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“What are you doing here alone? It’s cold.”
“

”
Helios, who was kind and gentle even when he was young, was a mature child though he was only a few years older than Saruvia.
She did not answer, but he offered a hand to her and continued speaking in a friendly manner.
“Let’s go inside. It’s cold here. Please don’t cry.”
“No. It’s noisy because there’s a lot of people. Go inside alone!”
The young Saruvia uttered the same refusal each and every time. She stayed rooted in her spot.
“Go already! Leave me alone!”
She coldly refused once more, and the soon to be eleven-year-old boy left, letting out an unchildish sigh.
The depressed Saruvia blew out white breath on her freezing hands again.
If she were to breathe warm air on her hands about ten times, the young Helios would reappear as usual.
“Do you want to drink this? It’s hot cocoa. And it’s also very cold, so it would be better if you wrap this around you.”
He approached her with a smile.
This time, with a thick blanket and a cup of hot cocoa that she didn’t know where he got from.
As she did not hate Helios, Saruvia finally accepted the blanket and warm cup. It was around this time that two more people—the young Jean and Raphael—appeared from behind the curtain.
“Hey! Heli, you were here? They said it’s time to open your gifts, so let’s go!”
“Hey, Jean. This is still the Imperial Palace, so you should call His Highness the Crown Prince properly.”
“It’s just us though, Raphael? It’s fine. Heli doesn’t even say anything, but why are you always on my case? By the way Heli, why’re you so quiet?”
“Read the room, would you. First of all, there’s a crying girl here. Still though, Heli, you’d better go quickly because His Majesty is looking for you.”
As Raphael and Jean chatted, Helios frowned as if to warn his friends to be quiet.
And, with a kind expression, he placed the blanket over her shoulders.
“I’m sorry for the noise. But it’s still cold, so it would be best for you to hurry up and go inside.”
The little Saruvia looked up at the boy who had kind eyes. As she replied, her voice trembled because of the one thing that she noticed too late.
“You’re His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“Yes.”
After the short answer, Helios’s small hand patted her head as though he considered her to be his younger sister.
This had always been a core memory for her, and a constant in her dreams.
However, it was different today, and so the scene changed at the end of the dream.
He was smiling ever so gently as he always did, but as his hand was still on her red hair, the scene became a blur.
And soon, Saruvia was now looking up at Helios, who had become an adult. She saw him standing on an unfamiliar beach in the middle of the night.
What kind of dream was this?
She drew closer towards him and wanted to call out to him—‘Your Majesty’—however, the only thing that left her lips were the faint sounds of ‘sss, ssss’.
Her body moved on its own.
What she could see below was so strange, but perhaps it was possible because this was a dream.
With this lithe body, Saruvia approached him.
“You’re so cold. You’re even shivering.”
As the distance between them narrowed, the faint words that sounded muffled before now became clearer. And the sound of the waves grew louder and louder as well.
“I’m fine, Your Majesty.”
“Let’s get back right away.”
And it wasn’t until she was right in front of Helios that she realized that he was not alone.
Right next to him was Sera Popo.
“Your Majesty.”
The woman’s quivering voice reached Helios.
Saruvia watched as Sera Popo’s hands held his arm.
And even though those hands were clinging on him with no hesitation, he gazed upon her with a bright smile.
‘A smile you’ve never shown me.’
All Saruvia wanted was to wake up and end this painful dream. She knew the meaning behind that affectionate gaze.
‘Why must I be shown the most terrible nightmare?’
Try as she might to close her eyes, it was no use. It’s as if she was being willed to watch it all.
Like a cruel joke, the scene continued.
“The truth is, Your Majesty— Towards you, I
!”
Saruvia opened her mouth wide.
And a sharp dagger slit her throat.
* * *
During the time of darkness just before dawn—
A woman, with red hair that made it look like blood had been spilt over her face, woke up breathing heavily.
“Haa, haa
”
Sitting up on her bed, Saruvia breathed roughly as though she had just been suffocated.
Black fingernails scratched the sheets. She couldn’t control her wild breathing because of the terrible pain she felt just now.
It was just a dream, but when the blue dagger had cut through her skin, the cruel pain at that moment was so vivid that it felt real.
Instinctively, she reached up and frantically checked her throat.
Everything’s fine.
I’m fine.
The words were like a spell.
Saruvia took a deep inhale and let it out in a huff. Soon, her rough breathing slowly became even again.
She felt her cold sweat trickling down her spine.
As her frozen body was loosened again, her dazed mind gradually cleared up.
Was it truly a dream?
The moment she questioned it, she felt the metallic taste of blood in her throat.
Because of that, she covered her mouth and let out dry heaves.
It couldn’t have been real. Because she was in her bedroom right now.
However, as she forcibly endured the pressing urge to throw up, she was vividly hit with the memory of fangs—that shouldn’t have been hers—sinking into someone’s skin.
And after this, the cold expression of Helios as he slashed a dagger at her without any hesitation.
Eventually, while she was looking into the pitch-black space in front of her, Saruvia closed her eyes. As such, her red eyes disappeared into the darkness.
“Beelzebuth.”
Her cold voice echoed in the silence.
‘What is it?’
And what answered was the familiar voice that she had been hearing for a long time in her head.