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Chapter 55……..
To tear apart the Wintel family’s heirloom wedding dress—
Even if it had been only a decoy, sneaking into the storage room at dawn to commit the crime was in itself a grave offense.
Lady Cyrillez’s eyes trembled faintly as she spoke in a heavy voice.
“Lately… yes, lately… I had felt that child was changing. There were many signs.”
“Mother…”
“It seems my blade has dulled with age. I shut my eyes, closed my ears, and failed to notice until Dite committed such atrocities within my own castle.”
“……”
“It is my fault. I raised her this way—it is my fault….”
Lady Cyrillez struck her chest in grief. Etisha quickly caught her hand to stop her. Earlier, the Lady had comforted Etisha—now it was Etisha who gave comfort in return.
Before long, Dite was brought down in chains.
Held by the knights, she trembled with the guilt written plain on her face.
“C-Cayenne. My lady….”
Cayenne gave her one final chance—to confess. It was the last mercy he could show, given their shared past as foster siblings.
“Judite. If you have anything to say, speak now.”
“……”
“If you have an excuse, I will listen.”
But Dite made the foolish choice.
“What? I-I don’t know what you mean, Cayenne. Why is everyone looking at me that way?”
“……”
“Why? You’re scaring me… did something happen?”
Lady Cyrillez, uncharacteristically, raised her voice.
“Judite! Speak the truth at once. If you confess, I will treat you as my daughter and the punishment will not be severe. But if you turn away and feign ignorance to the end…”
“My lady…?”
“Then from that moment on, I will no longer regard you as my daughter.”
“……”
“I will cast aside all the years I raised you, and punish you strictly for dishonoring the Wintel family.”
Dite shrank back, trembling violently.
Her arms hurt from the knights’ grip, Cayenne and Lady Cyrillez’s cold gazes terrified her—and at the center of it all was Etisha. Etisha El, Baroness-to-be.
How she hated that everything revolved around her.
“I… I, um… well….”
She bit her tongue hard.
For a moment she almost confessed everything out of fear. Only by biting down did she manage to stop herself from blurting out the truth.
It’s fine. It was late at night—everyone was asleep. No one knows I went into the storage room. I checked several times.
She shook her head.
“Why are you all saying this? I don’t know anything. I’ve been in the tower all along. You know—ever since I fell down the castle wall stairs and hurt myself….”
“Your injuries have healed. You received magical treatment.”
“N-no! It still hurts. Even now my body aches all over!”
Lie after lie spilled from her lips. And once begun, the lies snowballed beyond control.
After all, her claim about falling down the wall stairs was a lie to begin with. Now every word was false.
“I’m sick….”
“……”
“I’m really sick… I want to go back to the tower. Let me go.”
Cayenne’s eyes grew icily cold as he looked down at her. Dite didn’t realize, but he was already treating her with unusual leniency.
By his strict nature, he should have executed judgment immediately—without any chance to speak.
“…Very well. You’ll be sent back to the tower.”
He tossed the vision stone at her feet.
It rolled, bumping against her shoes—and instantly began to play.
[Oh?]
[The wedding dress… so pretty.]
[Pretty. So, so pretty.]
[…]
The room turned frigid.
Seeing herself replayed in the vision, Dite’s face drained of color. It felt as though all her blood had fled, leaving her a dried-up corpse.
“Judite. From this moment on, you will be confined to the Tower of Stars. You will not step outside without my permission. You will be treated no differently than a prisoner in Wintel’s dungeon.”
“N-no, please—!”
“All personal belongings will be confiscated. You will receive only the same clothing and meals as the prisoners.”
“No… no, don’t…!”
Dite collapsed to the ground. The knights moved to lift her, but she lunged forward and clutched at Cayenne’s leg.
“Cayenne!”
Clinging to him, she sobbed.
“No! It’s not what you think—I don’t know anything! I don’t even know why I’m in that vision!”
“Judite. Stop this disgrace and let go.”
“S-sleepwalking! I must have been sleepwalking! That’s it! Ever since I fell down the stairs, I’ve had headaches and I hear strange voices—unfamiliar voices….”
“Judite.”
“It’s true! Believe me, please! I’m really sick…! hic I’m so miserable, in pain, scared… why won’t anyone believe me?”
Cayenne looked down at her with impassive eyes.
He had kept quiet for Lady Cyrillez’s sake, but now he had no choice but to expose all of Dite’s sins.
“There’s no need to lie. I already know everything.”
“…What?”
“You tried to snatch and break Lady Etisha’s wedding ring last time as well, didn’t you?”
“……”
“And you never fell down the stairs at all.”
Sure enough, Lady Cyrillez’s face darkened at his words.
“What…?”
Hearing that this wasn’t even her first offense made it utterly impossible to forgive.
“Cayenne, what do you mean? Dite tried to break the wedding ring? How—how could you do such a thing…!”
She could no longer contain herself.
Lady Cyrillez’s eyes blazed like a beast as she stepped forward. Dite tried to hide behind Cayenne’s leg, but he mercilessly stepped aside.
“My lady, please—it isn’t true!”
“Judite. That you had feelings for Cayenne—I thought, perhaps, that much I could understand. I tried to be understanding.”
“T-that was a mistake! I won’t do it again, never—”
“You’ve always cared for him specially, so I thought it must be hard for you to accept his marriage. But this—this goes beyond all bounds.”
“I-I was wrong, my lady… I didn’t mean to, I wasn’t thinking—”
“Silence!”
Lady Cyrillez’s shout was sharp, her expression more pained than anyone’s.
Her gray eyes swam with regret of the years past—when she brought a ten-year-old girl into Wintel Castle and raised her like her own daughter.
“…How could you do this.”
Memories flashed: Dite running through the estate gardens; racing up the stairs; growing tall until her skirts grew too short; golden hair and golden eyes, smiling like an angel as she looked up at her foster mother.
“How could you….”
“……”
“Dite. I never truly knew you.”
Tears welled in Lady Cyrillez’s eyes. Before they could fall, she turned her back.
“You… and I, for not realizing until now—I cannot forgive either of us. You’ll be punished with confinement, but tell me—how shall I atone?”
“……”
“I….”
Suddenly, Lady Cyrillez strode to the wall of the storage room. Before anyone could stop her, she seized the Wintel family’s treasured sword.
Shrrk.
The scabbard fell away, revealing a gleaming blade.
A real sword, not an ornament.
“Mother!”
“Stop, Mother!”
Cayenne and Etisha cried out in alarm, but Lady Cyrillez’s resolve was iron.
“As I cannot forgive you, so too I cannot forgive myself.”
“…!!”
Slash.
She swung the blade down.
By the time Cayenne snatched it from her grasp, her long, lustrous hair had already been severed in one stroke. As expected of the former Duchess of Wintel—her swordsmanship was flawless.
“It is done.”
“……”
“Judite. You are no longer my daughter.”
Her black locks lay scattered on the floor among the white shreds of the wedding dress—black and white fragments, eerily beautiful.
“Confine her in the tower. As Cayenne ordered—treat her no differently than a prisoner. No privilege, no favor. I… will never again call her my daughter.”
All were silenced by her commanding presence.
Cayenne nodded, and the knights hauled Dite up from the ground.
As they dragged her away, she sobbed faintly,
“L…lies….”
“……”
“You never once let me call you ‘Mother’… how could I ever be your daughter….”
Her thin, broken voice was swallowed by her own sobs. And even if it had been heard, no one would have answered.
The knights pulled her out of the storage room. Etisha and Cayenne turned quickly to check on Lady Cyrillez.
Fortunately, apart from her severed hair, she was unharmed. Etisha gently brushed the shortened strands, her lips trembling, unable to find words of comfort.
“…I am all right, my dear.”
“Mother….”
Among noblewomen, long hair was a given. Even common women in the streets grew their hair long. But now, Lady Cyrillez’s hair barely touched her shoulders.
“It’s only hair. I’ve not lost an arm, nor my head.”
“……”
“Men cut their hair short all the time. Why should women be any different? So yes… I am all right.”
What she had cut was not her hair.
It was the years she had shared with Dite.
As Dite grew, her hair had grown with her. Cutting it meant cutting away that time together.
“…The air is cold. I should rest now.”
“……”
“Age must be making me sensitive to the chill. Cayenne, Etisha—I will take my leave.”
She rose, gently dismissing them. They wished to follow, but she refused firmly.
And so, with her shortened hair, Lady Cyrillez left the storage room—appearing more dignified, elegant, and extraordinary than ever.
