Chapter 16
I woke up to a cool sensation rising from the tips of my toes.
The first thing I saw was a vast sky spread out before me.
A clear sky without a single cloud covered everything.
“W-What is this?!”
When I suddenly sat up, I saw my two legs floating in midair.
Startled by the shocking sight, I cried out and stumbled backward, only to bump into something and fall forward.
“Ugh…!”
When I lifted my head, the surroundings had changed.
A wide playground.
An old concrete building with a blue roof.
This place was…
“Lee Sebin, what are you doing?”
At the face that suddenly appeared in front of me, I blinked uneasily.
Short-cropped hair, chubby features from being well-fed.
A face so familiar it was burned into my mind.
“I told you to go check what today’s snack was.”
“……”
“Why are you bumping into me and acting like a crazy b*tch? Are you blind?”
The boy shoved me hard. At the sharp push, I collapsed back onto the ground helplessly.
A situation I knew all too well.
No—one I thought had already faded with time.
As I fell, my palm pressed against the playground ground of the orphanage, stinging sharply. A dull pain also spread through my wrist.
The boy spat on the ground and snarled.
“What are you staring at so damn annoyingly? I’ll rip those eyes out!”
Seeing him raise his fist threateningly, I quickly covered my face with my arms and curled up.
If I got hit by that fist, it would definitely hurt. For days.
I knew because I had already been beaten countless times.
He was the orphanage director’s son—the one who had beaten and bullied me the entire time I lived there.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for the violence that was sure to follow.
But no matter how long I waited, the pain never came.
When I slowly opened my eyes, I saw someone’s back standing in front of me.
“Stop.”
It was a calm but firm voice.
The director’s son muttered a curse under his breath, then turned away as if giving up and walked off.
“…What?”
Wasn’t this a memory from the past?
In reality, no one had ever saved me.
As I stared blankly, a stranger turned around and held out a hand.
But…
I couldn’t see their face. It was wrapped in light.
I squinted instinctively.
Everything else was clear, but only this stranger’s face was completely hidden by the glow.
Confused, I opened my mouth.
“Who… who are you…?”
“Selenea.”
My body stiffened at the name the figure murmured.
‘Not Lee Sebin?’
The surroundings were growing brighter.
“…Please forgive me.”
A somehow sorrowful voice echoed through the space again.
I stared at the glowing figure with confused eyes, then urgently shouted.
“Y-You, who are you? What… what are you asking me to forgive?”
There was no answer.
The light continued to grow brighter. The glow gradually became faint.
I suddenly stood up and reached out toward where the figure had been, but my hand touched nothing.
Only a vague outline remained.
A gentle voice echoed once more.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you. We’ll meet again. Until then…”
The voice, breaking and growing smaller, finally disappeared completely. I looked around frantically.
The orphanage playground, the children who had bullied me as a child—everything was gone.
In a pure white space, I was completely alone.
A sudden, overwhelming fear washed over me, and my face crumpled.
“Where… where did you go?”
A ringing filled my ears, and pain spread from my chest. Hugging myself tightly, I cried out desperately.
“I-I’m still here…!”
There was no response. Only my frightened voice echoed back to me.
With a hollow expression, I slowly sank down to the floor.
I buried my face between my knees. My hands trembled, and my vision blurred.
“I’m… I’m still here… I’m still here…”
Hot tears streamed down along my palms covering my face.
‘This is a dream. It has to be a dream.’
My strength suddenly drained away, and I felt my head tilt to the side.
I lost consciousness once again.
Selenea lay as if asleep. Red marks were still clearly visible around her neck.
The duke stared at her with eyes colder than ever.
Standing beside him, Walter asked the guard behind them in a stiff voice,
“What happened to him?”
“He is in the underground prison. Count Bastin is preparing the interrogation…”
Then Duke Tigris, who had been silent, spoke in a low voice.
“Cut everything off.”
“……”
“Except the neck and the tongue.”
Walter interrupted urgently.
“But, Your Grace. He is a priest from the Grand Temple. If we act rashly, the Order will not stay silent—”
“Silence.”
Walter shut his mouth.
Aleon’s eyes burned fiercely.
Walter had never seen that look in his eyes, not even on the battlefield.
One more word might cost him his head, but he still spoke, fulfilling his duty as an aide.
“…You must remain calm.”
His voice was firm.
“There may be someone behind this, giving orders.”
“……”
“If we want to deal with them all at once, we must conserve the cards we hold. If that man were to die by mistake—”
The duke’s hand trembled violently, but soon stopped.
He exhaled sharply through clenched teeth, as if forcing himself to endure something, and muttered reluctantly in a murderous tone.
“…Tell them to wait for now.”
The guard bowed deeply and left. Suffocating silence settled over the bedroom.
“I thought it was strange all along.”
Breaking the silence, Aleon ground his teeth.
“Even after that incident, Selenea avoided me—but she never refused to even see my face.”
His voice trembled faintly with rage.
Unable to bear it, Walter spoke carefully.
“…Please calm yourself.”
“We’ll return to the territory soon. Mobilize the troops and plant spies in the Grand Temple.”
“But, Your Grace. Returning to the territory is not so simple. We must first obtain permission from the Emperor—”
“Two years!”
Walter fell silent at the duke’s roar. Duke Tigris glared at him viciously.
“Two whole years. Maybe even longer. I let Selenea suffer like that all this time. In my own house.”
“……”
“If things had gone even slightly wrong—!”
Walter said nothing. The duke’s red eyes wavered dangerously.
“…I might have lost Selenea too, just like Hemera.”
Walter looked at the duke, then slowly nodded.
“At daybreak, I will gather the retainers.”
The duke added emptily,
“Request an audience with the Emperor. The sooner, the better. After something like this, they won’t be able to ask me to stay longer.”
Walter bowed and left the room. His footsteps were hurried—there was much to do.
They had to uncover everyone behind Meyer Lus and all the hidden accomplices within the mansion.
But as he walked quickly down the corridor, he slowly came to a stop and muttered in disbelief,
“All the things the young lady has done until now…”
He had thought it was simply the lingering trauma of losing her mother at a young age.
His lord must have thought the same.
But it wasn’t.
A vein bulged on his forehead.
He had tried to stay calm before his lord, but even Walter could not suppress his rising anger.
He remembered Selenea smiling brightly and waving at him when they met in the garden a few days ago.
‘How dare they… to Tigris.’
His footsteps echoed harshly through the empty corridor.
Meanwhile, on a back path of the mansion.
The shadows of two anxious figures stretched long in the moonlight.
“What… what are we supposed to do now?! This is all your fault! I told you strengthening the education in this situation would get us all killed!”
“Please, calm down.”
A composed voice soothed the other, who was shouting wildly.
“There is still a way.”
“What way?! The one in charge of the education—Meyer—has been captured! If he talks, I’m finished!”
“We just have to make sure he can’t talk.”
At the unexpected words, silence fell between them.
The now even calmer voice spoke softly.
“H-How could we do that? The one handling his interrogation is Count Bastin—the very man infamous for cruelty, the worst among Tigris’s retainers!”
“Exactly. We simply make him lose his mind. So he can’t feel any pain, no matter how terrible it is.”
“What are you saying—”
“Didn’t I tell you before? ‘That person’ is far greater than you imagine.”
The clouds slowly covered the moonlight.
“You just need to watch your mouth.”
“…!”
“Until the next order comes.”
