~Chapter 03~
“A song heard in a half-sleep.”
A dreamy humming, as if underwater, floated from the child’s lips.
“When I opened my eyes, it scattered like a dream.”
Aria’s song led the Count into a lake of forgetfulness.
The playful, innocent notes teased his nerves like a mischievous fairy.
Pizzicato.
It was as if, far away, someone plucked violin strings with delicate fingers.
“Gone, the mysterious night.”
At that moment, the Count sensed the magic in her song.
This was the song of a Siren.
“No… that can’t be.”
His eyes widened in shock.
“No, this is impossible… How could a mute child hide this all this time… Could it be… Sophia…?”
Soon, the Count was filled with delight.
Aria’s voice was what he had always dreamed of: the pure, rich tone of an angel.
Not only that—her innocent, untrained voice carried a sticky, bitter trace of blood.
A single time under its spell, and one could never escape. A divine touch that led to ruin.
He instinctively felt:
“Even among Sirens, this is a different class.”
Her song could drive people insane. He could make nobles his slaves, maybe even control the empire.
“Sing more! More, more…!”
The Count stumbled over a fallen bottle, crawling toward Aria, reaching for her with bloodshot eyes.
It was a pitiful sight.
Aria looked down at him coldly.
“All this time, I was sacrificed for someone like this. Someone who only cares about wealth and power.”
Count Cortez.
He ruled over his young daughter with violence, forcing her to do things she could never resist.
Things beyond imagination.
In her memory, he had always seemed like a mountain—but now he appeared petty and old.
“This will be the first and last time you hear my song.”
Aria’s cold words made the Count realize something too late.
“This… this song is…”
Yes, he knew.
It was the song he had first taught her—a tool to erase the memory of nobles who learned forbidden truths.
“Now, you will forget everything.”
“No! What are you doing!”
He cried out desperately, but Aria ignored him and sang again.
“The song like a mirage. Night has vanished, my dream.”
All the fragments of memory in his mind crumbled.
A hazy feeling covered him, and all his memories vanished.
“Everything was just a dream.”
“No… this isn’t a dream. The Siren I longed for is right here.”
The Count desperately tried to resist, covering his ears and muttering.
That voice… if he could possess it, he would gain honor, glory, power, and wealth beyond anything before.
But Aria scoffed at his efforts, drawing all her power for the final note.
“Ah, everything was just a dream.”
Overwhelmed, the Count stumbled, veins bulging as he shouted:
“SIREN!!!”
His last scream faded, and his eyes dulled like a fool’s.
The song ended.
Aria didn’t need his belated regret. She had no intention of giving him a chance to beg for forgiveness.
She looked at the dumbfounded Count coldly:
“Where is the Mermaid’s Tear?”
“The Mermaid’s Tear… in the drawer next to my bed… in the box…”
“Key?”
He fumbled in his pocket and handed her a small key.
Aria ran to the Count’s room, opened a jewelry box, and found the pearl earrings that shone with rainbow light.
Found it, the Mermaid’s Tear.
Her father had never been able to control her because of these earrings.
They returned all the effects of a Siren’s song, protecting the wearer from harmful songs.
Even when her mother died, the Count never removed them.
Now, Aria placed them safely in her pocket.
Truly back to the spring of her ten-year-old self.
Aria placed the newspaper she’d taken from the Count’s room and held her pounding heart.
“I thought I’d fall to hell… but instead I got a second chance.”
No more facial burns, no more crushed legs.
“I can change the future.”
The childhood nightmare that had shaped her life was now petty and meaningless.
“What should I do now?”
The potion that had silenced her voice remained. Her life was still limited—she would likely die around twenty.
So, how should she spend her remaining time meaningfully?
One thing was certain: no one could know she was the last Siren.
“My song can drive people insane.”
She was tired of hurting people. She didn’t want anyone else to go mad.
“I heard Sirens’ songs can drive people insane.”
Then she remembered that voice she had heard in her dying moments:
Gray eyes dulled of color, glowing only with the desire for killing, half-lost in drunken daze.
“Lloyd Cardence Valentine.”
He inherited the title of Grand Duke at eighteen.
Four years later, the “Valentine Incident” occurred, killing nearly all of his family, servants, and subjects.
The people blamed him.
Everyone said the Valentine family’s madness had been passed down through generations.
Even the Emperor ignored the bizarre events in the Grand Duchy.
“Perhaps that is true… maybe he really did kill them all.”
But the man she remembered had wanted nothing—not revenge, not desire, not even anger.
“He was just… empty.”
He only offered to take revenge for her, as a play of the devil.
Aria wanted to light a spark of hope in his empty life.
“I want to show him happiness… nothing more.”
Even if it meant burning the rest of her life, she thought she could live for him.
“The master has gone mad.”
When the maids entered the attic, the old floorboards creaked.
Aria sat on the bed, staring out the window, then looked at them.
The maids set down a plate with foul-smelling porridge on a yellowed blanket.
“Suddenly they want her washed and dressed?”
“Why now?”
The maids whispered to each other, wondering if he was trying to treat her as family—or just as a doll to display.
Aria didn’t need help—her Siren heritage was obvious.
Her waist-length hair flowed like waves, her eyes sparkled like pink sapphires, and her rosy cheeks glowed like ripe peaches.
Even without words, her beauty captivated everyone.
“Siren,” they whispered.
One maid stared at the doll-like child, then shook herself:
“So what? She can’t speak anyway.”
