“Isn’t this too much?”

“Ha, me?”

“We were family. Both me and them. How can you be so cold-hearted when family members are falling apart?”

Ah, it wasn’t just tears hanging there. In Berita’s glistening eyes, there was a desperate resentment. Gulp, gulp. Swallowing the sound of unjust crying down her throat.

Eventually, as it reached the level of sobbing, sympathetic sighs towards her could be heard from around.

Lilien opened her mouth wide. As if she was the more wronged one, beating her chest.

“Who’s really being too much to say such things-.”

“Lilien.”

I stretched out my arm to stop Lilien. Then I shook my head, signaling her not to step forward.

Lilien looked up at me with questioning eyes. I just smiled at her who was asking for a reason, and glanced around with the corner of my eye.

The attention of people passing by the terrace and the staff was focused. There were no familiar faces, but judging by their appearance, there seemed to be some minor nobles mixed in. The gazes based on curiosity showed sympathy for Berita, who was kneeling pitifully and crying.

‘See, she knows very well how to gain sympathy with animal instinct’

If Lilien stepped forward here and someone recognized her, she could be branded as an arrogant noble making a commoner kneel, and rumors could spread.

People gossip about the visible good and evil of the scene they witnessed. In other words, if the rumor is interesting, facts don’t matter.

I stood still, looking at Berita with coldly fixed eyes. It was a strange experience.

Unlike my chest burning like fire, my head was cooling down calmly.

Berita noticed the subtle atmosphere in the silence and raised her chin. Then she flinched when she met my emotionless eyes.

“Sister…?”

“Berita, are you slandering me as a traitor who betrayed my family?”

I deliberately exaggerated Berita’s words. Her azalea-colored pupils became blurred in bewilderment.

“Ah, no. That can’t be. I’ve always called you family, but you’re being too cold-.”

“If you really thought of me as family, you wouldn’t have slept with my husband.”

Huk, not long after the sigh burst out, the sound of people holding their breath was heard around.

I raised my voice as if for them to hear.

“You, the daughter of a thief, stabbed me in the back after I cherished you like a sister.”

It was still horrifying to recall. A situation that wouldn’t even be dealt with in a third-rate rural play, where after cherishing an adopted sister and giving everything, even the husband was given away.

The spectators began to add their own imaginations and start stories. Then one by one, people began to recognize me through the portraits that had been published in the Imperial newspaper.

‘You seem very excited.’

Honestly, I despised those who took others’ wounds as entertainment.

Perhaps even more than Berita in front of me right now. But there was no surer and faster way to overturn the situation than this.

Berita tried to get up, but hearing the clicking tongues and contemptuous gossip from the terrace, she turned her body in the opposite direction.

“Why? Are you ashamed? I told you I’d make everyone who knows you point fingers calling you the daughter of a thief if you use your acquaintance with me. You shouldn’t have dared to touch Lady Lilien too.”

At that moment, Berita’s eyes, fixed on the marble, widened in shock.

She slightly opened her mouth with a blank face, as if realizing something she didn’t know.

“…Did you disgrace me to protect Lady Lilien?”

“How unusually perceptive of you.”

“B-but sister is…”

Berita bit her lip with resentful eyes. She opened her mouth a little later.

“…Sister is my sister.”

“What?”

“Sister… Sister is my sister. Why for that person…”

I was momentarily dumbfounded by the statement as if she had suffered a great betrayal. Berita glared at Lilien standing next to me with sharp eyes now and then. As if she had taken something that was hers.

Ha, it was ridiculous. Both her jealousy and thinking that we could still return to being adopted sisters.

“Now I see, Berita, you don’t listen to my words at all? Do you still think you can be forgiven if you kneel and apologize?”

As if her blind spot had been hit, Berita had no answer. She just clenched her fists so tightly that her two hands on the marble turned white.

Come to think of it, both when we met at the dress shop and now, she’s really unchanged…

“You’re arrogant and rude, Berita.”

Berita raised her dumbfounded face.

For her, the word ‘arrogant’ had always been contradictory throughout her life.

“Wh-what did I do, I’m begging for forgiveness now-”

“You’re speaking as if I’m heartless for not accepting your apology.”

A small tear that had formed under Berita’s eye fell.

“Th-this is for your sake too. Living while hating others is a painful thing, isn’t it?”

“Why do you think it would be painful? Do I look in pain to you now?”

Berita seemed to have lost her words, opening and closing her mouth.

I very slowly twisted one corner of my mouth upwards.

“Is it a virtue to show leniency? Is it humility to understand faults? Do you live in pain that cuts to the bone and flesh if you hate others? Those are all ethics that originate from the perpetrator.”

“…”

“How long do I have to tell you.”

Then Berita’s tender gaze flashed sharply for a moment.

“Sister too… You’re not such an upright person either. You deceived Devon for divorce, and it was you who made him get dragged away for tax evasion-”

“Yes, that’s right. Everyone makes mistakes. I’m not a purely clean human either. But Berita.”

I leaned forward languidly. Brushing my falling hair behind my ear, I whispered to Berita.

“I’ve already told you several times that I can’t forgive you.”

“…”

“I won’t forgive you for life. Including you, Devon, and Lady Dien.”

I snorted and straightened up. I looked down at Berita with coldly sharpened eyes.

“So don’t try to settle your faults with just one apology.”

Because it’s disgusting. Finally, I clicked my tongue and turned around with Lilien ostentatiously.

Just as we were passing through the cafe terrace, Berita, who had been hanging her head, slowly raised it.

“Are you… not going to visit Devon either?”

I stopped and turned to look at Berita. She was looking at me pitifully with tears welling up at the tip of her nose, having flowed down the front of her eyes.

‘Visit?’

Haha, I laughed dryly and said in a coldly chilled voice.

“You do the prison visits alone. If I ever meet Devon again, it will be at his funeral. Then I’ll go first, riding a flower palanquin and popping champagne, so don’t worry about it.”

“…”

Soon after, Berita dropped her head with a thud. Then she strongly gripped her hands on the marble.

She no longer shed tears or pleaded in self-pity. She seemed to want to become a stone statue right there.

I snorted and led Lilien, who was glaring at Berita as if to split her in half.

“Let’s go now.”

As I was leaving, I looked back at the cafe due to an uneasy feeling. Even then, Berita was still sitting blankly in one place. Until the cafe became a dot and disappeared from sight.

It was only after a long time that Berita came to her senses. The situation that had just occurred seemed like a dream. She had never imagined in her life that Etricia would abandon her to protect someone else.

Even though Etricia had been cold to her several times before, she had rationalized it as a punishment deep down. That if she was forgiven, everything would return.

Because in Berita’s memory, Etricia was always generous.

That’s why she came to find Lilien. Hoping that if she heard about her current pitiful situation, she might show mercy. She even harbored hope that maybe she could appease her anger and return to how things were before. But today, even that shallow hope had disappeared.

‘Sister…’

Did she abandon me? Really?

The image of her standing proudly next to Etricia, looking down at her, was still vivid in her mind. That place was, should have been, her place. It had to be her place.

Berita felt dizzy for a moment. It felt like the world was collapsing and the ground was disappearing. She blankly wiped away her tears and got up.

“Ah.”

She suddenly stumbled forward as her legs went numb. Supporting her body with both arms, there was no one to help her up as she fell.

It was utterly miserable.

Berita’s eyes welled up with tears. Plop, plop, tears fell through the gaps between her fingers. Because her situation was pitiful and heartbreaking.

She needed comfort. From anyone…

Berita’s eyes widened at the person who suddenly came to mind.

“Lunox…”

Last time, Lunox had requested a meeting with Lady Dien, but Berita had been avoiding it with various excuses.

The last time she saw Lunox, he was quite different from the kind and glib appearance she had seen so far. For some reason, his smile with a face she had never seen before was chillingly creepy. To the point where it felt suffocating.

Lunox might not have had any particular thoughts. It might have been her own conjecture. But Berita thought that if she let him meet Antra, who gritted her teeth at the mere mention of Etricia’s name, some disaster might occur.

That’s why she had prevented the two from meeting until now…

Remembering Etricia’s contemptuous gaze, Berita’s chest ached.

“I don’t know either… Sister brought this upon herself.”

She staggered out of the cafe and headed towards Lunox desolately.

She needed comfort. It didn’t matter from whom. It didn’t matter what happened. Now, nothing mattered anymore.