Chapter 3
With a loud clunk, the door opened, and in came Mason — the very person responsible for making me this way.
The moment I saw him, my hands clenched involuntarily. Mason looked around the room slowly, his gaze sweeping over everything.
When he noticed the untouched food scattered pitifully on the floor, he let out a small sigh.
“I heard you haven’t taken a single bite of the food I’ve been sending since you arrived here.”
I remained silent.
“What are you going to do if you die like this?”
His tone sounded almost concerned, and it chilled my blood.
As if you’re the one to worry.
My lips curled into a mocking smile, and a sharp voice escaped them.
“You? Worrying about me? How dare you?”
“…I’ll have it brought again, so stop being stubborn and eat.”
He brushed off my sarcasm as if it were nothing and turned to leave the room.
“…Diasi.”
The word slipped out of my mouth before I realized it, and I quickly raised my hand to cover my lips, shocked.
I didn’t know why I said that. Seeing Mason turn his back made my heart race with anxiety.
Please, let him not have heard.
But against my wishes, Mason slowly turned back toward me. His eyes trembled faintly.
“…What?”
He stared at me with a bewildered expression, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He even looked flustered.
My throat went dry.
I lowered my gaze, unable to meet his eyes, overwhelmed by shame.
How could I ask Mason about Diasi? How ridiculous.
“Diasi’s whereabouts… what do they even matter anymore…”
As I regretted my impulsiveness, Mason’s voice dropped to a colder tone and fell upon me.
“Even in this situation, you’re still looking for Diasi… Seriously…”
I couldn’t see his face, but his voice made it clear just how pathetic he found me.
After a brief silence, Mason spoke again, firmly.
“Diasi isn’t here anymore. Since I became a duke, she has a lot of responsibilities to take care of. After all, she’s now the official heir to the duchy.”
“…”
“To add one more thing, Diasi has no interest in you. Isn’t it about time you realized that? She hasn’t even come to see you once.”
His words were like knives, and the last fragile strand of hope I had snapped in an instant.
I had hoped… but I should have known.
As I stood speechless, he heartlessly held something out to me.
“Oh, and this. I don’t know what it is, but Diasi said to show it to you.”
“…?”
I slowly looked up to see what he was holding.
That’s…
It was the bracelet made of thread Diasi had once given me.
She had smiled awkwardly, saying she made it herself, handing it to me when I desperately sought reassurance of eternal trust.
“As long as we wear this together, we’ll always be on the same side.”
She had said those cheesy words with a straight face.
Before I could even react, Mason tossed the thread bracelet at me. It fell pathetically to the floor.
“She said it’s useless now, or something like that.”
“…”
My mind went blank. My trembling hands couldn’t even move to pick up the bracelet.
“She threw it away… She really betrayed me. She’s abandoned me. I don’t even matter to her anymore…”
A crushing sense of despair wrapped around me, making it hard to breathe.
I felt like crying — but I couldn’t. Not in front of Mason. Never in front of him.
So I clenched my jaw and held it in. I couldn’t let the tears fall.
“I wonder who you take after to be so soft-hearted.”
With a shake of his head, Mason turned and left the room.
Once again, I was left alone in this unfamiliar room. Only silence remained as I shuddered with betrayal.
I didn’t even notice my nails digging into my pale, clenched fists.
“In the end, you’re just like your father. That’s why you never came for me.”
“Everything you ever showed me was a lie… You’re the one who betrayed me!”
Suddenly, my whole body felt like it was burning. Though my eyes were open, I couldn’t see anything clearly.
“So this is all our bond meant to you. You chose power over me.”
Was that all you ever wanted?
As my body grew hotter, my mind grew colder and more focused.
“I’ll survive. No matter what.”
I ripped the bracelet from my wrist and picked up the one Diasi had discarded.
I stared at them in my palm for a while… then tossed them both into a corner of the room.
The two light, worthless bracelets landed without grace.
“I’ll survive — and I’ll make every last one of you kneel and beg in front of me. I’ll kill everyone who did this to me, who hurt my family.”
Right now, I was just the low-born daughter of an executioner, someone unworthy of even glancing at the Pope — but I wouldn’t give up.
“I will do it. No matter what.”
Even if it meant going against what my parents would have wanted.
Mason. Pope Anaceto.
And…
Diasi.
“I will never forgive you.”
The broken, pitiful version of me was no longer here.
Not long after, a maid came in hesitantly.
“My lady… You haven’t eaten in a while. I’m worried about your health. I brought you some freshly baked bread. Please, have a little.”
She held out a tray with bread. I glanced at it, then took a step toward her.
“Alright. I’ll eat.”
“Pardon?”
She seemed genuinely surprised, as if she hadn’t expected me to accept.
“I said I’ll eat.”
To prove it, I grabbed a piece from the tray and shoved it into my mouth.
“I’ll eat it all. So please leave it and go.”
I swallowed the rest of my unspoken thoughts — that I didn’t want to see anyone from this house — along with the dry bread.
“A-alright. If you need anything, please call for me, my lady.”
Looking uncertain, the maid quickly left the room.
As soon as I heard the door shut, I bit into the bread again without emotion. I couldn’t taste a thing.
But I kept swallowing, as if it were the thread holding me to life.
What time is it?
Through the window, I could see the sky beginning to brighten.
The sun is rising.
I hadn’t slept all night.
The pain and fever that began at dawn made even breathing feel like a chore.
“Haah…”
Thud. Thud. Dull sounds echoed from below my feet, grinding on my nerves.
Sometimes I’d hear chains clinking or the scream of a man — but I dismissed it as hallucinations.
After all, what lay beneath this room was just an old, musty basement. No one should be down there.
So what I was hearing must’ve been in my head.
Hallucinations, now? I let out a bitter laugh and struggled to keep my eyes open.
My condition was new to me, but I could tell:
I was dying.
“But I can’t die yet…”
There was too much left to do. I hadn’t accomplished anything.
But my body, cruelly indifferent, was already slipping away.
My vision blurred into white, unable to hold onto anything anymore.
As my life flickered out like burned firewood, I thought of the one responsible.
“The bread… something was in it.”
The only thing that changed after I vowed revenge was that I started eating again.
I recalled the maid hadn’t left until she saw me eat.
Realizing that, I let out a dry, bitter laugh.
Why? Why would she do that?
Did Mason order it? No — he didn’t seem to want me dead.
Then… did the maid hate me that much?
I searched my memories, but my clouded thoughts gave no answers.
“Haha…”
My laughter turned into sobs.
It wasn’t just sad — it was absurd.
“You’re pathetic, Louise. Even at the end.”
I hadn’t even started my revenge. If I ever got a second life…
“Hrk…!”
In the middle of my thoughts, a lump of blood forced its way up and spilled from my mouth. I wanted to wipe it, but I couldn’t lift a finger.
Pain spread rapidly from my chest, like ink spilling on white paper.
It reached my head and made my mind go dark.
This really is the end.
Even in my final moments, your face comes to mind, Diasi.
You never once came to see me. You betrayed me and didn’t even ask for forgiveness.
I will never forgive you.
“I will get my revenge.”
My vision went black. Even the ringing in my ears slowly faded.
And like that, I was completely swallowed by the darkness, abandoned by everything.
“…My lady.”
What was that?
A voice reached into my fading consciousness.
I was curled up in darkness when a strange thought hit me.
“Wait… this can’t be.”
I…
“I died, didn’t I?”
But the vivid reality around me didn’t match death. I bolted upright.
The scratchy, low-quality blanket slipped off me.
“Oh my goodness, my lady! You’re awake! Are you hurt? Are you thirsty?”
A timid-looking girl in a maid’s uniform looked on with wide, tearful eyes.
But her kind voice didn’t register.
Nothing did. I didn’t understand what was happening.
This place… it wasn’t the room where I’d died.
“Where… am I?”
A strange room. A girl I’d never seen before.
The pounding in my head grew stronger as reality refused to make sense.
Maybe it was the maid’s constant chattering that made it worse.
“…Who are you?”
I couldn’t hold back my questions any longer — unaware of what her answer might bring.
