Chapter 24
‘How would he know?’
Even in the novel, he comes here without knowing anything. In the story, the reason the headmistress was killed was never because it was revealed that she had acted under someone’s orders, or for any other such reason. The grand duke, enraged solely by the fact that his children had been abused here, overturned everything without conducting any investigation.
‘Or did Lari say something? Is that why the grand duke knows?’
I did tell the children about the grand duchess, but would Lari really have trusted the grand duke enough to say something within just a month? I briefly wondered if the grand duke had somehow figured it out with some extraordinary ability, but it didn’t look like that at all.
Just as the thought crossed my mind that he didn’t actually know anything and was only pretending to—
“Oh, so you already knew!”
The headmistress fell for his words completely. Normally, she never would have, but like a mouse driven to the edge of a cliff that can’t even recognize the mousetrap in front of it, she bit down hard on his bait.
“…….”
“So, I mean… if you investigate, you’ll see… I mean… isn’t that how it usually is? Beneath those in power, there are always people without power who get pushed around. All the evidence will paint me as the villain, but in truth, I didn’t commit such a grave wrong. Th-the evidence was all fabricated.”
Letting out a soft “oh,” the grand duke shifted his gaze toward her, sprawled on the ground, with an expression of considerable interest. In the meantime, the assassins who had come after us were being bound one by one by his knight order and taken somewhere.
“Fabricated, you say?”
“Yes, th-that’s usually how it goes, isn’t it? Ah, I mean, this is to cut off the tail. I’m just a scapegoat. If you spare my life, I can tell you everything. Truly.”
“And how am I supposed to believe that? What if you just concocted a lie in that brief moment?”
“I have proof. I-I really do.”
The grand duke described in the novel was never someone who would speak this calmly. Though the scene itself was briefly described, he was clearly consumed by rage and not in his right mind. That’s why everything about this felt strange.
‘Is the novel really changing?’
Was it merely a coincidence? Or was it just that even this side of the grand duke hadn’t been described? My head was filled with nothing but such thoughts.
“And how am I to believe that you have proof?”
“Well… th-that…”
Hesitating, the headmistress suddenly screamed as if she were revealing her last trump card.
“I do! I really do!”
“Is that so?”
“How could I lie at a time like this?”
“Good.”
The grand duke gave a brief reply and nodded. Thinking she had finally found a way to live, the headmistress slowly tried to push herself up.
But—
“Let’s go back now.”
“Y-Yes?”
“And deal with that trash quietly.”
“W-What?!”
At the completely unexpected turn of events, the headmistress’s face turned deathly pale.
“W-What do you mean by that…?”
“Ah. I addressed the wrong person. Take care of this.”
The grand duke, who had been speaking while looking at the headmistress, shifted his gaze to the knights beside him. Only then did they begin to surround her one by one.
“You-you’re going to deal with me?! What do you mean by that? I said I’d reveal everything…! You can’t do this!”
“You seem to keep forgetting who’s standing in front of you. You say I can’t do this—to me? Are you giving me orders?”
“N-No, that’s not it. It’s just that if you were to… kill me… you wouldn’t be able to obtain the evidence… s-so I was worried about that…”
“So there really is evidence.”
“Yes! Of course! I’m sincere. Even rats make sure to leave themselves an escape hole!”
The way she spoke with a chuckle was exactly like how she used to rub her hands together and flatter the nobles. For some reason, an uncomfortable feeling welled up in my chest. It was an uneasy, incomplete emotion—condensed from somewhere deeper and darker than my own conscious feelings.
So watching the headmistress like this felt both satisfying and inexplicably unsettling.
“Good. Then all we have to do is find that rat hole.”
“…Pardon?”
“Deal with it.”
With an even colder expression than before, the grand duke turned sharply, then awkwardly held out his hand toward Rohen—as if telling him to take it. Despite that, his face was stiff, as though he himself found the gesture awkward.
As expected, Rohen didn’t take his hand. Instead, he gave a small snort of laughter and walked right past him. As a result, the grand duke’s hand remained suspended in midair for quite some time.
Rather, as if he had always known his place, Rohen pointed toward the carriage.
“Do we get on that?”
Caught completely off guard, the grand duke let out a hollow laugh and withdrew his hand.
“You’re very different from Lariz. I thought twins would be similar.”
“So, do we get on that or not?”
“You get on that.”
Clearing his throat as if to hide his embarrassment, he followed after Rohen with steady steps.
“Let’s go now.”
I quietly watched Rohen as he walked away brazenly, without a trace of awkwardness. Rohen strode along leisurely with his fingers interlaced, looking dissatisfied about something, while the man gazed down at him in silence.
Though still quite thin, Rohen looked just like the grand duke—as if proving he was truly his child.
‘So this is how a family finally meets.’
One side of my chest ached and trembled. An indescribable emotion rose within me. Even if the future would now differ from the novel—despite the fact that I had tried to make things flow according to the original story—I had not a single regret in this moment.
Even if things diverged from the original, the twins would overcome it well. They wouldn’t carry painful pasts.
“Hehe. I like it.”
Still clinging tightly to my side, Lari showed no intention of going back and rubbed her head against my arm. I loosened my arm slightly and gestured toward the carriage.
“Lari. Go on.”
“Huh?”
“Your dad and your brother are going over there.”
“That’s right!”
Lari nodded vigorously as she looked at the two of them.
“When you look like this, they look just alike, right? Hehe. Both of them have, like, the same kind of expressions!”
Furrowing her brows deeply, Lari scrunched up her face for a long time, as if trying to imitate them. It was so cute that I let out a small laugh without realizing it.
Like a child who had just come into the world and was mimicking the very first thing she saw, Lari smiled brightly as she followed my example.
Only then did I come to my senses and shake my head from side to side.
“No. This isn’t the time to be talking about that—Lari needs to go over there too.”
“Yeah! I’ll go.”
As she said that, the child grabbed my arm tightly.
“Together!”
“No. I’m not going with you.”
I pried Lari’s hand off my arm. Her face, now wearing an expression of hurt I had never seen before, quickly filled with tears.
“Why… why are you letting go of my arm, big sister? I tried so… so hard just to see you…”
“That’s…”
“In the meantime… did you start to hate me…? I was… so happy every day just thinking about seeing you… but you…”
“No. I don’t hate you. I was happy thinking about seeing you too. But I…”
That was when it happened. Perhaps he had seen our struggle—Rohen, who had already reached the carriage, came walking back toward us and held out his arm to me. With a face and smile more relaxed and comfortable than ever, he quietly looked at me.
“You should take mine too.”
“Yours?”
At Rohen’s completely unexpected words, I stood there for a long while, my mouth opening and closing uselessly. What was he talking about? His? But it seemed I was the only one flustered.
“From now on, my time will always include you, noona.”
“…What?”
“From now on, you’re mine. From now on, I’ll protect you.”
As I stammered in shock and disbelief, Rohen gave a small smirk and firmly took my hand.
“Huh?”
Watching Rohen and me alternately, Lari quickly grabbed my other hand.
“No way. Big sister is mine. I’ll never let go. I’m going to marry big sister.”
Just moments ago, she had looked like she was about to cry, but now Lari raised her voice happily again.
“W-Wait… no, I’m supposed to stay here…”
This was completely unexpected. I had only wanted to give the twins some childhood memories, but things had turned out like this without my intention.
No matter how much things had changed from the original, this felt too much, so I waved my hands frantically. But before I could even speak, Rohen spoke first.
“You’re going to say that again.”
“Huh?”
“That everyone has a place they’re supposed to be, that you shouldn’t be greedy, that your path is different from ours?”
“Well…”
“Your place is beside us. There’s no refusal. We’ll take you with us even if we have to force you. We won’t… leave you here alone. You’d cry without us anyway.”
