The voice of my younger sibling was firm yet stubborn.

So, I held her hand back and replied gently.

“Then we’ll be fine.”

In countless mundane moments, I felt different from my sister.

But occasionally, there were fleeting moments where we felt like truly twins.

Moments like now, when we trusted and relied on each other with the same conviction.

Eciel nodded as we made eye contact.

Her small, cute face, displaying the utmost trust a nine-year-old girl could muster, was stubbornly transparent.

Maybe I had a face like that too.

I raised my head and saw Dad coming towards us.

“They say the carriage inspection is done. Let’s go inside. It must’ve been tiring standing here, right?”

Suddenly, countless eyes focused sharply on us.

The keen concentration of those unable to contain their curiosity. Countless gazes questioning if they were truly the duke’s daughters, and also that woman’s daughters.

Yet Dad didn’t hesitate to take our hands and lead us.

So, Eciel and I decided not to pay them any mind.

However, as we crossed the threshold to the capital, we faced another harsh ceremony.

 

—

 

“What did Mom say, Eciel?”

Mom asked anxiously. Eciel blinked before replying meekly.

“We greet the most honorable.”

“… and then what?”

“You said to follow what Claire does.”

…for your information, “follow what Claire does” came with the condition of “if you can’t remember.”

After a lengthy explanation on how to greet the emperor before meeting him.

In other words, Eciel said she couldn’t remember before even setting foot in the palace.

Mom’s expression looked on verge of panic.

‘But it’s not really Eciel’s fault.’

Right now, we were in a carriage heading straight to meet the His Majesty the Emperor.

And Dad didn’t even know that the emperor would send his imperial carriage for us as soon as we reached the capital gates.

So, there wasn’t even a chance to teach Eciel the protocols and have her remember them.

Mom desperately drilled us on the etiquette of greeting the emperor as a duke’s daughter in the carriage.

She held out hope for a moment that if Eciel could grasp it momentarily, it would be enough, but eventually gave up.

All this happened within about thirty minutes of boarding the imperial carriage.

Dad quietly reassured Mom, “It’s okay. If Evan truly wanted perfect etiquette and obedience, he wouldn’t have summoned us now.”

“But… I’m just anxious. You know, when he was posing as an escort knight, I…”

Mom swallowed her words, glancing at us.

I just cast my gaze downwards politely.

How tumultuous must her life have been… I wondered, and yet, I didn’t.

But Eciel, holding my hand, spoke confidently.

“Mom, it’s okay. Claire remembers everything, so I’m fine.”

I’d understand if she lashed out, questioning why it was only me who remembered everything. It was the natural course of human emotions.

But why are you proud of my memory …?

I looked at Eciel with bewildered eyes, but Mom and Dad smiled. The tense atmosphere eased slightly.

The carriage swiftly passed through the wide-open gates of the palace.

Thanks to the emperor’s knights who sat on the coach’s seat, acting as living passes…

But Mom, instead of feeling relieved, nervously bit her lip. The fleeting calm on her face disappeared, replaced by anxiety.

Now she couldn’t even bring herself to look outside.

In truth, it was probably more dreadful to re-enter the palace than to be afraid of the disrespect she committed towards the emperor when he was ‘Lord Larnall’.

Her face was pale.

The gaping mental scars stark against her white complexion and it was painful to look at.

The silent scream echoed vividly in her rigid expression, in the bluish tinge creeping over her once relaxed face.

The damp traces of numbed suffering.

I quietly squeezed Eciel’s hand, pulling her towards me.

Eciel’s gaze, which had been blankly blinking in the strange atmosphere, turned to me.

“You can follow me for the rest. Let’s just memorize the first greeting. That’s all.”

While Eciel, unaware of what was happening, repeated after me, while Dad gently embraced Mom’s shoulders.

Then, without a word, he affectionately pulled her into his arms.

“I greet the most honorable.”

“-I greet the most honorable.”

“Eciel, the second daughter of Duke Chelsiers, leader of the East.”

“-Eciel, the second daughter of Duke Chelsiers, leader of the East.”

“I ask for blessings and glory.”

“-I ask for blessings and glory.”

The childish, sing-song voice of the nine-year-old girl didn’t suit the solemn occasion at all.

In fact, it was more like a play than anything else.

Eciel, who forced herself to memorize lines that she didn’t even understand, and Mom, who acted this way because she didn’t want this child to not know her mother’s pain.

Still, I wonder if the clear voice of the child at least helped calm her down.

Slowly, color returned to my mother’s face.

I calmly repeated the lines a few more times and reassured her.

“If you don’t think you can do it, just say ‘It is an honor to meet the most esteemed person.’ Just make sure to look at the floor while speaking.”

“But why do I have to look at the floor?”

“You can either look at the floor or the ceiling, but if you look at the ceiling, your neck will hurt.”

I didn’t have time to explain in detail. So, I only gave a rough overview, but Eciel nodded without any doubt.

‘…I did say it, but how can you believe me so easily?’

No, this much was normal for someone who believed in May Fairy.

…this was normal, right?

Although I was the one who spoke arbitrarily at first, my younger sister, who truly believed it, was shocking.

Fortunately, our mother, who was watching us, faintly smiled.

At that moment, a messenger shouted from outside with an appropriate voice.

“We have arrived at Reilheim, Duke Chelsiers!”

Dad replied briefly that he understood. The carriage stopped shortly after.

However, instead of getting off immediately, he looked at Mom for a while. Mom took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded.

“I’m fine.”

Only after hearing that assertion from her did Dad get off the carriage. He then came out and hugged Eciel and me before putting us down.

As soon as Eciel got off, she looked around the grand Reilheim palace with her big eyes… but I kept an eye on the carriage side, probably because Mom seemed worried.

Dad reached out to Mom.

A delicate and slender hand of a woman came out from the carriage, reaching out to the strong and large hand of a man.

Different hands glistened under the lazy afternoon sunlight.

Why were they sparkling?

‘Ah.’

A ring.

There was a ring in Mom’s hand, it was clearly the same pair as the one Dad always wore.

Since when did she have it? I didn’t notice. Did she just put it on in the carriage?

I blinked.

On the other hand, the man didn’t even blink.

He was completely absorbed in that ring… and the hand wearing it.

His purple eyes, sharp like a dagger. Intense and clear to the point of danger.

Very slowly, a white hand lay on the man’s hand, intertwining their fingers as if digging into each other.

Holding on tightly.

‘…no, she was caught.’

The moment I realized it, the man abruptly pulled the woman towards him.

His strength broke the woman’s balance mercilessly. Her body, which was just about to touch the ground, staggered and swayed, being pulled vulnerably.

It was almost like a kind of fall.

A void with no place to land. The only thing to cling to was the arm pulling her down, breaking the law of nature itself.

A fleeting sense of distant terror quickly passed over the woman’s face.

As her whole body fell into the man’s, he embraced her.

A very brief and intense moment flashed by.

“This crazy… lunatic…”

Gasping heavily, the woman, who had trembled once, spat out a harsh voice mixed with dizzying breaths.

Regardless of whether she cursed or not, the man imprisoned her in his arms, still staring intently at the ring in his hand that he had held tightly until then.

From his coldly concentrated profile… very slowly, a smile crept up.

I watched that smile with a strange sense of wonder and thrill.

In the man’s laughter, there was not only a sense of triumph but also a deep sense of defeat.

Finally, I have brought you down the depths of this persistent hell.

A terribly satisfying sense of defeat, knowing that I am with you in this abyss.

No loser could experience a more bitter revenge than this.

He then immediately stood up, setting the mother, who had almost collapsed in his arms, straight again and straightening her clothes a little.

While still holding the hand with the ring tightly.

Suddenly, I came to my senses.

‘…are they real?’

No, this is Reilheim, where the emperor awaited. It wasn’t just us here, the emperor’s knights were all watching…

More importantly, what if Mom had gotten hurt?

I looked around hastily.

Eciel was still admiring the palace, amazed, but the knights must have seen this scene clearly.

Eyes filled with disbelief, as if looking at a lunatic.

Some older knights remained upright with a rigid posture and expressionless faces, but some of the younger ones couldn’t hide their astonishment.

I turned away from my parents as if I had been admiring the palace with Eciel.

I had the audacity to pretend I didn’t see my mother’s pain.

But my father’s hell, the loser’s paradise… I couldn’t possibly do that.

Reilheim Palace was stunningly magnificent, and everything in sight was majestic, but nothing caught my eye.