“Please, I beg you. Please leave.”

Esmeralda, who spoke with a trembling voice, as if she didn’t have the courage to look at me, knelt down at my feet.

“Leave…?”

I couldn’t understand what she was saying at all.

Esmeralda, breathing heavily, began to pour out her words.

“It’s my mother’s doing. Whether I knew it or not, this plan was entirely my mother’s plan.”

“Why would Viscountess Majene want to…”

I furrowed my brows. I had vaguely felt that she didn’t like me much, but I hadn’t thought much about it, considering that most nobles didn’t like me.

Moreover, I had never felt hatred strong enough from Viscountess Majene to want to kill me.

“My mother sees Lady Reyna as an obstacle.”

Esmeralda’s tearful eyes were blurry, but at the same time, they were intense with inexplicable desperation.

“My mother wants me to become the next Viscountess.”

“Well, isn’t that something every noblewoman with a daughter wants…”

Esmeralda shook her head.

“It’s a lifelong wish, a long-cherished desire, an obsession. My mother is ready to do anything to fulfill this.”

“So she tried to get rid of me as an obstacle?”

Esmeralda, clenching her fist tightly, slowly nodded.

Piece by piece, everything began to fall into place. However, there were still parts that I didn’t understand.

“Why am I an obstacle?”

But soon, the jealousy, hostility, and faint self-loathing reflected in Esmeralda’s eyes explained everything. I didn’t even need to hear Esmeralda’s subsequent words; it was clear enough.

“As the only one who has given her heart.”

Even without a subject, I could tell who she was talking about.

“As long as Lady Reyna is here, she will never try to look at anyone else.”

I couldn’t help but smirk in disbelief.

“So she tried to kill me?”

Esmeralda’s face crumbled slowly with tears.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want it to come to this…”

Esmeralda grabbed my hem again.

“My mother won’t give up. Even if this operation fails, the next one, and the one after that… even if there are many sacrifices along the way.”

Esmeralda seemed to be reluctant to spit out the words, as if she couldn’t say it.

“Even if many people die. She’s a relentless human being, our mother.”

Esmeralda, looking up at me, widened her eyes. Almost like someone who had lost her mind.

“Today stopped with Lady Reyna, but next time, she’ll aim for others. People close to Lady Reyna. Like Prince Hees…”

At the mention that Hees could be in danger, I clenched my trembling hands. For a moment, the scent of Eldin’s blood mixed with the metallic scent of Hees’s blood seemed to linger again.

Hees had already been in danger once because of me. He nearly lost his life back then. Because of me.
Esmeralda keenly sensed my hesitation and promptly exploited it.

“If Lady Reyna just leaves… everything will be resolved.”

Though Esmeralda continued speaking with an endlessly trembling voice, the grip on my hem was firm and unyielding.

“If it’s believed that Lady Reyna is dead, my mother won’t engage in any more futile actions.”

Esmeralda, with a tear-stained face, weakly attempted a smile.

“Viscount and Viscountess seem to approve of my engagement to Sir Kyrion. If the engagement between Sir Kyrion and me is realized, my mother will be satisfied.”

Reading the meaning embedded in my stiffening expression, Esmeralda slyly lowered the corners of her eyes.

“Anyway… the two of you are siblings, right?”

Even after sending Esmeralda away, I wandered through the forest for a long time.

But no matter how much I thought about it, only one conclusion emerged.

“It’s quite audacious. How neatly everything falls into place.”

If my conjecture is correct, then Majene Viscountess was likely responsible for breaking through the forest path on the day Esmeralda went missing, leaving footprints in the garden maze, and perhaps even the sudden appearance of the roc bird today.

These were things that couldn’t be accomplished with ordinary magic. Even I, who had unraveled most spells in the spell book, couldn’t readily understand what kind of magic was employed.

If Majene Viscountess set her mind to it, killing Hees, who lacked any special abilities, wouldn’t be a difficult task.

If I were to disappear…

Hees would be safe.

The noble folks might mourn heavily initially, but the living would continue to live, and they would gradually forget me. I wasn’t originally part of the noble family; I merely entered their lives as the adopted daughter under the name of a distant relative.

Despite spending time with them as family and forming some bonds, I wasn’t an irreplaceable existence in the noble family, unlike Kyrion, the heir.

Despite the troublesome presence of Majene Viscountess, Esmeralda was fundamentally a good child.

No, rather than good, she was delicate. In other words, she lacked the audacity to harm someone sincerely. Even if she became a member of the noble family, it was clear that she would live inconspicuously.

Above all, Esmeralda’s words were correct.

“Anyway… the two of you are siblings, right?”