G6 strode down the polished hallway of the West Villa, putting as much distance as possible between herself and the garden.
Her perfect act was over.
Or so she thought.
Mid-stride, she paused.
The gilded corridor looked unfamiliar.
Crap. Wrong way.
She glanced at Tina, who trailed behind in shell-shocked silence, her face pale.
She looks like my brother when I totaled his Bugatti.
The truth was considerably worse.
She had rammed it into a target's car during a chase.
On purpose.
G6 cleared her throat and summoned an unbothered queen's aura.
"See? They wanted me to lose my cool."
She shot Tina a look that plainly said, I am being bullied here.
Tina answered with a slow, heavy sigh.
Spotting an archway leading into a secluded courtyard, G6 veered toward it before Tina could point out the obvious.
The courtyard was small, centered around a weathered marble fountain carved in the likeness of a weeping goddess. A stone bench sat half-hidden beneath ivy.
Quiet, save for the endless plink of water.
G6 leaned against the cold ledge of the fountain.
Tina stood several paces away.
Silent.
Judgmental.
"Out with it," G6 said without turning. "I can hear you cursing me in your head."
"My lady… I mean, Lady Reise."
G6's mouth twitched at the correction.
"That was…"
"Perfect?" G6 offered.
"Yes—No! You disrespected Prince Dio. You left a royal tea gathering unfinished."
G6 laughed, short and sharp.
"You just agreed with me."
Tina's lips tightened.
"Would you rather I stayed and flipped the table? Grabbed that woman's hair?"
"No!"
"Then we're improving."
Tina stepped closer.
"What is happening to you, Lady Reise?"
There was no reprimand in her voice now.
Only worry.
G6 looked at her.
Then toward the sky.
"I don't know either."
For once, there was nothing sarcastic behind it.
Then Tina did the unexpected.
She hugged her.
G6 went still.
Her body registered the contact before anything else.
No weapon. No restraint. No threat.
Just Tina.
Her eyes remained fixed on the greenery ahead.
What am I supposed to do with this?
Several seconds passed before her hands rose and rested lightly against Tina's back.
Careful. Uncertain.
A reflex she did not know what to do with.
Tina's arms tightened.
"I know you are not the person they think you are."
G6's gaze sharpened slightly.
That makes the two of us.
The hug ended.
G6 stepped back almost immediately.
"I should rest."
Tina studied her for a moment, then nodded.
"Of course, Lady Reise. I will ensure you are not disturbed."
G6 turned.
Stopped.
Looked down one corridor.
Then another.
Tina sighed.
"This way, Lady Reise."
G6 followed without comment.
「BEDROOM」
The door clicked shut.
The lock followed.
Silence.
G6's eyes swept across the room.
The dream from last night surfaced again.
Reise.
The vial.
That smile.
That wasn't random.
"Fine."
She rolled her sleeves.
"Let's search."
Her room became an area of operation.
She moved quietly, checking the doorframe, beneath the bed, behind the curtains, along the wallpaper seams.
Nothing.
Her attention shifted to the ornate writing desk.
Unlike most of the room, it looked used.
Wear on the chair.
A faint ink stain.
Small marks against the wood.
G6 emptied the unlocked drawers.
Stationery.
Wax.
Parchment.
Useless.
Her fingers moved beneath the desk.
Stopped.
There.
A discrepancy in the grain.
A concealed panel.
Locked.
She reached for a hairpin and the thin letter opener nearby.
At least this was familiar.
Pressure.
Adjustment.
A faint click.
Another.
Then—
Thud.
The hidden drawer slid open.
Inside sat a single book bound in soft, worn leather.
G6 pulled it free.
The Diary of Reise Worthon.
"Of course."
She sat on the floor beside the balcony door and opened it.
The early pages were filled with elegant script—poems, observations, complaints, hopes.
And Prince Dio.
A great deal of Prince Dio.
G6 skimmed faster.
"Ten years?"
Another page.
"You seriously spent ten years on him?"
Then she reached the final entry.
The handwriting had changed.
Frantic.
Deep enough for the pen to scar the pages beneath it.
G6 slowed.
He is here.
Three years. Three winters bled into spring, and Prince Dio steps into the Annex as a guest. From my balcony, I steal one last look. A hunger I have fed for ten years, and still it starves.
And I saw him with her. Eliza.
On his face… a light I have never worn. Not once. Not in all the years I stood in his shadow, waiting for him to turn around.
I am the painting on his wall. She is the sun that makes the painting forget itself.
G6 turned the page.
I am so tired of being looked at. Of being framed and hung and never touched. This gilded cage has no door—only walls I painted myself.
I would rather be no one. A blank page.
Oh, right. I am no one. A blank page.
So.
I have prepared the mixture. White droplet flowers. They say it quiets a heart that beats too loud in a room that never listens.
G6's eyes narrowed.
White droplet flowers.
The vial from the dream.
She continued.
For my parents—so they do not mistake silence for their failure. Their love was enough. But love cannot teach lungs how to breathe in a place that was always meant to be a grave.
I leave a final letter hiding like it does not want to be read.
I cast this wish upon the stars:
Let no one mourn the leaving. Let a soul untouched by this sorrow find its way into what I leave behind. Let them take what I was too weak to hold.
G6 turned the page.
Live what I was forced to leave.
Silence settled around her.
G6 stared at the line.
Then at the previous page.
Then back again.
"So, you did kill yourself."
There it was.
Not merely a dramatic ending written for a villainess.
Not merely a scene from that damned book.
A vial.
A deliberate choice.
A body left behind.
G6 leaned her head against the glass door.
Her own conclusion from that morning returned with irritating clarity.
Morphine.
Alcohol.
One careless mistake.
A pathetic way to go, but dead was dead.
She closed her eyes briefly.
Then exhaled through her nose.
"Well."
Her eyes opened.
"So much for waking up."
That was that.
Her gaze dropped back to the diary.
I leave a final letter hiding like it does not want to be read.
G6's expression sharpened.
"A letter."
Now that was useful.
She stood.
「WEST VILLA — ANNEX-UNO | COMMON ROOM」
The door slammed shut.
Keith collapsed into an armchair with a low whistle.
"Well. I don't even have a word for what happened earlier."
Prince Dio stood beside the cold fireplace, one hand braced against the mantle.
"A performance," he said. "A new tactic. Indifference."
Earl cleaned his glasses without looking up.
"Your thesis is flawed."
Prince Dio's gaze shifted toward him.
"Explain."
"If it were for you, she would have glanced back to gauge your reaction."
Earl replaced his glasses.
"She didn't."
Keith barked a laugh.
"He has you there, Dio. She didn't look back once."
Prince Dio's jaw tightened.
"Her opinion is irrelevant."
"Is it?" Keith leaned forward. "The Reise we knew would swallow live embers before implying you were less than the sun. That woman looked at you like inconvenient furniture."
Earl smirked.
"Accurate."
Prince Dio shot him a look.
"Three years is a long time," Earl continued. "Prolonged psychological stress can cause behavioral changes. A recalibration where survival begins overriding obsession."
"So I bored her into sanity?" Prince Dio asked dryly.
Keith laughed again.
Earl ignored him.
"I'm saying she's operating on a different set of directives."
Keith crossed his arms, his expression turning unusually thoughtful.
"Her eyes when I mentioned Eliza were strange."
Prince Dio looked toward him.
"Nothing," Keith continued. "No anger. No jealousy. Nothing."
Prince Dio turned back toward the fireplace.
"She is unwell. The pressure has unhinged her."
His voice hardened.
"She'll return to normal eventually."
Neither Earl nor Keith answered.
Prince Dio stared into the cold grate.
Yet the image remained—
Reise walking away without once looking back.
And irritatingly, he found himself wondering what she would do next.
「G6'S ROOM | NIGHT」
Night had claimed the sky.
Moonlight spilled through the glass doors.
The diary remained open on the table.
Live what I was forced to leave.
G6 stared at the sentence for several seconds.
"What fancy words to say you fucking killed yourself."
A knock interrupted the silence.
"Lady Reise?"
Tina.
"It is late. May I enter?"
"No."
A brief pause.
"Your preference for dinner. The kitchen can prepare anything."
"I'm not hungry."
"You must eat. You have had a trying day."
G6 closed her eyes.
"I said I'm not hungry."
Sharper than intended.
She exhaled.
"Just… later."
Silence.
Then—
"Very well, Lady Reise."
Tina's footsteps faded.
G6 looked back at the diary.
I leave a final letter hiding like it does not want to be read.
Her eyes sharpened.
She sat forward.
"The letter."
The diary had been hidden.
The letter likely was too.
G6 stood.
A switch flipped.
Search first.
Questions later.
「INTERCUTTING SCENES」
G6 — Inside
The wardrobe came first.
Armfuls of silk and tulle hit the floor.
Tina — Outside
Whump. Whump.
Tina stood against the opposite wall, listening.
Her brows drew together.
What is she doing? Tina thought.
G6 — Inside
"Which drawer?"
G6 yanked one open.
Combs. Ribbons. Jewelry.
Nothing.
Tina — Outside
Wood scraped violently.
Then came the skitter of small objects across the floor.
She is searching, Tina thought. But for what?
G6 — Inside
A porcelain figurine toppled from the vanity.
CRASH!
G6 did not even look at it.
Irrelevant.
Tina — Outside
Tina flinched.
That was expensive.
Her expression tightened.
Was she really hurt by His Highness's indifference earlier after all?
G6 — Inside
"Where is it?"
Books hit the floor.
Nothing.
G6 stopped and scanned the wreckage.
Wardrobe.
Desk.
Shelves.
Vanity.
Then—
the bed.
She grabbed the frame and tried to lift.
It refused to move.
Her eye twitched.
"THIS BODY LACKS MUSCLES."
She seized the mattress instead and heaved.
Tina — Outside
A low scraping groan came through the door.
Lilia approached from farther down the hall.
"Miss Tina? Is Her Lady all right?"
Another scrape.
Lilia stared toward the door.
"This doesn't sound like resting."
"Our lady is… processing."
Lilia looked doubtful.
Tina's expression strained.
"Go rest, Lilia. Speak of this to no one."
After a hesitant nod, the servant left.
G6 — Inside
The mattress shifted.
And there it was.
A folded parchment sealed with red wax.
Beside it—
a small, empty crystal bottle.
G6's eyes narrowed.
The same vial.
Tina — Outside
The noises stopped.
Tina stared at the closed door.
Somehow, the silence was worse.
What did she find? Tina thought.
[INTERCUTTING ENDS]
G6 picked up the vial first.
A short, careful sniff.
Floral.
Sweet.
A sharp green undertone beneath it.
White droplet flowers.
She committed the scent to memory.
Then she broke the rose seal.
The parchment unfolded beneath the moonlight.
If you are reading this, my final wish failed. Forgive this last selfish act.
You have been my keeper of secrets. My silent shield. You saw the woman behind the title. For that, I will love you always.
G6 read on.
Be strong. Go to my parents. Do not let them weep. Tell them their daughter loved them more than any crown, but the weight became a mountain she could no longer carry. It was the world's failure, not theirs. Comfort my mother. Stand with my father. Knock sense into my careless brothers. The House of Worthon must not falter.
I dreamed of being here not as 'Prince Dio's Fiancée,' but as Reise Worthon. Just Reise. To have my worth measured by my magic, my mind. To stand beside Earl and Keith as their equal—a Guardian of the Sky. What battles could we have won? It is a beautiful dream. One I am too weary to dream any longer.
Do not mourn the woman I was. Mourn the woman I could have been.
G6's gaze continued downward.
This is a release. I have poured my last hope into a plea to the stars. I have begged for a new soul, wild and free, to find a home in this vessel. To live the life I was too weak to grasp.
But I hide this letter, fearing you will find it. Clinging to a foolish hope that when it is next opened, it will not be you, grieving, but her. The one I wished for. And she will have no need for these words, because she will be too busy living.
If it is you, my sister, I am so sorry. Forget these words. Remember the girl I was before this palace stole my light.
Thank you for everything.
With all the love my broken heart can hold,
—Reise.
G6 lowered the parchment.
Her gaze moved to the empty vial.
Then toward the diary.
A wish for another soul.
A dead woman.
A dead assassin.
And somehow—this.
G6 rubbed a hand over her face.
"What a fucking mess."
She sat there for a while.
Not grieving.
Not mourning a woman she barely knew.
Just staring at the evidence in front of her and accepting that reality had become considerably more inconvenient than she wanted it to be.
Whatever had happened, Akira Gemstone's old life was beyond her reach.
This one was not.
That was the only fact that mattered now.
G6 stood.
She struck a match against the mantle.
The flame caught.
She held Reise's letter above it.
The edge curled black.
This letter had been written for Tina.
Tina could never read it now.
Too many questions.
Too much risk.
The parchment burned.
G6 watched until the last words disappeared into ash.
Not closure.
Risk management.
Nothing more.
Then she turned toward the mirror.
Reise Worthon's face looked back at her.
G6 stared for a long moment.
Then scoffed.
"Asking a Reaper to live when all she does is end lives."
A faint, humorless smirk touched her mouth.
"It is an insult."
She folded her arms.
"Your selfish wish cost me the life I worked for."
Her gaze hardened.
"So don't expect me to be grateful."
Silence answered.
G6 looked once toward the ashes.
Then back at the mirror.
"But I'm here."
Simple.
Final.
"I'll live this life."
A pause.
"My way."
She studied Reise's reflection for another second.
No gratitude.
No sentiment.
No promise to become the woman who had died here.
Only acknowledgment.
"Now, rest in peace."
She turned away.
"This body and life are officially mine."
As far as G6 understood it, Reise Worthon's story had ended.
What came next belonged to her.
Long live the Thorn.
—To Be Continued…—