Nyasia barely remembered anything after that. Only she found herself floating in the main hall of Rashet Manor. People wore dark clothes. She gazed down at her cold body lying inside an opened casket. Her heart throbbed bitterly.
Fay!
Fay was striding toward the main entrance archway of Nyasia's private courtyard. A few paces away stood a man's tall figure. His face had hardened. That obsidian gaze trapped Fay like a rabbit in a snare.
It was Dorian.
Not Rian whom Nyasia had known.
"Y—young Master." Fay wept bitterly, immediately kneeling on the floor. "We—we've tried everything. For four days. I—I'm so sorry. The lady has always been sick since childhood. That she couldn't withstand the sun. I thought she'd survive the fever just like before—"
"Sunlight won't kill her." Dorian's icy voice sounded as if it could dry Fay's skin. "Stop pretending she's that weak. I checked her pulse. I always do."
Nyasia froze. 'He always did?'
She had always thought he was shameless when he'd try to hold her hand. But he was actually checking on her health?
"B—but at that time, the young lady was truly fine. And something happened to her recently. I—I don't know. The doctor said her body simply gave out."
"Gave out."
Dorian scoffed, the sound hollow.
"It seems everyone in Rashet Manor is incompetent."
His voice hardened.
Then he turned and strode away, Fay still sobbing on the floor.
.....
AFTER THAT, Nyasia's soul ascended toward the sky. Unable to descend. Unable to run toward anyone. Unable to track down Rian and tell him she was fine.
From above, she watched helplessly as her father and brother wept, lowering her coffin into the ground.
And Fay...
She hanged herself in the garden.
That same day.
'Fay, you fool!'
The scene disappeared.
Another came.
This time she saw her brother, Levon, standing motionless at another coffin as the others murmured. The marquis died of a broken heart.
'Father!'
'You cared for me, after all? But why were you never around? Why did you visit so rarely?'
...
ANOTHER SCENE appeared.
Blood splattered the capital walls. Screams everywhere. Moans. The streets smelled of death. Then came a familiar figure of a man on horseback. His jaw was sharper. His face carved in hard lines. The blood in his eyes was dark. Devouring. She'd never seen anything like it.
Like the devil himself.
Only he possessed the face of a handsome man who could make women offer themselves as willing sacrifices.
Nyasia's eyes widened, watching him hold the emperor's severed head. Then he raised his hand so the people could see the emperor's face frozen in horror.
'Rian, what happened to you?'
Nyasia screamed his name. She screamed until her ghost-throat tore apart.
.....
THOUSANDS WERE sent to the guillotine. Dorian Alexei Varyn spared no one. Not Rashet clan. Not even her brother—his close friend in everything but blood—who knelt at the blade.
"Who knew emperoring was this effortless, Levon?" Dorian on the platform spoke with casual amusement, knuckles brushing his chin. Behind the lightness, his eyes pinned Levon in place.
"You were meant to rule, Your Majesty," Levon said, his eyes on the ground. "Fate. The same fate that calls me to my father and her—"
"Fate?" Rian cut him. "Don't worship that word like a fool. Nothing is fate. People don't drop dead for no reason. The Academy taught you better."
But Levon said no more.
Later, Nyasia gasped in horror as her Levon's head rolled across the ground. But Dorian's face stayed blank.
As if nothing mattered.
.....
ANOTHER SCENE appeared.
'Him.'
He was kneeling at her grave.
"Cruel. You're cruel. I needed three months—just three—to deal with them and take you for myself, Nyasia Sofia. You couldn't wait." His tone was very low. "Should've taken everything long ago. I should have."
'Rian...'
She screamed with hot tears.
'Rian, how could I possibly know?'
'Must you become a monster?'
As she tried to talk to him helplessly, Dorian stood up and began walking at the edge of the cliff. He glanced up the sky for a while.
'Rian!'
But his body already fell.
'How dare you!'
'How dare you, Dorian Alexei!'
Tok! Tok! Tok!
A sharp sound.
Her eyes opened.
She lay in her bed.
'Why am I here?'
Today...
She tried to remember today. Her hand went to her head. Fever.
Wait.
This was the day before she died.
'How?'
Then came another knock at the door.
*