Previously
Cassius, Ian, and Cedric rush to Thiel after she falls ill from eating too quickly. Leah takes the trembling girl to bathe, discovering severe self-inflicted wounds and bruises hidden under her clothes.
The Duke of Ewald demanded, stepping hurriedly down from the carriage out of breath, heedless of his own dignity.
Alvinus Ewald Astrian.
He was a duke who never forgot his station, yet at this moment, he could not bring himself to care.
He had been scheduled to dine with the Emperor, but upon hearing from Bardin that his granddaughter had been found, he had dared to cancel their dinner.
This was hardly the time to sit back and feast.
Fortunately, the Emperor was a close friend of Alvinus Ewald Astrian and had graciously excused him.
The Duke hastily addressed a maid.
With that order, the maid hurried off to carry out his command.
The Duke stood in the central hall, not even thinking to take off his coat or head to his study while he waited for her return.
Before long, Cassius stepped through the door.
The face of his son, whom he had not seen in quite some time, looked visibly brightened.
Before Cassius could even greet him, the Duke asked in a rush,
Cassius added,
The Duke let out a breath of relief at his words.
Cassius spoke firmly.
The Duke gave a nod. Accompanied by the head butler, the Duke and Cassius made their way to Olivia’s room, where the little girl lay sleeping.
Reaching the room, Cassius gently pushed the door open. Fortunately, the child was still sound asleep.
The Duke grumbled under his breath, easing the door open to gaze upon his granddaughter’s face.
In the center of the bed, a little girl with hair as white as snow lay sleeping quietly.
The Duke stepped further into the room with great care.
Outside, Bardin and Cassius waited, anxious that the child might wake.
It was his first time laying eyes on the granddaughter he had long thought dead.
An indescribable swell of emotion surged from the depths of the Duke’s heart, stinging his eyes with moisture.
He reached out his wrinkled hand toward his granddaughter’s face, but quickly drew it back.
Instead, he whispered in a hushed voice,
His throat tightened, choking back the rest of his words.
Instead, afraid she might catch a chill, he pulled the blanket up to tuck it around her neck.
Then, leaving the sleeping child behind, the Duke quietly slipped out of the room.
Cassius and Bardin were waiting just outside.
Bardin asked in a trembling voice.
The Duke grunted, slightly exasperated.
Cassius, who had been peering at Thiel through the crack of the door, raised his head as the Duke asked.
Cassius then recounted everything he had learned from Ian to the Duke of Ewald without holding anything back.
The Duke’s face flushed crimson as he listened.
Overcome with fury, he snarled,
Cassius brought a finger to his lips. The Duke clamped his mouth shut on instinct.
Pulling the cracked door shut, Cassius turned to the Duke.
The Duke, Cassius, and Bardin made their way toward the Duke’s study.
What none of them realized was that someone else had overheard their words.
‘Useless! You are a disgrace to the Nestian name!’
The voice of my grandfather, Cynder, forever cold and cutting, rang in my ears like incessant tinnitus.
The faces of Cynder, Rowen, and the others drifted into the air one by one, only to scatter like dust.
In her dream, Thiel saw herself being scolded by her grandfather.
No matter how hard she tried, she was berated for failing to manifest her ability.
Rowen, who boasted of her own modest freezing power, had always tormented her.
They had told me Mother possessed an immense freezing ability. Enough to make her the next head of the Nestian family.
And they had said that because I was her daughter, I would surely be even more powerful than her.
‘Then why…?’
Thiel had always wondered how she was supposed to release ice when she could not even muster a handful of blue light, let alone frost.
Why was I powerless?
If only I had a gift, I would have been loved too.
Beyond the glass window, Grandfather and Rowen were walking away. Thiel looked toward Cornelia, her aunt, then stared down at herself.
And she wished with all her heart.
“I want to be loved too.”
To make that happen, I need a powerful ability so everyone will love me.
…Just then, she felt a massive hand reaching toward her face.
It was such a terrifying sensation that she felt as if her neck would snap that very instant.
With a sharp gasp, Thiel’s eyes flew open.
An unfamiliar ceiling stretched out before her. Only then did she remember she was in the Astrian estate and not with the Nestians, bringing a wave of profound relief.
I ate so much cake that I threw up.
Yet the maid had washed Thiel, dressed her in clean clothes, and tucked her into bed.
Thiel thought, looking down at her clothes.
At that very moment, she caught the sound of voices drifting through the cracked door.
Thiel scrambled out of bed and crept toward the sound.
Peering through the gap, she saw Cassius, the grandfather she had glimpsed earlier, and the butler, Bardin, standing outside.
The Duke spoke in a voice trembling with rage.
…! The moment the words registered, Thiel’s eyes widened in horror, and she stumbled backward.
What did he mean, kill?
He had to be talking about her.
The way Cassius looked toward the room where Thiel was made it painfully obvious.
Trembling, Thiel darted behind the door to hide. Fortunately, after Cassius pulled the door closed, all of them walked away down the hall.
They are going to kill me.
Just as I feared, the Astrian family despised me terribly.
The servants had only treated me kindly because they didn’t recognize who I was.
Grandfather was right—no one wants me.
Her mind went completely blank, unable to process a single coherent thought.
The word ‘kill’ echoed endlessly in her head.
I came all this way just to live in the Astrian estate, but I cannot die here.
Gnawing on her fingernails, Thiel nudged the door open just a crack and peered outside.
Shifting into a tiny snow leopard cub, she peeked into the corridor, trembling.
Luckily, the hallway was deserted, as it happened to be the changing of the guard.
The little snow leopard slipped out of the room and fled.
It was not long before Leah noticed Thiel had vanished.
Leah’s frantic cry echoed throughout the palace. Soldiers searched every corner of the grounds with torches held high.
While Thiel slept, the sun had set, yet the darkened palace was soon illuminated as bright as day.
Cassius, the Duke of Ewald, Bardin, and Leah each carried torches of their own as they frantically searched for Thiel.
So many people had been mobilized across the vast Astrian palace, yet finding her was no easy task.
The Duke of Ewald reached out his hand, and tongues of flame flickered from his weathered fingers.
Five or six salamanders took form and dropped to the stone floor.
At the Duke’s command, the salamanders darted off, scouring every corner of the palace.
Cassius followed suit, releasing his own salamanders, their flames burning a brighter yellow than the Duke’s.
‘Where on earth could she have gone with her frail body?’
No outsider would have taken her, for only the family knew the youngest granddaughter of Astrian was alive.
Then—
All the salamanders transmitted the signal at once. Without even thinking to alert the others, Cassius bolted straight for the basement.
The basement of the Astrian palace was such an enormous labyrinth that even the servants frequently lost their way.
Just how had she managed to reach it?
Cassius sprinted recklessly along the path the salamanders led him, his mind consumed solely by confirming the child was safe.
In the deepest recess of the cellar, where barely a sliver of light could reach, sat a small girl all by herself.
The little girl had been weeping quietly, but now she turned her head and looked up at Cassius.
Fresh tears spilled down her little cheeks once more.
The sight of the tiny child crying all alone made Cassius’s heart ache as if it were being torn apart.
Cassius called to her gently. But the child only stared at him in silence.
Only then did Cassius fall silent as he realized the child’s state.
She was not in her right mind.
Perhaps from being left alone in the dark, she was muttering to herself as if trapped in a nightmare.
The child mumbled with lifeless eyes. Cassius ground his teeth in raw fury toward the Nestians, then dropped to his knees, opening his arms wide to the girl.
The girl hesitated, pressing her palms tightly together.
Extending her hands, she murmured, “Instead, this came to me.”
A radiant light flared vividly from the girl’s open palm.
The light shifted into the form of a fish, then a tiger, then a swirl of wind, swelling until it seemed ready to swallow Thiel whole.
Cassius’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief at the sight.
The brilliant light filled the cellar, shining as if it would engulf the entire world.
It was Thiel’s true power awakening.