"Come out."
Her voice wasn't raised. She didn't scream. Didn't threaten.
But it felt like a command carved into stone.
My heart thundered. I should've run. Should've pretended I saw nothing.
Instead, I stepped into the moonlight.
She stood in the center of the mana circle, one barefoot twisted slightly into the grass, like she'd been caught mid-motion. Her hands were no longer glowing, but the power still clung to the air around her. Heavy. Sharp.
Her eyes never left me.
"You were watching," she said.
I opened my mouth to lie. To say I got lost. To say I saw nothing.
But something in her expression—quiet, unreadable, and cold—made me feel like lying would only insult her.
"I was passing by," I said. "I heard something and… I stayed."
She tilted her head. "You heard me speaking to the dead?"
"I didn't understand the words," I said honestly. "But I saw what you did."
Her lips parted slightly.
Most people would panic in this moment. Beg for their lives. I remembered the book. Anyone who witnessed her "forbidden magic" was silenced—permanently.
But I didn't beg.
I didn't move.
Because I saw the way her hands trembled when she thought no one was watching.
"You helped that child," I said quietly.
A flicker of something passed over her expression.
"No one's supposed to see this," she said, voice barely above a whisper.
"I'm not going to tell anyone."
"You can't," she said, stepping forward. "You saw something that could ruin everything. You don't understand the consequences."
"You're right," I replied. "I don't."
I didn't understand why the book turned her into a monster when she looked like a girl just trying to survive.
A flick of her fingers and the mana around her surged again.
This was it.
This was the moment Caelum Vire died.
I braced myself.
But instead of attacking, she stopped. Her power retreated.
She looked at me like I confused her.
Like I wasn't following the script she expected.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"…Caelum."
"House?"
"Vire."
She blinked. Recognition.
I waited for the line. The accusation. The threat.
Instead, she turned away. Just like that.
"Leave," she said.
I didn't move.
"Now."
Her voice cracked like a whip, but it wasn't anger—it was fear. Panic.
She didn't want to kill me. She wanted me gone before someone else found out.
I obeyed.
---
I didn't sleep.
I stared at the ceiling all night, the cursed words of the book playing over and over in my head.
"The boy died three days after witnessing her power, his corpse frozen solid."
But she didn't kill me.
Why?
Was it because I didn't run? Because I didn't call her a monster?
Or because the story's script was already unraveling?
The next morning, I didn't attend breakfast. I stayed in my room, pacing like a trapped animal.
I had a theory.
Fate in this world was a living thing. It didn't like being defied.
That's why reincarnated souls like mine weren't allowed to change major events. The story always found a way to correct itself.
So if I wanted to survive, I couldn't just avoid the plot.
I had to break it.
Which meant learning how it worked.
---
Later that day, I went to the estate's private library. Empty. Dusty. But vast.
I searched through old scrolls, family records, magical theory books—anything that mentioned fate, curses, or soul-binding magic.
Hours passed.
Nothing.
Until I found it.
A thin leather-bound book, buried behind volumes of forgotten noble lineages.
"Chains of Love: The Curse of the Heartbonded."
My fingers tightened around it.
Inside were accounts of rare, deadly bonds. Curses passed through bloodlines. Ones where love wasn't a blessing—but a sentence.
One story stood out:
> "When the cursed heart grows close to the soul marked by destruction, a bond shall awaken. For each act of kindness, each moment of intimacy, the curse deepens. And the world shall fracture."
My blood ran cold.
That's what happened last night.
I witnessed the forbidden. I showed her compassion.
And now…
Now something had started.
---
As I read on, a strange sensation crawled across my skin. Like I was being watched.
I turned slowly.
She was there.
Virelya.
Standing in the aisle, watching me read.
I jumped.
"How long have you—"
"Long enough," she said.
She looked at the book in my hands, then back at me.
"You're smarter than I thought."
I set the book down. "You knew?"
"I've felt the pull before. In other lives. Other timelines."
My breath caught.
"You've… lived before?"
Her eyes glinted. "The curse doesn't let me die. Just… resets me. Every time I reach the edge, the story begins again."
She walked toward me, steps silent. Graceful. Dangerous.
"I'm tired, Caelum Vire," she said. "Tired of playing villain to a story that doesn't want to end."
I should have run. Should have begged the gods to take this curse from me.
But I couldn't move.
Her voice dropped.
"If you stay near me, you'll die."
She reached out—and brushed her fingers over mine.
A jolt of pain shot through me like lightning. I gasped, stumbling back, clutching my chest.
She caught me. Held me steady.
Our eyes met.
"I warned you," she said.
And I realized—
The curse had already begun.