Chapter 4 – A Fateful Encounter (4)

There was a separate reason for adopting Lina apart from being used for an engagement with the First Prince.

There was a minority of people who had mana affinity, unlike most people, and Lina inherited that ability. People like her usually showed their abilities around the age of ten.

It could be psychokinesis, foresight, or any other variety of abilities, but until the age of seventeen, Lina had shown no signs of this.

Seeing this as a disgrace to their family, Lina’s parents abandoned her at an orphanage.

And when my father found out about this, he adopted her with feeble expectations.

The situation was just right for me to declare that I could see the future.

My father liked this and thought that my abilities finally manifested. Back then, he was ecstatic, and it was obvious by the way he rambled.

‘Why aren’t you answering? Who do you think it’ll be?’

The only sword and shield I had to survive was my knowledge of the novel.

So I tried hard not to change the contents of the book.

And yet my silence soon became the shackles around my neck.

Since when had it been… my father would ask me to tell him everything, but his inferiority complex was expressed through this as he thought that I kept ignoring him.

‘I’ll make sure you won’t dare to question my authority.’

A large hand descended and strangled me.

It was the price of turning away from the opportunity he gave me.

* * * 

After I had been trapped underground and tortured, I realized how pathetic I had been in the past, thinking that those who knew nothing would not be able to change the future. It was arrogance.

It was also a great mistake to think that Dale, the second of his sons, would help me.

“Take her right now!”

It was the first time I disobeyed my father. At his command, knights came forward and caught me.

I left the office nearly being dragged away by a relentless grip.

I ran into Dale, who was climbing up the stairs as I was being dragged down by the knights.

Flustered, he could only watch as I rebelled against them, my nose bloody.

“What the hell is going on?”

“It is the Count’s command to lock the Lady at the dungeon.”

I thought he might help me.

Bane was hostile to me, while Peran was indifferent. Now my father was locking me up.

Whispering as they watched from afar, I didn’t expect any of the servants to help me. Strangely, I thought Dale would be different.

Maybe I thought that because he was nice to me.

“Father? What happened?”

“We do not know either.”

I grabbed Dale’s sleeve, and he looked at me with astonished eyes.

“H-Help me, please just…”

But my earnest plea couldn’t even be finished.

Dale looked straight ahead towards the office and walked right past me.

He just looked at me trying to hold onto his sleeve, but that was it.

Even though I knew there was no one in my family who would help me, I was still disheartened that I had expected even a little.

* * * 

It wasn’t until my father’s anger had abated that I could get out of the dungeon.

I was strangled and beaten in that dungeon.

During those days, I cursed the people of the Blan County as I planned to run away.

Those were days full of thoughts of setting fire to the mansion and running away, using a neglected oil lamp as the spark to the flame.

I looked for someone to help me.

Funnily enough, it was Dale, the second son of my father, who I reached out to.

Knock, knock.

I waited a long time after I knocked on the door, there was no answer.

Was he sleeping already?

It was right after the employees staying at the detached building left.

It was a mistake to come at such a late hour, so now, I was in a hurry to go back.

After contemplating a little more, I opened the door.

There was a bluish light shining on the bed.

I closed the door tightly and quietly walked forward.

The person I came to see was sleeping, just as I expected.

“Dale, are you sleeping?”

I leaned over slightly while looking at his sleeping face.

“Wake up for a second.”

I whispered into his ear and slapped his cheek slightly.

His forehead wrinkled, perhaps because of a nightmare. Soon, his eyes opened and I saw his blue irises.

As soon as our eyes met, he frowned as though he struggled to see in the dark.

I leaned back and straightened my upper body.

“What?”

Lighting the candle on the bedside table, he got up and looked at me annoyedly.

This space, which used to be filled only with the cold midnight, brightened quickly.

“I’m here to strike a deal with you.”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but just go back to your room.”

It wasn’t like he and I were particularly close.

Our relationship certainly didn’t entail late night visits to strike a deal.

“Why don’t you listen first before turning me away?”

“Regardless, I don’t want to hear it.”

How determined.

Dale sighed tiredly and swept his face with one hand.

His bloodshot eyes could be seen.

“If you don’t go to the door now, I’ll take you there.”

And he grabbed my wrist.

At the sudden contact, I looked up at Dale with astonishment as he tried to drag me across the room.

I twisted my wrist and gave strength to my legs.

As he sighed again and held my wrist tighter, I uttered the words that would definitely shake him.

“Don’t you want to see your family?”

His cold blue eyes looked down and met my gaze.

“I heard they were involved in some business—your biological parents.”

The twitching lips soon spouted acid. Perhaps it was because he just woke up, but his voice as he retorted was cracked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is it from a dream?”

“Don’t you want to know where they are now? They’ve never seen you since you were a kid.”

“Get out.”

My wrist was caught again with a powerful grip that forced me to follow him out. I was dragged away, and so I spewed out the words desperately.

“Your mother is sick. The doctor who goes in and out of their house says she has sepsis, but don’t worry. It’s not a clear diagnosis.”

As he tried to open the door and kick me out, Dale froze as he heard this.

I could feel the strength of his grip slowly loosening over my wrist.

He looked back at me as I retracted my arm.

“…What?”

Slowly, the glare directed at me faltered.

Seeing the agitation in his eyes, I reassured him that I wasn’t wrong.

It was worthwhile that I spent money on that information.

He didn’t believe it halfway through, but his reaction right now was enough of an opening.

“Don’t you want to hear from them?”

“…You.”

Dale paused for a moment. He inhaled deeply and continued.

“You’re the one who… How did you know?”

Ever since I decided to use Dale, I’d thrown away what’s left of my trivial conscience.

However, it was flustering to see such a vivid response, as though he was being cheated.

To be honest, I didn’t expect him to be this agitated.

“Tell me. How did you know?!”

He raised his hand in anger and I recoiled before I realized it.

His eyes glistened eerily just like that person.

I could feel a visceral reluctance.

My fingers grew stiff and my shoulders tense.

I shook my head to get rid of my father’s afterimage, then spoke.

“I heard it.”

“Who—when the hell?!”

“Well, is that important? Don’t come any further and just listen from there.”

I moved away from him and headed near the door in case I needed to escape.

Dale, who looked at the doorknob, sighed and took a step back.

“Father talked about it last time. I wasn’t sure about it either, but I think it’s right based on your reaction.”

“…”

Of course, my father didn’t say that to me.

I just knew it from the novel. The book had many peculiarities, and one of them was the very detailed backstory of the Blan County.

One of them was Dale’s secret.

’You can’t even do this right. How could someone so foolish succeed me?’

‘…I apologize.’

‘Do you want to be sent back? Then go ahead. Instead, we can pretend that our deal never happened.’

Dale was Count Ecyl Blan’s son.

He was also the successor of Ecyl’s business.

But actually, he was Ecyl’s nephew, only ostensibly a son.

I don’t know for what reason exactly he was adopted, but the only people who knew he was a nephew and not a son were Ecyl himself and his first son, Peran.

Just the process of him becoming Ecyl’s son wouldn’t have been smooth. Just like now, all I had to grab onto was the speculation that they weren’t on good terms.

“As I said earlier, I’m here to strike a deal.”

The nature of Ecyl’s ‘business’ was murder.

As much as he worked in various businesses, he would have come across some difficult people, and my father wasn’t a man who would do any dirty work.

Dealing with that was Dale’s job.

“I’m going to set this mansion on fire.”

I’d been observing him, and it seemed like he was being forced to stay here.

My father cared for his sons even though he was strict with them.

He smiled pleasantly whenever he looked at his first son Peran, and even though he scolded his youngest, Bane, he would feel sorry for him whenever he did.

But there was something strange with the way he regarded Dale.

He wasn’t heavily involved with that business and mostly left it alone, and he wasn’t active in social circles either.

There seemed to be an inexplicable line between them.

It might have been a leap, but I risked my life on the assumption that Dale was being forcibly held here.

“Get me out of here. If you help me with that, I’ll let you know where your parents are.”

“If I don’t want to.”

“…”

“What would you do if I said I don’t want to?”

I was taken aback, but I also prepared other things to convince him, but he continued with a hushed stream of words.

“I don’t want to hear about my parents. It’s better not to know. But Lina, why did you come here just to say that? Did you think I won’t say anything about this?”

“Of course not.”

That was a foolish thought.

Dale wasn’t that kind of person.

Didn’t he just stay by the sidelines while I was being abused?

When I asked for help before I was confined to the basement, I approached Dale.

Ecyl’s nephew.

Dale was a coward who simply watched as I was beaten and abused. He was also someone who was treated in the same way as me.

Perhaps it was because of the conditioning, but the fear he felt became instinctive.

“Dale. I’ll help you.”

I held his hand.

I held it firmly and raised my eyes to meet his blue irises.

“You don’t wish to live like this either.”

“So you’re saying we should run away together?”

“No. I’ll just send some courage your way.”

“…”

“If you help me…”

Dale’s hands were clammy.

Was he suffering from guilt?

It wasn’t his choice to kill people.

But it was only my assumption that he was being held here against his will.

I knew it was silly now to rely on the novel, but I was desperate enough to hang onto the narrative.

So please. Let this assumption be correct.

“You don’t have to kill anymore.”