“But now, there’s no need for that anymore.”

Olivia’s hollow voice resonated at unexpected times in Jade’s head. Every time those words, which struck the heart with a thud, came to mind, Jade kept asking herself.

Why.

Why won’t Olivia return?

And at the end of her thoughts, Jade aimed the arrow at the Empress.

“Isn’t it because of the Empress that my sister struggled?”

Perhaps that was it. Jade had guessed so.

Since the Empress, noble to the bone, wouldn’t leave Olivia alone, especially since she was marked as a bastard from the Emperor’s faction.

But Jade had never thought about Olivia’s struggles.

Because it was hard to suppress her own anger.

Olivia, always hovering around her, wanting something, was hateful. Every time she saw Olivia calling her “Big Sister” as if nothing had happened, even though she had taken her mother away, anger surged within her.

So she always tormented Olivia.

Wishing she would just leave her alone.

Even if she put a dead rat under the bed, chased her out on rainy days, or even tore up her cherished books.

“Big Sister!”

Olivia was always the same. That foolish girl always hovered around her, smiling.

And when Olivia became the Crown Prince’s fiancée, Jade thought it was welldeserved.

The Empress might not like her, but she was still Princess Madeleine.

“My sisters have jewels in their eyes. A purple amethyst for Asella, and a green emerald for Olivia.”

……Once, she was my sister.

Every time the voice of her proud young self echoed in her head, Jade closed her eyes. Back then, she thought every choice she had made was the best.

(This is a time separator.)

“……Now, what……”

So at this moment, in the reception room of the Princess’s palace, Jade couldn’t believe her ears.

The Princess, sitting on the wide velvet sofa, gave an enchanting smile.

“I know well that you don’t cherish that halfthing, right?”

Suddenly, Jade’s breath caught. The Princess’s words struck her without mercy.

“I have borne that thing so far, as I became the Princess. But it shamelessly seduced Duke Vicander, to whom I was to be married.”

“…….”

“People say you resemble where you were born. A bastard born to a cheap dancer won’t change its stripes, will it?”

Despite the seemingly pitiful tone, each word was sharp.

Thing, bastard, halfthing.

All of those harsh words were referring to none other than Olivia. Jade blankly stared at the Princess, who smiled broadly with the elegance that earned everyone’s admiration.

“How can you……”

How can you refer to someone with those words?

The question rose to the tip of her tongue. As Jade stumbled over her words, the Princess laughed tinklingly.

“Your Highness. Surely you’re not asking how I knew you didn’t cherish that halfthing? Wasn’t it you, Madeleine, who snubbed her first?”

Her melodious words pushed Jade to the edge of a cliff.

Snubbed her, as if to show her off.

Jade, about to reflexively deny it, suddenly bit the inside of her mouth hard. The taste of iron rose, but Jade couldn’t relax.

Snubbed her. And denied her.

Knowing that the support of the House of Madeleine was desperately needed in that harsh social world. Hoping Olivia would feel ashamed and in pain.

So she didn’t look back.

Suddenly, Olivia’s debutante ball came to mind. The face she turned to her when the Crown Prince started dancing with another young lady.

That face, thoughtlessly overlooked, became clearer over time. The desperation and expectation in those green eyes fading with time, and the dim resignation deepening, also came to mind.

And finally.

“……I didn’t persist and endure venomously.”

“Someday, I’ll be accepted as family.”

“But now, there’s no need for that anymore.”
The memory of Olivia saying she no longer wanted to be a Madeleine became sharp fragments that pricked Jade. When those hollow voices filled Jade’s head.

Jade suddenly sat up. The graceful princess looked at Jade with confusion, but Jade paid no attention.

It should not have been my fault that Olivia left. Only then can I ask her to come back.

“…Sir Madeleine?”

The princess called Jade, but Jade did not hear her voice and walked towards the outside of the reception room. Jade’s always graceful walk faltered just a little bit.

Someone was needed to relieve this petty guilt.

.

.

.

Despite the princess’s call, Jade Madeleine left the reception room. The princess blinked her eyes.

She could not believe this situation.

Even the maids looked at the open door of the reception room with despairing faces and bowed their heads.

“Ha. What’s happening now?”

The princess muttered, clenching her fist. Her fingertips trembled with belated indignation.

To ask that halfwit whether there was a way to reclaim the mine, and then to leave me alone without permission in the reception room?

The princess’s eyes sharpened. The air in the reception room changed abruptly. The maids looked around, not knowing what to do, watching the princess.