Chapter 1 — I’ve Said Everything I Had to Say, So Just Die Already
She had been locked away in the annex for trying to kill her adoptive older sister.
Medeia felt it was completely unfair.
They had simply been having tea together as they always did when, right before her eyes, Daphne suddenly vomited blood and collapsed.
Her father, mother, twin older brother, and younger brother.
Not a single member of her family believed her.
The family had locked Medeia away and ordered her to reflect on what she had done to Daphne. None of them had visited her even once.
They had even threatened to disown her if she refused to repent until the very end.
But her misfortune did not end there.
Since last year, her vision had gradually begun to blur. Then, when she woke up this morning, she could no longer see anything at all.
People said misunderstandings could be cleared up, but there was no way to fix blindness.
Whenever she needed to go somewhere in the pitch-black darkness, she had to crawl along the floor, feeling her way forward.
The bruise on her forehead from tripping over a hard piece of furniture and hitting the floor was still swollen.
Medeia drew her knees to her chest and lowered her head. Afraid that she would bump into something again, she refused to leave her bed.
It was strange.
The cheek her father had slapped still hurt.
It had already been a week. Why was it still burning like this?
Tap, tap.
Whoosh—
The sound of heavy raindrops striking the window pierced her ears.
It seemed to have started raining.
Unable to see, she had become overly sensitive, and even the smallest noises felt unbearably loud.
A chill seeped through her entire body, making her tremble.
No matter how many times she said she hadn’t done it, no one believed her. The injustice was so painful that tears rolled down her cheeks.
She wondered if lightning might strike, so she pressed her hands tightly over her ears.
Her heart pounded with tension.
It was a habit she’d developed as a child, when she was terrified of being alone on rainy nights.
“…This is…”
The scent of daisies seeped into the tip of her nose.
It was the scent that came from Daphne.
“…Sister?”
Medeia abruptly pulled her hands away from her ears.
“Dea. Why are you crying? Are you hurt anywhere?”
A gentle voice reached her.
It was Daphne.
Because she had been covering her ears, Medeia hadn’t even noticed her entering the room.
She felt relieved.
Daphne had finally regained consciousness and gotten back on her feet. It seemed she had recovered her health.
“…Sister, are you feeling all right?”
Medeia reached out and felt the hand holding her.
Now everything would be cleared up.
The real culprit would soon be discovered.
More than the relief of knowing she could clear her name, Medeia was simply happy that Daphne had awakened.
Even though the time they had spent together was barely two years, it had been enough for Daphne to become someone precious to her.
Daphne had been the one who helped Medeia adapt to the unfamiliar and awkward Heidal Ducal Household.
Medeia was the duke and duchess’s biological daughter, who had been kidnapped at the age of five and returned thirteen years later.
That was who Medeia was.
Although her parents had taken in Daphne as an adopted daughter during those thirteen years to fill the void left by their missing child, Medeia could understand why they had done so.
Having spent years longing for a family while struggling to survive alone, Medeia sincerely cherished even Daphne, despite the fact that they were not related by blood.
“Dea. What’s wrong?”
“Sister, I… I can’t see anything since this morning. What am I going to do…?”
“My goodness. Really? You can’t see anything at all?”
Medeia heard Daphne suck in a sharp breath.
“…Oh, dear. Stop crying. You’ll make your eyes swell, Dea. Come back to the main house with me. You can get treatment there.”
“…Mm-hm. Are Mother and Father still very angry?”
Medeia asked because she didn’t know what her family was thinking, but Daphne remained silent.
Suddenly, Medeia felt anxious.
What if they really believed that she had tried to kill Daphne?
She had been so happy that Daphne had come to see her that she had forgotten to explain herself.
“Sister, you know I didn’t do it, right? I really didn’t. I would never do something like that to you…”
“Dea. Come on, get up. We need to go before your condition gets any worse.”
Daphne deliberately avoided answering.
Medeia grew uneasy.
She bit down hard on her lip, and the metallic taste of blood spread across her tongue.
She followed Daphne out of the room, holding the hand that was helping her stand.
After they had walked for some time—
Daphne suddenly let go of her hand.
Then Medeia felt Daphne’s body brush against her arm as she moved behind her.
“Huh? Sister?”
Medeia flinched, unable to tell where Daphne was going.
And then—
“Medeia, you’re still so stupid.”
Daphne whispered ominously right into her ear.
“Don’t you understand yet?”
Medeia’s hunched back straightened, and goosebumps spread across her skin.
“Why I drank the poison and collapsed, and why you lost your sight.”
Medeia couldn’t believe the way Daphne had just referred to her.
She thought she must have heard wrong.
“Did you… realize it?”
“That’s right. I was the one who poisoned the tea.”
“Ah. You mean the sleeping incense I burned whenever you went to bed.”
Daphne’s voice was almost cheerful.
“You’ve been breathing it in every day. That’s why you’ve gone blind. Lily did such a good job.”
The sleeping incense.
Daphne had made it herself after Medeia told her that she suffered from severe insomnia.
“…Lily?”
“You trusted Lily?”
Daphne laughed softly.
“That girl was never on your side from the beginning. Even though she knew you’d become blind, she never put out the sleeping incense.”
Medeia desperately shook her head.
That couldn’t be true.
Daphne was the one who covered her ears for her whenever it rained and stayed by her side all night whenever she was sick.
And Lily, her personal maid, had always taken such good care of her.
“You were deceived all this time because you were so innocent.”
Daphne’s voice dripped with contempt.
“You’re so stupid and pathetic, our poor little Dea.”
“Hahaha!”
Daphne’s laughter made Medeia’s ears ring as though they were being torn apart.
“Ah. Even though it took a little while, I’ve been waiting for this day. When I think about it, I’m so proud of myself. It was worth the wait.”
“…”
“Thank you so much, Medeia. Thank you for never suspecting me, not even for a moment.”
“Thanks to you, everything was so easy.”
“…Why?”
Medeia forced the words through her torn lips.
“What… what did I ever do to you?”
“Hmm. Well, you didn’t really do anything wrong.”
Daphne paused.
“Actually, if I had to pick something, I’d say it’s because you didn’t die and came back alive.”
“…”
“How is coming home a crime?”
“When you came back, Mother and Father started feeling sorry for you and paying attention only to you. Do you know how hard I worked all this time just to please them?”
“…”
“As an orphan who was pitied because I nearly froze to death on the streets during a cold winter, I really hated seeing that.”
Daphne had said that she had been adopted by the Heidal Ducal Household at the age of ten.
“If you hadn’t existed, everything would have been mine. So why did you come back and take it all away from me?”
She had been showered with everyone’s love.
So perhaps Daphne hadn’t been happy about the sudden return of the family’s biological daughter.
But…
How could something that had originally belonged to Medeia be something she had “taken away”?
Realizing that all of Daphne’s kindness and affection had been nothing but a lie made Medeia feel as though her head were about to split apart.
Her staggering body finally gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.
She groped around desperately, trying to push herself up, but she couldn’t summon any strength in her fingertips.
No matter how many times she pressed her hands against the floor as though trying to lift herself up, it was useless.
“I thought you’d get angry once you found out everything.”
Daphne sounded almost disappointed.
“But this reaction is kind of boring.”
Betrayal, emptiness, and sorrow crashed over Medeia all at once.
She wanted to demand an explanation.
Why had she done this?
But her breathing grew ragged, and dizziness overwhelmed her.
Even speaking was becoming difficult.
And still, she didn’t want to believe it.
“Come to think of it, you’ve lived such a miserable life.”
Daphne’s voice was cold.
“Well, I suppose that’s what happens when no one genuinely loves you. You keep getting betrayed because you’re stupid enough to trust everyone.”
“…”
“So don’t blame me alone.”
Daphne’s voice turned cruel.
“After all, the person who kidnapped you and ruined your life is also among the people you trusted. It’s not just me. Everyone hates you.”
A lie.
That couldn’t be true.
“Father was furious. He was planning to send you to the Fourth Prince of Aragon.”
“…”
“Mother and Brother agreed, too.”
“…”
“Wouldn’t you rather die here than be sent to that bastard who already has three illegitimate children?”
It had to be a lie.
Daphne must have made it up because she wasn’t getting the reaction she wanted.
Perhaps she wanted Medeia to become angry.
“So you should be grateful to me.”
Daphne’s voice was eerily calm.
“I’ve said everything I had to say, so just die already.”
Thud!
Daphne shoved her hard in the chest.
Medeia fell backward and was engulfed by a sensation of weightlessness.
As she plummeted downward, it felt as though a heavy boulder were pressing down on her chest.
Crash!
“I spent a long time deciding whether to throw you from the balcony or down these stairs.”
Only after her head struck something did Medeia realize, from Daphne’s words, where she was.
She was on the stairs.
“Honestly, the balcony wasn’t ideal. I wanted you to have no idea how you were going to die until the very moment you fell.”
Daphne continued.
“If you fell outside in the rain, you’d know you were outdoors.”
A metallic, bloody smell stabbed at Medeia’s nose.
“Father and Mother will think you lost your footing and fell down the stairs, won’t they?”
“…”
“You’ve been saying your vision was blurry since last year, after all.”
“…”
“And since you only told me about your insomnia, they don’t know you were using the sleeping incense I gave you.”
“They’ll never suspect me.”
Medeia’s entire body was burning with pain.
She still couldn’t see anything.
She raised her hand and desperately waved it through the darkness.
“…Help… me…”
Even that was too much now.
Thud.
The terrible headache that had felt as though her skull were splitting suddenly vanished.
Her mind became clear.
Breathing was easy again.
At first, Medeia thought she had died and that death had taken away her pain.
Then she felt a hand gently shaking her awake.
Reflexively, her eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Her vision snapped sharply into focus.
Medeia’s eyes widened in shock.
‘I… can see?’
She could see.
She hurriedly raised her hands and felt around her head.
There was nothing there.
No blood stained her fingers.
More importantly—
Sitting across from her was her maternal uncle, Baron Velosi.
“…Medeia, I think we’ll be arriving at the Heidal Ducal Residence soon.”
A sense of déjà vu washed over her.
It was the same scene as two years ago.
