I Became The Younger Sister Of A Dying Woman - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: No Uniform Is Complete Without a Cloak

The Duke of Valencia was a man of many misfortunes.

His wife, the Duchess, had died young, his two precious daughters were frail, and he couldn’t even find a way to make them healthy…….

So even when good things happened, he couldn’t enjoy them. There was a constant pain and worry in the back of his mind.

But there was one thing he loved to do once a month to ease his worries.

It was called astronomy, but in reality it was a “horoscope for the month” – close to fortune telling.

He was firmly fascinated by the fortune telling, which he viewed as fun to soothe his troubled mind.

On this particular day, Letty and Linzel decided to join him for a fortune telling.

The old woman sitting across from the twins, the fortune teller, was staring intently at a fist-sized ball.

“Now….. The duke’s horoscope for this month is starting to show.”

At those words, Linzel also gazed at the ball, but she saw nothing. All she could see were their own faces, stretched ridiculously in the spherical reflection.

Linzel glanced at her father, who was sitting on the one-seater sofa.

He hadn’t taken a single breath, waiting for the words to fall from the fortune teller.

“……This month will pass very smoothly. You will be able to reap the fruits of your labors, and there is a good chance that things that have been stuck will be cleared up.”

At the fortune teller’s words, a look finally crossed my father’s face.

He was smiling.

But the smile didn’t last long.

“However, I would advise you to keep in mind that you may encounter difficulties in unexpected places.”

The fortune teller then looked straight at Linzel. As if she were the cause of the difficulties.

And then her dry lips began to part once more.

“My lady… … It looks like it will be a month in which many things can change.”

“A lot of things?” Linzel repeated.

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me if those will be positive or negative changes?”

The fortune teller shook her head.

“I’m sorry to say, but it’s most likely negative.”

Oh, no.

Linzel furrowed her brow in distress.

“But what I told you was just a horoscope, so you shouldn’t take it too seriously.”

“I heard something bad; how could I not care?”

Linzel didn’t mean to vent any anger, but when she spat out her reply, it seemed that she was angry with the fortune teller.

Normally, she would have let it go, but she was upset because she was going to marry Hernan this month.

“I’m sorry.”

“……No. It’s okay.”

“If the warnings I’ve given the lady are causing you to be extra cautious, the outlook might be positive.”

“Yeah.”

Linzel waved it off with a short answer. As the fortune teller had said, fortunes could be reversed at any moment.

The fortune teller’s gaze fell on Letty this time.

“Lady Letty is…….”

The fortune teller’s face turned serious at once. Even more so than when she’d uttered the words of negativity.

“It’s nothing.”

“Oh, why? What is it that you look so serious, and then you don’t say anything?” Linzel asked, her voice almost rising.

Linzel was more agitated than Letty, who remained silent.

There are a total of three things she hated. The first one is talking and then cutting off, and the second one is…….

“Lady Letty, I urge you to take good care of yourself,” the fortune teller finished her sentence vaguely.

“Yes. I am mindful of my health.”

Letty didn’t seem to mind the cryptic words of the fortune teller.

The two women locked eyes.

Even though there was no dialogue, it felt like Letty and the fortune teller shared a message. It was the fortune teller who looked away first.

“…..I think it’s time for me to leave.”

“Okay. All right. See you next month.”

The fortune teller gave the ducal family a curt bow and then left the parlor.

Linzel elbowed Letty in the side.

“You were talking to that woman with your eyes earlier, weren’t you?”

“Linzel. How do you communicate with your eyes?”

“Messages sent and received with the mind. Telepathy…… thing, something like that?”

Letty giggled, as if she’d heard a joke. But Linzel was not making a joke.

“Funny. I’m not a wizard, and how do I send and receive messages with my eyes?”

“So, you say you’re innocent?”

“Please believe in this girl’s innocence,” Letty retorted playfully, dismissing Linzel as being ridiculous.

“Geez,” Linzel huffed. “I know, I know. And it was just a fortune teller’s words anyway.”

But the fortune teller’s words stuck in her head like a thorn.

‘A month in which many things can change.’

Linzel hoped her marriage with Hernan would go smoothly.

“You two. Do you have anything more to say to me? If not, you may also leave.”

At their father’s call, Linzel stopped thinking about the fortune teller.

“Me, me! I have something to tell you.”

He gestured with his chin as if to say go ahead.

Linzel was no stranger to blurting out what she was thinking.

“I want to marry His Highness Hernan this month, and I do not mind if it is now or tomorrow.”

“What, what, heuk, marriage?” Letty and their father gasped in unison at Linzel’s surprise announcement.

“Yes. His Highness Hernan has already agreed, and he said he would speak to the Royal Family.”

Her father pulled himself up and stood in front of Linzel. His face showed embarrassment, worry, confusion…… and a variety of other emotions.

He did not welcome the departure of his daughter, who was a precious child.

“Linzel. I know I suggested an arranged marriage, but there’s no need to rush into it. It could come back to bite you, so why don’t you think it through?”

Linzel shook her head.

“I’m thinking it through, and I have my reasons.”

He studied his stubborn daughter for a long moment, then let out a long sigh.

“…….This month, you’ve got a lot to prepare for.”

As if surrendering, he finally gave his permission. He seemed to understand that there was no room for him to not back down.

Linzel took her father’s shaking hand in her own.

“Thank you, Father, I can have a ceremony with only my family invited.”

The wedding wasn’t the point. What mattered to her was…….

“Did you like His Highness Hernan’s face so much? Even more than mine?”

……his wonderful face…… not!

“Ah, Father! It’s not just for that reason. Of course, it’s not like that isn’t a factor at all.”

In other words, the most important thing to her was her and her sister’s life. They needed to live to be able to do something with their lives.

Whether it’s having a dream that’s too much to wish for, or hoping for a small wish to come true – whatever kind of dreaming they wanted to do, they needed to be alive to do it!

‘But hey, guys, why do you keep talking about his face? I never brought it up!’

Linzel let out a deep sigh of frustration.

“Phew.”

Hernan’s face seemed to be a recurring theme in their family, and Linzel felt unnecessarily sorry for him.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hernan had also informed the palace of his intention to marry Linzel quickly.

He was the first to reveal his intention at dinner, where he was almost alone with his parents.

“I wish to have my wedding with Lady Linzel arranged as soon as possible. I prefer to do so as soon as tomorrow.”

The emperor and empress were visibly surprised but did not discourage his decision. In fact, they seemed to agree with him.

His mother even said something in support.

“I see. You’ve made up your mind. I was thinking of having your wedding sooner rather than later, before Lady Linzel changed her mind.”

It was as if she was warning all of us that Linzel might change her mind.

‘Why?’ Hernan wondered.

It was, granted, a fast wedding.

Despite the fact that he had known Linzel for only a short time, he had grown fond of her. He wondered if she felt the same way.

In other words, he knew he and Linzel were determined to get married.

However, his parents felt that his relationship with Linzel was a shallow, glass-half-full affair that could be shattered.

Although he felt bad for them, Hernan didn’t say much. He was a man of action, not words.

If he continued to show that he and Linzel were getting along, maybe his parents would think differently.

“I take it that you approve,” he responded to his mother stoically. 

This time his father answered.

“Well, well! We must have a banquet soon, and a dinner with the Duke of Valencia…….”

He was looking the happiest Hernan had seen him in years.

Then came the next day.

The first thing Hernan did at dawn was to meet the soldiers he had fought with.

These men had been his family throughout the civil war.

He wanted to let them know that he might be getting married soon.

The name of the knights led by Hernan was the Order of the Olive Knights. The order was named after an encounter he had with his deputy, Jackson, under an olive tree.

Behind Hernan’s palace was a vast training ground. Thirty men with a gloomy atmosphere gathered there.

Standing in a single file, they held their discipline tightly.

Even if they were living a peaceful life after the civil war, they had fought fierce battles in the past few years.

The tension in their bodies was not going away anytime soon.

At the top, Hernan’s expression was stern, and he didn’t know where or how to begin to break the news that he would soon be married.

Hernan’s anguish was prolonged, and the more he pondered, the worse his mood became.

The knights who had been watching him tensed up. They all thought the same thing at the same time.

‘It must have happened four months ago. Has a civil war broken out again?’

Hernan’s fingertips had just touched the hilt of his sword when Jackson, the deputy leader, shouted.

“We’ll be ready at once!”

Hernan glared at him. His eyes were colder than an iceberg in midwinter.

“Prepare? Um……. Yeah. We might need it.” Hernan began to ramble out loud about what was about to happen. “Everyone has something to prepare.”

Hernan was thinking of their uniforms. No matter how simple the wedding would be, the knights would be invited.

And while they were attending, he hoped they would come in their uniforms.

Jackson, who was in high spirits, shouted again, “We’ve already prepared our armor! We’re ready to go at a moment’s notice.”

Hernan shook his head.

“We need uniforms.”

” ……Huh?”

” And a fine cloak.”

” ……Huh??”

No uniform is complete without a cloak.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Want to keep reading? Visit my Kofi shop for advanced chapter tiers and read ahead of public release.