Luna left the room after asking Sezh five more times if she was okay. Sezh who was left alone now sat in front of the mirror, and look at her reflection. It was a little strange. She was 17 years old, the passable age for adulthood. But here she is, back to twelve years old, she has gone back to five years before.

Five years.

In other words, Sezh was given a chance to change her fate in five years. Sezh and Raytan are six-year apart, that means he is 18 years old now. As she tried to recall any particular memories of her with Raytan, she realized that she has none.

Raytan and Sezh don’t have any memorable encounter at all, let alone exchanging small pleasantries, as she only saw him once a month. And that happened when they crossed the path. There has never been a conversation hold in the same place between them.

Sezh always stays in her palace, meanwhile Raytan…

“…the library.”

Sezh muttered to herself.

That’s right, the library.

Now that she thinks about it, she starts to remember. She was very immersed in books around this time. The reason was simple.

The young Sezh couldn’t get her cold-heart mother affection, so the royal family, including her half brothers and sisters, would always start a quarrel whenever they meet her. Also, no one would come to play or visit her. So Sezh only read books and stayed in her palace. Like Raytan who stuck in the library and read books.

Reading books was the best way for kids to escape from harsh reality they were in, especially for those two who can only stay in the Imperial Palace, unable to go out as they wish. Their situation didn’t change much since they were young, one being treated like garbage and the other given cold shoulder. And for the books, the books were lent mainly by Luna.

There was one time where Luna and Sezh went to the library together and it was around that time she saw Raytan.

That day Raytan was sitting near the window at the inner part of the library. She remembered that his wavy bangs grew long enough to cover his eyes and make him looks very gloomy. The moment their eyes meet, those red like blood eyes glowed under the sunlight.

However, they didn’t talk or greet each other at all. Luna who saw Raytan flustered and pulled Sezh back. It was as if a bad thing would happen to them if they happened to look or make eye contact with him. Well, it’s not Luna’s fault or because Luna had a bad personality, not at all. She wasn’t the only one who did this to him. Everyone in the palace did the same thing, royal family, servants and maids. They didn’t want to make eye contact with Raytan.

In Sezh case, she didn’t avoid Raytan as openly as they did, but that didn’t mean anything. She just didn’t care much to him. Not like she could afford to as she was being harassed by others.

At that time, she was.

‘But not now, I’ll survive.’ Sezh muttered to herself.

Of course, it would be great if she could stop the tragedy that would happen soon, but she doesn’t have any special ally with the people in the Imperial Palace. Everyone treated her with contempt, and instead of treating her like a princess, they just harassed her. As she grew older, she was appalled by the harassment, but she couldn’t help feeling miserable every time she was ignored.

Her mother, Yerena, wasn’t any better than them. She never loved Sezh in her life. So when Sezh had become an adult at the age of 17, just before her death, Yerena went so far to send off her daughter to marry an old Duke. It was like she made poetical works and just thinking of selling them.

No one can stop her. Especially when Sezh was only one of the Emperor’s children, and the Emperor was not interested in Sezh at all. On top of that, the Duke was over fifty years old.

He even has a daughter and son around her age. But she was lucky. The untimely sad news flew to her quickly that night. It was when she was about to bite her tongue and die, refusing to become the Duke’s second wife. The Duke died because of chronic disease. Sezh was relieved, but she knew that such a stroke of unexpected luck won’t last long.

The old Duke was only the beginning. The man that Yerena would bring next might be 70 or 80 years old.

It was thanks to Yerena that she ends up thinking of running away from the Imperial Palace. Besides, there was no more reason left for her to stay because Luna was already dead.

‘Well, before I ran, I was cut off and killed.’

And now, Sezh is determined to survive and made good use of these five years.

‘Of course, I can’t imagine whether Raytan will stage a coup like the future I’ve been through. However, it seemed wise to buy Raytan’s favour just in case. That way, even if the tragedy happens again, the chances of her survival will increase.’

Sezh rose from his seat. Fortunately, Luna was not here. She sneaked out of her room while bringing the borrowed books from the library which was piled up on her nightstand.

‘For now, let’s meet Raytan first.’