Stray birds chirped in delight as the sun slowly woke from its deep slumber, its blinding light towering over a grand and majestic manor surrounded by dancing trees that followed the gentle sway of the fresh air. Inside the bedroom was a youthful and beautiful maiden staring out the distance with a maid on her side, having contrasting thoughts about whether to disturb her or not.
"Young Lady, His Highness Ian Jvis San Servon sent a letter of visit today. Should I immediately prepare and postpone your tea party with Miss Jane?" Her personal attendant, Jill, asked while pouring a cup of iced honeydew tea into the precious porcelain teacup. Her master, Artemis Don Celothien Francia, was gracefully sitting in the velvet cushion, watching the beautiful scenery of nature displayed outside. Her gaze which looked as if it was looking so far away appeared as a delicate fairy in trouble. After heaving a light sigh, Artemis answered.
"Jill, do you think my beloved Ian hates me? It seems as if he is doing everything he can to avoid me. With this invitation, I can only assume he needs something to personally ask for me. My heart aches every time I think of it."
"Don't worry, Young Lady. I'm sure His Highness Prince Ian always has you in his heart, he just doesn't know how to show it. You know his personality, don't you?" Jill tried to appease her lady's troubled thoughts with sweet but empty words. Artemis knew of it and her heavy heart became heavier. Such was the woes of a lady who has a one-sided love for someone.
"Postpone the tea party with Miss Jane one day later and I'll personally write a letter of notification that Prince Ian can visit our manor. I will just see what he needs, even if it hurts my heart," A bitter smile graced Artemis' beautiful face and Jill can't help but pity her master who only acts so heart-broken whenever it concerns Prince Ian.
Her Young Lady had pursued Prince Ian for as long as she can remember at the start of her blossoming childhood. Everyone knew that Artemis' determination and countless efforts were not enough for the cold-blooded prince to fall for her, as his shut-off personality prevented him so. Some may say that even Artemis felt this rejection, yet they can only applaud her never-ending decisiveness.
"I'll be on it, Young Lady. I'll immediately send a set of writing sheets in your room, what design would you like?"
"Bring me a set of ivory white sheets with yellow roses and tell Miss Jane that I am sorry about our tea party. Make sure to emphasize my grief and that I'll prepare a surprise gift for her in exchange."
"Sure, miss." Jill bowed as a sign of her leaving before giving Artemis a set of newly brewed teas and cookies. She was afraid that her lady would feel destructive again since she personally knew just how messed-up her Lady's thoughts could be.
After hearing the door closed, Artemis broke down into tears as her heart tightened. Just thinking about how Ian had purposely avoided her during balls and parties made her feel as if her world were crumbling. She just couldn't understand why Ian hated her. She was intelligent, beautiful with a graceful etiquette, and from a family of high-ranking nobles, falling in the top three most powerful noble families in Fardenhiet, central power country too. Just what was she lacking? She knew that if Ian married her family, it would only do beneficial things such as strengthening his position in the imperial family. So… why?
"Young Lady, I'm here to deliver your writing sheets," A voice from a maid came from the door, waking Artemis up from her depressing thoughts and she quickly fixed her voice. She wiped her tears, smoothened her crumpled dress, and just like that, the image of a broken-hearted maiden disappeared just as quickly as her tears had. It was a bitter realization and the detached Artemis Don Celothien Francia with no heart and flaws came back.
"Come in and set it up on my table immediately. I do not want Prince Ian to wait."
"Yes, Young Lady."
After the maid had arranged the table, Artemis immediately sat down with a feather pen in hand. She stared at the blank sheet in front of her and was having a hard time trying to write something. She knew deep in her heart that it was impossible for Prince Ian to read it personally, but just because of a small hope inside her, she wanted to believe that he would.
Just as she held a feather pen in her hand, starting to write her formal greetings…
Thunder rumbled outside the manor. The ground shook and the furniture fell. Screams of the people pierced her ears. Artemis was frightened of the sudden chaos and jumped up from her seat. She looked outside the window and screamed in terror at what she saw. Raging fire decorated the gates of the manor, blood flowed continuously from the roofs and horrendous monsters without visible bodies were seen crawling, trying to enter. Artemis was beyond terrified, her body trembled and she felt a cold shiver run up her spine. It felt like her nightmares coming alive to hunt her and devour her.
Suddenly, she felt her throat constrict and found it hard to breathe.
"What…" Artemis felt a tremendous pressure behind her. Cold sweat rolled down the side of her face and her chest felt heavy, it felt like she was slowly being deprived of air. She slowly turned around and her eyes widened.
Beautiful silver-blue hair reflected the furious fire coming from the window, and his eyes which resembled the frosty eyes of a wolf with his icy-blue gaze made her feel terrible and Artemis opened and closed her mouth in shock. What was he doing here?
"Lady Don Celothien Francia, do you like my gift for you?" His cold voice asked which was deprived of any emotions and full of condescension asked. Artemis furrowed her eyebrows, feeling light-headed. In this disarrayed situation, there was something that clicked in her mind clearly. He was not the person he appeared to be.
"You're not… His High-"
As she tried to speak, everything dimmed. Artemis felt her chest tighten to an extremely painful sensation and she fell down to the floor. The vision of his regal-self standing in front of her with no intention of helping her; made everything vanish but the pain in her heart.
.
.
.
"Ha…! What the hell-" Artemis woke up, gasping for breath. Her heart was heavily thumping as if it was ready to jump out of her chest. She frantically looked around her room, breathing in relief as she caught in sight the messy bedroom of piled-up papers and dirty clothes in one corner. The fan was creating buzzes noisily and the daily ruckus of her neighbor had ironically made her feel calm.
That dream again. Artemis was not sure if it was just her obsession for a book that she had just finished reading, but the people in her dreams were the characters of the book, Love Me—a famous fantasy romance novel which also has its own webtoon.
Love Me had been the best romance book that Artemis had read for a few reasons. The first reason was that the villainess of the book had the same name as her, as impossible as it sounds. The only difference was that Artemis did not have a ridiculously long surname but rather just Francia. This uncanny coincidence had made her immersion of the plot really enjoyable every time the villainess was referred to in the book. It gave her the shivers.
The second was rather a vague reasoning even to her. The moment promotions of the novel and webtoon bombarded the internet and Artemis skimmed through its plot and synopsis, she was suddenly hooked. Like an unreasonable pull of magic, she felt naturally drawn to the plot's novel, as if it were just what she was looking for all her life.
This was what probably caused her brain to create a dream relating to the character. But while it was alright to have dreams of fictional works, the realism and the horror not suiting what she knew about the book did not calm her nerves at all.
And for some reason, it was already the sixth time it had repeated itself and successfully gave her the shivers every time. Artemis had tried searching the internet on what such specific dream meant, but to no avail, she arrived at no definite answers. Some websites had stated that it was her past memories resurfacing to warn her about something that will happen in the future and others had said that it was only a figment of one's imagination to relieve itself from stress.
The latter had seemed the most possible one, as Artemis had recently been deprived of sleep and energy trying to prepare for her last semester project along with her classmates who had the nerve to go and ghost her out in the chat without contributing something.
Artemis felt her dry throat and back soaked from sweat. She sighed and rubbed her face in frustration. Things were already so busy yet the method her body was doing to relieve stress was ironically just making her more stressed. After a moment of relatively calming herself down, Artemis went down the apartment block to check out if her online order of limited merch for the book had arrived.