped outside again.

And there—someone’s shadow stretched across the garden.

Reshell stood in the middle, staring blankly over the wall.

“Reshell.”

Even when I called, he didn’t turn around. His golden eyes, usually alight, were dimmed, sunk deep into thought.

“Reshell?”

Only when I called again did he turn toward me.

“Lily.”

He smiled, calling me by my pet name.

“I didn’t think you’d come. This isn’t exactly a place you’d enjoy.”

He had voiced the very question I wanted to ask.

Why would he think that—unless…

In the original story, there had been no mention of Lilith ever being confined here. And knowing her character, she would never dwell on the past.

“…Was it?”

I gave a vague answer and walked past him to sit on a bench.

“Surely this place isn’t pleasant for you either.”

The silence felt heavy, so I forced the words out.

“It wasn’t.”

He finally looked away from me, sweeping his gaze instead over the garden and the lonely little house.

But he didn’t say anything else. The quiet stretched until the air itself felt brittle.

Ugh, so awkward!

I had never felt this awkward alone with Reshell before. Usually, I would chatter away to fill the silence—but today the atmosphere made it impossible.

I’ll just wait.

I rested my chin on my hand and studied his back. Surely he had a reason for bringing me here, yet he hadn’t spoken of it at all.

“Why did you bring me here?”

In the end, boredom pushed me to ask directly.

Surely he hadn’t invited me here just to sit idly like a doll.

“To straighten my discipline.”

His answer was calm.

Discipline?

That required someone to correct you. The only person that came to mind was—

“Me?”

I hunched my shoulders nervously. He laughed.

“No. Myself.”

That was even stranger. My baffled look must have been obvious, for he explained further.

“You were younger than I was then, so maybe you don’t remember.”

His face chilled for a fleeting moment before softening again.

“I was born and raised here with my mother.”

He trailed his fingers slowly along the red brick wall.

“It wasn’t exactly happy, but… not miserable either.”

He walked toward a swing set and toys half-buried in sand—belongings of a child long gone.

So that house had been where Reshell and his mother lived. That much I could guess.

“One day, I came out into the garden like always… and there you were, sitting exactly as you are now.”

He glanced back at me on the bench.

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

I pretended to remember, nodding quickly.

“You don’t remember, do you.”

“Of course I do!”

I blurted out a denial, flustered. He smiled faintly.

“Well, it was years ago. Forgetting would be natural.”

Thankfully, he seemed unconcerned.

So this was the place Reshell first met Lilith.

Lilith had lived in the palace from the age of ten, so it wasn’t strange for her to have encountered him here.

But if Reshell was raised here…

Oz was said to be a prison for traitors. And his mother had been the Second Empress. That could only mean she was charged with treason.

So Reshell must have been confined here his entire life, unable to leave or meet others.

From birth—over a decade of captivity.

I looked up at the towering walls stretching high into the sky. The thought of never being able to leave made my chest tighten.

How unbearable must it have been for him to live that reality?

Neither Lilith’s nor Reshell’s past was ever mentioned before…

In the original story, only the protagonist’s tale was told. The villain’s past had been left untold.

“Lily.”

A gentle voice pulled me back. He was suddenly close, his golden eyes soft.

“Yes?”

I looked up at him, obediently meeting his gaze.

Emotions I couldn’t quite read flickered across his face.

“That wish of yours—to escape beyond the Empire. Does it still hold true?”

At his words, I flinched in shock, my whole body trembling.