***

Open page: Present.

***

“Oh, my God!”

“Please help me. Please… please…!”

“Young Master ……!”

People were dying in front of her eyes. The legs of people who had walked normally yesterday rolled on the floor, and people who crawled away on all four were also seen.

Her father was already sitting at the table, dead with a sword stuck in his heart. Of course, there was no normal picture. One of his eyes was just an empty socket and blood was dripping down like tears. Valletta once again tried to move her immobile legs. She wanted to run away from here for now, but she couldn’t move. There were black shadows in front of her, but she couldn’t tell what they were.

It wasn’t fear that made her stiffen. She had no regrets about any of the people in this family. She knew they would be punished for what they had done. It’s just that if there’s a problem here, there’s no escape. No matter how much she struggled, she could not turn her head or move her body off the floor as if she were a statue.

She couldn’t move a finger, and the only thing that moved according to her will were her eyes.

“I’ve never heard of you in my life.”

A light voice with a hint of laughter tapped her ears. His long, silvery-white hair, a rarity, covered his shoulders and swayed slightly just above his waist. The eyes she had thought were “ruby” actually seemed to be blood. Emotions seeped into them, and now they glowed with madness. The solid door of the dining room, which was tightly closed, opened. A scream came from the doorway.

“Argh!”

Two beautiful women and a servant were thrown through a half-open crack in the door with screams. The two men in black robes pushed them in with their feet like dogs.

“Please save me!”

“Monster! Monster! I hate you!”

“Shut up.”

The scream died in an instant. Along with his voice, the crazy gaze reached the three people who had just entered. The mouths of those who were screaming under the pressure closed tightly.

Finally, Valletta’s vision caught sight of them. The shivering figures were sympathetic. But she couldn’t pity them.

She wasn’t in a position to pity anyone.

“These are the last people alive in this mansion,” said one of the men in black robe. It was an indifferent voice with no regret in it.

“It’s a mansion, there are many vermin to deal with.”

Walking lightly towards Valletta, the silver-white man smiled refreshingly at her as she stiffened. Then he tapped her cheek with bloody fingers and headed straight for the maidservant who had fled into the corner. As Valletta glanced sideways at him as he passed, she saw his shoes with blood on it.

She had goosebumps and wanted to wipe her cheek.

“I’m getting tired of this. There’s still a delicious main dish left….,” said the man, glancing at Valletta behind him.

She could only see the front anyway, so no matter how much she moved her eyes, she wouldn’t be able to see what was happening in the back corner.

Still, it was not hard to tell who he implied as the main dish was.

“Young Master, please help me… … I’ll do anything…”

“Hahaha! It seems like I’ll get to hear ‘Young Master’ a lot more today.”

His red eyes folded like a crescent moon, and his bloody hand slowly reached the maid’s cheek.

He rubbed the blood from his hand back and forth across the maid’s cheek.

“I’ll kill you all in one go,” he said, his voice mercilessly gentle.

As soon as the man flicked his fingers, an icy spear formed in the air. To be precise, it was more like a giant icicle than a spear. Except the tip was sharp enough to kill a person.

Swoosh.

There was a series of sounds of something being shot along with the sound of the wind. The three maidservants who had gathered there died without a sound. The man eventually quieted down, smiling and twirling around like a dancer. Valletta could hear him approaching behind her. She inhaled deeply.

‘Oh, I should have gotten rid of him back then. If my father listened to me, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. I should have run away when he didn’t listen to me.I shouldn’t have stayed here!’

Valletta struggled to move her limbs in her mind, but the reality was beyond measure.

And at that moment, the intangible power that was binding her body like a statue disappeared. As a result, her body lost its balance and tilted forward.

“Huh…?”

Surprised, Valletta hurriedly stretched her legs and tried to regain her balance, but she was a step too late. As she closed her eyes thinking the pain would come, someone grabbed her shoulder and held her waist tightly.

Then her head seemed to touch someone’s chest. Yes, it was as if she was being held by someone. Valletta sighed inwardly. Somehow, she felt as if she knew who it was. But she was afraid to open her eyes.

“My heartless master begged her foolish father every day to abandon me, but now she’s in my arms.”

With the breath that touched her ears, Valletta hurriedly pushed him away and stood on his own feet. Up close, his appearance was even more beautiful. It made her wonder if he was really from this world. His cold voice echoed in her ears was mesmerizing. He sounded as gentle as if he were a fairy in a fairy tale. However, Valletta knew very well that it was just an illusion.

He was a man who could smile and talk to people and kill them without blinking. He was the dark Lord, and now the King of the magic tower. And he was Valletta’s slave until just now. It could be described as a master-servant relationship.

“Now, I’m the only one left. Master,” he said sweetly.

I wanted to run away from him, but the only exit was blocked by the two wizards.

“Do you want to live?”

Valletta took a step back as she heard what sounded like a demon offering her a helping hand. Then he took a step closer as she stepped back. Their distance became closer due to his long stride.

The eyes that were folded into a half-moon gradually widened. There was no laughter in the eyes that appeared under his eyelids.

“Sit down,” his eerie red eyes turned to her.

He flicked his fingers and told her to sit down. It was exactly what Valletta had said to him when they first met. She took another step back, firming her feet. She had to get away.

She held my breath and took more steps back, but something caught her foot.

“Ugh!”

Valletta looked down and saw what caught her feet was one of the corpses that lay everywhere. The man smiled and leaned closer. When his eyes at Valletta’s level, his long hair came down in a flurry. It seemed long enough to reach the bloody floor.

“Very well. Very well, Master.”

The man reached out and stroked Valletta’s auburn hair as if to compliment her hair with his bloodied hand.

‘I knew he was crazy, but I didn’t expect him to be this crazy…’

She didn’t want to sit down but ended up falling down on the floor.

Valletta knew the man was a lunatic, and she begged her father to get rid of him countless times. However, her father insisted that the man would have something useful when he grew up. Her father believed that and kept the man. No one knew that he was plotting a revenge. This was the result. In the novel, the whole family died. She knew she was going to die. Valletta was the only one who foresaw the tragic situation.

In an attempt to avoid this situation, she tried to be nice to the man in front of her, but that didn’t change the way that crazy person looked at her. So she gave up, changed her mind, and begged him to keep away. And what did the others do? All the people in the house, unaware of the horror of this madness, reacted recklessly. Of course they did!

His beautiful appearance and low status as a slave would have made anyone feel superior to him. Not only that, he had a sweet tongue. He was a man who could keep his anger hidden and put a smile on his face.

‘I should have done it if I was going to die anyway. Now that everyone is dead. I should at least survive.’

What was with this guilt? Valletta swallowed her breath, screaming inwardly.

He stared at the frozen Valletta, then reached out and took the necklace from her neck. The lightly broken string of the necklace looked like her future. It was a red, transparent, coin-sized glass bead. It was a seal carved into the heart of the madman, and when the bead was squeezed hard, he could not disobey his opponent’s orders because of the seal.

That was what ‘humanity magic’ was like.

If you hold your opponent’s heart as a lifeline to subjugate him and he does not listen to you, you can squeeze the bead. Then the opponent would feel the intense heart pain. If he didn’t want to feel the pain, he had to obey the command. It was an inhumane spell, Valletta never wanted that.

Now that it was like this, there was only one way to get out of here safely. She didn’t want to use her power in front of this madman. But it’s much better to have her power discovered than to be caught and die. Valletta made it a priority to escape.

“Jin!” At the sound of Valletta’s shout, a strong whirlwind blew through the empty space around her. The man in front of her seemed quite startled, and his eyes widened, as if he didn’t see it coming.

“Supreme Spirit of the Wind?”

“Is she a Spirit…?”

The two wizards who were silently guarding the door murmured.

The Wind Spirit said.

“Please help me. Take me far away from here. Anywhere but here.”

The Wind Spirit asked.

“I’ll give you my blood.”

The hawk, vaguely transparent, spread its huge wings. It was an agreement. The wind enveloped Valletta’s body and floated her.

The moment she stretched out her arms and tried to hold on to the hawk’s wings, an intense pain shot through her heart.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Her mind was distracted by the unexpected and terrible pain. At the same time, the transparent hawk she summoned disappeared. Valletta rolled on the floor, moaning in pain.

“Oh, my God. I’m sorry, Master. I was so surprised that I….”

“What is this…”

As the pain slowly subsided, her body contracted by the remnants of pain and remained on the floor in cold sweat.

“My master is impressive.”

The man who squatted in front of Valletta, who was on the floor with her hands in his chest, said, patting her head affectionately.

“Sorry, this is a little too much.”

Valletta barely raised her head at the man’s pretentious voice.

“What the hell…”

“Oh… I removed the seal in my heart and placed it on yours. I’m afraid that you will abandon me and leave.”

When the man finished speaking, he reached out and grabbed a strand of Valletta’s hair and kissed it.

“Master, please call my name. Then you can go to sleep.”

He whispered to Valletta with the same gentle look in his eyes that he had when he was a slave. The red bead was rolling in his hand.

“Ah, d*mn it.”

Why didn’t she run away back then? Valletta sighed deeply, feeling regretted.

“Come on,” his friendly voice rang in her ears. Her eyelids were heavy. She slowly opened her lips as opposed to her closing eyelids.

“Rein…hardt…”

“Good girl. You may sleep now, Master.” He said, stroking her head.

‘Where should I begin to explain what’s wrong with this lunatic?’

While thinking, Valletta eventually lost consciousness, unable to forget the pain.

***

                                    The Past

***

It was about ten years ago that Valletta Delight met Reinhardt. The nine-year-old was the only daughter of Count Delight, and she was most treasured. At least that’s how the world knew it.

One day, after participating in a conflict with the barbarians, her father threw a dirty, scrawny boy in front of Valletta.

“Father?”

“I picked him up lying around the battlefield. He has a pretty face, and I thought it would be perfect for him to become a slave.”

Count Delight said, carelessly taking off his armour. Listening to the dry voice of her gray-haired, purple-eyed father, Valletta bowed her head with a troubled look on her face.

The boy’s shoulder was very distorted as if he was stabbed by a sword. His condition was not good to look at. He was a mess, bleeding profusely and running a high fever.

“I don’t have a need for a slave… “

“No, it’s necessary for the future empress to have one. Think of him as a shield that will protect your life with his own life in times of need.”

“But…”

It was not a suggestion, but more like an order. Valletta’s lips quivered as she frowned. She didn’t like the idea of having a slave. She was born and raised in this world, but she was bound by the memories of her previous life. Because of this, her moral values were very different from those of the people here.

More than anything, Valletta felt uneasy about the beautiful boy with silver hair who was moaning in pain. She even felt a sense of déjà vu, as if she had seen him often somewhere.

“Valletta Delight, are you talking back to me now?”

Count Delight’s gaze frightened her. Valletta kept silent. He was cruel in his obsession with his daughter. The reason was simple. It was because she possessed the qualities of an alchemist. Alchemists were rare in the empire, and very few were born with those qualities.

Alchemists were essential in order to make potions. Even if the alchemist was born a commoner, they would be promised a position at once.

Valletta was born with the qualities of an alchemist and an aristocrat. And not just any alchemist either, she had the ability to become a high-ranking alchemist. It was a very lucrative business, one that might give her family an opportunity to make a connection with the royal family. In fact, her father had been talking with the imperial family about Valletta’s talent.

Count Delight was a true merchant, and once he saw how valuable Valletta was, he spared no effort to make her talent known.

“In a week, you need to make friends with the Crown Prince at the banquet. It’s better than being a stranger.”

“…”

“And make sure to be friends with the other nobles. Since we don’t know what will happen and who’s going to be emperor.”

“…”

“Valletta, why don’t you answer your father?”

“Yes, father.”

Valletta nodded while speaking those now accustomed words.

From the beginning, Count Delight had the idea of having Valletta marry into the Imperial family. Of course, he tried to make it subtle, but his intention was much too obvious.

Naturally, her thoughts were completely different from her response. For her part, she honestly did not appreciate being used in this way. However, she was only a little girl with no power, no money, and no authority. A nine-year-old little girl.

No matter where she goes or where she is, she will never be able to leave his grasp. At least not under the current circumstances.

“I’ve put a proper leash on him, so he won’t be able to disobey.”

“Yes,” Valletta replied weakly.

The boy, who was struggling with death on the floor, finally opened his eyes. His beautiful ruby eyes looked around blankly before eventually reaching her.

Despite the boy’s heavy breathing, Count Delight glanced at him and continued his monotonous voice as if he were explaining to Valletta how to use a toy.

“If he doesn’t listen, you squeeze this.”

He placed a necklace with a red bead around Valletta’s neck. Valletta looked down at the bead, which was horribly red as if it was made from hardened blood.

“He has the seal engraved on his heart, so he dare not disobey a single word. You can order him to do anything you want.”

“What? No, perhaps later…”

Count Delight coldly gazed at Valletta as she shook her head, feeling stunned by the sudden order. ‘What on earth does he want me to order such a sick child to do?’ It was obvious that no matter what she ordered, the boy was simply too weak to even get up properly.

“You’ve been talking a lot lately, haven’t you?”

Count Delight gave Valletta a sharp look. She didn’t want to offend him. He rarely inflicted physical violence on her, but he did punish her with things she couldn’t bear mentally. Things like killing her pets, locking her in a dark room without a sip of water for several days, and even hanging her upside down once. He didn’t want to leave marks by hitting her because it would lower her value, but he did everything else until Valletta surrendered and obeyed him unconditionally.

Count Delight was a madman. He met a crazy woman, had a child with her, and that child was Valletta.

And Valletta knew Count Delight well.

He would do the dirty work of buying and selling slaves secretly, while outwardly providing relief supplies and food to commoners and refugee villages, winning the hearts of the people. On the outside, people thought he treated Valletta as his cherished daughter, but in the mansion, she was anything but.

‘That’s why he died.’ (her father-Count Delight)

In the novel, she once saw a sentence that said, “The future master of the magic tower was brought in and used as a slave by the Count, but the Count failed to control him.”

Also, it seemed to say something about a very beautiful boy, but she couldn’t remember.

“Hurry up!”

“Ah…sit down!”

At Count Delight’s urging, Valletta hurriedly said the words that randomly came to her mind.

After spitting out the words, Valletta stiffened.

‘Sit down’ was the only thing that came to mind when she suddenly tried to give a command.

The silver hair boy looked at Valletta disgustedly.

‘Did I order him as if I ordered a dog?’

Just as Valletta was wondering if she should change her order, Count Delight reached for the bead she was holding. As soon as his large, calloused hand touched the bead, the boy groaned as if he realized something and knelt at her feet.

“Master.”

The boy smiled brightly while he was breathing hard and blood trickled down his shoulder. The boy’s red eyes flashed gruesomely, smiling as if he were a good listener. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes clearly were not.

[The boy was very handsome. Valletta instantly fell in love with his bright red eyes, white skin, and gorgeous silver hair that seemed to sparkle under the sun.]

Just as Valletta was about to answer with a forced laugh, a passage from the novel suddenly popped into her head, and her body froze.

‘Is he a dog?’

Even the main character of this world chews with one hand.

“Oh, Uh um, yes. Hmm, hello….”

Valletta finally answered, stuttering.

“Well, what’s your name?”

“Reinhardt, Master.”

He was the future great wizard and master of the magic tower…The villain in the novel that gave the protagonist a meaningless ordeal, then killed them after he lost his interest.

“….”

It was obvious that his name was Reinhardt.

“It’s your birthday present. Use it well.” Count Delight said.

“Yes, father.”

‘What should I do when my father gives me a ticking time bomb for my birthday?’

Valletta really wanted to ask the intellectuals, even though she knew that there was no advanced technology called the Internet here.

‘Let’s move him for now, but…’

Valletta was troubled by his restless expression. Of course, she didn’t move him herself, but the boy was moved by the chamberlain.

Reinhardt was given the room next to Valletta, despite being a slave.

It was Count Delight’s order. He ordered that if anything happened to Valletta, anywhere, anytime, Reinhadrt had to give his life to protect her.

‘I feel like he’s going to die before I do, instead of protecting me.’

A servant wrapped Reinhadt’s wounds up, but it was poorly done.

Even though Valletta didn’t know anything about medicine, she could tell that this girl had no medical knowledge at all.

Knock. Knock.

She turned away at the sound of a knock on the wooden door.

Entering was a half-heartedly bandaged servant.

She brought cold water and towels, probably because Reinhardt was suffering from a high fever.

“Don’t do it. Call the doctor. He’s going to die if you don’t.”

“Miss, I don’t think you know anything about this… For a slave, a doctor is a luxury. This one has a uselessly long life, even if left alone, he’ll live.”

Even though they’re all humans, how can they have a narrow viewpoint just because of their different status?

Valletta frowned at the sophistry that the servant had laid out. She meant that his condition could not be cured and just let him be.

“You think I’ve asked for your opinion?”

“Yes…?”

“If I leave him like this, he’ll die. So call the doctor.”

Valletta raised her voice, and the servant’s eyes opened wide.

“I gave you an order. Shall I tell my father that you disobeyed me?”

“…… No, I’m sorry. I’ll call the doctor right away.”

“Tell him to come as soon as possible. I’ll pay whatever the cost is.”

“Yes, Miss.”

The servant bowed and hurried out of the room, leaving a towel and a basin of water on the small table beside the bed.

Seeing her blank expression, Valletta scratched her head and sighed. She wasn’t used to this kind of hierarchy, and she couldn’t help it.

Count Delight was very strict, and because the Count himself treated Valletta as something “useless”, some of his servants sometimes ignored her altogether.

The servant would never be able to act this way in front of the Count.

In such cases, when the Count’s name was mentioned, the servants generally kept their mouths shut and obeyed.

Valletta was usually the one who kept her mouth shut, even when the servants treated her unreasonably. The reason was simple. Even if she tried to say something, the Count’s fire would fly at her as well.

So most of the servants ignored Valletta only behind the Count’s back, but sometimes there were servants who couldn’t read the air. Especially the newcomers.

It hadn’t been more than a day or two that they tried to teach her, as if she was still naive because she was young, but she was offended by the fact that the servant compared Reinhardt to a slave as if he was nothing.

‘And if I leave this child to suffer like this…’

Valletta was afraid of the consequences.

Reinhardt was not easily angered. He was always portrayed as having a smile on his face.

Quite often, she was surprised by the heart-wrenching feeling she would feel about his description, even though he only existed as a character in the novel.

Reinhardt was someone who would pile up all the things that people were doing to him, one by one, in his mind, and later explode all at once, in the worst possible way.

‘…Did they say that a wizard who never awakens is weak?’

It was said that the stronger the talent, the later the time of awakening.

Usually, wizards were awakened in their mid-teens. However, Reinhardt’s awakening was on his twentieth birthday, when Valletta came of age.

And on that day, he would become the master of the magic tower, killing all living things, including the servants of the Delight family.

‘Including me.’

Valletta sighed.

Reinhardt’s breathing was ragged and dangerous, like he was about to expire.

She was surprised how he could get up and kneel down earlier.

Of course, he wouldn’t die if she left him like this as the servant said…

‘Let’s heal him and then get rid of him.’

She had to give him freedom and avoid death.

Valletta squeezed the towel in cold water, and placed it on Reinhardt’s forehead.

He shivered as the cold towel touched him.

“Why…?”

Reinhardt’s silver-white eyelids trembled in the cold air and slowly opened.

His eyelids opened and his red ruby eyes also appeared. His eyes were clouded.

“I’ve called the doctor, so rest. And when you get better, I’ll let you go, so get out of this house, okay?”

“Why?”

Staring at his lips, Valletta’s brows wrinkled.

‘Because you’re going to kill me, and I’m trying to get rid of you before that happens.’

At the very least, she would ask for another slave, not Reinhardt. This future madman is still a madman.

He seemed to be relaxed at the moment, but everyone who saw him laughing and giving creepy glances earlier knows that.

There was an old saying, “Don’t raise a black-headed beast.”

That’s exactly what Reinhardt was. He was the one who would bring disaster if he was raised. He would even bring her death.

‘I don’t need you.’

If Reinhardt were to escape with the bead, Count Delight was bound to be very angry with Valletta herself. However, she’d rather choose to take the punishment he would inflict.

She would rather starve herself for a week or hang upside down on the ceiling than be killed by this madman in the future.

“……unusual, I’m human…”

Muttering, Reinhardt closed his eyes again.

‘I don’t think I have anything in particular to do as you do.’

As she was thinking, Valletta dipped the towel back into the water and placed it on Reinhardt’s forehead.

It was an hour later when the doctor arrived.

“It seems he was injured by a sword, but fortunately the wound is cleaner than I expected. The lacerations may be severe, but the situation is not bad.”

“Really?”

“Yes, you can give him this medicine three times a day after meals and sprinkle this powder on the wounds. The bandage should be changed every day, and you should make sure that no water reaches the wound until it is healed.”

“Thank you very much. I will call you again next time, so please come. You can charge as much as you need to, and the chamberlain will pay out of my personal allowance.”

“Yes, you may call me any time.”

The doctor bowed and left the room.

He gave Reinhardt some antipyretics and painkillers, and his complexion was certainly better than before.

‘When you’re better, I’ll give you some money and get you out of here.’

Valletta said the same thing dozens of times today to herself.

Reinhardt was not a being that often appeared in the novel she read, but he had a tremendous presence.

Once he appeared, he would make an entire village disappeared, or he would fight with a single finger against the male lead who reached the status of a sword master.

It was always described in these kinds of ways.

He was such a bad character that when someone tried to be kind to him, by giving him kindness with a smile, he would instead cut off their head without a care in the world.

‘He looks different like this.’

If Valletta didn’t know all those facts, she would have made an effort to like him. In fact, the “real Valletta” liked him.

[“Do you love me, Valletta?”

“Yes, I love you. Rein, I can go anywhere with you. So… when you’ve finished your revenge on this house, let’s leave together. I’ll help you.”

“Is that right? What should I do though, I don’t love you.”

The man whispered in a sweet voice, stroking her cheek…]

Reinhardt in the novel used Valletta’s love to eventually kill her family, and killed Valletta with a smile.

Of course, there was a reason, but…

But what was the reason why he killed Valletta too? She couldn’t remember.

Valletta shuddered as she thought about it again. She shook her head vigorously from side to side.

‘Let’s get rid of him.’

She nodded with determination.

Glancing at Reinhardt, who had fallen into a deep sleep, Valletta slipped out of the room.