There was darkness everywhere as she ran from the soldiers hunting her. The man she thought was her betrothed had turned out to be a snake, and her own family had disowned her… her whole world was lit on fire, and she was the one who had lit the match. Soon, the soldiers encircled her, shouting blasphemies.
He emerged from the crowd, clapping with a malicious smile on his face, his eyes so dark they could make anyone shudder. He slowly walked up to her and said, "Funny of you to assume that you could make it out of here alive, you bloody witch."
Those words made her shiver in agony as she begged for her life. "Please spare me… I-I'm not a witch. I didn't hurt anybody… please… please," she wailed, tears streaming down her face. He scoffed and turned to the soldiers. "Burn her… let the whole empire see the demise of the witch."
Her eyes widened with fear as the soldiers set her on fire. She screamed in pain as the flames consumed her, her skin, once milky white, blackened with fire; her hair, once golden in sunlight, turned to ashes. And thus she died, with no one to remember her, no one to ever prove her innocence. Her soul left the world in nothing but agony.
After her demise, the entire empire celebrated as if it were a festival. They danced to songs of joy throughout the night, and from then on, that day was celebrated every year as the National Festival of Good Deeds.
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"Lady Celeste, the Duke requires your audience," said the maid, breaking my focus from the book I was reading.
"Very well," I replied, setting the book aside and walking to my father's study.
I am Celeste Greenwald, the second daughter of Duke Ebenzer Greenwald of the Empire of Delaca. I was only five years old when I discovered this strange book in my father's study, and the strangest thing about it is that only I can see the words written inside. To everyone else, it appears as a plain, blank book. Strangely, I am one of the characters within it, the exact woman deemed a witch and burned alive, portrayed as nothing but a villainess whose life was a deceit. But I do not plan to let it end that way. I, Celeste Greenwald, will change my fate and free myself from the shackles of those who deceived me.