❈.❈.❈

By nightfall, moonlight had replaced the afternoon sun outside G6’s room.

The diary remained open on the table.

Live what I was forced to leave.

G6 stared at the sentence.

“What fancy words to say you fucking killed yourself.”

A knock interrupted the silence.

“Lady Reise?”

Tina.

“It is late. May I enter?”

“No.”

A brief pause followed on the other side of the door.

“Your preference for dinner. The kitchen can prepare anything.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You must eat. You have had a trying day.”

G6 closed her eyes.

“I said I’m not hungry.”

The answer came out sharper than intended.

She exhaled.

“Just… later.”

Another short silence.

“Very well, Lady Reise.”

Tina’s footsteps faded down the corridor.

G6 looked back at the diary.

I leave a final letter hiding like it does not want to be read.

Her attention sharpened again.

“The letter.”

The diary had been hidden.

The letter probably was too.

G6 stood, and the lethargy disappeared from her posture.

Search first. Questions later.

She began with the wardrobe.

Armfuls of silk and tulle were pulled free and thrown across the floor as G6 checked seams, panels, and the rear wall for anything concealed behind them.

Outside the bedroom, Tina stood against the opposite corridor wall.

A muffled whump came through the door.

Then another.

Her brows drew together.

What is she doing? Tina thought.

Inside, G6 yanked open another drawer.

Combs, ribbons, jewelry.

Nothing.

She moved to the vanity.

Wood scraped sharply across the floor, followed by the skitter of smaller objects.

Tina’s expression tightened.

She is searching. But for what?

A porcelain figurine toppled from the vanity.

—CRASH!

G6 did not even look at it.

Irrelevant.

Outside, Tina flinched.

That was expensive.

Concern crept back into her expression.

Was she really hurt by His Highness’s indifference earlier after all?

“Where is it?” G6 muttered.

Books hit the floor next.

Nothing.

She stopped in the middle of the wrecked room and reassessed.

Wardrobe. Desk. Shelves. Vanity.

Her gaze shifted toward the bed.

G6 grabbed the heavy wooden frame and attempted to lift it.

It refused to move.

Her eye twitched.

“THIS BODY LACKS MUSCLES.”

Abandoning the frame, she seized the mattress instead and heaved.

Outside, a low scraping groan came through the door.

Lilia approached from farther down the corridor and slowed when she noticed Tina standing there.

“Miss Tina? Is Her Lady all right?”

Another scrape sounded from inside.

Lilia stared toward the door.

“This doesn’t sound like resting.”

“Our lady is… processing.”

Lilia looked doubtful.

Tina’s expression strained further.

“Go rest, Lilia. Speak of this to no one.”

After a hesitant nod, the younger servant left.

Inside, the mattress finally shifted enough for G6 to see what had been hidden beneath it.

A folded parchment sealed with red wax lay beside a small, empty crystal bottle.

G6’s eyes narrowed.

The same vial.

Outside, the noises abruptly stopped.

Tina stared at the closed door.

Somehow, the silence was worse.

What did she find? Tina thought.

G6 picked up the vial first and brought it carefully toward her nose.

A faint floral sweetness lingered inside, undercut by a sharper green scent she had never encountered before.

So this was what white droplet flowers smelled like.

She committed the scent to memory before setting the bottle aside.

Then she broke the rose-shaped wax seal.

The parchment unfolded beneath the moonlight.

“If you are reading this, my final wish failed. Forgive this last selfish act.

You have been my keeper of secrets. My silent shield. You saw the woman behind the title. For that, I will love you always.”

G6 continued.

“Be strong. Go to my parents. Do not let them weep. Tell them their daughter loved them more than any crown, but the weight became a mountain she could no longer carry. It was the world’s failure, not theirs.

Comfort my mother. Stand with my father. Knock sense into my careless brothers. House Worthon must not falter.

Her eyes moved farther down the page.

I dreamed of being here not as ‘Prince Dio’s Fiancée,’ but as Reise Worthon. Just Reise.

To have my worth measured by my magic, my mind. To stand beside Earl and Keith as their equal—a Guardian of the Sky. What battles could we have won?

It is a beautiful dream. One I am too weary to dream any longer.

Do not mourn the woman I was. Mourn the woman I could have been.”

The next lines were written more steadily.

“This is a release. I have poured my last hope into a plea to the stars. I have begged for a new soul, wild and free, to find a home in this vessel. To live the life I was too weak to grasp.

But I hide this letter, fearing you will find it. Clinging to a foolish hope that when it is next opened, it will not be you, grieving, but her. The one I wished for.

And she will have no need for these words, because she will be too busy living.

If it is you, my sister, I am so sorry. Forget these words. Remember the girl I was before this palace stole my light.

Thank you for everything.

With all the love my broken heart can hold,

—Reise W.”

G6 lowered the parchment.

Her gaze moved to the empty vial, then toward the diary lying open nearby.

From where she sat, the pieces formed an ugly picture.

Reise had wished for another soul.

Reise had died.

Akira Gemstone had died.

And somehow, G6 had awakened here.

She rubbed a hand over her face.

“What a fucking mess.”

For a while, she simply sat among the overturned furniture and scattered belongings.

She was not grieving for Reise. She barely knew her beyond a novel, a diary, and one impossible dream.

But the evidence in front of her was becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss.

Whatever had happened, Akira Gemstone’s old life was beyond her reach.

This one was not.

That was the only fact that mattered now.

G6 stood and struck a match against the mantle.

The flame caught.

She held Reise’s letter above it.

The edge of the parchment curled black.

This letter had been written for Tina.

Tina could never read it now—not without questions G6 could not answer and not without risking the secret she had no intention of exposing.

The parchment burned steadily between her fingers until she dropped the final corner into the fireplace and watched the last of Reise’s words disappear into ash.

It was not closure.

It was risk management.

Nothing more.

Then G6 turned toward the mirror.

Reise Worthon’s face looked back at her.

She stared at it for a long moment before scoffing.

“Asking a Reaper to live when all she does is end lives.”

A faint, humorless smirk touched her mouth.

“It is an insult.”

She folded her arms.

“Your selfish wish cost me the life I worked for, so don’t expect me to be grateful.”

The room offered no answer.

G6 glanced once toward the ashes, then returned her attention to the woman in the mirror.

“But I’m here.”

That was the reality of it.

“I’ll live this life.”

She paused.

“My way.”

She studied Reise’s reflection for another moment.

There was no gratitude in her expression, no sentimental promise to become the woman who had died here, and no intention of inheriting Reise’s regrets along with her body.

Only acknowledgment.

“Now, rest in peace.”

G6 turned away.

“This body and life are officially mine.”

As far as G6 understood it, Reise Worthon’s story had ended.

Whatever came next belonged to her.

Long live the Thorn.

—To Be Continued…—