The Return of Lilietta

Episode 1

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O. Return

The Laskails were a wealthy and prestigious family with a long history.

The Duke and Duchess of Laskail loved each other sincerely, and their children were kind and intelligent. They were a perfect, happy family.

Until one day, when their youngest daughter, Lilietta, suddenly disappeared.

* * *

A round flower bed located on one side of the backyard of the Duke of Laskail. In the center of the flower bed was a small tombstone that seemed to be buried in flowers.

It was a newly built tombstone. The name engraved on the white marble was clear.

Lilietta del Nissa Laskail

1751~1760

The year is 1770.

It had already been ten years since the only princess of Laskail disappeared.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Laskail had been searching for the young princess using every means at his disposal.

Despite their quest across the continent, they found nothing.

The first day the child went missing, nothing but a bloody hem of clothing and a few strands of blond hair were found in the nearby woods.

People told her to give up, that Lilietta had been eaten by a beast.

The people of the Laska family did not give up. For a full ten years.

It was only recently that they acknowledged Lilietta’s death and stopped the search.

The tombstone was made just three days ago.

The small coffin beneath the tombstone was empty.

As they buried the empty coffin, the Duke wept and the Duchess fainted.

The second son, Richard, did not show up at the funeral at all.

The eldest son, Leonhard, received a call from the tavern the morning after the funeral that his younger brother had collapsed in a coma.

He brought his younger brother himself. Richard muttered as if he had lost his mind the whole time he was being carried.

Lili died, bro.

Now they want me to admit that Lily is dead.

It’s been 10 years, so shouldn’t it be time to forget? Have you forgotten, hyung?

I can’t forget. I can’t admit it.

We didn’t even see his body.

That kind and gentle kid went into the forest alone in the middle of the night?

Do you believe that, hyung? I don’t.

Brother, Brother Leon, do you know what he told me the night before he disappeared?

He said he had a strange dream. So he woke up.

I was so scared that I asked if you could stay with me until I fell asleep again.

But I, I!

Why on earth did I do that?

It’s my fault, bro. It’s all my fault.

If only I had been there with you that day… … .

It was a story I had heard many times before.

No matter how much I told him it wasn’t his fault, Richard didn’t stop blaming himself.

Leonhard took the drunk Richard to his room and took care of urgent matters in place of his father, who was distraught over his collapsed mother.

Because of that, he hadn’t been able to sleep properly since the funeral, even three days ago. He had no time to think or calm his mind.

Leonhard was not at all ready to accept his sister’s death and let her go. That’s why he came to Lilietta’s grave early in the morning.

There was a passenger. The Duchess of Laskail, who had fainted, was sitting blankly in front of the tombstone.

She was restlessly caressing a framed photograph. It was a picture of her little daughter, smiling like an angel.

She, too, seemed unprepared to let her daughter go. Perhaps she would never be able to accept that her daughter was dead.

If only I knew how he died. If only I had seen his body.

Leonhard repeated the thought he had chewed over dozens of times. He quietly watched his mother’s back and then turned around.

The brothers and youngest sister had quite a large age gap: Leonhard was eight and Richard six when Lilietta was born.

Lilietta and her brother, who inherited the characteristics of the large and sturdy Rascal, were completely different.

She was born premature and had a difficult birth. She was said to have been born with a weak body.

I had a lot of minor illnesses growing up. It must have been hard and frustrating, but I never really complained.

Even when taking bitter medicine, she said with a smile, “I like it because I can eat candy while taking medicine. From now on, I’m going to say that it’s not time to take medicine, but time to eat candy.”

He was a ray of sunshine. The whole family adored him.

Leonhard walked past the tombstone. He could see the back door of the sponsorship.

The iron gate, entangled with rose vines, was tightly shut, wrapped with rusty chains.

That back gate leads into a birch forest.

It used to be open all the time. The birch forest that the family had tended for generations was a safe and beautiful place.

But after Lilietta’s bloody clothes were found in the forest, the Duke himself put a chain on the door.

Leonhard remembers clearly what the birch forest was like.

There were no dangerous animals. Deer and rabbits were running around freely, and birds could be heard chirping. There was even a small lake if you walked a little along the forest path.

He used to go for a walk along the lakeside, holding his little sister’s hand. The feeling of her soft, tiny hand is still vivid.

The forest was within the fence of Raskail. That was why the Duke of Raskail’s mansion was called the Birch Castle. It was not dangerous.

But then Lilietta was eaten to death by a beast that wasn’t even there?

And that too, by leaving the duke’s residence alone in the middle of the night without anyone finding out? A 10-year-old child?

Even Lilietta was weak. She was a child who would run out of breath even after just a little bit of running.

There’s no way that’s possible. There’s no way, that’s possible.

‘Someone took that kid away.’

Leonhard unconsciously clenched his fist. His grip tightened. A vague murderous spirit surged up.

Every time he imagined what might have happened to her that night, he felt like tearing that unknown person apart.

I released my grip and took a deep breath. Only then did I notice my father standing far away beyond the chained door.

The Duke of Laskail stood with his pack on his back in the middle of a birch forest path.

As if someone was waiting for the girl whose footsteps were as light as a fairy’s to return along that path.

Leonhard grabbed the bars of the back door and stepped onto the thick chain.

He jumped through the door at once and ran towards his father. The duke turned around at the sound.

“Leon.”

“father.”

Leonhard didn’t ask what he was doing here. Duke Laskail didn’t ask his son why he was here either.

The rich man and his wife looked side by side at the end of the path. No one appeared in the birch forest.

The duke slowly turned around and patted his eldest son on the shoulder.

“I left it on for three days and there was no problem. You must have had a hard time.”

“no.”

“Go inside and get some rest. You probably haven’t slept properly.”

“Yes, I will go in soon.”

Duke Laskail returned to the mansion first.

Leonhard did not turn around, but stood there and walked along the path alone.

The blue lake began to appear little by little between the white birch trees. The setting sun cast long, dazzling glows across the lake’s surface.

“Brother Leon, look at that. It looks like the sun dropped a silk shawl as it went to bed. It’s so pretty.”

The voice she was whispering lingered in my ears.

Leonhard looked out at the lake and thought of Lilietta.

Plump cheeks, sparkling purple eyes curved like crescent moons, thin blonde hair fluttering in the wind…

At that moment, suddenly, a wet blonde hair rose above the lake.

The scattered water droplets splashed everywhere like jewels. Even though it was soaking wet, his hair still sparkled dazzlingly. Just like his sister.

White, smooth skin. Long hair that looks like it has never been cut. Violet eyes visible through the sticky blonde hair.

A fairy-like girl, no, a woman, rose from the lake.

With a face that resembles Lilietta.

If that child had not disappeared and grown up safely and become 20 years old, this is how it would have looked.

Leonhard couldn’t tell what he was seeing.

‘I’ve searched the bottom of the lake countless times… …but I haven’t found anything.’

While he was frozen, the woman who had emerged from the lake stumbled for a moment, then quickly regained her balance and waded through the water to escape.

I heard a soft swearing.

“Damn, what the hell happened? I opened my eyes and I’m underwater.”

The woman standing on the lakeside nervously ran her fingers through her wet hair. Then her eyes met with Leonhard’s, who was standing there blankly.

She quickly changed her posture, lowering her upper body slightly and pulling one leg back, her hands moving accustomedly to her waist.

The hand that had been groping for a weapon found nothing. There was nothing hanging from her waist.

The woman looked visibly embarrassed and then looked down at her appearance.

“What is this?”

She was wearing a white lace nightgown, the same one Lilietta had been wearing when she disappeared.

For the young girl, the negligee that used to be so full it reached just below her ankles had morphed into something that barely covered her thighs.

One side of the skirt was torn. It matched the bloody hem Lilietta had left behind.

The woman lifted the hem of her skirt, which was drooping and soaking wet, with her index finger and thumb. Her beautiful face was grimacing.

“What is this dangly outfit? What kind of pervert is this?”

Leonhard couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t hear what the woman was muttering.

He barely opened his mouth.

“Lily?”