Chapter 2
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Ricador, who had been staring down at the sword that had pierced through the center of his body with a shocked expression, looked at Oberon.
“……You, what do you think you’re doing……! Cough! Cough!”
“Please forgive me, Young Master Ricador.”
Oberon bowed his head politely, then mercilessly pulled the sword out.
Rierusha, who had been staring blankly at Ricador collapsing to the floor, screamed.
“Brother—!!”
Oberon stopped Rierusha as she reached out toward Ricador and let out a sigh.
“Be quiet, Lady Rierusha. What will you do if the imperial soldiers notice?”
“What are you doing! Why would you do that to Brother……!”
“Do you know this?”
Oberon kept watching the castle still burning, then looked straight at Rierusha.
His silver-gray eyes were filled with disgust.
“If His Grace hadn’t ordered me to protect you, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.”
“W-what are you saying……?”
Rierusha asked in a voice trembling with anxiety.
“It means the reason House Arakrene will be wiped out is all because of you.”
Rierusha could only stand there blankly. She didn’t want to hear Oberon’s words—that everything was her fault.
“Look. Because of protecting you alone, see who has died now.”
Oberon pointed at Ricador.
Rierusha’s eyes widened in shock.
Was the reason her family had to die and the house to be wiped out really…….
‘Because of me?’
No. Grandfather had always turned away from Rierusha, and her father had not come to see her even once.
Her other brothers were the same.
They had always looked at Rierusha as if she were a stranger.
But Oberon shattered everything Rierusha had known until now.
“Do you know what sacrifices the young duke made just to protect you alone?
Rierusha’s gaze wavered violently.
“Why did His Grace take in a child like that. Because of one child, now the young duke……!”
The maids’ whispers came back to her.
“Do you know how the house came to walk the road to ruin?”
Rierusha’s body trembled.
At a moment like this, the helplessness of not being able to do anything made her stomach churn.
‘If only I had an ability.’
If that were the case…….
“But what good is knowing now?”
Oberon’s sword rose high.
Soon, terrible pain engulfed Rierusha.
* * *
“N-noo!!”
Bolt upright. Rierusha flailed her arms and sat up. Her nightgown was soaked through with cold sweat.
Panting, Rierusha hurriedly opened the window and let out a huge sigh of relief.
The Arakrene ducal castle, seen through the dim window, was intact.
“Th-thank goodness.”
To think it had all been a dream.
It was just as she wiped the beads of cold sweat on her brow with the back of her hand.
“……Huh?”
Rierusha’s eyes went round.
Her plump, stubby-fingered hands were more than a handspan smaller than before.
Not only that, her body felt small, and her eye level much lower.
Trying to make sense of it in a panic, Rierusha hurried to the mirror.
On the way, her feet tangled and she went crashing down.
It was because it was hard to keep her balance with a body that had suddenly shrunk.
“W-what is dis……?”
The pain was brief. She only lifted her head, and when she saw herself reflected in the mirror, Rierusha’s mouth fell open.
In the mirror was a child with pink bobbed hair lightly framing chubby cheeks, red eyes wide, wearing a startled expression.
“……Th-this can’t be.”
When she muttered dully, the Rierusha in the mirror did the same.
She had returned to the past. And as a much younger child.
* * *
‘Was that really reality?’
Until dawn, Rierusha couldn’t tear herself away from the mirror.
She didn’t care that the maid who came by briefly to bring breakfast looked at her strangely.
Feeling hungry only belatedly, Rierusha turned toward where the tray was.
‘……I have a nut allergy.’
Seeing the tray, Rierusha let out a deep sigh.
On the meager tray, she could see nuts embedded in the solitary piece of bread.
Rierusha, with practiced hands, picked them out one by one.
In fact, she hadn’t known she had an allergy.
She had learned it around this time, after eating bread without thinking and getting terribly sick once.
As she absentmindedly picked the nuts out one by one, Rierusha’s eyes opened wide.
“It’s da same, isn’t it?”
The same situation as the one she had experienced in the past was repeating itself.
Unable to tell whether this was a dream or reality, Rierusha dropped the bread.
“It was weal. The family weally got ruined…….”
The memories Rierusha had experienced up to the age of ten.
They were too vivid to deny as a dream.
But there were things she couldn’t understand if it was all true.
‘That such a great house would be wiped out in an instant because of me—why?’
That in a few years, the House of Arakrene that had ruled the empire would be ruined.
If she told the people around her, she would be treated as a madwoman, nine times out of ten.
Because it was something unimaginable.
Even Rierusha, who had gone through it, could hardly believe it.
‘He definitely said it was because of me.’
Moreover, she couldn’t believe that the house had fallen because of none other than Rierusha herself.
What influence could Rierusha, who had been inconspicuous until ten, have had to become the cause of the house’s ruin?
Then, if she alone weren’t in this house, could she save everyone in the family?
Rierusha quietly clenched her fist.
She wanted to protect everyone.
‘But even by the time I was ten, I hadn’t awakened an ability…….’
How could she protect her family?
Normally, in the bloodline of House Arakrene, if you still hadn’t awakened after the age of four, you gave up on all possibilities.
No one had told her this, but this was around the time Rierusha had been completely cut off from the family, so she knew.
“……Still, I have to protect them.”
Oberon never told her what the family’s circumstances were until the very end. But one thing was certain: in this house, Rierusha’s existence was as good as poison.
“Okaaay.”
Then she just had to leave the ducal castle so that Oberon would have no reason to betray them.
In truth, Rierusha had vaguely known it.
How much Oberon had found Rierusha displeasing.
She couldn’t forget how his blatant gaze had followed her, sharp enough to make even her skin prickle.
She hadn’t expected it would lead to an irreversible situation, though.
‘But now I know.’
Rierusha looked around, found a scrap of cloth sticking out of the wardrobe drawer, and yanked it out with all her strength.
* * *
Rierusha was creeping along somewhere, carrying a neatly packed bundle.
‘If I just get out of that forest, it must connect to the outside.’
When the ducal castle burned, Ricador had taken her there.
That forest must surely be the path that connected to the outside.
Once, she had wondered why, when there were so many other empty castles in the Arakrene main fortress, she had to live near such a frightening forest.
That was probably because Grandfather disliked Rierusha so much he couldn’t stand the sight of her.
But now, Rierusha was glad the forest was close.
Since no one paid her any attention, it seemed she could leave the castle safely without being caught.
“Nnngh, it’s heaaavy!”
At this hour, the Arakrene heirs would be in class.
Normally, Rierusha would have slipped into the ‘Tower of Truth’ where classes were held in secret, but…….
Instead, today she had decided to leave the ducal castle.
“Why is dis so heaaavy?”
She hadn’t even put many things in it, but her arms were already starting to ache.
Rierusha looked down at the bundle with a pouting face.
She had gathered all sorts of things that looked like they could sell for a decent price outside.
She had heard that, surprisingly, toys and items children played with sold for high prices.
She had learned that too from listening to the maids whisper
