Chapter 9
“Are you deceiving me again this time?”
“……Raylie, this is a letter sent by Count Heriond.”
Raylie couldn’t believe it. The letter contained only a single, painfully brief sentence stating that Leta had died, along with a notice that no funeral would be held.
There was no mention of Leta’s will. It offered only a short expression of mourning for her death and conveyed condolences to the Trila family.
“I shouldn’t have let her go…… I should’ve kept her here, even if by force!”
Raylie writhed in despair. Her hands began to tremble uncontrollably, then slowly lost their strength. Shaking her head vacantly, she read the letter again and again, as if doing so might change its contents.
Her vision blurred as tears welled up in her eyes, yet the words on the page only seemed to grow clearer. Guilt, grief, and a tangle of emotions wrapped tightly around her chest, suffocating her.
“Ah…… ah…….”
Her throat felt tightly constricted, and no words could escape.
Unable to watch any longer, Theo bent down in front of her and met her gaze. His usually gentle voice carried a note of pity.
“Raylie, this isn’t your fault.”
You shouldn’t be saying that to me.
Rage surged through her at the sight of Theo acting as though this had nothing to do with him.
If he hadn’t said he loved her, would Leta still have died?
If he hadn’t brought Anna into this house, would Leta still have died?
No. If she hadn’t hidden her crest, if she had given everything up and lived as the imperial sword, then Leta wouldn’t have died.
Because of that choice, she had fled her home as if running away, and blinded herself with Theo’s false words.
All she had ever wanted was to live as herself—just Raylie.
“Ah…… ah…….”
Raylie couldn’t utter a single word. Her mind kept cycling between imagined possibilities and denial of reality.
It was all her fault.
‘……No, no. She said she was fine yesterday.’
Without realizing it, she was rationalizing, desperately trying to escape the pain. Disgusted by herself, she wrapped her arms tightly around her body.
Then Leta’s face surfaced in her mind. Raylie clawed at her hair and slammed her head against the floor.
‘No, no! This is my fault. I shouldn’t have let her go just because she said she was fine!’
She kept seeing Leta’s smile from the day before—the way her younger sister had looked at her and said she was okay. The warmth of her voice. Her thin, bony fingers.
She could still feel the gentle touch of Leta’s hand as she had stroked her.
“……Raylie. Ah!”
Theo, suddenly seeming to recall something, walked over to his desk. When he opened a drawer, there was a small hairpin in his hand.
It was shaped like a butterfly.
Approaching her carefully, Theo grasped Raylie by the shoulders and helped her sit upright. When she lifted her head, her eyes were hollow, her face streaked countless times by tears.
“……She asked me to give this to you.”
“…….”
She wished it were all a lie. This time, she would have gladly believed that he was deceiving her just to cause her pain. She couldn’t accept Leta’s death.
But the moment she saw the item Theo handed her—something that had belonged to Leta—she realized everything was true. Beyond the emptiness came a grief too overwhelming to bear.
Trembling, Raylie clutched the hairpin in her hand, as though it were Leta’s last keepsake.
‘……Leta, did you leave this for me?’
The design looked a bit too childish to be Leta’s. Lowering her head, Raylie tightened her grip on the pin. She knew nothing—nothing about how her sister had died, or what she had gone through.
If the count had killed her sister…… what should she do then?
Tears pooled endlessly at the corners of her eyes and spilled over. Her voice, soaked with sorrow, trembled as she finally spoke.
As she began to face reality, the voice that had been blocked in her throat slowly emerged.
“……I—I have to go. No, I must go.”
“That would be difficult.”
“……Move. Even wasting time arguing with you is too much!”
“Even if you go, you won’t be able to meet her. The Trila family raised no objections. We received a letter instructing us to hold a quiet and swift funeral.”
“……What?”
Raylie staggered to her feet, bracing herself against the wall. Her whole body felt numb, drained by the shock, her mind hazy. Pain twisted in her abdomen, and though she tried to calm herself, it was useless.
The emotions kept surging like a tide, leaving her no strength even to struggle.
All she could think of was seeing Leta. Theo, this house—everything blocking her path filled her with hatred.
“……You and my father are both insane. Doesn’t it break your heart to think of Leta leaving this world trembling in fear? It’s only been one day! It took over a year just for me to see her again, and now I can’t even see my sister off on her final journey?”
“You’ve already suffered enough shock. If you receive a greater one, it will be dangerous.”
Theo was firm, as though he had no intention of moving aside. Raylie looked into his eyes and reached for his lapel, trying to shove him away.
Seeing that she wouldn’t give up, Theo let out a deep sigh.
“Then calm yourself. I’ll go with you.”
Theo called for a maid and ordered warm water to be brought. With the maid’s support, Raylie sat down and drank with difficulty.
Soon, Theo approached her again. As she listened to his whisper near her ear, Raylie’s eyes slowly lowered.
“My lady, please forgive me. This is all for our family—and for you.”
She had a long dream.
She saw herself talking with Leta, reliving the ordinary days they had spent together in their childhood home.
Memories flickered by like film: Leta’s bright smile as they whispered and laughed together in secret; the time Raylie brushed dirt from Leta’s clothes when she fell and cried in the garden.
And then memories of her smiling face-to-face with Leta—and another child she couldn’t quite remember.
‘Leta…….’
Her body felt heavy, as though it were being pulled downward. The weight pressing on her stole her breath.
Raylie opened her eyes with effort. Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the room.
“Why…… am I……?”
She sat on the bed, dazed, then slowly rose to her feet.
She couldn’t understand why she had been sleeping in bed, or what this situation was. She had no memory of anything after drinking the water Theo gave her.
‘How could he go this far!’
He had clearly put her to sleep. At least a day must have passed.
‘……Theo.’
Suddenly, Raylie became calm.
“Ren, proceed as we planned.”
“I’m not particularly fond of it, but if that’s what you want.”
A man called Ren appeared, answering her call.
His black hair framed crimson eyes, and when his eyelids lowered, they formed a graceful curve.
Raylie opened the door and stepped outside, calling for a maid. No one answered.
She searched the kitchen and the rooms, but there was no one in sight. Turning, she headed toward the duke’s study.
“Oh my, my lady. You’re awake.”
Anna appeared as if she had been in the house all along. A smile played on her lips, her eyes curved with apparent delight.
“…….”
Ignoring Anna, Raylie approached the stairs leading to the second floor. Anna scowled, displeased that Raylie didn’t respond.
“You must be feeling good these days, hm? The duke won’t leave your side.”
Her sneering words and thorny gaze followed Raylie from behind.
Thinking of Leta, Raylie tightened her grip on the railing. The person who had hidden the letter and driven Leta to the edge of despair—if it hadn’t been her, Raylie would have realized something was wrong much sooner.
“Do you have any idea what Theo’s attitude toward me is like because of the strange things you told him?”
Anna snapped at her. She hadn’t seen Raylie all day, so she had asked the maids, who told her Raylie had fallen asleep. After Raylie drank the medicine the duke gave her, he stayed by her side, and Anna couldn’t even get close.
The maids had said in unison that his devotion reminded them of the way the couple had been when Raylie first arrived.
The duke’s behavior caused the maids to waver. Whispering among themselves, they mocked Anna, saying that Raylie was clearly the true duchess after all.
“How is it? Being loved by him again after so long—doesn’t it feel like you’re back where you belong? You said he’d abandoned you!”
Raylie lowered the foot she had placed on the stairs and turned around. Anna’s eyes were full of hostility, her lips bitten tight as if in grievance.
Striding toward her, Raylie gently stroked Anna’s cheek.
“So that’s what it looked like to you. I have no interest in that kind of love, so you can have it all to yourself.”
Anna slapped Raylie’s hand away and sneered. She hated that, unlike herself, Raylie didn’t crave his love. She hated Raylie’s attitude, as though she truly didn’t care what became of him.
Looking at Raylie made her feel smaller and more wretched. She was the one who had taken him—so why was she the one feeling anxious and uneasy?
“You hypocrite! You’re enjoying this inside! And no matter what, Theo is the father of your child!”
“Anna, is that the only thing you can say? Leta left my side because of your jealousy.”
Raylie’s hands were still shaking, yet Anna showed not a trace of sorrow or guilt.
Rage surged up, but Raylie quickly reined in her emotions and looked at Anna calmly.
“……Ha! Wasn’t it your mistake to marry her off to a man like that? If you knew and still sent her, then you’re just as abandoned as—!”
Raylie reached out and covered Anna’s mouth. Startled, Anna’s eyes widened as she grabbed Raylie’s wrist.
“Anna, don’t be so impatient. I’ve prepared a big gift for you.”
“Mmph!”
“Of course, you don’t need to thank me.”
Raylie removed her hand, took out a handkerchief, and wiped her fingers. She dropped the handkerchief onto the floor and looked down at Anna with icy eyes.
On the night the maid and Anna had conspired together, Raylie had secretly summoned Bote and Phyllia. Handing them paper, she told them to write down everything that had happened in the duke’s residence.
Raylie had told the maids she would speak to Theo and have them transferred elsewhere—but that was a lie. Trusting her words, Bote and Phyllia wrote down everything they knew of Anna’s misdeeds, yet they were never given new positions.
She handed the compiled documents to Ren. They included a petition for divorce addressed to the emperor, as well as records of Anna’s wrongdoing.
Raylie planned to have Ren deliver the documents to the imperial palace. Since his time manifesting as a sword was limited, he would have to make several trips, but that would allow him to handle everything without being discovered.
She had already contacted a newspaper. If they lost contact with her for even a single day, the paper would proceed according to their contract.
Since she had collapsed the previous night and been unreachable, the newspaper would already be moving as she had instructed.
“Just in case, let me ask—Anna, do you have any assets?”
“Ha……! What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“You seemed eager to leave this place quickly, so I made use of the law a little.”
“W-What did you say?”
Anna recoiled in shock, staring at Raylie. She hadn’t noticed a thing—when had Raylie managed to contact the outside world?
“Don’t be too surprised. In a few days, it’ll be on the front page of the newspaper.”
