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Translator: thursdays Editor: Yahiko PR: LightBrin
1.
The Lady of the Silver Lily stood in the corridor in the dead of night.
Behind her was a large mirror.
A mirror big enough to reflect her whole body.
Smooth and clean.
The mirror where moonlight reflected only the lady’s poised back. The mirror reflected just a ray of moonlight and silver hair, so the Lady of the Silver Lily looked like an island alone in a dark sea.
“You’re speechless.”
“……”
“And you look troubled. Your expression is clear. Even at night, I can read it. Just by looking at your face, I can see that it’s the [first one].”
The first one?
My heart had been quaking with anxiety from earlier. It was still doing so now. Why was the Lady of the Silver Lily speaking so kindly to me?
A heartless and rational sword toward everyone. She was the moon of the Ivansia family.
A reason to be kind to me, the butler of the Lady of the Golden Silk… didn’t exist.
There shouldn’t have been any.
“…I was being silent because I did not know what to say. Please forgive me if I was rude. Heiress Ivansia, this… Is this a dream? Are you appearing in my dream?”
The Lady of the Silver Lily reacted by looking at me with a strange expression. The smile on her lips somehow felt like a scar.
“That’s an interesting question. Indeed, your dream has consumed my life. I now know that love is just giving one’s life to support another’s dream.”
What did that mean?
“I become your dream, and you become my life. This exchange of dreams and lives is what we call love.”
What could she possibly mean?
I didn’t understand what she was saying. There were many other things I did not know, too.
The Lady of the Silver Lily explained one of the things I did not know with her scar-like smile.
“However, you probably didn’t ask that question in a romantic way. I shall answer you seriously. Don’t worry because you don’t see any servants. I told them to go back.”
“Why…?”
“And I shall warn you. Never call me [Heiress] with your mouth again.”
The Lady of the Silver Lily smiled.
“I will tear out your heart and kill you.”
“……”
I didn’t understand.
Just now, the Lady of the Silver Lily showed killing intent toward me. She wasn’t joking when she said she would kill me. It wasn’t a bluff, either. If I called her ‘Heiress’ one more time, her rapier would surely stab my heart.
That’s what would happen, but…
‘Why?’
Why was her threat not cold but rather warm and tender?
Was it possible for a death threat to be so heartwarming?
“Come here.”
Her voice beckoned me. I couldn’t refuse her. As I approached the Lady of the Silver Lily, she pointed to the full-body mirror. “What do you see?”
“…I can see the lady standing next to me.”
“And?”
“The dark corridor… The moonlight is barely present. I see almost nothing beside you and me. It’s all buried in the darkness.”
“And?” asked Lady of the Silver Lily.
It was bizarre. She wanted another answer, as if there was something else I should have seen in the mirror. But what was it?
“What else do you see?”
“……”
“Don’t hide it. Say it.”
I tried to look harder into the mirror. I furrowed my brows and crinkled my forehead. Still, everything looked much the same.
‘As expected, there’s only darkness. Extraordinary red eyes and…’
It was then. Prick! My head ached.
Words I couldn’t understand flashed before my eyes.
+
■■■
■■■: ■■
■■ [■■], [■■■], [■■], [■■]
■■ ■■
■■ ■■■: [■cher], [Lo■], [■■■ ■■], [■■■], [■■■], [■■■■], [■■], [■] ■■ ■■■ ■ ■■ ■], [■■■■ ■■■■ ■],
[■■ ■■■■■]
+
“Oof, whuuh…?!”
I retched.
-Kim ■ja ■■ pl■ ■ ■■ ■t!
[■■■■ war■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■■!]
I reflexively wrapped my hands around my neck. My neck hurt for a moment, but I didn’t know why.
I couldn’t do anything about stuff I didn’t know, so I thought about something else.
‘I’m glad my stomach wasn’t full.’
I hadn’t vomited. Throwing up in front of the Duke of Ivansia’s daughter would be terrible. I desperately pressed down my nausea.
The Lady of the Silver Lily was calm.
“I asked what you could see.”
She was a very cold person.
There was a bitter taste on the tip of my tongue.
“Words… I see strange letters. And voices… Weird voices are… I don’t really know.”
“Voices.”
The Lady of the Silver Lily smiled very slightly at that word. This smile looked more like a smile than the one a little while ago.
“You’re being loved.”
“What are you saying…”
“Tell me about the words.”
She moved on so quickly, without any explanations, that I just stared blankly at her. Suddenly, her smile turned arid, and she calmly repeated herself without pushing me.
“Did you not say you see strange letters? Tell me about them.”
“…They’re hard to see. I don’t see complete words… just a few letters… Fragments…?”
“Read me at least one fragment.”
“Cher… Lo… Other than that, absolutely nothing.”
“Hmm.”
The Lady of the Silver Lily put her hand on her chin.
For some reason, her brows were furrowed.
“I see. [Cher] is part of [Teacher], and [Lo] is from [Lover]. What’s left at the end is very much like you. But your master comes before your lover? It’s understandable, but I don’t like it.”
“Lady, there are too many things I don’t understand. You said this isn’t a dream, but if it isn’t, what do you want from me?”
“I want you.”
“I apologize. I don’t understand that either—”
“What dream did you have?”
The Lady of the Silver Lily simply cut off my words.
‘No matter how much power the Ivansia duchy holds—’
‘I am the one and only butler of the Lady of the Golden Silk—’
‘His Highness the Crown Prince favors the young lady, but this treatment is—’
Countless thoughts were tangled in my head.
But none of them rang in my heart. Like music without rhythm, they soon faltered.
“I don’t remember much. But in my dream…”
What came out of my mouth, in the end, was an obedient answer to the lady’s question.
“In your dream.”
“…You looked at me and cried.”
That was right.
“I was in a chair… I think I was tied to it. With something like a rope. I don’t know why I was tied, but only you were there in the ornate room, looking down at me.”
Just before waking up.
I had definitely seen that sight.
“My heart hurt. My chest… It was pierced by your blade. But I don’t think that was all. In my dream, I…”
“You?”
“…I felt extremely guilty, like I had wronged you.”
“Yes.”
The Lady of the Silver Lily smiled again.
My insides churned, and I felt like just looking at the smile would make me cry.
“At least you know to be sorry.”
“……”
“Do you know why you dreamed something like that?”
“No. I don’t know. Not at all…”
“It’s because that is my [trauma].”
Trauma.
“I haven’t told you yet, but my mother committed suicide.”
What?
I paled in shock.
“I was too young to understand why she committed suicide. The duke’s wife. The moon of Ivansia. A woman with such power and wealth ended her life herself. I didn’t know why, but I do clearly remember the words my mother whispered to me on her last night, how she was cremated quickly like a coverup.”
This.
This was something I shouldn’t know. I shouldn’t even listen. I couldn’t believe the Ivansia duchy was hiding such a secret. It was a terrible secret that could be used to start a political war.
“However.”
The Lady of the Silver Lily looked at me.
“Even that memory did not become my trauma.”
“……”
“The crown prince gave a blue coral ring to the Lady of the Golden Silk today.”
One step.
The Lady of the Silver Lily came closer to me.
“In a past life, that made me despair. Or perhaps I was angry. You can say that I was jealous or envious. All these filled my heart. Cursing the world, I took a sword and stabbed the heart reflected in the mirror.”
However, there was no sound of footsteps.
Only then did I realize she was barefoot.
“But even that is no longer my trauma.”
Press.
The lady’s foot stepped on my shoe.
The light and insignificant weight tied down one of my feet. If I wanted to retreat, I could have, and if I wanted to shake her off, it would have been simple. Nonetheless, the weight on my foot kept me there.
“Ten days, repeating eternally.”
Her hand drew nearer.
“My world, stained in blood and perishing. The demons mocking me, imitating my tongue and lips. Everything that once scarred my heart is no longer my trauma.”
A light grip.
“They stopped being my trauma.”
My neck.
“From now on, you are the only one who can hurt my heart.”
Both of her hands loosely held my neck.
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