IMBSM 3

Chapter: 3

When整理ed, it was a simple story.

In the House of Count Hessen, there was a loving lord and lady, their adorable daughter, and one unjust contract with cruel conditions passed down from a distant ancestor.

A former head of the family had owed his life to a monster, and in return, he promised to offer one of his descendants as a bride.

That ancestor passed away peacefully after pushing the responsibility onto his descendants, but the later generations paid the price, losing sleep every night to fear.

And on the day his wife safely gave birth to their lovely daughter, an unsigned letter arrived at the Count’s residence.

[The promised time has come. Fulfill the oath.]

The nightmare that had tormented the Count all his life finally became reality.

As he watched his precious daughter grow, he despaired at the tragedy foretold for her.

At the same time, he desperately searched for a way to save her from the monster.

When two years had passed since her birth, he finally came up with a plan that seemed workable.

Together with his wife, he pretended she was pregnant with a second child and brought home an orphan girl who resembled them.

It was so that, when the time came, they could present her to the monster in place of their real daughter.

Several years passed, and when the lie had ripened enough, the Count faked his first daughter’s death and secretly sent her away to a place where no one would notice her.

Then, with a sorrowful face, he said to the orphan girl he had raised,

“Ivnia, my only daughter. From now on, you must take your sister’s place.”

Ivnia did not know the truth.

She truly knew nothing at all.

She was so ignorant that she believed, since her sister had died, it was only natural that she herself should be offered to the monster instead.

If the truth had never been revealed, she would have closed her eyes willingly, believing until the end that her sacrifice was for her family.

That foolish illusion shattered without warning.

On an unusually bright day, Ivnia impulsively visited the home of her uncle’s family who lived nearby. Before leaving for Ritberg, she wanted to say her final goodbyes in person.

She did not yet know that such a beautiful farewell would never be allowed to her.

She still remembered it clearly.

The servants’ strange panic at her unannounced visit, the instantly awkward atmosphere, and the maid who quietly slipped away as soon as she saw Ivnia.

Driven by a bad feeling, Ivnia secretly followed them.

There, surrounded by everyone and smiling, was the sister she believed to be dead.

“Everyone… what is going on? How is my sister…?”

Before Ivnia could finish, Count Hessen hurriedly stood up to explain.

“Ivnia! Th-that is, we found your sister some time ago. Yes, when she disappeared in the ship accident, we never found her body. By some miracle, Emilia survived and was alive!”

Rather than sharing joy at being reunited, he looked as though he wanted to shut Ivnia’s mouth at once.

“Then why didn’t you tell me she was alive? That she came back?”

“Well, your sister was also confused, and, um…”

Ivnia did not immediately grasp the truth from her father’s hesitant expression.

She could not understand the situation with her head—but she sensed it.

Guided by instinct, Ivnia tested them.

“…If my sister is back, then I don’t need to go to Ritberg, right?”

At that, Emilia, who had been silently watching, finally stood up.

The family tried to pull her arm to make her sit, but they could not stop the words spilling from her mouth after so long.

“Don’t make me laugh! From the beginning, we brought you here to feed you to that monster!”

“Emilia! Be quiet!”

“Why should I? She’s saying she won’t go in my place! Whether I came back alive or not, it worked out perfectly—she can just go and get eaten by the monster! You have no problem saying that to a sister who returned from the dead!”

Ivnia could not answer a single word.

She simply endured the moment when the family she had known all her life, the love she had given them, and the world that made her all collapsed.

Seeing Ivnia’s face turn pale like a corpse, Emilia shouted even more fiercely.

“I suffered too! I couldn’t meet anyone I knew, lived hiding like I was dead in some filthy place, without even being able to say my real name!”

“Emilia, stop. Father will explain everything—”

“You were a girl abandoned on the street. Our parents took you in when you were about to die! A life that should’ve ended long ago—wasn’t it enough that you got to live this long in luxury? What more do you want from us?”

As Ivnia listened to Emilia’s cruel truth, a blank thought filled her mind.

Why hadn’t they been more careful?

If they had just waited a little longer, why bring Emilia back so soon?

Had their relief that everything was almost over made them careless?

Even so, they could have endured just a bit more.

Hiding the fact that she had been used until the very end would have been the only kindness they could offer her.

“Ivnia, my daughter raised in my heart.”

After the chaos passed, the Countess of Hessen spoke carefully.

Emilia, having poured out all her resentment, was crying bitterly with her face buried in her mother’s chest.

“I am truly sorry to you. But…”

But.

What did she say after that?

Did she gently ask Ivnia to die?

Did she demand gratitude for a forced sacrifice?

Did she politely warn her that if her real daughter died, Ivnia would not be safe either?

Or perhaps… did she end up saying all of those things?

“Excuse me, are you in here, Miss?”

At the knock from the doorway, Ivnia suddenly lifted her head.

She had been sitting blankly in a corner, killing time without knowing why she had been brought here. She wondered if she had been abandoned, but thankfully, someone came to find her before it was too late.

Ivnia hurriedly stood and opened the door.

“Um, what did Lord Ram say? What should I do now…?”

“Tonight, to celebrate your arrival, a dinner has been prepared. You must be hungry, so please change into indoor clothes and come down to the dining hall.”

Guillermo replied with a smooth smile to Ivnia’s desperate question.

The answer did not match the question, and Ivnia hesitated without thinking.

She had felt it earlier too—conversation with him never seemed to connect properly. Something always felt off at the important points.

“The dining hall is next to the central hall on the first floor.”

As if that was all he needed to say, he turned and left.

Ivnia stood frozen until he disappeared beyond the stairs, then finally spoke the words she had not said in time.

“I didn’t bring any clothes to change into…”

She was not told when the dinner would start, or whether she would eat alone or with his master.

If the food was only for her, there would be no need to prepare much.

Staring at the empty hallway, Ivnia left the room.

It was not a place she had stayed in by choice anyway—she had only been put there by force.

If she waited in the dining hall early, at least she would not be scolded for being late.

Leaving early turned out to be a good choice.

Because the castle was enormous, Ivnia wandered around before finally finding the central staircase.

After hurrying down to the first floor, she paused to look around the hall before entering the dining room.

Was it because the lights were on now? The building that had felt terrifying at first now looked surprisingly ordinary.

It was old and poorly maintained, but the decorations and finishing were still fine. In its prime, it must have been quite magnificent.

‘Back then… was he not a monster either?’

Leaving the pointless thought behind, Ivnia entered the dining room.

In truth, it was a meaningless question.

What mattered now was whether he was still human.

The question could be asked another way.

Was this dinner for her—or for the master of this castle?

Thinking about it, he had only told her to leave because he was naked. He never said he would not eat her.

There was no guarantee that a dinner prepared to celebrate her arrival would end up in her mouth.

The “hungry” one Guillermo mentioned might not have been her, but the master of the castle.

Staring at the huge table, Ivnia hesitated for a moment, then climbed onto it.

Lying on the table and weighing whether her fiancé would eat her or not felt like a very bad sign.

‘This isn’t right.’

She thought that if she died, this suffocating feeling would soon end. So why was she still alive, breathing so normally?

As Ivnia lay there weakly blinking up at the old chandelier, a face suddenly appeared against the white ceiling.

The man who appeared before her eyes in an instant spoke with clear displeasure.

“This is not your bedroom, little one.”