Previously
Cecilia successfully persuades her family to let her visit the capital's districts in disguise, aiming to secure a future home for Emily by finding Cain. Accompanied by Mary, Lancel, and Branden, she explores the Second District but is strictly forbidden by Roselia's orders from entering the dangerous Third District.
“What is it, my lady?”
“…This place feels a little familiar.”
“Already?”
“No, not that…. It feels like I’ve seen it before.”
“Seen it?”
Mary tilted her head in surprise.
I felt just as puzzled. How could a place be familiar to me when today was my very first time stepping outside the palace…?
‘The marketplace atmosphere is familiar because of the food, sure, but this scenery is entirely new.’
In that famous boy-wizard story from my past life, there were moving photographs, but here, despite the presence of magic, all they had were ordinary paintings.
‘On top of that, they’re the exclusive privilege of the nobility, so they never depict the everyday lives of commoners.’
That was why today was genuinely my first time seeing this marketplace scenery.
Even so, I had a strange sense that I had seen this exact weather, this street, and a crowd just this bustling somewhere before.
‘Is this what they call déjà vu?’
Finding no clear answer, I tilted my head in confusion.
Mary looked unconvinced, then held out a toasted marshmallow to me.
“They said you’re supposed to dip it in this.”
It was chocolate sauce in a small bowl crafted from a hard fruit rind the size of an egg.
‘They really pay attention to the details.’
Smiling inwardly, I followed Mary toward a quiet spot.
“If you eat while walking, you might get dirty, so let’s eat here before moving on.”
“Alright.”
We stepped into an empty alley branching off from the market. And there, that strange sensation returned.
“Do you feel unwell?”
When my brow furrowed slightly, Mary asked with concern, already on edge over my first outing.
‘It’s not that… but…’
Was it because commoners’ alleys resembled those from my past life? Was that why I had been feeling this for a while now?
As I dipped my marshmallow into the chocolate, lost in thought,
a series of scenes tied to this place suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Mary.”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“I think someone is lying over there.”
“Pardon?”
I pointed toward a corner deeper inside the alley.
The scenes had raced through my head like footage from a shaking camera, and at the end, the viewpoint had abruptly plummeted, as if whoever held the camera had collapsed to the ground….
“In that alley?”
It was no wonder Mary was surprised; from where we stood, the spot I pointed to wasn't visible.
Leaving her behind as she hesitated, trying to make sense of my words, I walked forward as though drawn by a force.
“Y-Your Highness, where are you going?”
Mary waved her hand frantically, beckoning Lancel and Branden, who were trailing us from a distance.
I simply needed to find out what lay behind this strange sensation.
When I reached the alley entrance, something was lying on the ground, slumped against the wall like a discarded rag.
Judging by the size, it looked to be about my age.
‘It’s exactly what I saw in my mind…!’
Then I heard Mary gasp behind me.
“Goodness, what happened here…. Your Highness, please don’t look at such things.”
Though shocked that I was right, she cradled my head, trying to shield my eyes.
“Let’s have the knights notify the guards and leave.”
“Wait.”
I gently pushed her away and lifted my head.
I knew the sensible thing was to step back and leave it to the knights….
“It’s not a corpse, and it looks like a child my age….”
On top of that, the figure couldn't even curl up properly, trembling all over as if in agony.
“They seem to be in pain….”
I knew this was meddling, but I wasn't a heartless princess who could turn her back on a child my age in distress.
A spark of righteousness stirred within me as well.
‘There’s no need to worry. Lancel and Branden are here, Tai and Jake are watching in secret, and Mary cares about me more than anything.’
I stepped closer slowly, while Mary, oblivious to my thoughts, could only fret.
“Your Highness….”
“Be careful.”
This clearly hadn't been covered in Roselia's orders, so Lancel stepped up beside me to protect me.
With his bronze skin and blond hair reaching down to his neck, Lancel had spent ten years faithfully by my side, ever since his early days guarding my nursery.
In truth, that was the case for all my personal knights.
‘They consider themselves lucky not to have been sent to that Sea of No Return.’
I also knew he rarely showed emotion on his face.
‘I used to worry about his stony expression, but maybe he just didn’t have anything to complain about to begin with….’
Hoping he might find some fulfillment in his duties today, I accepted his protection.
When Lancel fell in line with my sudden actions, Mary grew even more anxious.
“Goodness….”
Ignoring her worried murmur, I crouched down beside the body.
Seeing the figure up close, it truly was a child my age.
“Haa… haa….”
The child was in such agony that merely listening to the ragged breathing was exhausting.
“Ah… hk… hk…”
“Oh dear, my lady, this is dreadful….”
It wasn’t dreadful.
What had seemed like a worn rag from afar turned out, upon closer inspection, to be a cloak made of fairly fine fabric.
Perhaps not of noble make, but the kind worn only by well-to-do commoners.
Even so, the child looked to have crashed into something or rolled across the ground, covered in dust and torn in several places.
“Hey…. Are you alright?”
Driven by concern, I gently shook the child’s shoulder. A hand clad in a black glove flinched slightly.
“Are you alright?”
A sudden, intense heat radiated through the cloak.
Was he sick?
‘Does he have a severe fever? For me to feel heat like this…’
The temperature was so high it gave me a faint prickling sensation.
It couldn’t possibly be static electricity in this season….
“Hey, are you alright? Try to wake up.”
“Ah… ha…”
As I continued to shake him anxiously, his shuddering breath gradually began to steady.
Whether my hand had grown accustomed to it or his fever had dropped, it soon felt merely warm.
“…Ha.”
He let out a deep exhale, his breathing falling into an even rhythm.
“Are you alright?”
“Your Highness, just a moment.”
Unable to take it any longer, Mary took the child's shoulder, trying to see his face.
The child suddenly whipped around, covering his face with his black-gloved hand.
“Oh….”
Catching sight of the lower half of his face as he groaned, I gasped in shock.
Those lips… and that slender jawline….
‘The boy from my dreams?’
There was no mistaking it. Even if I hadn’t seen him much lately, I could never mix them up.
‘And his frame, just a bit smaller than mine…’
I stood wide-eyed in astonishment, watching Mary tend to him.
“Are you coming to your senses?”
When she shook him once more, the child slightly parted the fingers covering his eyes.
Through the gaps, eyes struggling to focus peeked out… and they were unmistakably….
“Ah!”
Mary’s gasp echoed sharply down the alley.
Though his hand partially concealed them, they were plain to see.
‘Red eyes….’
Yes, he had red eyes—a trait regarded as the mark of a demon in this world.
Just like the boy I had occasionally met in my dreams.
‘So he was a real person living in this world all along!’
I stared at him with a mix of wonder and delight.
‘But how did he end up like this? Wasn’t the master of that house forbidding him from going out…?’
While I was pondering his situation, a faint metallic sound whispered as a blade cleared its scabbard.
Only then had Lancel registered those red eyes, his hand immediately flying to his sword.
So that was it…. That was how deeply superstition and revulsion toward red eyes ran in this society.
‘Even if everyone knows it’s nothing more than a superstition…’
The Sea of No Return and its storms were an ordeal that every citizen of the Empire experienced at least once in their life, lingering like a collective trauma.
‘And for Lancel, who lost his comrades there, it must be even worse….’
Even he must have been taken aback by his own instinctive reaction, especially when facing a sick child.
‘…Was he beaten because of that?’
I recalled the books I had read, how hatred seeped through the lines, and seeing Lancel’s reaction made it seem entirely possible that the boy had suffered mindless violence.
I understood the situation in an instant… and felt a bitter pang because I did. After all, I had come from a modern world that rejected discrimination.
Even Mary, despite knowing it was a superstition, couldn’t help but be shocked; she had never laid eyes on red ones before.
Perhaps crushed by these reactions, the boy’s eyes filled with resignation before he covered them completely with his hand.
I watched as he hid his face, struggling for breath.
‘He looks even worse in the light….’
A jaw that had yet to shed its baby fat, and slender arms peeking from beneath his sleeves… he was terribly frail.
I couldn’t just abandon the child I had watched over for years, but I also didn’t know how to help, so I could only stare at him.
After a while….
‘…I’m fine now.’
He murmured it in a voice so faint it was barely audible.
Then, keeping his eyes shut and his head lowered so his face wouldn’t show, he pushed himself up and began blindly feeling around the ground.
A moment later, his gloved hand grasped a pair of spectacles.
‘Black gloves? Spectacles…?’
I remembered the boy I had searched for at the New Year’s celebration.
Black hair, spectacles, and black gloves he refused to take off even while dancing with the girl he was obsessed with.
And even that brown-haired boy who lived with him.
Setting aside the red eyes, every single clue pointed toward one specific character in The Violet of the Duchy.
‘Rosivius Alvinus!’
The secondary male lead and the hidden villain of this world, whom I had lamented missing.
“Could you… perhaps be…”
“My lady!”
Without thinking, I grabbed his arm, drawing a sharp cry from Mary.
The boy slowly turned toward me, his red eyes gleaming with a tangle of confusion, fury, and fear.