The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix's Novels Also Desires Happiness

Cold.

So cold.

So cold his teeth chattered, so cold it sank into his bones, so cold even his soul trembled.

Deep darkness wrapped in chill covered the surroundings, pressing down, making him feel as if he had been cast to the most despairing bottom of the sea, powerless to struggle, able only to be gradually torn apart by fear.

“No...”

Pero cried out instinctively, but no sound could come from his throat. The icy water around him rushed in madly instead, like needle after needle stabbing into his lungs.

A tremendous roar echoed beside his ears. He recognized it as the Kingdom’s newest model of magic cannon, a weapon of immense power, one shot enough to blast through a small mountain. And now, it was being used only to breach a single gate in the shortest time possible.

“Kill!”

“Stop them!”

“How dare you! Do you know what you’re doing?”

“So it was... ah!”

Furious roars and screams rose one after another. Blades clashed, magic thundered, and the whole world seemed to be shaking.

Blood splashed over, dyeing the water red, filling even the water with a nauseating smell of rust.

“No...”

Pero struggled to open his eyes, as if he had just torn a sliver of awareness free from a nightmare.

But what greeted him... was an even greater nightmare.

This was not the bottom of the sea.

It was a well.

The well was deep, its mouth narrow. It was perfect for hiding.

But on the rippling surface of the water, flashes of blades and swords were still reflected, and flecks of blood still scattered down.

Scream after scream came crashing over him. From the sound alone, Pero could clearly tell who they belonged to.

There was the wet nurse who had fed and raised him since childhood.

There was the palace tutor who was terribly nagging, yet would patiently correct every one of his postures.

There was the maid who often secretly went out at midnight to buy him picture books that had been forbidden.

And...

The cooks, guards, coachmen, butlers, gatekeepers... everyone in this estate.

They were all being slaughtered in screams and despair.

“No...”

Scene after scene surfaced before his eyes, then gradually drifted away. Even while drowning in the water, Pero was still begging humbly.

Yet the next instant, he no longer even had the right to beg like that.

A hand reached in from outside the freezing well water and tightly... seized his throat.

Suffocation and despair came together.

At the edge of death, he saw that face.

That face carved almost into his soul, a face he would never forget for the rest of his life.

That cold, savage face, like a man-eating beast, yet with certain slight similarities to him in the brow and eyes.

Her elder brother, Aurier.

“Hello, my dear little sister.”

He was laughing.

Smiling.

“Are you hiding here waiting for rescue? How naive. Obviously, no one is coming to save you. Even if this place is very close to that palace, don’t you understand? What does it mean for something like this to happen so close to it?”

“Oh? You look doubtful. Angry? That makes sense. After all, you were his most beloved... little daughter. It’s normal that you don’t believe it.”

“But did he truly love you?”

In her vision, the corners of Aurier’s mouth gradually split wider, and his smile became a sneer.

“If he truly loved you, how could he take a little groundless rumor and decide that thing was really hidden on you? How could he decide that someone as young as you might threaten him, and so... plan all this?”

“Just because you have the same special bloodline as that runaway duke?”

“Don’t make that face. You’re very smart. You should have figured it out already. In this world, there is only one person who could kill a princess in a place so close to that palace.”

“I couldn’t. Your other elder brothers couldn’t. Only the ruler of this city could.”

“That’s right. The one who killed everyone close to you was him. Of course... the one who actually did it was me. After all, I needed to gain a little bit of his trust. How could I do that without staining myself with my own sibling’s blood?”

“I came tonight to kill you.”

Those large hands tightened further and further, almost crushing her frail neck.

She could not think.

She could not breathe.

She could only feel herself being swallowed by endless cold.

“But... I won’t kill you.” Aurier’s smile became even more mocking as his words suddenly turned.

“Because I know you’re innocent. That thing isn’t with you. It’s...”

“With me.”

A semicircular object was placed before Pero. Her eyes widened, as if she were trying with all her might to engrave this culprit that had destroyed her home and family into the deepest part of her memory.

“Don’t look at it like that. This is only a dead object. What you should hate is not it, but the person who caused all this... isn’t that right?”

Aurier lowered his head into the well water, leaned close to Pero’s ear, and said each word clearly.

“What you should remember is this firelight, these cries, and that palace in the distance.”

“Go hate. Go rage. Bury all of this in the deepest place.”

“And then run. Run as far as you can.”

“Run to a place no one can find you, and hide.”

“Don’t let anyone find you.”

“Because...”

“I will go do that thing first.”

“If I succeed, I will hunt you down no matter the cost, because I also will not allow someone who can threaten me to wander through the depths of darkness, hiding where I cannot see.”

“But if I fail...”

Aurier gave her a light push, sending her into the darkness.

The cold, suffocation, and despair grew even fiercer.

Pero struggled with all her strength, but it was useless.

“Then it will be your turn to replace me and finish that thing. That is your fate... you cannot escape it.”

...

...

“Au...”

Pero’s eyes snapped open. He sat up, both hands fumbling over himself in a panic.

There was no well water, no bone-piercing chill, and no thunderous roars or cries.

It seemed like a dream.

But it was not a dream.

It was merely that ancient memory being stirred, surfacing once again from the deepest part of his mind.

“What, did you have a nightmare?”

A gentle, familiar voice rang out, abruptly washing away most of Pero’s fear.

Pero turned his head and found that beside the swaying campfire, most of the children had already fallen asleep. Only his sister was still sitting there, watching him tenderly.

“That dream again?” Aviva tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and asked.

“...Mm.”

Pero wanted to cry, but no tears would come.

Perhaps because he had already had this dream far too many times.

No.

That was not a dream.

It was only a replay of that night.

“Want to come over?” Aviva patted her lap.

Pero instinctively nodded... then abruptly shook his head.

“I’m not a little kid anymore!”

Pero said in embarrassed anger, “Something like a lap pillow...”

“That isn’t for little children. It’s for my younger brother... no.”

Aviva looked left and right. After making sure no one else was paying attention, she lowered her voice and smiled.

“For my dear little sister.”

“...”

Pero did not refuse again. He obediently lay down on Aviva’s thigh and let her remove his hat, then carefully comb through that long black hair.

“Sis.”

After a long while, just as Pero was enjoying that quiet warmth, she suddenly spoke.

“Am I useless?”

“Hm? Why would you say that?”

“Because I’m a coward...”

Pero tilted her head to the side and looked into the distance.

Firelight flickered far away, as if unreachable.

Counting the time, that battle which had been repeated so many, many times was about to begin again. He would step onto that stage once more, trying to save this city that originally had nothing to do with him.

And she...

“Back then, I wanted to go help, but...”

Pero bit her lip.

But when she saw that semicircular grand barrier core, she had shrunk back.

Because she had remembered that elder brother Aurier who terrified her.

She knew what it meant.

She was afraid.

So afraid that she did not even dare avenge that sea of blood.

“No... it has nothing to do with that.”

Pero wrapped both arms around her shoulders and curled up.

She rejected her own words again.

Because she understood that this was only self-deception.

Bloodline, identity, hatred—those were all nothing more than excuses she had found for herself.

She was afraid, but the reason for her fear was not that simple.

Only by pushing everything onto something she could not control, something decided by heaven, could she make herself seem not quite so deeply sinful.

But an excuse was still an excuse.

What she truly feared was...

“I can’t do anything...”

That night years ago, everyone in the estate had been killed, and she had been unable to do anything. In the end, she had survived only because her elder brother Aurier had let her go.

One year ago, when her sister began to fall ill, she wanted to cure her. She exhausted every method she had, selling newspapers, doing odd jobs, taking every kind of work, but in the end, the one who cured her sister was still Mr. Bruce. She had done nothing.

Even not long ago, when she wanted to save Sister Nina, who had once saved her many, many times, her reckless actions had almost led to an irreversible evil ghost. In the end, she had still relied on Mr. Bruce’s black flame.

She had done many things, but she had never succeeded.

That was why she was afraid. Afraid that if she went to help Mr. Bruce this time, in the end she would still be of no help at all, and might instead cause even more serious consequences.

Not to mention that when she saw that semicircular grand barrier control core, she understood the importance of all this.

She should obediently stay here. From every standpoint of logic and reason, that was the best choice.

She was weak.

So weak that she had no right to take part in something so enormous.

But...

“I should go help. Elder brother Aurier was right. That is clearly something I should complete... my fate.” Pero’s thin body trembled faintly.

Because she had run away, because she was hiding here, not daring to face her own fate, only secretly praying, while making Mr. Bruce, someone who originally had nothing to do with this, bear even more—this was truly... far too despicable.

“Do you want to go?” Aviva gently stroked Pero’s little head and asked with loving tenderness.

“Of course. I want to help him, just like... he helped me before,” Pero said softly.

“I see...”

Aviva raised her head and thought for a very long time. At last, as if making some decision, she said,

“Then go.”

“What?”

“Then go.”

“...”

Pero’s eyes widened slightly. She did not understand why her sister, who usually nagged for ages every time she went outside, would so simply allow her to do something so dangerous this time.

“Because... I believe in you.” Aviva turned back and smiled.