SOTBW - 199

Najane blinked her eyes slowly, her expression blank and bewildered. Mikael carefully brushed back Najane’s tangled bangs before tightly gripping her hair.

“Hello, Miss Emaydis. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

Despite his gentle tone, the hand clutching her hair was fierce and rough. The pain of her scalp being pulled made Najane force her head up. She winced, a faint groan escaping her lips.

It hurt. So much that tears began to well up in her eyes. But Najane’s face showed no understanding of what was happening to her.

Mikael would never do this to her. This had to be a dream. Yes, it was a nightmare. She should have realized it when the supposedly dead Mikael turned out to be alive.

With labored breaths, Najane tightly shut her eyes.

“...Mikael.”

“Yes, Miss.”

“...Mikael.”

“I’m listening. Go ahead and speak.”

Frustrated by Najane’s repetitive calling of his name, Mikael straightened his knees and yanked her hair upward. A white puff of breath escaped Najane’s mouth as she gasped in pain.

She was forced to look up at Mikael, but she still didn’t believe this was real. Mikael standing before her, doing these things to her—it all felt like something that could only happen in a dream.

Caught between the blurred boundaries of dream and reality, Najane quietly let tears stream down her face.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mikael… It’s only natural for you to be angry with me. You died trying to protect us…”

“Oh, that.”

Mikael laughed lightly, as if recalling some trivial event from long ago.

“That was just an act, Miss. I didn’t die. Technically speaking, I lost my physical body ages ago, so I periodically transfer into new bodies to maintain my consciousness. Back then… oh, it was exhausting pretending to die while deceiving your mother. Not only did I have to use magic to alter my appearance, but also to fool everyone around me. Thinking about that time still irritates me.”

Mikael furrowed his brow, clearly annoyed at the memory. Nellis, thanks to rigorous training, had developed heightened senses and was extremely perceptive. Simply wearing cinnamon-scented perfume wasn’t enough to hide his condition.

So Kieron—because that was who Mikael truly was—had no choice but to conceal magical runes throughout the mansion to deceive those around him. Anyone passing near the runes multiple times wouldn’t question why Mikael’s complexion was unnaturally pale or why his physique changed subtly over time.

Maintaining the illusion within the mansion had been a taxing endeavor. Kieron relied on the mana extracted from Bersha’s flesh. Finding fresh corpses that hadn’t yet decomposed was easier, though failing that, he could always create them himself.

But the effort was worth it, because living as Mikael was something he could never give up.

Kieron grinned widely as he gazed down at the listless Najane.

“Do you understand what I’m saying, Miss?”

His kindly voice further dulled Najane’s grasp on reality. Perched on the edge of the frozen fountain, Kieron looked down at Najane with feigned pity. When he released her hair, her body collapsed limply into the snow.

Kieron nudged her pale, trembling hands with the tip of his boot.

“Then again, I never expected you to understand from the start, Emaydis. You’ve always been a disgrace to our family—stupid, foolish, petty, and guilty of falling in love in ways forbidden.”

Najane couldn’t comprehend a word Kieron was saying. But one thing was certain: if this was a dream, the pain was far too vivid.

Her fingers, buried deep in the snow, were freezing to the point of numbness. Shaking violently, Najane stared with wide, unsteady pupils.

If this wasn’t a dream… if Mikael hadn’t died and was truly alive… then why was he doing this to her?

Overwhelmed, Najane failed to process the situation unfolding before her. Just then, Kieron grabbed her hair again. Her reddened eyes met his gaze. He seemed delighted by the broken state of Najane’s mind.

“Look at me, Emaydis. Let me show you my true form.”

Kieron’s icy hands cupped Najane’s cheeks. The biting cold seeped into her bones, making her flinch. Mikael’s golden hair and blue eyes, once familiar, melted away like soft clay, reshaping into the face of a stranger with black hair and brown eyes.

Najane froze, stunned by the transformation happening right before her eyes. Kieron’s features had completely changed; he adjusted his jaw with a crunching sound before closing his mouth.

She stared blankly at Mikael, who had completely transformed into another person. Kieron, his face aged, exhaled deeply.

“Do you recognize this face? This is Kieron Vieto. The Kieron Vieto who bribed the servants of the Powley family estate to buy you and Luna as slaves. I bought you two for a fair price with this face. You probably don’t remember; you were out of your mind, drugged up back then.”

He shoved Najane, who could barely stand on her own, into a box filled with smuggled goods, treating her like an object, and crossed the border. Kieron’s original plan was to carve curses and sigils into Najane’s body and then abandon her in front of the Romsoa Knights.

But Najane, after wandering here and there, ended up joining the Romsoa Knights herself. It was fate, but Kieron merely thought it was good luck.

Kieron smirked crookedly and jabbed painfully at Najane’s solar plexus.

“Curious who carved that curse into you? Want to know who engraved that wretched sigil onto your back and left you in such a state?”

His eyes gleamed with madness. His hands gripping Najane’s face tightened. Under the pressure crushing her jawbone, Najane let out a short scream.

Najane clawed at Kieron’s wrist with her nails, trying to escape the pain. But no matter how hard she dug her nails in, no blood came out. Sensing something strange, Najane looked at the wrist with weary eyes where her nails were embedded.

The bony wrist felt like dry, crumbly paper. It was as if she had pierced skin that had been frozen and thawed repeatedly until its texture was ruined...

A chill ran up Najane’s spine, as if she had accidentally stepped on a corpse. Only then did she snap out of it and look directly at the figure before her. When their eyes met, Kieron twisted his smile and clenched his teeth.

“Yes, it’s me! It’s me, Emaydis! I’m the one who made you like this!”

Kieron screamed at Najane, then burst into laughter with a tearful face. Seeing Najane’s despair, Kieron felt a thrill of pleasure, and the flesh on his face suddenly collapsed.

Seeing the skull-like face, Najane turned pale and desperately pushed him away with all her might. She frantically backed away, staring blankly at Kieron’s severed hand now in her grasp.

Throwing the hand into the snow, Najane faced Kieron with a deathly pale face. Kieron glanced regretfully at his missing hand and wrist.

That thing wasn’t human. Recalling Mikael waving goodbye as he boarded the departing ship, Najane squeezed her eyes shut. She simply couldn’t accept what was happening. Sensing Najane’s torment, Kieron chuckled softly and slowly approached.

“I was so delighted every time you trained in swordsmanship despite your weak body. How adorable it was that this foolish girl was shortening her own life without my help!”

“...Mikael... What... What are you saying...?”

“Every time you used qi, I knew it strained your body. So I kept egging you on. I told you that if you practiced more and mastered perfect qi, you’d win Nellis’ love.”

Kieron leaned his grotesque face close to hers and snickered. Amidst the cinnamon cologne lingered a foul stench.

Najane stumbled backward and tripped over a tree, collapsing to the ground. Looking up at Kieron from below, her breath caught.

The horribly disfigured face gradually returned to normal. Kieron wiped his face and crouched down, meeting Najane’s eyes. He could see her slowly regaining her composure.

Kieron pretended to grab her throat. Najane gasped and tightly closed her eyes. Satisfied by her helpless reaction, Kieron smiled.

“It was impossible for you to use the Powley technique from the start, Emaydis.”

At those words, Najane snapped open her eyes, unable to deny reality any longer. Kieron, returning to Mikael’s face, sneered.

“It’s your limitation, born deficient. Born inferior, you’ll never surpass the limits of your body no matter what happens.”

Kieron knew Najane’s weakness. Though she could manifest qi, she couldn’t properly wield the true Powley technique like Nellis. That was a harsh reality that made Najane feel even more pathetic as she desperately tried to mend her relationship with Nellis.

Mocking her, Kieron reached out again. But this time, Najane boldly slapped his hand away. The force of her rejection reddened her palm, and Kieron’s expression hardened.

“You’re not Mikael.”

Najane spat the words out bitterly. Kieron relaxed his stern expression and burst into laughter. Najane’s continued denial of the situation amused him endlessly.

As Kieron laughed maniacally, Najane’s face contorted in anguish. Her heart felt as though it had been kicked, but she clenched her trembling hands and glared fiercely.

“Mikael wasn’t a terrible monster like you. He was someone who supported and cheered for my dreams more than anyone else. A knight of the Powley family who devoted himself to me and Luna!”

Najane threw the clump of snow she had been clutching at Kieron. Tears began streaming down her face once again.

“Don’t say such things while wearing his face! Mikael was kind. He would do anything for me! Mikael, Mikael….”

Najane tried to shout but couldn’t continue. No matter how much she denied it, the person in front of her was undeniably Mikael.

As Najane stared into Mikael’s blue eyes, her arms went limp. The realization that the person who had reduced her to this state was the very Mikael she had trusted so deeply extinguished the faint flicker of hope that had remained in her crimson eyes.

Najane reflected on the time she had spent with Mikael at the Powley estate. From when she was very young until now, Mikael had always been by her side—when she had a cold, when she played, when she cried, during happy moments, during training, and through every sorrowful or painful moment…

Mikael had been present in every memory she revisited. Najane couldn’t comprehend it. How could she possibly understand? To Najane, Mikael had been a precious person. She had followed him like a father and trusted him more than anyone else.

But to think that this same person had done everything in his power to ruin her life… That all his apparent sincerity had been a lie, and he had merely worked to drag her into misery…

Najane couldn’t accept it.

The pain was too much. She didn’t even want to acknowledge this reality.