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Chapter 88
Valer slowed his steps, burdened by a familiar headache.
The distinctive pain, as if his nerves were being gnawed away, was a side effect of Halbern’s supernatural ability.
—Valer.
This hallucination, this phantom voice…
The hand pressing against his temple faltered for a moment.
Even the brain, which had always shown him only nasty hallucinations, occasionally gave him a glimpse of what he longed to see.
—Valer, how have you been?
Softly tousled platinum hair and kind rose-colored eyes. Even the gentle smile he thought he would never see again.
“……Sister.”
Even if it was a vision created by hallucination, for this moment, he felt joy.
—My adorable little brother.
Staring silently at the apparition, Valer let out a rough breath.
“Sister.”
Even with the transcendent senses he had acquired through years of swordsmanship, he knew this couldn’t be real—yet he was helplessly entranced.
“Shione… sister.”
The one person who always made him feel like a child.
His irreplaceable weakness.
The vision approached and enveloped his cheek. There was no warmth, yet it felt unbearably tender.
—You must be happy.
The further he resisted, the stronger the hallucination became. Being in the Northern Castle was easier in that sense.
Things unseen while he slaughtered monsters and drenched himself in blood at every moment…
Perhaps that was why he instinctively avoided returning to the capital.
—You must be happy, my little brother.
The repeated voice, like a chain binding him, was fragile. Valer bowed his head, feeling as if he might cry.
“I couldn’t even protect you…”
Why did his sister always tell him to be happy?
In his childhood, the only one who cared for him amid neglect was his sister, just four years older than him.
Shione. She had been his mother, his friend, his teacher, his god.
Until Mehen was brought into his life, she had been the only humanity Valer possessed.
“This household is insane.”
Shione had hated Halbern.
“Everyone except you and me is insane.”
No—she hated it.
The secrecy that kept them from leaving the house, the family traditions that disregarded people as human, the father who was both the head of the household and a dictator, and her own inability to oppose him—she hated them all.
Lord Morden couldn’t tolerate a single action of his daughter.
Going to see their mother in the inner chambers, carefully caring for her younger brother, disobeying orders, even defying him—all of it was unacceptable.
The relationship between Morden Halbern and Shione Halbern was the worst, and in Valer’s memory, the two of them were always fighting.
“You will not be a failed work like your sister.”
The end of such hatred was a predetermined catastrophe.
A daughter who wouldn’t even call her father “father” was treated like a pawn by him, and eventually, he drew his sword.
At just sixteen, without even attending her debutante ball, her father sold her off without hesitation.
An unwanted political marriage.
Naturally, Shione Halbern resisted vehemently.
“I told you, I don’t want this marriage!”
“Behave usefully, even once, Shione Siguria Halbern.”
Her meticulously planned escape and even her near-suicidal last resort failed, and Shione was carried off unconscious.
That was the last image of his sister that Valer remembered.
“Your sister has served her purpose, so she will be happy. Stop worrying and focus on your duty, my son.”
Valer trembled with helplessness at his own inability to do anything.
For the first time, he learned how painful it could be to be powerless, weak, and unable to help.
Only after losing the most precious thing did he realize it, too late.
And…
“How dare you…!”
He tried, belatedly, to set things right.
At sixteen, the age when Valer inherited the Halbern dukedom after Morden Halbern’s accidental death, he had seized everything for himself.
For his sister.
“Accidental death? What a joke.”
He held the entire world in his hands, yet there was one thing he could not possess.
On the day his wife, whom he obsessed over and desired, finally freed herself by taking her own life, Valer killed that man.
“You… you feel nothing for your mother who abandoned us?! How can you shed no tears?!”
“Father.”
“Ugh…”
“I have no mother.”
Despite all the hatred…
“You destroyed her.”
In the end, he became like him.
“You killed all of my family.”
Mother, sister, and even the last remnants of love and respect for his father.
After forcing Shione into marriage, the head of the house even mentioned Mehen.
That, paradoxically, brought Valer, who was spiraling in grief, back to his senses.
‘I cannot lose Mehen too.’
The only friend Valer Sirun Halbern had who wasn’t given by Halbern, but held by himself.
That erased all hesitation.
The result of combining his sister’s legacy, his mother’s preparations, and Valer’s resolve.
By the time the head of the household realized the poison he had swallowed, it was already too late.
The will left behind with wide-open eyes was a curse:
“Your child will one day kill you too.”
What did I say at that time?
“I really hope so.”
“At least, that doesn’t mean I’ll be alive until then.”
“I already want to die now.”
Father won. Valer was broken. He couldn’t even tell where or how he had broken, so it could not be fixed.
He just desperately pretended to be okay.
“Still, it’s fortunate.”
No one knew he had gone mad.
—My poor little brother.
I wish my pitiful sister had ever resented me even once.
He regretted as the vision vanished.
He reached out but could not touch it. It had never truly existed.
As emptiness overcame him, he laughed bitterly, and the sound of laughter mixed with the wind.
Drawn as if hypnotized, he followed, and under the moonlight of that night, small silhouettes danced.
Deep violet eyes twinkled.
It was a scene like a vision.
Valer crossed his arms and watched his ‘daughter’ smiling.
“I’ve never seen you smile before.”
Or had he? Perhaps he had seen her smile at Mehen.
Tracing his memory, Valer looked again. There, still smiling happily, was Arelin.
A peaceful and tranquil scene.
Something he once had, but could never have again.
Mehen was huddled in a corner of the ballroom, trying to sort out her tangled thoughts. She kept drinking, but instead of getting drunk, her mind grew clearer.
‘Is the alcohol too weak?’
She wanted the buzz to help escape the shitty reality, but even that was denied.
She gazed into the void, then exhaled a deep sigh from her core.
‘Valer…’
All the confusion stemmed from the answers she had heard the previous day.
“That’s right, she’s not my daughter.”
“But she is my daughter.”
At the puzzled look from Mehen, as if to say, “What nonsense is this?”, Valer only smiled.
“So, she isn’t your biological child, but you still consider her your daughter?”
“Smart, Mehen.”
“Then… whose daughter is she?”
“If she isn’t my biological daughter in the Halbern line, there’s only one possibility left, right?”
“Haha?”
“My clever partner would know.”
No way… right? Huh? No, it can’t be what I think, right?
Denying, ignoring, avoiding—but nothing changed. The only possibility was clear.
“No wonder her eyes look alike…”
Mehen buried her face in her hands in frustration.
“That’s right, she’s your sister’s daughter.”
“Valer, you crazy bastard.”
What on earth is that man thinking?
Shione is now the Grand Duchess married to Lord Regent Locke of the Southern Empire. Therefore, Arelin is the regent’s daughter.
‘Are they planning for war?’
If Lord Regent Locke knew this, would he sit idly? He’s got a fierce temper too.
But Valer? Would the Halbern Duke quietly allow his ‘sister’s daughter’ to be taken?
“Maybe I should resign after all.”
