Chapter 14……………………………….
Something felt very strange.
Adonis was Rian’s junior, and at the same time, an academy alumna alongside Barak.
Since they had been in different departments, they hadn’t had many chances to clash. Still, compared to most people, they saw each other fairly often—because Adonis had been Rian’s direct junior.
Even so, their relationship could only be described as distant, perhaps even bad. The reason was April Hill Rise.
Adonis and April did not get along particularly well, and it was only natural that Barak kept his distance from her.
“Barak’s leave ends today as well.”
She wondered if he knew how much the people in the Imperial Alchemy Department were looking forward to his return.
Just what had gotten into him? Adonis took a sip of water and narrowed her eyes slightly.
“I suppose people really can change.”
“What do you mean?”
Rian’s confusion at her words struck her as very strange.
If even Adonis, an outsider, could sense it, then Rian, as family, should have noticed it easily.
Adonis’s green eyes seemed to ask, Are you really asking because you don’t know? Rian flinched.
“I’m talking about Barak. Back in our academy days, wasn’t he rather distant with Lady April?”
“Distant” was putting it kindly—he had treated her worse than a stranger.
If anything, it had looked as though Barak Hill Rise disliked Lady April.
And Lady April had been restless and uneasy around him.
At Adonis’s remark, Rian shut his mouth tightly, like someone who had swallowed honey and gone mute.
Back then… it hadn’t been April. It had been Irina.
“But at some point, he started fawning over her. I thought he had finally matured.”
She didn’t know what had caused the shift between the two, but at some point, Barak Hill Rise had begun to dote on April Hill Rise.
And it was from that very time that the relationship between Adonis and Barak had begun to grow distant.
She wasn’t unaware of why Lady April disliked her.
After all, Adonis Beatrice was the only woman—aside from April Hill Rise—who stood beside the Crown Prince.
It was such an obvious reason that she merely shook her head lightly.
“Anyway.”
Since Rian remained silent and only listened, Adonis rose from her seat.
“People in the Alchemy Department are looking forward to Barak’s return.”
“Looking forward to what?”
“Now that the young lady has finally returned to the capital, they’re hoping his temper—”
As someone who had attended the academy with him, Adonis knew Barak’s temperament all too well and replied with clear exasperation.
“They’re hoping it might improve.”
“Ha.”
Rian gave an awkward laugh.
Rather than improving, it would only grow worse.
Because the one in the estate now was not April, but Irina.
It was easy to foresee the utter collapse of the Alchemy Department’s expectations.
“Anyway, I’m glad the young lady returned safely.”
Adonis stood and smiled brightly.
Everyone had offered their congratulations, but Rian found it impossible to accept them so easily.
‘Even if you try to become the real daughter, you never will. In the end, you were only my substitute.’
At April’s bright smile—like that of someone claiming victory—I swallowed dryly.
Seeing me stiffen, April let out a small scoff and went into her room.
I wanted to grab her and argue that it wasn’t true—but I couldn’t.
Because I had been thinking the same thing.
With April’s return to the ducal house, my position had completely changed.
As I stood alone in the long corridor with my head bowed, I felt a raindrop fall onto my shoulder and looked up.
The hallway had changed. I was now standing right in front of the ducal estate’s gates.
Sir Cliff, the knight commander, was forcing me down to my knees. The duke looked down at me coldly, and my lips trembled.
‘Throw her out.’
‘F-Father. Why—why are you doing this?’
I tried to crawl toward him on my knees, but the knights of the ducal house blocked and restrained me.
‘Sir Cliff, please let me go. Father…! Why are you doing this?! You said you considered me your daughter!’
‘You are no longer the duke’s daughter, and you will no longer use the surname Rise.’
I cried out desperately, “Mother!” as the duchess turned away, but no one looked back at me.
Not the servants, not even my two older brothers—their gazes were cold and distant.
‘Brother Rian, brother! Please listen to me!’
Rian, whom I had once hoped to be my true brother, turned his head sharply as if he hadn’t seen me.
As I sobbed too hard to even move, someone roughly grabbed my arm and yanked me up.
‘Brother.’
Those fierce sunset-colored eyes looked as though they would kill me.
As he stared at me silently, something flashed at the tip of his fingers and struck the ground beside my hand with a sharp crack!
It didn’t take long to realize it was magic—and that Barak had used magic on me.
A deep gouge marred the neatly kept ground.
If it had touched my body, part of me would have been severed.
‘If I think that hand pushed April, even cutting off your wrist wouldn’t satisfy me.’
‘No, I never did that.’
‘I’m sparing you only because of the time we shared. Don’t ever appear before me again. Next time, I won’t let you off.’
He didn’t help me stand—he dragged me out and threw me beyond the estate gates.
‘Get lost.’
His blade-like gaze pierced me, and the massive gates of the estate slammed shut with a loud bang!
“Irina!”
I gasped sharply and opened my eyes.
Before me stood none other than Rian.
Those blue eyes, which had once ignored my desperate cries of misunderstanding, were now filled with worry.
“Are you alright? Did you have a nightmare?”
Right. It was a dream. A dream of that moment three years ago, when they abandoned me.
As I sat up, Rian gently wiped the sweat from my forehead—so unlike the gaze he had given me three years ago.
I slapped away the hand reaching toward me. He flinched.
“Why are you in my room?”
“Well… I came to wake you. It looked like you were having a nightmare.”
He spoke cautiously, and I frowned.
“You should at least eat dinner.”
Dinner?
I frowned slightly, then turned my gaze toward the window.
“Don’t enter my room without permission. Leave.”
The very fact that he had touched me under the excuse of concern was deeply unpleasant.
I couldn’t believe that simply seeing April had made me dream of three years ago so vividly.
Rian, who had been watching my reaction carefully, said nothing more and quietly left the room.
“We buried Daniel next to Bernice.”
“Daniel would have… liked that.”
My biological father had been killed by the ducal house. Remembering how I once cried because they had abandoned me made me want to curse myself.
If I had known earlier that my father had died at the hands of the ducal family, I would have left this place immediately.
“My lady, are you awake?”
With a light knock, my personal maid quietly entered.
“I’ve brought water for you to wash.”
“Your name was Amber, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, my lady.”
I rose unsteadily from the bed.
“When did I ever say Rian could enter my room?”
“Ah… w-well, the young master said he had come personally to escort you…”
I stared silently at Amber as she lowered her head, gauging my mood.
Yes. It would have been difficult to stop the duke’s son when he personally insisted on entering his sister’s room.
And in an ordinary sibling relationship, there would have been nothing strange about it.
“From now on, do not allow any sons of the ducal house into my room.”
“…Pardon?”
“I mean it. Make sure neither Rian nor Barak ever enter my room.”
Amber nodded faintly.
“Yes, my lady.”
As long as she served me in this house, I had to be her priority.
The ducal house had been quiet all day, which likely meant Barak had not yet returned.
If he had come back, he would surely have caused an uproar—acting as though he would kill me at any moment.
After washing lightly and changing clothes, I stepped out—and locked eyes with Rian, who stood waiting by the door.
“I’m sorry for entering without permission. You seemed to be having such a terrible nightmare that I was worried.”
“If you knew what kind of nightmare I was having, you wouldn’t have entered so easily.”
Because the ones who starred in my nightmares—
were you.
