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After the lady and the maids left, abandoning the child to rot in the garden, and leaving the spilled tea cup staining the ground, Louis stirred — trapped within the fragile body of the girl, his eyes cold and unblinking.
**Louis:**
"Ahh... what a pain... Her body is truly frail. It has been so long... I can hardly describe the feeling of embodiment again. I have not seen the world in ages..."
He glanced around: the Duke's grand mansion, the sprawling garden filled with vibrant flowers, the river weaving through its heart, and the elegant carriages standing silently nearby.
But something gnawed at him.
**Louis:**
"It's a prison... Despite the endless turning of the wheel, I am certain of one thing — I am trapped in a cage that merely spins upon the earth. A carriage that turns and turns... How revolting."
With a faint smile and a chilling stillness in his borrowed young voice, Louis spoke with an unsettling sweetness:
**Louis (softly):**
"What a sunny day… What a wonderful day..."
*Creak.*
(The sound of the mansion's door opening.)
Evie murmured under her breath, and the maids gasped in horror.
There she was:
The small girl — skin pale with a touch of rosy pink, long pink hair cascading over her tattered beige dress, barefoot, her white eyes vacant, her lips stained with traces of blackened blood.
Smiling eerily, she hummed and twirled slowly as she made her way toward her room.
**Maid (whispering, terrified):**
"How… How is this possible? She drank from one of the poisoned roses... This... this shouldn't be... W-we must inform the Lady at once!"
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