[1] The Wicked and The Reaper

━─━────༺༻────━─━

“What was I to you, Prince Dio?” she asked, her voice beginning to crack. “Was I just a doll, perfect for a Duke? Am I nothing but my face?” She continued to speak as she started to scratch her face with her nails.

Skin peeled away. Tears of frustration began to race from her eyes. “Why? Why her, and not me, Dio?” she desperately asked while the Prince merely stared at her, his expression blank.

“Perhaps… Perhaps if you were not so ruthless, so wicked. Maybe then there would be a room for you in my heart,” he stated. His words held no reservation. No emotion.

A liar.

Even if I were as angelic as my face, even if I sold all my assets and donated the fortune to the church, he would never love me.

He will never choose me. Only her.

A scoundrel. A scammer. A user.

All of these were Reise’s thoughts.

She simply smiled at the Prince as if she had finally lost her mind.

I am a woman of peerless beauty, equal to a goddess. My family’s strength rivals the royalty itself.

A woman like me was tossed aside for a commoner.

What a shame. What a scandal.

As these thoughts ran through her mind, she hopped onto the balcony’s railing and turned to face the Prince. “You once said I was like a rose. That is why I came to love them, and why I have been called the Wicked Rose. Thank you for the past ten years of unrequited love, My Love.” She offered a bittersweet smile, and let herself fall from the balcony.

Horror dawned in the Prince’s eyes.

The echo of her body slamming against the ground resonated through the palace grounds.

The Wicked Rose was torn apart.

*Snap.*

G6 snapped the book shut, her irritation palpable.

“It really creeps me out sometimes, G6, your love for tragic romance,” said the man beside her, peering through his binoculars.

“Shut up and do your job,” she replied, grabbing her sniper rifle from the bag and methodically cleaning the lens.

“Well, it’s just weird for a Reaper like you to be hooked on a typical romance. Or were you just bitter because it’s impossible for yo—” He stopped and fixed his position. “G6, the target is on the move,” he said, his tone now serious.

She moved into position, settling behind the rifle.

Searching for the target. Zooming in.

“Target subject for appraisal,” she said into her earpiece.

Operator: “Target Confirmed. Proceed.”

G6: “Locked in.”

A gunshot rang out.

Guards panicked. Bystanders screamed in fear.

G6: “Mission complete. G6 signing—”

Operator: “Mission ongoing! Mission ongoing! Apprehend the man in red! Apprehend the man in red!”

G6’s brows furrowed. She had only been briefed on one target. She immediately returned to her position and searched again.

“Explain the situation,” she demanded, her voice laced with irritation as she repositioned the rifle.

Operator: “The target disguised himself as a bodyguard.”

What’s the use of an appraisal if you can’t get it right? You damn system.

“Shit. He ran off,” she stated calmly. “Secure the route, Pisces. I’ll do the chase.” She stood up.

“Copy,” Pisces responded.

G6 discarded her sniper rifle on the rooftop and began her pursuit, chasing the target’s car from the rooftops above. She moved with acrobatic skill, using a grappling gun tethered to her waist to swing between buildings like a shadow.

Splendid. A phantom in the city lights. Death was coming.

G6: *while running, a pistol in her hand* “Activate the zoom on my left lens.”

Operator: “Zoom activated.”

G6 outpaced the car, leaping ahead by a hundred meters. She found her new perch atop the city’s central church.

Scanning. Zooming in.

G6: “Target subject for appraisal.”

Operator: “Target Confirmed. Proceed without any reserve.”

What a pain in the neck, G6 thought as her finger squeezed the trigger.

G6: “Locked in.”

Silence. Then, the car crashed. The chaos of the city echoed through the night sky, a testament to the Reaper’s rule.

G6: “Mission Complete. G6 signing out.”

She spoke bluntly, then jumped from the ledge, her arms spread wide as if they were wings.

She is Akira Gemstone, also known as “G6,” the most feared assassin. Once your name appeared on her list, you could be certain death awaited at your door.

_____

[The Apartment]

“G6, this book looks ancient. And why does it have to end with the villainess’s death? It’s kind of creepy to read,” Pisces said, searching through the pages.

“Says the assassin,” she retorted, grabbing a beer from the fridge. Oh, relaxing vitamins. She grabbed a small bottle of medicine and chewed two pills. “The author, Witherby, has probably been dead for fifty years,” she continued, sipping her beer.

“You thought so? The storyline between the commoner and the Prince—soon-to-be-Duke—seems good, though,” Pisces remarked.

“It’s trash. I’d rather strangle the heroine to death. She’s useless. What does a kingdom already at its peak need with a ‘Blessing of Prosperity’? The Three Pillars already handle that.” She crashed onto the couch.

“You just hate the heroine. You’re always on the side of darkness,” Pisces said, giggling. He stood up, put on his jacket, and handed her the book. “I’ll be out for a while. Please, G6, don’t fall asleep with the TV on. Have some pity for the one who pays the bill!” he whined.

“Who cares about your money?” she said, turning up the volume.

Pisces was about to leave when he stopped and looked at G6. “Watch your eyes,” G6 said without even turning.

“Don’t be so cold. I just wanted to say… be careful. You might end up as the villainess in a story like that,” he said with a giggle.

“If I were, it would be their doom,” she responded, her attention already captured by the television.

Pisces, his code name, simply shook his head and headed out probably to stake out, or to flirt around.

To the world, G6 was a legend. To Pisces, she was a sharp-tongued, twenty-one-year-old drunkard and a professional freeloader—his senior and partner.

G6 was the sixth assassin in the Gemstone family to be named Reaper—a title earned by those who surpassed the standard body count and mastered every form of combat: marksmanship, martial arts, ninja arts, and swordsmanship. Raised in a household of retired assassins known as the Gems, her skill was inevitable.

She tormented her junior simply because she felt like it. It annoyed her if she couldn’t annoy someone else.

_____

[The Waking]

*Birds chirping.*

A reflection of sunlight from the windows fell upon her delicate face.

A hand reached for her shoulder.

In an instant, Akira reacted. She grabbed the wrist, twisted it, and pulled the figure down, pinning her to the bed with practiced ease.

Her brows furrowed as she stared at the unfamiliar woman in a maid’s outfit.

“Who the hell are you?” she demanded, her gaze cold and sharp.

“Who are you?” she asked again. Who does she think she is?

The maid’s eyes began to water. Huh? Is she going to cry? What is she, a newborn baby?

G6 was startled when she heard another woman speak from behind her.

“Lady Reise! It is far too early in the morning for you to be throwing a fit,” said a woman dressed in similar, strange maid’s clothing.

Wait—What?!

Finally, it dawned on her.

“Who are you? Where am I?” The words came out in a panicked voice she didn’t recognize.

She moved away from the woman, her eyes darting around the entire room. Where the hell am I?!

She looked to her right and saw a full-body mirror.

Reflected in the glass was a stranger. A teenage girl with waves of rose-gold hair fanned out like a halo, a face of delicate, porcelain beauty, and wide, frightened blue eyes. The girl’s face, however, was contorted in a mask of lethal fury—her fury. It was a grotesque mismatch.

The stranger was her.

A raw, undignified scream of pure, unadulterated horror tore from her throat, echoing through the opulent prison of the room.

“AAAHHH!!!!” Her scream echoed throughout the West Villa.

[Fifteen Minutes Later]

G6 sat in the corner, still wearing her nightdress, utterly unable to process what was happening.

She looked at her hands. Ah, what princess-like hands. Hands that have never been tainted by blood. Is this really me? Who am I?

Her eyes fell upon the book under a nearby cabinet.

“The Wonder of a Wonderful World?” she whispered, a chill slowly creeping down her spine.

What the—!

As she stared, a whisper—not her own—curled in her mind. “It would be great if I was not her…”

G6 clutched her head as it began to spin. Are the memories of this body’s real owner trying to come back?

“My lady, are you quite alright? Do you feel unwell?” a maid asked, snapping Akira back to reality.

Why does she keep calling me ‘my lady’? Is she nuts? Where does she think we are, the olden days? Ahh! This is so frustrating. Am I dreaming? Hallucinating? Too drunk? What the hell?!

The Reaper's mind is in trouble, it is like a system that has been hijacked and unable to analyze and comprehend things accordingly as she should be.

“Lady Reise, please speak to me. Are you upset because Prince Dio has not visited you yet?” the maid with glasses asked Akira.

Wait, did she just call me Reise? As in Reise Worthon, the one obsessed with that good-for-nothing prince from the book I was reading?

Why is the book even here? What was that in my mind? That wasn’t my thought. And what is this feeling?

A disgusting, heavy feeling had settled in her chest since she woke up.

Why do I feel so heavy? Why does my heart feel like it’s weeping?

G6 slowly looked at the bespectacled servant, Tina—Reise’s personal maid.

Is she this girl’s trusted aide? Why do I feel comfort from her stare? Why does she look at me with pity?

Am I really inside the novel? How is that possible? Wait—did I die? In Pisces’s favorite genre, when someone dies, they get reincarnated somewhere else.

If I died… and G6 was lost in her thoughts.

While she murmured in the corner, Tina and two other maids watched her with concern.

“She must have finally lost her mind. Prince Dio has not called upon her once since her arrival a week ago,” whispered one maid to another. “It must be so… Poor Lady Reise…”

Tina cleared her throat sharply, a silent command for them to hold their tongues.

I have to wake myself up from this weird dream!

G6 stood up. The next second, the loud sound of a slap echoed through the room.

The servants, including Tina, were too stunned to speak.

“WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL IS THIS?!” G6 yelled after slapping her own face as hard as she could.

“Lady Reise, what are you doing!” Tina rushed over and held her swollen cheek.

What the hell? This pain is real. Is this real?

G6 was once again lost in her thoughts. Ah—maybe my thoughts are literally spiraling through the universe right now.

“Everyone, leave Lady Reise to me,” Tina demanded. The other maids quickly obeyed.

I have to get myself together.

Should I even bother? Just kill me already; this joke isn’t funny.

“I’m hungover from last night—” she blurted out to Tina.

Out of nowhere, out of context. It was not even a perfect tactical diversion in the oddity she's been doing.

“You had a drink last night, My lady?” Tina asked, perplexed.

“I did. This must be it. This must be a joke. Ha ha ha,” G6 said, laughing like someone who’d lost her screws. “Hey, four-eye—” Her words were cut off as Tina began to sob.

What the hell? Why do people here cry so easily?!

“This is my fault… I should not have left you alone last night,” she cried.

“It was a mistake on my part, four—” G6’s words were cut off again as Tina looked up at her with a deadly serious expression.

“No. The fault is mine. Forgive my incompetence. And my lady,” Tina said, her posture suddenly strict as if she hadn’t been crying moments before, “stop calling me ‘four-eyes.’ I have told you, my name is Tina.”

Whoa, talent. She’d be great at disguise and assassination.

Oh, wait—Tina? I remember that name. She was Reise’s personal aide.

So…AM I REALLY INSIDE THE NOVEL?!

G6 grabbed her head like a lunatic and slammed herself back onto the bed.

Tina looked on helplessly, shook her head, and began preparing the things ‘Lady Reise’ would need for the day.

Reise Worthon was already known as a dramatic, love-obsessed woman. Most called her wicked for her tendency to yell at anyone who annoyed her and to publicly chastise any noblewoman who showed interest in her fiancé, Prince Dio.

But her behavior this morning was a far cry from her usual dramatic yelling.

[The Realization]

As Tina combed her hair, Akira was lost in thought, staring into the mirror.

This wasn’t a dream. Was it? What happened? Did I die? Did Pisces betray me and kill me? Did one of Pisces’s enemies mistake me for him?

She shook her head to erase the thought, and Tina gently repositioned her head.

What was I thinking? It’s impossible for Pisces to betray me. The GAO doesn’t breed traitors.

So, did his enemy break into his apartment and mistake me for him? Wait—thinking back, I did take something before getting a beer from the fridge…

Now she was starting to remember.

Wait— there are two vials… did I mistake the one I took for my Milan injury?

G6’s stomach dropped as the memory surfaced—the medicine bottle on the counter next to the beer. The label on the bottle she had grabbed became clear in her mind.

“I ACCIDENTALLY TOOK MORPHINE INSTEAD OF MY RELAXING MEDICINE?!” she yelled, slamming her hands on the vanity table.

I must be an idiot! The side effects must have hit after the adrenaline from the mission wore off.

I pathetically died because I took the wrong pills?! What the—how will my family react? They act all cool, but they’re probably killing me all over again in their minds. This is so embarrassing.

Mixing morphine into any alcohol substance is highly dangerous, and given to how much G6 loves drinking. Yes, it's possible. The Reaper accidentally reaps herself.

___

[Moments later…]

The lady named Tina had asked me if I wanted to take a walk to clear my head instead of slapping myself. I refused. Why would I walk around an unknown place without any weapons? It’d be like going on a hit naked.

I can’t remember how I died. I probably just never woke up. My heart must have stopped without any warning.

G6 continued to struggle internally, still unable to fully process everything.

Her attention returned to the book on her lap.

Has Reise been reading this? Impossible. This is a novel inside the novel I’m in. Is the universe mocking her? Or me? Did I offend the author’s ghost by talking trash about his book?

“If your soul is listening, Mr. Witherby, I take it all back! Please forgive me!” she pleaded aloud to the ceiling with her hands clasped.

Then—

G6’s face turned pale when she opened the book. The pages were empty, save for a message on the first page that had never been there before.

“She was not the first rose to fall from grace—only the first to grow thorns in the dark.

Beware the petals left behind; they remember the hand that plucked them.”

-Witherby

As she read Witherby’s final note, scribbled in ink that seemed never to dry, his name smudged beneath her touch as if reacting to her.

G6 touched the back of her right ear; it burned. She immediately grabbed a hand mirror and looked.

There it was. Her tattoo. A chained rose, the size of her thumb. The mark of G6 the Reaper. The symbol of her plea and the reminder of who she was, and has to be.

It burned faintly, just as it always did during a hit. Was it a tether to her old life… or a curse from the book?

What exactly is happening?

G6 tilted her head back, looking at the ceiling, utterly exhausted by it all.

I’m still in the dark. So far, the tattoo and the book are the only things that are truly mine. I need to prepare myself and dig deeper.

As her thoughts churned, G6’s consciousness plunged into darkness.

_____

She stood on a balcony, her hands gripping the railing. No—not her hands. These were Reise’s hands, delicate and trembling, nails digging into her own skin.

What the hell—?

A voice—her voice—spoke, but the words weren’t hers.

“You once said I was like a rose…”

G6 tried to turn, to step back, but her body was not her own. She was a passenger, forced to watch as Reise’s memories played out.

Prince Dio stood before her, his expression cold. The same look he’d given Reise in the book. The same look that had driven her to—

No. No, no, no—

G6 fought, thrashing against the dream, but Reise’s body didn’t obey.

“Thank you for the past ten years of unrequited love, My Love.”

Reise smiled—broken, beautiful, resigned—and stepped onto the railing.

“STOP—!”

But Reise didn’t.

The wind rushed past as the ground surged up to meet her—

G6 woke with a gasp, drenched in a cold sweat.

Her hands shook. Not from fear—from fury.

The mirror showed Reise’s face, but her own grey eyes burned in the reflection.

The chain-rose tattoo pulsed behind her ear, a warning: This isn’t over.

G6 sat in the dark, clutching the sheets.

“Fine,” she muttered. “If I’m stuck here… I’m doing this my way.”

LOCKED IN.

— To be continued… —