Those words clawed at her heart in an eerily chilling way.

That can’t be.

She clearly said she would go up to the royal capital first to organize the luggage so that the traces of being empty for half a year wouldn’t show…

Belinda didn’t give up and even offered a reward to find Jenny.

Her uncle also helped Belinda by sending people to search for Jenny not only in the royal capital but throughout the entire kingdom.

But Jenny couldn’t be found anywhere.

“Bel, give up now. Stop looking for someone who’s not in this world, and just get a new maid. I’ll find you a maid who’s more meticulous and deft than Jenny.”

As they passed the landing, Sybel gently patted Belinda’s back and whispered.

Sybel’s words pierced through her gloomy mind like an awl.

‘Not in this world…’

Belinda roughly grabbed Sybel’s arm as he passed her, stopping him.

“Why… why are you talking as if Jenny is dead? Brother, do you know something? Have they found Jenny?”

“Well, I’m sorry if it sounded that way.”

Sybel answered with a perplexed look.

Belinda took a step back and stared blankly at Sybel.

Before she could even think, the words spilled out of her mouth.

“…Did you kill her?”

Even as she spoke, she couldn’t understand what she was saying.

Why did she suddenly think that Sybel had killed Jenny?

Why such an absurd…

“Did you, brother, kill Jenny?”

“What a frightening thing to say, I’m scared someone might hear.”

Why are you still smiling?

Even while being suspected of Jenny’s death, of killing Jenny, Sybel was smiling so serenely.

Belinda asked again, almost screaming.

“Answer me, Sybel!”

Say it’s not true, say it’s a misunderstanding.

‘Then I’ll think I made a terrible mistake. So…’

But Sybel never answered her question.

He didn’t bend his knee to meet her eyes as usual.

He just looked down at her from his higher vantage point and spoke calmly, as if scolding a child.

“Belinda, do you know? Some people drive others mad just by existing in their place.”

Sybel’s hand slowly grasped Belinda’s. Belinda tried to shake it off, but she couldn’t overcome Sybel’s grip.

She should have screamed to let go, but her whole body froze at the sight of Sybel’s smile, unable to move an inch.

“Have you ever once thought that everything you so naturally hold in your hand, put in your mouth, and wear on your body is what others would sell their souls to possess?”

“…”

“No, you probably haven’t thought about it. Because it was such an obvious right to you. So, my last desperate act to usurp that right of status you say you received from God is this.”

Sybel’s hand, firmly grasping Belinda’s, moved towards his chest. The heartbeat felt through the smooth fabric was terrifying.

“Let’s entrust our fate to God together. Let’s see who God will choose.”

And Sybel’s body, with the stairs right behind him, tilted as if pushed by Belinda’s hand.

Belinda couldn’t tell whether it was Sybel who let go of her hand first, their only lifeline, or if it was herself.

Thud!

There was a sound like an overripe fruit falling from a branch, unable to bear its own weight, and bursting open.

“Ah, no…”

Her breathing became ragged.

Screams erupted from all around.

Belinda looked down the stairs with a frightened face, cradling the hand that had touched Sybel with her other hand.

Sybel lay as if dead, with one arm bent grotesquely.

The gazes of the employees rushing over turned towards Belinda standing on the landing.

Belinda blankly watched as their mouths opened in shock.

“Ah, young miss! What is this!”

“Ah, no… I, I didn’t…”

It was the day the precious daughter of the Blanche family made the front page of the tabloids for the first time.

Thereafter, one page, two pages, her name and misdeeds filled the newspapers, and people’s sharp gazes turned towards her.

When her nickname, ‘The Golden Rose with Poisonous Thorns’, became widely known to people instead of her name.

[You have acquired a special item, ‘Summoning Nametag’.]

Her consciousness plummeted as if falling off a cliff.

***

I rose up, writhing like a goldfish that had jumped out of its bowl.

And immediately ran to the bathroom to dry heave.

Even while emptying my stomach, the terrible memories clung to my mind like leeches.

Belinda’s numerous misdeeds.

Suspecting others and framing them for non-existent crimes, making servants whip each other, and even forcing people to eat food she had trampled on.

A terrible self-justification that since her life was so miserable and wretched, others should be just as unhappy.

The sadism was so chilling it made me nauseous, yet there was a part of me that felt satisfaction and relief from tormenting others.

It felt as if I, frozen solid like Arctic ice, was melting and mixing with Belinda’s, which had spread out like an ocean.

“No…”

Unable to bear it, I ran out of the room.

The cold winter wind clawed at my cheeks.

The forest, without a single light, was as dark as pitch, but I ran aimlessly without stopping.

If I didn’t, I felt I might pour this wretched resentment onto an innocent person.

I needed something to separate Belinda and me.

For example, yes, like my name when I lived in Korea…

Stop.

At that moment, my steps were nailed to the spot.

I barely leaned my staggering body against a nearby tree and stared blankly at the pale darkness spread out before me.

“Ah.”

I… can’t remember my name.

In the faded memories of my past life that came to mind like a faded Polaroid photo, there were places that were blackened with holes as if eaten by insects.

It was the place where my name should have been.

As my breathing quickened at the chilling sensation that made me shudder.

“Lady Blanche.”

The shadow of the devil in the dim moonlight stretched long from behind me to my front.

Ah, this foolish man.

Why did he have to find me now of all times…

I covered my mouth without turning around.

Otherwise, I felt I might hurl harsh words at him like venting my anger.

‘Calm down. I’m not Belinda. I am…’

…Who am I?

“It’s cold. In such light clothing…”

“Get lost!”

I twisted my body, startled by the sensation of something touching my shoulder.

I turned around and snapped at Sir Penadel who had followed me.

“Didn’t you hear me say get lost?”

“….”

“Come to think of it, you’re quite pitiful too. To end up in a position of following around a woman like me. At this rate, isn’t the Grand Duke using you as a discarded piece? That’s right. The Grand Duke must have heard rumors about me, yet he allowed you to attend to such a woman.”

I couldn’t tell if it was me speaking or Belinda.

If I could, I would have strangled myself with both hands to shut my mouth, but my head was dominated by hatred and anger towards the whole world.

“Be honest now, Sir. Say that following my orders was horrifying. Say that being by my side was unbearably miserable.”

Sir Penadel, who had been silently listening to my venomous words, slowly picked up the coat that had fallen to the ground.

However, instead of turning away, he very carefully draped the coat over my shoulders and calmly asked.

“Would it make you feel better if I found you horrible, my lady?”

“What?”

“If that’s the case, I’ll try my best.”

His calm response halted the thoughts in my head that had been full of venom.

The sensation of the coat on my shoulders was warm, unlike before, and I realized that Sir Penadel’s gaze, which I thought was looking down on me arrogantly, was simply watching me quietly like moonlight.

“But the Lady Blanche I’ve seen is by no means a horrible person.”

He continued speaking while carefully buttoning up the coat one by one.

“She mourns for her family at a grave no one visits, blames herself for not believing in a servant’s achievements but knows how to correct her mistakes.”

“That’s…”

Not Belinda, but me.

Yes, that’s about me.

“I know she’s someone who provides a place for a magician with nowhere to go, keeps people around her without discrimination, and gets angrier at others’ pain than her own wounds.”

Like steady drops of water piercing through rock, with each word from Sir Penadel, my mind gradually awakened.

“I also know that she’s someone who rarely relies on those around her.”

I could feel myself, which had been helplessly melting away, freezing solid again.

Things that Belinda doesn’t have, but I do.

Leo… and Sir Penadel, Vivian and Terry. And Cheshire and Sugar.

Click.

Sir Penadel carefully fastened the last button and concluded in a low voice.

“You are an excellent person, my lady. You’re just not honest with yourself.”

At last, I felt as if my two feet, which had been floating in the air, touched the ground.

I hurriedly composed my expression and stammered out an excuse.

“Just now… I had… a nightmare.”

As I came to my senses, I could see what a state I was in.

In a thin negligee, wearing only one fur-lined slipper, I don’t know when I had discarded the other.

I felt my face flush belatedly, realizing I looked like a madwoman.

However, Sir Penadel nonchalantly knelt on one knee in front of me and carefully asked.

“May I touch your feet, my lady?”

Did I nod at those words?

I must have.

That’s why Sir Penadel took my bare foot and placed it on his knee.

His hands, not unfamiliar with aura, were warm like sun-heated pebbles.

Those hands brushed off the snow on my feet, then put on the slipper he had somehow retrieved.

After placing my foot back on the ground, he stood up and calmly said.

“Night walks are fine, but next time, please be sure to call for me. I am Lady Blanche’s escort, after all.”

“…Right.”

I responded a beat late, feeling as if the imprint of his hands on my feet could still be felt.

“Shall we return now?”

This time, I nodded and said.

“…Don’t walk behind me today, lead the way.”

Strangely, instead of leading the way through this night forest, I wanted to follow someone’s back and the footprints made ahead of me.

Without a word, Sir Penadel began walking the snow-covered forest path dimly lit only by moonlight in front of me.

I followed him, keeping about two steps distance, following his back and the footprints in the snow as we exited the forest.