Chapter 4: The Reader(4)

"The first lady of the Mortel, lady Marinette has arrived. Thus the empire be blessed with roses." 

The door embedded in gold opened with the force of four knights standing on both sides of the door.

The door alone could feed a person for a decade, but it wouldn't be able to hold a candle to the throne of the emperor.

"Greetings to the phoenix of the empire, the saviour of humanity. May your day be blessed by the radiant of light, our emperor."

The presence of one royalty had the force to make a person bow down without even knowing the courtesy.

When you're in the presence of the founder of the empire, you're already in the trial between life and death. The correct action was to bow or else the scale will tile and send you to your death.

"Today, Lady Mortel, I called you here to tell you something."

"What good deed I do in my past seven live to listen to your majesty?"

"With the goddess in our presence, I will make you the future empress. Your scar, your past, your sin will never keep you away from that throne."

My eyes turned to the smaller throne beside the central throne the emperor sat on. The throne with the head of the goddess on top of it. That throne used to belong to Goddess Anastasia, the goddess who brought magic to the nameless world.

The world named Anastasia today could survive the demon king and disasters for many millenniums thanks to her kindness to humanity.

To sit on the throne was Marinette's purpose in life.

"I owe my gratitude to you, Your Majesty. I will work hard to make myself worthy of your trust."

The first thing I would do after ascending the throne would be execute the emperor. He could ignore my sin, but I could never ignore his sin. The emperor shall not die by the hand of the crown prince, he shall die by me instead. I shall make your death ten times worse than your original death to make up for everything you did to the empire and Marinette.

After a farewell to the emperor, four knights were escorted to the palace of Anna, a building that was built as a token of confession to the Goddess Anastasia. Anna was the nickname the first emperor gave to her.

The lotus petal and their flowers put their beauty into the contest with the clear lake surrounding the shrine of depth.

The beauty almost took my breath away. This beauty should be one thing on everyone's bucket list before dying.

The knight stood to the side and left when we reached the table. The plate with colourful cookies. I could spot macaroni and cheesecake from where I stood.

As I kept walking, his presence started to be stronger and stronger for me to take my eyes off my favourite chocolate cake.

"How many years was it since I last saw you?"

His question surprised me. Although it was the first time we met, the eyes he showed me weren't showing any sign of a lie.

I bowed to him and sat on the white chair across from him. He was sitting with his arm crossed and his eyes full of remorse.

"Isn't this our first time meeting, Your Highness?"

"The meeting ends here. It looks like your spell has failed you, Marinette."

There was once a saying that you will never understand the mind of royalty because they lived in a different world from you.

It was true at that moment because even after reading the novel from cover to cover, I found myself puzzled trying to understand the crown prince's dialogue.

His words appeared out of nowhere and had no right order.

He stood up with his eyes turned down. His eyes were like an ocean full of tears that made me feel emotional just to look at it from the side.

His blonde hair blew along the wind as he tried to walk away from the table, but I grabbed the end of his white shirt hoping that he would stay.

"I used many spells in the past, Your Highness."

"And yet you failed the spell you dedicated your life to. You're not the Marinette I once knew."

My identity as Sun-hee was shaken under the man's glare.

He left after that.

Without any explanation, the male lead left me just like in the original story.

Even though I hadn't changed anything, and tried to say the same dialogue, and yet there was still some change.

His dialogue in the novel is that he is in a hurry to look for Diana, and Marinette begs him to stay.

Without a person to hold a conversation with, I decided to end our meeting with a negative remark.

I picked up one macaroni and fed it to the swan on the lake. It was amazing to see a swan up close when it bit the macaroni from my hand.

"Her favourite macaroni is strawberry."

The word strawberry reminded me of Ji-Hoon. I turned to the owner of that voice. 

The first thing I noticed about him was his eyes. Unlike the blue eyes the other imperial member possessed. His blue eyes were the colour of the sky, I could stare at them all day if I could be free from my worries.

He gave me the strawberry macaroni and bent his knee to sit beside me.

His dimple appeared on his cheek as he looked at me feeding the swan. Did this also happen in the novel?

The villainess and the villain meet each other for the first time in the building of love confession with swans doing the heart pose on the surface of the lake.

The gentleman beside me was none other than the original heir to the throne of the empire, the first prince of Anastasia, and the villain of the novel.

"It's going to rain soon, make sure to have an umbrella with you."

The calm breeze before the rain made his blonde hair flutter. It would be nice to have a hot tea with him.

I think my answer has changed, Ji-hoon. I like the villain, Prince Philip.

+++

Back on Earth,

Nurses walked left and right performing their job at the late hour. A young man with a school uniform that should be white rushed in alongside the emergency bed with Sun-hee on it.

His hand full of ashes held onto the iron bar trying to call Sun-hee to stay, but she remained unconscious.

Half of her body appeared to be similar to the scar she got from birth.

Her hair was already gone. To keep her image, they put a white cloth on her as they took her to the emergency room.

Even in her life-death moment, her father couldn't make it there. Instead, another person came as soon as she heard about the incident through the news on her birthday.

"Where's Sun-hee??? No, no, no, there's no way Sun-hee..."

She ran around the hospital to find her friend's room, but no one gave her an answer despite her pleading.

When she saw Ji-hoon, she rushed to him only for him to ignore her. She tried to hit his shoulder and his chest, but he didn't budge one inch.

He kept leaning against the wall letting out his tears and praying for the good of Sun-hee.

"Ji-hoon, please...please...I beg you, tell me that Sun-hee's alright."

Her hands full of cut and glasses finally stopped hitting Ji-hoon, and she walked to the emergency room in her messed up dress. Her dress was torn apart.

How could she worry about Marinette when half of her face was full of blood?

[You died in a car crash, Eun-Kyung.]

God did not pity her for taking her life on her birthday. But in this case, it wasn't the god's fault when the god tried their best to warn her not to go to Sun-hee's house with many of her friends' warnings.

But Eun-Kyung didn't listen to any of them.

"What do you want from me?"

Eun-Kyung turned to the being similar to her. With the head of the goat and the body of a little girl, she whispered in a deadly manner, [You died, but your friend didn't. I could save her, but all I ask is a favour.]

Eun-Kyung turned to look at Sun-hee whose breathing was like an insect being crushed by a brick.

"What if she die before I complete your favour?"

[You shall not worry, I, the write of all worlds, shall keep her alive for the reader's sake.]

"..."

[So, what's your answer?]

To be continued...!