"You. Go. You're annoying."
"What... Ugh!"
As Raymund said, looking bored, the girl immediately flared up and tried to attack again. But as her body, suspended in mid-air, was quickly pushed away as if sliding on ice, she instinctively thrashed.
However, her floating body was pushed steadily without shaking and was soon chased out of Raymund’s palace.
Not only that, but she didn’t stop until she reached the annex where the girl resided.
“Hmph.”
Although her body was released without warning, the girl landed softly on the ground like a feather. The girl grumbled, looking at the Fourth Prince’s palace far away.
"Count Estarotte... What's that?"
The girl tilted her head. It was a family she had never heard of.
No, to be exact, she knew the name itself, but she didn’t know them well. They were a family that had no reason to be involved with the ability user.
They possessed both military might and business acumen, but most noble families who made it to the capital were like that. Without wealth and power, you couldn't survive in the capital.
The girl, Aries’s family, was the same.
“…Tsk.”
Aries’s mood soured a little as her thoughts turned to her family.
Because she, and indeed all the ability user, hated their families. The hatred for passing down the curse of being an ability user.
Yet at the same time, she loved them. The family members who had loved her in the past.
To be precise, her hatred outweighed her love. After all, her affection had been abruptly stolen from her.
Of course, she understood. Aries herself had been bewildered by the sudden changes around her, but she realized her family must have been equally confused.
However, she was too young to consider such things. Burdened by her own struggles, she hadn't yet matured enough to embrace others' problems.
So Aries ran away from her family. Her name was still on the family register, and her status was still Lady Esteban, but it had been several years since she had seen her family.
Sometimes, perhaps out of a sense of responsibility, her parents would come to the imperial palace to see her, but whenever she saw the fear in their eyes when they looked at their daughter who had turned into a monster, she would invariably get angry.
‘Why did I become like this?’
Wasn't it all because of being 'birthmarked'? Aries felt revulsion every time she saw them squeezing affection out of themselves despite their terror. Had she not fled to the Imperial Palace and instead witnessed this daily within her family, she might have gone mad. She might have even killed her own family members with her own hands.
Aries hated her siblings more than her parents. They'd been lucky enough to escape the curse because of her... She knew it was irrational hatred, but she couldn't help it.
Biting her lip, Aries shook her head as if shaking off the past. With a slightly calmer mind, she tried again to deduce the connection between the Count Estarotte family and Raymund.
However, since I knew nothing about the Count's family, nothing came to mind.
"There were several people listed in the documents, but..."
I'd only skimmed through them, so I couldn't remember the details. But I was certain they were all members of the Count Estarotte family. Their occupations and ages varied widely. The only commonality might have been that they were all male.
‘I didn’t see the whole thing to the end, so I can’t be sure about that either.’
Still, one fact was certain: they were connected to the Estarotte County.
“…Why on earth is Raymund interested in the Count’s family?”
Only an ability user were not afraid of other ability user. Even parents who had given birth to and raised a child would naturally become afraid if the child became an ability user…
I couldn't think of any reason why someone from a family that couldn't produce the ability user would be involved with an ability user
For a moment, I wondered if there could be ordinary people who weren't afraid of an ability user... but...
No way.
Aries laughed at the thought that had suddenly popped up. Such a dream-like scenario couldn't possibly exist. If such a person existed, they'd have to be a fraud.
“…Are you still dreaming after being hurt like that?”
Aries mumbled, looking at the Fourth Prince’s palace with melancholic eyes.
Aries and Raymund. Both were born into families of the ability user and became an ability user due to unfortunate coincidences.
Therefore, Aries understood Raymund’s sense of loss. The hatred towards the world that stemmed from it, and yet the affection that held the reins, preventing him from ruining everything.
If there was one person in the world who understood her, Aries thought it was Raymund. And it was the same for Raymund.
“Whether you were deceived or blinded yourself, whatever it is, there is only one thing I, your only understanding person, must do.”
To wake him from his fantasy, to pull him back down into the mire of reality.
It was cruel, but Aries thought it was the most necessary situation for Raymund.
If you fly high, you get badly hurt when you fall. So, he had to be made to fall while he was still flying low. That was the job of his only understanding person.
***
<Best> [Bias #52: Kim Bit Yohan]
But seriously, does this crazy chick like the female lead or the male lead?
└[Please Help the Evil Beggar ㅠ]
Maybe… neither??
└ [Bias #52: Kim Bit Yohan]
Isn’t that too un-PC? LOL
(t/n : un-PC = not politically correct)
└ [Huffy's House Is the Most Perfect House]
Regret! Anguish! Obsession! Wooohoo!
└[Please Help the Evil Beggar ㅠ]
ㅋㅋㅋ but really, don’t you think so too? Like, her body follows the male lead, but her heart follows the female lead. ㅋㅋㅋ
Saying she’ll keep her away from the male lead, and going all “You’re my caged bird, baby” (this never actually happened) ㅋㅋㅋ
└ [Bias #52: Kim Bit Yohan]
What kind of filter do you have in your eyes to see something like that by yourself ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
I quickly gestured with my hand to lower the window that had popped up in front of my eyes. If I were alone at home, I would have read it slowly, but it had popped up just as I was outside, so I didn’t have time to check it properly.
‘It also blocks a large part of my view, interfering with my sight…’
So, I quickly lowered it and skimmed it, but there wasn’t much content. There wasn't much substance anyway. The text was about a woman who seemed to be the Male Lead's potential fiancée trying to separate two people, but the writing was so ambiguous that it left me wondering whether she was truly trying to separate them or just using it as an excuse to steal them away.
The story ended without ever resolving whether the woman's true target was the Female Lead or the Male Lead.
So what's the point of this?
Why would they suddenly show me this now? It had been ages since I last heard the gods' words, but this made absolutely no sense to me.
"Um, is something wrong?"
"...Hm?"
“You were waving your arm…”
I thought I had closed it quickly and subtly, but the person across from me seemed to have seen it. I was flustered but casually lied that there was a bug, and the other person, without much suspicion, comforted me with a look of disgust towards bugs.
‘Sigh.’
I had a moment to breathe, but… honestly, this place was a torment for me.
As I said, this was outside, a place for gatherings between noble families. We had taken seats in a place away from where the adults were gathered and talking, and the children were talking and playing amongst themselves.
I used to come here a lot when I was little…
‘After getting engaged to Pedro, I had no choice but to stop coming.’
Damn it… Is it all coming back to Pedro again?
I had brought him after saying I would introduce him to my friends, but he had acted like he was the best thing ever, so that’s how it had to turn out.
I had been a little excited before coming here. Now that Pedro wasn’t here, could I make close friends at this gathering? That was the kind of expectation I had.
‘They must have also been sick of seeing me because of Pedro, yet they somehow understood me and even suggested I just leave Pedro and come to them…’
I thought there would be no problem in becoming friends, but.
"Me. This time. I read in a book that when you go to the fairy kingdom, you have to do everything opposite. If something's good, say it's bad. If you're sleepy, pretend you're not... Otherwise, you'll get tricked by those playful fairies and end up getting hurt!"
"I know! You're talking about the fairy research book by Mistkit, right? I'm so jealous he got to live in the fairy kingdom for three years. I want to go on adventures like Mistkit too!"
"Me too! But did you know? The book doesn't properly mark the location of the fairy kingdom to prepare for others falling into it. In fact..."
Ah... This is dizzying.
Most of the conversations went like this.
Dreamlike and fairy-tale-like stories, like seeing a unicorn in a book and wanting it so much that she pestered her father until he bought her a white foal. When she wasn’t satisfied with that and cried, her father told her she needed to get used to horses to ride a unicorn well, so she was practicing horseback riding for three hours a day, etc…
It was all childish, soft, and fluffy conversations.
The young ladies were kind and gentle, but the conversations were too childish for my adult sensibilities, making me feel more like an aunt playing with her nieces rather than a friend meeting.
‘I didn’t know…’
It was my third life, but my time with them was really short, and since it was a long time ago, my memories were hazy. Only the apologies due to Pedro’s nuisance and the good impression I had of them remained in my mind.
I just wanted to make friends, but I didn’t have the confidence to jump into those conversations. Moreover.
‘That woman was caught as a swindler three years later…’
Surprisingly, it wasn't just the children who believed in the Land of Fairies. A few naive adults had gone to the author of the book, saying they wanted to trade with the Land of Fairies, and bought a map of the Land of Fairies.
The author, of course, resisted, saying he could never betray his friendship with the fairies, but when a large sum of money exchanged hands that he couldn't resist, he eventually gave in.
The people who bought the map then tried to find the Land of Fairies, but since it was a scam, they couldn’t find it…
‘The matter escalated because he started infinitely replicating and selling the map to recoup his losses.’
It wasn't just one or two people who were scammed, but hundreds, so the matter had to escalate. Of course, among them, there were some who bought the map more as readers of the Study of Fairies than because they truly believed.
In the end, the author who was caught was even sentenced to death for disturbing society…
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