Chapter 6
At the same time.
Inside the reception room on the second floor of Chloe’s mansion.
The voices of the maids could be heard through the slightly open door.
“Lady Terezia is really like an angel. I heard she came again to help Lady Chloe.”
“How can they be so different? Lady Chloe hates Lady Terezia.”
“Lady Terezia can use divine power, while Lady Chloe uses dark magic. I guess even abilities follow one’s character.”
Hearing the giggling voices of the maids, Terezia smiled faintly.
On the other hand, Chloe looked at her younger sister, Terezia, with an emotionless expression.
“Do you enjoy listening to that useless noise?”
“Hm? Sister, I don’t know what you mean.”
“I know you deliberately spread rumors about me and make sure they reach my ears. Don’t bother me for no reason.”
She did not have the energy to respond to every little thing.
Terezia watched Chloe’s exhausted appearance with amusement before speaking.
“You’re still living such a difficult life, Sister. As expected of a ‘Dark Mage on the Verge of Going Berserk.’”
Terezia Ardos.
She had deep pink hair with a faint mixture of fiery red and beautiful golden eyes.
She smiled brightly like a saint.
“Don’t misunderstand. I want to help you, Sister. As you know, there is a huge difference between my purification power and your dark magic.”
A pale gray light, mixed with faint impurities, flickered at her fingertips.
All humans on the continent were divided into two groups: ability users who possessed supernatural abilities and ordinary people.
Ability users were those blessed by God. They used the mana inside their bodies to use their specialized abilities.
Only around one percent of the entire imperial population possessed even the smallest ability.
Since they were born so rarely, each one of them was a valuable asset to the Empire.
Among the five types of abilities, the most precious was healing power based on the ‘Light’ ability.
Unfortunately, the purification power possessed by Terezia could treat sick or injured targets, but it was far inferior to true healing power.
Moreover, there was not a single person with healing power in the current generation.
Because of that, Terezia, who possessed purification power known as ‘pseudo-healing power,’ was treated exceptionally well.
“Thanks to my ability, I became a candidate for this generation’s Saintess, so Mother went to the temple.”
“Really? Then why would such an important person come to my mansion? Enough with the unnecessary talk. Just tell me what you want.”
Terezia smiled sweetly.
“I thought this place seemed quite dirty. So I wanted to come and heal you.”
The moment Chloe heard Terezia’s words, she almost burst out laughing.
Terezia’s purification power did not work on her berserk condition. And even if Terezia could cure Chloe, Chloe knew that Terezia would never do it.
‘The healing is probably just a superficial reason to show herself to the public.’
There was only one reason Terezia had come here.
Chloe looked at her with a bored expression again and spoke.
“Do you want to pretend to treat me so you can gain Father’s recognition? If you want to be acknowledged as the heir, do your own job instead of bothering me.”
“……What?”
Terezia’s lips pressed tightly together.
Her only weakness was her bloodline.
Terezia was the daughter that Lucretia, the Duchess and Chloe’s stepmother, had brought into the family when she remarried.
But she was making full use of her bloodline as well.
“I want to get along with Sister Chloe, but maybe it’s because I was adopted into the family later. It seems she doesn’t like me.”
“Father, are you treating me differently because I’m not your biological daughter?”
Terezia’s face turned bright red after Chloe hit her sore spot.
“Even if I’m an adopted daughter of this family, I’m still better than a cripple like you. Remember that.”
Terezia, who had unwillingly called Chloe ‘Sister’ every time until now, finally revealed her true colors.
But Chloe calmly answered.
“I never said it was because you’re adopted.”
“I, you know, Sister. Unlike you, I won’t do something stupid like shutting myself away for a year just because a dog died.”
Chloe’s gaze turned cold.
Even if everything was bothersome to her, she could not tolerate an insult toward Coco.
For the past year, everyone had asked her, directly or indirectly,
Why was she acting like this when it was only a dog that had died?
But Coco was not simply a dog.
‘The one existence I wanted to protect more than anything in the world.’
What meaning did life, wealth, or power have without Coco?
But Terezia would never understand her feelings.
She had probably never experienced losing the thing she loved most.
Chloe stared at her before casually raising one hand.
A sphere appeared above her palm, as if countless pieces of pitch-black dust had been gathered together.
“You, what is this!”
“I can’t tolerate you anymore, so get out.”
“You, how dare you treat me like this……”
“Why? Go ahead and say more. Are you afraid this sphere might explode?”
If Chloe went berserk here, Terezia’s power would not be enough to stop her.
Knowing that very well, Terezia bit her lip and left as if she were running away.
After the door closed, Chloe suddenly began coughing violently, coughing up blood as if she were vomiting it.
“Damn it.”
To cough up blood from using just one spell.
If it were the Chloe of the past, she would have found it absurd beyond belief.
Chloe wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, left the reception room, and headed toward her bedroom.
For the past year, her room had been completely silent.
But it had been different when Coco was alive.
When she sat at her desk and quietly read a book, she could hear the sound of Coco drinking water behind her.
‘Silly Coco.’
Whenever Chloe deliberately tilted her head and pretended not to notice, she would hear little footsteps coming closer.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of tiny paws running lightly toward her.
A fluffy white ball of fur would tilt its head before jumping onto the sofa.
A small puppy with bright black eyes that always looked only at her.
‘You were so greedy for food. You wanted everything I was eating.’
She had gotten angry whenever Chloe told her that grapes and chocolate could not be eaten.
She could still remember Coco sticking out her tongue and panting as if she were protesting.
Such a greedy puppy.
But still……
“……You were cute.”
Whenever Chloe struggled to become the heir of the family, whenever people called her a ‘villainess,’ she was happy just because that soft ball of fur was beside her.
The tiny panting breaths, the way Coco pretended to eat something while sleeping, the way she rubbed her moist little nose against her.
Everything.
‘My only friend, my family, and…… my salvation.’
So when Coco died, Chloe felt as if she had lost everything.
Everyone said she was crazy.
They said it was stupid to give so much affection to nothing more than a dog.
Chloe had always wanted to become the heir and gain her father’s recognition.
That was why she had always obeyed her father.
But the day her father tried to remove Coco’s grave was different.
For the first time in her life, she stood against her father.
The rumors calling her a villainess only grew worse, but she did not care.
“I just want to die, anyway.”
Just as she was about to lie down on her bed, which felt like a grave, she noticed something strange.
Right in front of the door, there was a purple flower she had not noticed before.
“……Coco?”
Coco had always woken up before her.
Every morning, she would leave a purple flower right by the bedroom door.
Chloe picked up the flower with trembling hands and clenched her teeth.
‘Is this another one of that damned Terezia’s tricks?’
Afraid that even the traces Coco had left behind might disappear, Chloe had always cleaned the area around her bedroom herself.
She had strictly warned every maid not to touch anything.
Then who dared to ignore her orders and leave this flower here?
“Baby Lady? Why are you here……?”
The maid was shocked when she saw me standing in the hallway near my sister’s room.
I rolled my eyes around.
“Hm? What?”
“Baby Lady, you shouldn’t be wandering around like this. And it seems you’ll have to return to your annex for today. Apparently, an intruder entered the annex. They found some strange flower near Lady Chloe’s room……”
Gasp! She must have seen the flower I brought!
‘I slipped the flower through the crack under the bedroom door!’
It was a good thing I had used my head!
I smiled brightly and waved my hand.
“I put that flower there!”
The maid’s face instantly turned pale.
“Wh-Why did you do that?”
“Because the flower was pretty!”
“Now is not the time to smile, Baby Lady!”
“Hm? Why?”
The maid beat her chest in frustration.
“You could die under the dark magic! Because you left the flower there!”
What was she talking about?
My sister really liked purple flowers.
Unless she gave me delicious sweet potatoes as a reward, there was no way I’d get in trouble!
“Lady Chloe said to bring the culprit to her immediately once they find them.”
My purple eyes sparkled like jewels.
Good.
I had to get ready to meet my sister looking cool!
