The woman removed the cigar from her mouth and burst out angrily.

“Damn it… Where did the princess go?”

“Oh…”

“Why are you standing there stupidly gaping? It’s your fault, you idiot!”

“Ah, we just need to find her. That tiny woman couldn’t have gone far. She’s injured too.”

“Save your carefree talk for after we find her!”

The woman carelessly tossed away her cigar, slapped the man on the back, and rushed out of the room. The man followed, cursing as he went.

In the place they had noisily vacated, a chilly forest breeze wafted in through the large window.

That wind reached the ember of the cigar the woman had carelessly thrown near the ashtray on the table. The wind-fanned ember caught on the tablecloth.

The small spark quickly grew, consuming the tablecloth, and soon began to blaze fiercely, devouring the table and the nearby sofa.

As if mocking the echoing voices of the man and woman from the nearby forest.

The rapidly growing flames burned the wooden furniture and produced smoke.

The smoke filled the room in a haze and seeped into the wardrobe in the corner.

Of course, it reached Blair, who was hiding inside.

‘…Smoke?’

Blair furrowed her brow at the acrid smell characteristic of something burning.

At first, she thought it might be her imagination, since she was in a wardrobe just like on that day of the fire accident…

“Cough, cough…”

Her lungs instinctively expelled coughs as they took in the smoke. Her eyes and throat quickly became irritated. Now she could even feel the heat.

It wasn’t her imagination.

‘Outside, there’s a fire…’

The mere thought of a massive fire nearby brought on extreme fear, making her heart race and her breathing quicken.

‘I need to get out quickly.’

Blair twisted her body to get out of the wardrobe.

At that moment, along with a throbbing headache, a hazy memory surfaced.

The scene inside the wardrobe that she had seen in hypnosis attempts numerous times across her past life and this one, but had never managed to escape from.

‘No, stay focused. Please…’

Blair tried not to let fear dominate her, but her body and mind wouldn’t obey. Her increasingly rapid breathing was now indistinguishable between the effects of smoke and trauma.

As her consciousness began to fade due to difficulty breathing, it happened.

‘Close your eyes, then open them.’

Herdin’s voice echoed in her ears like an auditory hallucination.

In her hazy consciousness, Blair instinctively followed that voice, slowly blinking her eyes.

‘Breathe slowly too.’

Led by the next voice she heard, she slowly inhaled and exhaled.

Just as they had practiced every night.

‘It’s alright.’

As those words suggested, gradually the feeling of fear subsided and her breathing returned.

Her hands still trembled at the thought of the fire waiting outside the door, but she couldn’t remain trapped here any longer.

Now, it was time to leave the wardrobe.

Blair managed to steady her breathing in the acrid smoke and straightened her posture. Then she kicked the wardrobe door.

Bang!

As the wardrobe door opened, the thick smoke filling the room enveloped Blair. In an instant, her vision blurred, and the smoke was so dense it nearly choked her.

When she opened her eyes that had been tightly shut, she saw the sight of a room entirely engulfed in flames.

“Ah…”

Strangely, even though everything around was a sea of fire, even though the feeling of fear threatening to consume her still surged, she felt refreshed as if a huge weight had been lifted from her chest.

As if she had broken free from shackles she had been bound by for a very long time.

‘…Let’s get out of here.’

Blair, who had been staring at the fiercely burning flames that seemed ready to devour everything, slowly closed her eyes, then opened them as she took a breath.

The fear that had been rising again, ready to strangle her, subsided a bit.

It was then that Blair raised her heavy body to leave the wardrobe.

“Ugh…”

This time, a headache much stronger than before struck her. It was a pain so intense that her vision momentarily blurred.

At that moment, overlapping with Blair’s sight as she expelled a painful breath, memories from some time ago began to appear.

The massive fire blazing so brightly it hurt to look at, the smoke filling the room, and…

The blood-stained candlestick in her hand.

‘This is…’

As Blair stood frozen, trembling at the sudden return of memory,

“Blair!”

The door opened and Herdin burst in.

“…Herdin.”

Blair blankly stared at him as he strode towards her through the flames.

His eyes, like an icy lake, that she met in this fiery hell, resembled those of Esmeralda in her memory.

‘Let’s play hide-and-seek. You must not come out until I tell you to, Blair.’

Memories came flooding in like a broken dam.

The memories of that day she had lost.

Unable to withstand the flood of memories overwhelming her, Blair collapsed right there.

* * *

Blair, who had fallen asleep, felt her body floating in the air and opened her heavy eyes. The first thing she saw was Esmeralda.

“Your Majesty?”

“…Blair.”

Esmeralda flinched at the sound of Blair’s voice. Her expression seemed frightened at a glance, but it was hard to see clearly due to the things obstructing her view.

The child, still not fully awake, only realized moments later that the things blocking her view were clothes, and that she was inside a wardrobe.

Blair rubbed her heavy eyelids and asked,

“Why are we going into the wardrobe?”

“Blair, let’s play hide-and-seek.”

“Hide-and-seek…?”

“Yes. You must not come out until I tell you to. No matter what sounds you hear, no matter what happens, absolutely not. Do you understand?”

Esmeralda kept looking back towards the outside of the wardrobe as she made this request.

Blair found it strange that she was suddenly being asked to play hide-and-seek after waking up, and Esmeralda’s atmosphere seemed odd somehow, but unable to resist the drowsiness washing over her, she quietly nodded.

Beyond her eyelids that were growing heavy again, she saw Esmeralda smiling, looking somehow sad.

‘What has made Your Majesty sad?’

If it had been any other time, she would have asked that and hugged her. Just as Esmeralda had always done for her.

‘When I wake up, I must ask her. I must hug her…’

But Blair succumbed to the overwhelming sleepiness and fell asleep.

How much time had passed like that?

Crash!

‘Huh!’

Blair’s eyes flew open, startled by the sharp sound of objects falling and hitting the floor.

‘What was that sound?’

Similar sounds followed a few more times. Sleep fled completely. An instinctive, eerie premonition crept in amidst the ensuing silence.

And the smell.

The scent of something burning invaded her nose and penetrated deep into her lungs.

Instinct was warning her. That death was near.

Blair quietly held her breath and peered outside through the gap in the wardrobe door.

There was someone in a maid’s uniform in the room. Their face wasn’t clearly visible from the side. And in front of them…

‘Your Majesty?’

Esmeralda was lying down. But she didn’t seem to be asleep.

The Esmeralda that Blair knew was the most beautiful, elegant, and dignified person in the world. There was no way such a person would carelessly lie down on the floor just because she was sleepy.

‘What are they doing?’

The view through the narrow gap in the door was limited. She couldn’t see clearly what the maid was doing with the sleeping Esmeralda. Blair moved a little closer to the gap and rolled her eyes.

At that moment, an unbelievable sight met Blair’s eyes.

The maid was wrapping a cloth around Esmeralda’s neck and tying it to the ceiling.

Even the young princess, who had grown up unaware of the dark side of the world, realized what the maid was trying to do to Esmeralda.

The maid was trying to kill Esmeralda.

It was not something learned, but an innate fear of death that she had possessed since birth.

Blair’s eyes trembled violently as she witnessed this scene. Tears flowed without her even realizing it, overwhelmed by fear.

Why?

She didn’t understand how this situation had come about, but one thing was clear.

She had to save Esmeralda.

‘But… I’m scared.’

What could I do if I went out now? Could I defeat that maid? What if I failed to save Her Majesty and ended up dying too…?

As the smoke gradually filled the air, making it harder to breathe, Blair trembled all over, trying to suppress the cough that threatened to burst out.

I wish all of this were a dream.

It would be nice if it were just a night vision that would disappear when I opened my eyes in fear, cried and hugged Esmeralda, feeling the warmth of her embrace. If only someone would save me from this nightmare…

But now she had to accept the cruel reality that wouldn’t disappear no matter how much she shook her head or cried.

‘No one can save me.’

Right now, the only person who can save me is myself.

Blair clenched her trembling hands tightly. She wiped away her flowing tears roughly and looked outside the wardrobe again.

The maid, standing on the coffee table, was still struggling to hang Esmeralda.

Blair instinctively turned her gaze away from that horrific scene and noticed a candlestick among the objects scattered near the wardrobe. The pointed candlestick was glinting, reflecting a red light.

Blair’s heart began to race rapidly as she spotted it.

There would be only one chance.

Blair slightly opened the wardrobe and approached the nearby candlestick.

Fortunately, the maid seemed not to notice, focused on tying up Esmeralda. Her pounding heart felt like it might jump out of her mouth.

Blair managed to quietly approach and grab the candlestick. There was no hesitation after that, nor time for it.

Blair gripped the candlestick tightly. Then she ran and swung it at the maid’s legs.

“Stop it!”

The child’s blow didn’t inflict much damage. But her appearance alone was enough to startle the maid.

“Ah!”

The maid lost her balance from Blair’s attack and fell under the table. At that moment, Blair could finally see.

The face of the culprit who had harmed Esmeralda.