Kasha didn’t respond this time either. Anthony continued speaking as if he didn’t expect an answer.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s clear that it will put our family in more danger. Just look at the situation now. If they find out our family is connected to the death of Marquis, the Crown Prince will immediately try to have us arrested.”

“The Crown Prince?”

When Kasha tilted her head and repeated his words, Anthony changed the subject as if he had said something unnecessary.

“…Moreover, our father’s condition has worsened since you appeared. The relationship between my elder brother and father was not good, but they never clashed like this before.”

There was no room for rebuttal on that point.

Of course, it seemed like Grand Duke Osilote’s condition itself was a mess, separate from Kasha.

“The more you stay by Leon’s side, the more we will all be driven into an increasingly difficult situation. From what I see, it looks like Leon will soon give you his liver or gallbladder, so leave his side before he gets into more danger. If you have any conscience.”

The words spat out with a beautiful face while slowly approaching her. They precisely pointed out the facts Kasha had been turning a blind eye to.

‘But in the end, all of this is to protect Leon and all of you.’

Kasha shook her head.

“I will never, ever harm your family. Today too… I only tried to save Eve. Are you saying I should have let Eve get kidnapped by that man?”

“Even if you hadn’t intervened, Eve would not have been in danger. Do you believe everyone around Eve is a fool just because Leon goes easy on you?”

Anthony’s tone as he spoke contained sharp irritation and displeasure. As if Kasha had truly ruined an important plan.

“Let me be clear. If my brother gets involved in this incident, the Crown Prince will try to bring him down by any means necessary. This time, my brother might really get destroyed. Is that what you want?”

Kasha looked straight at him and affirmed.

“Leon will never be destroyed.”

Anthony, who had been momentarily taken aback by her resolute tone, gave a hollow laugh.

“Seriously… You know what? You’re really good at saying presumptuous things.”

Anthony, who was spouting those words in a kind tone, truly seemed angry.

“What do you think my brother can do if the imperial family tries to destroy him?”

At his tone that sounded as if he really wanted Leon to be destroyed, Kasha couldn’t stand it and abruptly stood up from her seat.

Looking straight up at Anthony, who was a head taller, Kasha spoke clearly.

“You don’t seem to know how strong he is, how upright he is. Even though you’re his younger brother.”

Hmph.

Anthony scoffed as if looking at a puppy, but Kasha didn’t back down.

“And I will never, ever let that happen. I will protect Leon. Without fail.”

As the determination in Kasha’s expression showed it wasn’t mere impulsiveness, the smile gradually disappeared from Anthony’s face.

“You really are… Ha.”

Clicking his tongue as if scoffing, a look of inexplicable bitterness next appeared on his face.

Suddenly, he turned towards the window. The intense morning sunlight coming through the window illuminated his face.

Since the window was half-covered by curtains, half of his face was exposed to the sunlight and shone brightly, while the other half remained engulfed in deep darkness.

He opened his mouth, looking like a character from mythology who had half of his soul forever devoured by the Dark Lord.

“Yes. I know. I know best how strong my brother is. But you know, the person next to such a man, how suffocating it is, how−.”

“Insignificant you feel.”

At Kasha’s voice suddenly interjecting, Anthony raised his head and turned to look at her.

The bright pink eyes staring straight at him. As if seeing through all his inferiority, all his deficiencies. And as if empathizing.

“……”

“I know too. That feeling. All too well. Because at one point, I also… believed I was the most insignificant and had nothing in this world.”

Kasha smiled faintly as if in self-mockery. Slightly upturned delicate lips, gaze half-lowered.

And Anthony, despite frowning, couldn’t easily take his eyes off her face.

“But you know, Anthony. Pitying yourself is no different from advertising to others… that you are a weak person.”

“……”

“Bad people… have an uncanny ability to smell out such weak individuals. And they try to use them. Very cruelly.”

“……”

“Because they know all too well that they won’t even be able to resist anyway.”

“…What are you trying to say?”

Anthony shouted in an irritable but somehow desperate-sounding tone.

“Are you saying I’m a weak person? That I’ll just get used by others? I will never−.”

“I’m saying, don’t pity yourself.”

“……”

“In the eyes of others, you, Anthony, have plenty enough already.”

After saying that, Kasha stood up from her seat. She left the blanket she had been wrapped in on the sofa.

Now that her trembling had subsided, it was time to go do what needed to be done. Of course, her mind had become even more complicated thanks to Anthony stirring it up.

Anthony glared fiercely at Kasha’s movements as she crossed the room to the door.

Just as Kasha reached the door and was about to turn the handle, Anthony spoke up from behind her.

“Ah. Come to think of it, about that village you mentioned earlier. I heard another terrible thing happened.”

His voice carried a strange excitement.

“A child from the village has gone missing. More accurately, kidnapped.”

“…What did you say?”

Kasha slowly turned around. Upon seeing her trembling eyes, that twisted smile hung on Anthony’s lips again. This time, an even more ominous-looking smile.

“I think they said the child was ten years old? Coincidentally the same age as Eve.”

“…!”

“If I remember correctly, they said it was the daughter of a woman who did odd jobs in the village. Someone broke into their house, killed the mother, and took the child. The mother’s corpse was said to be horrific, as if she had resisted.”

Kasha’s composed expression crumbled. And seeing that, Anthony grinned widely as if greatly pleased.

“Anyway, I’d like to express my gratitude for now, Miss Kasha, for saving Eve. Just imagining our Eve almost going through something like that is terrifying.”

One week later.

Kasha’s bedroom on the second floor of the Lyuschino estate.

Kasha, who had been writing something for a long time while sitting at the desk, raised her face.

Her small, pale face was filled with shadows.

A sacrifice that did not occur before the regression.

Although Eve’s life was saved through Kasha’s intervention, an innocent mother and daughter died instead.

‘To kidnap another child immediately after failing to kidnap Eve. And to do it in such a blatantly horrible and brutal way.’

The magic stone Caiylum that sustains immortality.

The owner of the magic stone must offer a sacrifice of a pure soul to a demon once a month to maintain that power.

It was unknown whether the mastermind himself was using that magic stone or if someone connected to the mastermind was using it. Anyway, their cruel selfishness of unhesitatingly taking innocent lives just to maintain their own immortality was spine-chilling.

She tried to put the brakes on that selfishness.

However, Kasha’s plan succeeded, but at the same time, it completely failed.

Because two innocent lives were sacrificed instead of Eve – the child offered as a sacrifice and the brutally murdered mother.

Before leaving Elor, Kasha tried to find the family of the mother and daughter to help them, but she couldn’t even find any close relatives.

In the end, there was nothing Kasha could do other than properly holding a funeral for the abandoned corpse of the child’s mother. The debt in her heart towards them would likely have no way to be repaid from now on.

Not until she finds the one who brutally violated them and makes them pay for their sins.

However, having failed once, he, or they, would become even more thorough and persistent.

‘Abandoning Marquis’s corpse in the village, kidnapping the child, and even killing her mother was probably a warning.’

It was unknown if they had figured out that it was Kasha who stopped Eve’s kidnapping, but anyway, the mastermind had likely issued a warning to the one who interfered with their plan.

A warning that if their work is interfered with any further, more innocent lives will be sacrificed.

‘Those bad guys. Those brutal guys.’

Kasha’s hand clenched tightly, crumpling the paper she had been writing on.

The deaths that did not occur before the regression were not limited to the child and mother.

Marquis was also someone who was alive before the regression. Although his death could be seen as karmic retribution, that death should have come only after his crimes were clearly revealed.

Seeing that the Marquis’s death and the deaths of the mother and daughter in the village occurred simultaneously, the Marquis was likely not the owner of Caiylum. If he had been, he would not have died.

Moreover, no matter how much of a sinner he was, the weight of life is heavy.

Now, the weight of three lives had been placed on Kasha’s shoulders.

‘What should I do now?’

A week had passed since the day of the kidnapping incident, and Kasha was still agonizing over it.

She did her best to avoid living a life of being falsely accused as a villainess and sacrificed innocently.

However, faced with the lives of the three people who were sacrificed contrary to her intentions, she couldn’t help but question herself.

Were the things I did truly for the best?

Was I not complacent?

Then, how should I plan for the future?

‘And Leon. What should I do about him?’

Just then, there was a sound of someone carefully knocking on the door.

“Young lady. Lord Leon has left.”

At Senna’s voice coming from behind, Kasha nodded her head without turning around.

“Good work.”

Although she said that because she didn’t want to show her face, Senna approached, pretending not to know, and changed the subject.

“Are you studying magic tools again? The young lord said not to let the young lady sit at the desk for more than four hours a day.”

“My elder brother, he’s so peculiar.”

As Kasha smiled weakly and lowered her head, Senna looked at her for a moment before picking up a comb and started brushing her hair. Recently, Kasha often wore her hair up due to the late summer heat.

Senna chatted brightly as if it was nothing.

“It’s not the young lord who is peculiar, but the young lady. I really don’t understand. You prefer studying magic tools over wearing pretty dresses and going to balls.”

“…Because that’s what I’m better at.”

Kasha’s voice as she mumbled thinly lacked energy.

Noticing this, Senna secretly let out a worried sigh.

The young lady had been like this, lacking energy, ever since returning from Elor.

She was originally a quiet person, but recently, she always seemed to be immersed in some unknown worry.

She frequently stared into space, lost in thought, even during meals.

When asked out of concern, she always gave incomprehensible answers.

‘I’m in the middle of… finding an answer.’