Chapter 2
That was also why they had deliberately summoned Tiamia to the drawing room, pretending to examine her condition.
And it was publicly known that Kain personally attended to Tiamia despite the risk of catching the rare disease.
When in reality, he was only watching her to make sure the other servants did not notice she was being brainwashed.
‘Well, Tiamia herself truly believed she might have contracted the same rare disease as Ansharielle.’
But I knew the marquis’s true intentions.
Even the fact that the so-called rare illness was nothing more than a lie meant to deceive the public.
‘After absorbing Tiamia’s soul with dark magic later on, they could simply blame her sudden death on the disease and avoid suspicion.’
The meticulousness of it all was so disgusting it made me irritated.
Anyway, while organizing my thoughts about the recuperation room, a new hypothesis suddenly came to mind.
Perhaps the mental magic cast over the basement could not brainwash multiple people at the same time.
Ansharielle, who was meant to become the heir, was locked down there six days a week to turn her into the perfect puppet.
Meanwhile, Tiamia, who was destined to become a sacrifice anyway, only spent one day a week in the recuperation room—as if they judged there was no need to invest much effort into her.
The original novel never mentioned it directly, and there was no related information in Tiamia’s memories either, but considering they absolutely never confined Ansharielle and me together, it was a plausible guess.
However, this was also the biggest problem.
Because Ansharielle and I alternated entering the recuperation room, I never had the chance to meet her.
‘I want to meet her and check on her condition too.’
Since the story was centered around the heroine, Ishtar, many parts of Ansharielle’s tragic backstory had been omitted for the sake of pacing.
For example, the relationship between Tiamia and Ansharielle.
They were definitely real sisters, yet the novel never mentioned what kind of relationship they had. There were no scenes of Ansharielle reminiscing about or mourning her dead sister either.
Of course, that might have been because of the brainwashing, but no matter how close family members were, if they could not see each other for such a long time, they were bound to become no better than strangers.
That possibility worried me.
What if, after being brainwashed, she refused to leave the family with me?
‘They looked close in Tiamia’s memories though…’
I could not be certain Ansharielle’s feelings were still the same.
Besides, I was not the real Tiamia.
No one short of a god would notice a soul had changed, but it still bothered me.
‘For now, focus on planning our escape from the family with Ansharielle.’
“Since Tiamia is still alive, this must be before Ishtar demonstrates chantless magic, and before young Ansharielle’s brainwashing is complete.”
“Contact with Ishtar is essential.”
‘Five stars next to “contact Ishtar”!’
In truth, I had already considered her an ally from the moment I realized I had become Tiamia and resolved to escape the marquisate.
Even in the original story, Ishtar was soft-hearted and never ignored someone asking for help.
More importantly, I possessed the ultimate bargaining chip to move her.
Ishtar’s staff!
With light footsteps, I walked toward the vanity table.
Inside a jewelry box sitting on one side were accessories too shabby to belong to a high-ranking noble, but I ignored them and picked up the largest brooch.
A crude brooch made of a silver-white orb wrapped in platinum.
It looked similar to the description from the novel.
‘If I hadn’t seen Tiamia’s memories, finding this would’ve been difficult.’
The novel had only mentioned that it was somewhere within the Serentia Marquisate, never how it ended up here.
But it turned out Tiamia had received it from the marquis as a birthday present.
To be exact, it was nothing more than him dumping useless trash on her.
‘The marquis could never have imagined this relic was actually the staff of the great archmage from ancient times.’
The orb had been excavated from ancient ruins and identified as a magical artifact, prompting the marquis to spend an enormous sum acquiring it.
Artifacts from the ancient era—when magical civilization flourished—held immense magical value.
Even though the magic systems of the ancient era and the current age were completely different, one thing had not changed:
Mana was still the source of magic.
Thus, magical tools that activated automatically when infused with mana could still be used the same way.
However, no matter how much mana people poured into this orb, it emitted only a faint glow and displayed no other function.
That was because when Ishtar created the staff, she configured it to react only to her mana.
Naturally, modern mages could never achieve any meaningful results studying it.
It clearly responded to mana, proving it was a magical artifact, yet research went nowhere.
Eventually, after nothing useful emerged, the marquis casually had it remade into jewelry and handed it to me like unwanted stock, saying I should be grateful for such an expensive ancient relic.
‘The marquis will never know.’
The true value of the artifact he tossed away like garbage.
Smiling in satisfaction, I picked up the brooch and walked to the window.
In the novel, Ishtar’s staff was said to shine in five colors under moonlight, with geometric patterns appearing inside the transparent crystal.
When I first discovered it, I immediately tested it under moonlight to confirm whether it truly was Ishtar’s staff.
Just like now, the brooch glowed brilliantly beneath the moonlight.
No matter how many times I saw it, the sight was beautiful.
‘With this, negotiating with Ishtar is guaranteed to succeed.’
In the original story, she had struggled greatly after learning her staff was in the marquisate.
If people got jealous even when their cousin bought land, how much more would they refuse to hand over something their enemy wanted?
Even if it was useless to them, human nature dictated they would never willingly give it to an enemy.
That was why she had eventually traded the heirloom of a ducal house for it.
Though, the duke had not hesitated at all, saying his daughter’s wishes mattered more than any family treasure.
Anyway.
As long as I possessed the staff, Ishtar would definitely grant my request.
The only remaining issue was how to contact her.
‘I’ve roughly planned everything else, but naturally meeting her is the hard part.’
Because of the Babylonian Empire’s culture—where noble children socialized from a young age to build connections—the marquis could not keep both children locked inside the estate forever.
So he mainly sent Tiamia to outside social events.
At first, I thought opportunities would arise naturally while participating in noble society.
However, Ishtar had not officially debuted in society yet, making it impossible to meet her.
‘If I could, I’d send a letter straight to the Ackelide Ducal House.’
But within the marquisate, where even the smallest action was monitored, such a thing was impossible.
Even writing parts of my plan in Korean in this diary was only possible after repeatedly confirming whether Kain or the servants monitored it.
‘I’ll need to think more carefully about this part.’
***
After finishing breakfast alone in the spacious, luxurious dining hall, Kain approached and recited a schedule different from usual.
“Miss, today is your day to enter the recuperation room.”
“I understand.”
The brainwashed Tiamia always accepted the marquis’s and Kain’s orders expressionlessly.
So this time, too, I answered without hesitation.
‘As expected, it really is once a week.’
Then I compared it to Tiamia’s memories and confirmed there were no major differences.
“Would you like to bring your familiar as well?”
I had not expected Kain to suggest it first.
I had no idea what ulterior motive he hid, but I had also been worried about leaving the raccoon alone in the room, so I immediately accepted.
“Yes.”
I briefly stopped by my room to fetch the raccoon.
“Kyung!”
Perhaps because I usually returned only late at night once I left the room, the raccoon greeted me excitedly when I came back early.
Watching it rub its face against my skirt affectionately, I almost forgot the act I maintained in front of Kain and nearly smiled.
‘Whew, it’s dangerously cute. Keeping a straight face is hard.’
Suppressing the corners of my lips with effort, I hugged the raccoon.
Then I followed behind Kain.
Careful not to let my cheeks lift into a smile.
“Please wait a moment.”
When we reached the dark basement floor, lights flickered on with a clicking sound.
Magical lamps lined the corridor at regular intervals.
‘Now that the lights are on, it’s not as dark as I expected.’
With that casual thought, I looked around the corridor.
Surprisingly, it resembled the hallways above ground.
The carpet on the floor was spotless, without a speck of dust, and despite the apparent lack of ventilation, the wallpaper was well maintained.
The only differences were the extravagant decorations placed around like displays of wealth—and the fact that the long corridor had only a single door.
‘Haven’t we walked quite far?’ I wondered just as Kain stopped.
“You may enter.”
Standing before the door, I froze in mild shock.
The door was made entirely of iron.
It looked thick and sturdy, like the massive door of a bank vault, impossible to break through.
‘I knew from the memories it wasn’t an ordinary door, but I never imagined it was built from such solid iron.’
While I was lost in thought, Kain opened the heavy iron door.
With the sound of metal grinding, it slowly creaked open.
I swallowed nervously.
“Kkii…”
At that moment, a small whimper sounded.
Only then did I remember the raccoon quietly resting in my arms.
‘Right. I’m not alone.’
Feeling the warmth in my embrace, I slowly stepped inside.
Unlike the brightly lit corridor, the room itself was dark.
“Lady Ansharielle, please come out.”
As I surveyed the room, Kain spoke toward the darkness ahead.
Then, I noticed a figure moving slowly within the shadows.
The child who approached looked exactly the same as she had in my dream.
