IMBSM 6

Chapter: 6

“It doesn’t matter anyway.”

Ivania spoke with a choking voice.

She could feel heat rushing up to her face.

Her hands, resting on her thighs, clenched tightly—but she couldn’t bring herself to swing them at anyone. Instead, Ivania turned her anger toward an easier target.

Herself.

“What does it matter? You said you don’t need me. You said the one you’re looking for is my sister. So it doesn’t matter if a bride you picked by mistake dies somewhere, does it?”

Ivania suddenly felt ashamed, like an uninvited guest who had cluelessly shown up at a party she was never meant to attend.

Why had she believed that her death would hold any special meaning?

Who could possibly be more unnecessary than she was?

“This is so irritating. Why not just stop being so picky and eat anyone at random? If only you were a real monster…”

Then she wouldn’t be having thoughts this miserable.

She wouldn’t be tormenting herself by comparing her life to her sister’s again.

She could have died while denying the truth—that she was someone who meant nothing to anyone.

“You weren’t even planning to eat anyone in the first place, so why did my parents tell me to die? Why was I the one who had to hear my parents tell me to go die? If it was never necessary to begin with, then why… why…!”

Ivania bit down hard on her lip, trying to hold back the sobs surging up inside her.

She wished this were all just a dream.

If she had never possessed anything to begin with, she wouldn’t have had to feel the pain of losing everything.

Unbelievably, her family had once been happy.

Until her sister died—or rather, until she disappeared while pretending to be dead—Ivania had never once doubted that they were her real family.

Her gentle parents had raised their daughters with care, and her older sister, two years her senior, never found her younger sibling annoying. She took Ivania everywhere and played with her.

Back then, Emilia was everything to Ivania.

When they raced each other up the hill in front of their house, she felt like a childhood friend her own age. When Emilia picked up fallen leaves and explained, This is a plane tree leaf, she was like a kind teacher.

Sometimes she took care of Ivania like a mother, and sometimes she was infuriating like an enemy.

The meaning of her sister changed again and again within Ivania’s heart, but one thing never did.

Ivania loved her deeply.

She was a girl who shone so brightly that even the substitute meant to be sold in her place fell helplessly in love with her.

After the light left the place where it had always belonged, those who remained began wandering through a long night as if it were only natural.

The count and countess stopped caring for their household, and a cold wind blew through the mansion once filled with laughter.

Left alone under her parents’ neglect, Ivania desperately tried to cling to the happiness that had slipped away like a mirage.

Whenever she stood before her family, she imitated her sister’s cheerful demeanor to lift the mood.

For her parents, who often skipped meals, she practiced cooking the dishes they liked.

She set aside storybooks and dolls and devoted herself to studying, and she learned embroidery—something her mother had emphasized as an essential virtue of a lady.

At times, she went down to the riverbank where her sister had vanished, searching for a miracle that might yet happen.

Gazing endlessly at the calm surface of the water, Ivania made the same vow over and over again.

She would not make her parents sad the way her sister had.

She would not allow them to lose her too.

After losing their first daughter and falling into despair, they would never be able to endure having their second daughter taken by a monster as well.

So perhaps—if she could please the monster, if she could prove she had some use beyond being eaten, if she could just survive somehow—she might one day return to her family’s embrace…

“…I’m sorry. If I had explained things properly from the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened.”

The man, who had been silently watching Ivania for a long while, apologized in a hoarse voice.

Ivania shook her head weakly.

He had no reason to apologize to her.

The ones who deceived him and orchestrated all of this were her parents.

No—those who merely pretended to be her parents.

Because of their scheme, he hadn’t been able to reunite with his beloved wife. In a way, he was a victim just like her.

With a voice cracked beyond repair, Ivania forced out an apology of her own.

“…I’m sorry for taking it out on you.”

“You’re a good kid.”

“I’m not a kid.”

“No, you’re completely a kid.”

“If my sister had come, she’d be about my age too.”

“And I’m a thief.”

The man withdrew the hand he had extended to her, took out a handkerchief from his coat, and wrapped a piece of candy in it.

Then he pressed it into Ivania’s hand and said,

“Listen. Even if everything feels unbearably sad and painful right now, a day will come when you feel like you can overcome it. But to reach a good tomorrow, you need a good today. Whether they’re people or objects, the more things you surround yourself with that you love, the faster and easier it becomes to start over. That’s why I can’t just let you go anywhere.”

Those were words Ivania couldn’t easily agree with in her current state.

That a day would come when she could overcome this sorrow.

That someone who was neither her parent nor her sister—but a man she’d met for the first time today—would help make that happen.

“The future plan I mentioned earlier wasn’t a joke, so write it step by step. Feeding one more person won’t bring this castle down, so don’t rush. You can leave whenever you want.”

“…What if I still don’t want to write it?”

Ivania, who had been staring at the floor, lifted her heavy eyelids and looked up at him.

Their eyes met instantly.

Perhaps because she had lived for so long forgetting herself while acting as her sister’s substitute, Ivania was a little surprised by how intently this man was listening to her story.

At her childlike question, the man laughed as if it were absurd, then slightly crinkled his eyes and replied,

“Then I’ll eat you up.”

* * *

“Hello, Lady Ivania! I’m Hannah, the maid who will be attending you from today onward. I look forward to serving you!”

Startled by the booming greeting that greeted her the moment she opened the door, Ivania stiffened her shoulders.

After finishing her conversation with Agram, she had returned to her room—only to find that a personal maid who hadn’t been there earlier had suddenly appeared.

Is this the one maid they said they hired just for the bride?

She had wondered if the maid would really be someone like herself, but despite her nerves, the woman before her looked surprisingly ordinary.

Her straw-colored hair was neatly tied back, and her youthful face was clean and unadorned.

Judging by her presence alone, she didn’t seem like an alien being like Guillermo or Agram.

Relieved, Ivania stepped into the room.

“You must’ve been very uncomfortable, unable to even change clothes while I was gone. I’m so sorry. Today was actually my day off, so I’d gone down to the village.”

Hannah apologized again, bowing deeply with a distressed expression.

Feeling awkward, Ivania tried to stop her and replied,

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry for making you come back in such a hurry. I couldn’t change clothes not because there was no one to help me, but because I didn’t bring any belongings with me. Don’t worry about it.”

“What? Did you run into bandits on your way here?”

It seemed the people in this castle had no idea how this marriage was viewed by the outside world.

Instead of explaining her long story in detail, Ivania offered only an awkward smile.

Interpreting that reaction in her own way, Hannah clenched her fist with renewed enthusiasm and exclaimed,

“Don’t worry! We’ve prepared clothes for you in advance, milady!”

“Prepared clothes?”

“Yes! Please come this way and choose them yourself.”

Nodding vigorously, Hannah led Ivania into the dressing room connected to the bedroom.

Had they not just put her in some random empty room earlier?

The wardrobe was larger than most reception halls, and inside hung what must have been hundreds of dresses.

As if they had been carefully prepared over a long period of time— all for the bride.