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Chapter : 01
[Thank you for taking me in all this time. I sincerely wish you good health.]
Whooo—
With trembling hands, I folded the letter and slowly lifted my head.
Muslin curtains flapped wildly through the wide-open window. Drawers were pulled halfway out at random, clothes scattered messily across the floor. Even the safe stood completely empty.
The room—usually kept so meticulously tidy it bordered on obsessive—looked as though a bomb had gone off.
It was right there until yesterday…
As if to prove Dante’s absence, the single velvet armchair he favored lay toppled over, rolling uselessly on the floor.
What the hell happened?
Just yesterday, we ate, drank, and went to bed like normal.
I saw Dante go into his room with my own two eyes. He flinched when spoken to, lowered his gaze quietly when our eyes met—exactly like always—
No. Something shocking did happen.
But nothing compared to this.
As memories of the previous night began to rise hazily, I shook my head hard, trying to clear them.
Just then, Gott—the head steward who had been investigating Dante’s room—approached.
The elderly man, who always wore a kindly smile no matter what ridiculous behavior I indulged in, looked just as calm now, even in the face of Dante’s midnight escape.
“Your Highness. We found this in the aide’s bedroom.”
What Gott handed me was an old diary, yellowed with age and torn in several places.
[March 12, Year 817 of the Oreas Calendar.
I followed a strange noise and found that child sharpening a knife in the grass. Who is he planning to kill this time? This makes six already. Someday, I’ll probably die by that hand too.]
“This is… a diary from when I was young?”
I must have been eleven. I remembered this day especially well—it was Dante’s birthday.
I’d been diligently sharpening a knife in the garden when Dante came over to see what I was doing.
Maybe he sensed a surprise, because his cheeks were flushed with excitement, lips tightly pressed together in anticipation. He looked adorable.
“Are you going to kill someone again?”
He tried to sound calm, though his voice trembled as he forced himself to act composed. My heart wavered, but I wanted to keep the secret until he blew out the candles, so I gave a vague answer.
“That thing in our yard.”
That night, boiled chicken was served at Dante’s table.
“But then… don’t tell me—”
Flip.
As I turned the pages, memories resurfaced one after another, and my blank expression slowly crumpled.
[Seven deaths now.]
[This makes eight. The body was definitely disposed of in the backyard. Or handed over to him.]
[I heard Gold spilled that child’s glass of milk. I have to save him somehow.]
[…Gold has disappeared. I asked around, but everyone avoids answering. I can’t find him. Where did he go?]
[That child keeps meeting my eyes lately. …Will the ninth be me?]
[Every emergency escape route out of the estate has been blocked. Money, food, even the exits—everything. That child knew it all. It’s over.]
[Today, he muttered that watching me was like playing an idle game. A warning that he knows I’m trying to escape.]
[The moment I run for freedom, the game will begin. I will survive no matter what.]
The diary ended there, with words pressed down so hard they seemed carved into the page.
[I’d rather kill you first.]
“This can’t be… real, can it…?”
I stood frozen like a plaster statue for a long while before I finally managed to speak.
“Gott.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“What should I do? I think Dante misunderstood something… badly.”
Apparently, I wasn’t just a drunken troublemaker anymore—but a deranged, psychopathic serial killer.
My mouth fell open in disbelief.
To think that the so-called dark mastermind male lead ran away in terror from a disposable side character who could die with a flick of a finger.
According to the setting… is this even possible?
As I stood there laughing emptily, Gott carefully asked,
“What will you do?”
The answer was simple.
“What do you mean, what do I do? I bring him back.”
Crunch.
The letter crumpled mercilessly in my hand as my trembling lips twisted into a dark smile.
“I worked so hard for so long.”
Ten years.
Ten full years of carefully raising him, cherishing him like gold and jade, making sure the dark mastermind didn’t go astray.
* * *
My body felt heavy. My limbs had lost sensation long ago.
Gurgle.
Boiling sounds echoed as cold, salty water forced its way into my throat.
A crushing density filled my stomach and pressed down on my entire body like molten lead. It felt as if the ocean’s abyss were dragging not just my shell, but my very soul downward.
Blood leaking from my bullet-ridden shoulder mixed with seawater, clouding my vision.
Chairman Han…
Glug. Glug.
I tried to move my lips while staring at the fading light, but no sound came—only echoes in my consciousness.
Father… Dad…
The sea never stays still. My body must already have drifted far from where I fell.
I knew there was nothing beyond the surface—but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
My gaze wavered aimlessly as the current carried it. In the spinning blur, I desperately lifted my head toward wherever my father might be.
Just—
Just to say one thing.
Dad… Dad… Han—
As my consciousness grew distant, I repeated what might be my final words.
Han Seong-hwan, you bastard… let’s see how well you live without me, you son of a—
And just as the last thread of light piercing my retina faded—
“…you little bastard!”
“Gasp!”
I jolted awake at the curse that rang sharply in my ears.
“…Huh?”
My mind, hazy just moments ago, was suddenly crystal clear.
The seawater that had flooded my throat was gone. My chest felt almost refreshingly light.
I was definitely underwater just now.
Drowning in the ocean.
So how was it that I was now lying snugly in a massive bed, in the middle of a room that looked like a dazzling golden palace?
And the first thing I noticed—
An old man beside me.
Eyes wide as lanterns, he stared at me, panting, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He soon came to his senses and leapt to his feet.
“You’re awake!”
The unfamiliar man looked absurdly happy—so much so that his hollow cheeks flushed red.
That wasn’t the only strange thing.
“What cold sweat… Did you have a nightmare? Calm down, take a deep breath. Yes, that’s it. Good. How frightening it must’ve been… It’s all right now. Gott will protect you.”
Even though I was an illegitimate daughter, Chairman Han had never skimped on education.
Especially languages.
I wasn’t talented enough to meet his expectations, but I’d picked up plenty by following him around.
English, French, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Kazakh—
I’d probably heard most languages on Earth at least once.
But no matter how hard I searched my memory, I’d never heard this language before.
And yet—
Why can I understand it?
The old man’s behavior was strange too—treating me like I was his own grandchild.
“It’s all right… You’re safe now…”
He even patted my back and carefully wiped the sweat from my forehead.
“….”
I stayed silent and assessed my condition.
Thankfully, nothing seemed broken.
I felt weak, like soaked tissue paper, but there was no pain.
My shoulder… did they treat it?
There was no bandage, yet no pressure where the gunshot wound had been.
My arm’s still attached.
Sensation reached all the way to my fingertips.
Guess the wound wasn’t that deep.
With the biggest issue resolved, I finally had the mental space to consider my situation.
Kidnapped?
No. It was common knowledge in the industry that I had no value left.
Rescued? Impossible. All my colleagues had been purged by Chairman Han.
One person had escaped his eyes—but even that guy was on the run. Rescuing me alone in the open sea would be absurd.
Honestly, it’d be more believable if I’d been caught in a fishing net by a squid boat.
Then who saved me?
That was when I noticed a mirror behind the old man.
“Huh?”
Reflected in its smooth surface was a doll-like girl of about ten, with honey-gold hair and golden eyes.
She looked prickly as hell.
Who’s this brat?
A chubby little kid with baby fat—yet her expression was colder than a winter gale.
Those eyes are terrifying.
Staring blankly, I reached down and squeezed my now tiny body.
Soft flesh filled my hand—no calluses at all.
…Think.
Unless this is a magic mirror, logically speaking, the reflection is me.
But I could swear—there was a difference between me and this chestnut-sized kid as big as a kitten versus a kangaroo.
But the mirror shows me…?
…Don’t tell me—
As my malfunctioning brain struggled to turn, a word flashed through my mind at the exact same moment the old man spoke.
Possession?
“Your Highness, do you feel unwell anywhere?”
Your Highness.
A term straight out of novels and movies.
I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Imperial Princess?”
Only then did I truly look at the old man.
Though thin to the point of gauntness, his shoulders were firm.
With a slightly crooked hawk nose and narrow cheekbones, he looked every bit the stereotypical strict butler.
A name surfaced naturally.
“Gott Heiler?”
Surely not.
“Yes. This old man is Gott—Gott Heiler, who has stayed by Your Highness’s side since you were toddling around.”
Mouth hanging open, I slowly pointed from him… to myself.
“Aerensia Valdheim?”
“…Yes. The empire’s one and only Imperial Princess, and the master of the Mirror Palace.”
At his answer, the little girl in the mirror turned deathly pale.
“Short….”
No way.
I stared at my trembling hands like a frightened hamster before forcing the words out.
“…Carrots.”
“Pardon?”
“Bring me carrots. Right now!”
Help! There’s a person trapped in here!
