Chapter 149: Birth and Resurrection
‘…Sigh, she’s still not thinking straight.’
Sue was also lost in her own thoughts.
Honestly, she hadn’t been feeling well. The curse was triggering so frequently that she was in constant pain, even on days when it wasn’t activated. This was the first time it had been this bad, and Sue was starting to get scared.
So she had forced herself to come outside. It was something she had promised Noel before the break, and she had wanted to get out and distract herself from her fear of “death.”
She didn’t know when the curse would trigger again, but she had her servants with her, so they could handle it quickly if anything happened.
She felt a pang of guilt for using Noel, but she quickly dismissed it. Her top priority wasn’t a deep friendship, it was survival.
“Noel, let’s build a snowman!”
Sue said brightly, trying to shake off her gloomy thoughts. There was a thick layer of snow near the frozen Libra Lake.
Noel built the body, and Sue built the head. A small snowman was born. Sue was about to stick a twig she had found nearby into the snowman’s body when…
“What’s that pathetic snowman?”
Sue and Noel turned their heads in unison. A very annoying little boy, holding the hand of another annoying boy, was standing there.
Sue, seeing their faces, instinctively knelt down. Noel followed suit.
“Young Master Evan, Sue of the Byron family offers her greetings.”
The annoying little boy was none other than Evan Fritz, Shina Fritz’s younger brother. Evan just snorted at her hurried greeting.
“And… Master Acrea… greetings.”
Sue trailed off, her gaze shifting awkwardly.
Acrea and Evan, their hands clasped together, were surrounded by five or six servants, their presence intimidating.
Were they out for a stroll? But why here? She felt a heavy weight on her chest, like a boulder.
“Hmph, what the… Annoying. Brother Woo, let’s go. …Huh? Brother Woo?”
Evan tugged on Acrea’s arm, but he didn’t budge. Evan, flustered, looked up. And he saw a face he had never seen before.
“Evan, you’re Young Master Evan of the Fritz grand duke family, aren’t you?”
A refreshing voice broke the awkward silence.
“…Who are you?”
“I’m Sir Noel. It’s an honor to meet Young Master Evan of the Fritz family.”
Noel smiled brightly and stepped forward.
“Are you and Master Woo out for a walk? As you can see, we were just building a snowman. We’re done now, so we’ll get out of your way if you’re feeling uncomfortable.”
“W-well…”
Evan, overwhelmed by Noel’s assertiveness, hesitated.
He had just wanted to act spoiled for a moment.
“Well, fine, it’s not like this park belongs to me. …But,”
Evan pointed at the small snowman.
“Build a bigger snowman with me. Then I’ll forgive you.”
Forgive them? For what?
Evan’s arrogant finger moved from the snowman to Sue.
“You, Sue Byron, you’re the ugly one I saw before, right? You build it.”
Unlike his brother, Evan had a good memory for faces, even if he had only seen them briefly. He changed his plan, as Acrea wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he pulled on his arm. A smirk appeared on his lips.
“Make it just like that ugly snowman. I’ll tell on you to my brother.”
***
Sue ended up building another snowman. Noel offered to do it for her, but Evan insisted that Sue had to be the one to build it.
Sue glanced at Noel and Acrea, who were watching them awkwardly from a distance, then continued to pat the large snowball.
‘I should have run away. This reminds me of that time.’
The first time she had had a “fight” with Acrea in the glass garden. It had been her fault, but she had been so shameless, twisting his words. She had been so embarrassed that she had wanted to disappear.
“Hey! Are you even trying?!”
Evan scolded her, seeing her just staring at the snowball. Sue chuckled awkwardly.
“I’m sorry, I’ll work hard, Young Master Evan.”
“Hmph, both you and my brother are annoying. Really.”
“….”
Evan, seemingly no longer angry, pouted and rolled the body of the snowman. Sue stared at him blankly, then asked cautiously,
“Is something wrong with Master Fritz?”
“Fritz? I’m Fritz too!”
“Ah, I’m sorry. I was wondering if something was wrong with Master Shina…”
“Of course there is!”
Evan had been dying for someone to ask. He pushed the body of the snowman towards her and said in a hushed voice,
“My brother had a fight with Sister Enzhe.”
“Oh my, really?”
“Yes!”
The twelve-year-old boy was gossiping like a market vendor.
“My brother keeps saying he doesn’t want to marry Sister Enzhe. So Father is really angry. And Mother too.”
Evan’s face crumpled as he poured out his worries.
“He doesn’t even play with me anymore. He won’t say anything when I tell him to make up with Sister Enzhe. I want to go see Sister Enzhe, but she’s at her family’s estate… So Brother Woo came to play with me today… Hey, why doesn’t my brother want to marry Sister Enzhe? Do you know?”
“Well… Maybe there’s a reason he can’t talk about.”
“A reason he can’t talk about? What’s that?”
“Haha… I don’t know either, Young Master.”
Sue vaguely brushed him off.
So he had already told his family that he didn’t want to marry her.
‘We’re screwed.’
She quickly resigned herself to the inevitable.
It seemed like there was no turning back. Enzhe would definitely do something, sooner or later. And Sue would be caught in the crossfire. All she could do was hope that it wouldn’t be too bad.
Evan, his remaining energy drained by Sue’s unhelpful answer, sighed.
“Why doesn’t my brother want to marry Sister Enzhe… I like them together… Huh? Hey, what’s wrong?”
‘…Huh?’
Suddenly, there was a loud crash.
***
Noel and Acrea were watching their companions from under a large tree, a short distance away from where Sue and Evan were building a snowman.
Noel, the more sociable of the two, broke the silence,
“Master Acrea, I know it’s a belated greeting, but thank you for your help during my trial last year.”
Acrea smiled faintly and replied,
“I thought you used informal speech with your classmates at the academy.”
He remembered, having gathered all the information he could about Raines Noel during the trial. He had also seen how Noel interacted with Byron and Shina.
“Haha… Yes, that’s right.”
Noel nodded, not denying it.
He knew that Acrea had played a major role in his acquittal. It was because of Byron’s request, apparently. He didn’t know why Acrea had agreed to her request, but…
“That was a kind of deal.”
“Huh?”
Perhaps he had read Noel’s mind, or perhaps he wanted to clarify why he had helped him. Or perhaps he wanted to justify it to himself.
Acrea stared at Noel, his face emotionless.
“How well do you know Sue Byron?”
“B-brother Woo! Something’s wrong!”
At that moment, Evan ran towards Acrea, tears streaming down his face. As Acrea and Noel looked at Evan, bewildered, a commotion started.
“She’s acting strange… She’s not waking up…”
The Byron family servants were already huddled around Sue.
Noel, sensing something was wrong, immediately ran towards her. But Acrea couldn’t move. He knew what was happening, even better than Noel, but his body was frozen.
“Byron!”
As expected, Sue had collapsed, unconscious.
‘It’s the same symptoms as at the Imperial Ball.’
“Please wait, Sir Noel.”
Ten firmly blocked Noel’s path as he tried to push his way through the servants.
“With all due respect, the Miss is in critical condition, and we need to return to the mansion immediately. Please convey our apologies to Sir Noel, and we wish you a safe journey back.”
“Can’t I go to the mansion with you?”