Episode 8
“Young Lady.”
Helen woke up, unable to resist the servant’s call. Utterly exhausted, she carefully rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand as she opened them.
Judging from the scenery outside the window, it was early morning. She wondered why they had gone through the trouble of waking her at an hour when the sun had not even fully risen. Was it because the servants disliked the young lady who had returned one day at the Count’s summons? Helen shook her head in a daze.
There had to be a different reason. Helen let out a short laugh and ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. Of course, hair tangled from sleep couldn’t possibly be combed through with fingers.
The mansion’s servants poured into the bedroom. Each of them did their utmost in their assigned roles. Washing her face with water adjusted to the proper temperature, combing her hair, and even selecting one of the many dresses from the wardrobe and helping her change—everything was touched by the servants’ hands.
Thanks to that, Helen focused solely on waking up without lifting a finger.
By the time color was applied to her lips, she had completely chased away sleep. At the same time, everything from yesterday evening until she had fallen asleep came flooding back.
“Oh, dear.”
At Helen’s sudden sigh, the servant applying color to her lips stopped.
“Young Lady? Do you not like the color?”
“Ah…… It’s too pretty. That’s why.”
The servant was blocking the mirror, so Helen couldn’t see what color was being applied. Even so, she smiled, and the servant’s hand moved again.
“You still love Carlisle Everett.”
“Can you really leave him forever while loving him, missing him, and hurting?”
“See. You have no confidence.”
These had been Liandor’s words when she said she wanted to leave to escape an unhappy life. Not one of them was wrong. The great magician seemed to possess the ability to read another’s heart as well.
When some time had passed and the sunset painted across the sky began to fade, she would attend the party prepared by the imperial family. Carlisle Everett—she would see him there. Whether she wanted to or not, her eyes would take him in. And he too would take her in.
Helen knew this was not something to worry over too much. Even if this body was not Violet’s, didn’t she have a connection with Carlisle? To Helen, Carlisle was someone who had stayed a single night at the villa, and to him, Helen was someone who had allowed him to stay a single night.
What was so great about a brief one-night acquaintance?
When the servant blocking her view stepped aside, a beautiful figure appeared in the mirror. From birth until now, Helen had never thought her red hair was pretty. She had heard that her mother had beautiful red hair, but since she had no memory of it, she had no way to confirm if it was true.
Yet the red hair reflected in the mirror was beautiful. It had simply been combed, yet it gleamed with luster. Even its thick, curling form resembled the mother she had only heard about.
Helen grabbed the end of a particularly appetizing-looking lock and twisted it around her finger. Around her, she heard the servants’ exclamations.
“Good heavens! You are so beautiful!”
“The teal dress suits you perfectly as well, Young Lady.”
“Perhaps the Count has been hiding you away because he’s afraid someone will fall head over heels for the beautiful Young Lady. Is it just me?”
Hiding me? Afraid someone will fall for me? ……As if.
“Is everything done? I would like to rest a bit.”
“Of course. But what shall we do about your meal?”
“I have no appetite, so I will not eat.”
“Understood. Then we shall take our leave.”
Once the servants opened the door and left, Helen trudged back to her bed. She had slept enough through the night, yet drowsiness kept pressing in on her. Fatigue seemed to have accumulated while she was surrounded by people and prettily dressed up from early morning.
Before lying down, Helen gathered the hair the servants had painstakingly combed neatly to one side. If her beautifully combed hair got ruined, she would be surrounded by servants once again.
Someone would come to wake her by lunchtime, so she should sleep more until then. Helen laid straight down on the bed, let out a soft giggle, and slowly closed her eyes.
* Sibello
“……len.”
“Mm, just a little longer.”
“Helen!”
At the loud voice, Helen woke with a start. Covering both ears with her hands, she looked at the person who had woken her with wide eyes.
“Liandor?”
“You were sleeping without even knowing you’d been moved to the carriage. So if you hadn’t woken up this time, I was going to use force.”
Helen looked at Liandor, who kept expressing his disappointment, and thought back on his words. Only then did she realize she was inside the carriage.
It seemed they had almost arrived, for the carriage’s speed had noticeably decreased, and faint neighing could be heard. Soon, when the carriage came to a complete stop, the imperial palace illuminated by bright lights was visible outside.
When Liandor tapped on the window, Helen turned her head. The scenery he had seen was captured exactly the same in her eyes.
“Good heavens.”
It was the place where she had resided while living as Violet. The place she had stayed for about a year, every single day except for one.
Just as she thought she wanted to see it a little closer, the carriage door opened. While Helen awkwardly smoothed out her wrinkled dress, Liandor got out first.
She had really come. She would have been dragged here even if she hadn’t run away, but arriving truly inside the imperial palace made her feel strange.
Meeting Carlisle, she had learned what happiness was and understood love. She wished it could have ended there. Cruelly, the existence called death had taught the person she loved most what despair was. That is, Carlisle, whom she would meet here today.
This would be their last meeting; after today, there would be no occasion to run into each other. She was already worried whether she ought to say something to him. For example, something she hadn’t been able to say before—that she was actually his lover.
To Helen, muttering to herself that she was being mad, Liandor standing before the carriage extended his hand.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you getting off?”
“Ah…… I thought the great magician had left me behind and run away.”
“That’s actually what I wanted to say.”
“Surely not me?”
Liandor put on a sincere expression and nodded.
“If you’ve already forgotten that you fled alone from the dinner with your ice-cold family just a day ago, I’m disappointed.”
Helen was his only connection to the Platini family. If he hadn’t met her, he would never have been entangled with the Platinis in his life. Even now, he didn’t spare the Platini family a speck of interest aside from her.
Although the imperial palace was located south of Heksilope, the evening wind was cold. The winter sky, where the sunset faded quickly and seeped into black compared to other seasons, made the wind even fiercer.
Liandor looked past the red hair fluttering in the wind at the sunset gradually being dyed by darkness. At the sight of something red being draped in darkness, Helen pouted.
“……I have a lot I want to say, but I won’t.”
“An excellent choice.”
When Liandor looked down at her with his chin raised, Helen wanted to mock him. She thought it would be nice to raise herself up on her heels to match his eye level as much as possible and then shrug.
But Liandor was much taller, and even if she raised her heels, she couldn’t reach his eye level. While accepting this fact, Helen played a card that would fluster the great magician.
“But how did you end up in the same carriage as me? Don’t people look at us strangely? No, didn’t the Count say anything?”
This was what she had wanted to ask since waking up in the carriage. She had planned to attend the party with Liandor, but that plan hadn’t included riding in the same carriage as him.
“I thought you wouldn’t want to ride with the Count, so I made the first move. And who would say anything about where a great magician rides?”
Helen quickly stepped in front of Liandor as he subtly turned his upper body to the side. Because he acted as if trying to escape the situation, she became even more curious.
“Tell me the truth.”
At her eyes, sharp like a haughty cat, Liandor unnecessarily cleared his throat.
“It’s a trade secret.”
“What trade?”
Helen scoffed. If he had revealed business dealings with people, she would have acknowledged it as a trade secret.
But Liandor was a magician; what business would a magician conduct with people who had no mana? Even if he had, there was no need to keep it a secret. Because exposing it to someone without mana would be of no help whatsoever.
“You……!”
“Wow, it’s beautiful!”
Leaving the riled-up Liandor behind, Helen immediately turned and walked toward the imperial palace. The imperial palace set against the deep sunset blazed with bright lights. The nobles’ carriages arrived one after another, and splendid nobles invited by the imperial family entered the palace.
Helen was also one of them. Helen Platini had never been dressed as splendidly as today since birth. Of course, the premise here was that she was only Helen Platini. A splendid life—that was a story that only applied to Violet. Even in that splendid life of hers, there was a past darker than Helen Platini’s.
The day Helen first possessed Violet’s body was one of the darkest days of Violet’s life, and at the same time, the first day she had seeped into a splendid life.
“Your Highness, this is my first time greeting you. I am Carlisle Everett.”
These had been the first words of the man who stretched out his hand to Violet, huddled in a place not a single ray of light could penetrate. That man was remembered by Violet as someone who possessed a gentle warmth.
There was also a man who silently draped his coat over her shoulders on a cold day when she couldn’t even wear one thick garment properly. That man had granted Violet a ‘name,’ something that had been forbidden to her. Therefore, that day was also the day Violet gained a name. But now, even if that man uttered the name he truly loved upon his lips, the Violet who would listen was gone.
The party would soon begin. In the place where food, drink, music, and dance would be unceasing, she would see people who could not forget Violet.
Among the nobles entering inside, Helen, who had been moving forward with them, stopped in her tracks.
In the distance, a man was visible.