She didn’t leave the room for days after that. Her aunt and uncle would try to coax her, but their words were sharp and became passive-aggressive.

My dear, I love you, but—unlike us—the world can’t revolve around you, right? There are people waiting for your next invention…not everyone can have the luxury of being lazy. My daughter is so good, my daughter isn’t lazy… right?

Or…

We have an important meeting with an investor—someone who will help one of your projects fly! You must be present. You don’t want all your—and everyone else’s—efforts to go to waste, right?

If it were before, she’d have truly felt guilty. But now…she thought about how all those things were her work. In retrospect, she hadn’t stopped working since she was young. Everyone her age was living their lives, while she was stuck in her laboratory.

Her late parents’ wish—to let her ‘live normally’ —couldn’t she have it?

These types of words had been common from her adoptive parents. She was an idiot for not seeing it before.

She forced herself up eventually, using her network—and asking favors from the few friends she made—to investigate everything.

However, even as she did all that, she still hoped with all her heart that she was just assuming the worst.

But it was even worse.

What happened after that was a blur to her. The next memory was just…darkness.

And danger.

Unlike before, where it felt like she was just going on a ride and watching scene after scene pass by, this vision felt like she was being pulled to the depths of despair.

It was dark, narrow, and suffocating. She didn’t understand where she was. All she could see were strange lights flickering by so quickly that it made her flinch each time.

She was riding something—something that moved so fast, faster than the carriages she had been on before.

She didn’t know what it was, nor did she have the mind to care. Both of her hands clutched tightly on a wheel of sorts in front of her.

Evie didn't know what it was for, but she instinctively knew she had to hold on to it if she wanted to live.

Her feet continued to press something underneath, over and over— desperately so—yet it didn’t seem to change anything. The carriage was still going fast, and she still couldn’t control it.

Terror and pain gripped her heart, tears continuously flowing down. Evie wanted to just let go of everything and cry out, but she could not control her body. She could only stupidly hold on to the wheel for dear life while sobbing to death.

“Work, damnit!” she yelled, as if pleading for the chaos to stop!

However, in her heart, she knew her pleas would not be heard.

But she wanted to keep trying anyway.

She didn't want to die…

Then, something large—a monster with glowing eyes? —appeared out of nowhere, and she instinctively turned the wheel.

CRASH!!

The vehicle jolted up and lurched sideways. She felt the entire world spin, and her stomach flipped as she felt like she was floating—and not in a good way. The ‘carriage’ rolled over and she could only go along with it.

While everything was growing more and more out of control, her peripheral vision caught sight of her reflection. She saw eyes that were of a different color than her own, but somehow it still felt familiar.

Then, she caught a glimpse of a small painting that swung with the vehicle’s movements. It was the image of a family—hers—but somehow she felt bitter in her heart.

“Are you happy now?” she asked, her voice filled with mockery and pain.

She thought: Would anyone be happy if she returned, anyway?

However, before she could think of anything else—

BANG!

—everything went black.

…

…

…

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

A little girl with unique platinum hair cried out of nowhere, making the woman next to her jolt up from her slumber.

She turned her head to look at the child, immediately checking for any injuries or anything that could be causing the baby any pain. She heaved a deep breath when she saw none, gently combing her hair out of her face as she wiped away her tears.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, voice soft and gentle as she pulled the toddler into her embrace. “Did my baby have a bad dream?”

The woman’s name was Celeste, one of the highest-ranked noblewomen in this country. She was also a beautiful woman, with similar features to those of the little girl.

She had a delicate face, soft, clear skin, and unique platinum hair. The difference was that Celeste had eyes as blue as the sky, while the baby had rare purple eyes that felt out of this world.

Now…the same purple eyes were glistening with tears, filled with shock, sadness, and confusion—all emotions a two-year-old should not be feeling.

At her question, the baby sniffled, no longer making noise all of a sudden. She blinked continuously as if stifling her tears, and her lips pursed as if stopping herself from making any sound again.

It was a heartbreaking sight.

And it made Celeste immediately worried. She wanted the baby to stop crying, but not to hold it back.

“Can my baby tell mummy what’s wrong?” she asked as she gently touched the child’s soft cheeks, extremely concerned.

However, the baby didn’t say anything—she couldn’t. She’d had a nightmare, but she did not remember what it was about.

All she had were the feelings—horrible ones.

She’d felt a lot of hopelessness, despair, and pain when she woke up, and her little, inexperienced brain didn’t know how to process it yet.

It was also the feelings from this dream that told her: Stop crying.

Stop bothering the adults.

The baby could only stare at her mother with those purple eyes brimming with tears, orbs filled with confusion.

She couldn’t answer her mother because she really didn’t understand it. How could she answer something that she didn't understand?

So…she could only cry pitifully in her heart, as if it was the only way to react.

Celeste didn’t know what was happening, but it was crushing her heart. “Oh…my child…”

It was around this time that a knock sounded at the door.

“Milady? Princess?” asked people from the other side. Celeste sighed. It was her maids.

“Helena? Come in.”

The door opened to reveal a few servants in uniform led by Helena, Celeste’s head maid. “Milady, is there anything we can help you with?”

Celeste blinked and then looked at her poor, sniffling daughter. “Just some drinking water, please,” she said, patting the back of the baby’s head. “She’ll probably be thirsty after this.”

Helena’s eyes traced over the crying child and sighed, similarly confused and heartbroken. She nodded and left, returning a few minutes later with a delicate metallic pitcher filled with water.

Helena filled the cups on the nightstand and left the pitcher there before heading out the door.

“I’ll…I’ll be outside if you need me, Milady, Little Princess,” she said, just before closing the door and leaving the mother-and-daughter pair alone in their room again.

Unexpectedly, even after several minutes, the baby girl was still sobbing…or, rather, trying to hold it back.

Celeste sighed, slightly parting the baby from her so she could look at her face.

The child’s face was red from stifling sobs, especially those chubby cheeks of hers. And her eyes…they seemed to have an endless amount of tears threatening to drip out.

It was both an endearing and a heartbreaking sight.

Celeste guided her daughter to sit comfortably on her lap. She then turned to the cups filled with water, raising her hands as she looked at them.

On her wrist, there were beautiful gemstones the size of a child’s nail, and the blue one slowly began to glow, which fascinated the little girl.

“Look, my little Eve,” Celeste whispered, and the still-sniffling baby pulled her head out of her mother’s soft embrace and followed her line of sight.

The baby blinked when she saw the blob of water floating in front of her face, and it was as if her tears went right back up her eyes.

“Wa….” the baby mumbled, her sad face morphing to one of awe. It was very cute.

Celeste giggled, making simple shapes and movements. She formed a blob that went closer to the little girl's face as if prepared to talk to her.

Who knew? Maybe the baby would tell it what she was feeling.

Unexpectedly, though, the little girl opened her mouth to gulp it all instead.

Glug

“...”

Well, to be fair, it really had been intended for the girl to drink.

Celeste laughed out loud. “Oh, you silly munchkin,” she said, hugging the baby tighter. “You shouldn't consume random things. What if you get a stomach ache? You're lucky this is drinking water.”

“He-he,” the baby giggled in response to her mother's chuckle, though she didn’t really understand the words.

She was never given dirty water, and she knew bath water was bitter (she tasted it out of curiosity once), so she wouldn’t understand what it was about.

Seeing as her baby seemed to feel better, Celeste led her back to bed in hopes of easing her to sleep again.

After rubbing the child's face with the sleeves of her silky nightdress, Celeste just embraced her. She didn’t dare to ask about the nightmare again, lest it make the baby sad.

“Let’s go back to sleep…Mummy will protect you this time. If the bad dream comes again, tell mummy, and we’ll fight it together, okay? ” she said with a reassuring tone of voice, rhythmically patting her daughter’s bum.

The baby blinked and looked, turning the woman’s heart into mush when she nodded.

Evie soon melted into her mother’s embrace, feeling all of the bad feelings slowly ebb away, and leaving only her mother’s warmth.