CH 105

I tried to calm down my rough breath and answered as calmly as I could.

“If, if it’s a letter…”

“The letter you left to Father.”

The plan I had carefully thought about quickly went blank.

I was cornered without an opening.

“How…”

Even after Benny was excluded from the list of suspects, I didn’t suspect Hugo. The reason was simple.

Alan told him not to touch the frame.

Alan was the most powerful man of House Bauner, and all family members obeyed his orders completely.

So I continued to make ambiguous guesses such as Verney and Nike. I didn’t dare to imagine one of the princes violating his father’s orders. It was a belief in Alan rather than Hugo.

‘Ah.’

I was wrong. I almost laughed in vain at my own stupidity that I hadn’t realized so far.

‘Hugo has violated Alan’s orders before.’

When I begged him to bring me to see Benny’s gladiatorial match, Hugo was willing to take me out of the castle that day.

That was what happened. Hugo valued me… no, his younger sister ‘Lilietta’ more than his father.

“I discovered it by chance. I wanted to show off Lily’s painting to people.”

There would be no lies in Hugo’s words.

Because he was a man who was determined to be punished by a terrifying duke for wanting to boast about me.

Such a person saw my letter.

“In the letter, you confessed that you were not Lily.”

The tip of my tongue was bitter. My stomach was heavy as if I had been punched.

“Born in the ant cave, you claimed to be Princess Lilieta at the coercion of the kidnapper Thomas. You kept lying because you were afraid that you would be killed if it was revealed.”

Hugo calmly recited the contents of the letter while holding my hand.

“You are of the same kind as Benimus, the monster.”

I stood in the darkness where I couldn’t turn around and run away, taking in his words that were pouring like a shower.

“You, to Father…”

Hugo put strength into the hand that held mine. As if refusing to let me run away.

“…You deceived him. It was written that way.”

There was a frightening silence. It was dark everywhere, so I had no idea how much time had passed.

I lost my breath. If he had yelled and criticized me, I wouldn’t have been this dizzy.

The sensation of the whole body’s blood escaping was like falling.

“I lied to you, too.”

Hugo’s voice rang the basement like a monologue in a play.

I raised my head, but I could only see white hands. Tendons sprang on the back of his hand, which held me desperately.

“I’ve never seen Michael before the awakening ceremony. Not only that, but I didn’t see any suspicious sight. I was stuck in the lab and busy reading your letter.”

Kkirik, kkirik. 

I heard an unpleasant frictional sound somewhere.

For me, I had no time to pay attention to sounds other than Hugo’s words. As if it was the same for him, he calmly continued.

“I did it because I wanted to go to the place where you lived. If I came here, I might find a little hope that you are my sister.….”

He took a moment and spoke lowly as if issuing a warning.

“I’ll ask you one thing.”

‘The time has come. Hugo will ask if the contents of the letter are real.’

‘Then what should I say? A lie that no one will believe? Or the truth that will kill me?’

As he shook his weak leg, Hugo asked an unexpected question.

“The day the circular stadium collapsed, did you save my life?”

“What?”

What did he say all of a sudden?

“I was definitely under the ruins. But later I heard that I had been found lying safely on the rubble of the building.”

Hugo squeezed my hand again. Even though it was me who was cornered, his voice cracked.

“Did you save me?”

“…Ugh!”

I grabbed my neck with my free hand. I couldn’t breathe. This time, it wasn’t just my feeling.

“Ugh-euk!”

Something was choking me hard.

“Lily!”

Surprised, Hugo hugged me. The faint light of mana lit up his surprised rabbit eyes.

Hugo and I put our hands on the back of my neck at the same time. The cheap strap got caught on my fingernail and fell off.

My mom’s necklace was rising in the air. No, to be exact, it’s not the necklace.

The imitation jewel in the middle of the necklace shook and pulled my neck.

Kkirik, kkirik. 

A creepy frictional sound came out from the inside of the jewel.

While struggling, my body staggered back. Hugo seemed to have cut off the necklace.

Cheap decorations scattered and I sank into place.

Slowly, I raised my head while touching my neck.

The panoramic view of the basement was seen in an inverted color. My left eye seemed to be reversed.

The basement was much larger than I expected.

A huge magic circle was drawn on the floor of the room, and it was disgustingly complex and elaborate, and the inverted triangle marks everywhere gave off an ominous feeling.

At the end of the magic circle, the melted wax dried up.

The imitation jewel was floating in the middle of the magic circle. The black egg was split into small pieces, and at that moment, the mana light went out.

“That’s also…”

Hugo’s arm was draped across my shoulder as he muttered.

“Manastone.”

The floor split in the form of a magic circle. I fell into endless darkness.

***

Lalala~ Lalala~

I heard a clear song from somewhere. It was the voice of a young girl.

I slowly lowered my hand covering my neck. I was in the dark where neither the sky nor the earth could be distinguished.

As soon as I moved my feet, one step after another, I stumbled and my body tilted forward.

“Argh!”

I was shocked, but managed to balance myself.

The floor was weird. No matter how many times I placed my heels down, I couldn’t feel the feeling of stepping on the ground, let alone the sound of shoes.

‘I don’t think this is the basement with the ominous magic circle.’

“…Brother! Brother Hugo!”

No matter how many times I called Hugo, the answer did not return.

Then a faint light hovered from far away. I heard the song I had heard earlier from the same direction.

Lalala~ Lalala~

The tone reminiscent of a lullaby was slow and elegant.

I walked toward the light. As if walking in a dream, my body floated and leaned to one side, but I was able to walk if I tried hard.

The sound of the song became clearer with the light.

While walking with my arms open, I suddenly felt a strange sense of incompatibility.

‘I think I’ve heard this song somewhere before…’

The lights got closer and closer. An old stone wall caught my eyes.

Looking at the spiral stairs, it seemed to be a tower somewhere, and a small girl was sitting on a small window next to the stairs.

As soon as I saw the girl’s face, I swallowed my breath.

The girl’s curly hair was burning red. As the child raised her head, her emerald eyes shone brightly.

It was a familiar situation. In my nightmares, a child who always looked like that appeared.

‘But that’s not Lily.’

The Lily in my nightmares was always crying. However, the girl in front of me was brushing her hair next to the lamp with a calm expression.

The girl stopped looking in the mirror, picked up the scissors, and cut off a strand of hair that stuck out. She continued to sing, rubbing her cut hair with her fingertips.

A piece of memory flashed through my mind. I finally remembered where I heard that song.

‘It’s the lullaby that Alan sang for me.’

When I realized that, another confusion came.

The woman in front of me was singing Alan’s lullaby. Even adding lyrics that I didn’t know.

‘In addition… How do I remember this song? I only heard it once.’

I couldn’t have remembered the song I heard just once.

It didn’t make sense, but I felt like I heard that song before Alan even sang it to me. Countless times, that was how it could be engraved in my head…

A flame suddenly rose from the girl’s fingertips.

I was surprised and stepped back, but when I looked closely, it wasn’t a real fire.

The cut hair scattered passionately like sparks.

The strong haze soon became abundant petals, and the petals became flowers.

In the girl’s hand, there were roses in full bloom.

“Yes!”

The girl suddenly jumped down the stairs.

The red-haired child ran down the stairs without regret with scissors and mirrors. I followed the child reflexively.

The girl arrived in the dungeon of the tower. The entrance blocked by a huge iron door looked very familiar.

Squeak. 

The girl pushed the iron door open. The blue light emanating from the prison revealed her face.

My prediction was correct. A pond that was so blue enough to make my eyes freeze, and an evil spirit trapped in it.

This was the first magic tower of the Imperial Palace.

“Do you remember me? I came last time, too.”

The girl put a rich rose next to the pond as if it was a gift. The evil spirit did not respond, but it shrugged as if she was familiar.

The next moment, I froze in place by the words that popped out of the girl’s mouth.

“I’m Natalia. The daughter of Her Majesty the Emperor, whom you met.”

Natalia. I had never met anyone with that name.

But I already knew the girl in front of me.

A portrait that came to mind every time I looked in the mirror for the past four years overlapped with the young face of the girl.

“…Lily’s mom.”

This was not reality. I was looking at the past.