Chapter 16
“You must be drinking some very bitter herbal medicine, but you’re taking it so well. From now on, don’t leave a single drop. Finish it all.”
Lucy nodded vigorously.
Perhaps because she had finally found hope, Lucy had become incomparably brighter than when they had first met.
“Th-thank you. I-I don’t know… h-how I can ever repay… your kindness…”
Her stiff lips struggled to form each word as she spoke with all her effort.
The sight was so adorable that Kanna smiled without realizing it. Stroking Lucy’s curly violet hair, she said,
“You don’t have to worry about repaying me. That scary guy over there already paid me back on your behalf.”
“…Scary guy? Are you referring to me?”
“Oh my, were you listening?”
Sitting behind them, Kallen frowned deeply.
Once again, he became convinced that Kanna had a split personality.
Not only was her attitude completely different when she was with Lucy, even the tone of her voice had changed.
After they left the room together, Kallen casually voiced his complaint.
“You certainly have two very different sides to you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean the difference in how you treat Lucy and how you treat me is rather extreme.”
“Well, of course. Lucy’s adorable.”
“So I’m some hideous monster, then?”
“Well… close enough.”
Kallen was speechless.
A hideous monster? Me?
Without thinking, he touched his own face.
He had heard countless times that he was handsome—so often that it had become tiresome.
A monster?
How?
…No. Maybe she’s right.
Kallen clenched his fist.
He wasn’t an idiot.
He remembered the past perfectly well.
Which meant it was only natural that Kanna treated him like a monster.
Hadn’t he treated her cruelly when they were children?
That’s right. I really couldn’t stand her back then.
Black.
The color everyone pointed at and called the color of the devil.
Kanna had been born with that color.
Since everyone in the world threw stones at her, he, a foolish little boy, had simply followed along.
But he was no longer young—or foolish enough—to be swept up by the superstition that black hair and black eyes were ominous.
As he grew older, Kallen came to realize something.
His sister wasn’t a devil.
She wasn’t infected by the Black Mist, nor was she one of its fanatical Black Apostles.
She was simply an unfortunate person born with black hair.
The child he had once been had done something unforgivable.
Kallen had known that for a long time.
Back then…
He had been the one who was wrong.
“So, Sister… would you like to…”
…have a meal together?
The words nearly left his mouth, but he bit down hard on the inside of his cheek.
Have I lost my mind?
Was he really about to invite Kanna to eat with him first?
But Kanna seemed to have already understood what he was trying to say.
She stared at him for a moment before letting out a small laugh.
“If this is because of Lucy, you don’t have to force yourself.”
“…What?”
“You don’t like me.”
For a moment, Kallen’s mind went completely blank.
Her words struck him like a blow to the back of the head.
“I don’t plan on staying here for long anyway. Once everything’s settled, I’ll leave.”
“…Leave?”
Even Kallen didn’t understand why his voice came out so hoarse.
“What do you mean? Didn’t you come back here after leaving Valentino?”
“I did. But I’m going to get divorced, no matter what it takes. Once the divorce is finalized, I’ll leave this place and live on my own.”
This time, Kallen truly had nothing to say.
“So just bear with me until then. After that… you’ll never have to see me again.”
With that, Kanna walked past him.
Her black hair brushed lightly across his chest like flowing water.
For a brief instant, Kallen unconsciously reached out—
Only to jerk his hand back in shock, as though he’d been electrocuted.
Have I gone insane?
Why was I trying to stop her from leaving?
Kallen quickly turned away.
To clear his thoughts, he headed for the training grounds.
He swung his sword.
Normally, the sword felt like an extension of his own body.
But today, it felt unusually heavy.
Why can’t I stop thinking about her?
Is it because of my guilt over what I did as a child?
That seemed plausible.
How terribly had he treated Kanna back then?
He had found the way she constantly bowed and scraped before everyone especially irritating.
Once, he had deliberately knocked his hat out the window and casually ordered,
“Go pick it up for me, Sister.”
Like she was a dog.
And Kanna had simply smiled brightly and gone to retrieve it.
Every time she did, Kallen grew even angrier.
If only she had exploded in rage…
If only she had yelled at him or scolded him…
Perhaps then he might have respected her.
But she never did.
Like a fool, she never complained, never protested.
She simply did whatever he told her.
So he looked down on her.
Humiliated her.
Relentlessly.
And now… I want to make things right?
I want to rewrite the past?
Isn’t that the greatest hypocrisy of all?
I’ve lost my mind.
Only after he was drenched in sweat did he lower his sword.
By then, the sky had already been dyed crimson by the setting sun.
“Young Master!”
At that moment, a servant came running toward him, panting.
“What is it?”
“Miss Lucy has…!”
Kallen’s face immediately brightened.
Had Lucy already made a full recovery?
“Miss Lucy has collapsed!”
After parting ways with Kallen, Kanna was leisurely enjoying some rest.
She sipped tea while reading the diary Ju-hwa had written while living in this body.
It seems Kanna was the outcast of the family. Everyone calls me trash.
It’s not just my family that hates Kanna. Everyone does. Every single person. I’m being ostracized by the whole world.
Kanna’s life is so miserable. The life that has now become mine.
No one likes me. Everyone hates me.
“…”
The more pages she turned, the heavier her heart became.
There were almost no happy stories in the diary.
Aside from the occasional lovestruck entry about Sylvien Valentino, every page was filled with nothing but suffering.
Meanwhile, ever since she had entered Ju-hwa’s body, her own life had been filled with happiness.
A society built on equality.
A warm, loving family.
How happy she had been.
But Ju-hwa…
Ju-hwa lived my life.
Kanna Addis’s life.
The life of “trash.”
If she herself had continued living in such an environment, she would never have become the person she was today.
It had been that horrifying.
Yet Ju-hwa had been thrown into that nightmare at only seventeen years old.
Alone.
At an age when her identity had not yet fully formed.
Surrounded by nothing but hostility.
I shouldn’t have blamed Ju-hwa.
She had been wrong all this time.
The reason Ju-hwa had lived timidly in her body for twelve years…
…was because Kanna herself had lived that way before.
And that wasn’t Ju-hwa’s fault.
Nor was it Kanna’s.
It was…
The fault of everyone who oppressed me.
Ju-hwa and she were both victims.
The blame belonged to the perpetrators.
Thud.
Kanna closed the diary.
Reading it had only deepened her disgust for the people in this house.
I want to leave as soon as possible.
Thinking that, she leaned back into the sofa with a sigh and opened an illustrated encyclopedia of Eastern Continent plants.
Lately, whenever she had free time, she had been studying every botanical guide and medicinal herb encyclopedia she could get her hands on.
Just then—
“Miss Kanna.”
The door burst open without so much as a knock.
A maid strode inside, grabbed Kanna by the arm, and forcibly pulled her to her feet.
It was less like escorting a guest and more like arresting a fugitive.
“What are you doing?”
“Miss Lucy is in critical condition.”
Kanna’s eyes widened.
Critical?
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
“My lady has ordered us to bring you to her.”
Not bring her.
More like drag her.
Kanna roughly shook off the maid’s hand.
“I’ll walk there myself. Let go.”
She hurried toward Lucy’s room.
Lucy is in critical condition?
She had been improving right up until her second treatment that morning.
More importantly…
Facial paralysis wasn’t even a life-threatening illness to begin with.
“Sister… you’re here?”
The entire family had already gathered in Lucy’s room.
“What are we going to do? Lucy’s condition is so terrible, Sister.”
Isabel spoke with a face full of fake concern.
“What on earth did you do to Lucy to make her like this? Oh… poor Lucy…”
Chloe dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief as she cried.
And then…
Kallen.
He sat beside Lucy’s bed with his shoulders slumped.
Without even turning around, his back radiated overwhelming despair…
…and rage.
“Kallen, move. I need to examine Lucy’s—”
Smack!
The moment Kanna reached out, Kallen violently slapped her hand away.
“Don’t touch her.”
His voice was low and restrained.
The voice of someone desperately suppressing his fury.
“It was a mistake to entrust Lucy’s treatment to you.”
