Chapter 100
Even now, it still seemed half true, but Rabian didn’t bother to mention it.
“And then, for a while, there was no news,” he continued.
The pale lemon-colored eyes dimmed with a meaningful gleam.
“Then suddenly, Nina was all over the national papers — the First Princess who’d been kidnapped by Hameln and returned safely. You, meanwhile, became the hero who tracked Hameln on your own and rescued your niece.”
At the revelation of this unexpected truth, Rabian merely gave a faint, cold smile.
Everything he and Leopard had experienced so far had been fragmentary — repetitive scenes that all felt eerily similar.
That made it even harder to get a grasp on what was really going on.
But Cheshire’s case was different. Very different.
If all of this was supposed to be foresight, then his dreams were the real deal — true prophetic dreams.
‘What the hell is with this guy? Why is he the only one different?’
If Cheshire had somehow discovered Nina’s true identity and was just spouting nonsense, that would be one thing — but still.
As if he could read Rabian’s thoughts, Cheshire frowned openly.
“You think I’m making this up?”
“I don’t know. Was that why you lured me out with that parfait date excuse?”
“What do you take me for? I only started having those dreams after we made that parfait promise.”
“Then why’d you ask Nina out for parfaits that day? Don’t give me that crap about ‘because she’s cute.’”
“She was cute, though. Honestly? I was sure it was the first time I’d met her, but I kept getting this weird sense of déjà vu. You know I never forget a face.”
Cheshire paused for a moment, staring down at his own arm.
“It felt strange, so I kept watching her. And then, I started feeling this strange… urge.”
“What kind of urge? To pull her into your arms or something?”
Rabian, who had already heard every detail of the so-called parfait date from his subordinates, shot back with biting sarcasm.
“No. I wanted to beat her senseless with these hands.”
A brief silence fell, frozen and heavy.
“I couldn’t understand why I felt that way. So I figured if we met again and talked, maybe I’d figure something out.”
As Cheshire confessed quietly, a bitter smile tugged at his lips.
That day at the skating rink, when Nina had seemed oddly familiar to him — the emotion that gripped him wasn’t nostalgia.
It was rage.
Fierce, blinding rage that terrified even him.
As he traced back those memories, Cheshire suddenly noticed Rabian’s half-lidded stare fixed on him.
“Hey, it’s not like that now, okay?” he blurted out quickly.
“What’s this, bipolar disorder? Or did you and Nina become foster siblings in your dream? Swear an oath over parfaits or something?”
Rabian’s tone dripped with mockery. Cheshire scratched his head awkwardly.
“Bit of an age gap for that, don’t you think? And anyway, the Nina in that dream wasn’t the type to make cute parfait promises. That little brat had me losing my mind from the start.”
“You probably don’t know it, but that’s still her specialty.”
“Not in the way you think. The moment I saw her— Ah, forget it. Anyway, it wasn’t Nina’s fault.”
“Then whose fault was it?”
“The people who twisted her up like that.”
“……”
“I didn’t know it back then, and I paid the price. What about you?”
Cheshire spoke as though the events in his dream were from the past — as if they both shared some…
“You sound like you’re talking about a past life,” Rabian muttered.
“Huh. Guess it does sound like that.”
Normally, Cheshire was as skeptical of past lives and dreams as Rabian was. Neither of them had any patience for superstition.
But now, even Rabian responded differently to Cheshire’s uncharacteristic tone.
“You don’t know how Nina died, do you?”
“All I know is that she died at fourteen. That’s why I asked you earlier.”
Rabian unconsciously clenched his fist.
His knuckles turned white, veins bulging across the back of his hand.
“So according to you, I sent Nina back to the imperial palace and became a hero in return…?”
Even though he must’ve known everything — he still sent her back into that hell.
His voice trembled with pain, and Cheshire answered quietly, evenly.
“It was what Nina wanted.”
“Don’t make me laugh—”
“Listen. After the incident that made you a national hero, the political order flipped on its head. People said the true power wasn’t the Emperor anymore, but the First Princess. The Emperor was probably as obsessed with her as you were. After she hit her teens, the Empress stopped appearing in public altogether — Nina took her place in everything.”
It was a ridiculous story. Unbelievable, even.
But Rabian remembered the vision he’d seen in the Palace of Spring — the young Nina, fresh as a budding flower, radiant and bright, yet holding the sharp chill of a blade.
Fourteen years old.
“…Hey, where are those kids, anyway?”
When Rabian suddenly changed the subject, Cheshire blinked, then checked the time.
“Good question. Shouldn’t they be out by now?”
A few groups had already exited, but there was still no sign of Nina or Den.
It had only been a few minutes since they went in, but haunted house tours never took this long.
Something was off.
The moment that thought struck them, both men forgot about being scared and sprinted into the haunted house at once.
“This way, sir—”
“Out of my way!”
The staff member at the entrance tried to stop them, but it was useless.
As the two men barged through the haunted house, searching every corner, the costumed ghosts screamed and fled outside.
“Kiddo!”
“Nina! Den!”
But the two children were nowhere to be found.
