One Day My Sister Died - Chapter 28

Yuan stood dazed, following them hesitantly only after their stretched shadows nearly touched her toes.

She saw the Emperor ascending to the second floor, following Clard.

And then, appearing from somewhere, the First Prince Boloniko passed by Yuan and followed them like a tail.

A parrot that Boloniko had brought along, and dozens of foreign servants followed behind like baby ducks, entering Clard Yufris’ private space.

The excited atmosphere and whispering voices were filled with anticipation, like people entering a circus.

Yuan stood alone on the landing, covering her face with both hands.

Tears she didn’t know she still had left soaked between her spread fingers.

Yuan cried without realizing she was crying.

Soon after, a man’s wailing voice, as if far away or inside her head, grabbed Yuan and shook her.

Covering both ears with her hands, unable to stop the pouring sobs, she too wailed silently there.

Just as she had wailed for the past 10 years in the Peliesse mansion, locking the door.

Just as she had desperately hidden her writhing in pain from others, no matter how painful and difficult it was.

Perhaps all this time, Clard Yufris had locked himself in that bedroom and not come out to preserve his last remaining dignity.

“Stop, stop… Please stop…”

Even imagining becoming someone’s spectacle made Yuan feel like dying of shame.

Clard, who hadn’t stepped out of his bedroom, not wanting to show his half-deformed ugliness to others, was there now.

As a clown in front of numerous people, including the Emperor.

Regardless of the intention.

For the sole reason of not turning away from Yuan.

That night.

On the second floor, the agonizing screams of the former Prince Clard Yufris, unheard for days, echoed.

Along with it, unfamiliar sounds were heard.

The giggling voices of the audience.

Even the bizarre voice of a parrot repeating, ‘Look at that. Look at that. Oh my. Oh my.’

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The audience on the second floor returned to their rooms only as dawn approached.

In the bedroom filled with darkness just before sunrise.

Yuan saw a long silhouette sprawled on the floor like a discarded rag.

Entering with swollen eyes, Yuan reassured Clard, who flinched at the sound of her presence.

“It’s me, it’s me-”

Clard, without relaxing his body, raised his head abruptly while still lying face down.

The man with half his face returned once again stood up unsteadily.

Clard approached swiftly and grabbed both her shoulders.

Then, pushing her against the wall, he gritted his teeth as if to ward off aftereffects.

“Didn’t I tell you not to wander around alone?”

“Treatment, treatment-”

“Why are you still lingering here until now? Huh?”

This was the first time Clard showed such genuine anger.

A strong emotion that hadn’t been seen even when unwanted guests were brought in or when an unwanted wedding night was spent flickered in his eyes.

Yuan nodded, wiping away tears that flowed involuntarily.

The tear hanging from her chin trembled. But Clard, not satisfied with just that, continued to berate her.

“Didn’t I tell you not to wander around alone? As you please. Don’t go about like that. Without permission. Alone. Don’t wander around like that. I.”

It was clear he was referring to everything, including last night’s events.

Yuan nodded as if to soothe him, remembering the painful groans that hadn’t stopped all night even when she covered her ears.

“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I thought it would be fine since it was home.”

“Home?”

Clard’s blood-stained lips stretched as his shoulders shook a few times. It was a scoff.

Yuan held her breath, afraid that he might say at any moment that this wasn’t her home and to get out.

Whether it was contempt, disgust, or… anxiety.

She could feel his eyes, overflowing with an emotion she couldn’t define, looking at her as if to split her face.

What words could she say to make him not look at her like that?

Instead of an answer that might anger him, Yuan extended her trembling arms.

Reaching out with her slender hands, she felt his torn and soiled uniform, and finally carefully embraced him.

She buried herself against the body that stood firmly, seemingly impossible to be pulled along.

Her tear-stained cheek touched Clard’s hardened chest skin, which others called rotten.

Yuan held it tightly and whispered.

“I was wrong. I wasn’t careful enough. I didn’t know the Emperor would… that he was such a person. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Yuan apologized, repeating the same words like a child throwing a tantrum. And at the same time, she absorbed his pain.

The pain he must have endured all night, rolling before the tyrant, poured down like rain inside Yuan.

This time, with the thought that she deserved punishment, Yuan absorbed not just a little, but a large amount of pain, unlike before.

“Don’t abandon me.”

Don’t drive me out of this house. Because I was wrong. Because I’ll take the punishment…

Throughout her continuous pleading, she couldn’t bear hating herself for saying such things just to avoid the hell that was Peliesse.

The only way to overcome the guilt was this. To let him have a peaceful sleep, even if belatedly.

The body of the beast, which had been taking deep breaths without answering, gradually relaxed.

Only after laying him down did Yuan cry out screaming for a long time.

Just as he had done all night long.

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On the night when Yuan wailed in despair.

Regina secretly came out to the back garden of the black mansion and carefully opened the letter that had arrived in the evening.

[The Trelloni Count family will arrive late to the party and will join from the second day. Thinking of you, who must have been anxious looking for me, breaks my heart. If you think you won’t be able to sleep, would you wait for me in the mansion’s back garden?]

Regina mocked the mansion, which didn’t have a single proper servant on patrol, while touching her carefully arranged attire.

‘Yuan Peliesse. While you spend a hellish time in that monster former prince’s bedroom, I’m sorry, but I’m about to start my love business.’

Rustle.

The sound of footsteps roughly parting the snow-covered garden trees was heard.

Regina held her pounding heart tightly and put on the most enchanting smile that could shine under the moonlight.

“…Lady Peliesse?”

A man’s voice full of bewilderment.

What it contained was not the single-hearted devotion towards Yuan Peliesse as she had confidently believed, but a voice like any other man who stops breathing at the sight of a beautiful woman.

“I’ve been waiting, Count Dreycup Trelloni…”

Regina’s lips, which had drawn alluring curves, stiffened as the man’s appearance was finally fully revealed.

“The proposal I sent was, well… you… No, no, that’s not it-”

The clumsy man, his eyes wide open at the beauty before him, erased the existing woman from his mind and fell for her, as Regina had planned.

But the problem was.

“If this is fate, I’ll accept it. I’ve fallen in love right now.”

The fact that Dreycup Trelloni, who approached Regina with a flushed face, was an ugly man beyond imagination.

[This is the timeline separator]

The next morning.

Regina gritted her teeth as she watched Yuan sitting at the breakfast table with a pale face.

‘This is not the situation I imagined!’

Judging by the faces of the Trelloni Count family members lined up to greet the Emperor, the men of that family looked very similar, as if stamped from the same mold.

“It’s the horse-faced Trelloni Count family.”

Sophia, who had quietly slipped into the seat next to Regina, whispered.

Sophia’s timid voice was as faint and soft as a butterfly’s wing flutter, but it was enough to scratch Regina’s insides.

“Horse-faced?”

“I once overheard Lady Seletina’s group giggling while looking at the Trelloni Count family men.”

The horse-faced Count family.

To think that the man who had lied about Regina Peliesse having him in her heart was a member of a famous ugly family!

Regina froze for a moment with her mouth open, shocked. Unaware of Regina’s feelings, Sophia whispered even more softly. Her voice had a slight hint of laughter.

“But why does that young lord keep looking at Lady Regina? Could he have fallen for her?”

“How should I know that!”

Regina snapped sharply. For a moment, she felt like a thousand fires were burning inside her. She was overwhelmed with the urge to spew out every curse she knew.

“Lady Sophia. The Trelloni Count family is a respected family ruling a large territory. Is it right to gossip about them so carelessly?”

“Huh? I, I just thought you might not know well since you kept looking at that family’s people, so-”

“Why? Why wouldn’t I know? Is it because I wasn’t raised as a Count’s daughter since I was a newborn?”

Suddenly attacked, Sophia made a tearful face while watching Regina’s expression, not knowing what was going on. Sophia Meln lowered her posture, about to cry.

“N-no! How could I dare think such a thing!”

“Watch your mouth, Lady Sophia.”

Regina glared at Sophia, grinding her teeth, then turned her head abruptly.

Then, upon discovering the former prince sitting near the Emperor, Regina’s irritation reached its peak.

The gloomy-looking man she had seen from afar yesterday looked even more decadent up close.

Above all, his amethyst-like eyes, catching the light, sparkled on their own as if they could capture anyone’s heart. And what about his straight posture and calm yet arrogant gaze? Clard Yufris looked like a royal member that no one would dare to underestimate.

Under the snow-white tablecloth, Regina’s legs trembled.

Feeling a sudden gaze, she turned her head to see Dreycup smiling like a fool and giving her an eye greeting.

Suddenly, her appetite disappeared completely.