Olivia, smiling at Esella, opened her eyes wide. Esella, beautifully adorned even with the necklace, was brimming with transparent tears over her amethyst eyes.

“Why are you crying again?”

A tender voice soothed Esella. Esella barely held back the desire to cry out loud.

It was ridiculous. Tears because my sister matched too well with the Duke?

I knew without asking my sister.

Madelleine was no longer in my sister’s heart.

My sister, who used to smile at me from afar, who had done her best to become a princess, was no longer there.

Here, my sister was completely natural and comfortable.

Esella asked Olivia, half relieved and half distressed.

“…Sister. Still. You are my sister, right?”

Esella Madelleine, selfishly selfish.

Esella chided me. But all I could do was cling like this.

Fortunately, my vision was blurred by tears. I couldn’t see what expression my sister was making.

A second felt like minutes. I shouldn’t have spoken. Why did I want to confirm my sister’s feelings? Regret was coming.

The hand hugging my shoulder was warm.

“…Of course. Naturally.”

Olivia comforted Esella’s back. She thought Esella had grown up, but crying Esella still looked like a child. But it didn’t matter.

I, who had grown up before Esella, had only now realized.

Madelleine, which I was so obsessed with, even without that boundary.

Esella and I being sisters will not change.

(This is a time separator.)

At that moment, Conrad gritted his teeth and glared at Duke Vicander.

To be precise, at a carriage moving away inside the Duke’s residence.

Duke Vicander’s face, who had suddenly boarded the carriage and left, flashed before his eyes. A face that looked down on me, smiling haughtily.

Hah. It wasn’t even funny. Conrad recalled the Duke’s sudden first words.

“Should I formally protest that Madelleine constantly occupies the front of my mansion’s gate?”

Conrad had simply followed Esella, who had gone to find Olivia. He had no intention of even meeting Olivia, let alone the Duke.

All he had done was quietly ask the gatekeeper to inform them of his arrival. It was the Duke who had come all the way to the gate.

“…I greet the great heroic Duke. I have only come to fetch my sister.”

Conrad, with propriety, stated his purpose.

“Sister? Who are you talking about?”

“Esella Madelleine. I heard she went into the Duke’s residence earlier.”

At that moment, the Duke, who had been smiling sarcastically, laughed brilliantly.

To someone, it might have been a beautiful laugh that made them forget to breathe, but Conrad instinctively thought the laugh was like poison.
At the same time, a heavy atmosphere pressed down on Conrad.

The moment he saw the Duke, if he hadn’t exerted himself to stand, he almost faltered miserably. The Duke licked his lips as if he didn’t like the upright Conrad standing firm.

“……The viscount’s posture is good.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

He pretended to be unaffected, but it was hard to fully absorb the raw intimidation.

It didn’t make sense to Conrad’s clever mind that the Duke, who had no influence on the system, would act against him, who was certainly on the Emperor’s side.

Then Conrad sneered with a snort.

If this is just because of Olivia. He had to significantly downgrade the evaluation he had given to the Duke.

Not a very intelligent person, though he had made his name as a war hero. Just that much.

Then it happened. The ferocious momentum receded, and the sound of the Duke licking his lips was heard loudly.

“……Really, it seems that only the princess is not losing her luck in Madelleine.”

“What……!”

Conrad inadvertently shouted. But the Duke had only gone into the deep part of his mansion, as if his business was done.

Conrad glared at the carriage with furious eyes. And only when the carriage that the Duke rode in had become a distant speck, Conrad spat out, grinding his teeth.

“What does he know.”

Whether it was because of the title of war hero, it was clear that the Duke was currently indulged in playing hero. Maybe he felt like he became a hero again, protecting Olivia.

What kind of lover is Olivia?

His angry breathing didn’t easily subside. At that moment, the ironclad gates of the Duke’s mansion opened, and a carriage came out.

“Big brother.”

The carriage door opened, and a strangely cracked voice was heard. It was Esella.

He was about to get very angry, but the moment he met Esella’s swollen face, Conrad’s momentum was broken.

Conrad steadied his ragged breath at Esella’s timid approach and gestured to the Ducal carriage.

“……Get in first.”

.

.

.

At Conrad’s signal, the carriage started. Esella hung her head as if she knew her fault. Conrad scolded Esella. But everyone knew that the underlying sentiment was tender affection.

“……You. Father clearly told you not to come here. If Father had known, you wouldn’t have ended with just confinement to your room.”

“But I had to come.”

“……What?”

Conrad’s nimble senses soon noticed the strange crack in Esella. Speaking clearly, even if tactfully, was not like Esella.

“I had to apologize to my sister, for being sorry.”

“Esella!”

Finally, when Conrad called her name in a voice mixed with anger, Esella inadvertently opened her eyes wide. It was the first time big brother had done this to her.

But at the same time, Conrad sighed as if calming himself. And as always, he looked at her tenderly.

“……I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but Esella Madelleine, I hope you think wisely.”

And that familiar affection was unbearably painful today. How would it have been if this love, which I thought was natural, reached my sister even a little?

Esella spoke, swallowing the bubbling anger.

“Why didn’t you do this to my sister?”

“Esella!”

“Just a little. If you had done just a little like you do to me, it would have been different.”

Esella’s voice, which was holding back her sorrow, faltered. Conrad spoke, as if frustrated.

“That’s!”

“Sister didn’t do anything.”

Esella’s wet words hit Conrad’s head.

She didn’t do anything. That’s impossible.

The reason for hating Olivia was clear.

Happiness broke from the moment she entered our house. Mother passed away, Father was engrossed in work, and Jade got angry every day and roamed the battlefield.

But.

She didn’t do anything.

Conrad tried to correct Esella’s words. But strangely, his lips didn’t part.
In the end, Conrad turned his head to the window. Seeing Duke Vicander grow distant, he felt even more uncomfortable. It was all Olivia’s fault. But now, he didn’t even have the energy to blame her. The sound of Esella’s sobbing grew fainter.

If he had pondered just a little longer, he could have realized that the crack he felt in Esella was also within Conrad himself.

But Conrad no longer pondered. Instead, he found the target he was familiar with hating.

The person who was the easiest to blame. It was, of course, Olivia.