[The day after the Queen’s Ball]

“The young lady should be fully healed in a couple of days,” the family doctor closes his large bag while carrying a smile on his lips.

“Thank you,” Alphy kindly replies before turning towards me, “I will deliver the good news to the Duke.”

“Would you like some more tea milady?” Ivy questions me with a concerned look in her eyes while the other maids resume their chores.

“No... I’m fine,” my attention shifts to the horizon outside the window, filled with nature and beautiful birds, chirping happily.

“Honestly, I was really scared milady... To think you would gain such a high fever...” the maid places the tea tray on top of the wooden table carefully.

 

My memories from last night are quite confusing. I remember meeting the queen, heading outside, and being approached by that peculiar man, Viktor. After that there is a blank space and, my final memory is seeing Bradley’s troubled expression when sending me off on his carriage.

Simultaneously, whenever I try to remember, a strong headache begins to boil inside of me, making it extremely complicated to remain focused.

 ‘How could I have forgotten...?’ this strange situation gave birth to a large uneasiness within me. This weird lack of control over my own body was worrisome.

To make it even more complex, I ended up passing out on the carriage due to a surprisingly high fever. I didn’t even realize it myself until I woke up here, today morning.

‘Did I forget it because I was sick?’ as my mind tries to find futile justifications for this peculiar situation, exhaustion begins to settle in.

Due to this sudden sickness, my body felt heavy and my chest tight, making it complicated to deal with people and their hidden intentions.

“Leave,” I declare before seeing them all leave the room, including Jade who was quietly observing me in the corner. For some reason, he was keeping his distance but this sudden change of behavior was meaningless to me.

‘I shouldn’t exert myself too much,’ my right-hand grabs the frame surrounding the mattress tightly as my body gathers enough strength to say goodbye to the comfort of the bed.

 

After removing the locked chest from beneath me, I pick up the several loose sheets and notebooks inside. Swiftly, my fingers travel through the harsh paper, stopping when I reach the recorded dialogue from my 2nd life.

‘Layton...’ frustrated, I bite my bottom lip. Memories from the ball came flooding to me like a nightmare, ‘Be gone already...!’

I didn’t understand what made this situation so complicated. Why did he keep running away from me when what I was doing was for his own good. I was offering him help yet, he kept on running away from me, like a lamb from a wolf.

“What can I do...?” a soft mumble escapes my lips before feeling Nero’s presence beside me. His bright ruby eyes appeared sleepy as he began curling on the bed, creating a small puff of beautiful black fur.

My attention rolls back onto the problem at hand: Layton Verne. It was clear that a normal approach wouldn’t cut it. No matter how many social events we attended or how many letters we changed, that man would do what he does best: cower away in fear.

In my mind, social life was like a war, sometimes it was beneficial to change strategies.

‘Should I just...?’ thoughts of killing that man again had passed through my mind several times but it didn’t sit well with me. Even if he wasn’t the kindest husband in the world, he was respectful and did his utmost to ensure my welfare, that is, until he ran away with his lover, ‘That’s it...!’

“If I can’t get one, I will get the other,” I grin when her name pops up. Luana, the commoner who stole Layton’s heart.

Deep down, this approach was more time-consuming than my previous one, however, if it went well, it would make their existences quite easy to manipulate. He was bound to fall into my grasp, no matter how much he tried to run from it.

 

✽✼✽✼✽✼✽

 

[Several days later]

As Ophelia wandered through the busy Astin streets, Jade and Millicia followed behind her quietly. The sun shone brightly on them but the people were ignoring their presence since they wore commoner attires and a cloak on top.

“Do you remember your mission?,” she questions them coldly, and, without much surprise, they nod, “Good, now go.”

Once those words leave Ophelia’s lips, their figures head to opposite sides, leaving her alone in the noisy capital. Commoners walked around like lost cockroaches, quickly and worried as the businesses kept on buzzing and vibrating with customers.

‘It’s hot,’ lunchtime had already past and the heat from the Blistering was beginning to settle in. Small drops of sweat formed in her pale skin as the bright blue sky mimicked the deepness of the ocean.

“Miss!” a loud voice echoes close to her, “Yes, you miss! Look at these precious jewels! They would look incredible in someone of your beauty!”

An old man, in his late seventies, rested beside a young woman who yelled loudly behind a necklace stand. Ophelia’s attention then shifted onto the jewelry but, even from afar, she could tell how poorly they had been made.

‘These stalls are always the same thing...’ even if the majority of people didn’t know, these little selling establishments were nothing more than businesses that couldn’t afford their own stores. Their prices would be extremely cheap and so would their products.

“Pay her no mind miss! Look at this jewelry, it was worn by the first queen of Ashen!” beside her, a man in his late twenties intervenes. The young girl quickly replies to his blunt lie.

“The queen would never wear such boring ornaments! Have a sense of shame!” she mocks him but, much to her surprise, he remains calm.

“Oh, look who it is! I didn’t know you were still alive, Lilliana,” he comments while pushing his straight hair back, “Especially with those cheap accessories that you sell.”

“Cheap!? My jewels are handmade! I create all of the designs myself!” her cheeks began turning red, “Not like yours! I know you buy the flawed ones from bigger stores and sell them cheaper!”

“And so what? They are in perfectly good conditions to be sold!” he smirks proudly, “Besides, they are from extremely known brands, even nobles use them! Who uses yours? No one!”

“You...!” as anger boiled inside the girl, Ophelia intervenes.

“This show you are putting on... Does it actually bring you any sales?” their eyes widen at her remark. Understanding she had caught them red-handed, her body swiftly moves towards the stands.

“What did you say miss...?” the dark green eyes of the girl were astonished, not wanting to believe that someone had seen through it all.

“I understand, you see... People love seeing drama but once that is over, no one truly buys them, do they?” in her head it was all clear as day.

‘A young woman and man who were both trying to sell the same type of products were curiously placed beside each other and are always butting heads, claiming their items are better... Pathetic,’ she chuckles as they trade guilty stares between themselves.

“Of course, they don’t,” she proceeds, “Instead of fighting you should gift one small piece of jewelry whenever someone buys an item.”

“But then we would lose everything in a glimpse of an eye!” the man frowns, suspicious of this girl’s crazy ideals.

Without explaining anything further, Ophelia only smiles and turns around.

“Oh! And before I forget... When you are working you should remove your wedding rings, don’t you think?” she smiles politely and walks away, leaving both of them flustered in shame.

 

Suddenly, someone bumps onto Ophelia’s shoulder but she manages to catch a good glimpse of that person’s face.

‘Well, well, well... What do we have here?’ Layton Verne was walking through the capital and he blended in perfectly. His face was muddy and his clothes dirty, followed by the well-known smell of commoners, ‘Where are you going in such a rush?’

Silently, she decided to follow him for a couple of meters until reason came over her mind. The place he was headed was the entrance to the capital and not a place in specific as she hoped.

‘So she must be...’ swiftly, she turns her feet and walks towards the street he had come out of, ‘Damn...’

As Ophelia walked through the pavement, she realized this was nothing but an impossible mission. The street was so long it would be lost within the regular sight of someone and, to complicate matters even further, several secluded areas were appearing on its side.

“There’s no way to know...” there were so many places that he could’ve come from that it was impossible to guess.

‘Another dead end...’ during the past days, Ophelia ordered Jade to dig around the capital. She needed to find Luana but there was a big problem: they had never met.

How is her hair? How does she speak? What is the color of her eyes? Were questions that she couldn’t answer. That girl was a complete mystery and, the only existing lead was nothing more than her name.

Of course, with so many people inhabiting the capital and merchants coming and going, it’s very time-consuming searching without any leads and, finding someone with a somewhat common name, was even harder.

“Master,” as if it were fate, he appears beside her, “She wasn’t there.”

“I know, she is around this area, this is where we will focus our search,” she declared before looking into his chocolate eyes, “You did well.”

 ‘She’s so...’ Jade’s cheeks turn flushed once he sees a smile appear on her pink lips.

“Millicia,” he is quickly dragged back into reality once he notices the presence of the new maid, “Did you hear what I said?”

She nods and Ophelia grins, however, this time, Jade didn’t feel anything. He had seen that expression on her too many times to count and, every time it appeared, a sharp pain would hit his heart.

‘What exactly happened to make you like this...?’ was the question he asked himself every day.

 

Jade still remembers Ophelia’s cold and psychotic expression when Gilbert’s body fell on the floor that night. He remembers how much she enjoyed torturing him and how her cheeks became flushed with every yell he made.

Part of him regretted not reading the papers she had thrown to the air that day. Everything was still clear inside his mind and he kept on wondering what the papers inside the locked chest carried.

Jade knew how to read but, even then, he couldn’t bring himself to swallow those words since fear kept on clouding his soul.

He questioned if Ophelia knew him in her past lives and if their relationship was any different than what it is now. He considered reading what she had gone through, what had happened before they met but he was terrified. Jade wasn’t scared to learn about the events but he knew he wouldn’t be able to restrain himself once he did.

Ophelia was already carved within his soul and he knew that those papers would become the death of whoever dared to hurt her. He would not allow them to cause her pain again, not with him with her on this life.

Even then, he was worried. Her voice still echoed in his mind as if it was a melody that wouldn’t leave his being.

“Show me the true power that controls fate!” she yelled. Her eyes were filled with painful emotions, despair, frustration, and sadness. It was as if she had already accepted this fate and nothing would change, no matter how hard he tried to convince her.

It was clear to him that she felt trapped, not believing in anything other than God in order to maintain her sanity. Almost as if she was a doll, being played by the all-mighty puppeteer and his thin, invisible strings. She was inside the grasp of something otherwordly.

And to him, it was a reality hard to swallow at first since, to the majority of people, Ophelia’s words the day they met would be considered insanity.

“I will die when I turn eighteen because it has happened nine times,” she said calmly as if she was telling a story from a faraway existence as if she was telling a story from someone else’s life and not hers.

Even though he doubted her words at the beginning, they soon became set in stone. Besides being able to predict future events her eyes carried a burden too heavy for a human to bear.

Now, to Jade, Ophelia’s words were like The Purity*, they were completely truthful and held no shroud of doubt in them. He blindly followed her, believing in whatever she said.

 

“Jade!” Ophelia’s voice wakes him up from his fantasy, “Are you listening to me?”

“I’m terribly sorry, please repeat your words master,” he quickly replies and she lets out a sigh.

“For now we will wander around this area as a group but I want you to come here by yourself and investigate it, do you understand?” her crystal clear eyes were frustrated.

“As you command,” he was about to lower his body but manages to prevent it.

In Astin, they were nothing more than commoners traveling through its busy streets, without much money or any known prestige. They were shadows, unknown to all but always there.