Upon hearing that Aileen had arrived, Cairn knew he had to see her.

Not to take her side, but to confirm something.

Yet, he couldn’t.

Injustice, anger, regret, guilt, fear.

A mixture of defensive and self-loathing emotions left him standing, unable to do anything for a long time.

How trivial his apologies must have been.

Violet had asked—did he truly understand what his mistake was? What did Cairn respond at the time? An answer he had discarded as unimportant now echoed in his head.

He must chase after her.

If he’d let go now, the severed relationship might never be clumsily reconnected again.

Violet, who used to give even just half answers, would now completely ignore him.

After standing for a long time, conflicted, Cairn finally moved in the direction Violet had gone.

Then, out of nowhere, murderous intent flew in.

Was there a monster nearby? He thought lightly, but when he realized the intent was directed at his sister and Lady Leshan, he immediately leaped into action.

It was almost an instinctive reaction.

One wrong hit could be fatal. It would have been safer to quickly draw his sword and fend it off.

But there was no time for such calculations. Cairn P. Everett, as he once declared, threw himself in apology and the singular focus of saving his sister.

* * *

Droplets of red blood fell.

Despite the sword wound on his right shoulder making it hard to properly hold a sword, the youngest son of House Everett acted recklessly.

Alesia Leshan was momentarily startled but quickly regained her composure and saw about six masked assailants.

While it’s unclear who sent them, one thing was certain: Violet, who hadn’t formally learned swordsmanship, was the easiest target here.

So, she had to be protected.

“You— Why are you here…”

Violet turned pale at the sight of the dripping blood. Cairn, overwhelmed, blurted out whatever came to mind.

“You must think I’m just a thoughtless idiot. I know, I’m stupid. I know you hate me more because I can’t distinguish what should and shouldn’t be said.”

His already pale shirt became even more vivid with the blood.

But Cairn showed no intention of loosening his grip on the sword.

“…But, you never explained once. What I did wrong, what I need to change…”

You’ve just ignored me without a proper explanation.

The words he had suppressed with resentment, not meant to be said now.

Yet, Cairn, feeling this might be his only chance, let those words spill out.

As he was dismissed as a hopeless case without a sliver of hope for improvement, he felt unjustly treated.

But it was retribution.

Just as he had thought problems wouldn’t have arisen if Violet had behaved properly, he too, should have behaved better to avoid such treatment.

Only after realizing this did Cairn understand what he had done wrong to his sister.

He knew he wasn’t in a position to throw a tantrum.

But still.

“Just tell me! What I need to change, what I did wrong! I’m just like that! If you don’t tell me outright, I can’t even apologize properly!”

And then, with a clang, a sword blade drew an arc in the air.

Assassins don’t wait for conversations to end.

Even with his injuries, Cairn easily deflected the assassin’s sword and gritted his teeth as he shouted,

“So stop keeping everything to yourself!”

The sound of clashing blades rang out again.

With his simplistic temperament, worse than a child’s, he couldn’t apologize properly. Yet, in the face of danger, he threw himself to protect Violet.

He was bleeding profusely, enough to shock an ordinary person, but he drew his sword and protested the unfair treatment he felt his sister had done unto him.

When Violet questioned ‘Why?’, he continued to insist on his point of view.

It was an absurd situation.

If it weren’t for the life-threatening crisis at hand, she might have laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all.

The masked assailants surrounding them seemed skilled, but talent rendered them ineffective.

Despite his injuries, Cairn’s formidable skill with the sword made the assassins falter. Three had already fallen.

Alesia took down one, Cairn two. This was no situation to underestimate an injured young man and a woman.

Blood was everywhere, wafting in the air. The metallic, acrid scent made Violet grimace. Untrained in swordsmanship, she was the only liability there.

She regretted not going back to the encampment and just leaving Alesia be.

But it was too late for regrets. She had to do something.

Quickly composing her conflicting emotions, Violet stood up with a self-defense dagger in hand.

The conversation with Cairn would have to continue later.

“We don’t have time! Kidnap that woman at least!”

One of the remaining three assailants shouted as one rushed towards Violet.

Both Cairn and Alesia tried to rush to Violet’s side, but the other opponents threw themselves into their paths.

Using her dagger, Violet stabbed the thigh of one masked assailant threatening her.

A short grunt echoed, but the unyielding assailant gagged Violet with a handkerchief.

Unobtrusively assaulted by a drug, her body went limp.

“Sister…!”

“Ducal Lady!”

The faces of Cairn and Alesia, struck with horror. The attack of the masked assailants taking advantage of their distraction. The two trying to fend off, and more black-masked assailants seemingly replenished from somewhere…

That was Violet’s last memory before losing consciousness.