TL/N: Yes, it says old boy e_e it’s a reference to a korean movie (called OldBoy. So good, if you guys didn’t see it, go watch it.) Disclaimer: it’s a R-movie so no minors and no sensitive people, hear momma Gina and be good.
At first, everything was normal, just like everyone else.
There are, of course, different standards of normalcy. At first, I was also just an ordinary child. However, I was luckier compared to other commoner children. It was all thanks to my mother.
My mother was a nanny to the Serpente’s Duchy. Dad died before I was born, so I don’t even know his face. However, according to my mother, it was from my father whom I inherited my dark ruby eyes from.
Anyway, my mother, who gave birth to me and raised me alone, was from the South. She got a letter of recommendation from the Countess and came to the Capital. She started to work for Duke Serpente, who happened to have a youngest daughter.
As such, I was sort of the princess’ foster sister; I spent my childhood as a babysitter and a playmate.
The Duke and his wife were very nice people. I don’t know what the other nobles would be like, but those two treated mother and daughter like a real family. That’s why I, the daughter of a single nanny, was able to hang out freely with high-ranking aristocratic children since I was a toddler.
Whenever the second young master, who was always eager to tease me, made me cry, the Duke personally scolded him.
It was a happy childhood like a sunny summer day. We were all perfectly happy back then when both my mother and the duchy couple were alive.
The first time I felt something was wrong was probably from the day my mother died.
In just a week, the plague, which took away more than 7,000 people across the Empire, came mercilessly, regardless of their status, and stole Empress Alicia and my mother in a flash.
It was all thanks to the Duke and Duchess that I was able to officially hold a funeral for my mother, a merely commoner nanny who died from the plague, instead of being carelessly burned.
It was all thanks to them that I, who had nowhere to go and was young, was able to live at the Duke’s mansion, just as always.
Instead of the sadness of losing my mother at the age of 14, I was caught up in an unfamiliar shock and confusion that I had never felt before in those few days.
That was because all my memories unfolded like panoramas at the same time as my mother’s death. Every memory of my past life, and what exactly this reality is making me face.
At first, I thought I was so sad that I might be suffering from some escapist delusion.
How could this be? That the world I live in is the world in the book I saw in my previous life.
In my previous life, I lived as an orphan and died on a winter day, stuck in a broken elevator.
Who’d believe that I lived such an unpleasant life in the past?
To make matters worse, I didn’t even want to believe that people I’ve seen since I was young would face such a tragic catastrophe in the future.
However, as I remembered, within a few weeks, even the Duchess and her husband passed away side by side, and terrible anxiety began to eat me up.
If the world I live in now was really the world in the book I saw in my previous life, all that lay ahead was a sequence of heartbreaking tragedies. To me, Lettis, Venya and Estelle.
According to the novel’s development, which is described from the main character’s point of view, Serpente’s children, who became orphans at a young age, studied abroad for about two years after their parents’ funeral.
The decision was made by relatives to temporarily manage the family, considering the young age of the heir Lettis and the serious situation of the empire at that time.
I was also supposed to follow and faithfully support Estelle there, but I remember it didn’t talk about how the siblings spent those years.
It only said that Estelle, who was naturally weak and sensitive, died in the middle; and that I, Sasha, returned home with the remaining two brothers, Lettis and Venya, side by side as I guided them, and crushed the Empire.
I was the ultimate black curtain of the book, the Queen of two snakes, a demon in a human mask! And then, the villain who dies in a terrible way at the end?
I’ve always thought it was a fairly good life! Even so, I can’t believe I was reincarnated in such a role. Was I lacking virtue in my past life? But in my previous life, I had no time to accumulate virtue! Oh, did I reincarnate for this…?
Of course, if I didn’t do such a thing in the future, I wouldn’t have to worry about dying.
But….!
The problem is that I may not know everything. In other words, the setting written from the main character’s point of view, what the public knows, isn’t true.
There was no description, or clue, of Lettis, Venya, Estelle and of me being held in a secret room at home, not abroad. At least that’s what I remember.
I’ll never forget that night, never until I am very, very old and close to dying.
On the night after the Duke and his wife’s joint funeral, while Lettis and Venya talked to the adults, Estelle and I sat side by side in support, looking up at the sky without saying anything. Hugging each other tightly, hearts beating rapidly. I didn’t cry or say anything.
Countless stars overhead sent meaningful signals our way as if they were going to pour from the sky.
A light that feels like an allusion, a starlight that looks like sparkling tears… I didn’t know why such a common sight felt so significant.
Even though I knew what was going to happen, a strange sense of incompatibility and uncomfortability rose in me. A feeling as if my subconscious was sending me a warning. Was it a sign that something was wrong?
“Estelle.”
She turned her head to the voice that popped in from behind her back. It was Lettis in black mourning clothes. Now, the desolated sky-blue eyes of a boy who just turned 15 years old stared alternated blankly at our faces.
“Our uncle has something to discuss with all of us.”
Poor guy. Judging from the fact that he came out in person, the situation must have been quite uncomfortable. Or maybe he needed some space to cool off.
Unlike how he looks, Lettis was quite shy and clumsy at concealing his emotions. It’s a rather fatal drawback as successor to a high-ranking aristocratic family.
Estelle, who was facing her brother with empty eyes, hesitated and looked back at me. She was always so anxious if my mother or I weren’t around, so to make matters worse, she now lost her parents.
However, I couldn’t join the kinship meeting no matter how well I got along with these siblings. It was ridiculous. I patted our hands together and gave Estelle a reassuring smile, telling her to get going.
The two siblings with water-colored hair shimmering pale under the moonlight constantly looked back at me as they headed into the mansion, holding hands. Are they worried about me? I wanted to reassure them that we’ll be together soon so no need to worry.
If only I’d have known then that there was something else to worry about.
I wish we’d known in advance that that night was the last time we would step foot in the garden for the next two years.
I wish that I’d picked a wildflower.
TL/N: ok, you have no idea how much it broke my heart this part.
* * * * *
Everyone was acting the same, but at first I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on.
The first surprise came to me when I opened my eyes, I saw a strange ceiling.
The second surprise was when I turned my head to the side, to be exact, when I saw my ruddy golden hair tangled with Estelle’s long, watery hair.
I certainly fell asleep in my bedroom – the annex I stayed in with my mum – and we couldn’t have been sleeping in one bed unless one of us had been sleepwalking. In addition, the room itself was a problem. It wasn’t my room, and it wasn’t Estelle’s.
As I stared blankly at her sleeping face in bewilderment, Estelle opened her eyes.
She was looking around with her sky-colored eyes in a daze, when a sullen voice rang.
“Did Sasha bring me here?”
…Maybe it’s because she’s still half asleep, so I don’t think she knows what she’s saying. But who brought us here anyway?
“… Sasha? Estelle?”
“Are you guys there?”