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“Really… the culprit?”

As those two common words mixed together, Vivian’s heart started to race fiercely.

Nesto, suppressing his anger, stepped closer to Vivian.

His shallow nod seemed to carry a heavy resolve.

It was as if he had waited his whole life for this moment, and the weight he had been hiding gradually began to show.

And Vivian couldn’t understand why that scared her so much.

“It was… the Alliance that made my family this way… especially Jade Allen, right?”

The story that should have been obvious trembled as it spilled out.

“Jade Allen is certainly not without blame. But…”

Nesto’s lips flapped as if he didn’t know where to start his words.

Recalling many memories with his gaze, he finally inhaled and said.

“Let’s start from the beginning. Vivian, wasn’t the Duchess’s will too heavy for you?”

Vivian was overwhelmed by the scale of the secrets that began to be uncovered from a distant past, unable to show any reaction.

“Don’t appoint a regent. Because of this will, you had to bear an extremely heavy burden alone. You faced the sharp gazes of many retainers, and as a result, you had to grow up lonely and painfully. I still remember the nights you cried, Vivian. It pained me to pretend I didn’t see it. Didn’t the Duchess foresee such a result…? But why did she leave such a will?”

Vivian clenched her eyes shut at his words.

The memory of her childhood, crying over the void left by her departed family, vividly came back to her.

Back then, she had certainly blamed her mother.

“Also, you appointed Kyle Allen as your guard. The eldest son of the Allen family…! The very one the Duchess resented and hated every night… you appointed him as your guard. Wasn’t this will too burdensome for you?”

“W-Wait. Enough…”

Vivian murmured weakly. She vaguely sensed where this conversation was heading.

But Vivian wasn’t ready to accept it.

“There was a traitor in the family.”

Tears of anger welled up in Nesto’s eyes. Yet those tears did not fall.

It looked like his emotions were so hot that even the tears evaporated.

“You likely figured out who that is now, but back then, neither I nor the Duchess knew who that traitor was.”

Vivian’s fists clenched so tightly that her fingertips turned white.

Her left hand, which had stopped moving since she bore the pain of Kyle, creaked.

“To prevent the hidden traitor’s blade from reaching you… that’s why I opposed appointing a regent and kept the untouchable Kyle Allen by your side. Whether it was a successful gamble, neither the Duchess nor I knew. But it was a gamble we had to take.”

“W-Wait…!”

Vivian interrupted Nesto out of fear.

“…Please, don’t shake me anymore. A traitor in the family? Wasn’t there always one? Everyone around me couldn’t be trusted. They were all traitors who couldn’t pledge allegiance to the Rondore…! That’s why I had to eliminate the retainers one by one, and I keep growing stronger. Don’t pretend this obvious story is some kind of revelation…!”

“Those traitors were just the seeds sown by the first traitor. They were the weeds that appeared above ground, but the roots lie elsewhere. The reason you ended up alone… the reason this glorious family wobbled to the point of collapse…”

Nesto’s voice gradually lowered.

“…Let’s go back to the past. I raised suspicions with the Duchess. I felt like there was a traitor in the family. It was a story I couldn’t be certain of, but there was an awkwardness I felt when compiling the stories I heard through my subordinates. Vivian, do you remember how the late Duke Rondore passed away?”

“…In a duel with Jade Allen…”

“…He fell from his horse. But once he fell, the outcome was determined. Jade Allen, as I should say, is not a cowardly human. He’s not someone who doesn’t know honor. Once the outcome was decided, Jade Allen did not harm the Duke any further. As a result, the Duke had only minor injuries and a broken arm.”

“…But—”

“—Yes, but that injury festered, and he ultimately could not rise again. Vivian, you only faced the Duke as your father, so you wouldn’t know, but the Duke I remembered was a strong man. I’m not talking about mentally but physically as well. Wasn’t he the only one who could stand up to Jade Allen? For such a man… to die from a mere festering wound?”

Nesto’s voice trembled increasingly, but it did not waver. And the doubt and anger that only a person who never falters could possess were vividly revealed.

“…I couldn’t believe it.”

****

“This really doesn’t feel much like your room?”

As I stepped inside, the sharp-eyed Keila said.

I had tried to hide my worries, but now it seemed pointless to make up a lame excuse.

“It’s not my room. I normally sleep with the other soldiers.”

Keila let out a short sigh.

As she learned more about my life, her sighs deepened.

“…So you treated your brother like this when he came as a guest?”

I ruffled Keila’s hair as I spoke.

“They call him a guest, but was he really a guest? Did they treat me well in Rondore? We were enemies, after all?”

Keila gradually suppressed her anger at my questioning.

“I know, I know, but… still.”

After a long hesitation, she murmured.

“Seeing you in person, it hurts my heart to imagine the hardships you faced.”

I chuckled lightly.

“…Just knowing that you understand makes me feel rewarded. Besides, it wasn’t as burdensome as you might think.”

I had only focused on Vivian. I didn’t even see the other hardships.

Keila looked around the room and then looked up at me.

It was now just the two of us left in this moment.

A maid and a guard, soldiers or Vivian, or maybe the first moment when no other eyes were watching us.

Keila held my gaze for a long time, and her eyes started to well up before she began to cry again.

She just stood there crying as if seeking comfort, and I slowly wrapped her in my arms.

“…You’ve worked hard.”

When I said that, Keila shook her head.

“Compared to you… I…”

Keila slowly looked up at me and stroked my face.

“Why… why is your body so messed up?”

She voiced worries she never spoke in front of others.

“What happened to your back and neck? Did you get burned? What about your ears? Why is half of your ear missing… brother… sniff, why is your arm covered in wounds? And your hands… they’re so rough…”

“…”

“Sniff… weren’t you lonely? With all these injuries… you must not have received any comfort… you must have been all alone… had to endure it all by yourself…”

“Why dwell on the past? It’s okay. I endured it all. Look, I’m fine now.”

“You almost died, didn’t you?!!”

Keila shouted, bursting with rage.

She started hitting my chest with her small fists.

“If you had died… sniff! What would I do! Mother is gone…! Father can hardly hold on…! What am I supposed to do… if you had died too…”

“…”

“How can I lead my younger siblings? How can I carry on the family?!”

I felt a familiar sense of déjà vu in Keila’s tears.

Vivian’s figure rushed into my mind.

She, too, had lost her parents and her siblings.

Thirteen-year-old Vivian had cried just like Keila is now.

Even as an adult, Keila was struggling so much with that possibility, how much harder must it have been for Vivian?

In this bizarre situation, my sympathy for Vivian only grew.

“You kept protecting that crazy girl…! And then I heard you got hurt. This, this back…! This ear…! It’s all because of that girl, right?”

I couldn’t say it wasn’t true.

Keila seemed to know everything already.

“Why… why did you protect her! Why did you have to go through all this pain because of that girl! Did she blackmail you or something?!”

I couldn’t tell Keila what she wanted to hear.

I shook my head as I replied.

It was always the most effective excuse in situations like this.

“Look at you now. You’re struggling with the fear of losing Father and me… but Vivian lost all those people.”

“What does she have to do with it—”

“—It matters when she’s around.”

I interrupted Keila.

“I had to keep an eye on her. I had no responsibility, but… it was my father who did those things. Vivian was crying every day because of this.”

But it’s a fact that Vivian suffered because of our family.

There were countless words I could wrap around it, but that much was the truth.

“…How can I ignore that guilt?”

****

Vivian shook her head at the suspicions regarding her father’s death. It was too hard to accept.

She said,

“You can’t say you don’t believe in my father’s death. He passed away. Even Jade Allen, whom you praise, is currently bedridden due to illness. Anything can happen. Am I supposed to believe that you think there’s someone else who killed my father based on your instincts?”

“I am a coward, Miss Vivian. I didn’t wish to judge and twist a matter that might have occurred by chance to inform the Duchess. But… it’s not just the Duke’s death that is suspicious!”

Nesto inhaled deeply before exhaling.

“Lois Rondore.”

As soon as he spoke that name, the air in the room chilled to a freezing point.

With a distant look, Nesto mulled over who should have been their lord.

“…Our brilliant future. The pride and honor he felt as he grew. How could I accept that he vanished in an accident?”

Vivian squeezed her eyes shut. Yet, through her closed eyelids, memories of her strong brother arose. Memories of him shining brighter than the sun came back to her.

Vivian heatedly argued back.

“No one could accept it! Everyone believed it was the plot of the Allen family! They were scared of my brother, who had been captured as a prisoner! It was the common belief that the Allen family disguised my brother’s death as an accident!”

Nesto smiled weakly and asked.

“…So the Allen family is barbaric and sinister?”

Vivian was at a loss for words.

“Miss Vivian, perhaps the Northern Lady might be that way. However… as I said, Jade Allen is not a man lacking honor. Do you know how many years I’ve spent studying the being that is Jade Allen? He was but a figure of fear to the Southern Lady—just someone that everyone blamed. He’s not a vile being. He’s not someone who would devise such plots.”

Nesto looked up and gazed at Vivian. His eyes were filled with intense conviction.

“Jade Allen is a born fighter, not a schemer. If he dislikes someone, he would outright cut their throat. He wouldn’t be the type to say he would show mercy and stab from behind. Don’t you remember who his son is?”

Vivian couldn’t even inhale or exhale.

“Consider Kyle Allen. As much as you despise him, you have to acknowledge certain truths. Everyone who has seen Jade Allen murmured that he appeared every time they faced Kyle Allen. They’re alike. Miss Vivian, can you even imagine Kyle Allen sneaking around to stab someone in the back? Kyle Allen would stand right in front of them, swords drawn.”

As monumental beliefs slowly crumbled, Vivian’s thoughts became rigid.

She wanted to refute, but words wouldn’t come, and her mind emptied gradually.

“Moreover, Lois has shown Kyle Allen mercy. Having watched the war from afar, Lois struck down and killed all of Kyle’s soldiers, capturing him. When everyone shouted that Kyle Allen must die, Lois chose not to swing his sword because he felt Kyle was too young. Lois’s capture stemmed from that choice… Jade Allen later released Lois. And then he betrayed?”

“…”

“… We believed only what we wanted. We wanted to believe Jade Allen was a monster. We had to shift all blame onto him to ease our shame and despair… To believe it was an unavoidable catastrophe, as that would make it comforting…”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“Now you must know for sure. The Duke died from festering wounds, and Lois was swept away by a landslide on his way home? I didn’t believe it, but… I found the culprit.”

For a moment, a quiet moment passed.

Nesto said.

“Robert Rondore. He ordered the deaths of both.”

****

“…How can I ignore that guilt?”

Keila’s emotions flared over my words.

“Why should you feel guilty…! You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“But Father did. I can’t deny that, Keila. You might find it hard to understand… but Vivian has lived a life not so different from mine. No trustworthy adults around, no family to protect, and many responsibilities… So I couldn’t just leave Vivian, who was in the same position.”

I grabbed Keila’s shoulders to stop her from going wild.

“I don’t know, Keila. Explaining every little thing I did without thought is just too tedious now. I just made those decisions back then.”

“…”

Keila seemed to have a lot she wanted to say but swallowed all those words after nodding a few times.

She took a long sigh again and stroked my face.

Her eyes swept over my wounds on my neck, ears, and exposed skin.

“…Okay.”

She spoke with tears in check, gently relaxing.

“…Alright, what’s done is done.”

She said.

“You know why I came here, right? It’s to bring you back.”

“…Keila.”

“Everything is ready for negotiations. Father placed everything on the line to bring you back.”

“Keila, wait-”

“-Brother.”

She said.

“…Brother, let’s go back now. We need you back in our territory.”

 

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