My eye snapped open My hand instinctively moving to my chest.
I looked around confused .
Sweat and tears running through my body
I had just struck myself with a dagger but I was still alive, I glanced at a mirror I saw my face looked younger.
I looked at my bed confused, I saw it was my bed a bed I haven't used in 5 years , room still the same.
Is this a dream? I thought well if it was what kind of dream is it.
I saw all my books my juelries and music box
Is this heaven? Or it's just what happens when a person dies.
Ethan!!!
Slam
I heard a little voice screaming my name, then a little girl entered my room.
I froze… I immediately ran to my little sister lily lifting her while crying profusely.
Lily was looking at me confused, also crying.
Big brother don't cry.
I still couldn't hear her still crying.
Then I fainted.
Big brother!!!! She screamed.
Guards entered my room immediately with my parents. Shock was written on my mother's face while my father was just staring into the room blankly .
He whispered to a shadow, Avis came out, the butler
Call a physician immediately Duke Ector said
Nathan's mother still crying holding Lily.
The world did not end.
That, more than anything, felt like a cruel joke.
Death did not claim him. Instead, Ethan drifted in something far more unbearable… warmth.
Voices.
Familiar ones.
"…his pulse is stable."
"…but the shock—"
"…Your Grace, he will awaken soon."
Ethan's brow twitched.
No.
No, this was wrong.
His fingers moved.
Alive.
The realization did not comfort him. It made him feel scared.
His eyes snapped open.
Light flooded in, soft and golden, filtering through curtains he knew too well. The ceiling above him was carved with the same northern crest, the same swirling patterns he had stared at as a boy when sleep refused to come.
Ethan's breath hitched.
"…No," he whispered.
A chair scraped sharply beside him.
"Ethan!"
His head turned slowly.
His mother.
Alive.
Not pale and lifeless on a blood-soaked floor. Not cold. Not gone.
Alive.
Her eyes were red, tears clinging stubbornly to her lashes as she rushed forward, hands trembling as they cupped his face. "Ethan, can you hear me?"
He stared at her.
Really stared.
Every line of her face. Every strand of her dark hair. The warmth in her hands.
This was not a dream.
Dreams blurred. Dreams slipped.
This… this was sharp. Painfully real.
His throat tightened.
"…Mother?" The word came out broken, fragile, like something that might shatter if spoken too loudly.
Her composure broke instantly.
"Oh, thank the gods," she breathed, pulling him into her embrace. "You fainted so suddenly… you frightened us."
Frightened.
The word echoed strangely in his mind.
Frightened.
If only she knew.
His gaze shifted past her shoulder.
His father stood near the window, tall and unmoving, his presence as heavy as ever. Duke Ector. The unshakable pillar of the north.
Alive.
And beside him
Ethan's body went rigid.
The butler.
Avis.
Standing quietly, hands folded behind his back, expression calm…
The same man who had smiled as he slaughtered their family.
Cold flooded Ethan's veins.
His heartbeat quickened, each pulse loud in his ears.
No.
No, no, no,not now.
He forced himself still.
Too fast.
If this was real… if this truly was before everything… then the betrayal had not happened yet.
Which meant
He swallowed hard.
it could happen again.
"Ethan."
His father's voice cut through his spiraling thoughts.
Strong. Steady. Alive.
"You collapsed. Do you remember anything?"
Ethan looked at him.
For a moment, he wanted to talk
He remembered everything.
The blood. The screams. The deaths.
Lily's small body going limp in his arms.
The dagger piercing his own heart.
His hands trembled beneath the covers.
I....I…I He hesitated, forcing his voice into something believable. "I felt dizzy. That's all."
A lie.
His father studied him for a long moment, sharp eyes searching, weighing.
Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Rest," his father said. "We will speak later."
Ethan lowered his gaze.
"Yes Father."
Silence settled over the room again, heavy but not suffocating.
Not like before.
Not like the silence of death.
A small hand tugged at his sleeve.
Ethan flinched instinctively before looking down.
Lily.
Her eyes were still wet, her tiny face scrunched with worry.
"Big brother…" she whispered, "does it hurt?"
His chest tightened painfully.
He stared at her.
Alive.
Breathing.
Warm.
Carefully, as though she might disappear if he moved too quickly, he reached out and pulled her into his arms.
"No," he murmured, voice thick. "It doesn't hurt."
Not anymore.
She sniffled, clutching onto him. "You scared me…"
Ethan closed his eyes.
"I'm sorry."
And for the first time since waking
But something quieter.
Something sharper.
Resolve.
He opened his eyes slowly, gaze lifting over Lily's shoulder.
To the man standing in the corner.
Avis.
The butler met his gaze.
For a brief moment. something flickered in those calm eyes.
Too subtle for anyone else to notice.
But Ethan saw it.
And his blood ran cold.
Was it recognition?
No.
Impossible.
This was before the betrayal.
Before the poison.
Before the slaughter.
Then why
Ethan's fingers tightened slightly around Lily.
His mind raced.
Think.
If this was truly the past… then he had been given something impossible.
A second chance.
Not to survive.
To change everything.
His gaze hardened, just for a fraction of a second.
Not a boy's eyes anymore.
Something older.
Something that had already died once.
I won't let it happen again.
Not to Father.
Not to Mother.
Not to Lily.
And definitely not…
His eyes locked onto Avis once more.
…to you.
The butler inclined his head slightly, as if acknowledging nothing more than a young master's stare.
Perfectly normal.
Perfectly loyal.
A mask.
Ethan knew that mask.
He had seen what lay beneath it.
And this time…
He would be ready.
"Mother," Ethan said suddenly, his voice steady now, far more than it should have been for someone who had just collapsed.
She looked at him, surprised.
"Yes, Ethan?"
He hesitated only briefly.
Then
"When is the celebration banquet for the northern mine?"
The room shifted.
Subtly.
His father's gaze sharpened.
"In three days," Duke Ector replied.
Three days.
Ethan's heart pounded once.
That was when it would happen.
The poison.
The betrayal.
The beginning of the end.
Or
He slowly leaned back against the pillows, eyes calm now, far too calm.
"…I see," I said quietly.
My mother brushed my hair gently, unaware of the storm forming beneath my composed expression.
"Don't worry about such things now," she said softly. "Just rest."
Rest.
I almost laughed.
There would be no rest.
Not anymore.