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Chapter : 1
By the time winter, with snow falling in thick flurries, reached the Duchy of Aisien, the powerful cry of a newborn baby echoed throughout the ducal residence.
It was the birth of Arienne von Aisien, the youngest daughter of the ducal family.
The late-born youngest young lady was utterly adorable.
She had beautiful pale sky-blue hair like the Duke’s, turquoise eyes like the Duchess’s, and on top of that, a lively personality and an angelic kindness toward everyone—whether servants, maids, or anyone else—at any time and in any place.
No one could help but love her.
Not only the Duke and Duchess, but the young master, all the servants of the duchy, and even her young fiancé cherished and adored her deeply.
However, that happiness did not last long.
“Kyah!! Arienne!!”
On the occasion of Lady Arienne’s sixth birthday, she went on an outing with the young master and the Duke and Duchess. To surprise her, they left her in the carriage with her escort knight while they stepped away briefly to prepare a gift.
But that escort knight was a spy sent by another noble house that bore a grudge against the Aisien family.
They hurried back when they heard the child’s cries, but it was already too late.
The carriage had fallen off a steep cliff and shattered to pieces, and naturally, the beloved youngest young lady of Aisien passed away at a very young age.
“Ah… Arienne… my child….”
The young and beautiful Duchess withered away from the shock of losing her daughter, often losing her grip on sanity.
The ducal residence, once bright and full of laughter, gradually turned gloomy and desolate.
Then one day—
On a day when a typhoon raged and heavy rain poured down, the head maid of the duchy had just received leave and was about to step out of the estate.
“…Kyaaaah!!!”
A child was lying collapsed in front of the ducal gates.
“A child!!”
The Duchess rushed toward her the moment she saw the child.
Blue hair and turquoise eyes—her hair color, eye color, even her appearance.
The child resembled the late Lady Arienne so closely that one could believe they were twins.
The child had no memory of how she had come to the ducal estate.
The only thing she remembered was her name: Arien.
Even her name resembled that of the young lady.
The Duchess would not let the child go, insisting that her deceased daughter had returned alive.
Everyone was captivated by the child, who was so similar that searching for differences was nearly meaningless, and in the end, the child was adopted into the Duchy of Aisien.
Though they were not her biological parents or brother, the child was happy.
Her mother, father, and older brother always cherished her and treated her with warmth and affection.
The child gradually formed deep bonds with her family.
Even the Crown Prince, who had been the original young lady’s fiancé, cherished and loved her.
It took no time at all for the child to lose her heart to him and to come to love the people who were always kind to her.
Thus, for ten years, the child lived happily as Lady Arien von Aisien.
However—
Misfortune crept up on her without a sound.
It was one summer day when the child had grown and turned sixteen.
“Mother, Father, Brother, Your Highness—I’m back.”
They had all been gathered together, chatting as they enjoyed dinner.
At the unfamiliar voice, they turned their heads.
Silence fell over the once lively table.
Standing there was a girl who had grown tall and now looked exactly like Arien, with the same hair color and appearance.
Clatter—the Duchess dropped the knife she had been holding.
Staggering, she walked toward the suddenly appeared girl.
“…Arienne…?”
A trembling voice escaped the Duke’s lips.
Ten years ago, Arienne—who they believed had died after falling from a cliff with the carriage—had returned.
The entire estate was swept up in an atmosphere like a festival.
Even the child, seeing the Duke, Duchess, her brother, and everyone else rejoicing, smiled along with them and congratulated the returned girl—who looked like her but was even more beautiful.
The Duchess treated both the child and Arienne as her own daughters, and the same was true for the Duke and the young master.
Though it was difficult to determine who was older, Arienne, as the one who carried the blood of Aisien, became the elder sister, and the child became the younger.
The child had no doubts about this. What mattered was that she had gained a sister in Arienne, who was far kinder, gentler, and more beautiful than herself.
The child liked Arienne.
She liked that Arienne genuinely liked her too, even her—who had suddenly appeared while Arienne had been absent from the ducal house.
The vague anxiety that had lingered in a corner of her heart when Arienne first arrived quickly faded away.
Because the child’s room had originally been Arienne’s, she moved to the room next door, but that was all. The two were always together like sisters who had been close from the start, and everyone in the estate—including the maids and servants—took pride in the two young ladies.
Though not biological sisters, people would chatter whenever they saw them, calling them fate-bound twins sent by God.
How wonderful it would have been if the story had ended there, with everyone in the duchy living happily ever after…
But the reality that came to the child—to me—was not so forgiving.
It was about a month after Arienne returned to the ducal estate.
It started with the servants.
“Hey, did you hear? Yesterday Lady Arien did something to Lady Arienne…”
“…My goodness.”
“Isn’t that… a bit too much?”
“I know, right.”
At some point, the servants began gossiping about me behind my back.
Most of it was about me harming Arienne. I laughed it off as ridiculous gossip, but as time passed, the lies grew more elaborate and spread throughout the estate.
From small rumors that I had stolen Arienne’s jewelry and torn her dresses, to claims that I had thrown tea on Arienne in a fit of anger while the two of us were drinking together.
By the time I realized how serious the situation had become, people were already whispering whenever they saw me.
They said that a mere stand-in for the young lady dared to envy and torment the noble, true-blooded young lady—and that the kind young lady simply endured it all without saying a word.
These rumors eventually reached the ears of the Duke and Duchess—my father and mother.
They summoned both me and my sister.
“…Such rumors are going around. Is it true, Arien? Arienne?”
“What are you talking about, Father? Sister, when did I ever—Sister?”
I immediately tried to refute the absurd accusation, but when my sister, standing beside me, said nothing, I turned to her in confusion.
She kept her head bowed, saying nothing, merely lifting one arm to hold the other.
Because of that, beneath her rolled-up sleeve, marks of scratches and swelling were visible. Mother gasped and covered her mouth with a trembling hand.
“…Oh my. Arienne, these—these wounds…”
Like the tragic heroine of some sorrowful novel, my sister lowered her head with a pitiful expression.
“Arien! Go to your room at once and reflect on your actions! How could you do this to your sister—have you lost your mind?!”
“F-Father, I—”
“Go at once!!”
Without even trying to hear me out, Father chased me away and slammed the door to his study shut.
I stared blankly at the firmly closed door.
From inside, I could hear Mother crying and Father speaking gently as he comforted my sister.
What on earth was this situation?
Everything felt like a colorless, ash-gray play.
I looked around.
On the day I was expelled from the study, I felt the servants’ eyes on me as they whispered discreetly.
Malicious, hostile gazes flew toward me.
That was when it began.
No one believed me.
I was the one who had lived in this estate for ten years, who had been their family—yet everyone, as if bewitched, took only Arienne’s side.
Unable to endure it any longer, I explained everything to my fiancé, His Highness the Crown Prince.
“Have you lost your mind?!”
He was no different.
Why? Why would no one believe me?
It felt as though I had been abandoned alone on a deserted island.
The rumors grew ever more vicious, and everyone began to look at me as if I were a monster.
A counselor Father brought in to resolve the conflict between Arienne and me looked at me with contempt and said I should be isolated from Arienne.
I went to see Arienne, but upon seeing me, she trembled violently as if traumatized, pulling the blanket over herself. When Father saw that scene, he drove me away again—this time from the estate itself.
I was made to live in a small hut in a corner of the garden.
I crouched down inside.
Where did everything go wrong?
Tears streamed endlessly down my face.
I hadn’t done anything—so why, why was this happening?
Everything kept growing more and more wrong.
