The cold winter sky hung overhead, tainted in shades of black and white as a somber mood filled the halls of the University Tower.
The recent news of the casualties had cast a shadow across the campus, filling everyone’s hearts with dread.
Professor Vanitas’s lectures had been suspended for nearly four days. However, just this morning, a new announcement had been made.
There would be a replacement lecturer—at least temporarily until someone fit the role.
While some students initially felt a sense of relief. After all, the professor often regarded as the bane of their academic future had been removed from his position.
However, that feeling didn’t last.
Because when they finally understood why he had been replaced, no one could bring themselves to speak.
Professor Vanitas… was dead?
It was a thought too heavy to process.
And suddenly, his absence that once felt like a reprieve now felt like a gaping hole in their hearts.
Even his harshest critics couldn’t help but feel it.
Because no matter how daunting, no matter how insufferable or scary he had been—he had been theirs.
Their professor.
Their constant.
And now… he was gone.
Tak. Tak. Tak.
It was then that the new professor stepped into the lecture hall, her heels clicking against the marble floor. It was an elderly woman from the Scholars Institute.
The room fell into a heavy silence as she opened the attendance ledger. Without preamble, she began calling names.
But the moment the first name echoed through the hall, reality hit them like a tidal wave.
——Eden Avenir?
All eyes slowly turned to the empty seat at the very front.
“….”
The seat that once belonged to the first student on the attendance list.
….Astrid Barielle Aetherion.
* * *
“What the hell is this…”
Irene had been drowning in alcohol for days, her mind turmoil ever since the news reached her. The thick scent of tobacco and liquor clung to every corner of her room.
The news of Aetherion’s second princess, Astrid, caught in the center of a controversy had rocked the nation. A terrorist attack, reminiscent of the Zyphran Incident, had occurred on the very train Astrid had boarded.
But Irene knew the truth.
Because it wasn’t just Astrid who had died that day but Vanitas Astrea too, had perished in the attack.
And Irene was certain it all traced back to that damned vendetta between Vanitas and the Ainsley Family.
Crack—!
The goblet shattered in her grip, blood mixing with wine as shards cut into her palm.
But she didn’t care.
A storm of rage and sorrow swelled within her, threatening to engulf her entire being whole.
“He said he had it all covered…” she muttered, her voice trembling with disbelief.
And yet, he died?
And Astrid…
Her little sister… got dragged into it?
“What kind of bullshit is this?!” she screamed, hurling the broken goblet across the room. It crashed against the wall, shattering into countless fragments.
But no matter how loud the impact, nothing could shatter the pain that had taken root deep in her heart.
And now, Irene knew exactly what needed to be done.
“….”
….To burn the Ainsley Family to the ground until nothing but ashes remained.
* * *
Karina had been slouched in her room for days with a hollow complexion. She had lost all semblance of strength, even the will to move an inch.
For days, she had ignored every attempt from others to reach out—her college friends, even Roselyn, who she was well aware of, shared her sorrow too.
After all, the person who had consumed her thoughts for so long was… gone.
“….”
And with his absence, so too vanished any hope of finding the answers that had plagued her mind.
If he was gone… then who was left to tell her the truth?
“Professor….” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
She didn’t know whether she should cry or stay numb.
That professor, who might have held a connection to her father’s death, had vanished without ever confirming the truth. The ambiguity tore at her, leaving behind only a suffocating dread.
No… deep down, she knew exactly what she felt.
Loss.
Regret.
Longing.
Uncertainty.
Guilt.
Everything.
Drip. Drip…!
Tears slid silently down her cheeks, one after another, soaking the fabric of her sleeves.
* * *
Simon Ainsley found himself struck by an epiphany. Everything had gone horribly wrong, one disaster after another.
To end a vendetta was to extinguish animosity. And to end animosity meant cutting down the root of the problem before it had a chance to bloom.
Vanitas Astrea.
With that reasoning, Simon had ensured that Vanitas would perish before ever stepping foot in Aetherion.
But there was one unforeseen anomaly, a single variable that had unraveled the entirety of his plans.
Aetherion’s second princess, Astrid Barielle Aetherion, had been aboard the same cargo carriage.
“What are we going to do, Simon?!” Dianna cried in panic.
“Shut up! This is your fault in the first place!” Simon snapped. “If it weren’t for your impulsive stunt, this entire mess wouldn’t have happened! Didn’t it occur to you that Vanitas Astrea was trying to strike a deal during that meeting?!”
“I…” Dianna faltered, choking on her words.
“Tsk. Shit.”
Regret surged within him. He cursed himself for not having reined in his reckless wife sooner. What kind of environment had she even been raised in?!
To think that the Duke of Esmeralda—the head of her household—could have been so negligent in raising his daughter.
For context, the Esmeralda House was a long-standing name among the old nobility, renowned for its vast oil wealth and historical contributions to the Empire.
Simon Ainsley, hailing from the Ainsley Marquess Family, had been betrothed to Dianna Esmeralda, their first and only daughter.
And now, that union had become nothing more of liability than alliance.
If the truth were ever to surface, who knew what kind of ruin would fall upon the Ainsley Family? Generations upon generations of lineage ending with him because of one… blunder?
At this point, the best-case scenario was to strike a deal with the Gambino Family to ensure the truth was buried for good, even if it meant sacrificing a fortune.
“Simon….” Dianna whispered hesitantly.
“Shut up! Just shut up already!” he snapped again, his voice cracking with rage.
“I… I called my father,” she said cautiously, eyes lowering. “He should know what to do…”
“….”
Simon froze, his expression darkening.
“You… you involved Duke Esmeralda?”
“I didn’t know what else to do!” she cried. “You weren’t thinking straight, and—”
“Of course I wasn’t thinking straight! My political career is on the verge of collapse, and now the Imperial Family might have grounds to investigate us! All because…. because of your recklessness!”
A heavy silence followed, broken only by Simon’s shallow, frustrated breaths. He sank into the armchair, running a hand through his disheveled hair.
“.…If the Duke gets involved, this could spiral even further,” he said.
“But he’s still one of the old nobility,” Dianna murmured. “His name holds weight in the Parliament.”
“Get the fuck out already!” Simon snapped, suddenly hurling a chair across the room.
“….!”
Startled, Dianna flinched and quickly turned on her heel, leaving his office without another word.
* * *
Two days ago, during the masquerade dance.
Astrid’s mind was in disarray as the professor smoothly led her across the ballroom floor.
——♬♫♪♩
Seeing the professor’s charming smile had stirred memories long buried within her, fragments of a childhood she had all but forgotten.
Though hazy, the warmth she felt from that person in the past mirrored the feeling she got now, standing before the professor.
She could still recall fragments of his words from back then, a small conversation shared on a quiet afternoon.
The two of them had been sitting on a swing, the boy gently swaying beside her, tasked with looking after her. Though, truthfully, her personal maid at the time, Alexia, had also been nearby, watching over them from a respectful distance.
——Princess, if I ever lose myself… will you remember me?
“Hmm?”
Astrid, far too young to understand the meaning behind those words, had only tilted her head in confusion.
——You see, I have a sister too. About the same age as you. When I close my eyes, she’s smiling at me. But the moment I open them… it’s like she’s seen a monster.
“Mmm….”
——These days, it feels like you’re the only one I can talk to properly… even though you don’t understand a word I’m saying. Venting to a three-year-old… have I lost it?
She remembered staring up at him with curious eyes, her small hands clumsily clutching the edges of her swing.
Now, standing before her, it all felt strangely surreal.
This professor, someone she had only ever seen in articles and heard about in passing as she grew up, evoked a deep, inexplicable comfort. A familiarity that tugged at something buried deep in her memory.
‘How did he look again?’
“….”
She tried to recall his face, but as always, the memory was frustratingly hazy. The details seemed to slip through her thoughts like mist.
All she could remember… was the sorrow in his eyes. Those eyes that carried burdens no child should have known, and his jet-black hair that shimmered underneath the sun.
Perhaps…
“Professor—”
“Princess—”
They spoke at the same time, Vanitas leaning in slightly as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Would it be presumptuous of me to ask for a favor?” he continued smoothly.
“….”
Astrid blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the sudden shift in tone.
“A favor?” she repeated, her cheeks flushing slightly at the unexpected intimacy. “What kind of favor?”
“Would you die for me?” he asked.
“A-Ah?” Astrid froze, her expression transitioning from confusion to disbelief.
For a moment, she thought she’d misheard him. But the seriousness in his eyes made it clear he wasn’t joking.
“I—I don’t understand,” she stammered, her fingers tightening slightly in his hand.
“Will you?” he asked again.
Astrid fell silent, her breath caught in her throat.
He was close—too close. His face lingered just beside hers as they moved gracefully across the ballroom floor, his amethyst eyes meeting hers with intensity.
They danced, step by step, caught in some kind of rhythm that felt strangely detached from the world around them.
After a pause, she finally found her voice.
“O-Obviously… no,” she muttered, looking away.
Vanitas chuckled lightly in a sound that was both amused and expectant.
“What if I grant you a wish?”
Astrid’s eyes widened.
“W-What…?” she breathed, barely able to process what she’d just heard.
“Die with me, Princess.”
“….”
Those words had lingered in her mind far longer than they should have.
.
.
And just like that, because of that bizarre exchange, Astrid now found herself seated in a second-class passenger cargo train, dressed in a loose, baggy hat and oversized glasses to conceal her identity.
She still couldn’t believe she had agreed to any of this.
Nearby, she could hear the Professor and Charlotte engaged in their usual lively chatter, though this time, it was about her.
“….”
Her eyes lifted slightly, just enough to glance in Vanitas’s direction. At that moment, their gazes met.
“….”
Astrid quickly looked away and refocused on the magazine in her lap, though she hadn’t absorbed a single word printed on the page.
‘What in the world did I get myself into?’
Nevertheless, she couldn’t bring herself to complain.
A wish.
A single wish. Anything she desired, granted by none other than Vanitas Astrea.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from a man like him was no small thing… and deep down, she knew it.
It was then.
Boom———!
An explosion tore through the train, erupting precisely in the cargo section just as the professor had predicted.
The entire carriage shuddered violently. Glass shattered, wooden panels splintered, and debris exploded in every direction, ripping through the compartment.
“….!”
Anticipating danger from the start, Astrid instantly activated her Stigmata in that small-time frame.
“Ugh…!”
A sharp, piercing headache surged through her skull as she focused her telekinesis. Even the smallest fragments of shrapnel were caught mid-air, halted before they could harm any nearby passengers.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed her power further, extending her reach to the roaring flames. She coiled and compressed the fire as best she could, forcing it inward as she rose to her feet.
All eyes turned to her—wide, stunned, breathless—as she stood her ground despite the agonizing pain with her fists clenched, holding the inferno at bay with sheer will.
“Go!” Vanitas shouted, already moving into action.
He directed the panicked passengers toward the next cargo carriage. His wind magic swirled around him, assisting Astrid by forming a barrier that pushed against the flames.
Charlotte was quick to respond as well, joining Heidi, Candice, and the other staff in ushering the passengers to safety. Her Aqua magic lashed out in waves as she fought to smother the fire.
The moment she crossed into the adjacent carriage, Charlotte turned back—only to see the flames growing fiercer, pushing back against both Astrid and Vanitas.
“Vani—”
Vooosh—!
In an instant, a surge of fire exploded outward, engulfing the entire compartment in a sea of flames.
“….”
….Inside the inferno, the silhouettes of Vanitas and Astrid vanished from sight.