One Day My Sister Died - Chapter 38

That day was the second day of the regular hunting festival held by Clard’s father, Emperor Alexei.

The week-long monster hunting festival was held to catch monsters and beasts that gradually encroached on the north during winter.

As it was quite a large and nationally significant event that the Emperor and Empress always attended, major nobles would all gather to prove their loyalty.

Huge rewards were given for proving how many monsters or beasts attacking the people in dangerous forests and valleys were caught.

Depending on the occasion, one could obtain not only gold but also quite fertile imperial lands, so the enthusiasm for the hunting festival was tremendous every year.

“Father!”

Emperor Alexei, pierced by a vicious-looking arrow for hunting monsters, was carried to the imperial palace without even being able to pull it out. Clard saw his father groaning and sweating cold among doctors gathered from all over the country.

“Your Highness.”

Duke Lev firmly gripped his nephew’s shoulder and swallowed hard.

“The Empress…”

Clard stared at Duke Lev, who lowered his head and cried like a child.

“Empress Eleonore… has passed away.”

If the Emperor was in charge of the hunting festival, it was the Empress who was active in the banquet hall at the entrance, waiting for the participants’ families.

His mother died on the way to the palace after being poisoned while sharing refreshments with the noble ladies, princes, and princesses in attendance.

“For the time being, Your Highness’s uncle, Grand Duke Igor, will oversee state affairs, so please don’t worry and get some rest.”

After hearing the news of his mother’s death, Clard stayed by his father’s side with eyes wide open.

State affairs were not even a concern for the 14-year-old boy. Someone else could take care of that.

But staying by his father’s side was different.

“How could I sleep?”

He couldn’t let his father go like his mother, who passed away without even leaving last words to Apollini.

Clard stayed by his father’s side as he struggled and groaned on the brink of death.

Every time he dozed off, unable to resist the overwhelming sleepiness, he would wake up dreaming of his father dying.

At those times, he would frantically put his ear to his sleeping father’s chest, and only then would he shed tears of relief.

“Don’t worry, Clard. Your uncle is here.”

His uncle, who finally showed his face after a week of this, said so.

Clard merely nodded without any particular response. He had no room in his heart.

“…Insolent brat.”

And he raised his head in surprise at his uncle’s voice, which was coldly reprimanding, unlike usual.

It wasn’t the voice of his uncle who always laughed good-naturedly.

That night.

In the Emperor’s bedroom surrounded by court physicians and doctors from all over the country.

Emperor Alexei Yufris, who had been a wise ruler, ended his short life.

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“The hunting festival is over, right? But why aren’t Mother and Father coming?”

“Go to sleep now, Apollini. I’ll sing you a lullaby.”

“I’m not even allowed to go outside. It’s so suffocating, elder brother.”

“…I’ll show you the garden tomorrow.”

The death of the imperial couple was kept secret from Apollini, who was barely 10 years old.

Clard left Apollini in the Princess’s Palace and attended the funeral with his uncle, whose eyes had changed.

Uncle Igor told Clard he could rest at the red brick mansion in Roxenhart, as if giving him a vacation.

After putting Apollini, who still knew nothing, to sleep in the red brick mansion, and giving a fragile smile to the nanny Margaret, whose eyes were full of worry.

Young Clard finally returned to his bedroom and collapsed.

He clung to the rocking chair his father had made himself and his mother had personally trimmed, and wept bitterly.

The treasure of the Yufris, loved by the imperial people.

It was the night less than a week before the day Clard Yufris was scheduled to ascend to the imperial throne at the young age of 14 through formal procedures.

Snow that had been falling fiercely since the bodies were laid to rest piled up in the garden, and when a fierce blizzard that chilled the suddenly large hole in his heart was beating against the window.

A wave called rebels swept over the imperial palace in the capital Cielo.

And that wave swept over the red brick mansion where Clard was gathering his thoughts.

The warmth disappeared from the expression of nanny Margaret, who was making hot cocoa for him.

“Your Highness, quickly!”

Clard, who had already cried to the point of exhaustion, saw Margaret’s blurry face through his swollen eyes.

Despair. When he realized that such an emotion had appeared on the face of Margaret, who was like another mother to him, he was instantly terrified.

“Nanny-.”

Margaret quickly put on a cloak inside out and carried him on her back.

Margaret, who got up carrying Clard’s body, which was too much for a middle-aged woman, with superhuman strength, desperately left the mansion hoping that Duke Lev would hear the news and find them.

The mansion was already being quickly engulfed by flames that started from the east annex. The snow didn’t extinguish the fire, and the blizzard hastened the cursed flames.

“Elder brother-! Take me with you!”

Clard’s body, slumped against the nanny, stirred at the thin voice.

He heard Apollini’s voice, clinging to the window of the lit west annex in the distance.

“Princess!”

“Nanny! Please escape quickly! We’ll take care of things here!”

Margaret bit her roughened lips until they bled, and adjusted Clard on her back as he began to weakly murmur Apollini’s name.

What they’re after is Clard, who will inherit the throne.

“Elder brother! Take me too! Don’t abandon me!”

“We’ll somehow escort the Princess. We’ve sent word to Duke Lev, so reinforcements should arrive!”

Arrows began to rain down from somewhere.

“Elder brother! Nanny! Please don’t abandon me!”

Margaret, with a heart shedding bloody tears, rushed to the back gate with the help of the few remaining guards.

“Elder brother! Oh…”

Clard lost consciousness, which he had barely been holding onto, to the sound of the nanny’s sobbing voice and Apollini’s faint, lingering voice.

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Clard opened his eyes with a start, as if falling off a cliff, as cold water hit his face.

A dark room.

A snowy night.

Everything was just as it was before he fell asleep. It seemed like he had a terrible nightmare.

Before he could gather his thoughts, he was roughly forced to his knees, and he found a very familiar face rolling on the floor in front of him.

“Clard Yufris.”

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

Clard stared at the face of the dead nanny, unable to even close his eyes, and only after a long while did he raise his head.

The one casting a huge shadow was his uncle.

The Grand Duke who ruled the north, Igor Yufris.

…He was smiling.

“I’ve been waiting for this day.”

The cold west annex.

Where he was, was the west annex where he had grown up, and where Apollini had begged him not to abandon her.

Clard felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the terribly burned interior.

“Apollini…”

“Your father. Alexei Yufris took everything I loved.”

None of his uncle’s muttering words entered Clard’s head.

His desperate gaze quickly and persistently searched for traces of Apollini.

“Everything Alexei Yufris loved will die.”

Clard couldn’t bear to look at the man in front of him and stared again at the nanny’s lifeless eyes.

The nanny must have died protecting him.

His whole body trembled with anger and fear.

The place where Apollini had been was all burned. Apollini was gone.

“Are you looking for Apollini? She’s dead. She died miserably, begging me to spare her life. I thought about letting her live since she’s a girl, but I can’t stand noisy things.”

He felt an intense desire to kill, but at the same time, he felt his body and soul being crushed by the intense pressure bearing down on him.

The pain of his soul being torn apart clawed at his insides.

He quickly raised his bloodshot eyes to stare at the jet-black sword his uncle was holding like a treasure.

Dark red blood was dripping from the tip of the sword, staining the carpet.

“Of the things Alexei loved, all that’s left now is you and this mansion. The mansion is burning and you…”

Of all the things the late Emperor Alexei loved, the very last remaining were this mansion and Clard Yufris.

The mansion was already burning, and the beautiful prince called the treasure of the Yufris would soon be torn apart.

That sword that had killed Apollini.

It was his turn to be stabbed.

“The treasure of the Yufris. Alexei’s treasure. How about Clard Yufris? Will you beg me? If you beg well, I might let you live.”

Instead of answering, Clard raised his bloodshot eyes to glare at his uncle.

“…Insolent brat.”

Without a chance to resist.

Clard’s arms were roughly bound by heavily armed knights.

The Grand Duke, Igor Yufris, slashed his nephew without a moment’s hesitation.

The sword that cut through the air split the young body in half, swirling with dark energy.

It was a one-sided and cruel murder scene.

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Yuan wrapped her trembling arms around herself.

“I remember it clearly.”

Henna, younger than Yuan, continued speaking more calmly than expected.

“I saw the master’s face, which never bent, through the floor gap where I was hiding.”

Henna was squinting her eyes, trying hard to recall that day.

After seeing the Princess die in front of the west annex while fleeing, Henna’s parents hurriedly tore up the wooden floor to hide Henna inside, and died opposing Grand Duke Igor.

Yuan unconsciously gripped Henna’s hand tightly. Not realizing she was trembling more herself.

“That sword clearly cut His Highness in half.”

Henna clearly saw it that day.

The moment the elongated shadow of the sword touched Clard.

“His Highness’s body didn’t split. But the black energy swirling from that sword seemed to be sucked into His Highness…”

“And he became his current form.”

Yuan tightly closed her eyes, imagining the terrible sight she didn’t want to imagine.

Henna began to pour out her memories as if possessed.

“The mad Emperor who saw that sight looked like his eyes were about to pop out. He stared at that damn black sword for a long time, then looked at Prince Clard, who had turned completely black as if his whole body had been burned, and laughed even more grotesquely. Saying, ‘If there’s a life worse than death, this must be it! The treasure of the Yufris has become a crow!'”