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Chapter 5
Aria left the protesting Minette behind and walked toward the lake. She parted the startled boys and dove into the water without hesitation.
The lake wasn’t large, but deep enough for a child to drown in. Reaching toward the flailing boy in the dark blue water, she grasped his hand as he clutched hers desperately.
Though the boy had a thin frame, his soaked clothes made him feel as if he were pulling Aria down instead.
Fortunately, Aria was a strong swimmer. With graceful movements, she kicked her feet and finally brought Nocturne to shore.
“Phew! Are you—”
As she caught her breath and turned to the boy, Aria noticed a familiar mark on his exposed chest—an identical core to the one etched on her ankle.
“A soulmate.”
The realization struck her like lightning, and at that exact moment, the boy’s core began to glow blue.
Before Aria could react, flames burst from the boy’s body. An instinctive alarm blared in her mind, but her limbs wouldn’t move. The next moment, everything around her was engulfed in fire.
The inferno consumed Aria alive. Her pale skin scorched red as burns rapidly spread across her body. She writhed in agony.
“No…!”
“Your Highness!”
Aria awoke with a scream. Her eyes darted around slowly, assessing her surroundings.
The Western Palace’s bedroom. She was drenched in sweat, lying on her bed. It had just been a dream. The voice she heard came from her maid.
When her gaze turned to the maid, Aria understood the reason behind the dream—there was a lantern in her hand.
“Fire…”
She wanted to tell the maid to remove it. But the moment she saw the flickering flame behind the bubbled glass, her breath hitched so sharply that she couldn’t speak.
It had always been like this since the accident.
Though she barely remembered the moment she was consumed by the flames, her body never forgot. Even the sight of fire triggered intense symptoms.
‘My empathic ability just activated.’
She had thought it was completely gone.
Suddenly, hope bloomed. Aria inhaled deeply, like someone who had just surfaced after nearly drowning. A faint smile tugged at her lips.
‘Nocturne is in the palace.’
She had sensed his presence near the annex. Had he come to see her? And yet, he hadn’t visited her room. Why?
‘Ah, I’ve been asleep this whole time…’
Still recovering, her body fatigued easily. Just a short conversation with her brother earlier had worn her out completely.
‘If they hear that my ability may be returning, they’ll be glad for sure.’
Though cold lately, her mother had once been deeply affectionate toward family. Maybe that earlier coldness was her way of hiding sorrow.
‘After I tell them, I’ll go see Nocturne.’
Resolved, Aria walked slowly into the hallway with the maid’s support. The maid, seeing her walk for the first time, was clearly shocked.
‘Was there ever a room over there?’
Curious, she dismissed the maid and entered the study alone.
“…Padba…!”
Just then, a faint yell from her mother echoed from behind the wall. Aria looked around in confusion and found a small gap in the bookshelf.
‘Not a wall… a door.’
She remembered her brother once feeling around this spot as a child. And now, she discovered a hidden room.
“…If they find out I tried to poison her, you won’t be safe either!”
Poison?
Had she heard correctly? The voice speaking to her mother… it was clearly—
“I only did it to ease my sister’s suffering.”
—her brother.
Yet Aria couldn’t believe it. Her brother was always gentle, never harsh.
‘He tried to poison me…’
A memory flashed—her burns had been accompanied by symptoms of poisoning. She had trusted the royal physician’s words at the time.
‘He was the physician Padba assigned to me…’
“To keep living as a vegetable with a ruined body—wouldn’t it have been kinder to let her go? Mother, you silently agreed!”
“But she woke up! You should have finished it cleanly!”
Aria covered her mouth with trembling hands to suppress a scream.
What… what was she hearing?
“The day Father declared Aria the crown princess!”
Padba’s voice pierced her illusions. Aria peered through the crack.
Her mother sat pale on a sofa, and her brother stood facing away, ranting furiously.
“I was humiliated. But I didn’t show it. I even congratulated her sincerely.”
“She was better than me.”
Padba pointed toward the hidden door.
“I tried to be proud of my beautiful, brilliant sister. But that perfect sister is gone now.”
His voice dropped.
“All that’s left is a half-melted monster.”
‘He called me a monster…’
Aria, shaking, touched her scarred left cheek.
‘Was it… because of my burn?’
“Yes. It was my mistake not to finish it. You may disapprove, Mother, but there’s no other option now.”
“No, don’t say it like that. Whatever the choice, you’re still my beloved son.”
‘Even after that… she’s still comforting him?’
“Just get rid of her. That hideous thing.”
Her mother’s words struck her like blades.
‘She called me hideous…’
Childhood memories of trying to please her mother surged up. She had never been enough.
Even now…
‘Was I nothing more than a defective product to them?’
As she steadied herself, another voice pierced the wall:
“Still, it’d be a waste to toss her aside completely. Even without her Eshafe abilities, she has her uses as a woman.”
“Well, with that face so horrifically ruined…”
“That can be treated. And her physician says she’s stopped menstruating. That could be… useful too.”
