The wind swept freely across the rooftop, carrying the warmth of the bright sun. Looking out, the sky above was a flawless, endless blue dotted with lazy clouds.
The upbeat melody of the recess exercises drifted up. From this height, the figures moving below looked incredibly small.
Vivienne rested both hands on the railing, her luminous skin bathed in sunlight. "Spit it out. What do you want?"
Aurelia stepped closer, her eyes locked on Vivienne's radiant gaze. "Thank you."
Vivienne arched an eyebrow, a teasing smile playing on her lips. "For what?"
"For waking me up," Aurelia replied.
Vivienne glanced at the top of her head, then looked away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You once said I wasn't the only 'lunatic' in this world. I never understood what you meant, until you said that line to me."
Aurelia paused, studying Vivienne's profile, and finally voiced the question weighing on her heart. "Vivi, you were also one of the 'chosen ones,' weren't you?"
Vivienne's eyelids fluttered. She turned to meet Aurelia's gaze, neither confirming nor denying it.
But Aurelia already knew the answer. Her clear eyes welled with moisture. Vivienne could have lied, but she chose not to.
At that moment, she felt a profound empathy for the girl in front of her.
If the order of the world was inverted, then madness was the purest form of sanity.
She had fought the entire world completely alone.
Aurelia had walked that path of resistance, so she knew better than anyone the staggering amount of courage it required.
She looked at Vivienne softly. "Did anyone reach out to help you back then?"
Vivienne nodded. "Yes."
The love of a guiding beacon had given her the direction to keep moving forward.
Aurelia could guess the rough outline of Vivienne's story.
Just as she suspected, Vivienne must have awakened her self-awareness during years of manipulation and control by Serena Lowe. But Vivienne was stronger. Relying on her grandfather's love, she had taken it step by step.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Chaos Girl Rewrites the Script