Remi was not feeling very well right now.
When asked, “Do you like Mom or Dad more?” she would say she liked Aris. So, the fact that Aris went on a date with Anna did not sit well with her at all. Furthermore, wasn’t it Anna who had hurt Aris before?
“Aris has gone to Unnie Anna again,” Remi muttered.
She was the one who always played with and looked after Aris, yet it seemed that Aris preferred Anna over her, which was simply irksome.
Of course, all of this was part of Aris’s planned actions, but having no way of knowing the reason, she was constantly dissatisfied with the situation.
Even someone as scattered as Remi had a tiny lump of resentment in her heart.
Aris, who was so kind that one might suspect she was a reincarnated angel. But that older sister didn’t cherish such an angel; instead, she had pushed her aside and passed by without an apology.
To her sitcom older sister, who always muttered that she wanted to carry her precious younger sister around, the current situation of hunting alone was surely unpleasant.
“But Aris said just today…”
Thunk, she shot her arrows at the unfortunate floor. An empty ground.
Naturally, there was no prey to catch, and the arrows ended up stuck in the snow-covered ground.
Huff, the princess sighed and began walking again.
The innocent arrows would soon be cleaned up by her attendants. How pitiful.
This princess… has no intention of hunting at all…!!
The only reason she was holding back and enduring was that her younger sister said just today was fine. She had asked her to wait.
So.
Remi Akaia believed.
As Aris said, after today, everything would return to the way it was.
Recently, she thought her older sister, who had finally lost her mind while studying, would return to being a model student once again.
Even if it was obvious that her body was getting hurt and her heart was scarred, Aris, who remained oblivious to her own state, would surely come to cling to her.
Everything would return to the days of happiness.
Thus, she firmly believed.
If Aris were to see Remi now, she would probably think this:
So, my sister is arrogant.
Death is uncertain about when or where it will wait for you.
So, expect it anywhere.
Being happy today doesn’t guarantee that tomorrow will be happy too.
Remi had forgotten that.
From a distance, the commotion began to be heard. On such a grand day, the intrusion of a disruptor.
Curious about what was happening, she slowly moved her feet toward the center of the hubbub since she had nothing else to do.
“…—!!”
“…Fayne Grandpa..?”
Remi recognized him at a glance as Aris’s swordsmanship teacher. At the same time, she could see him, usually so gentle and never angry, breathing heavily and saying something to her father.
Beside him was a woman sitting on a horse, exhaling white steam and gasping for breath. She was trembling and handing something over to her attendant.
It seemed there was an urgent report to be made to her father, Remi thought.
Well, of course. Would anyone create a stir at an event hosted by the king just to inform an ordinary noble? No such bold person would exist. No matter how high-ranking the individual was, there are manners and lines that should be maintained.
Ultimately, the recipients of the report could only be limited to the king and queen.
Although Remi thought it wasn’t her concern, she noticed the increasingly serious and rigid expressions on the king and queen’s faces from a distance, and her footsteps quickened towards them.
What’s going on?
As she got closer, where voices were sparse, she finally heard the word she could proudly say she had spoken more than anything else.
‘Aris.’
The name. A word used to distinguish others from the rest. It was hers, yet more people used it than her.
Murmuring, the incomprehensible words gradually became clear, conveying their meaning. And within those words, Remi became aware that the frequency of Aris’s name being called was unusual.
The moment she realized this, Remi started to run faster than ever before.
Finally, getting close enough to hear words clearly, she could definitively hear just one line of Fayne’s explanation.
A sentence her mind couldn’t possibly comprehend or accept, cut off before and after.
“—Princess Anna might kill Princess Aris!”
“…..!!”
But Remi needed no further words.
That one sentence was enough.
She turned back and approached the unattended horse, leaped onto its back.
Seeing her, the knights seemed to feel something and tried to stop her, but it was useless. Already, there was no one here who could stop this princess with fire in her eyes.
That person was far away, in danger.
Giddy up.
Quickly, faster.
A bit more…
Faster…!!
Cutting through the wind, Remi Akaia rode for her precious younger sister.
“What has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”
It’s a riddle posed by the Sphinx mentioned in Greek and Roman mythology.
Honestly, it’s more puzzling why the Sphinx, an Egyptian structure, appears in Greek and Roman mythology to ask a quiz, but frankly, these are two different entities.
There is indeed a monster named Sphinx in Greek and Roman mythology.
Some argue that they are the same, but I don’t need to care about that.
Not my concern.
Shall I reveal the answer? The answer to the riddle above is “human.” In fact, even a five-year-old who has heard it a thousand times knows the answer.
A child crawls on four legs when born, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks on three legs as an old person—especially with a cane.
Well, what I want to say is…
Crack!
“Kiaaaahhhh—!!! It hurts, it hurts, it hurttttt!!!!”
“Hahahahahahaha!!!”
Welcome to baby Aris.
I’m a baby. I’m crawling on four legs.
Having finally put human dignity on the floor, I was rolling on the ground as a tool for Anna’s pleasure.
Anna’s hunting boots mercilessly stomped on my hand.
The gritty iron on the soles was more than enough to cause pain.
The hand that had been chosen by her was the one pierced by an arrow. It was unclear whether it was on purpose or just an accidental action, but one thing was clear: Anna had struck down on the spot where the arrow was still embedded with all her might.
Crack, crack, snap. The sounds that should never have been heard from the hand started to echo.
It felt as if the current starting from my hand flowed through the bones right into my brain, frying it.
I had so much piled up… Unnie…
You wanted to catch the bunny first…
I didn’t know… I’m sorry… Actually, I knew… I’m really sorry…
“P-Please… Unnie… Come back—AAAHH!? “
“I told you to shut up—!!!”
The kicks continued. I crawled on the floor, trying to escape that flood of violence.
Sniff.
My clothes were already smeared with blood and dirt from my body. Spit, I coughed up the dried blood that had stuck to my neck.
According to her wishes, I was desperately and ignobly fleeing while screaming in fear.
Anna seemed to enjoy herself as she chased me.
The trees that had been blocking the sky began to disappear.
The sound of water flowing reached me from afar.
In my hands, the rocky sensation began to replace the dirt.
I already knew she was leading me somewhere. The arrows being shot at me, the violence being inflicted, all had a specific direction pushing me away.
Yeah, even in this extreme situation, Anna was doing her utmost to drive me into despair.
Sure enough, Anna is remarkable.
But just for a moment lost in thought, the chase I wished would last forever eventually came to an end.
Thud, a small pebble fell beneath my movement. Soon, that pebble was swept away by the current, disappearing without a trace.
A steep cliff that seemed to be at least dozens of meters high. Below it, a roaring current could be clearly heard only by the sounds of water from afar.
The vast landscape of nature seemed to tell me I had no further way to go.
Fleeing and fleeing, all that lay at the end of that long escape was despair.
Ah, so this is what you wanted to show me.
Unnie wanted me to acknowledge her pain.
We arrived at a dead end—the cliff where we couldn’t go any further.
I let out a moan filled with awe.
“Ah… Ahh…!!”
“Hahaha! Did you think you could escape!? Huh!?”
I turned around. Stepping out from the shadows, Anna emerged, brandishing swords in both hands.
The slow sound of her approaching footsteps was terrifying.
I probably looked despairing by now.
I was about to die at any moment.
Woosh!
Anna, who stopped about ten meters away, tossed one of the swords at me. I closed my eyes.
But the sword didn’t fly towards me.
Thunk, the thrown sword landed exactly between my legs.
It wasn’t an attack meant to kill me, as she slowly gripped the other sword with both hands and got into a stance.
…Why?
Aren’t you supposed to just kill me…?
As everything was coming to an end, what are you trying to do?
I muttered within my heart.
One leg stretched forward, the other pulled back.
Pointing the sharp sword towards me.
It felt like we were practicing swordsmanship—
“My head hurts. Even now, it’s thudding painfully.”
“…Un…ni…?”
Those always pitch-black eyes, fixated on me, looking as if they wanted to tear me apart right away.
In them, there was Anna Akaia.
From beginning to end, even in moments when I wanted to turn away, I faced everything without evading or fleeing.
This wasn’t influenced by emotions or curses I had sown. It couldn’t even be compared to such things.
It was without a doubt, Anna Akaia’s sincerity.
“If I kill you, will this pain disappear too?”
“I don’t… want… to… Unnie…”
I covered my eyes with the one arm I could declare intact.
Thud, thud. Tears poured down like rain.
No matter how much I covered my eyes with my hands, and my clothes caught my tears—endless tears soaked my sleeves, my pants, and ultimately soaked the dirt below.
I wasn’t crying out of sadness.
I was crying out of joy.
“Draw your sword, Aris Akaia.”
“I don’t want to fight… Unnie…!!!”
To Anna, I was always a curse that followed her.
She was speaking with her eyes.
Though I might have fled once, ultimately I would have no choice but to face her.
We both, it was our fate.
That’s why, the noble her was now here, trying to lift the curse placed on herself.
“—Otherwise, I’ll kill Remi.”
“A…ah…!!”
The final trial began.
I, held the sword.
Unconsciously, I wanted to defeat Aris.
Because the target was my younger sister, I thought of myself as ugly.
However, even knowing I would lose, that it was all futile, I still wanted to…
If I just let impulse take over, my heart would be at peace.
It’s okay to curse me. It’s okay to laugh at me. That’s as it should be.
I know by now it’s too late to turn back…!
But… just that last step…
I will take it.
Tomorrow.
The next day, perhaps the one after that.
This episode comes to an end.
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