Chapter 3.The man who should be dead

He was supposed to be dead.

I stood near the balcony, still trying to understand what had just happened. The man had disappeared before I could see his face clearly, but I knew his voice. I had heard it many times while reading the novel, and I remembered exactly what had happened to him in the original story.

He had died years before Seraphina's story even began. His death had been connected to one of the kingdom's darkest secrets, and although his name had appeared only a few times in the novel, there had never been any doubt that he was dead.

Yet he had just stood in my bedroom and told me that I was never supposed to wake up.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, followed by the bedroom door opening. Two guards rushed inside and immediately began looking around.

“Lady Seraphina, what happened?”

“A man was here,” I said, pointing toward the balcony. “He escaped through there.”

One of the guards went outside while the other stayed with me.

“Did you see his face?”

“No. He was wearing a black cloak.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No.”

The guard nodded and called for more men to search the courtyard.

While they searched the room, something near the balcony caught my attention. I bent down and picked it up. It was a black ring with a silver symbol carved into it, the same mark I had seen on the letter.

The Order of the Veiled Moon.

I closed my hand around the ring just as the bedroom door opened again. Adrian entered with two royal guards behind him, and his attention immediately went to the open balcony.

“What happened?”

“A man came into my room.”

“Where is he?”

“He escaped through the balcony.”

Adrian stepped outside and looked over the railing. Several guards were already searching the grounds below, but the stranger was nowhere to be seen.

“Did you see his face?”

“No.”

“What did he want?”

I hesitated before answering. “He said I wasn't supposed to wake up. He also said Seraphina was supposed to die three days ago and that I don't belong here.”

Adrian's expression changed at the last part.

“You know something,” I said.

“Why would you think that?”

“Because you look like you do.”

He didn't answer. Instead, his eyes moved to my hand.

“What are you holding?”

I opened my fingers and showed him the ring.

His expression became serious. “Where did you get that?”

“The man dropped it.”

He took the ring from me and turned it over in his hand.

“The Order of the Veiled Moon,” he said quietly.

“So you know about them.”

“Everyone knows the name.”

“They were supposed to be gone.”

“They were.”

Before I could ask anything else, a royal guard hurried toward us.

“Your Highness, we found something in the garden.”

We followed him to the eastern side of the estate, where another guard stood beside a thorn bush. A piece of black fabric was caught between the branches.

Adrian carefully removed it and examined the silver embroidery along its edge.

“This is the same material we found beneath your window.”

The embroidery formed a small crown surrounded by a circle.

I recognized it immediately. “That's the royal crest.”

Adrian's expression hardened.

One of the guards looked confused. “How could an assassin have something belonging to the royal family?”

“That is what we need to find out,” Adrian replied.

I looked at him. “Why would someone go through all this trouble to frame me?”

“Because they wanted me to believe you were responsible.”

“And now?”

“Now I believe someone else is controlling the situation.”

Before I could ask what he meant, a scream came from the eastern wing.

Adrian drew his sword and hurried inside, with the guards following closely behind. I stayed close to them as we moved down the corridor.

We found a young servant sitting against the wall, trembling as she pointed toward the end of the hallway.

“The man from Lady Seraphina's room,” she whispered.

Adrian crouched beside her.

“Where did he go?”

“I saw him coming out of the royal chamber.”

Adrian stood immediately.

The royal chamber was supposed to be empty.

He walked toward the door and tried the handle, but it was locked. One of the guards quickly unlocked it, and Adrian pushed the door open.

Everything inside appeared normal. The bed was neatly arranged, the curtains were closed, and nothing seemed to have been disturbed.

Then Adrian noticed a folded piece of paper on the desk.

He picked it up and opened it while I moved closer to read it.

There were only five words written across the page.

The first key has awakened.

My eyes went to Adrian.

“What does that mean?”

“I don't know.”

His answer was quieter than I expected.

Before I could ask another question, the servant spoke from the doorway.

“Your Highness, there was another person inside.”

Adrian turned toward her. “Are you certain?”

She nodded. “I saw two people.”

“What did the second person look like?”

“I couldn't see their face.”

“Then how do you know there were two?”

The servant looked at me nervously.

“Because the second person wasn't wearing black. They were wearing the colors of House Vale.”

The room became quiet.

Someone wearing my family's colors had been inside the Crown Prince's chamber, and after everything that had happened that night, I couldn't believe it was simply a coincidence.

Adrian looked at me, his expression difficult to read.

I wanted to believe there was another explanation, but deep down, I knew the situation was becoming more dangerous.

The person behind all of this wasn't simply trying to attack the Crown Prince or frame me.

They had access to my family's estate.

They knew about the attack.

And they were close enough to use House Vale's name to hide what they

were doing.

For the first time since waking up in this world, I realized that the greatest danger might not be waiting outside the estate.

It could already be inside my family.