IBYK 02

Chapter 02

“Lady Rose, the youngest Miss, has opened her eyes!!”

That word—seared into her soul like a brand amidst unbearable pain.

Bleang. That cursed family echoing in her ears again.

“Ahhh!!”

Bleang. Bleang. That devil, Ebony.

The scream she had never been able to release finally tore free.

Even as the metallic scent of blood from her ruptured throat filled the air, she did not stop screaming.

“Miss! Miss!!”

Though moments ago she had lain helpless on the grass, her entire body feeling shattered from the fall, now her arms and legs thrashed wildly.

But at the same time, restraining hands rushed in.

As if snatching away freedom she had only just regained, they seized her arms, legs, and shoulders, pinning her down.

“Let go! Bleang!! Cough—!”

“M-Miss, you mustn’t get so agitated!”

Her throat felt torn apart. Her head felt like it would split open.

Pale gasped for breath.

“Me… me—!”

As strangers kept calling her Rose Bleang, she began to wonder—

Was this hell?

And she became certain of it when the very source of her misfortune shamelessly appeared before her.

“Rose…! Oh my goodness, it’s true—you’ve woken up. Thank heavens. It’s me, your sister Ebony!”

Ebony embraced her carefully, as if handling a precious jewel.

The warmth of that disgusting embrace—so warm despite everything—made Pale want to vomit.

You were the one who pushed me from that high balcony.

How can you smile like that?

‘Why are you still smiling?’

Ebony looked at her as if she were something dearly treasured.

Eyes warm in a way Pale had never seen before.

“Urk—!”

At last, she couldn’t suppress the nausea rising in her throat.

The pain from the fall seemed to creep upward from her toes through her legs once more.

Struggling to escape Ebony’s arms, her limbs suddenly lost strength and her body sagged.

“Stay with us, Rose! Rose! Call the doctor immediately!”

The day she regained consciousness, Ebony came again—this time with the Marquis and Marchioness.

“Oh, my daughter. You’ve finally awakened.”

“Sniff… Thank goodness. It was true.”

“Rose, we were so worried you might never wake— Kyah!”

That devil appeared tirelessly, invading her vision again.

And in that repeating agony, her hand moved on its own.

She grabbed a fistful of Ebony’s hair with both hands.

“Ah! Aah! Rose! Let go! Rose!”

“R-Rose, my child! What are you all doing?! Come and—!”

Ebony’s shrieking struggle sounded like ecstatic music.

“Haha!!”

Only then could she laugh.

Yes. Suffer like that. Cry.

Feel pain.

“Hahaha!!”

That was what Pale did after awakening in Rose Bleang’s body.

“Dalton. Why on earth is our Rose behaving like this?”

Within the Bleang Marquisate, there was a rumor everyone pretended not to hear—yet it spread quietly all the same.

The subject whispered among the servants lately was the youngest daughter of the house.

Rose Bleang, who had fallen into a coma at seventeen and awakened two years later at nineteen.

“What is the cause of this? How long will she remain like that?”

“I-I’m sorry, but… I cannot say for certain.”

“You are the Bleang family’s physician, Dalton! If you don’t know, then who does?!”

Under the Marquis’s furious roar, Dalton broke into a cold sweat.

It was good news that the young lady had awakened—but how could he possibly know why she acted like a madwoman?

“Perhaps… since she was unconscious for so long, she is confused after waking so suddenly…”

“Ha…”

Two years.

That was how long their precious youngest daughter had lain unconscious.

“She may simply need time to adjust. Perhaps it would be best to observe for now—”

“How long are we supposed to ‘observe’ her like that?! Rumors are already spreading within the estate!”

“…My apologies.”

Dalton bit his lip bitterly.

They refused to show her to another renowned physician to protect her reputation.

What exactly was he supposed to do?

“At the very least, Marquis, it may help if you and Madam visit her more often.”

“…Very well.”

Following Dalton’s advice, the Marquis went to Rose’s room with his wife.

The room that once rang with hysterical screams was now so quiet one dared not even breathe loudly.

Knock, knock—

“Rose?”

No answer.

“Rose, Mother and Father are coming in.”

Still silence.

The Marquis opened the door.

Though born frail, she had been a bright and lovable child.

“Papa!”

Cotton-candy pink hair. Sparkling light-green eyes.

Rose Bleang had been their most cherished daughter.

Always smiling, always running into their arms with her small, warm body.

“……”

Now the room had no vitality.

Her lively energy had long since withered.

“Rose.”

There was no light in her vacant eyes.

Unable to bear it, the Marchioness grasped her daughter’s hand and burst into tears.

“Rose… please. You can do it. Mother and Father believe in you.”

At that moment, Rose’s head moved.

She stared at the Marchioness, who was crying with her face buried against the bed, and slowly parted her lips.

“You can do it. We believe in you.”

Barely more than a breath.

The words didn’t reach the Marquis and Marchioness.

They reached Rose—

No, Pale.

The mind that had been frozen within the shackles of the Bleang name began to stir.

‘Mother. Father.’

She saw the Marchioness’s slender, delicate hand holding hers.

And overlapping it—

Another hand.

Rougher.

“Pale. You can do it. We believe in you.”

…Mother? Father?

A single tear slid from Rose’s empty eyes.

—

She remembered that day.

When her parents told her they couldn’t send her to Hice Academy—and she ran away in rebellion.

“I won’t come back until you promise to send me!”

Others went simply because they were of age.

But she couldn’t, because they had no money.

“I wanted to go to the academy so badly!”

You said I had talent.

You said I’d become the best.

She poured resentment onto her parents’ devastated faces.

And in the end, unable to withstand their daughter’s stubbornness, the Baron and Baroness made a final decision.

A way—any way—to send her to the academy.

“You’ll send me? H-How…?”

You said we didn’t have enough tuition.

The Baroness gently took her daughter’s hand.

Pale was startled.

‘Mother’s hands…’

They were rough. Not like a noblewoman’s at all.

“This year, they’re introducing a special admission track for commoners.”

“If you place within the top three, tuition is fully covered.”

That meant—

If she failed to rank in the top three, she could not enter.

“We will relinquish the title of Baron of Poste. Then you’ll qualify for the special track.”

“Because of me…”

“Yes. Because of you. But for your sake, that is nothing.”

Her parents gave up their title and became commoners to give her that chance.

The weight of it crushed her.

“B-But what if I don’t make top three?”

The Baron and Baroness embraced their fearful daughter tightly.

“Pale. You can do it. We believe in you.”

Unable to refuse the sacrifice made for her, Pale wept uncontrollably.

She studied desperately—and entered as second place.

And then—

“This year’s first place is Student Pale.”

It had been fierce, but in her second year she even surpassed last year’s top student, Atio Grandium, and claimed first place.

But the opportunity her parents gave her—

Her long-held dream—

All of it vanished.

Because of that damned Bleang.

Bleang. Bleang.

The Bleang family that took everything from her.

The Bleang she wanted to erase.

—

“Mother. Father.”

The room fell silent.

The Marquis and Marchioness looked up in disbelief.

“…Rose?”

“D-Did she just call us…?”

Pale met their eyes.

Then she gave them the smile their youngest daughter would have worn.

Eyes curved like crescents, light-green irises sparkling, cheeks softly lifted.

“Rose! My daughter! You’ve finally come back to us!!”

Held in their embrace, Rose gazed past the window where white snow drifted down.

Softly, she murmured:

Mother. Father.

Thinking of her real parents under the same sky.

Tenderly.

I love you.

Please wait just a little longer.

I’ll finish everything—

And then I’ll come back.