Claudia felt something calling her, and she slowly opened her eyes.
The air was thick with a sweet fragrance. Looking for the source, she saw that she was lying in a bed of white lilies. Sitting up, she realized she was in a coffin of transparent glass.
She got the sense she’d been asleep for a very, very long time. And as she sought the reason for her awakening, her fingers brushed against her lips.
Noah?
It was here that she felt the faint touch of warm magic still lingering. Yet, even as she brushed her lips with her fingers, she could not discern the source.
She silently took in her surroundings.
She was in a small chapel, still and silent, devoid of any human presence. The only hint of warmth came from the light streaming through the stained glass windows, painting the air in vibrant colors.
I don’t know this place.
Her body felt like it was covered in a thin, protective veil. She made to stand, but the motion sent a slight dizziness through her, and her vision distorted.
She had entered into slumber by her own choice. It had been the only way to reconstruct her body, a vessel too fragile to bear the immense magic of Adelheid.
Did the spell work?
She tested her body. She let her fingers glide from her collarbone down to her chest, tracing her curves over the white dress that clung to her body.
Her body was no longer the fragile, delicate frame she had been in when she had chosen to sleep. She had grown taller; her figure had matured. Nonetheless, she recognized the shape.
This is reminiscent of when I would transform into an older form. Then I can surmise I’m about sixteen now. Could it be that I’ve slept for three years?
If that were the case, then surely she had caused Noah to worry.
Then I will have to praise him for being such a good boy and waiting so patiently. I shall pat his head and tell him I’m sorry.
There was something else she needed to ask him too—that kiss he had left upon her lips before she’d fallen into her slumber.
However, I need a more appropriate outfit first.
The dress she wore, while lovely, was simple. Pinching its hem, she prepared to weave herself a new one—only to falter.
“Something is wrong...”
She released the fabric and lifted her hand toward the light filtering through the stained glass. Her fingers were still slender and pale—almost like a ceramic doll’s.
Did the reconstruction fail? Did I lose my magic in exchange for keeping my life? she wondered, but the sound of the chapel doors opening interrupted her thoughts.
At the end of the black carpet that lay between the altar and the door stood a young man.
He was broader than she remembered—and taller. But his face was just as beautiful as the day she entered slumber.
Warmth bloomed in Claudia’s chest.
“Noah...”
Her adorable servant.
Yet as she watched him, her joy wavered.
He was frowning.
As she looked into his obsidian eyes, she realized that something was off. For a moment, he seemed like a stranger.
“I’ve missed you, my Noah,” she whispered.
Claudia stepped forward, reaching toward him—only for him to strike away her outstretched hand.
She looked up sharply. His eyes were cold with rejection.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Don’t come any closer,” he said.
They were the same words he’d spoken the very first time they met.
Without thinking, Claudia took another step toward him.
“I said stay away.”
He’d been suffering back then, ensnared by a curse that threatened to claim his life. His rejection of her had been born of desperation—of fear that she would be drawn into danger alongside him.
“Take another step, and I’ll kill you too.”
But the way he said these words bore no resemblance to those from the past.
“Noah?”
“Who is this ‘Noah’?” he asked. The question lacked a tone of curiosity, asked as though the answer hardly mattered.
And then, lowering his gaze, he called her by a name that did not belong to her in this life.
“You’re Adelheid.”
Even now, as she looked at him closely, she was sure this young man was Noah.
He spoke again in a detached tone. “So you’re the reincarnation of the witch who lived five centuries ago.”
The way he looked at her now, his brows furrowed in displeasure, wasn’t an emotion he’d ever directed at her before.
Claudia forced a smile, careful in how she approached him. “And what is your name?”
He raised an eyebrow. Her composure must’ve unsettled him. Any ordinary girl her age would have likely been trembling or weeping in fear, but Claudia did neither. She simply waited.
After a beat, the young man finally answered, “Leonhard.”
I see.
That was the name Noah had been given at birth. The name he had before she had bestowed the name Noah on him when she had taken him in as her servant. But it was almost as if that moment had never come to pass.
Then this is not the world I knew. This is a world where the boy Leonhard grew up without ever having met me.
His obsidian eyes, cold and piercing, bore into her.
Her eyes drifted downward. He wore a military uniform adorned with medals. One emblem in particular stood out—the royal crest of Lemilsia.
Claudia was starting to put things together.
This is a world where we never met, and he was able to regain his status as royalty in Lemilsia.
The corners of her lips curved upward in a grin, and she noticed that his eyes widened slightly.
Now, Claudia understood.
In this world, I am his enemy.