CHAPTER 45……
Etisha quickly scanned the corridor. In the distance, she spotted Dite running as if fleeing for her life.
For some reason, she felt she mustn’t lose sight of her.
Etisha gathered the hem of her dress and started running.
“Dite! Wait a moment, please! Dite!”
Dite ran frantically, bursting out of the Snow Castle. Etisha hurried after her, leaving the Snow Castle as well and descending the stairs toward the manor grounds.
Despite stumbling, Dite was fast—so fast she fell and got up again several times. At this rate, she looked like she might get seriously hurt.
“…Dite!”
At last, Etisha caught up with her in a shaded corner by the outer wall. Dite was covered in dirt, her knees badly scraped. Etisha reached out her hand.
“Are you alright? You look really hurt… Let me see.”
Dite gave no response, just sat on the dirt ground, breathing heavily. She looked like a young deer wounded and fleeing after falling off a cliff.
Etisha stepped closer with the sun at her back, bent down, and gently brushed the dirt from Dite’s clothes, pushing her disheveled hair from her face.
“Those wounds need to be treated. Can you walk? If you can’t get up, then—”
Suddenly, Dite jerked her head up.
“D-don’t touch me.”
“What? Oh—did that hurt?”
“What are you? Why do you appear in front of me and treat me like this?”
“…?”
“Cayenne took you to the cabin? Said he’d forgotten about it, but your singing reminded him?!”
Her golden eyes brimmed with hostility toward Etisha—so much it seemed she might stab her on the spot.
“What are you… Why do you call the Madam ‘Mother’? She’s the Madam. I’ve always called her that. Why do you get to call her Mother?!”
“…”
“Why! Why not me—why…!”
Dite slapped Etisha’s hand away. A sharp sting spread across Etisha’s hand like a lightning strike.
“Ah!”
“Because you’re a noble? I’m a commoner, and you’re one of those high and mighty nobles?”
“Dite, calm down. You’re too upset right now.”
“That’s right! I am upset! How could I not be?!”
Dite all but screamed. Then she suddenly grabbed Etisha’s wrist.
Her left hand. The ring finger.
She gripped it tightly and yanked at the wedding ring with force.
“No! Dite, what are you doing?!”
“Why not?! Why can’t I have it?! Because I’m a commoner?!”
“What is wrong with you?!”
“Let go! Let go!!”
Dite shoved Etisha and tore the ring away from her.
The ring, inlaid with the snow eagle crest of House Wintel and a white diamond.
Etisha grabbed for Dite’s arm in a panic, but the ring was already in Dite’s hand.
“Hehe! Ahaha!”
Her golden eyes gleamed as she stared at the ring.
The symbol of House Wintel.
It had been passed down for generations. Cayenne had always worn it—likely even on the battlefield. Dite had never dared to covet it.
If I can’t have it, then no one should.
Then a familiar voice echoed in Dite’s mind.
Destroy it.
Dite picked up a rock from the ground. Right in front of Etisha, she raised it and began striking the ring.
Bang! Bang!
“Stop it! Dite, I said stop right now!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Dite!!”
Etisha yanked at her arm and shoved her hard on the shoulder.
It was useless.
Consumed by madness, Dite seemed possessed—seeing and hearing nothing.
“…She’s completely insane.”
And then, something strange happened.
Just as Dite had heard a familiar voice in her head, Etisha heard one too.
What the hell is that?
And then, from somewhere, a fist came flying.
A long, sharp arm slammed into Dite’s face.
“Get lost, trash. The only one allowed to mess with my Tisha is me.”
“—Kyaaa!!”
In an instant, Dite was sent flying backward, hitting the wall with a loud thud.
“How dare you lay hands on my sister?!”
“Argh! Ahhh!”
Etisha covered her mouth with both hands, her blue eyes wide.
She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“L-Lari… sis…?”
Larienne’s fiery red hair whipped like a lion’s mane as she violently assaulted Dite.
It was so one-sided and overwhelming that assault was the only word for it.
Dite clawed toward her with her hands, but she couldn’t lay a single finger on Larienne.
The scandalous outcast of high society.
The wild troublemaker.
No young lady could stand up to Larienne Heinz.
“I said stop! My sister told you to stop! Why won’t you listen, huh?”
Larienne grabbed Dite’s golden hair and slapped her several times, as if she might rip it all out.
That wasn’t all—she shoved Dite against the wall, shaking her so her whole body struck it.
“You think you’re the only crazy one? That there’s no one more insane than you? Hate to tell you this—but I’m worse.”
Horrified, Etisha tried to pull Larienne off. She was afraid Dite might really get hurt.
“S-sis! Stop, Lari-sis!”
“Yes, Tisha, just a second. I’m glad to see you too. But can you wait a bit?”
“What are you doing? She’s bleeding! Dite, are you okay? Let go of her—!”
“Haha, it’s fine, it’s fine. There’s magical healing. I’ve got plenty of money now anyway—I stole it all from Dad.”
“What… What are you even talking about…”
Etisha was stunned.
Come to think of it, Larienne suddenly appearing at Wintel Castle was shocking enough.
She had come all the way to the north—and stolen from Viscount Heinz? What on earth had happened while she was gone?
“Oh, right. On the way here I met Lord Kailles—you know, the former Duke of Wintel? He told me to stay here at Wintel Castle until your wedding. Invited me, actually.”
“…What?”
Kailles Wintel, the former Duke?
She had met Cayenne’s father on the way here—and been invited to stay? Etisha couldn’t even begin to make sense of it.
“….”
She pressed her lips together and focused her gaze.
She was confused about many things, but the most urgent matter right now was Dite, bleeding from Larienne’s blows.
Dite first. Larienne later.
“Fine. I get it—now let her go.”
Etisha pried at Larienne’s arm.
Larienne resisted to the end, but eventually released Dite’s hair.
“Hmph. Tisha, you idiot.”
“…Haah.”
Etisha sighed deeply.
Finally breaking up the fight, she checked on Dite, who had collapsed.
Her face was so swollen it was unrecognizable, her lip bleeding as if she had bitten it. A great deal of her hair was gone—her once shining golden locks now looking like a stiff broom.
“It hurts… Ah, it hurts… ugh.”
Dite stared up at Larienne in fear—then went limp, fainting.
“….”
Etisha was speechless.
She simply bent down and picked up her wedding ring, which had rolled from Dite’s slack hand.
The platinum-and-diamond ring was shockingly unscathed.
Even after being struck with a rock so hard, there wasn’t a single scratch—not even dust. It was as if nothing had happened at all.
Etisha slipped it back onto her left ring finger. The ring shrank to fit perfectly.
“Tisha…”
She slowly turned toward Larienne.
Larienne was smiling at her.
“I missed you so much.”
The face she had once seen off had appeared before her again.
Flaming red hair. A troublemaker’s grin. That arrogant confidence and stubborn daring, as if she owned the world.
“Sis.”
Etisha smiled softly. For some reason, it came naturally.
And before she could even think, the words came out first.
“I didn’t miss you.”
Why was that?
Larienne Heinz—the sister she had once feared so much.
Now that they’d met again, she wasn’t afraid like before.
“So could you go away again now?”
In fact… she almost found her funny.
At the very same moment that the precarious tea party ended and Dite ran from the Snow Castle—
A carriage crossed Wintel Castle’s drawbridge. Inside sat Kailles and Larienne.
They had entered Wintel territory together after meeting in Worptel.
“Hm. So this is Wintel Castle.”
“….”
“I knew the Wintel family had a castle, but seeing it in person is still impressive.”
“….”
“And it’s also impressive how Lord Kailles is as silent as a corpse.”
The former duke hadn’t replied to a single thing Larienne had said since earlier. A man whose thoughts were impossible to read.
Larienne had wanted to get him on her side, but his inscrutable attitude had left her with no choice but to give up.
Ah, whatever. I’ll just see Tisha.
After all, her only reason for coming north was to take Etisha back home.
If she failed, she was even willing to stay in the north with her.
Tisha, I’ve missed you. My sister. My cute little toy.
Thinking of Etisha, Larienne looked out the window. Seeing the feathery clouds in the sky made her think of her.
What’s with those fluffy white clouds? They look just like Tisha’s cheeks.
She yawned and blinked.
The soft flutter of the carriage’s thin curtains was pleasant to the touch.
And these curtains—like Tisha’s timid, hesitant hand movements. So cute and soft.
Soon she was humming to herself—truly a lady whose thoughts could jump anywhere.
Then, suddenly, she spotted two figures running in the distance.
“…!”
They were too far away for any features to be seen, but that didn’t matter to Larienne. She recognized in an instant that the one behind was Etisha.
Who the one in front was didn’t matter.
What mattered was that Etisha—the one she had missed so much—was right there.
