Chapter 5
The Grand Duchy Castle changed day by day.
“Isn’t the new uniform just beautiful? They said this is the official outfit.”
“Yes. Wearing matching clothes like this makes me feel like I’m truly part of the Lunein family.”
“It makes me want to work even harder.”
The servants’ smiles grew more frequent.
“Butler, the main hall decorations are finished. …Butler?”
“Ah, pardon me. I was just… experiencing again the awe I felt the first time I came to the Grand Duchy Castle with my father,” he said, recalling a long-forgotten memory.
Someone quietly felt moved by the recollection.
“Has the gardener arrived?”
“Yes, Little Lady. It seems he’s currently assessing the garden. Shall I call him in?”
“No, I’ll go myself. One must respect the domain of experts.”
And at the center of all these changes was always the same person:
Her hair shone like strands of gold. Her eyes glowed red, like freshly pressed pomegranate juice.
She always drew countless people around her like followers.
Elisia Lunein.
“Let’s replace these curtains. When sunlight comes from the east, the lighting will alter their color, and it doesn’t harmonize with the surroundings.”
“Yes, Little Lady. Understood.”
“Child, that’s enough for now. Let’s have lunch.”
“Oh, Mother. Has it already come to that time?”
Everyone strained to catch her every word.
The meticulous butler courteously led the young mistress, and the Grand Duchess, once like the northern wind over snow-capped peaks, now naturally tended to her daughter-in-law.
Those who encountered Elisia inevitably became her followers, as though it were the natural order of the world.
Schubel observed this with a strange expression.
“She’s like the sun.”
When Elisia passed by, people turned to her as if mesmerized.
She was confident, capable, and irresistibly charming—so much so that even Schubel found himself thinking, almost unconsciously, “She’s intense.”
Each time, he felt a strange sensation: the universal urge to dominate those who gazed upon her.
“Displeasing…,” he muttered inwardly, and a small smile escaped him.
“…? Schubel?”
“May I join you for the meal, Madam?”
To Schubel, Elisia was an uncharted entity—a person he could not define.
He had never seen anyone like her, and curiosity had grown into a burning desire to understand.
Who are you—
“Why ask that? Just come along,” she said.
Why were you so different? Why did you shine so brightly all alone?
“Yes, Madam.”
‘Is your blood red too?’ he wondered.
Schubel’s smile brightened as Elisia gave her consent.
“…Madam?”
Elisia paused.
“Madam? What is it?”
She blinked slowly.
And then—
Suddenly—
She coughed up a handful of red blood.
“Ahhh! Little Lady!”
“Master!”
It was as if time itself had stopped.
After a brief silence, screams erupted like fireworks.
Schubel felt everything was unreal.
Elisia’s delicate body swayed as if about to collapse. Instinctively, he caught her.
Thump.
‘So… light.’
Her body was unbearably light, as though it might scatter like snowflakes at any moment.
Schubel called her name with a trembling voice.
“…Madam.”
Each strained breath she drew caused blood droplets to fall onto the floor.
Her breathing weakened.
Her heartbeat weakened.
She was slipping away.
She… was disappearing.
Schubel’s eyes trembled violently.
“Call the clergy! Quickly!”
“Where is the doctor?!”
Shouts and cries rang out, but it all seemed muffled.
Everything felt unreal. His world had always bordered on unreality, but now it felt even more so.
Schubel blinked with a face void of reality.
The mother scolding in anger, the panicked servants, the refined Grand Duchy Castle transformed by Elisia—all of it—
Was black and white.
His eyes could hold no color.
He was… a monster.
‘A world without color.’
The warm yellow of sunlight, the piercing blue of the sky, the soft green of the meadows, the deep blue of the ocean, even the red of blood shed in pain—Schubel could perceive none of it.
Perhaps because he had been born seeing only monochrome, his emotional range was narrow from the start.
Not just with himself, but in understanding others.
He could hide his ennui behind a convincing mask, but that was all.
One day, unable to bear the monotony, he thought:
‘I propose a contract. Neither side must grovel; both shall benefit.’
He had met a woman whose colors outshone the world itself.
‘Let’s get married.’
With trembling hands, Schubel touched her cheek.
“Elisia.”
Golden hair, vivid red eyes, radiant and beautiful like the sun.
From the very first moment, he was drawn to her. He had no choice.
The brilliance of colors he had never seen before was enough to render him blind.
Elisia was the embodiment of the only color he could perceive.
If she were to vanish, his world would be plunged into darkness again.
With this realization came despair.
“The doctor! Where is the patient?!”
A throng of people surged in.
Yet nothing reached his eyes.
Amid a play of gray puppets, he held the only being with color—Elisia.
Transparent tears, devoid of any color, fell from his eyes, staining her bloodied lips.
Finally, he answered a question that had been plaguing him.
‘…Red.’
Elisia’s blood was red.
And that drove him to madness.
The woman spoke.
“Let’s make a deal.”
“….”
“Like our first agreement. I’ll give you what you want, so give me what I desire.”
The man, supremely handsome yet expressionless, asked:
“What is it?”
He was a perfect being by nature.
Flawless. So perfect that his perfection stripped away even his humanity.
His emotions eroded day by day, bringing him to an exalted state.
He rarely reacted.
The woman’s red lips drew a perfect, vivid line.
“Carry out our ■■’s revenge.”
Whoosh—
Her voice was drowned by the cries of the pure white forest.
‘A dream…?’
I woke with a throbbing head.
The faces were familiar. The man was Schubel, and the woman…
“…Me?”
It was me. Elisia Seton. Or Elisia Lunein.
But I had no memory of this.
‘Revenge… could this be part of the original story?’
In the original, ‘I’ was an extra who died quickly, so it must be a meaningless dream. Yet somehow, I had a strong instinct that this dream was significant.
I recalled mentions of ‘Elisia’ in the original story.
Still, nothing like this existed.
“What is this?”
Out of frustration, I habitually felt for my left ring finger. The ‘Oath Ring’ from Schubel was there.
This ring had been shared by the Grand Duke of Lunein a hundred years ago after ending the Millennium War in the north and making a pact with a dragon. It was also my wedding ring.
‘Ah, now I remember—’
Before coughing up blood, I recalled the commanding voice that had resonated:
[Pay the price.]
It was exactly the same voice I heard on my wedding day.
Immediately after hearing it, I had coughed up blood.
Yet, despite fainting, I wasn’t in pain.
‘I even feel a little light-headed.’
I fiddled with the ring.
If I had only known the future, I would have just said, “Thanks, no refunds,” and ignored it.
‘Coughing up blood is different.’
I held the ring to the light streaming through the window, examining it with suspicion.
After receiving the wedding ring, I had recalled the original story, and wondered if it could explain this situation, so I had asked Schubel about it.
“Schubel, does this ring have any special blessing?”
“The ring? It’s a family heirloom, but…”
It was an artifact regarded as a symbol of the end of the Millennium War—an heirloom worthy of the Grand Duke’s house.
<The Millennium War>
A long-standing war between humans and monsters, beginning with the rise of continental civilization.
Beyond the frozen northern tundra, at the edge of the world, ruled the dragon Kaiseus.
Humans took up arms to survive, led by the Grand Duke of Lunein a thousand years ago.
The war lasted a millennium.
“Blessing, perhaps….”
“Perhaps?”
“There could even be a curse.”
When I panicked and tried to remove the ring, Schubel chuckled softly, saying he had been joking.
Honestly, I almost struck him.
