BTVF 01

Chapter 01

“She wasn’t like that originally!”

Robrin Tenevris shouted in an agitated voice.

Her husband, Anwen Tenevris, wore a grief-stricken expression, as if he agreed with her feelings a hundredfold.

“Please calm down, my lady. Our daughter will be fine.”

“But…!”

He pulled his wife into his arms and soothed her gently. As if she couldn’t bear to say another word, Robrin buried her face in her husband’s chest, her shoulders trembling.

The counselor sitting across from them, who had been watching the scene, carefully opened his mouth. His small eyes behind his glasses darted about nervously as he read the room.

“Um… so, what exactly seems to be the problem with your child?”

“…Did you just say ‘problem’?”

“Eek!”

At that single slip of the tongue, the couple’s true nature surfaced instantly. The two pairs of eyes that whipped around to glare at him were not just cold, but chilling.

Anwen spoke, not bothering to hide his displeasure. For a brief moment, even murderous intent flickered in his deeply furrowed brow.

“Please be mindful of your choice of words. Our child has no ‘problem.’ She’s merely been going through a bit of a phase lately.”

“Y-yes, of course! You’re absolutely right! I spoke without thinking! Please forgive me…!”

Terrified, the counselor immediately slammed his forehead onto the desk and begged for forgiveness.

Anwen very much wanted to replace him with another counselor on the spot, but he forcibly suppressed the urge. What mattered now was the sudden change that had occurred in their beloved daughter, Lerriel Tenevris.

That was precisely why they had gone to such lengths to seek out a highly reputed psychological counselor in the first place.

With a sigh, Anwen gently stroked his wife’s back again and nodded.

“My dear, go on. Tell him.”

At his touch, Robrin—who had been glaring as if she might tear the counselor apart—finally calmed down enough to speak.

The moment she opened her mouth, a sob escaped.

“Well… our child…”

“Our child…?”

It seemed the situation was more serious than expected. At her drawn-out words, the counselor leaned forward with a tense expression.

But what followed was nothing like the ordinary cases he had heard so far.

It was very, very different.

“Our child suddenly became kind!”

A long silence followed. The counselor tilted his head, wondering if he had misheard.

Isn’t that a good thing?

The thought nearly slipped out of his mouth. But the words died before they could escape. The atmosphere surrounding the Tenevris couple was anything but normal.

They were utterly sincere in believing that their daughter being kind was, in fact, a problem.

If I offend them again, I might lose my head. These people would definitely be capable of it.

Sensing a genuine threat to his life, the counselor hurriedly cleared his throat.

Being marked by the true powers of the Kingdom of Trian would bring nothing good.

“She suddenly became… kind, you say? May I ask why you think so?”

Doing his best to phrase it gently, the counselor wrote the following on the chart atop his desk:

Daughter suddenly became kind???

He made sure to add at least three question marks.

“Well, isn’t it obvious? She started doing things she never used to do!”

Oblivious to the counselor’s inner turmoil, Robrin continued her explanation with desperate urgency.

Just recalling it seemed painful—her refined face was quickly dyed with fear.

“She started looking after the maids, donating to orphanages…”

“Ah, yes…”

“She even tried to break off her engagement to the crown prince—the one we secured through threats! A-ah… ahh…!”

“Robrin!”

Pouring her heart into her words, Robrin finally swayed, unable to continue. Anwen hurriedly supported her, letting her lean against his shoulder.

From Robrin’s half-closed eyes, a single tear finally slipped free. With the face of a wounded parent, she murmured,

“Our child was never like this… Lerriel, whatever happened to you…?”

She had already said she wasn’t like this twice. That clearly meant there had been no issue before.

Whether this truly counted as a “problem” was debatable, but in any case, the counselor diligently wrote everything Robrin said onto the chart.

After bowing his head as if in deep thought, he spoke again.

“When did these symptoms first appear?”

“…Well, let me think. When was it?”

Anwen answered in place of the exhausted Robrin, searching his memory.

At what point had his daughter—who had grown up wicked enough to be shown off without shame—gone astray?

After pondering for a long moment, he finally found a clue and lifted his head. His solemn voice carried a desperate hope, however faint.

“…It was about a month ago.”

Crash!

A peaceful afternoon. The Tenevris family was gathered together, enjoying dinner.

When a sharp noise shattered the atmosphere.

“Ah… hic….”

A maid stared down at the sharp shards of glass scattered at her feet, her hands trembling uncontrollably. Her face was pale as a corpse.

The moment she lifted her head, gazes like daggers flew at her. They were eyes filled with contempt, as if she were some loathsome insect.

What should I do…?

The maid looked back down at the floor in despair. In front of people who tolerated no mistakes to begin with, she had caused a disastrous one.

This wasn’t something that would end with a slap or a beating. The drink in the shattered glass was one Lerriel particularly liked.

The moment she dropped it while trying to serve it, everything was already over.

Even among the wicked Tenevris family, Lerriel was infamous for her vicious and venomous temperament.

Maids who had quit because they couldn’t endure her torment were countless throughout the kingdom.

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll clean it up right away…!”

Snapping out of it, the maid bent down to try to salvage the situation. Even though she knew it wouldn’t change anything, she couldn’t stop herself.

Her movements were frantic, desperate. Her eyes were already red with tears.

“Stop.”

Her hands froze mid-motion.

It was because of the low, cold voice.

A dark shadow fell over the maid. Lerriel had stood up and taken a few steps, stopping right in front of her.

The maid could barely breathe anymore.

“I-I mean, I truly… really…”

She couldn’t even finish apologizing. Tears streamed down her chin, creating a new stain on the carpet.

Her frozen hands moved again in panic. At last, her fingertips were cut by the glass, blood welling up—but she didn’t even feel the pain.

Compared to what she was about to suffer, this was nothing.

Snap!

“Didn’t you hear me? I told you to stop.”

“Ah!”

The hand sweeping over the carpet was forcibly halted. Lerriel had grabbed the maid’s wrist.

The maid’s head was dragged upward, forced to meet her mistress’s gaze.

Cloudy green eyes, like poison mixed in water, stared at her without emotion. Full, pale-red lips neither smiled nor twisted.

If only she had openly mocked her or raged like the others, it would have been better. Lerriel’s anger was so eerily still that it was even more terrifying.

Sensing the end, the maid squeezed her eyes shut.

A slap was a given, followed by every kind of humiliating insult. In the end, she would be beaten senseless and thrown out of the house.

Along with an enormous debt under the name of “compensation.”

It was something that had happened countless times in this household already.

Nothing new. The Tenevris family had always operated this way—and even took pride in it.

After a brief silence, Lerriel spoke.

“If you pick up glass with your bare hands, you’ll get hurt. You need to be careful.”

In that instant, everyone present doubted their ears.

Clatter.

Anwen dropped the cutlery he was holding.

Robrin’s eyes widened so much that the whites were visible all around.

The drink Hable had been sipping spilled straight down his chin.

Ignoring them all, Lerriel carefully examined the maid’s finger. It was only a light wound, with blood just beginning to bead, yet her expression made it seem as though she were looking at a serious injury.

“Oh my, it’s already bleeding. What should we do?”

“M-m-miss…? I know I was wrong, so please, just stop….”

The situation was so utterly alien that the maid couldn’t accept it as reality. Surely, this was some twisted way of scolding her—mockery born of rage.

The maid’s already pale face turned ashen. She even felt a threat to her life.

“Ah, this will do.”

Yet Lerriel didn’t get angry. Instead, she took out a luxurious handkerchief and carefully wrapped the maid’s finger.

Press. Press.

Only after tying it neatly into a little ribbon did Lerriel release her hand.

A bright, gentle smile—like the morning sunlight—played across Lerriel’s face.

“Be more careful next time, okay?”