Chapter 191: Toxic Love: Evelyn Greycastle
May 8, year 1548, After the Millennial War
* Kaiser’s Point of View *
The next day, I attended a few classes, more out of obligation than genuine interest. Afterward, I left rlin’s office following a particularly intense work session. That milf was truly exhausting, and on top of that, I had way too many things to handle right now.
As I stepped into the main corridor, my attention was drawn to a solitary figure. A young woman stood on the interior balcony, leaning over the railing with a deeply pensive air. She had short jet-black hair, and even from behind, I could guess the unusual color of her eyes thanks to the reflection in the stained glass: a dull purple. She held a cigarette carelessly between her fingers, watching the bustle of students in the hall below while exhaling thin wisps of gray smoke.
’Doesn’t this student know smoking is forbidden inside the Academy grounds?’ I thought, slightly annoyed by the blatant rule-breaking.
My gaze lingered on her for only a fraction of a second. She wasn’t among my imdiate concerns. I was about to continue on my way when a cold voice rang out behind .
"So you’re just going to pretend you didn’t see ... Kaiser?"
I turned around, surprised that she was addressing . She had half-turned, observing
over her shoulder, a smile without warmth on her lips.
"Uh... Do we know each other?" I asked, scanning her face.
She turned fully, taking one last drag from her cigarette before carelessly crushing it against the stone balustrade. "I see... You really haven’t changed much."
She seems to recognize ? At first glance, I thought she was a fan. There are so many girls who approach , how could I possibly rember them all?
She looked to be in her twenties, maybe a little older. She stopped beside , then began walking slowly along the balcony, as if inviting
to follow.
’It’s not my fault I’m so in demand,’ I thought with the smug smile that ca naturally to .
That was when a notification seed to appear at the back of my consciousness:
[Evelyn Greycastle harbors deep resentnt toward you!]
Hmm? I’ve heard that na before. Greycastle? The Greycastle Duchy? One of the Stravenger family’s allies. My mind went on alert. I looked at her again, more carefully this ti. Purple eyes... Short black hair? No, they should be long; she cut them?
As I stared at her, alone with the remnants of her cigarette, buried mories slowly rose to the surface. For so ti now, I no longer felt like a foreign possessor in this body. It was more as if I had always been here and had only recently awakened to mories of a previous life. As a result, the mories of this body existed, but they were superimposed, rged with mine, making certain details blurry and difficult to isolate.
And this girl, Evy... She was one of those details.
Without thinking further, I followed her and walked beside her for a few seconds in heavy silence. She looked to the side, avoiding my face.
"You must really hate , right?" I ventured, breaking the ice with frankness.
She didn’t give
a second glance. Her voice was flat, without inflection. "You really are a bastard, Kaiser."
A small involuntary smile touched my lips. "I know... People tell
that often. So, how are you, Evy?"
"As you can see." She finally turned her head toward , and I could see just how much she had changed. She was no longer the young girl preserved in the fragnts of my mories. Her lips were tinted a dark, almost black red. A thin, pale, clean scar ran across her left eyebrow and stopped on her eyelid, slightly altering the expression of that purple eye. Her complexion was pallid, marked by undoubtedly sleepless nights or excesses. She was completely different from the girl I had known back then.
"So you started smoking?" I remarked, nodding toward the spot where she had crushed the butt.
"Why, in your opinion?" she retorted, a flash of bitterness in her gaze.
I put on a pained expression, even though I didn’t really care. "I’m sorry."
She let out a short, joyless laugh. "It’s a bit too late, Kaiser. About a decade too late. You did it with such firm conviction, and I’m glad you paid for it..."
Hearing her words, my thoughts drifted despite myself—not backward, but inward, into a mory: that of a ten-year-old boy, foolish and naive, caught in the grip of his first tumultuous emotions for a fem fatale who had never existed outside his childish imagination.
And in that mory was the image of a little girl with long black hair and purple eyes, looking at
then with admiration. An admiration that I had, apparently, trampled with such conviction that I had even ended up forgetting it.
***
Year 1438 After the Millennial War.
Birthday celebrations were the main eting ground for young nobility. It was during these social events that alliances or friendships were ford and the first political intrigues ca to life.
I wasn’t in the habit of attending them, finding them generally futile and noisy, but my father had insisted I go to this one, arguing the importance of representing the Paragon family since Isaak could not be present. So I went, my mind already elsewhere.
And that’s where I saw her for the first ti... The duke’s daughter... She was so beautiful she seed to belong to another plane of reality than the other guests. It wasn’t her birthday, yet she was undeniably the center of it. Everything about her captured the light and attention: the way she wore her dress, the ease with which she conversed, her smile that chard.
Her chestnut hair, almost orange under the light, frad a face of already troubling beauty.
At barely eleven years old, she already exuded an aura of distant elegance, a coldness that made her all the more desirable and difficult to approach. The others were rely background.
One single glance had been enough... I fell too easily. And so, I needed to get closer to her.
I didn’t hesitate long.
To approach her, I needed a networking bridge. And that bridge already existed.
I watched her talking with Ariana, laughing with her, following her like a faithful shadow. They were inseparable childhood friends.
A smiling, lively young girl, beautiful but pale in comparison beside her: Evelyn Greycastle.
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