Chapter 25
I don’t know whether they were worried about me or just being selfish, but the children grabbed me from both sides and started dragging me along. It really felt like I was being hauled off like a criminal under arrest.
“Wait a sec—”
But as if they couldn’t hear my voice at all, the twins shoved me straight into the carriage. As expected of twins, their timing matched perfectly; it all happened in an instant. In the end, I found myself climbing into the carriage.
“I’m really going just like this…?”
“Yeah.”
“Mm-hm! Big sister is going with us now!”
As if to keep me from getting back out, they sat down on either side of me. The Grand Duke, seemingly with no intention of stopping them, took a seat across from us.
“Um… is it really okay for me to go like this…? I mean, I’m basically an orphan who doesn’t even know her parents, and… I wouldn’t be very good for their education either…”
Facing the Grand Duke, who was silently watching us, I rambled on, desperately filling the silence with whatever words came to mind.
Somewhere deep down, I did want to go with them. But at the same time, I wondered whether it was right for me to interfere in the novel any further. On top of that, the thought that my very existence might remind the twins of the hellish childhood they’d endured made me lose confidence again and again.
Part of me wanted the Grand Duke to take me along, and another part of me thought it would be better—for the twins’ sake—to be rejected.
Those conflicting feelings kept pulling me back and forth.
Then, Lari tightly grabbed my hand.
“If you don’t take her, I’m not going.”
Just as the Grand Duke opened his mouth to speak, Rohen cut in. His face, expressionless as if he had no emotions—except when it came to the children—shifted between looking at me and Rohen, no different from before.
“I don’t care what you take with you.”
…Of course, it did feel like the Grand Duke was treating me like an object. Well, in the novel, his influence was immense in shaping the children into villains and masterminds behind the scenes.
Like someone who had suffered a great wound in the past, the Grand Duke behaved as if he had no emotions at all. Because of that, the children came to resemble his personality closely—indifferent to anyone else.
And because he did absolutely everything for the children he had only just managed to find, another problem emerged in their personalities.
Children who had once been deprived of everything were suddenly given far too much, and as a side effect, their greed only grew more excessive.
“You must have everything you want, and other people’s feelings don’t matter.”
Children are like blank white paper, easily stained by all kinds of emotions. They had been abused, had no happy memories from childhood. Then, upon belatedly discovering just how significant their position was, they developed a warped sense of obsession.
It’s not the children who need fixing—it’s the Grand Duke.
As I was gripped by the thought that unless his personality changed, the children’s upbringing was bound to go terribly wrong, the carriage door closed. Instead, the window by the Grand Duke’s seat opened.
“What shall we do next, Your Highness?”
“Keep them alive until we find evidence. Kill them as soon as the evidence is found. And burn down the orphanage as well. Eliminate anything that could become a weakness for my children.”
My mind went blank. I had been so focused on the fact that I was leaving this place that I had momentarily forgotten—forgotten that in the original novel, the Grand Duke burned this place to the ground.
“W-Wait a moment!”
I waved my hands and resisted desperately, but there was no way someone like the Grand Duke would listen to me.
“No, you can’t! There are children here! If you burn it down, what about them?! What are those poor people supposed to do?! The teachers here aren’t bad people—they were just caught up in the situation!”
The twin sitting beside me grabbed my arm in shock, but I couldn’t think of anything else. I only thought about saving the pitiful children, the innocent people.
But there was not a trace of emotion in the Grand Duke’s eyes, which radiated coldness. Instead, he showed discomfort toward me.
“I will show no mercy to those who witnessed my children’s desperate childhood.”
“It wasn’t the kids’ fault!”
“That’s none of my concern.”
A heartless man. A man who cared about no one but himself.
My hands trembled violently. In the meantime, I saw the knights slowly moving away, as if to carry out the Grand Duke’s orders.
“Wait! Just wait!”
“Big sister. Is that person important?”
“Yes. Important. We can’t leave it like this. We can’t just go like that!”
“…So that’s how it is. You there. Are you really just going to leave like this?”
Unlike Lari, who tilted her head with wide eyes, clearly not understanding yet, Rohen pointed out the window with his finger.
“Calling your father ‘you.’ You should fix that habit first.”
“You show up only now and expect us to call you father? Isn’t that shameless?”
Despite the Grand Duke’s cold words, Rohen didn’t hesitate even a little. Though he should have been angered by such rude behavior, the Grand Duke instead let out an awkward smile.
“You really resemble someone.”
“That’s unpleasant. I’m me. I don’t resemble anyone. So what are you going to do? She said no.”
“…Why should I listen to something like that?”
“Then I won’t go.”
Up until then, Rohen had been sitting leisurely, but at that point he sprang to his feet. There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his unexpected action.
“Big sis. What are you doing? Get up.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I don’t like it when what’s mine says it doesn’t want something.”
“At best, it’s just a toy. A toy you’ll eventually lose interest in. Are you telling me to leave potential weaknesses for my children over something like that?”
“Yeah.”
At Rohen’s curt reply, the Grand Duke let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. But Rohen stood proudly, and even Lari—who had been quiet—stood up from her seat.
“I won’t go either if big sister doesn’t want to.”
“Hah. Lari.”
“I don’t like it, don’t like it! So do what big sister wants!”
Because of these completely unexpected developments, the Grand Duke’s lips trembled for quite a while. His face, which had been gradually growing angrier, finally returned to calm after some time.
“…Very well. Then sit down.”
“Okay.”
Rohen, who had looked ready to get off at any moment, sat back down as if nothing had happened, just as casually as when he had stood up. The Grand Duke still looked dumbfounded, but Rohen remained thoroughly confident.
Opening the window that had been closed, the Grand Duke called over a knight standing beside the carriage and whispered to him for quite some time. He spoke quietly with his mouth close to the knight’s ear, so even in the silent carriage, I couldn’t hear a word.
“Then let’s go.”
Now seeming annoyed, he waved his hand. After the knight relayed something to the coachman, the carriage began to move.
Because the twins blocked my view, I couldn’t see much of the outside, but thankfully, the orphanage growing farther away did not go up in flames. I don’t know what might happen inside afterward, but at least things didn’t end in a horrific conclusion like in the novel.
After that, something began pounding in my chest. A feeling similar to what I’d felt earlier when I saw the director. Emotions I hadn’t even realized I possessed rose up from deep inside, bubbling to the surface like air bubbles in water.
Am I… happy?
It was different from simply being glad that I’d saved the people at the orphanage. My heart kept swelling painfully, as if tears might spill at any moment. I felt so fragile that if someone even lightly touched me, I might start crying.
Having never felt anything like this about my own emotions before, I couldn’t handle the overwhelming surge and bowed my head deeply, afraid tears would fall.
Seeing me like that, Lari leaned her head down in surprise, but I forced a smile as if nothing were wrong.
“Big sister, are you sick?”
“No. I’m not sick! It’s just my first time riding a carriage.”
“Mm! You’ll get used to it! Riding a carriage is fun!”
Grinning widely, Lari looked out the window and bounced her legs up and down. Seeing her like that made my heart much calmer than before.
“How unsophisticated. You’ll ride plenty more from now on, so get used to it. If you’re tired, just sleep.”
Despite his confident words, Rohen sat with an extremely stiff expression. He was so rigid he looked like he’d turned into a statue, unable to properly enjoy the scenery outside. Watching him like that, I couldn’t help but laugh.
