I returned to my room at Gracie Duchy by teleportation. I stumbled weakly with a blank stare as if I had completely lost my strength. My body barely leaned against the wall. Tears finally began to flow from my eyes, which had been so out of focus for a long time.
“Ah, aah..!”
“No! Don’t do that!”
“Meril, Merilly…!”
“No, don’t kill her…!”
Merilly’s cry passed through my head in every blink of an eye. And every time that voice passed, my heart cracked.
“My mother…!”
“Aak…!”
I felt like my heart would explode if I didn’t do anything. I tightly clasped my hair, which had become softer as I received noble education.
What was the use of all this? My baby was suffering in a hellish place. I just hoped that she was doing well, like any other child. Although Magorit was there, whom I had a dreadful impression of, I dared to think she wouldn’t mistreat Merilly since there were Kriella and Endimion, who I considered to care about their bloodline. However, it wasn’t like that. Magorit was abusing Merilly in a very clever way.
I slammed everything on my desk to the floor. All the glass objects shattered into pieces with a clatter and loud sound.
“Lady Lobelia…!”
Then someone burst open the door and came in. At the familiar voice, my eyes slowly rolled. Where my eyes were directed, Frinel was standing with a puzzled expression.
“What is this…!”
He just came to check if the cake was well received.
“Your hands are bleeding…!”
However, the always rational and cold-headed woman was shaking like that. Startled, he moved closer to Lobelia. Then he was about to tear his handkerchief and wrap it around her palm.
“You… must be wondering why I’m doing this, aren’t you?” I let out a laugh.
“Lady Lobelia, first of all, treatment…”
Then, I coldly shook off Frinel’s hand, which was trying to wrap it around my hand.
“Marchioness Hamilton.” I spoke in a cold voice.
“What?”
“She was abusing my daughter.”
“That, what do you mean? Abusing?”
“She was feeding my daughter a pudding with sand on it. She even gave her an old dress and a thin blanket…!” My voice trembled as I uttered each letter.
He looked at me with shocked eyes in the stifling silence without answering anything. Swallowing my sobs, I continued my words while pretending to be calm.
“All of this…! It happened as soon as Kriella and Endimion left for the capital.”
The traces of tears dried up, and new tears passed along that path.
“Haha, isn’t that funny?”
Crying like that, I let out a laugh.
“I was fooled again and got hit.”
I slowly lifted my palm. Above it, a golden light floated in the darkness.
“I haven’t changed anything. Even though I have the power of the Shinsu clan, and even though I became a princess…!”
I clenched my fist as it was.
“I’m still weak!”
As if representing my heart, the light that shimmered uneasily was scattered into shattered pieces.
“I don’t even know that…”
“Lady Lobelia…!”
“While eating eclairs in the grand duchy…! While scribbling down with quill pen!”
A quill pen lavishly adorned with jewels and feathers was visible in my field of vision. I nervously picked it up and raised my arm high as if I was going to stab my heart with it.
“…Calm down!”
Frinel rushed over and grabbed me by the wrists. With a moment of silence, the quill pen fell to the floor. He let go of the hand he had given strength with a more distressed look.
“How can I calm down!”
I grabbed Frinel’s arms as if I was about to collapse.
“I heard that my baby lived in that pain for five years…! I don’t even want to imagine. It’s terrible… I can’t breathe…!”
I was out of breath. That made me hit myself hard in the chest.
“I want to kill all three of them right now. No, right, I want to kill them. Teleportation… when they go to the capital…”
“Please, calm down.”
He held Lobelia’s shoulder tightly, realizing that things wouldn’t go as well as they were. Additionally, he was concerned about the light of her mana, which had always been clear, becoming dark.
“I’ll kill them all…! Let go of this!”
“If you go like this, what will be your efforts so far…!”
“What’s the use of effort… My baby is holding back her tears!”
Frinel’s eyes, which were blocking her, shook for an instant.
“My baby, she’s only seven years old… but she was holding back her tears…”
Lobelia’s wailing words reminded him of his childhood. He sat her on the sofa with a bitter face.
“When you’re so emotionally biased, it’s time to think more rationally.”
I, who had lost my strength from sobbing and crying, slowly looked at Frinel. My eyes blinked slowly, and my body became limp. Soon a completely drained voice came out from between my parched lips. “When I was betrayed…”
“Yes.” He answered in a low voice, thinking that I would feel better if he listened to the story.
“I didn’t think anyone would believe me anymore.”
I remembered the old me. Even before I was betrayed, I was an extremely ordinary person, laughing to my heart’s content when I wanted to laugh and crying when I wanted to cry.
“You seem to be my destiny.”
“I-I thought so too…! I guess we’re really meant to be.”
“Really?”
“I love you, Endrew.”
My former self, who confessed my love and smiled broadly, passed in front of me. I was a person who could express my love for someone honestly.
“So I hardened my expression and put on a mask.”
I didn’t want to be hurt anymore, so I became a coward, which was my defense mechanism.
“Nevertheless, even so.”
My still moist, wet eyes turned to Frinel.
“I wanted to live as a human being.”
I remembered my mother, who was always sweet to me.
“My mother always said she loved the people of this empire.”
Even though we lived a wandering life every time, as if being chased by someone, my mother seemed to be happy.
“So I wanted to love them like my mother.”
Even after being betrayed by humans, the Shinsu clan loved humans until the end. It might have been because of the clan’s beliefs that remained in my blood that I tried so hard even after such a thing had happened.
“I hated them to the point of wanting to kill them, but I wanted to come out right away. And… I think that’s how I can be a proud mother for my daughter, Merilly.”
“…Lady Lobelia.”
Lobelia looked so hurt. He wanted to comfort her somehow. But the only thing he could do for the wound that hadn’t even healed was to listen.
“But… it couldn’t be like that.”
Her sad expression changed in an instant.
“I naively didn’t know those scumbags are above the law.”
Emerald-colored eyes with deep darkness glistened.
“Who lives in that mansion will stand up for me? That my daughter is being abused. Who will be the witness?”
Lobelia let out a bitter grin.
“I can’t love people anymore.”
In my heart, a piece of the last line that I still wanted to live as a human being, that I never wanted to lose even after being betrayed, was shattered.
My eyes slowly scanned the room, which was a mess. I thought everything was going well, but I was the only one who didn’t know that it was worse than this room’s condition. My body slowly rose.
“Where are you going?”
“I must protect Merilly. I have to protect…”
“Calm down for now. It’s dangerous to go in this state.”
“I’m going to kill all three of them. If they’re doing crazy things…”
The sun was setting over the window.
“I have no choice but to be a crazier villainess.”
The calm glow of the sunset shone translucently into my eyes, which had completely lost their light. Frinel gently grabbed my wrist.
“…No.”
“Don’t stop me, please…!”
“…I should be the one protecting you. If not me, then who will protect you?”
“…I’m stronger than you.”
“I’m not talking about physical strength.”
He hugged me tightly as it was.
“I’m talking about your state of mind.”
At his warm and gentle voice, as if nurturing a child, I closed my eyes tightly.
