TVRP 3

<Chapter 3>

“Fine. Anyway, how on earth did you end up getting captured by my father?”

“Someone is always getting kidnapped in the slums.”

Eden shot back sharply.

“You nobles wouldn’t know anything about that.”

The eyes glaring at me were so fiercely bright that they looked more like an animal’s than a human’s.

Like a wild cat with a collar forcibly fastened around its neck, its fur standing on end.

“So, what kind of ‘playing house’ are you planning to do with me?”

The boy’s golden eyes flashed like metal for a moment.

“Are you going to break my arms like you’re tearing the wings off a dragonfly? Or hang me upside down and watch while monsters hunt me?”

“W-What?”

I was so dumbfounded that my jaw dropped.

Did I really look like some kind of deranged psychopath who would do something like that to a child?

“Hey. You… listen carefully.”

I pulled Eden closer and whispered under my breath.

“I’m not going to play with you. I was only pretending to humor my father earlier! Listen carefully. I’m going to—”

“…”

“You. I’m going to get you out of this castle.”

I whispered each word slowly and clearly, as though engraving them into his ears.

Eden’s eyes widened for a moment.

A moment later, however, the boy’s eyes darkened and became dull.

“…You’re going to throw me away. In the end.”

His low murmur was so faint that it was almost lost in the wind.

“What?”

“Fine. I never expected much from the whims of nobles anyway.”

The sneering voice was far too cynical for a child.

Eden closed his eyes tightly without saying anything for a moment.

The tips of his black eyelashes trembled ever so slightly.

But soon, he opened his eyes wide again as if nothing had happened.

“Throw me away. I never imagined I’d be able to stay in such a dazzling place for long anyway.”

Those were not the eyes of a child.

They were filled with resignation and despair.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of a will to live in the boy’s gaze.

He was alive, but his eyes looked half-dead.

‘What kind of life did he live out there?’

So the male lead, that psychopath, had actually had a childhood like this.

Well… it was a hellish world.

Unlike this fortress, protected by my father and brothers, I’d heard that monsters devoured people practically every day outside.

For a young child with no one to protect them, simply surviving from one day to the next must have been a miracle.

‘It’s not hard to understand why his personality became so completely broken in the original story.’

My mouth felt bitter as I sighed.

“Who said I’m going to throw you away without a plan? I’m telling you I’ll help you escape somewhere safe.”

“Somewhere safe?”

Eden frowned as though he’d never heard those words before.

“Yeah. Somewhere that’s neither the slums nor our castle. Somewhere you won’t have to spend every day running from monsters.”

At least the interior of the Empire wasn’t as messed up as these borderlands.

Thanks to the Sergerneve family acting as a shield here in the frontier, I’d heard that the inland regions, including the capital, were relatively peaceful.

“Don’t make me laugh. Where is such a place?”

Eden frowned deeply and talked back.

My patience wearing thin, I crossed my arms and glared at him.

“Stop nitpicking everything! My head already hurts enough as it is, so if I’m offering to save your life, just bow down and say, ‘Yes, thank you, big sis!’”

This castle might look dazzling on the outside, but in reality, it was a pit of evil crawling with lunatics.

Not only was my father monstrously strong and twisted in personality, but my brothers, who shared his blood, weren’t exactly normal either.

If those brothers got their hands on this pretty little ‘human doll,’ they’d bite, tear, chew, savor, and enjoy him until there was nothing left.

‘I have to get him out of this crazy household before that happens!’

The problem was, I still had no idea how to do it. I’d never even left the territory myself.

“Argh! This is giving me a headache!”

Life had been so much easier when I was just a reckless problem child!

I banged my head against the wall with a thud, and then I heard a familiar voice from somewhere nearby.

“Oh my, cough, Lily?”

I whipped my head around at the soft, petal-like voice.

At the same time, my heart dropped.

“B-Big Sis.”

A girl with luxuriant dark-brown hair flowing down her back was walking toward us.

Eloise Sergerneve.

My half-sister, and the heroine of this world.

The loveliness radiating from her wide, startled eyes made it abundantly clear that she was the protagonist of this world.

And was it just her appearance?

The warmth and kindness filling her brown eyes were enough to draw anyone toward her simply by looking at her.

Anyone would melt at the sight of a sister like that.

Yes, anyone.

‘Oh, no.’

I instinctively stepped in front of Eden.

The first meeting between the two of them—the one I’d been desperately trying to prevent—was about to happen.

“Don’t come any closer!”

I shouted, and my sister’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit.

“Lily?”

The rule of male leads.

It was simple: the moment they met the heroine, they fell in love at first sight.

Even if they were currently in the denial stage, snorting and pretending to ignore the heroine, their unrecognized first love would begin from the very moment they met.

‘I wouldn’t be able to stand watching that even if you buried me under dirt!’

“Lily, you shouldn’t be wandering around already. You were very sick, remember?”

There was genuine concern in my sister’s voice.

She was sincerely worried about her half-sister, who did nothing but bully her every day.

‘My foolishly kind sister.’

There had been a time when I hated her kindness.

Even until very recently. I thought it was all an act. I hated her even more because it seemed like she used that kindness to monopolize my brothers’ attention.

‘…But it wasn’t an act.’

Now that I remembered my past life, I knew.

My sister hadn’t been pretending. She had genuinely loved me as her younger sister.

In the original story, even though I’d spent my entire life verbally abusing her, she couldn’t bring herself to leave me alone in a territory crawling with monsters and had taken me all the way to the Imperial Palace with her.

Even though my years of jealousy and bullying had completely drained her mental strength.

“Let’s go back to bed together. I’ll take you there. But who is that little boy behind you?”

“H-He, he’s…”

He’s the trash who will eventually imprison you and keep you from seeing even a single ray of sunlight!

I obviously couldn’t say that, so I just fidgeted anxiously.

“Lily? What’s wrong? Your face has gone completely pale.”

My sister approached me, concern written all over her face.

One more step, and she’d come face-to-face with Eden.

Panicking, I suddenly grabbed Eden’s head and pulled him against me.

“W-What are you doing?!”

I could feel Eden squirming in my arms.

“Ugh! Let go of me!”

Ignoring him, I hugged Eden even tighter. Since he was a boy and had grown more slowly than I had, overpowering him with sheer strength wasn’t particularly difficult.

“Lily?”

My sister stared at me in confusion.

“He’s my doll!”

“What? Your doll? But he’s a person…”

As expected of my sensible sister.

How on earth had someone like her been born under that father?

“Could you move aside for a moment?”

“N-No! Father gave me this doll! He’s mine. He’s my doll!”

Eden pounded his fists against my chest. He must have grown up severely malnourished, because I could barely feel a thing.

“So go away! He’s mine!”

Throwing tantrums and acting spoiled was something I’d done to my sister practically every day.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t seem all that surprised.