PROLOGUE

"Today, you die."

Val's life had been shattered in a single night, a night that came just before his eighteenth birthday.

Now, he found himself staring up at a cold, mysterious girl, her haunting presence almost suffocating. His face, smeared with blood, was expressionless—numb to the pain, numb to everything.

The girl stood over him, her short, snow-white hair glistening in the pale moonlight, her violet eyes sharp and cold like amethysts set under the silver glow of the night.

Her gaze pierced through him, colder than the frigid alley they stood in.

Surrounded by the chilling darkness, Val felt the weight of the night pressing down. The full moon above hung larger than life, casting an ethereal light over her slim figure, draped in a dark cloak that made her look like a shadow come to life.

Time appeared frozen.

Val's gaze locked unto the girl, his eyes empty and his face a bloody canvas. The moonlight cast an eerie glow on her snow-white hair, her amethysts eyes glistening darkly in the shadows.

The girl's violet eyes seemed to bore into Val's soul, her expression unyielding.

"Today is the day..." She whispered. Her voice like a silent winter breeze.

Today was the day he was supposed to die.

The day his already cruel world turned completely against him.

Val Valentine had struggled throughout his eighteen years of living, for as long as he could remember — which wasn't that much. His memories were fractured and hazy at a certain point — most of it a blur.

But there were certain things he remembered more vividly than anything. Distant scenes that haunted him like ghosts and wraiths.

He remembered he had a mother.

He remembered her name was Lily. Lily Valentine.

With hair as white as freshly fallen snow, he remembered she was breathtaking.

He remembered she was fatally sick too. That she died to chronic depression.

He remembered his younger brother, Winter, the last remnant of their family, left to navigate a cruel world alone.

Lily had always been unusual, naming them in unconventional ways—Winter for his brother, and Val, after her favorite saint, which gave him a unique charm. But after their mother's death, Val promised never to let them be separated, tirelessly working to keep Winter by his side.

With the cold, unfeeling alley wall against his back, none of that mattered anymore.

The domineering gaze of the mysterious girl bore down into his soul as he silently looked up at her.

Half of his face was drenched in blood, a morbid curtain of bright red dripping over his forehead and eyes.

She stared coldly, her words hanging like the blade of a guillotine above his head.

Yet.

"...I see."

Val's deep voice was emotionless as he gazed at her with an unreadable expression.

His deep blue eyes swept the dark, empty alley calmly.

"...Those strange people... they're the ones who will kill me?"

The girl's expression twisted slightly.

"Huh? What makes you think I won't be the one to do it?" she asked, her voice cold as her snow-white hair. Beneath her cloak, her narrowed eyes glinted.

Val glanced at her, unshaken. He stoically gazed at her.

She wasn't 'something' he could defeat. She wasn't someone he could hope to escape from or survive against.

Neither were the others.

But.

His deep voice remained emotionless, yet a glimmer of curiosity flickered in his blue eyes.

His lips parted.

"You're hesitating," he said coldly.

The expression on the girl's icy, still face faltered slightly. Her eyes widened, her shoulders shook briefly, but she quickly regained composure, hiding those signs almost as soon as they surfaced.

But not quickly enough.

Val had noticed.

He shook his throbbing head slowly, exhaustion weighing him down. Despite his calm exterior, the pain was overwhelming—each breath felt like a struggle. His head wound had bled so much that his thoughts were beginning to blur and drift.

With a slow shake of his head, he met the girl's piercing violet gaze once again.

"You don't want to kill me," he said.

'If she did, I wouldn't still be alive,' he added inwardly.

The others had gone straight for the kill. By some miracle, he had barely escaped, though he knew he was living on borrowed time. His wounds were severe, and against attackers of their caliber, he stood no chance.

That was why he had resigned himself to fate, waiting in the dark, empty alley for 'them' to find him.

But it was she who arrived instead.

With beautiful white hair like his mother's, she had appeared out of nowhere—silently, like a ghost materializing from thin air.

In the pale cascade of moonlight, her figure cast no shadow.

"Today is the day you die," she had said.

Val's lips parted as he drew in a breath through his mouth. His shoulders rose and fell as he turned his cold gaze from the girl to the ground, then back again. "I'm right."

The girl's expression shook. A flicker of uncertainty flashed in her eyes, and she clenched her fist.

"Why..."

She glared at Val, his face streaked with blood, and felt a deep tightness in her chest.

"...aren't you running?" she asked, her voice cold and chilling. But it slowly softened, trembling.

"Why aren't you trying to escape?"

She raised her clenched fist, gripping a handful of her dark cloak near her chest. Her eyes wavered, and her cold, aloof expression crumbled into anguish.

"Run..." she whispered.

"...Please." she begged.

She leaned forward, her face twisted with sorrow, her fist pressed tightly against her chest.

"...If you try to escape, I won't stop you. I'll let you go, so run! Just... go!" Her voice wavered as her eyes trembled with emotion.

'Before it's too late...'

She glanced at Val's still, pale face and squeezed her eyes shut. Gripping her cloak over her chest, she lowered her head.

Then, she screamed, her voice cutting through the air like a howling wind.

"Why aren't you running?!"

Her voice echoed through the dark, frigid alley, the cold air biting, while the indifferent moon hung in the starless sky, untouched by her sorrow.

Val glanced up at the mysterious girl, his lips parting as if to speak, but no words came.

'This person...'

-Drip, drip-

'Why is she...?'

Tears streamed down the girl's soft, pale face. She kept her head lowered, clutching her chest as though holding herself together.

Why... Why was someone he had never met before shedding tears for him...?

Val's deep blue eyes, still as a misty lake, flickered ever so slightly. Something stirred in the back of his mind, a faint echo deep within his chest.

The sight of her, trembling and weeping, overlapped with a distant image from his fragmented memories.

For a brief moment.

"Run?"

Val withdrew his straying thoughts.

"Where?"

He gazed at her silently.

"Escape?"

His calm words were biting to her.

"How?"

A voice devoid of emotion or obvious will. Like someone who had given to his faith.

Val barely breathed out a silent sigh and leaned the back of his head against the wall.

"Even if I wanted to, I don't think it's possible."

At that point, the girl raised her flushed face and looked at him questionably.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" She sniffled.

Val returned his gaze back to her figure.

Her previously cold and beautiful face now marred by the scars of tears and the red of emotions.

Then...

"It's just a feeling but...this isn't 'somewhere' I can easily escape from, right?"

He shrugged.

"..." The girl's eyes widened.

Seeing that, Val showed a rare vague smile.

One of helplessness and resignation.

"I knew it. I wasn't sure but, looks like I was right."

"You...how?" Now it was suprise and shock that filled her expression.

Her eyes which had redened slightly, stared strangely at Val like she was observing an odd animal with confusion.

"How could you tell? How did you know?" She asked.

Val didn't move from his initial position as he replied.

"I didn't..." He said quietly.

"You just told me."

Indeed, something was off about this space, Val thought to himself. Normally, it would be absurd for him to believe such things, but everything he'd witnessed that night had shifted his perception of reality.

And now, in this moment of clarity, Val was more open to the strange and unbelievable.

Like, for example...

'The people who tried to kill me aren't human.'

He glanced at the girl, silently.

'And neither is she.'

"Youuu..." The mysterious girl's expression twitched slightly as she furrowed her brows in mild annoyance.

"Haaa..." She sighed and leaned back.

Looking down into the stoic, calm eyes of Val, her cold, motionless face softened just a bit, revealing a subtle, sad smile.

The girl shook her head softly, mumbling to herself.

"I mean, I knew it after watching you all this while... you've changed."

She glanced at him again, a stunning smile blooming on her ghostly beautiful face.

"You've grown up, Val."

Val's steady gaze rippled as his eyes widened. He felt his mind drift at the unexpected expression she was making, along with the mild shock and surprise that accompanied her knowledge of his name.

"How do you..."

"But in the end, I still can't leave you alone, even after all this time." Val wanted to ask, but the white-haired girl slowly shook her head with a soft, warm smile, as if to disperse all his worries.

His lips parted and froze again before he regained his composure and finally said calmly,

"...Who are y—"

-Thump!

Before he could finish his sentence, the strange and mysterious girl dropped to her knees before him and lowered her head.

"Fifth daughter of the house of Zero, clan Noir, I, Raven Noir greet the fifth heir of the Night Empire, and third son of His Royal Majesty, Ruler of Blood, and Lord of Vein — 'Sanguinem Rex' — Dragomir Valtor De' August, and my Lord, Blood Prince Valentine Valtor De' August!"

"The night is dark and full of delight."