Chapter 0 - Prologue – Requiem (1/2)

Chapter 0 – Prologue – Requiem

Beep.

Chloe Aslan pressed the play button on the phonograph.

[ The Madam’s heart is slowly failing. ]

Not too long ago, the doctor broke the sad news to her at the hospital.

[ Two years. ]

Chloe pressed the button again.

Beep.

[ I’m very sorry about this, Madam, but I have to let you know that you only have two years left. ]

One more time.

[ I’m very sorry about this, Madam… ]

[ …you only have two years left… ]

[ …two years left… ]

As the phonograph stopped spinning, the sound of weariness came out from it. Only the small squeaks and scrapes of metal filled the room.

Chloe stared blankly at the phonograph. Her blue eyes, which had always been clear, became clouded. It felt as if she could already hear the funeral march. As if she could really hear death coming from the requiem, then experiencing it.

She slowly shifted her gaze, which was still murky. She looked at the back of her hand, already deathly thin.

‘I’m… dying.’

She said the words in her mind, the idea too hard to grasp. People lived their lives never thinking about death, even though it was hovering very close.

The same was true for Chloe. She spent every single day of her life as if she would live forever.

‘…Two years.’

But now that she was presented with a certain date, it made her realize that her life was very short. She would leave this world after spring, summer, autumn, winter—and then again, one last time.

‘Shouldn’t I be crying at a time like this?’

She mulled over it.

She tried to feel sad while thinking about her own death.

But there were no tears. Her eyes didn’t even feel hot.

‘Why?’

The answer to the question came quickly.