Chapter 5

That night, she dreamed for the first time in a while.

It was a dream where she simply watched something that happened when she was six.

She had no memories of her original body or world, but her childhood appeared so vividly in her dreams. It was strange.

In the dream, it was dawn. The room was shrouded in deep darkness, and a boy stood alone.

He was clearly a stranger, but oddly enough, she wasn’t scared at all.

The boy’s beautiful lips were pale blue and trembled uncontrollably, as if he’d witnessed something horrible. He was holding something very precious in both hands, but he seemed afraid of it.

“Are you a ghost?”

Young Sabina asked quietly.

It was impossible for a strange boy to suddenly appear in Sabina’s room, so a ghost was the most convincing explanation.

But his rough, anxious breathing was too real for a ghost.

Anyway, the boy nodded slowly.

“Maybe.”

His voice was so tight she couldn’t tell what his real tone was.

“Are you… Sabina D’Vialis?”

How did a stranger know her name? Maybe he really was a ghost. Sabina pulled her blanket up a bit and stared with wide eyes.

“Yes. How did you know?”

At Sabina’s question, the boy smiled faintly. He stepped a little closer, and his face became clearer.

He was a child in transition. His bones were gradually becoming firmer, but his cheeks still looked soft and fluffy. His hair was a radiant blonde that didn’t fade even under bluish moonlight.

Just as Sabina stared at him, he looked Sabina over in great detail.

He hid what he was holding behind his back and made a wind sound between his lips. Shh.

Sabina did the same. Shh.

The boy met Sabina’s eyes and made a request.

“You have to keep it a secret that I was here.”

“Are you leaving?”

“Yeah, I have to go… I came here by mistake.”

“It was just a mistake… Then you won’t hurt me? Ghosts hurt children.”

“I’m not a bad ghost.”

That sounded oddly firm.

Young Sabina accepted it and nodded.

“Ghosts make mistakes too.”

The boy tried to leave through the window, but struggled with the complicated latch on the special security window that Sabina’s grandfather Walter had custom-made.

Unable to watch any longer, Sabina told him how to open it.

“Push left twice, then lift up, and then turn it clockwise.”

Sabina hugged her pillow tightly and watched the clumsy ghost.

“You’re a ghost, but you can’t pass through windows?”

At that, the boy’s cheeks flushed red.

After a while, the window clicked open.

The night wind swept the boy’s bangs back. His forehead, pale and straight in the moonlight, was revealed.

The boy sat on the window sill. He gave Sabina, who was sitting upright on her bed, one last look.

He whispered as if making a promise.

“Later…, …bye.”

His voice was so quiet Sabina couldn’t hear.

“What did you say?”

Sabina raised her voice.

The boy vanished, saying something entirely different.

“Sabina, my name is Helio.”

Only the fluttering curtain remained where the boy had disappeared.

Sabina quietly got up and approached the window. Climbing onto the cabinet, she could reach the window herself.

As she closed the window to erase any trace of the boy’s presence, something caught her eye.

It was the boy’s handprint left on the window frame.

Sabina rubbed the stain with her small hand. Something dark red stuck to her skin. When she rubbed her fingertips together, it crumbled like powder.

There was a similar stain on the window handle.

It smelled like old iron.

Sabina blinked and thought,

‘He really must be a ghost, leaving a bloodstain behind when he vanished.’

* * *

Sabina opened her eyes.

It was morning. The dream from last night still clung to the back of her eyelids.

She fumbled on her desk for her pocket watch. It showed the date as well. She checked the date, not the time. June 12.

‘Tomorrow is “that day.”’

The day when a certain boy would come to Sabina.

That day was approaching, so she must have dreamed about it.

She closed the watch casually.

Other than dreaming of when she was six and realizing tomorrow was “that day,” it was a day like any other.

The magic research results presentation was in two months. She lay half-reclined on her bed, reading a mountain of books.

Then, a knock sounded.

She didn’t need to ask who it was.

Only Mitchel could interrupt Sabina while she was reading.

Sabina closed her book.

“Come in.”

Mitchel entered, dressed for going out.

“Lady Sabina, little Hazel caused trouble, so I need to go to Rizena Street.”

Little Hazel was an eight-year-old maid who had just started running errands, the daughter of Julia who had worked at the D’Vialis mansion for a long time.

“Is it serious enough that you, as the head maid, have tto go yourself?”

Mitchel didn’t want to tell Sabina what happened. But with her persistent mistress staring her down, she had no choice but to confess.

“Well, I told her to order ten pairs of shoes, but she ordered a hundred. Julia said she couldn’t carry them all, and the shoemaker got furious, asking how much cowhide she thought he’d used.”

Sabina frowned.

“And you didn’t tell me about this?”

“Because you would buy all the wrongly ordered shoes and cover up Hazel’s mistake.”

“Exactly. Do that. Spending money isn’t hard for me.”

Mitchel clicked her tongue.

“Lady Sabina, you need to learn about wise and reasonable spending. Anyway, I have another matter.”

Sabina reopened her book, fixing her gaze on the spot she’d been reading.

“Go ahead.”

“There’s a man who applied for the contract lover position.”

Sabina lost her focus.

Mitchel’s words sounded like a ridiculous joke.

“It’s only eleven in the morning. The paper’s only been out for half a day.”

“That’s what I’m saying. The print worked, just as you said. I hate to admit it.”

Mitchel adjusted her glasses.

“Anyway, I’ve allowed the mysterious man to visit. He’ll arrive within thirty minutes, so you’d better get out of bed, dress, and prepare. Here. This is a note with his name.”

Sabina pouted.

“You told me too late, Mitchel.”

There wasn’t nearly enough time to prepare properly for a guest. Sabina barely managed to throw on an outfit that wouldn’t be rude and hurried to the parlor.

Mitchel was right—the man arrived soon after. With a knock, Vicky’s voice came through.

“L-Lady Sabina…”

But Vicky’s voice was filled with surprise and confusion—even a hint of fear.

Sensing something was wrong, Sabina opened the door herself.

Her expression hardened coldly when she saw the visitor.

Standing at the door was Reyes Brinita. He looked down at Sabina with a gentle face.

“Hello, Sabina. You look lovely.”

The serpent’s tongue moved.

He had a voice that made even a cliché compliment sound special.

Black curly hair, deep green eyes.

He was identical twins with Kenneth, the young King of Brinita, but no one would ever confuse the two.

Kenneth was full of confidence and boldness, while Reyes burned with a dark ambition and strange inferiority. Oddly, that sense of defeat gave Reyes an extra layer of allure. Ugly emotions didn’t make Reyes ugly. They made him more beautiful, more unique.

Sabina knew well that his beauty was poison. She watched him warily, like a butterfly spotting a mantis.

“Vicky? Thanks for showing me in. You can go. I want to talk alone with Miss Sabina.”

Reyes ordered Vicky as if she were his own maid.

Vicky, sensing the situation, had no choice but to leave and close the door.

Now that Reyes was in the house, Sabina couldn’t throw him out. That was the law. Royal Law Article 79, Section 2: all subjects can only refuse a royal visit for limited reasons.

‘I wish I could live without knowing there’s such a wretched law in the Kingdom of Brinita.’

In the original story, Reyes had once threatened Sabina with that law. After possessing her, she checked and found it really existed.

Reyes stood by the sunlit window, looking outside, then turned to Sabina and smiled gently.

“Are you the one who said you were looking for someone?”

Her nerves made her speak without proper manners. Reyes let it slide. He was generous with Sabina, no matter how sharply she treated him. Because he needed her.

“If you’d known it was me, would you have opened the door?”

Sabina frowned. Reyes watched her with amusement, then exaggeratedly slumped his shoulders.

“Why do you look like that? I don’t know why you dislike me so much. I like you very much, and that’s why I’m so generous…”

Reyes approached. Sabina turned her head away. Reyes grabbed her cheek with his right hand and forced her to look at him. He made her meet his eyes. Though his voice sounded calm, it was full of anger. Sabina could easily tell.

“Why do you hate me so much?”

Without answering, Sabina struck the floor with her Albatross cane. Instantly, she vanished from Reyes’s sight. When he turned, she was standing by the display cabinet, glaring at him like a cat with its tail puffed up.