Hate Me, Witch!-Chapter 18: Happy Birthday, Sylvia

Sylvia had a long, long dream.

In that dream, she was not the Grand Duke’s only daughter but just an ordinary girl from a commoner’s family in the capital.

And her mother was still alive.

On a winter evening, the family sat together by the fireplace, enjoying dinner in warmth and harmony.

The aroma of food filled the air, and the fire’s heat wrapped around her, melting the cold that clung to her body.

Sylvia couldn’t help but lose herself in the warmth.

Ever since the bronze cross within her soul first went out of control—ever since her mother left her because of it—she had never once had a peaceful sleep.

Even when she managed to doze off, she would always wake in the middle of the night, gasping from nightmares.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that, for the first time in ten years, she had finally slept soundly, as if all her worries had faded into the background.

Bit by bit, her consciousness surfaced from the depths of darkness, and her memories began to return.

But the clearer those memories became, the colder she felt inside.

I just... completely let my guard down... and fell asleep without a second thought.

That thing—already on the verge of losing control, no longer restrained by my will—on the bronze cross...

She dared not imagine what awaited her.

Shadows swallowing her whole, rotting flesh, bodies perishing amidst corruption and wailing.

And the overwhelming malice—

The kind that left nowhere to hide.

However—

When she reached toward the depths of her soul to check the bronze cross, the expected chaos wasn’t there.

The dark shadow still clung to the twisted figure bound by the cross, rising and falling quietly.

Even when she used all her strength to suppress it, it had never been this calm before.

It was as if—

It had gone to sleep with her.

…

“When you dwell too much on certain troubles, you only end up trapping yourself in a dead end.”

“There’s an old saying in my hometown.”

“It goes—‘Well, since things have come to this, might as well eat first.’”

A familiar voice spoke beside her.

Sylvia opened her eyes and looked around.

The warmth she had felt in her dream was real.

The boy who had tried to drag her into the sea with him had, at some point, started a fire on the beach using branches and dry leaves.

Two skewers of fish sizzled over the flames, dripping with oil.

The crackling firewood chased away the cold and loneliness of the winter night.

He stood up, handing one of the skewers to Sylvia while bringing the other to his mouth.

But the moment he took a bite, he grimaced and set it aside.

“Knew it. Those survival shows are total scams. Grilled fish without seasoning isn’t even food. Next time, I need Shiny to keep some spice jars in the spatial pocket.”

“Silver, you handle this.”

“Ying ying ying~ (Master, this disaster of yours, you deal with it yourself.)”

Perched on the boy’s shoulder, a small snow ferret flicked its fluffy tail, elegantly refusing to be dragged into his mess.

Watching the back-and-forth between the boy and his beast, Sylvia spoke softly.

“Is that your summoned beast?”

“Yeah, my first one.”

“That’s nice…”

A trace of envy flickered in Sylvia’s violet eyes.

“My father said that most low-tier summoned beasts wouldn’t survive bonding with me. The abnormalities in my soul would kill them.”

“I don’t even know if I’ll ever have the chance to become a Beastmaster.”

“You will.”

His answer was immediate—

Not as a guess, but as if stating an undeniable fact.

“One day, you’ll become a Beastmaster stronger than even your father.”

“Really?”

Sylvia let out a faint smile.

His words were impossibly far-fetched, yet she wanted to believe them.

A moment of silence.

The fire flickered, its glow lighting up the dark night.

After a long pause, Sylvia asked softly,

“Earlier… why did you jump into the sea?”

“To save you, of course.”

Sylvia brushed aside a few strands of her messy hair.

“That’s how you save people? By jumping in with them?”

“When someone is truly determined to die, you can’t stop them. Even if you do, there will always be a next time.”

“Only by facing death can one truly understand the meaning of life.”

After an extended struggle with the snow ferret, the boy finally gave in and took a reluctant bite of his fish.

As he ate, he continued,

“Besides, ‘saving you’ is a bit of a misnomer.”

“The thing inside you wouldn’t let its host die so easily. If I’m right, you’re a rare vessel for It.”

“But living like that… is no different from being a walking corpse, is it?”

Sylvia caught the deeper meaning in his words.

She recalled the question he had asked her in the depths of the sea.

“You know who I really am? And yet, you still dared to approach me?”

“Of course. I also know that most people treat the Grand Duke of Cangting’s only daughter like the plague, avoiding you at every gathering.”

“But so what?”

His reply was casual.

“If you spend your whole life living under other people’s judgment, that’s got to be exhausting… I can’t even imagine it.”

He tossed his finished skewer aside and leaned back against a rock.

“In my homeland, there’s a law that states that if a mentally ill person commits a crime during an episode, their actions can be pardoned.”

“Of course, it’s a controversial law—not perfect by any means. But I believe its core principle is right—”

“To show mercy to the good and to punish the wicked.”

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

“So, I think—

The power inside you doesn’t make you inherently evil.”

“Whether you are good or evil isn’t determined by your birth—”

“It’s determined by the choices you make.”

The choices I make…

Sylvia repeated his words in her mind.

The shore fell silent.

The two of them sat by the fire, drying their clothes, the only sound being the occasional crackle of burning wood.

Time passed, and in the distance, faint voices approached.

Sylvia was, after all, the Grand Duke’s only daughter.

Though she wasn’t well-liked, those loyal to the Grand Duke would never ignore her disappearance.

Once they realized she had run away from home, they quickly sent people to find her.

“Well then, see you next time.”

"If those gossiping busybodies find out that the Duke’s daughter was soaking wet and alone with a strange man by the seaside in the middle of the night, who knows what kind of rumors they'll spread?"

The boy stood up and shook off his trench coat, now dry from the warmth of the fire.

Sylvia hesitated for a moment before speaking, her voice slightly hurried.

"Can you tell me… your name?"

"Xia Ya."

"Xia Ya Egut."

"I'm three months older than you. Though I was adopted into the family as an outsider by blood…"

"But in terms of age—"

"You can call me… Xia Ya-gege."

"Oh, right… almost forgot."

The boy paused for a moment, then stepped forward, smoothing out Sylvia’s chestnut hair that had been tousled by the cold wind.

Then, he fastened a crystal hairpin at the end of her locks.

"Happy birthday, Sylvia."

…

By the time Sylvia came back to her senses, the boy was already gone.

She reached out, gently touching the hairpin resting against her forehead. The amethyst crystal still carried a faint warmth.

This was the first birthday gift she had received since her mother’s passing.

She had originally planned to end her life on this last winter night before she turned eighteen.

But now, looking back—

This seventeenth birthday…

She had truly enjoyed it.

"Xia Ya… gege."

Softly murmuring the unfamiliar name, Sylvia picked up the now-cold skewer of grilled fish beside her.

She took a small bite—

And couldn’t help but smile.

"Yeah… it really isn’t very good."