Chapter 66. You From the Beginning

2023.12.05.

The one who ordered the poisoning was the first prince, Bollonico Euphris.

The horrifying truth pierced Yuan Pelliese’s heart and firmly lodged itself deep inside.

Yuan tightly covered her mouth with both hands to suppress the ragged sound of her breathing.

At the same time, Bollonico’s eyes sharply gleamed.

“There seems to be someone nearby. Are you sure no one’s here?”

“Everyone is coming back after being searched at the party hall.”

“What if some little rat overheard us?”

As Bollonico spoke irritably, Marquis Companni deliberately kicked at the closets and consoles around Yuan.

He even opened a few of the doors, laughing broadly.

“There’s no one.”

“What about that closet?”

Yuan quickly averted her gaze upon meeting Bollonico’s intensely suspicious, icy blue eyes through the crack of the door.

The closet her uncle had dragged her into was in a place completely devoid of light, so even if Bollonico had met her dark eyes, there was no guarantee he’d actually seen her.

Yuan clutched her wildly pounding heart in rhythm with Marquis Companni’s heavy footsteps approaching.

“Please. Please…….”

-Thud!

Though the kick against the closet wasn’t overly forceful, it felt to Yuan as if her own heart had been kicked.

“It’s locked. No one could’ve entered and locked it from the outside.”

“Always be cautious, Marquis Companni. You’re never thorough. You need to drop that terrible habit of doing things carelessly.”

“I’ll stab it with a sword. If someone’s inside, blood will pour out from beneath.”

“How barbaric.”

Bollonico said this, yet couldn’t hide the amusement in his voice.

Horrible conversations continued, about how since several people would soon die anyway, no one would notice if someone else was quietly added to the pile.

Yuan held her breath and listened to Marquis Companni pull a decorative sword off the wall.

-Crack!

A blunt blade sliced through the wood, narrowly missing Yuan’s head before embedding itself into the wall.

Had a man been standing there, the sword would’ve pierced straight through his heart. The cold chill of metal froze Yuan completely in place.

When the cruel, blunt sword was pulled back out, light seeped in through the newly made hole in the closet.

Marquis Companni, aiming slightly below that spot, firmly readied his sword and let out a sharp shout.

“Haaah—!”

“Your Highness! Your Highness!!”

Just then, an urgent voice cut through the shout, splitting the silence of the VIP lounge.

“The Emperor has beheaded two of our men.”

“Tsk.”

With the sound of Bollonico clicking his tongue, multiple footsteps hurried away from the lounge.

Count Pelliese, who had been hiding outside like a mouse, swiftly slipped in, locked the door, and unlocked the closet’s padlock.

As the damaged closet door opened, Yuan tumbled forward.

Her entire body drenched in cold sweat, her face deathly pale, her uncle was startled for a brief moment—until blood began trickling from between her tightly pressed fingers.

“Yuan!”

Gurgle. Gak—.

A clot of blood she had been holding back spilled out with her breath, landing on her own hands and onto her uncle’s palm, who hastily pulled out a handkerchief.

“You’re deteriorating much faster than your sister.”

The uncle ground his teeth as he recalled Louise, who used to vomit blood from even slight stress.

While Yuan wiped the blood, she glared at her uncle.

The Count, seemingly finding her gaze absurd, scoffed.

“I’m worried about you right now. There’s no one who wants to keep you alive more than I do. And you look at me like that? If you can’t trust me, then I have no choice but to keep certain things from you—things you’re better off not knowing!”

The uncle spoke as if he’d already shown her great leniency.

His eyes flashed as he stared down at his niece, who, utterly exhausted, leaned weakly against the closet, still glaring.

“Do you even know what’s happening outside? The Emperor is arbitrarily arresting innocent people and cutting off their heads.”

Yuan clutched her stomach, queasy.

The Count frowned, recalling the chaos he’d just witnessed.

“This country is on the brink of collapse. The Emperor has gone mad, and now Bollonico isn’t any better. You heard it clearly, didn’t you? Let me guess—Bollonico ordered the poisoning. Am I wrong?”

Yuan’s silence was answer enough.

“Bollonico, even at his age, hasn’t been named Crown Prince and is only being tested. But even if he’s a deposed prince, would they really keep alive a perfectly healthy man with royal blood? Who else but that madman Bollonico would go out of his way to kill a discarded prince like that? Isn’t what your uncle says true?”

The more agitated he became, the lower the Count’s voice dropped, as he slowly crawled toward Yuan, who had slumped to the floor.

“Do you really believe your sister died of natural causes?”

“!”

Staring into Yuan’s frozen face, the uncle whispered through clenched teeth.

“Don’t stay ignorant. Don’t be happy cooped up in some backwater, clinging to a deposed prince who might die any moment, Yuan Pelliese.”

Yuan shot her uncle a cold, icy glare, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to tell her not to be happy.

“Listen well. Your sister.”

But the oily words spilling from his lips forced Yuan to stiffen her entire body.

“Died in your place.”

“……What did you say?”

As Yuan turned deathly pale, as if all the blood had drained from her body, her uncle mercilessly poured out the cruel truth.

“She didn’t die because her time had come.”

“No. My sister escaped the mansion, and then her illness worsened—.”

“Did you think because your sister died, you took her place?”

Facing her dark eyes, now clouded with confusion, his own eyes—shining with the same hue—continued to stab at Yuan’s heart with one hidden truth after another.

“Your sister. From the very beginning, was you, Yuan Pelliese.”

“…….”

“She entered that dangerous mansion in your place.”

“What nonsense are you talking about…….”

“It wasn’t simply that she was deceived into going as the late Count Pelliese’s only daughter. The person the Imperial family requested was the daughter of the late Count Pelliese—Yuan Pelliese.”

At the uncle’s final words, spoken with bloodshot eyes and grinding teeth:

“It was always you, Yuan Pelliese, from the beginning.”

Yuan’s mind went blank.

***

Bollonico Euphris pushed through the endless crowd of servants and finally caught up with Emperor Igor, who was returning to the Imperial Palace.

Judging by the familiar faces among the dead, the servants he had paid to administer the poison had clearly committed suicide and been beheaded simultaneously.

“Father.”

Emperor Igor lowered his icy gaze from the people clearing the bodies and the nobles pinching their noses, to his son.

“My dear Bollonico.”

Smiling with his lips stretched wide, he used a wet cloth brought by a servant to wipe the blood off his face, then gestured for Bollonico to come closer.

And the moment Bollonico’s pointed shoe tip entered the Emperor’s shadow, a still-blood-stained, brutish hand suddenly grabbed his son’s smooth jaw, twisted it violently, and yanked him close to his face.

The white skin under thick fingers turned bright red.

The Emperor’s icy blue eyes scrutinized his son’s face, as if trying to tear it apart piece by piece.

“My dear Bollonico. Surely this wasn’t your doing?”

It wasn’t a question expecting an answer.

The Emperor tightened his grip, mashing Bollonico’s cheek and jaw so hard he couldn’t open his mouth.

“Clade Euphris. Playing with him is fine, but killing him is out of the question.”

“A—bu—.”

“Unless, of course, you’re trying to eliminate not only your younger brother Noel, but even your cousin who became a deposed prince, all because you crave my throne.”

With that, the Emperor abruptly released his son’s jaw as if discarding something filthy.

The force of the shove caused Bollonico’s head to snap sharply to the side.

The Emperor offered no smile this time as Bollonico trembled, enduring the humiliation.

“My son wouldn’t do such a thing. But just in case—should anything like this ever happen again in my presence.”

Standing before his son, who swallowed hard, the Emperor wore a cold, quiet smile.

“Then I’ll make you truly understand what it feels like to be surpassed by your younger brother.”

“!”

“I’ll let you experience it yourself.”

The Emperor licked the blood-soaked sword slowly with his tongue like a madman, then stuck out his blood-coated tongue toward his son, proudly grinning.

Bollonico strained with all his might not to grimace at the revolting sight, slowly and humiliatingly lowering his waist and then his head in succession.

***

Count Gerret Pelliese, sensing the commotion beginning to subside, took Yuan back to the guest room assigned to her.

Since the servants drafted for body searches weren’t guarding the door, entering the room was effortless.

“Yuan Pelliese. Seeing your name placed side by side with the deposed prince’s, and hearing the rumors about the monstrous deposed prince—what do you think your sister decided then?”

Yuan staggered past her uncle and climbed onto the bed.

Pulling the blanket over herself and curling up, she listened as her uncle poured out the truths he’d kept locked inside, like a dam bursting open.

“She immediately begged me to go in your place. Though it wasn’t even necessary—I had already planned to send your sister in your place, calling her ‘Yuan Pelliese’.”

“Of course you did.”

A hollow laugh escaped her.

The resolve she’d made not to believe her uncle’s words shattered, and the fragments began shifting like puzzle pieces snapping into place.

Louise would’ve done it.

She was exactly the kind of sister who would’ve done far more.

“Naturally. You wanted to hide your own useful existence and send my sister to Locksenhart. A useless niece who only consumes food—you never considered her family, so you didn’t hesitate even a moment. Disgusting, but not surprising.”

The Count nearly lashed back at her contemptuous tone, but knowing time was short, he focused solely on choosing words that would break Yuan further.

“Did she only decide to go in your place? Did she consider the risk of being exposed? Did she know she was terminally ill and would die anyway? She wanted to eliminate every danger to you, then die peacefully.”