Chapter One

I felt my tears falling from my eyes, but I was too stiff to even wipe them away with my hand.

I didn’t know what time it was, or how long I had been standing there like a statue, looking at my brother’s face as he lay peacefully on the deathbed.

“Miss, these are the things your brother had in the office.”

His coworker gave me a box full of his belongings. Inside it was a frame of us, looking so happy. It was taken when I graduated last year.

My hands trembled at the sight. I hugged his things as if my life depended on it.

My only family—my beloved brother—was gone.

He had a car accident on his way home.

Time passed. I didn’t even know where I found the energy to finish the funeral. When I looked around, I found myself back in our apartment, his things still in my hands.

I could still feel his presence there, in the place where we had spent so much time together.

I went straight to my room and looked through his belongings.

Papers with his handwriting on them.

A frame with me and our family.

Once again, I couldn’t stop myself from crying.

I didn’t know what to do with my life, knowing I would now be alone.

After calming myself down, I found a book among his things. I remembered it was his favorite novel.

I had never asked to borrow it because I wasn’t interested in reading novels.

*“THE CROWN HEART”*

I started reading while sitting on the floor. With every page I turned, my mind kept drifting back to him.

ARZHEL RAVENDISH, a poor baron’s son living with his beautiful sister.

Their life was happy even though they no longer had parents. They were poor, and the two of them lived alone in a big mansion without a single maid. They were also on the brink of bankruptcy because of their parents’ debts.

So his sister looked for a job and became one of the maids of a rich marquis in the capital. Meanwhile, seven-year-old Arzhel waited every month with a maid that his sister had hired to take care of him, since she was required to sleep at the house where she worked.

Life was peaceful.

Every month his sister came home and brought him sweet food and new clothes. After six months, she managed to pay off their parents’ debts.

But one day, his sister came home looking exhausted and somewhat scared.

When he asked what had happened, she insisted it was nothing.

That night, she went out, saying she had been invited to a gathering…

…and never returned.

Then the day came when he received the news.

His sister had died.

They said she committed suicide because she couldn’t accept that the marquis she loved had gotten engaged. She was found among the roses near a balcony.

They said she had jumped.

The seven-year-old Arzhel didn’t believe it.

Crying, he ran to the marquis’s mansion, but the guards didn’t let him in.

“Get lost, little shit. Commoners should not wander into the marquis’s mansion.”

“No! My sister! Let me in!” he forced his way forward, only to be beaten by the guards.

“You are stubborn. See what you got.”

He felt like he was dying, but he couldn’t stop. He wanted to see his sister.

“Maybe she’s at home, right? She told me she would come back.”

Arzhel couldn’t believe the rumors. He hoped his sister was just at home, cooking his favorite food since she had a day off.

But on his way back home, he found a large crowd around the mansion where he and his sister lived.

Their mansion was on fire.

No one knew what had happened or what had caused it.

“Have you heard? The woman who lived there died last night. She was obsessed with her boss and committed suicide after finding out he was engaged,” someone said, looking both disgusted and pitiful.

“What a problematic girl. She must have gone crazy after her parents died.”

The young boy cried beside them, but no one paid him any mind. They had never seen him before, so they simply assumed he was just afraid of the fire.

With no home left, the boy wandered around.

After that event, nothing remained.

He became a thief, taking food from the trash. Sometimes he was beaten after being caught stealing.

At the age of fourteen, someone took him from the slums and turned him into a test subject for an adult man working at the Magic Tower.

Every night became hell.

He became a human test subject. Every night he was forced to swallow poison and drink substances that slowly destroyed his body.

He wanted to die.

Now his only wish was to die and be with his sister.

Until one night, the man suddenly exclaimed:

“Yes! Success! My research is complete!”

He laughed maniacally, dark circles under his eyes.

“You are my masterpiece. With you, I will become the most powerful human being in the world.”

“You—my weapon. My powerful weapon. With you, I can defeat every man in this world… or even destroy the world itself.”

Arzhel awakened upon hearing those words.

Strength filled his body. He clenched his fists and destroyed the chains around him.

Energy surrounded him, healing the wounds and cuts on his body.

Before the man could react, Arzhel didn’t hesitate.

He strangled him.

“H-how dare you…” the man gasped, looking at him with disgust as he struggled to breathe.

Arzhel picked up a piece of glass and slit the man’s throat.

For the first time, he had killed.

He had murdered someone.

But he didn’t regret it.

He smiled like someone who had lost his mind and wiped the blood from his face.

“And I thank you for that power.”

With his power, he became the Master of the Magic Tower at the age of seventeen. Every person who got in his way either went missing or died in mysterious incidents.

No one dared doubt him.

Now he wanted only one thing.

Revenge.

Arzhel wanted revenge. He wanted to know the truth behind his sister’s death.

He knew it wasn’t suicide.

Even though he had never seen her body, he knew it wasn’t something his sister would do.

He investigated every noble who had been a friend or acquaintance of his sister.

During his journey, he met the female lead—Lilith Lioven, the beautiful lady of the House of Count Lioren.

At first, he only intended to use her.

But as time passed, he fell in love with her.

She was kind, sweet, and lovely.

She became the light of his world.

But everything was ruined when Lilith fell in love with the Crown Prince.

He couldn’t accept it.

He didn’t want to accept it.

So he decided to start a rebellion against the royal family to take Lilith by force.

Obsession and resentment consumed him, causing the power inside him to become chaotic.

He became chaos itself.

In the end, Arzhel died at the hands of the Crown Prince.

Alone.

Bleeding.

Kneeling under the rain.

⸻

Alexandra Felther’s world felt suffocating after the ending of the character she had been rooting for.

He had died.

Just like her brother.

Fighting for his life… but still dying.

I knew I was overreacting. He wasn’t even the protagonist of the novel.

But I couldn’t accept his fate—just like I couldn’t accept my brother’s.

They deserved to be happy.

“I can’t… His life… his ending was miserable…”

I cried the whole night until my body became heavy with exhaustion.

Eventually, I fell asleep.

⸻

In my dream, I saw him.

The sword in his chest.

Eyes closed.

Kneeling under the rain.

Alone.

Miserable.

I ran toward him, desperate to hold him—to let him know he wasn’t alone.

But I couldn’t reach him.

Suddenly, I woke up.

But I wasn’t in my room.

I was in an unfamiliar place.

The room was large and aesthetic, with a historical design—like something out of Bridgerton.

My body felt strangely light.

Before I could process anything, someone entered the room.

She was wearing a maid’s uniform.

“My lady, are you awake? Are you alright?”

Her voice was filled with concern, and she looked genuinely worried.

“W-who are you? Is this… a dream?” I stammered.

“I’ll fetch a physician, my lady. Please wait.”

She rushed out.

A few minutes later, she returned with a man in a lab coat, who immediately began checking my condition.

“Sir, what happened to my lady?” the maid asked nervously.

Before the physician could answer, another couple entered the room—both in their mid-forties.

“Elyndra! What happened, darling?” the woman asked, hugging me with concern.

“Elyndra…?”

The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I had heard it.

“Elyndra Windmere, my dear,” the woman repeated.

My heart skipped.

That name…

It was from the novel.

“Elise Windmere… and Johnson Windmere…” I whispered, staring at them in shock.

They looked confused, trying to understand my reaction.

Before I could say anything, a sudden headache struck me, and memories forced their way into my mind.

Now I understood where I was.

Unbelievably…

I was inside the story.

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