She could save her younger brother, who had died.

She could protect Bluerose, which had been stolen from her.

And she could destroy Julius, who had taken everything from her and betrayed her.

‘Julius, I can……’

Take my revenge on you.

An unbearable thrill surged through her from head to toe.

***

It was a voice she had not heard in a very long time.

“I heard what happened in the dining room. What brought on this sudden change of heart? Did you eat something strange? No, that can’t be it. What did that woman say to make you act like this?”

Ruird von Bluerose.

He had tousled black hair and red eyes.

She spoke in a fierce manner bordering on irritability, and her imposing physique could easily lead one to believe that she was a transformed bear.

Her younger twin brother, however, did not resemble her at all.

As Cordelia gazed at her other half, who could not be described as adorable by any objective standard, she marveled inwardly.

‘You were…… this young, Ruird.’

Her brother had always seemed frightening and distant to her. Realizing that this was what he had once looked like broke her heart.

Misinterpreting her silence, her younger twin brother scowled and hit his chest, seemingly frustrated by the whole situation.

“Say something!”

Why had she never realized it?

Her brother’s shouting was merely his clumsy attempt to conceal the anxiety he did not know how to handle. Oblivious to that, Cordelia had misunderstood him and only grown further apart from him in the past.

‘Even though you were struggling desperately to protect everything in any way you could.’

That was when tears welled in Cordelia’s eyes.

“Ruird.”

She spoke while gazing into his fiercely upturned eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

The words she should have said in the past.

A brief silence followed.

“……What? What did you just say?”

Ruird blinked before recoiling in alarm at the tears glistening unmistakably in Cordelia’s eyes.

He practically jumped in place.

“W-What? Hey, what’s wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry, Ruird.”

Only the first apology was difficult. Like a dam finally bursting, she repeated the words over and over as she wept like a child.

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. It was all my fault.”

“No, wait.”

She knew her brother was flustered, but she could not help herself.

“I was foolish. We were twins who had no one but each other in this world, yet I failed to realize that.”

“What is this? What are you trying to—”

He sprang to his feet and circled Cordelia helplessly, clearly at a loss for what to do.

After pacing around like a large, distressed dog, Ruird asked awkwardly,

“Hey.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, why are you crying? What on earth is wrong? Is it because your cheek hurts where that woman hit you? Should I get the doctor here right now? No, I should fire her. Would that make you feel better?”

My foolish, idiotic other half.

“Argh, hey! Stop crying and tell me what’s going—oof.”

Cordelia surrendered herself to her impulses.

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

She threw her arms around her brother.

“……!”

It was almost comical how his enormous body went rigid like a statue.

At the same time, she was overcome with sorrow as she remembered her brother’s kindness — how he had never been able to reproach his wife, even when she became obsessed with love and did one foolish thing after another.

“My little brother.”

When Cordelia whispered affectionately, Ruird replied in bewilderment.

“Hey. Have you really gone mad……?”

“No. I’m perfectly sane.”

“Then why are you acting like this? We’ve never been this close.”

His almost frightened voice made her burst into tearful laughter.

“Of course we are. We are two halves of the same whole. We have each other in this world, and no one else. I was foolish, which is why I acted the way I did. I shouldn’t have kept everything bottled up and endured it in silence like an idiot. I shouldn’t have smiled so foolishly while everything was being taken from me.”

When their parents were still alive, the two of them had been closer than anyone else.

Born on the same day and hour, only two minutes apart, the twins looked nothing alike. Yet they had once understood each other so well that it seemed as though they could read each other’s minds.

After a long silence, Ruird finally spoke.

“Hey, you…… Cordelia.”

“Yes.”

“Sister.”

“Yes.”

“You’re not actually ill, are you? You haven’t contracted a fatal illness or anything like that? When someone changes this much all of a sudden, it’s terrifying in its own way.”

As his voice gradually grew quieter, Cordelia sniffed. She had only realized this just before her death.

‘You protected me until the very end.’

Even though his foolish sister had chosen a path she should never have taken, her younger twin brother fought desperately to protect Bluerose’s secret.

Bluerose.

The first Duke of Bluerose had been a woman. It was said that she was beloved by the God of Fortune and that she contained more good fortune than any human should be capable of holding.

There was also a prophecy that one of her descendants would be born with the God of Fortune’s blessing once more.

As proof of this blessing, a girl with deep blue eyes would be born.

A girl with eyes just like Cordelia’s.

Yet, ironically, Cordelia had brought everything to ruin.

How could someone like her possibly be a symbol of good fortune when all her past choices had ended in failure?

And yet, through some incomprehensible miracle, she had returned to the past after being betrayed and enduring unbearable agony, ultimately being murdered.

Somehow, she had returned.

“You don’t have to protect it alone anymore, Ruird. I’ll do it with you. We’ll protect it together.”

“Protect what? Are you going off to war or something?”

Ruird finally sighed at her incomprehensible words. Then he carefully placed a hand on Cordelia’s trembling shoulder.

His enormous hand descended upon her slender shoulder, which seemed small enough to fit within his grasp, and patted it awkwardly.

In a gentler voice, he murmured.

“Just try to calm down first. You didn’t get hit on the head or something, did you?”

“That’s not it, Ruird. I simply realized it too late. You could say I finally grew up.”

Cordelia tightened her arms around him.

Fortunately, this happened before she became engaged to Julius. This meant that she could still change many things.

She would never allow such a fate to befall them again, nor would she allow the deaths that had occurred to be in vain.

She was determined to protect what mattered, take her revenge, and find happiness.

‘And to do that, first……’

I have to save this one.

Cordelia released her twin brother from her embrace and held out her hand to the bewildered Ruird.

“Give it to me.”

Ruird’s face twisted warily.

“What is it this time? What do you want?”

“You know. Take it out.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The thing you carry with you every day. The Pearl of Pellen that Father left behind.”

“……This is insane. How do you even know about that?”

His fierce expression looked so unexpectedly innocent that Cordelia burst out laughing.

Still unable to make sense of any of this, Luirs ran a hand through his hair. Nevertheless, he obediently opened the table drawer and took out a luminous blue pearl.

“Why do you want this? Shouldn’t you explain yourself properly before doing anything? You know how precious this is, don’t you? Do you have any idea how much hell I went through to hide it from those damned people?”

Rather than answering, Cordelia acted.

Seizing her brother by the collar, she pulled him down towards her while he stood there, holding the pearl, looking bewildered. Then she shoved the pearl into his open mouth and pressed firmly against his throat.

Gulp.

“Mmph!”

After swallowing the pearl without meaning to, Ruird’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

“Hey! Hey!”

“What?”

“What the hell is wrong with you today? Are you insane? D*mn it, I’m not supposed to eat this!”

“Then who is?”

“…….”

The Pearl of Pellen is a miraculous treasure that can neutralize even the deadliest colorless and odorless poison.

It is perhaps because of this legend that the first Duke of Bluerose was considered a symbol of good fortune, bringing luck wherever he went.

The Bluerose family possessed an extraordinary number of extraordinary treasures, and this pearl was one of them.

No one knew how it had come by its name, but this tiny pearl was among the treasures passed down exclusively to the Bluerose family’s head. It was unique in the world.

Nevertheless, Cordelia did not consider it a waste in the slightest.

“Ruird, have you truly lost your mind?”

“……What? Who? Me?”

Her voice was so cold that Ruird, who had been making a fuss, awkwardly stiffened.

“Yes, you! Were you really going to drink poison just to get rid of your aunt and her family?”

“Gasp.”

Seeing the guilty look on his face, Cordelia whispered rapidly.

“You must have been confident that you could neutralize the poison whenever you wished. But what if you had missed your chance? What do you think would have happened to you?”

Ruird’s eyes widened to the point of tearing.