What could possibly be reassuring about that? The boy cheerfully said, pushing the unease aside. Diana took the cup he offered, moving the dolls aside.
The pain had gone, but her strength was completely drained. Her hands trembled just holding the small cup.
But the water was sweet and refreshing.
"It's water with demon poison."
"Pfft. Cough Cough"
What?!
"No, it's not poison! It's medicine!"
Poison, but not poison? The flustered boy brought a white cloth to wipe her mouth.
After a bout of coughing, she took a deep breath.
Can I trust this? Diana glanced suspiciously at the boy, who just smiled shyly.
Somehow, she was alive. She was sure she had died, so this must be a resurrection.
Diana looked around. The room was unfamiliar, old, and worn.
Shouldn't one wake up in the same place they died?
"Where is this? And who are you?"
"This is a magician's castle. I'm Noel, your brother."
The boy hesitated before looking straight at her.
Noel. Brother?
The word was foreign, and silence fell for a moment.
In the original story, the Beatus family included only four siblings, including her. In reality, too. A brother more in our family? That's impossible.
"Big sister?"
A flash of memory crossed her mind.
The Beatus family's illegitimate child. A child a maid left behind for money.
Her siblings didn't care, and she had forgotten about the neglected child. Soon after he arrived, she fell ill.
"Diana big sister?"
"Yes, that's right, Noel."
Acknowledging her seemed to brighten his red eyes, emblematic of the Beatus family.
For some reason, he brought her a small hand mirror.
Reluctantly, she looked at her reflection.
Hair nearly black, eyes pink under haughty brows, adding splendor to her doll-like features.
A fragile appearance couldn't hide her exceptional beauty.
"Ah, I'm back."
She was not the deathbed figure she had been before dying.
Diana remembered herself, so emaciated she couldn't even swallow thin soup, her cheeks hollowed, resembling a skeleton.
Yes, that's how she died. Realizing she was in a novel, she couldn't do anything but lie in bed.
Diana flexed her thin hand.
Watching her hand move, she lay back powerlessly, a listless laugh escaping her.
She was alive. In pain, but able to move. That's all that mattered. Forget the original story. She had to survive first.
Saving a doomed villainous family was a thought only possible when healthy. Her own well-being came first.
"You said if I stayed quiet, big sister would come. Then I wouldn't be alone."
Diana frowned slightly at Noel's words about being trapped in the magician's castle.
So someone had confined the illegitimate child of the Beatus family and abducted her, Diana, as well? And this was unrelated to the original story?
Why did something that wasn't supposed to happen, happen? She should've been lying in her luxurious room, bedridden.
"How long have I been here?"
"Not long."
The boy didn't know the exact date. Still, she could guess the situation from the information pieced together.
She was trapped in the magician's castle with Noel, with no idea who the culprit was.
The vast castle, empty of people, was bound by a powerful barrier.
A barrier that couldn't be exited without the owner's permission wasn't common in this era.
The magicians of this era could only use simple magic with magic crystals.
This was like an ancient mage tower. Even the wide-open windows were blocked by a barrier.
Wind flowed in, hinting at a possibility, but her hand was stopped by an invisible wall at the window sill.
Could she break this invisible wall? Throwing a candlestick experimentally, it passed through and fell below.
She had expected the candlestick to bounce off.
Watching the falling candlestick, Diana's pink eyes suddenly shifted to the dusky moon hanging high in the sky.
"Ah, the red moon."
The red moon had risen precisely when she fell ill. She distinctly remembered.
So, she was returned to the time she just began to get sick.
Sigh, waking up to find herself kidnapped and imprisoned by some lunatic.
Does a tragic romance novel affect even an extra like her?
Forget the original story; her life was in danger. What to do? How does a terminal character in the novel survive? The original story offered no solution for a character briefly mentioned.
"Big sister, are you in pain again?"
As she clutched her head in agony, Noel brought a cursed doll as big as himself.
Despite Diana's look of disgust, Noel cheerfully offered the doll.
"Hug this, and it will ease your pain."
"It will ease my pain?"
"You suffer from a disease where magic is draining from you. This cursed doll will help."
A disease of magic draining away? Something even renowned doctors couldn't diagnose.
"How do you know that?"
"I can see it, big sister."
As she touched the doll, black smoke emerged from it and began seeping into her body. Vitality returned to her, as if by magic.
"Right?"
Noel smiled meaningfully, his eyes crinkling.