Elena tensed up suddenly.

Unlike her visibly shaken state, Ariana had an eerily calm expression.

A composed voice flowed from Ariana’s lips.

“Unlike you, our elder brother was also born and raised as a noble, so why didn’t you feel inferior to him? Why did you come to hate only me, Elena?”

Elena’s eyes shook violently.

“That’s because you subtly looked down on me, of course-”

“No, Elena. I know the real answer.”

Ariana gave a faint smile.

“It’s because I was easy prey.”

Elena suddenly took a deep breath.

Ariana’s voice continued.

“You were simply strong against the weak and weak against the strong. With your quick wit, you must have known that I was the weakest in that house after Mother and Grandfather passed away.”

“Ha! I, I…”

“Don’t disguise it with human emotions like inferiority. Elena, you just targeted the weak me and hunted for fun. Feeling a base pleasure in deceiving and mocking me. And the fact that you’re such a nasty child.”

Ariana took a slight breath and concluded her words.

Resolutely, as if speaking to herself.

“It’s not my fault.”

“…Ha, haha.”

Elena pulled up her trembling lips.

“I see, so in the end you’re saying you did nothing wrong? As always, you alone are lofty and superior. Elder brother was right. Your very existence was a seed of disaster for our family.”

Ariana slightly furrowed her brow.

“What are you talking about?”

“Elder brother said so. That Father once tried to get rid of you. My goodness, is that even possible?”

“Elena!”

Edward rushed over to try and cover Elena’s mouth.

But Elena violently shook off Edward and continued speaking.

With a bizarrely trembling laugh, Elena said.

“Even your blood family couldn’t stand the sight of you. Isn’t that too horrible? See? It wasn’t just me who found you irritating. It’s proof of how terrible a person you are-”

“Your tongue is too filthy.”

At that moment, an enormous presence suddenly interjected in front of Elena.

“I can’t listen to this anymore, so you’d better stop. Unlike my wife, I’m not very patient with watching insignificant things crawl up.”

Dante revealed his displeasure without reservation.

At the feeling of the surrounding air expanding, Elena stopped breathing for a moment.

Dante silently gestured somewhere with his eyes. As if they had been waiting, imperial soldiers approached and escorted Elena and Edward away.

Elena finally came to her senses and twisted her body in shock.

“L-let go of me. I still have more to say to my elder sister!”

“Ariana! Let’s talk, okay? I was wrong, please listen to what our elder brother said!”

Elena and Edward alternately shouted, but Ariana didn’t even blink.

As he was being dragged out of the banquet hall, Edward struggled.

“Ariana! I asked for forgiveness, didn’t I? Are you really going to act like this?!”

The voices gradually faded until they could no longer be heard.

The two of them would never be allowed to enter the imperial palace again.

Watching the siblings’ exit, the nobles each made a comment.

“How should I put it, it’s truly pathetic.”

“To be such an eyesore, tsk tsk tsk.”

Receiving the nobles’ contemptuous gazes, the two were thus expelled from the imperial palace.

In a timeline that no longer exists, the woman once called the most splendid lady in high society and the flower of the opera, and the man once called ‘descendant of the music master’, were never able to set foot in the imperial palace again after that day.

* * *

I stepped out onto the terrace and slowly breathed in the night air.

“Ariana Lopez Heigenberg.”

A low voice called my name.

I took a slight breath.

Of course, since there was no history of women owning titles in the empire, the title hadn’t been fully recovered.

To be precise, it was still just owning the title certificate for now.

Nevertheless, when Dante called me by the name Lopez, I felt a slight sting in my nose.

“How do you feel?”

At those words, I reflected on my feelings.

Everything was perfect.

People told me they liked my music, and Edward bowed his head in front of everyone and admitted his guilt, even if forcibly.

Both Elena and Lucas made a shameful exit from the stage.

Yes. This was clearly a moment that should be completely satisfying, and a night when I should be intoxicated with the feeling of victory.

But I kept feeling a strange uneasiness.

“Your very existence was a seed of disaster for our family.”

“Father once tried to get rid of you.”

Elena’s final words.

It might have been said simply out of malice to provoke me, but somehow I had a feeling it wasn’t something to just ignore.

‘What did she mean?’

As I was lost in thought, intense fatigue turned into a needle and pierced my temple.

“…Ugh.”

With a small groan, I slowly blinked my eyes.

I had been having mild headaches for several weeks.

It wasn’t really surprising.

Since returning in time, especially as the Founding Festival approached, I could count on one hand the days I had slept properly.

It was an inevitable side effect of fatigue building up and piling on.

‘But the pain is particularly persistent today.’

Maybe it’s because all the tension suddenly released.

As I was thinking that, suddenly my vision tilted, slowly leaning to one side.

“Ariana!”

I saw Dante’s surprised face reaching out to me.

With that sight as the last thing I saw, I lost consciousness.

* * *

“It’s overwork.”

The doctor looked up as he removed his stethoscope.

He reported in a serious voice.

“It seems you’ve pushed your body too hard. It appears you haven’t been sleeping properly either… Above all, your fingertips are too cold, suggesting that your blood circulation isn’t functioning properly. Have you had anything particularly stressful to focus on recently?”

At those words, all the servants in the room wore troubled expressions.

Everyone knew that since Ariana had entered the duke’s residence, she had worked late into the night without a single day of proper sleep.

“It’s my fault, sob, I should have made sure she ate proper meals and got enough sleep somehow…!”

Sophie sobbed. She deeply regretted not firmly stopping Ariana on the days she skipped breakfast and focused intensely on her work.

Dante silently looked down.

He saw a face that had turned paler than her platinum hair.

Her slender neck that could fit in one hand, her protruding collarbones, and fingers so thin they looked like they would break with just a little force.

“What should we do, sniff, our young lady…”

As Sophie began to half-wail, the doctor quickly added:

“However, there’s no serious damage to her health, so you don’t need to worry too much. You can think of it as a kind of deep sleep she’s fallen into right now.”

Finishing his diagnosis, the doctor advised:

“When she wakes up, just make sure she eats well and sleeps well. As long as she doesn’t continue to overwork herself, she’ll recover quickly.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

At Dante’s brief response, the doctor nodded.

“Then please call me again anytime.”

The doctor bowed politely and left the bedroom.

Relief finally crossed the eyes of Head Butler Oren, who had been watching from a step back.

Just this morning, Ariana had left the mansion perfectly dressed from head to toe.

The sight of Dante escorting her onto the carriage and Ariana gracefully accepting his hand had been so well-matched, like a beautiful painting, that Oren’s heart had swelled with pride.

When Ariana, who had looked like that, was brought in unconscious, he was truly shocked to the point of fainting… but how fortunate that it wasn’t a serious illness.

‘The master also seems relieved.’

Though his cool gaze didn’t seem to reveal any emotion at first glance, Oren could feel it.

Without taking his eyes off Ariana, Dante moved his lips.

“Leave. All of you.”

“Yes, master.”

Oren gestured to the servants and led everyone out.

Sophie also looked back at Dante and Ariana once each, sniffling, before leaving the bedroom.

Silence descended on the bedroom as the presences ebbed away like the tide.

Dante silently looked down at the bed.

“…”

He knew Ariana was burning her life force as fuel.

It was like watching a moth flying into a flame, its wings burning up as it collided.

The reason he didn’t stop her was because he knew she would never stop until she finally reached the light.

Just as he himself had done long ago.

“Are you satisfied?”

Dante slowly reached out his hand over the bed.

As he grasped the hair spread out on the pillow, the silvery strands slipped through his fingers.

Suddenly, an old memory overlapped with that sight.

Like dreaming with eyes open. Hazy yet vivid.

“Don’t… go…”

The small hand that grasped his collar while feverish.

The hand, wet from the river, was cold, and the child’s breath was too hot.

She’s going to die soon.

It was the obvious conclusion.

A body suffering from severe hypothermia yet radiating heat already had no chance of survival. Even thinking that, the reason he didn’t shake off her hand was.