No one spoke to Rael at social gatherings. She wasn’t even treated normally due to being considered relatively lacking.

When tutors scolded Rael, they always brought up Melissa. It wasn’t just one person.

“Why are you always like this? Why can’t you be even half as good as your sister!”

“You’re lacking compared to your sister.”

“Your sister is more…”

Stop it.

“What’s wrong with you? What haven’t I provided for you! How many tutors do we have to keep changing!”

I said stop!

“Rael… I’m disappointed in you.”

Finally, even Melissa turned her back and treated her like a problem child. Only Selheim would listen to Rael’s stories.

“Hic, sob… Selheim, am I really such a worthless person?”

“No one is born worthless, Elly. The choices you made while growing up brought you here.”

“Are you saying everything is my fault?”

“You and Mel were born and grew up the same. If only you turned out this messy, you must be doing something wrong. We just need to fix that. Let’s change together, okay?”

“Haa, ugh…”

“Mel is having a hard time. When she goes to gatherings with you, she has to hear others badmouth you and make excuses, so you keep being a burden to Mel. You shouldn’t do that, Elly. You’re a good sister, aren’t you?”

“You’re the only one who calls me good.”

“It must… hurt a lot then.”

Rael sobbed loudly in Selheim’s embrace.

During puberty, she needed someone to rely on, and having already grown distant from Melissa, Selheim was the only one she could be close to.

But she only realized much later. That all of Selheim’s words came from his ugly desire to separate Rael from Melissa and monopolize Melissa for himself.

Sadly, she realized it much, much later. Only when the sisters had grown into adults and walked completely different paths.

Only after they had grown so far apart that they wouldn’t even speak to each other, passing by in hallways pretending not to know each other, only then did she finally realize.

She wanted to turn back and tell her.

Melissa, run away.

But by then, they were already too far apart to be involved in each other’s lives.

Melissa was engaged. At this rate, becoming Crown Princess seemed like a natural progression for her.

Rael had to watch this whole process from the sidelines.

Why, when we were born at the same time, with the same face, in the same place, did only you seem like the protagonist of the world, Melissa?

If grandfather had chosen me instead of Melissa, would our fates have been reversed?

At first, she wanted to covet and take what was hers. She tried hard, fighting and struggling. But continued defeats and criticism made her powerless.

And as Melissa knew, we only had each other. Even while hating and despising each other so much, when things were most painful and difficult, we’d still end up going to that room, crying our hearts out, and leaving without a word.

Our relationship was so strange.

The words we spat at each other were hateful, and we’d accumulated countless wounds over the years, yet even after falling into the pleasure district, we still relied on each other.

Then one day, when Melissa abandoned Rael and ran away.

That’s when she was overwhelmed with such tremendous feelings of betrayal and humiliation that she wanted to kill Melissa.

“If you were going to abandon me and run away, you should never have come back.”

No, she really wanted to die.

“Why am I living like this here? We both f*cking know what kind of treatment we’ll get and how we’ll die if we leave! Melissa, are you stupid? Are you an idiot?”

Rael grabbed Melissa’s hair and shook her in anger.

“If I f*cking sell my body and keep living here, you can clean and do my laundry while living with your pathetic little principles intact. It’s so f*cking comfortable! Why are you running away, why! Why leave only me… why only me… hic, ugh… don’t go…”

The rage soon turned to tears.

“I’m sorry… really, I’m sorry…”

Even while bleeding from Rael’s blows, Melissa approached and embraced her crying sister. Like when they were young, she patted Rael’s back and apologized.

Rael held Melissa tight and continued sobbing.

“Don’t go, Melissa… please don’t go anywhere… I, I hic… don’t… abandon me…”

Even after that, that place wouldn’t let the sisters go. Rael was constantly gripped by anxiety that Melissa would leave her.

Even while working, she would send someone several times a day to check if Melissa was still there. She always made Melissa do the dawn cleaning so she could see her face at least once, and even without speaking, she would make Melissa bring her water.

But somehow the pain kept getting worse day by day. It felt like emotions from an unknown source were eating away at her insides every day.

Rael started drinking to forget the pain. After performances, when she flirted with customers, alcohol and money poured in abundantly.

That made Aunt Marita’s mouth split with joy.

“I’ll pay for my sister’s share with this too. That’s fine, right?”

“Oh my, of course. You’re Mel, and Mel is you anyway. What does it matter who earns how much?”

But after saying that.

Marita soon sold Melissa off.

“Where’s my sister? Where did you sell her!”

When Rael found out, she went and slapped Marita. With a thud, as Marita’s face turned in front of customers, she jumped up from her seat.

“Sit down, Elly.”

When she looked down at the familiar voice, Selheim was sitting there downing whiskey.

“I’ll give proper punishment to the ungrateful sister who ran away. I’ll break her… so she can never go anywhere again.”

Rael laughed emptily.

“You psycho.”

Selheim smiled back without denying it.

That’s when it began.

When true hell started.

* * *

Melissa read the end of the long letter again.

[I have no strength left to live anymore.

Why did we hate each other so much while we were alive?

Actually, in the face of death, those feelings were nothing, but we wasted time being buried in them, and there’s something I couldn’t say.

I never thought I’d say this to my sister in my lifetime.

I love you, Melissa.]

Melissa shook her head while crying.

“No. No, Rael…”

This letter was a suicide note.

Why the final letter came to her was all too clear.

[P.S. Melissa, don’t come looking for me.

Selheim is after you.]

It was a letter written with dying thoughts until the very end.

If Rael died, Melissa would come looking for the body, and she gave this warning in advance fearing Melissa would be caught by Selheim then.

Even while planning to die herself.

“Ah…”

Melissa hated Rael.

The wounds and feelings of betrayal that child gave her would probably never be forgotten in her lifetime.

But on the other hand, she understood that child’s pain.

She still felt guilty about abandoning and running away from that child.

Just as Melissa was hurt by Rael, Rael was hurt by Melissa. Though they knew this, they were too busy hurting from their own wounds to take care of each other.

We… we only had each other.

‘I can’t let her die.’

Melissa immediately put on her robe and opened the window. The person who frequently used the window would probably be upstairs.

“Erich.”

When she called, heavy footsteps could be heard walking to the window upstairs. Erich poked his head out from above.

“How did you know I was here?”

“I thought you’d be there since you’re always nearby.”

“Ah.”

Erich raised one eyebrow while looking down, as if asking what she needed. He was already fully dressed like he was about to go out.

“I want to get some fresh air.”

“Then you should discuss it with His Highness…”

“We had a fight.”

“Ah.”

He frowned vaguely while scratching his head.

“Then I’ll go tell him instead…”

“You know he won’t allow it. I just need a moment. Please, Erich.”

A tear fell from Melissa’s eyes.

A pitiful crying woman was begging him with a handkerchief clutched in her hands. Erich heaved a deep sigh. He seemed to be considering it since she said she just needed a moment.

“If His Lordship says no, I’ll ask someone else…”

As Melissa was about to turn away, Erich jumped down from upstairs in one leap and climbed in through the window.

The man with disheveled black hair fixed his hair and warned with a stern face.

“Didn’t His Highness tell you? That there’s a spy among us.”