In the Kingdom of Allegro, one becomes an adult at the age of sixteen.
One year before reaching adulthood, Sephiel fell seriously ill with an unidentified disease.
<It hurts… I’m going to die. Anyone, please save me…>
It was only when she was on the verge of death that the doctors reluctantly arrived.
And they said there was no hope for her.
Upon hearing that, Wittegar went to see Sephiel—and discovered a shocking sight.
Countless notebooks full of writing and papers covering the walls.
<You wrote all this? These calculations…and these papers?>
A child who had lived her entire life in confinement, doing nothing but reading old books over and over again.
What would happen if such a being survived?
<That’s probably a genius or a monster.>
Yes. That was what a scholar once said upon seeing the adult Sephiel.
‘Surprisingly, I turned out to be a genius.’
Years of harsh lessons from private tutors.
Based on that, the things she did on her own, such as calculations or papers she wrote, soon piled up in her room.
Wittegar swallowed when he saw the sight and said:
<If she survives tonight, bring her to me. This kid could be useful.>
Those were the last words Sephiel heard that night.
* * *
Fifteen years old.
In the end, Sephiel barely survived the fever that almost killed her.
And many scholars came to see Sephiel.
<Try solving this problem.>
<Did you really write this essay?>
Sephiel trembled and did as she was told.
The scholars who saw the results all said that Sephiel was a genius.
Wittegar laughed out loud.
<So they said you were the cause of trouble for the kingdom, but it turns out you weren’t an ordinary child.>
That kind, dignified look.
Sephiel feels like she was dreaming.
<It’s just like the prophecy says.>
Though Wittegar muttered those words with a serious face—Still, Sephiel was happy.
‘That moment was like… ‘
A scene from a family novel where the long-neglected daughter finally earns her father’s love.
‘Me, the disgrace of the family, being cherished by my father?’
Of course, she never actually expected that to happen.
‘I didn’t know. If I were to compare it to a novel, my life’s genre would be horror… and brutal betrayal.’
A small sigh escaped her mouth.
Just thinking about the past was infuriating.
“Huh… I’m really angry.”
Her father, Wittegar, who discovered Sephiel’s genius, said:
<If you do what I tell you to do from now on, I’ll let you out of prison when you become an adult. You just have to keep being good.>
And the tasks she was given…there was no way they were anything good.
For generations, the Allegro royal family has had someone called ‘the Shadow’.
These shadows work in the back room, handling all the secrets of the Allegro royal family.
If something big happened, they were like expendable items who would be blamed and executed.
Wittegar was truly a genius—at finding ways to use people.
Because he turned Sephiel, who was only fifteen years old, into that ‘shadow’.
So Sephiel began creating a secret ledger.
And what was revealed through that work—
<A real genius, indeed.>
<Even if this is just falsifying records, it’s a masterpiece. The way everything connects—!>
That was what the secretaries said after seeing the ledger created by Sephiel.
Creating a secret ledger was not a simple accounting task.
It required analyzing all the family’s dealings, calculating income and expenses, and then cleverly inserting false records to reconstruct the data.
One must memorize the entire financial flow of the family-there is no room for error.
‘I did it perfectly.’
Sephiel did whatever she was told to do and learned whatever she was taught.
Magic, mathematics, accounting, and even literature. There was nothing she couldn’t do.
At times, her father even praised her.
<You’re the smartest among your siblings.>
Sephiel felt truly proud and happy.
Her father kept his promise. He got her out of prison when she was an adult.
But instead of true freedom, Sephiel was moved to a small solitary room beyond Wittegar’s office, inside the secretary’s room.
In that unusually cold room, Sephiel blew warmth into her hands and completed every task given to her.
And using a magical artifact that changed her eye and hair color, she was sometimes allowed outside.
‘Not for my sake, of course—just so Father could put me to work more efficiently.’
She was permitted to take short walks in the secluded, abandoned back garden.
She was allowed to receive books and read newspapers freely.
Once a month, she was even given a meal of her choice.
‘I never received warm food.’
Still, she was a little bit happy back then.
‘But in the end, even that happiness was just an illusion.’
* * *
When Sephiel was twenty-one years old.
<Hmm, you’ve worked really hard so far. Let’s go somewhere nice together today.>
One day, Sephiel’s father said that and gave her new clothes.
He also promised to buy her the sweet treats she always longed for and take her sightseeing outside the palace.
It was like a dream come true.
But the place she was taken to….was a terrifying magic research laboratory.
‘Yeah, I was dragged to the lab and became nothing more than a test subject. Even thinking about it now, it was a dreadful end.’
And the truth behind it all was that— It is said that, rarely, a child with white hair and red eyes is born into the royal family.
Sephiel was not the first “cursed” child to be born.
The story begins with the origins that the Allegro royal family desperately tried to hide, dating back to when they were a lowly family of sorcerers.
‘Yes, in fact, Allegro is from an old sorcerer family in this land, and they often married into the demon tribe.’
The Demons are an evil race that previously ruled the Union of Kingdoms.
But that was hundreds of years ago.
Now, the demons have long since been driven out to the distant lands of the Abyss after the <Kingdom Alliance Liberation War>.
‘Red eyes, silvery white hair, black nails, pale skin, and tall stature. They were all characteristics of the Demon Race.
‘But fortunately, I’m just a normal human being.’
Though the demon blood had weakened over generations, once every few decades, a child was born with the hair and eye color of a demon.
‘It’s like a curse that doesn’t go away even after generations. Or is it a mutation?’
Even though demons had long since become nothing more than legends to the common people of the Kingdoms, a child like Sephiel was still a problem for the Allegro royal family.
‘Because the time when the sorcerer married the demons is a kind of dark history for the Allegro royal family.’
Thus, any child born with white hair and red eyes was locked away.
They were despised, abused, and not treated as human.
That was the tradition of the Allegro royal family.
‘Because there are already so many children who have died after being unjustly imprisoned like me, it has become something that cannot be stopped.’
So, the so-called “prophecy” passed down in the family was actually just an excuse to dispose of children like Sephiel.
They were barely educated, just enough to keep them alive…
And once they reached adulthood—They were given poison and killed.
<I fed you and let you study. You should die without regret. And never be born into our family again.>
That was the meaning behind their tragic lives and deaths.
Recalling all of this, Sephiel felt even more bitter.
‘But my fate was a little different from that of the children born before me.’
At first, Wittegar intended to follow tradition—lock Sephiel away and kill her when she grew up.
But after witnessing her genius, he changed his mind.
‘There were two reasons why they allowed me to live past adulthood.’
The Shadows.
The Allegro family’s darkest secrets were handled by a select group. These individuals were always purged and discarded after a few years.
Sephiel was going to die anyway, so she was the perfect candidate for the job.
And now that Sephiel’s usefulness has run out, Wittegar has used Sephiel as a test subject for the last time.
“Ugh.”
Even thinking about it now made Sephiel’s body tremble.
‘I still vividly remember the day I was dragged to the lab.’
She had been dressed in a new dress and shoes.
“You will now live in this laboratory and help your brothers.”
Of course, Sephiel did not obediently respond, “Yes, I will.”
She screamed and tried to run.
But she was caught immediately.
<F-Father, I’m your daughter too… Why do you hate me so much? I’ll be good, okay?>
That was the first time Sephiel ever called Wittegar “Father.”
Wittegar looked at her as if she were an insect and said,
<Sephiel. If you were born useless, you should know that it is an honor to sacrifice yourself for our family. How can you be so selfish?>
<What do you mean… Please, save me…>
<How shameless. Do you think that I should take care of you and love you just because you were born?>
<Please…>
<If you were not loved, then take responsibility for being unlovable. In this world, there are no one-sided victims.>
To him, Sephiel—the white-haired, red-eyed monster—was nothing but a disgrace.
But her genius and talent… That, he truly valued.
<How I wish my sons had that talent.>
Before she even realized it, her father had begun to think that way.
Thus, he started an experiment to extract Sephiel’s talent and give it to her brothers.
‘My eldest brother was foolish. My second brother was weak. My third brother had magic talent but lacked magical power. That experiment was to fill in those shortcomings.’
It was an experiment to turn Sephiel into a spirit.
‘If I die and become a ghost, would I curse the family like the prophecy says? Is that why he decided to make me a spirit instead?’
It was an experiment that utilized the technology of the Magic Kingdom and the forbidden curses that had been passed down since the days of the sorcerers.
Her father’s goal was to shatter Sephiel’s soul and turn her into a summoned spirit, then bind her as a servant spirit for her brothers, forcing her to help her brothers’ shortcomings.
That was her father’s crazy plan.
‘The good thing is that I was under the influence of drugs or anesthesia most of the time, so the pain wasn’t too bad.’
And the experiment continued……
The last memory from her past life— Floating inside a massive test tube made of magic stone, filled with life-sustaining fluid.
Inside that tube, even when she cried, no tears came out.
Only bubbles rose.
And she prayed.
‘I want to escape. Anywhere is fine. Just let me leave this place.’
‘If that’s impossible…. Then please, just kill me.’
And then when she woke up—
“I was five years old again.”
She had prayed to go to another world, not to return to the past.
What was the point if she was still imprisoned?
‘Nothing changed at all….’
Sephiel groaned, letting out a pained sound.
At that moment, the sound of footsteps echoed.
“Is it true that a banquet will be held in the Duke of the Remdragon’s territory? Isn’t that place like something out of a legend?”
“Yeah, but so what? They’re just picking a fiancée for that young Master who’s only five years old. Men aren’t even allowed to come see it.”
“I’m so jealous.”
“He acts like he’s great because he’s a dragon half-blood. I heard all those Remdragon folks are insufferable. I mean, sure, they haven’t shown themselves to the world for a hundred years, but still.”
“But, brother, we’re not supposed to be here. If Father catches us, we’ll be in big trouble….”
“It’s okay. She can’t even speak properly yet, so she can’t complain. It’s our job as royalty to punish the disgrace of the kingdom.”
It was the voice of Heron, Sephiel’s second older brother.
And the third prince, Huron, follows him.
‘The bad guys are here.’
Just hearing their voices made Sephiel’s hair stand on end.
When she was around five years old, Wittegar had strictly forbidden the princes from approaching her.
However, Heron used to sneak into the prison.
‘On days like this, he would always beat me up and harass me for a long time.’
And today…
‘He brought his sword.’
On days like that, he always used a wooden practice sword to hit her.
‘I don’t want to get hit with a sword!’
Sephiel quickly scanned her surroundings and grabbed something to throw.
“Hey, you, come here. Aren’t you coming?”
Ignoring his words, Sephiel hid under the bed.
“You idiot. Do you think hiding there changes anything? Even a bird’s brain is smarter than you!”
Heron entered the prison in high spirits.
The guard always gave Heron the keys with ease.
“Not coming out? Fine, then today you’ll get hit twice today.”
At that moment, Heron stepped on something and fell to the ground. It was an ink bottle.
“Ouch!”
Heron gritted his teeth in frustration. Then, he spotted Sephiel hiding under the low bed.
But unlike usual, she wasn’t trembling.
Her large ruby-red eyes gleamed as she stared straight at him.
“Hick!”
Heron was inwardly surprised. But he gritted his teeth, conscious of his younger brother behind him.
“You need a good beating to come to your senses! Do you wanna die?”
Heron shouted. Sephiel said.
“Ywou die firvst.” (you die first)
“Huh?”
Heron doubted his ears.
“You knew how to speak?”
That was the moment.
–Tug!
Something pricked Heron’s hand.
“Arghhh! Mom!”
It was the sharp tip of a pen.
“B-blood!”
Heron grabbed the back of his hand and crawled back.
Sephiel held the pen and looked at Heron blankly.
“Hey! This damn thing! You wanna die? How dare you!”
Heron shouted in a loud voice. Sephiel, who wasn’t afraid of him at all, looked at Heron and said.
“A fayled swotdsman.” (A failed swordsman)
“What?”
At this age, Sephiel could barely speak properly.
She began to speak properly after she was six years old and had a private tutor.
Before that, the only words she could say were ones she’d picked up from the few people coming and going from the prison—things like “food,” “no,” and “okay.”
‘My speech is so clumsy!’
Even babies need to hear the same words over and over again before they can speak properly.
‘I’ve barely ever spoken before.’
So Sephiel decided to use the ancient language instead, which had simpler pronunciation.
“La muquetto ma, mu mara.”
The translation of what she said was this:
‘You gonna brag to Father that you got beaten by me? This is one failure of a swordsman.’
Heron, who was weak, failed his swordsmanship lessons again and again and was often scolded by his father.
‘He was already a poor student. What would his father say if he found out that he got hurt by a five-year-old kid?’
Sephiel’s eyes contained such meaning.
“Shue-na mi mua-ra, mu. mya.” (You’re not allowed to come here, but do you really want to tell Father?)
“Ma-ara yu elo tya?” (What about all the times you’ve snuck in before?)
That would put him in trouble, too.
Sephiel puffed up her round cheeks, looking at Heron with a scornful expression.
“You… What did you just say…?”
Heron stared at her as if he had seen a ghost, his hands trembling.
“Idwiot,” Sephiel said.
“Shu ara mu.” (With those shaky hands, how do you expect to wield a sword)
“Mara.” (You failed in swordsmanship.)
“How can you speak an ancient language….?”
“Mura e mya-mya.” (A ghost taught me, you bastard.)
“Ahhh! You, you witch!”
“Wavnt anowther tavste of the pwen?” (want another taste of the pen?)
Sephiel held up a bloody pen.
“Hiikk!”
Heron stepped back.
“What’s wrong, brother? Did that kid hurt you?”
Heron hid his hands in a panic.
“Oh, it’s nothing!”
Heron held back his tears. There were even tears in his eyes.
“You! Do you think I’ll forget this? I’ll see you later.”
Sephiel looked at Heron quietly before mouthing the words:
“Dwo as ywou livke.” (Do as you like)
“You!”
Heron left the prison with a look of anger and madness on his face.
Sephiel wanted to laugh.
‘It’s so comfortable.’
In her past life, Sephiel had lived like a slave to her family, constantly walking on eggshells and cowering in fear.
Something her father, the king, had once said was true.
<Did you think you deserved my love just for being born?>
Yes, it may not be the case that all children have such rights.
‘From now on, I’ll carve my own path—alone.’
She had spent her whole life craving affection, longing to escape loneliness. But none of that mattered anymore.
‘What? If I act obedient, you’ll give me a chance?’
They say giving up makes things easier. Sephiel gave up everything.
And in that moment, she found peace.
What filled the emptiness in her heart was…A sense of revenge. And a sense of liberation.
‘I hate you all too.’
Sephiel raised one corner of her mouth, making her expression as evil as possible.
With her chubby cheeks and tiny lips, however, that expression looked more like…
A tiny puppy that had just learned how to growl.
From now on…
‘I won’t hold back.’
Sephiel thought to herself.
‘First, escape. Then, revenge.’
* * *
