The heavy, suffocating silence of the room was broken by a voice that sent an icy shiver down Diah's spine.
"Hello, Diah."
The words echoed through the dimly lit room. Diah stood frozen, her eyes wide with shock and disbelief as her gaze locked onto the silhouette standing before her.
"...So you're still alive," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the sudden rush of cold wind outside. "I was certain you'd finally died."
A faint, dangerous smirk touched Victor's lips. His sharp, dark eyes scanned her face, drinking in her trembling expression.
"Were you waiting for me to come back?" Victor asked, his voice low and smooth as he stepped closer into the dim light.
Diah held her breath, her chest tightening as the shadow of his towering figure fell across her. "Naturally," she murmured softly. "Because if you were to vanish, I'd be destroyed right along with you."
Victor laughed silently, a low rumble that lacked warmth. "That's right, Diah. Our fates are intertwined, aren't they? They've been that way ever since we first crossed paths."
He took slow, measured steps toward her, the sound of his shoes heavy against the polished floor.
"...Yes," Diah thought, her eyes fixed on the floor as memories swept over her. "That's where everything began."
A part of her felt a sickening wave of despair. She had truly believed it was over—that he was gone forever. Though I was relieved when I thought you'd finally disappeared. Just when I'd started thinking, "At last, you're dead. My wish has finally been granted," you suddenly turn up again before me.
Victor stopped just inches away from her. His presence was overwhelming, a mix of power and control that always threatened to consume her.
"It's rather ironic," Victor mused softly, looking down at her fragile form. "You feared that De Laurent would fall apart if I died, so you waited for me to return alive. And yet, you were also waiting for me to die, hoping that would finally set you free."
He reached out, his long, scarred fingers lifting her face gently by the chin to force her to look into his eyes.
"So tell me, Diah. Which of those feelings reflects what you truly want this time? Should I take a guess?"
Diah's gaze wavered as his calloused touch sent a chill across her skin. Even amidst the terror and resentment, a bitter truth lingered beneath it all—they were locked in a bond created by destiny, love, and cruel betrayal.
Victor leaned in closer, his dark eyes searching hers as a quiet conviction filled his voice.
"Even so, you... must have wanted me to come back alive," he insisted softly, his thumb tracing the curve of her jaw. "You waited for me every day, despite hearing absolutely nothing about my whereabouts. You must have kept hoping that I'd open that door and appear before you again, just as I always used to."
Diah's eyes flashed with sudden defiance and pain. She pulled back slightly against his grip, her breath trembling with anger.
"...How dare you speak as though you know everything!" she snapped, her voice breaking under the weight of suppressed anguish. "What could you possibly know about me?!"
Victor didn't flinch. A slight, knowing smirk returned to his lips as he held her gaze steadfastly.
"How could I not know?" he murmured softly, his tone almost possessive. "You, of all people? I know you better than anyone."
As the words hung in the cold air, memories of their past drifted between them like ghosts.
You were the foolish woman who tended to a poisonous weed as lovingly as though it were a flower, Victor thought, recalling her soft expressions from long ago. The obstinate woman who could never bring herself to let go, even when every touch tore at her fingertips and allowed the poison to seep into her. The miserable woman who lost sight of her own desires while trapped in that illusory dream... until, in the end, you became just as broken and wretched as the thing you'd been tending.
Standing before him in her childhood uniform, tears glistened in Diah's wide, haunted eyes as the painful truth settled over both of them.
That's right, Victor acknowledged silently as he looked down at her fragile, tear-stained face. I was the one who turned you into this, just as you were the one who turned me into this.
Victor's gaze drifted from her face toward the rain-streaked window, the rhythmic pounding of the storm outside echoing the heavy pulse between them.
"Isn't it a strange and twisted destiny?" Victor murmured, his voice laced with dark irony as he shifted closer. "The more desperately we cling to each other, the closer we come to destroying one another."
Diah stared up at him, her chest heaving as his words struck a raw nerve. The dim blue light of the night caught the tears still clinging to her lashes.
"We don't have much time, Diah," Victor said, his tone softening into something dangerously intense. "So let's stop hiding behind lies and be truthful with each other."
He gently caught her hands, his fingers wrapping around hers before she could pull away.
"I came here to find out who it was that you'd been longing for so desperately all this time."
Diah's breath hitched, her eyes widening in sheer bewilderment. "...What?"
"It's time you confronted the feelings you've buried for so long," Victor pressed on, his eyes locking onto hers with unyielding pressure.
A quiet, suffocating tension filled the space between them as he leaned in, his voice dropping to a low, challenging whisper.
"Do you still believe... that person is Eiser?"
The name hung in the air like a ghost, shattering the fragile composure Diah had desperately tried to maintain. Her mind raced backward, recalling the refuge she had sought in another man's shadow.
To me, Eiser was everything a man could be, Diah thought, her heart aching as the comparison formed in her mind. He was the very embodiment of the ideal Grayan man I'd yearned for. Unlike you, with your fractured, chaotic mind, he was composed and humane.
diah pov
To me, Eiser was everything a man could be.
He was the very embodiment of the ideal Grayan man I had yearned for all my life. Unlike Victor, with his fractured, unpredictable mind, Eiser was composed, grounded, and deeply humane. He wasn't someone who frightened or terrorized me, but a man with whom I could imagine enjoying an ordinary, peaceful life.
Being with him meant I wouldn't have to live in constant fear and uncertainty. Nor would I have to suffer through pain that was more than I could bear. On top of that, he had even pledged to secure my family's independence. He was someone with whom I could create a future, rather than someone whose mere presence would gradually tear me apart.
That was why I had believed it so fiercely—that once Victor was out of the picture, I could finally be with a man as perfect as him.
Victor sank to his knees before me, his large hands reaching up to clasp mine. The sheer weight of his touch sent a tremble through my limbs. I looked down at him, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"Don't be ridiculous," I pulled back slightly, my voice shaking with raw desperation.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the intensity of his gaze, needing him to understand—needing myself to believe it.
"Eiser was the only man I ever wanted! He fit my ideal so perfectly that I couldn't find a single fault in him! He was the one hope I had of escaping you and your family! He was my refuge, the first person who let me feel at ease because he was nothing like you!"
A tear broke free, slipping down my cheek as the agonizing truth spilled from my lips.
"Even if our relationship began because we each had something to gain, what I felt for him was real. I loved him!"
Silence settled heavily over the room, broken only by the sound of my ragged breathing.
Victor slowly tilted his head up, his piercing blue eyes locking onto mine from below. His expression was infuriatingly calm, carrying a faint, devastating understanding.
"Yes," Victor murmured softly, looking up at me without a trace of anger. "It's entirely possible that you did love him."
Here is the continuation of the novel expansion written entirely from Diah's Perspective (First-Person POV) based on the latest Webtoon panels:
His hands held mine as he leaned closer, his voice cutting through my defenses like a blade.
"But look deep inside yourself again," Victor murmured softly, forcing me to confront the truths I had buried under layers of denial. "Was Eiser truly the man you desired, or was it..."
He pulled me into a embrace, resting his chin lightly against my hair. The warmth of his body enveloped me, trapping me in the familiar scent and overwhelming presence I had tried so desperately to escape.
"...The hope you couldn't bring yourself to relinquish?" his low voice echoed against my ear. "The hope that I might still become the man you wanted me to be?"
My throat tight, I stayed frozen in his arms. Was Eiser simply the man onto whom I had projected the ideal image of Victor—the version of him I had longed for all those years? Had I merely placed that ideal onto another man when Victor proved incapable of fulfilling it?
"I'd even been prepared to let you go," Victor continued, his breath brushing against my hair. "Because, for a while, I genuinely believed that you'd chosen Eiser over me."
My thoughts drifted back to that fateful day when I stood firm before my father, my voice resolute despite the fear gnawing at my heart.
"Father, I wish to change the person I'm going to marry," I had declared, raising my chin high. "I want to marry his younger brother instead of Victor Grayan."
I had looked at Victor standing in the shadows, unable to bear the weight of his dark, suffocating gaze.
"Victor terrifies me, and I hate him. I've always felt that way," I had pleaded to myself and to my family. "I can't bear the thought of spending even another moment with him."
And yet...
When Victor later discovered that beneath all my defiance, I was still looking toward him in the end, everything shattered.
A faint memory blurred into focus—a moment when I lay weak and motionless in bed, consumed by fever and pain. Victor had stood above me, his sharp gaze lingering on my pale face.
"...That smell. Peppletta," he had realized, his eyes narrowing as he caught the subtle scent lingering in the air.
A maid had hovered anxiously near the doorway, her hands trembling. "She'd been drinking and suffering for ages when she suddenly started asking for Peppletta, so... it's something she usually wouldn't even go near..."
"Get the antidote," Victor had commanded instantly, his tone sharp and unyielding.
Even when I tried to poison myself, even when I sought an escape from the torment, it was always Victor who held the key to my survival—and my ruin.
The memory shifted, haze settling over my mind as the maid's anxious whispers rang in the distance.
"She'd been drinking and suffering for ages when she suddenly started asking for Peppletta, so… it's something she usually wouldn't even go near…"
"Get the antidote," Victor's harsh voice had commanded, the heavy click of the door following soon after as the maid hurried out.
I lay on the soft white sheets, the room swimming around me as the bitter poison ran hot in my veins. My heavy eyelids fluttered open, and through my blurred vision, I saw him standing over me.
"...Victor," I gasped out, a faint, melancholic smile forming on my lips.
I was drunk on Peppletta, looking up at his dark silhouette and laughing softly through the haze.
"Does your fiancé know you're getting intoxicated on something as vile as this?" Victor had asked, his voice dripping with icy contempt. "If you were determined to make such a cruel choice and betray me, you should at least live well enough to prove you made the right one."
He stood tall, looking down at me as if I were a tragic mess he couldn't tear his eyes away from.
"...Victor," I murmured again, my eyes softening with a strange, delicate pity. "Poor Victor."
His brow furrowed slightly, a flicker of disbelief crossing his sharp features. "...Poor?" he echoed softly, his eyes narrowing. "You're calling me pitiful?"
I held his gaze, feeling the fragile strength of my conviction rise through the fog of poison.
"I'll set you free," I whispered to him from the bed, my smile faint yet unwavering. "If I marry Eiser, you'll lose both me and the Grayan family, won't you?"
Victor froze, a subtle shock registering in his quiet silence as my words struck home.
"Then you won't have to keep suffering like this anymore, will you?" I asked gently, as if offering him a merciful gift wrapped in betrayal. "I'll be without you, and you'll be without me. That way... we can both finally be free."
"...Isn't that all there is to it?" Victor murmured, his voice cutting through the stillness with terrifying clarity.
From that moment on, everything was different.
"Even while you continued searching for me," Victor whispered, his arms wrapping around me, drawing my shivering body against his chest. "You never truly abandoned me. You tried to erase your feelings for me by turning to Eiser instead."
His grip tightened, his hand cupping the back of my head as he pulled me closer. The warmth of his body engulfed me, locking me in an embrace I couldn't escape.
"How could I ever leave you behind, Diah?" he breathed against my hair. "But in the end, your attempt to escape me came to nothing."
My breath hitched in my throat as my heart slammed against my ribs.
...No. That's impossible.
I buried my face against his shoulder, my lips trembling as panic flared within me.
I loved Eiser. I really did...
Why was I reacting like this? It was as though someone had stripped away my defenses and uncovered something I had desperately kept buried...
The man I had longed for with all my heart... The man who seemed to possess everything I'd ever dreamed of... The man who embodied everything I'd spent my life wishing he would become...
...The perfect Victor.
In my mind, a distant, golden memory flickered—a vision of peace where Victor sat at a piano, playing softly while I rested my head against his back, my eyes closed in quiet contentment. That was the ghost I had chased. That was the phantom image of Victor I had sought in Eiser.
Tears welled in my eyes, spilling down my cheeks as the painful realization shattered me.
Was I... searching for you all along?
Victor held me firm as my tears soaked his coat, his low voice delivering the final, quiet truth that dismantled my entire reality:
"In the end, you... chose to love Eiser because loving me was something you couldn't allow yourself to do, didn't you?"
Victor leaned down slightly, his striking blue eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that held me completely captive. His large, warm hands rested firmly against my shoulders, refusing to let me shrink back.
The overwhelming force of his words—the undeniable truth of what we were to each other—became too much to bear. Instinct took over before my mind could stop it.
Slap!
My hand flew across his face with a sharp, resounding crack that shattered the heavy silence of the room. The force of the strike echoed off the walls as I staggered back, my palm stinging and my breath coming in ragged, desperate gasps.
Victor's head turned slightly from the impact, but he didn't flinch or raise a hand in retaliation. He simply stood there, his piercing gaze turning back toward me, composed and unyielding.
My heart hammered violently against my ribs as tears welled up and spilled uncontrollably down my cheeks. My hands trembled as I clutched at my chest, suffocating under the weight of my own exposed heart.
A faint, bitter smirk touched the corner of Victor's lips.
"Can you finally admit it?" he asked softly, stepping closer as if my strike had meant nothing at all.
Before I could retreat, his hand reached out and cupped my cheek, his long fingers gently framing my face and wiping away a tear. He pulled me in close until his face was inches from mine, his breath warm against my skin.
"A betrayal born out of love," he whispered, his tone laced with a haunting, possessive tenderness. "The darkest, cruelest truth hidden in your heart... I've been waiting for you for so long, Diah."
Tears continued to blur my vision as I looked up at him, completely exposed, stripped of every lie and defense I had built over the years.
"Can you finally recognize it for yourself now?" Victor murmured softly.
Tip's
ON THE DAY VICTOR WAS CAST OUT, DIAH PERSONALLY COLLECTED SOME OF HIS BELONGINGS THAT HE'D LEFT BEHIND AT DALLINCOURT.
SHE HAS KEPT THOSE FEW POSSESSIONS IN HER CARE EVER SINCE.
팁
빅터가 쫓겨난 날, 다이아는 그가 달린쿠르에 남겨두고 간 소지품 몇 가지를 직접 챙겼습니다.
그녀는 그 이후로 그 얼마 안 되는 소지품들을 소중히 간직해 왔습니다.