“Aria, my angel,” the emperor said earnestly.

“Come and save me.”

Salvation.

The emperor seeks salvation from the monster.

‘How absurd.’

It was so funny that she could no longer laugh.

Aria stared at him as he stretched out his hand towards her cage, but she didn’t move.

“Please sing!”

“……..”

“Aria! If you don’t sing, I’ll make sure you’ll never be able to walk again,” he fumed, threatening her into submission.

His strength was quickly ebbing, his madness near. After tons of threats and persuasion that lead to nowhere, he finally resorted to begging.

He was completely insane.

“Please sing for us. Siren. I beg for your mercy.”

“Please, Siren…,” the dancers pleaded.

Until just a few months ago, these were the people who wouldn’t hesitate to bring her misery. They laughed at her and whispered behind her back.

The musicians and conductors who played the song for the Siren. Even the knights who guarded the emperor.

They called her a monster.

But here they are now, begging on their knees, waiting for Aria to open her mouth.

Aria caught her breath as something lunged painfully up her neck.

“…cough!” she spewed.

It was blood.

The pain throbbed in her chest and the blood slumped all over her body

She looked at her hands which was now coated in blood, the red fluid loosening her grip.

With teary eyes, she clutched her chest.

‘Ah.’

‘So this is how I die.’

Aria smiled.

‘At long last.’

She can finally have her eternal rest.

Her tightly closed lips opened and she finally sang.

“Come to me, sweet death.”

As Aria began to sing, the whole audience became silent. Nobody could take their eyes off her.

She’s been abusing her voice so it became rough and tired over time. Nonetheless, everyone was still mesmerized at her singing. Her voice rolled over the hills in sorrowful waves. It was raspy and quiet yet so powerful as it was brought out in a fit of pain.

“Come and guide me into peace.”

The song, which started calmly, wrapped around them like a warm ray of sunshine.

They echoed amongst the masonry and up to the rafters, then comforted and stroked them tenderly as if it were the voice of an angel.

“Oh, my lord….” Someone said as they shed tears with a serene smile.

The melody purred to the soul, piercing through and touched their hearts from within.

“I am tired of this world…,” Aria continued singing.

This song she sang was a hymn about seeing heaven through death.

However, due to Aria’s dark tone, it became a completely different song.

It turned into a song to call upon the devil.

“Come, the blessings!”1

The irresistibly sweet sound that reverberated in the silence instantly clutched their hearts.

Aria’s songs were like poison, slowly devouring their entire being from within.

“Come!”

The murky voice grabbed their ankles and dragged them straight into the swamp.

Into the swamp of the abyss,

Into the swamp of death,

Into the swamp of hell.

The sound spread violently as Aria continued to sing at the top of her lungs.

“I am waiting for you!” she shouted.

She begged to God who had abandoned her.

She begged to God but ended up getting hurt, cursed, and left alone again.

Eventually, she lost hope in God.

“Come and close my eyes.”

If there’s no God, then she sincerely prays that the devil will take her instead.

“Gasp, gahk!”

Suddenly, the emperor let out a strangled scream as he felt overwhelming pain. He couldn’t breathe, it was as if someone was strangling his neck, squeezing the life out of him.

A second later, he lost strength in his feet and he fell to the ground. The impact of the fall shuddered all the way through his body, which only made the pain ten times worse.

“Blessed sabbath, come!” Aria sang as she let the last note of the song curl slowly from her lips.

The song was over. The ritual was finally finished.

“Gasp, cough….!” The emperor choked as he gasped for air.

His hands were shaking and his whole body was soaked with cold sweat.

Puzzled, the fallen emperor slowly got back to his feet.

“Wha-what on earth is going on?!”

When the emperor looked around, he realized that most of the audience had fainted. Turns out, it wasn’t just him that had to endure that unbearable pain.

Some of the knights that regained consciousness drew out their swords, but their aim was negligent and their feet staggered.

The emperor was appalled. If he had a sword in his hand, he would have carelessly ended his own life because he couldn’t withstand the pain.

“Thi-this…..”

The dread creeps over him like an icy chill, numbing his brain.

“How dare this b*tch….”

But when he came back to his senses, that fear quickly turned into anger.

“How dare you try to kill me!”

Aria had little to no rights as she was the only Siren remaining on the land.

“I saved you from the brink of death, and this is how you repay my kindness?” he ranted.

Sirens live for the purpose of singing. They are not allowed to do anything else.

“Today, I will surely break your will to live. I shall punish you for disobeying me!”

He took one of the knight’s sword and lunged towards her.

Suddenly, a black shadow cast over her.

After living inside the cage her entire life, she finally gained freedom.

She closed her eyes.

‘Sweet death, blessed rest.’

It was then that the door suddenly swung open.

A man with black hair said, “What a sad song.”

He moved closer with those hollow eyes that stared so deeply into her own, and as Aria raised her head, their eyes met.

‘The Grand Duke of Valentine….’

The man who sold his soul to the devil.

The man who was not supposed to be here actually came.

His red footprints stained the white marble floor as he approached her.

‘He really came.’

Aria couldn’t believe it.

The duke took out his sword which was drenched in blood.

The blood on his sword danced merrily as he drew a semicircle on the ground.

“If you seek salvation from the devil, then now is the time.”

Beyond the wide-open door, the blood-stained imperial palace was as serene as a tomb.

Just like it was in the beginning.

“You’re welcome.”

* * *

The devil killed the emperor.

“The sabbath has come,” he said indifferently.

Then he took the key out of the emperor’s arms and unlocked Aria’s cage.

Creak—

The cage slowly opened.

Standing underneath the chandelier, the devil shone brilliantly. His eyes, which looked like burnt ashes, glistened underneath the lights and when they reflected it, they made tiny stars.

In this dark night, his eyes are like the moon, scattering the nascent rays, ever illuminating her soul.

‘How stunning….’

For the first time in Aria’s life, she was mesmerized by a person’s eyes.

“The birdcage is open. Fly anywhere you wish to go.”

It was a memory that she would never forget even after her death.

Aria looked at her shackled ankles with a blank face.

Then she raised her head

6

‘The Grand Duke of Valentine….’

A traitor who killed the emperor.

Yet, he was her savior.

Her cage was wide open.

As the grand duke said, if she had wings, she’d gladly fly away.

But.

“I can’t fly anywhere,” Aria said as she laughed and wiped her bitter tears.2

Her death was near.

‘Put an end to my life…’

As Aria was about to open her mouth to make her last will, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her vocal cords.

She bent over as drops of blood splattered on her lap and knees. By slow, torturous degrees, the coughs eased in intensity and then slowly, slowly passed.

She glanced at the violent red that stained all over her body before her eyes went blank.

“You are a bird with a broken wing…”

The Grand Duke’s languid gaze briefly touched her twisted leg.

“Siren, I’ve heard that listening to your songs drives people crazy.”

Aria collapsed.

Her body slowly becoming weak.

The grand duke held her dying body in his arms and said, “Then I guess your song won’t affect me. Because I’ve always been crazy.”

“…….”

“If there is a limit to madness, you must prove it yourself.”

The devil smiled and carried her body.

Having no strength left in her frail body, Aria finally closed her eyes in the devil’s arms.

——————————————————

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“Shh, Aria. You must never speak, alright?”

Aria’s mother, Sophia, had been feeding her potions ever since she was born.

After drinking the potion, Aria was not able to say anything. She became mute.

She couldn’t even cough.

“You’re a pathetic failure who should’ve never been born!”

Aria’s expression sank.

Why did she have to be beaten and cursed by her own father?

His facial expression was one of absolute disdain. He abhorred her. To him, she was nothing but a burden on his shoulders.

‘I can speak. I have a name, too…’

She blamed her mother.

The mother who would never visit unless it was to deliver potions.

The mother who would scold her when she didn’t drink the potions.

The mother who had never read her fairy tales or sung her a lullaby.1

The mother who had never even embraced her…

‘Does she even love me?’

Aria knew nothing.

She could only watch her as the days went by.

When she turned 10 that spring, she learned everything.

Sophia had passed away.

Her vocal cords were completely torn.

“She took her own life. It was said that she committed a violent crime.”

She knew of the truth only after she overheard the maids’ conversations.

Sophia tried to protect her from Count Cortez.1

‘I was a Siren….’

Siren.

Named after an ancient creature, it was an ability that ran through Sophia’s veins.

The ability to charm, lure, control, and heal others by singing.

Sirens were mythological creatures that only existed in legends.

However, 12 years ago, Count Cortez found out that they truly existed. So he kidnapped a Siren and introduced her to the world.

That Siren was Aria’s mother.

‘Is that how I was born?’

Her whole body trembled.

The news pained her, but it was incomparable to Count Cortez’s domestic violence towards Aria.

“How dare you run away from me, you b*tch! I won’t be your nanny!”

It hurt. A lot.

That day was the worst day of her life.

Aria sat there, tears pricking her eyes, pale hands trembling with fear and sadness.

She tried to block out the screams, but it was impossible, the noise kept ripping her heart.

She felt more pain than the human body could bear and she genuinely believed she would die.

‘I have to run away.’

She had thought of escaping before.

But she was only ten years old.

Furthermore, It had only been a while since she discovered her mother’s true intentions, which were to protect her.

Suddenly, Aria let out a scream.

“Agh!”

She wailed because she couldn’t endure the pain any longer.

“Haha, yes! There’s no way that a Siren’s daughter can’t speak. How dare you try to deceive me?”

“No! Stop it!!!”

“How beautiful… like the voice of an angel, as clear and as soft as a feather….”3

In the end, Aria ended up following her mother’s footsteps, living the life of a Siren.

The powerful nobles begged her to sing, offering her all of their wealth and shamelessly kissing her feet.

The secret social parties of the imperial family and aristocrats turned into a gathering to listen to the songs of the Siren.

They did terrible things.

She saw many things she shouldn’t have seen.

She heard things she shouldn’t have heard.

‘I didn’t want to know any of this…”

She prayed to God every day.

‘Please save me.’

But God never responded.

Due to her overwhelming talent, the Siren’s songs became even more popular.

The people worshipped her as if she were a deity.

They begged her to save them.

Until… the worst comes to the worst.

Rumors began to spread throughout the empire.

The Siren was rumored to be a monster, not an angel of salvation who borrowed the voice of a God.

“The legendary monster deceived all of you…,” Saintess Veronica said with teary eyes in front of the believers.1

“I also got addicted to her songs and most of the palace officials went crazy. The Emperor too….”

Her tears seemed so real that the congregation in the square became agitated.

The nobles went crazy.

The emperor became a tyrant.

The empire fell to ruin.

‘And it’s all the Siren’s fault.’

The Siren was a fake.

Not a sacred being, but a horrible monster.

The real one was Veronica, the saintess from the Holy Empire.4

They shouted in anger, “The imperial family is over because of the monster!”

“We must clean up the imperial palace that has become a den of heathens!”

“Be in power, oh Holy Being!”

“This is not just treason. It’s blasphemy! The Siren’s declaring a holy war!”1

The benevolent saint shook her slender shoulders slightly.1

War was inevitable.

She raised her head as if she had made a decision.

Their eyes rest upon golden arcing rays that fell behind Veronica’s fluttering blonde hair.

“I will save all of you.” Veronica pledged.

“Wow!”

“I will purify the palace and grant God’s grace so that no more innocent sacrifices will be made.”

Saintess Veronica.

The protagonist of a perfectly woven heroic narrative.2

And Aria, the villain who ruined the empire, the root of all evil.

‘I drove them to madness? Really?’

Even Aria herself was confused.

The imperial family, the aristocrats, the commoners… They all said that it was her fault.

The war had begun.

Men and women of all ages were mobilized for war.

They were dragged unconditionally, unable to refuse the conscription.

From the street outside came a peculiar, blood-chilling sound. It was like the low snarling of many voices, and it grew louder and louder until it became a sullen, muttering roar.

The knights called the scene a ‘purification process’.

“Execute the monster!”

When the public sentiment arose, the emperor hid Aria in the depths of the palace.

“Execution? No. You have to sing like a bird for your entire life.”1

Then he broke her leg, covered her mouth, and held her captive inside a small birdcage.2

‘How long have I been here?’

Aria burst into tears.

“……”

This is how she dies.

She gazed upon her bloody palms and clenched her fist.

‘Yes, I’ll just die.’

Once the last remaining Siren dies, no one will have to suffer like her.

Aria gave up everything.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop her emotions from coming out of her rotten heart.

“Do you want me to kill you?”

Aria shifted her gaze to the source of the voice.

Lloyd Cardence Valentine.

The devilish Grand Duke who was said to have murdered all of his relatives and cut off their limbs at the age of 18.

Here he was, staring at a woman with a broken leg, trapped inside the emperor’s cage and dying.

“Because you called for me.”

“I called for you?”

“The Devil.”

The Grand Duke of Valentine.1

A despicable tyrant like the emperor, but he was also a murderer, and he worshipped the devil.

Rumors said that he sold his bloodstained soul to the devil.

“Call me when you need me.”

“……”

“Your songs can be heard everywhere.”

It was as if the devil had offered her a contract with her soul as collateral.

‘He’ll kill us all…’

Aria was dying anyway. What else would she rather do than revenge?

A bird with a broken wing will not be able to fly again even if its cage was opened.

But at the brink of her death, Aria chose to…

“Come, sweet death.”

Call upon the devil.

The Grand Duke, who barged into the palace, murdered all those who stood in his way, with a single sword.1

Everyone last one of them, all…

…except for Aria.1

The screams tore through the room like a great shard of glass. They were the kind of strangled cry that belonged to those not long for this world

Every face was stained with red splatter, and limbs lay at unnatural angles underneath the light of the chandelier.

The night was filled with terror.

Aria was the only one who saw the light of salvation behind the Grand Duke’s back.

“Too bad. Could I have listened to your song one more time if I had come a little earlier?”1

“……”

“I wanted to hear you singing.”

She answered slowly, “Has my song corrupted you, too?”

“No, I corrupted you.”1

He picked up the finest herb leaves that had been scattered nearby in a languid manner.

Then he stuffed it into a smoking pipe and bit it in his mouth.

“Let’s go to hell together,” he said as he pressed the pipe to his red lips and puffed out a cloud of smoke.7

“I apologize. If you hadn’t called me in, you could have gone to heaven.”

Hell.

The scene in front of her looked like hell.

The imperial families and nobles on the floor were lifeless. Their bodies were scattered in multiple places, stained with dried blood; crimson and the room was filled with a nasty butchershop odor.

‘Furthermore… the emperor died.’3

God asked us to forgive our enemies.

Sacrifice yourself for others.

Deny yourself.

God…

But even on the verge of death, the vengeance of a devil was far too sweet.

If the price of her revenge was hell, then she was willing to pay for her sins.

“Sing, I want to sing.”

For the first time in her life. Aria wanted to sing on her own volition.

“Listen to me.”

Her voice didn’t come out well and she could barely open her lips.

But the Grand Duke was still willing to listen.

‘The Devil who took me to Hell.’

Her savior.

He held her in his arms, the pain that weighed on her heart slowly died down.1

All of her senses gradually escaped from her body as she began to fall into a deep sleep and a faint smile hung around her face as she blinked her last second…

* * *

Aria had passed on.

But as the numbness of sleep slowly faded from her limbs…

‘…a floral scent.’

She smelled the scent of spring.

‘Is this… Hell?’3

Her eyes opened, her eyelashes faintly batting against her lids when she blinked and she gasped in a breath.

A familiar ceiling covered her vision.

It was the attic ceiling that she had been locked up in until she was ten.

She pondered for a while, her breathing beginning to steady.

How odd she thought, there was no sharp pain in her chest anymore. It had pained her a lot when she breathed.

‘It doesn’t hurt anymore.’

She touched her face.

‘No burn marks? Why can’t I feel them…?’

She sat up, dragged her feet off the bed, and cast her eyes around her surroundings.

‘The cage is gone.’

She wasn’t locked up. She was free.

She could move her whole body freely. Her legs weren’t crippled, her wounds were gone, and she could actually speak.

‘It’s not a dream.’

Her limbs hadn’t been without pain these past few years, yet here she was, her body was perfect, younger, and healthy.

Aria jumped to her feet and ran towards a small window.

The petals, which heralded the end of winter, fluttered.

‘It’s spring.’

The spring greeted her as butterfly wings greeted the air. The sky was blue, the flowers bloomed, and the sun brought a welcoming warmth that coated her pink-calamine hair.

It was a beautiful landscape, something she thought she would never see again.

Aria reached outside the window and grabbed the petals that scattered through the air, holding them in her hands as if she were praying.

“Ah.”

She was resurrected.

The devil has given her another opportunity.

“…I can talk.”

She didn’t drink the potion because her mother had died.

The fact that she still lived in the attic meant that her father had not heard her voice.

‘Father.’

Count Cortez.

‘The one who ruined my life.’

She sought revenge then, and she will do so now.

Her revenge was all that would make her whole again.

The first thing that popped into her mind, was not the surprise of turning back in time, or the confusion regarding her unusual surroundings, rather…

It was the seven letters of revenge.

‘He must be drinking by now.’

‘He should have been drinking in that place since morning.’

Aria wanted to visit her father.

So she opened the door of the attic without hesitation and immediately headed underground.

“Gasp!”

“Goodness! You scared me.”

“What, how…?”

The maids were dumbfounded at the sight of her leaving the attic.

Aria brushed past them carelessly.

She will soon meet her so-called father in the wine cellar.

“What are you…?”

Count Cortez was too drunk to fully grasp the situation.

He was confused about Aria’s sudden appearance, and he held a wry expression.

But when Aria began to sing, his face brightened and he was soon bathed in astonishment.

——————————————————

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“The song that I heard in my sleep.”

The dreamlike melody, which seemed to be repressed in water, soon echoed throughout the room.

“I opened my eyes, awake from the scattered dreams.”

Aria’s singing guided the count to the River of Oblivion.1

Her voice sounded like an ingenious fairy, a playful yet tangy tone.

Pizzicato.1

He could hear the slender strings of a violin being plucked from somewhere far away.

“Gone, the mysterious night.”

At that moment, the song succeeded in capturing the count’s deranged heart.

This was the song of the Siren.

“Thi-this is ridiculous.” He said, astonished.

“No, it can’t be! How in the world are you able to…. Don’t tell me that Sophia…” the count proclaimed in disbelief.

It was beautiful and angelic, something he never thought he’d yearn in his entire lifetime.

‘That’s not all.’

The lyrics swam through his head like a wakeful dream, the notes soothing him, siphoning his entire being from within.

But at the same time, there was anger laced in her words and a bloody smell filled the entire room.

This intensity was something he could not overcome, it seized and locked him in. Just like an incurable poison disguised as an angel’s touch, ready to lead him to his morbid death.

He could feel it subconsciously.

‘They are both sirens, yet the discrepancy…’

That song would make sane people deranged. A mere voice, yet something that could bring the whole aristocrat under her feet.

Perhaps taking control of the empire was not an exaggeration.

“Let me hear once more! More, more….!” The count begged before stepping on a bottle of liquor and fell to the floor.

His bloodshot eyes set rigid on the siren as he outstretched his hand trying to grip his figment of desire.

It was hideous.

Aria shifted her gaze upon his body and stared at him, her eyes filled with disgust.

‘To think that I was sacrificed for someone as pathetic as him. To satisfy the greed of those who know nothing but wealth and power. How stupid I was.’

Count Cortez.

He controlled his daughter, who knew nothing, with violence. Compelling her into his bidding, things beyond imagination.

The violence he brought to her, still fresh in her memory. New bruises appeared on her body every night as they caused agony that could only be seen on the inside. She was terrified of him, but not anymore…2

“My voice shall be the last thing you hear tonight.”2

Aria’s cold words cleared part of the irrational haze in his mind.

“Wait! Th-this song is…”

‘Yes, you know this song well.’

It was the first song that he told her.

A song to deal with nobles who know things they shouldn’t know.

“You’ll forget everything.”

“No! What are you doing!”

His superficial outcry wasn’t addressed by the Siren. Her symphonious voice sprang to life once more, not carrying even a hint of sympathy.

“The song was like a mirage. The night disappeared as if it was nothing but an illusion.”

A part of him faded like a trace of snow in the first of summer. Every single part of the memory residing in him was torn down.1

A haze gradually veiled his whole body and his memory vanished without a trace.

“Everything was a dream.”

“No, not a dream. The Siren, whom I’ve been longing for, is standing before me.”

The count desperately shut his ears and shook his head, as if by doing so could retain a portion of his memory.

That voice.

Nothing could ever compare its worth. With that in his hands, neither honor, power, glory, nor wealth could ever satisfy his greed…

Yet his lifetime longing condemned his effort as she sang the final verse, concluding the ending by herself, without him in it.

“Ah, everything was just a dream.”

He was reeling under overwhelming force as the bloody metallic taste passed through his throat.

“Siren!!!” He shouted as he coughed out blood.

His eyes were dull as his determined gaze finally faltered. He screamed his final plea as her voice squeezed away all his remaining strength.

The song was over.

The desolate cry of the count finally stopped and Aria found no reason to hear his regrets anymore. It made no difference for her as she wasn’t even going to give him a chance to ask for forgiveness.

Looking at the senseless count, Aria asked coldly, “Where are the mermaid’s tears?”

“Mermaid’s tears… it’s uh… inside the drawer of my bedside table, in a jewelry box….”

“Where’s the key?”

He rummaged through his pockets, his bleary eyes filled with bewilderment. A clinking sound chimed before the key emerged from one of the count’s pockets.

Aria ripped the key away from his hand and ran straight into the count’s bedroom.

She turned the key and found a jewelry box inside the drawer. She carefully opened the small case. Underneath the box was a pearl earring, its rainbow-colored luster glowed underneath Aria’s shadow.

‘Found it, the mermaid’s tears.’

The reason why she never dared to resist her father was because of the pair earrings he had, or better known as, ‘The Tears of a Mermaid’.

The mermaid’s tears were able to fend off the influence of the Siren’s voice. It’s like a shield that would protect the wearer, even from the malicious voice of the ill-willed Siren.

The bearer of this earring was someone even a Siren could never harm.

‘I was able to flee from my father just after my mother died.’

Ironically, the count used to carry the mermaid’s tears wherever he went, but after Sophia died, he left the earrings untouched inside his drawer.

He began to wear it again ever since Aria’s identity as a Siren was revealed.

‘Mother…’

Aria swept the jewelry box with her fingers and clicked open the case.

‘If only I had come back a few days earlier.’

Aria shook her head.

She was fortunate enough to return at the right time. Had she came back even a little late, she would not have been able to break out of the count’s grasp as smoothly as she did then.

As much as she missed her mother and her presence, it was important not to be greedy. Less she would wind up missing this fortuitous opportunity.

Aria sealed the jewelry case shut and clutched the earrings tight within her hold.

* * *

She really came back.

Back to when she was a measly 10-year-old.

Aria put her hand on her pounding heart.

‘I thought I’d be in hell.’

She denied God, yet instead of being punished, she was given another chance. A new life to rebrand those years of foul memories.

It was ridiculous.

Now there would be no burn marks deforming her skin nor two slender yet broken legs.

‘I can change the future.’

Aria felt unshackled, for she had been given the freedom she craved for a lifetime.

Nothing will chain her ever again, not the count, the repugnant aristocrats, and certainly not the emperor. The seed of her childhood nightmares, which reigned her entire life, was finally gone.

‘What do I do now?’

Her mind agonized upon her worrisome future.

Unfortunately, the potion she had taken had consequences of its own. Apart from losing her vocal cords, the potion also shortened her lifespan.

The potion gave Aria’s freedom a time limit.

It was something she couldn’t change even if she had traveled back in time.

‘I’ll die when I reach twenty…’4

‘With this limited time, how can I spend the rest of my life meaningfully?’

Only one thing is for certain, she should never let anyone know that she’s the only remaining Siren.

‘My songs will drive people insane.’

The Siren’s enchanting music was able to fascinate, yet poison people’s minds at the same time. Their voice could lure them to insanity and corrupt their thoughts.

Aria was fed up with such situations.

Suddenly, she recalled a peculiar individual who held her on the brink of her death.

“Siren, I’ve heard that listening to your songs drives people crazy.1

It was then.

“Then I guess I don’t mind. Because I’ve always been crazy.”

She recalled the voice in her last moments.

His grey eyes blurred as if they had lost their original color, and would only brighten when he slaughtered the nobles.

His eyes were soulless and lifeless, gaze wandering everywhere as if searching for clarity.

Perhaps he desired sanity, although he could not stand it. Perhaps being sane tormented his mind. Perhaps that was the reason why he could not take himself off the high, the wishful dream that gradually faded as he came into contact with brutal reality.1

‘Lloyd Cardence Valentine.’

He was only at the age of eighteen when he inherited the title of the Grand Duke.

However, four years later a dreadful accident occurred. The Valentines were brutally annihilated. The entire bloodline and even their subordinates, they were all killed. Hence it was named ‘The Valentine Incident’.

Lloyd Valentine was the only survivor of the tragedy…

Naturally, he was referred to as the criminal.

‘Although no punishment was executed.’

The incident was said to be the culmination of the devil’s madness, which was passed on to the Valentines, generations after generations.

Even the Emperor overlooked the incident.

Simply put, the affairs of the Valentines were inviolable.

‘That might be true.’

Indeed he could have been involved with the devil and killed all his parents, relatives, and subordinates.

After seeing him slaughter the aristocrats without even batting an eye, even a dim-witted person would doubt him.

‘But he didn’t want anything.’

Every single person who signed a contract with a devil had their own desires. It might be gold, glory, or honor, but it was surely something they desired so greatly. Something that they would offer anything to obtain. Even by trading with the devil.

But not him.

His eyes weren’t even burning with anger and vengeance like what was present in Aria. There was no passion nor zealousness.

‘His eyes were just… empty.’

His vacant eyes did not desire anything yet he didn’t hesitate to help her get her revenge.

He offered her a choice.

Just like a devil.

It didn’t occur to her that he could be the one that caused the massacre of the Valentines.

‘A man who doesn’t want anything.’

Aria gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Because he had given her hope.

‘I will give you happiness.’

If he accepts her.

‘Can I spend the rest of my short life next to you?’ Aria thought.1

She wanted to be the firefly that illuminated his darkest night. Give her entire life for him, a desire to protect him, and a willingness to take on suffering if it was for his happiness.

* * *

‘The maids are insane.’

The wooden flooring in the attic creaked under the maids’ heavy footsteps.

Aria sat on the bed, her eyes set to the window before she retracted her gaze back to the maids.

The maids put her breakfast on the yellow discolored quilt.

On the tray was a watery yellow congee with an odd stench that wafted throughout the room.

‘This is… porridge?’

“The count told us to wash and dress her.”

“Why does the count suddenly care about her?”

“I don’t know.”

They could not help but sneer at the sight of the young girl, their eyes were filled with contempt and disdain.

Aria was the outcast of the mansion. Every person knew she was the victim of the count’s abuse yet none held her in favor. Hence they regarded her as a ghost.

They stood there, doing nothing but staring at her with their arrogant eyes.

“Perhaps the count is planning to acknowledge her as his child?”

“Eh, no way.”

“Right. He even declared that he won’t register her as a family even after he died.”

“Is it because he’s drunk? Ever since her mother passed away, he would only drink throughout the day.”

“Isn’t he trying to replace her? Perhaps he’s trying to substitute her mother like an ornamental doll.”

Aria had all of the distinctive traits of the Siren’s bloodline.

Her hair that flowed softly down to her waist, resembling cherry blossoms in mid-spring.

Her pupils twinkled as though it was a polished pink sapphire and a rosy color stained her cheek with a reddish hue….

Her appearance contained a lovely aspect that no one can deny. The child’s charming features shone even brighter than a gleeful spring, with such ethereal impression, someone might mistake her as a spring fairy.

‘Siren.’

People would speak of their diverse beliefs about the legendary creature, but they would always agree about one thing.

Their stunning appearances.

The Siren sings so sweetly that she lulls everyone into her song—with her voice she enchants, with her beauty she deprives of reason—voice and sight alike deal destruction and death.

‘It used to be an unfounded legend.’

But when Sophia, Aria’s mother, first appeared, the world had no choice but to accept their existence in the world.2

The existence of a beautiful monster, Siren.

‘Look at her eyes. They’re like jewels, trapping people with its enchanting gaze.’

One of the maids sat on the bed and stared at the child, her mind was muddled before she soon came to her senses and said, “What am I saying, she can’t even speak.”

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