Chapter 4

A horse galloped from afar and came to a stop at the front gate.

My vision was clouded with tears, so I couldn’t see clearly, but there was one thing I could be certain of.

“…Pel?”

Pel Abrotis. It was him.

He should have still been in the Empire, so even if he’d heard the news immediately, he shouldn’t have arrived until tomorrow night…

But he dismounted and ran straight into the mansion. With the front gate wide open, there was nothing to stop him.

I quickly set the bottle down and headed toward the banquet hall where the funeral was taking place.

But I was already too late—crying could be heard echoing from the distant corridor.

“If I had known… I wouldn’t have let the misunderstanding go on… I wouldn’t have left you alone…”

His tear-soaked voice broke off mid-sentence. The unexpected sound of Pel’s anguish left me frozen in place.

I stood breathless outside the wide-open doors of the hall, staring at his back.

Pel looked more devastated than I had ever seen him. I almost wondered if I was mistaken about everything.

It didn’t make sense. Wasn’t he the one who despised me? That’s how it was supposed to be—just like in the novel.

It was a long time before his sobbing quieted. The entire time, I stood still, not taking a single step, simply staring into space.

No—staring at his back. His trembling, uneven silhouette.

The Pel I remembered had always been solid, unwavering.

Even when he had been sent to the kingdom at a young age as the crown prince, he’d never once faltered.

I held my breath, intending to quietly slip away.

And I would have—if he hadn’t looked at me.

“What are you doing here?”

With tear-reddened eyes, he strode toward me.

“What face do you think you have, coming here looking for Elise?”

That was when I felt the cold edge of a blade at my throat. The chill of it pressing against my skin made my breath catch.

My heart lurched wildly. I’d been stabbed through the chest just last night—my body remembered the pain all too well.

“I could kill you right here. Rienette Seriatina.”

He must not have heard yet. That this mansion was about to become mine.

Of course, if he’d come running the moment he heard the obituary, he wouldn’t know.

I hesitated for a moment, but in the end, I said nothing. Whatever I said in Rienette’s body would only further provoke him.

“I could kill you right here, but…”

“…”

“A peaceful death is too much luxury for you.”

He turned away and returned to the hall. Then, he gently placed a single black flower atop my body.

“…I’ll come again tomorrow, Elise.”

His voice was steeped in sorrow.

Step by step, he moved away from me. From me—and from the body that had once been me.

* * *

Even in the midst of all this, the morning sun had risen.

The way the day began again, so casually and without hesitation, made me sick of the repetition.

“Saintess, the bodies of the duke and duchess have returned. What shall we do?”

Even at the maid’s words, I couldn’t bring myself to rise.

I was afraid. Afraid that once I faced their end, everything would become too real.

“We’ll hold a small funeral in the duke and duchess’s bedroom. Begin preparations.”

I turned my back to the maid and closed my eyes tightly. I didn’t want to hear anything.

The thought of holding my parents’ funeral in Rienette’s body was horrifying.

Would they recognize me? Would they know that I’m Elise Sihen?

No—was I ever really Elise Sihen to begin with? In the end, perhaps I too was nothing more than a character outside the novel, someone who stole Elise’s place.

Uncertain thoughts rolled endlessly through my head. I let out several deep sighs, trying to calm myself.

At the very least, to my parents and to Xenia—I had been Elise. So they would recognize me. They would.

Consoling myself, I finally managed to step out of the room. I walked down the familiar halls toward the unfamiliar funeral of my parents.

And the moment I arrived at their bedroom and faced the room, a heaviness pressed down on my chest as though something had caught inside it.

In the room filled with black roses were two coffins, identical to mine.

My parents’ coffins.

“You’ve arrived.”

The butler hastily wiped the tears from his face and spoke as if nothing had happened.

“The preparations are complete.”

A funeral without mourners. So different from the lavish ceremony that had taken place downstairs in the banquet hall.

“We weren’t able to retrieve the body of Xenia Sihen… They said it was too severely damaged and has already been disposed of. They sent the dress she wore at the execution in its place.”

At the word “damaged,” my mind went blank.

Damaged? What reason would there be for her body to be ruined just because she was executed? My parents’ bodies had been returned intact.

There was no reason the body of a child, one who had done no wrong, should be beyond recovery. Did that mean… they tortured her?

I took the pink home dress, stained and torn as though dragged through the dirt. I couldn’t begin to imagine what had happened to her in just that single day.

“…I’ll take my leave now. Please be cautious not to be discovered.”

According to the laws of the kingdom, those executed as criminals are not allowed to be buried. If this funeral were discovered, even my parents’ bodies would be confiscated.

Taken and thrown to the birds.

The butler left and closed the door behind him, looking fearful of being caught.

At last, I was alone in the room. My feet, frozen in place until then, finally moved.

My parents’ pale skin was burned into my eyes. I couldn’t even recover my sister’s body.

My body had been preserved quickly to prevent decay, but their bodies had been left for a day before anything could be done. It was no surprise the remains had begun to deteriorate.

“I’m glad you’ve come home safely. Please… take care of Xenia in heaven.”

There was no reply. Of course, I knew there wouldn’t be one—but still, I opened my mouth again.

There was so much I wanted to say, but once I was face-to-face with them, no words would come.

Even though I knew Seiden would arrive soon, I couldn’t gather my tears.

“There are things I never got to say.”

I placed a black rose on the wounded nape of my father’s neck. I firmly pressed another rose into my mother’s hand.

Lastly, I spread out Xenia’s dress over my mother’s chest—and only then collapsed to my knees.

“I love you all so much.”

My face was soaked beyond control.

“Thank you… for making this life a happy one.”

It wasn’t the original story, nor Seiden, who gave Elise Sihen a happy ending.

It was my family.

And only now, after losing everything, did I realize that truth.

* * *

“His Highness the Prince has arrived. He said he’d like to speak with you privately, so we’ve shown him to the drawing room.”

I pressed the back of my hand against my hot, swollen eyes. My tear-drenched eyes now felt dry and gritty.

“I’ll be there shortly.”

I had to leave my parents’ funeral behind to face my enemy. Just the thought of it made something vile rise from deep in my chest.

I walked to the drawing room at a deliberately slow pace. It was connected to my bedroom.

A beautiful space, meant to welcome the most precious guests.

It didn’t suit Seiden at all.

“No one is to enter.”

At my command, the servants quietly withdrew without protest. I pressed again on my swollen eyes.

The well-oiled door to the drawing room opened smoothly. The only problem was—Seiden wasn’t inside.

Only the door connecting to my bedroom was wide open.

“What are you doing in my room?”

He was half-lying on my bed, looking at me.

When I asked with a visibly cold expression, Seiden laid back fully on the bed and smirked.

“Can anyone even live here? No way. We’ll have to empty out the princess’s palace soon. The stink of House Sihen still lingers.”

I simply stared at him. I didn’t want to say a single word he wanted to hear.

I could never say I didn’t want to live here because it smelled like House Sihen, or that I wanted to become his woman in the royal residence.

Apparently unaware of how cold my expression had become, Seiden patted the space beside him on the bed.

“Come lie down. Let’s take a nap together.”

I stepped closer but sat on the chair in front of the bed instead.

He looked up at me, clearly confused. He had assumed I would lie beside him without question.

“What if someone comes in? You should stop and—”

But before I could finish, he sat up and reached out into the air.

His hand landed on the nape of my neck.

“…Who are you?”

His cold voice rang in my ear. For the first time since I entered Rienette’s body, I heard Seiden speak in such a low tone.

His hand was touching the back of my neck—specifically, the spot where I had been wounded the night before. The mark left when Pel had threatened me.

Painful proof that none of this was just a dream.

“It’s nothing… I scratched myself in my sleep. My hair kept bothering me, so I must’ve kept touching it.”

The stiffness in his face didn’t ease. His expression clearly showed dissatisfaction.

“What’s going on with you, starting yesterday?”

Since yesterday…

Was he talking about when I demanded the ownership of the estate?

Even if I was supposedly his lover, anything that got in his way was clearly unforgivable.

I took a slow breath.

But what he said next completely caught me off guard.

“If you had asked for the estate, I would have given it to you. Even if you had asked for a territory, I would’ve handed that over too.”

“…”

“I told you, everything I have is yours. I even said I’d give up the throne for you. Do you really think I wasn’t sincere?”

He had never said anything like that to me. Not even once had he spoken of loving me enough to give up the throne.

And I hadn’t expected him to. He was a prince, destined to rule this country.

“…Rienette, how am I supposed to accept the fact that you don’t trust me?”