TDSWM Chapter 01

Chapter 01

“Sinclair! Sinclair!”

My eyes snapped open as a sharp middle-aged man’s voice rang out.

“You’ve finally come to your senses?”

I turned toward the voice, but the bright light blurred the figure.

“Did I… survive?”

“You don’t die just from passing out!”

‘I… I’m alive.’

Tears rolled down my cheeks and gathered under my chin before pouring down like a waterfall.

“What about the kids?”

“They’re on their way. Get ready quickly!”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

I turned toward the man who brought the good news—that I was alive and that my students were safe. I couldn’t see him clearly because of the tears, but I kept thanking him over and over again.

‘Thank you, God, Buddha, Allah—every god in existence.’

Before I lost consciousness, there had been an explosion.

I was teaching a fire experiment to 8th graders when the school director’s son started playing with a torch, so I kicked him out of the lab.

But that brat, just like his father, didn’t learn a lesson. Instead, he came back with a tumbler filled with sodium—which explodes when it touches water.

I rescued the kids immediately and took the tumbler away from him. I made sure he got out safely and then used my own body to shield the tumbler as it exploded.

I passed out as heat and noise consumed me.

And yet, I survived—and so did the kids.

What a relief.

As my vision returned, the world slowly came into focus.

‘Wait… is that ruby and sapphire? Oh wow, even diamonds? And gold moldings?’

The ceiling was covered with glittering jewels. Light hit them and created a divine sparkle. It felt like the home of gods.

‘What kind of hospital is this?’

I was sitting on a chair, not lying in a hospital bed. I touched my chest and stomach, where I had held the tumbler.

It felt hard under my hand.

‘Is this tightly wrapped in bandages?’

I carefully pressed down—but it didn’t hurt.

‘They must’ve given me lots of painkillers.’

I looked down to check for an IV drip—but saw none. Just long, pale fingers moving gently over a pure white dress embroidered with golden thread.

‘Why is the hospital gown so fancy?’

I lifted the sleeve in confusion. Diamonds—or something like them—lined the borders of the flowing white fabric.

‘Is this a dream?’

I pinched my wrist.

“Ouch!”

It hurt.

‘What is happening?’

I tried to sit up to understand the situation, but suddenly women in maid uniforms rushed toward me.

“Please stay still.”

They were speaking in a foreign language—but I understood it perfectly.

‘What the…?’

I tried to shake them off, but they were far stronger than I expected. They pushed me back down into the chair.

I kicked one in the shin with all my might.

“Ahhh!”

The maid screamed and fell back. I used my self-defense training from the past three years to break free and stand up.

Then soldiers in golden armor blocked my path with swords and spears. My reflection flashed across their blades.

I was wearing an extravagant white dress that flared out like a parasol. It followed my every movement.

‘That’s… me?’

“Sinclair! What are you doing?”

It was the same man who’d told me about the kids. I turned quickly.

But he wasn’t a doctor. He looked like a noble Western man—like George Clooney. My heart started racing.

***

[FLASHBACK]

‘Die.’

Someone was choking me. I couldn’t breathe.

‘Die, Sinclair.’

A little girl—thin and fragile—was grabbing the arm around her neck, begging her father to save her.

“Dad?”

I came back to myself with a jolt. A memory that wasn’t mine had just flashed before my eyes.

‘Why did I call him Dad?’

The man’s face twisted in pain.

Where was I? Who were these people?

I backed away and looked around for an exit.

The furniture was Rococo-style. Expensive porcelain everywhere. The paintings showed knights fighting monsters. It felt like a historic castle.

Then I spotted a big white door with bronze decorations.

I had to get out. I ran toward it.

“Stop her!”

More knights at the windows joined the chase, their weapons gleaming in the sunlight.

I imagined what it would feel like to get cut by those blades—would it be warm? Would the blood smell metallic?

The thought sent chills down my spine. I ran faster.

I was almost at the door when it suddenly opened.

I froze.

More knights stormed in, and a man in a black hat and flowing white shirt under a dark uniform stepped in, announcing loudly:

“His Grace, Theodore von Zeyer, the Archduke, has arrived!”

A small boy in a white uniform came in as the man moved aside. He was short, thin, stiff and arrogant, holding his hands behind his back and holding his chin high.

But somehow, that pose suited his age and clean white clothes.

‘Who is that?’

The boy noticed me, standing still in fear, and his red eyes sparkled like traffic lights.

“Oh? My stepmother came to greet me?”

He smiled innocently, looking up at me.

There was something familiar about his red eyes.

I bent down to see him better. At the same time, he studied me closely.

In his eyes, I saw a reflection—not of myself, but of a beautiful white woman with sharp cat-like eyes and a sheer veil.

‘Wait… is that me?’

To test it, I winked.

The woman in his eyes winked back—exactly the same.

His red eyes widened like bursting berries.

But I was more shocked than he was.

That woman was me.

I waved my hand—she waved back.

‘No way!’

I puffed one cheek, then the other. She copied me again.

‘It’s really me!’

Just as I was realizing this, the boy’s face turned red.

He puffed his cheeks and plugged his ears with his fingers.

What’s with him?

Okay, maybe I did look strange in his eyes.

“Welcome, Your Grace, Theodore von Zeyer,” said the middle-aged man in a deep voice, stepping forward.

Then Theodore took his fingers out of his ears and put his right hand over his chest, bending one knee slightly.

“Long time no see, Sir Michael Owen.”

‘Theodore von Zeyer?’

Wait—isn’t that the villain from my favorite novel “I Just Wanted to Protect My Fiancé”?

“Theodore von Zeyer” was the demon prince—second in line to the throne—who murdered his stepmother at ten, his father at sixteen, and became the demon king at twenty, destroying the empire.

Everywhere he walked, he reeked of blood. He burned corpses and turned the skies black. The smell of smoke choked the air. Only his cold red eyes remained clear.

***

And now… I’m that stepmother?

The one who gets killed in the first chapter, burned to death at the top of the tower?

Just then, I felt hot breath on my face. I exhaled, but the air couldn’t escape—it was blocked.

‘What is that?’

I nervously opened one eye.

Theodore was holding his finger under my nose and staring at me intently.

Gah! I couldn’t breathe. My spine tingled, my skin crawled, and goosebumps popped up all over me.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Are you dead~ or alive~?”

The little demon whispered creepily, drawing out the last word.

His breath hit my nose.

“Achoo!”

I jolted and sneezed—our foreheads clashed.

“Ow!”

“Oof!”

The chair tipped backward with a thud.

As I trembled on the floor, Theodore’s fiery red eyes bore into me like a laser.