Chapter 1: RMTOP

Chapter 1

The peaceful countryside estate of Windbury.

An ornate iron gate open to all, a well-paved road, and carefully trimmed branches shaped with precision.

A perfectly symmetrical mansion, wide white marble steps in front of the terrace, and a green lawn stretching toward the sea.

Behind the picture-like estate lay the endless blue expanse of the Retta Sea.

Windbury, called the most beautiful estate in the Kingdom of Rosen, stood as a symbol of nobility, leisure, and happiness.

There was a joke people often said to its owner, Sir William Rockwood, with voices full of envy.

“Still, Sir Rockwood. You do have Windbury, after all.”

William Rockwood was undoubtedly one of the happiest men in Rosen. He was young and handsome, and held a count title passed down for ten generations.

Wealth and bloodline, a handsome face as a bonus, and even a beautiful wife and a healthy daughter born from their marriage.

William, who had everything, must surely be happy.

In truth, he believed he was the happiest man in the world.

That was until his wife, Lizbel, the mistress of Windbury, died suddenly in a car accident.

William Rockwood, who lost his beloved wife, fell into deep grief.

The iron gates of the estate were tightly shut. No more guests walked the well-kept path.

Though the mansion still looked perfect on the outside, it felt empty—no laughter, no conversation echoed within anymore.

Unable to endure his sorrow, Sir Rockwood collapsed, relying on alcohol and medication. During that time, the finances of the count’s family also began to fall apart.

He endured only one year after his wife’s death.

On the anniversary of her passing, unable to bear his grief, he went alone to the sea late at night—and was swallowed by the black waves.

Twenty days after he disappeared from the shore, his body was washed up on the beach leading behind the Windbury estate. When his only daughter, Diane Rockwood, identified the body, she fainted on the spot.

Some said it was an accident. Others whispered it was suicide. Some even claimed the ghost of Lizbel had taken him.

Whatever the truth was, Sir William Rockwood had no son, so the title passed to a distant relative, Walter Rockwood. Walter became Diane’s new guardian, but he did not stay at Windbury, finding it unpleasant.

Diane Rockwood was left alone in Windbury. She was only fifteen years old at the time.

The shock was so great that Diane’s mental state deteriorated, and she began speaking nonsense.

“I saw the future. No, I lived until I was twenty-one and came back in time. I mean…”

The staff of Windbury trembled in fear at the young lady’s delusions.

“Lord Louis Boden will kill me on our wedding day.”

Diane even began screaming that Louis Boden, her fiancé-to-be, would kill her, and begged to be sent to a convent instead.

Walter had no choice but to cancel the engagement with Louis and secretly send Diane to a mental hospital.

The doctor gave a clear diagnosis.

“Lady Rockwood is suffering from temporary confusion caused by the shock of losing her parents.”

“Can she recover?”

William Rockwood’s debt, which Walter inherited in his vain incompetence, began to snowball within just a few months.

Thus, Walter—who treated Diane’s marriage as his greatest asset—grew anxious that she might become useless.

The doctor’s words reassured him.

“Her confusion is only causing her to mix dreams and reality. It is a very natural symptom. There is nothing to fear. With basic medication and daily counseling, she will recover.”

Diane spoke a little more about what had happened to her. For a while, she desperately asked for help.

“I’m not crazy. Please believe me. I was engaged to Louis Boden, and on the wedding night, while waiting for the first night…”

“Lady Rockwood. Calm down. It was just a nightmare.”

But every time she spoke, she was given injections filled with unknown medication.

“It’s not a dream… I’m not crazy…”

“After you sleep, everything will be fine.”

“I’m not cra—”

At some point, Diane stopped speaking about it altogether. She was forced to accept the doctor’s claim that she was mentally ill due to her parents’ deaths.

As her condition improved, the doctor was satisfied.

“Lady Rockwood is now ‘normal.’”

Diane returned to Windbury six months after her hospitalization. Publicly, it was said she had been traveling.

Most of the servants who had witnessed her strange behavior had been replaced.

But as nothing can remain completely hidden, rumors began to spread that Diane Rockwood had gone mad.

Windbury was no longer considered a symbol of happiness. Its name became another word for tragedy.

Five years passed.

The tragedy of the Rockwood family was slowly forgotten.

Diane suddenly opened her eyes.

For a while, she lay completely still as if time had stopped, then slowly moved her bloodshot eyes to look around.

Through the curtains covering the window, sunlight seeped in, revealing the room.

It was her bedroom in Windbury. Only then did Diane realize where she was.

“……It was just a nightmare.”

Muttering as if casting a spell, she sat up after a long while. Her body trembled with cold sweat.

Ever since her father’s death, Diane had been tormented almost every night by terrible nightmares. Even after returning from the mental hospital, the nightmares continued. But she never told anyone.

She did not want to go back there again.

By then, Diane, exhausted beyond measure, decided to simply believe she was somewhat insane. It became easier for both her body and mind.

But recently, the nightmares came constantly, without warning. Even closing her eyes felt frightening.

It started after the new Rockwood Count, Walter, and his wife Maria visited Windbury a few days ago.

Their visit had been sudden.

They disliked staying in Windbury. It was because the previous count had died in a suspicious accident on the beach behind the estate, and Diane herself had been confined to a mental hospital. After she retreated into her room, they avoided Windbury even more.

The reason they suddenly came was Diane’s marriage.

“We’ve received another marriage proposal from Mr. Louis Boden.”

Now that Diane had turned twenty, Louis had once again sent a proposal to the Rockwood family.

Diane, sensing something strange about Walter and Maria’s sudden visit, froze.

They had come to Windbury out of nowhere to announce that negotiations with Louis had resumed.

Night after night, this was one of the scenes she had seen in her nightmares.

The biggest reason Diane feared her nightmares was that they were becoming reality one by one. As if they were prophetic dreams, what she saw would eventually become real.

After finishing their business, the count couple left the next day for a journey across the sea to the New Continent, invited by Louis.

Louis had also invited Diane, but the count couple left her behind, believing she might relapse into madness at any time.

The servants whispered that the count had already decided to hand Diane over to Louis.

The renewed engagement at her twentieth birthday, the count couple’s trip, and the servants’ gossip—all of it matched her nightly dreams exactly.

“This is insane.”

Diane jumped out of bed as if fleeing from the nightmare, and sharply pulled open the curtains.

Bright spring sunlight stabbed her eyes painfully. She reflexively closed them tightly, grimacing. After blinking a few times to adjust, she slowly opened her eyes.

Her cobalt-blue eyes, as blue as the sea in front of Windbury, reflected the bright scenery.

It was early spring, just before the social season, with warm weather continuing.

From her room, she could not see the blue sea. Instead, a soft light-green lawn swayed gently in the wind. Everything else was still.

Diane tried to calm herself.

“It’s all my imagination. I just had a bad dream…”

She reassured herself, trying to ignore how reality was following her nightmares.

But that was no longer enough.

She needed to confirm it. She pulled the cord by her bedside to call a maid.

“Bring me the newspapers. Today’s morning paper, yesterday’s evening edition—everything in the house.”

She wanted to confirm that the nightmares were just nightmares. Or rather, she wished she was simply insane.

At the young lady’s sudden order, the maid bowed in confusion and left. Diane could not stay still and went out onto the terrace attached to her room, waiting anxiously. While she waited, she faintly heard the chatter of passing maids.

“How horrible. How can people even live like this?”

“Incompetent police!”

…No way.

A familiar sense of dread began to rise again.

At that moment, the maid returned with a bundle of newspapers. Diane quickly took them, her hands trembling with anxiety.

Her eyes landed on the title without meaning to.

“Another young woman in Brit…”

Her lips went blank.

[Another young woman found murdered in Brit.]

The hand holding the paper began to shake violently.

“Miss? Why are you out here?”

A talkative new maid, Ellie, who was passing by the terrace, spoke to her. Ellie was the only servant who occasionally spoke to Diane and was still unfamiliar with the estate’s affairs.

A voice echoed in Diane’s mind.

“Did you see the newspaper? There are already six victims. They say he targets young women with blue eyes. Miss, please don’t go anywhere near Brit. What if you run into that mad killer?”

And then, Ellie said:

“Did you see the newspaper? There are already six victims. They say he targets young women with blue eyes. Miss, please… Miss?”

“…No.”

Diane was completely consumed by fear.

She could no longer ignore the nightmare.

Whether it was delusion or memory no longer mattered.

When the count couple returned from their trip, she would be engaged to Louis Boden—and on the day of her wedding, he would kill her.

No one would help her.

The thought of escaping somewhere immediately took over her mind.

She barely remembered rummaging through her mother’s old study, finding a letter from her godmother that she last saw at her father’s funeral, sending a telegram, or boarding a train out of Windbury.

Diane had no choice but to run.

“My God, the young lady has disappeared!”

Windbury, which had been calm for years, was thrown into chaos over Diane Rockwood’s sudden disappearance.