“Not our Illina! I sent a letter to Young Master Lorirolls.”

Soon, Anne started speaking in a scream-mixed voice, her face grimacing.

“Your Majesty the Empress! I starved, beat, and abused Lorencia. I sent a letter to Young Master Lorirolls instructing him to humiliate Lorencia. I did it all. I did! I did it. It’s absolutely not our Illina.”

Anne, who spilled all her sins while screaming, soon began wailing. Looking down at Anne screaming for Illina, Lorencia’s eyes filled with anger to the brim. Underneath the anger that had risen to the top, sorrow surged up. The hatred that had been suppressed under the painful and sorrowful agony began to burst out.

“I had no idea you were a person with such deep maternal love.”

Lorencia gritted her teeth and continued. Anne, who showed maternal love, looked disgusting to her.

“Covering up for the sins committed by your child can never be called maternal love. Lady Anne.”

“What do you know, born between your filthy mother’s legs!”

Anne raised her voice and instantly shut her mouth. Her lower jaw trembled. She began to look at Lorencia with a face that didn’t know what to do.

“Lorencia. I was wrong all this time. I’m sorry. I’m a bad person. It’s all my fault.”

“You’re apologizing to me now? To a filthy bastard?”

“Yes. So please, just don’t touch our Illina. I bow my head and beg you.”

“Are you telling me to forget what happened because you’ll apologize?”

“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”

Her apology was a very cruel thing to Lorencia. Her breath caught in her throat.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”

“Even if I forget what happened to me, people will remember the evil deeds you’ve done, Lady Anne.”

In the end, Anne, who burst into tears, gritted her teeth and bowed her head deeply. Between her panting breaths, her pitiful crying could be felt. But Lorencia didn’t particularly feel sympathetic. Because she knew that the reason Anne was apologizing to her was a forced apology out of fear that something bad would happen to Illina.

It wasn’t a sincere apology to her.

“The person who will be rumored to be a worse villainess than Lady Anne will be Illina from now on.”

Anne, who wretchedly distorted her eyes, stared at Lorencia. Lorencia looked down at her with an utterly unreadable expression.

“Please, not Illina. I’ll apologize like this, Lorencia. Please, you two are still half-sisters. I told her to send the letter. Illina only did as she was told.”

“You don’t believe I’d consider Illina, who abused me, as a sister, do you?”

“I’m sorry. I was really wrong. I apologized by bowing my head like this… There’s no need to kill a blood-related sister, is there?”

Anne spoke with trembling lips. She could readily accept even death. She could also readily accept kneeling shamefully in front of Lorencia.

“Lorencia, you are Illina’s half-sister. Will you abandon your blood ties?”

Lorencia wanted to tell Anne the secret of her birth right away. She just wanted to curse the filthy Brant who took her father Cain’s life hostage and made her mother Musilla his concubine. But the truth must not be revealed now. Because it would distort the future.

Anne’s future is being assassinated at a convent and then disguised as suicide. If it is revealed that they are not half-sisters, Anne could use that as an excuse to save her life, and things would get complicated.

“I plan to abandon the Pol Heredian family in the future.”

“What? Are you thinking of becoming a commoner?”

“Wouldn’t the life of a commoner be better than a bastard trapped in the count’s castle?”

Anne couldn’t continue because she had thoroughly abused Lorencia. Her mind went blank. She had nothing to say.

“Let me correct myself. I’m going to destroy Count Pol Heredian.”

“With what means, you bastard!”

Lorencia slightly frowned.

“Because I’m a monster.”

“What…”

“Being called a monster, I really became one. So look forward to it from now on.”

Lorencia said, looking at herself reflected in Anne’s eyes.

“To all the things that will be shattered by the monster’s hand.”

Lorencia gave Anne the final blow with a twisted smile. She straightened her bent waist and turned her back. Anne’s scream was heard behind her back, but the knights covered her mouth.

“Lady Anne committed suicide…”

Charlotte took a sip from her teacup. Lady Anne, who was sent to a convent on a remote island, ended her own life in less than a week.

“But I think the circumstances of her suicide are too suspicious…”

Adrian, who investigated her suicide, found traces of homicide. Even if a person is thinking about suicide, there should be traces of ‘hesitation’ right before dying because of the fear of death, but there were no traces of hesitation about suicide at all for Anne. It was clean.

“I feel the same way, Princess Charlotte.”

“Then, it seems like the right time to reveal that letter now, what does Young Lady Lorencia think?”

Lorencia smiled brightly.

“Please reveal it after I meet Illina.”

“Are you thinking of meeting Young Lady Illina, Young Lady Lorencia?”

“Yes. Princess Charlotte.”

“I don’t think Duke Teishar will allow it…”

Charlotte shook her head, thinking of Teishar who was obsessed with Lorencia in a sick way.

“It’s okay. If I speak well to Duke Spencer, he will listen. Duke Spencer said he would do anything I want.”

Lorencia nodded her head, thinking of Teishar who would do anything.

“Young Lady Illina recklessly laid hands on Young Lady Lorencia before and hurt her, and Duke Teishar knows it well, so will he let them meet alone?”

Lorencia awkwardly raised the corners of her mouth. And as expected, Teishar vehemently opposed Lorencia’s words that she would meet and talk with Illina.

“Absolutely not.”

Teishar received reports from the Red Moon, the Shadow’s Treasure. Starting with the report that Illina cried all day after Anne’s death, she muttered to herself, ‘Lorencia. Filthy monster.’ or ‘Filthy bastard.’, destroying all the objects in the room or scolding and harassing the servants for no reason.

If Lorencia had remained at the count’s castle, it was clear that all that abuse would have been Lorencia’s lot. Teishar couldn’t stand that fact alone.

So there was no way he could let Illina and Lorencia meet.

Seeing Teishar firmly opposing meeting Illina, Lorencia slightly frowned and relaxed.

“I know you’re worried about me.”

“I think I’d be too angry if Young Lady Lorencia gets slapped like last time. I don’t think I could stand it.”

Teishar sighed. Illina kept sending letters saying she wanted to see Lorencia, but he refused because of the slapping incident. Lorencia also clearly told him that she didn’t want to meet Illina either.

But when she said she would meet Illina because of the letter revelation, Teishar was frustrated.

“I have to meet her at least once anyway.”

“Young Lady Illina is dangerous.”

Teishar spoke with a sigh and sat closer to Lorencia, appealing his anxiety. It was unthinkable to let the cruel and violent Illina and Lorencia be in the same space alone.

“Duke Spencer. I’m more dangerous than Illina now.”

Teishar tilted his head. There’s no way the child of Goddess Ella could be dangerous.

“Young Lady Lorencia is absolutely not a dangerous person.”

Teishar took out a small, thin comb from his pocket and combed Lorencia’s messy bangs, slightly raising the corners of his mouth.

“A very special and extremely noble being.”

Teishar said, gazing intently at Lorencia.

At his words, Lorencia felt a tickling feeling in her chest for some reason. To desperately settle the tickle, she took the cocoa cup Teishar brought and downed it in one gulp. It was slightly hot, but not a problem to drink.

“Isn’t it hot? There’s a bit of cocoa on the corner of your mouth.”

Teishar put the comb back in his pocket, then took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the corner of Lorencia’s mouth. At his touch, Lorencia’s heart began to pound loudly.

It felt like a warm spring breeze was blowing into her heart, but when his hand just barely touched the corner of her mouth, she felt a strange feeling. It was a different feeling from the comfort of patting her head.

The clear thing was that she didn’t dislike it whenever Teishar touched her.

“Young Lady Lorencia.”

“Yes. Duke Spencer.”

“Do you have to meet Young Lady Illina?”

Lorencia nodded at his question.

“I guess it can’t be helped.”

“It can’t be helped.”

“Then, I’d like to be by Young Lady Lorencia’s side when you meet Young Lady Illina.”

‘It would be better to leave this place.’

Aden, the chief butler who had worked for a long time at the Pol Heredian family, came to that conclusion in the unsettled atmosphere of the count’s castle.

Brant’s thriving business became difficult. Fortunately, it was only being maintained with the help of Duke Graykan. Countess Anne was exiled to a convent and recently ended her own life.

Upon hearing the news, Illina showed a look as if she had lost her mind. To the point where Aden thought it would be better if she tormented the servants like before.

Julie, the former head maid of the Pol Heredian family whom Illina relied on the most. For the sake of the struggling Illina, Aden went to find Julie.

Honestly, it was still strange that she suddenly quit. And meeting Julie made the strangeness feel odd.