ECD 02

Chapter 02 I Died, and Everything Changed

My funeral was hurriedly held the day after I died.

In other words, Grandfather must have wanted to cover up the incident quickly rather than find out why I had died.

Since it was an unpleasant incident that had happened within the family, he must have judged that it would be better to quiet the commotion as soon as possible.

On Grandfather’s scales, my death must have been the cheaper option.

As Deborah, the heir, I could understand that choice, but as Deborah, a member of the family, it would be a lie to say I was not hurt by it.

“How could something like this happen? I heard she drank poison.”

“There are rumors that she killed herself…”

“No way! Lady Deborah wasn’t that kind of person! She was in a good mood even at the banquet.”

I heard the maids whispering somewhere in the hallway.

Even after the funeral was over, the atmosphere in the household was still chaotic.

It was probably the most shocking thing that had happened in Mergen in the past few years.

Of course, I was no different.

It was shocking, and at the same time, unbelievable.

Contrary to my usual belief that what had already happened could not be changed and that cleaning up the situation was the most important thing, I was still completely absorbed in this incident.

After the funeral, I decided to slowly investigate what had happened.

First, I decided to start with my final movements.

My room was practically where everything had begun.

It was where I had eaten the recovery potion and fallen asleep that night before ending up like this.

A red cord had been placed across the entrance to prevent people from entering, but I ignored it, moved it aside, and opened the door.

As soon as I opened it, a familiar scent rushed toward me.

The refreshing and calm scent of cedarwood that I liked welcomed me.

I slowly looked around the room that was so familiar to me.

The room was always arranged in a similar way, so I could clearly see where everything was without even trying.

There was nothing suspicious about the room.

Naturally, my eyes went toward the bedside table where I had last placed the recovery potion.

The empty bottle I had left there was already gone.

They took it for the investigation.

After that, I ran my hand along the window frame.

A smooth window frame without even a speck of dirt.

There were no signs of anyone breaking in…

How could I be the only thing that disappeared from a place where everything else remained the same?

My mouth tasted bitter.

Click.

Just then, I heard the door open.

“Why are you here?”

A low, deep voice soon cut through the silence and struck my ears.

I turned my gaze toward the door, where the voice had come from.

“Abel.”

There stood Abel, changed into casual clothes, leaning against the wall with one arm.

His violet eyes shone coldly beneath his gleaming silver hair.

“How dare you set foot in a place like this?”

There was something wrong with Abel’s words.

I knew better than anyone what this place was, and if anything, Abel was the outsider here.

And…

“How dare I?”

Abel had no right to say something like that to me.

A faint smile escaped me without realizing it.

But Abel seemed to take it as mockery.

His gaze became even sharper.

He soon pulled his arm away from the wall and strode toward me.

“Irene Mergen.”

At his call, I had to raise my gaze.

At such a close distance, the difference in our heights, easily more than two handspans, made it difficult to meet his eyes.

I wondered if he had grown taller while he was on the battlefield, or if it was because Irene was shorter than me. Either way, it felt very different from before.

A faint scent of soap came from Abel.

As he came closer, Abel leaned his upper body toward me.

Even though he knew we were the only two people here, he lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Did you kill my sister?”

“……”

Abel was asking me a question, but strangely, there was a certain certainty in his tone.

“Your imagination is getting out of hand.”

Why would Abel, who had spent several years on the battlefield, suspect Irene?

At my answer, Abel stepped back and crossed his arms.

His gaze as he looked down at me was filled with a familiar sense of scrutiny.

He must be trying to see my reaction.

Could anyone possibly be more wronged by this situation than me?

For a moment, I felt an unnecessary urge to tease him.

“Wouldn’t the person who benefits the most from Deborah’s death be you rather than me?”

At my answer, Abel’s brow immediately furrowed.

He showed his true feelings over such a simple provocation.

I felt strangely amused by Abel’s innocent reaction.

“I heard you made the recovery potion that my sister drank.”

I wondered when he had managed to investigate that much.

For someone who had only just returned from the battlefield, I had to admit that his handling of things was fairly impressive.

“So, does that mean there was poison in the recovery potion?”

That was something I was curious about too.

If I heard the answer from Abel, things would probably become much easier.

But Abel could not readily answer my question.

“So that means there wasn’t.”

I had already gotten the answer I wanted without him even needing to say it.

Then Abel spoke again.

“You’re the only one who could have killed my sister.”

“Haha.”

I had been barely holding it in, but I finally burst out laughing.

To hear something like that from Abel of all people.

“In your eyes, I must look quite impressive.”

No one in this family would ever have judged Irene that way.

There was no way anyone could see a sickly child who looked like she could die at any moment as an ambitious person who wanted the position of heir.

Irene had been ignored by everyone in Mergen from the beginning.

And he felt threatened by someone like her?

Did Abel know some other side of Irene?

It was more convincing to think that he had spent so long wandering around battlefields that he had become too indifferent to the affairs of the household, leading him to this conclusion.

“I’ve finished what I came here to do, so I’ll be going first.”

I had no intention of wasting any more time with Abel.

I had no time to play along with such ridiculous fantasies either.

I walked past Abel.

Or, at least, I tried to.

Feeling resistance as my right arm was pulled back, I looked down below my shoulder.

My wrist was tightly held by a hot, strong hand.

My pale and painfully thin wrist, caught in Abel’s dark, sunburned hand, looked so fragile that it seemed as though it would break if he applied even a little strength.

The sharp contrast bothered me.

“What are you doing?”

I glared at Abel without hiding my displeasure.

Abel tightened his grip on my arm even more and spoke.

“If you’re the culprit, you’ll die by my hand.”

His heavily restrained voice sounded like the growl of a beast.

If the real Irene had heard that, she probably would have burst into tears.

Did Abel really hate Irene this much?

The Abel in my memories had been somewhat different from the person standing before me.

Five years ago, when he still looked like a boy and had not yet begun traveling from one battlefield to another, Abel had simply been a quiet and obedient child.

He would say yes to whatever I told him, sometimes smile, and even foolishly follow me around.

That was why I had been even more wary of him.

I was afraid I might unknowingly grow attached to that innocent side of him.

I had known that someday Abel would become someone who threatened my position ever since my stepmother had looked at me with a sharp gleam in her eyes.

So I had drawn a line between Abel and me, and he could never become my family.

Even so, Abel, who never said anything unpleasant or showed the slightest sign of displeasure, was actually more difficult for me to deal with.

Because I had always wondered what kind of feelings he hid behind that smile.

Abel was more difficult to understand than my stepmother, who openly showed what she was thinking.

And I had always wondered.

Was it my twisted perspective that had become rotten beyond repair, or was this boy simply impossible to understand?

And now, Abel was angry.

“Who? You? Kill me?”

Only then did I twist my lips into a smile.

Abel would kill me?

What an amusing statement.

“This is quite the rebellion.”

No matter how insignificant Irene was, and no matter that they did not share blood, Irene was still his older sister.

And now he was making such a baseless accusation.

To me, Abel’s current appearance looked nothing more than a young pup desperately looking for someone to take his anger out on.

I raised the hand opposite the arm he was holding and brought it beneath Abel’s chin.

My fingertips brushed along his chin as if caressing it, then I lightly gripped his jaw.

“Fine. Go ahead and try your best.”

If Abel removed Irene as well now that Deborah was gone, he would have the perfect justification to become the heir.

The only reason I had been able to become the heir despite Abel being a man was because he was not of Mergen blood.

He was merely a child brought in by my stepmother.

Naturally, he should not have even been allowed anywhere near the succession.

But there was a problem.

The only children who carried Mergen blood were me and the sickly Irene, while Abel, despite not being of Mergen blood, had been hailed as a war hero because of his achievements on the battlefield.

My stepmother had won over the vassals and expanded her faction, working to make Abel the heir.

However, her ambition seemed to have faded when Abel left for the battlefield without any promise of when he would return.

Well, looking at the situation now, perhaps that had not been the case at all.

Had he planned from the beginning to eliminate me and return?

In truth, there was something I really wanted to confirm.

Separate from my stepmother Chloe’s ambition, I wanted to see the claws Abel had been hiding.

I wanted to finally prove that uneasy feeling I had always had.

That, beneath the label of family, you had also been suspicious and wary of me just as I had been of you.

That you were nothing more than another rotten person, just like me.

Tap.

Abel slapped my hand away, and I withdrew my tingling hand with a small smile.

“You feel much closer to me than before.”