"Nice evening, isn't it?" The man chuckled with a lascivious grin.
Beneath his dark cloak, dark enough to appear black, his eyes, the same color as a prince's, gleamed fiercely.
Kaizen Valraka Wilnarion, Emperor of Veloyton.
The eldest remaining after the purge following the old emperor's death, apart from Everiel's father.
Every time Everiel faced him, she was seized by a strange fear.
Kaizen always exuded a dark and chilling aura.
As if he was death itself.
"To come here trusting the words of my son, you're as innocent as ever," Kaizen remarked, making Everiel pale as she looked at Tezerick.
Could she have been lured here?
"Don't believe his words," came the response as if he had read her thoughts.
Tezerick murmured as the emperor drew his blade.
"Who are you calling your son?"
Everiel saw the boy clenching his fist behind his back. The fist trembled thinly.
"Well, it seems the prince no longer finds doll play amusing in the palace."
With inexplicable words, the emperor gradually approached them with a threatening demeanor, like a beast.
Suddenly, Everiel noticed something eerie about his appearance.
Under the emperor's foot, the dense shadow writhed as if alive.
"Run!"
Tezerick urgently shouted, and at that moment, the moving shadows branched out in multiple directions.
In an instant, they ensnared Tezerick and Everiel like chains.
The shadows felt slick and clammy like reptilian scales. Despite the chilling sensation, Everiel couldn't move a single finger.
'I can't escape...!'
Even as she thought this, Kaizen approached slowly.
"It’s already been five years since you came to the palace," he whispered low like a snake.
"It seems it's time to send you back to my brother."
"Don't do it!"
Tezerick's fierce shout echoed through the chapel.
Kaizen paid no mind and drew the sword at his waist. Everiel's eyes widened at the gleaming blade.
'He's going to kill me.'
Trembling with fear, the girl hesitantly spoke.
"P-please, spare me..."
Her body shaking uncontrollably, she bit her tongue. Nevertheless, Everiel desperately continued speaking.
“Your Majesty, I-I haven't do-done anything wrong. Please.”
Everiel pleaded, her eyes desperate as they met the emperor's gaze. Kaizen, observing the girl's defiance, chuckled.
“You won't be lonely for long. Your father is waiting for you on the other side.”
In an instant, the sound of steel slicing through the air echoed. Everiel couldn't even scream.
Her body collapsed weakly.
It's hot. She felt like her heart's burning in flames.
"Everiel...!"
Tezerick's cry faintly reached her ears. Only after sensing the fear underlying the boy's voice did Everiel realize her impending death.
'Why? Why must I die?'
Flames of rage blazed within Everiel's heart.
Before losing consciousness, the last thing Everiel saw was Shaia's visage.
Within the dim confines of the chapel, the god’s lips were curved upwards as if mocking Everiel.
'Is it laughing at my foolishness?'
Everiel's expression contorted.
'If only I had a bit more strength, perhaps from Solgren, or even from my father, I wouldn't succumb so pathetically.'
With a futile regret as her final thought, Everiel closed her eyes.
On a summer night at the age of fourteen, the girl died.
Or so she thought.
"What's the matter, Eve?"
Until she opened her eyes before her father, Duke Solgren.
* * *
Having only lived for a mere 14 years, Everiel hadn't really pondered much about death thereafter.
So when she woke up in an unfamiliar room, she was quite taken aback. The scene before her was different from her imagination of the afterlife.
'Where am I?'
Everiel found herself in some sort of room.
It was a desolate space devoid of decorations, without even a small painting. While neat furniture and a table caught her eye, they offered no clues.
Everiel quickly scanned her surroundings.
Thick curtains covered the windows, leaving the dim flames of a fireplace as the only source of light in the room.
Despite the flames not being particularly weak, the indoors felt chilly, causing Everiel to shiver slightly.
‘Am I not dead?’
At that moment, a low voice echoed once again.
"Eve, are you listening?"
"Oh..."
Everiel let out a faint sigh.
As her honey-like, vivid golden eyes met him, any words she had intended to say vanished cleanly from her mind.
On another side of the room, a man sat halfway up on the bed.
The man appeared pale as if his veins would show through. He seemed fragile, like a delicate glass ornament about to shatter.
Yet simultaneously, he resembled a handsome figure stepping out of a delicate masterpiece.
His soft silver hair resembled strands spun from sugar.
Underneath well-shaped eyebrows, long eyelashes sparkled, and beneath a smooth nose were lips drawn with divine elegance and grace.
Thanks to his flawless appearance, even his slightly disheveled attire seemed to exude piety and neatness.
"Even if the door is open, you shouldn't just come into Dad's room."
Everiel breathed in sharply as she stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar presence.
"You’re Dad…"
Herwin Solgren.
A duke who rules over the northern region of the Empire of Veloyton, a stain on the Wilnarion lineage, and the father of Everiel.
He stood before the girl now.
‘Is he a ghostly apparition after my death?’
Everiel couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Are you really my Dad?"
In a doubtful question, Herwin chuckled faintly.
"What kind of dream did you have, my little star?"
Everiel pursed her lips.
Little star. That was the childhood nickname only Herwin used to call Everiel.
Suddenly, Kaizen's words before her death flashed through Everiel's mind.
‘You won't be lonely for long. Your father who left first is waiting for you.’
Everiel realized as if struck by lightning. Herwin being here meant, in turn, that he had lost his life.
Bitter and sorrowful tears welled up in her eyes.
"Dad, you died..."
Herwin blinked at the sobbing child. His expression was one of confusion.
"Waahh..."
Staring at Herwin with watery eyes, Everiel finally burst into tears.
"What will happen if you're dead!"
"What?"
"If the dwuke is also go-gone, how will the dwuchy survive, how will Solgren continue to exist, waahh..."
Perhaps due to crying for the first time in a while, her pronunciation strangely became excessively muddled, but the child didn't care about such things.
Everiel couldn't hold back and rushed into Herwin's embrace.
"E-Eve?"
There was a familiar scent. The comforting smell of fresh sheets, a subtle herbal fragrance.
"I missed you so much!"
The pent-up longing burst forth. Everiel clutched onto Herwin's garment and tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Eve…"
Herwin's eyes, gazing down at his daughter in his arms trembled.
Yet, he quickly masked his softened expression and pushed Everiel away from his embrace with a stern face.
"You must have escaped from your maid-in-waiting again."
With a cough, he weakly reached for the handkerchief by the bedside, his hand trembling.
"At any rate, you mustn’t be here. Right now, the person you need most isn't me, but the governess."
The firm words briefly startled her. A strong sense of déjà vu swept over Everiel.
'Wait, that line...'
She had heard the same words before.
'At any rate, you mustn’t be here. Right now, the person you need most isn't me, but the governess.'
Though it had been so long ago, the memory was still vivid for Everiel. It was from that moment on that the child's life spiraled to ruin.