“You, what’s wrong with you!”

“……Go.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about me and go. You’re the one they’re after.”

Though she got involved by being with him, she wasn’t a person of much concern to them. The important one was Royan.

“Go. Quickly.”

“But……”

Behind the hesitating boy, a masked man was approaching. He was so large that even Royan had to look up high to see him. The man cast a shadow over Royan’s face as he raised his sword high.

Reibella immediately pulled Royan into her arms protectively, offering her shoulder, and the sharp blade grazed her arm, leaving a deep wound.

The man quickly grabbed Royan’s neck, which Reibella had been hiding. Though Reibella held Royan tightly, the man, seemingly unconcerned, tried to stab Royan in the stomach with his sword.

At that moment, his body collapsed first.

The man looked bewildered, not knowing what had happened to him. But soon, he fell as if crumbling.

The person who appeared behind him was…

Cassius Vicheravali.

The Undefeated Knight.

Seeing him approach, she felt her tense heart melting away. So Reibella whispered into the ear of Royan, who was still in her arms.

“If you only hide your feelings, no one will understand them.”

So, make sure… To tell him. Understand?

After saying those words, Reibella slipped comfortably into the sea of sleep that washed over her.

* * *

There was a tremendous commotion around her.

Someone came and went, sometimes putting something in her mouth.

She heard an angry loud voice, then soon a quiet whisper lingered in her ear.

After the commotion rose and fell several times, when the voices that had seemed distant began to become clearer.

Someone’s serious voice caught her ear.

“The organ damage is severe. She needs a priest’s treatment immediately.”

……Was she injured that badly?

Anyway, that Emperor bastard was someone who gave new reasons to curse her every day.

How could he feed such a thing to a young sprout?

“……Call a priest right now, right now!”

This time it was the Duke of Vicheravali’s voice.

He was shouting with a very desperate voice.

It was truly a strange feeling.

For the past few months, Reibella’s life had been similar to darkness without a single light.

The fear of death that could come at any time. The fear that rushed in at all hours. Sadness that couldn’t be shared with anyone.

Sometimes, when she would sneak out to the garden with her hungry stomach and eat fruits from the garden trees while looking at the stars, she would suddenly think:

I’m the only unwelcome existence in this world.

No one would care even if I died right now.

Of course, that thought faded when she met Calyx, but she wondered if he was everything. She thought that Calyx might be the only person in this world who cared about her.

But…… the Duke of Vicheravali was urgently shouting for her.

Her—an existence not even worthy of being an extra beside the protagonist. Felicity, whom everyone pointed fingers at. For her.

At first, he was the villain of this world she wanted to avoid so badly. Somehow, Reibella wanted to see him. So she forced her heavy eyelids open with all her might.

Beyond her trembling eyebrows were people.

Cassius Vicheravali, Royan Vicheravali, Charlotte. Cleo. The one in white clothes was surely the doctor, Philip, whom she had never met but was familiar with by name.

The person in the back was Aiden. The chief butler, Kieran.

It didn’t seem like much time had passed since she came to the Vicheravali mansion, but already she knew so many people.

“Are you alright?”

“Are you okay?”

She had experienced similar situations often. Every time she drank poison and lost consciousness, only a white ceiling greeted her when she opened her eyes.

But now two identical people were worrying about her in similar voices. That sight was truly unfamiliar and reminded her of a time in her memories she didn’t want to recall.

A time with her family that was so happy but taken away overnight. A time she could never return to.

“Reibella.”

At the Duke of Vicheravali’s call, Reibella smiled painfully and slightly raised her arm. Royan was the first to grasp that hand.

Then looking at the Duke, he too took her hand.

Seeing their hands overlap made her smile naturally.

It felt like she could finally sleep peacefully now.

* * *

“The treatment is complete, but the poison remains. It seems to be a substance beyond the power of the divine.”

The priest said with a troubled tone.

‘A substance beyond the power of the divine’

That was the characteristic of the substance Cassius had been searching for. It was the only feature of the substance that had taken a life in the Vicheravali castle 7 years ago.

“Is that, possibly…”

“Yes, it’s similar to that poison from back then.”

After hearing the priest’s words, Cassius swept his face with a devastated expression. Then he slowly asked.

“Is there a way to cure it?”

The priest answered calmly.

“Healing her perfectly is impossible. It seems the only method is to regularly treat the damaged parts with divine power.”

“Then will her life be in danger?”

“We’ll have to observe to know for certain. If possible, it would be good to find an antidote.”

After those words, the priest gave a respectful greeting and left.

Only after he disappeared did Royan, who had been quietly keeping vigil while holding Reibella’s hand, asked.

“……Is this child going to die?”

At Royan’s question, the Duke of Vicheravali, Cassius, remained silent. Royan’s brow furrowed deeply and his eyes reddened.

But he didn’t cry. He swallowed his rising tears and steadied his trembling breath. Then he asked the Duke again.

“What was the reason my mother died?”

“……Why are you suddenly curious about that?”

Inwardly, he had a guess. Perhaps that’s why he wanted to avoid it. Because he didn’t particularly want to know. It was easier to resent someone.

But…

“Because this child wanted to let me know.”

When he first met this child, he just hated her. There was nothing to like about her.

She was from Felicity, which had persecuted Erina before being annihilated, yet despite that, she received Erina’s affection and came here as an adopted daughter. He thought Erina was too soft.

The news that she had appeared in his father’s arms was also absurd. He even thought she might be presumptuous enough to covet his position. His attendant had told him that she was once the perfect heir to Felicity.

After that, he continued to dislike her. The child seemed to everyone like she had grown up receiving much love, and that alone made her different from him. Moreover, the fact that she was a child who had saved the princess’s life several times made him feel more inadequate.

So he kept pushing her away and saying mean things, but the child didn’t seem hurt at all and instead approached him more.

She kept trying to take care of him and treated him kindly. As if she were really his blood sister.

That made him feel more repulsed and even hateful. Clearly, that’s how it was at first…… but gradually, having this child around started to feel natural. When she smiled and called his name, it seemed cute. It was quite different from the feelings he had for Erina. There were often times when he wondered if this is what it would feel like to have a sister.

As if noticing his feelings, the child acted as if she really were family.

The child had a strangely absent-minded side, like dropping things when concentrating on something, or wobbling after tripping on a small edge of a flowerbed while walking in a daze.

At those times, he felt a sense of responsibility from somewhere. If she officially became family, she would need a lot of care. That seemed bothersome but not unpleasant.

Even when he ran out of the house in anger saying he would leave, she followed him quickly, and honestly, he was happy, but he just grumbled like a fool.

Despite that, the child told him what he wanted to hear as if she had looked into his heart.

With sincerity, very kindly and warmly.

She was a good child who didn’t mock him even as she patted his head while he cried like a fool.

That’s the kind of child she was.

“I want to know why this child tried to bring the Duke and me together, what she was thinking.”

Above all, he needed to know why this child, who was hurt in his place, was in such pain.

If it was related to the one who killed his mother, he would no longer look away.

When Royan looked up at the Duke of Vicheravali, his face was more rigid than usual.

In the past, he would have considered it simply expressionless, but thanks to Reibella, he had come to understand his father’s expressions after facing them often. Seeing the slight downward turn at the ends of his eyebrows, he seemed to be suppressing a breaking heart.

Soon, the Duke of Vicheravali quietly exhaled the breath he had been holding. And then—

“The person who killed your mother was Liam Curtis Rastel. The Emperor.”

The truth was revealed.