Chapter 68: The Mirror Between the Glass
The rain lashed down relentlessly. Sue hurriedly closed the door as the wind and rain threatened to penetrate the garden.
She sat huddled on the floor of the empty glass garden, her knees pulled to her chest. Unlike the stormy weather outside, under the heavy clouds, the inside was brightly lit. But it didn’t feel cozy. A chilling, unpleasant sensation seemed to be creeping up her legs.
Sue stared at the raindrops sliding down the glass wall. Her hands were still numb, despite her repeated attempts to clench and unclench them. Unfortunately, the servants who usually helped with the ‘cleanup’ hadn’t appeared today, so she had had to take care of everything herself. Water dripped from her hair, as she had gone outside without an umbrella.
The Byron family carriage, which usually came to pick her up, wasn’t here either. She was completely alone in the greenhouse.
The storm raged on, showing no signs of letting up. But Sue no longer had the will to cling to anyone’s pants leg and beg for help.
She watched the disaster unfolding beyond the glass wall as if it were someone else’s problem.
“Sue Byron.”
It was her own voice that called out that familiar name. She wasn’t looking at the storm raging beyond the glass, but at the reflection of a red-haired girl, faintly visible in the gap between the glass panes.
Dark red hair, damp but drying, eyes a shade lighter, pale skin, colorless lips. The face of ‘Sue’, not ‘her’.
“Sue Byron.”
Her arms and legs tingled with numbness. The memory of using magic on someone, the sensation of kicking someone, lingered in her body. Sue buried her face between her knees. Then, she lifted her eyes and stared at the ‘Sue’ trapped in the glass.
“Sue Byron.”
The viscount’s daughter of Atlantis.
“Sue Byron.”
A student of Full Bloom, a Skia of the capital.
“Sue Byron.”
Two parents, two maids, two cousins.
“Sue Byron.”
The townhouse, her room, the table, the green potion, the academy, the textbooks, the teachers, the long white uniform, the evaluations, the sports festival, Emnon, the National Founding Festival, Lake Libra, Enzhe, Melaine, Fritz, Acrea, Leo, Noel.
“Sue Byron!”
“…!”
She lifted her head abruptly. Someone else was calling her name.
“Noel…”
An unexpected face stood before her. Sue called his name weakly, and Noel looked at her with a troubled expression.
“What are you doing, not even answering when I call you? …And what happened to you?”
Noel fidgeted, touching his neck awkwardly as she didn’t answer. He was holding two umbrellas. One was wet, as if he had just used it, and the other was a neatly folded red umbrella. Sue watched him, then asked,
“Why are you here?”
You said you wouldn’t come.
Noel hesitated for a moment, then answered honestly,
“I was worried about you.”
He held out the red umbrella.
“Take this.”
Sue took the umbrella listlessly. It was a brand new umbrella, clean and dry.
“…You came because of me? Why?”
Sue’s eyes were filled with confusion.
“You seemed different from usual.”
“……”
“…I thought it might be related to Lopetrefer. So I came.”
Sue froze. She sat there, motionless, like a doll, her breathing inaudible.
Then, she slowly stood up, clutching the red umbrella.
“Then you should have looked for Lady Enzhe, not me.”
“Huh?”
It was a small, mumbled voice, so Noel thought he had misheard and stepped closer to her. Sue continued, her voice a little clearer this time.
“Come to think of it, you approached me because of Lady Enzhe.”
“…Byron.”
She felt something tightening around her throat. It wasn’t the two snakes created by someone else. Sue chuckled dryly. She fixed her gaze on the bright red umbrella and mumbled, her voice detached,
“Right. Because you like Lady Enzhe. And because of something… something between your family and the Lopetrefer grand duke family. You pretended to be my friend to use me as a bridge.”
“That’s not true.”
She ignored Noel’s denial.
“Noel.”
Sue looked up at him. He was clearly flustered, his eyes darting around nervously. He was completely different from his usual self. Sue thought he looked like Leo. She spoke in a curt tone,
“You don’t have to pretend to be my friend anymore. Stop it.”
“What are you talking about, Byron? I don’t understand.”
“Exactly what I said. You know now, don’t you? That you don’t have to worry about me. You won’t gain anything from pretending to be my friend, and there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“……”
“And you’ve heard the rumors, right? About what kind of person I am… No, you’ve seen it yourself, haven’t you? We were in the same class for years.”
Haha. She chuckled, her grip on the umbrella loosening. It slipped from her hand and rolled across the floor. No one bothered to retrieve it.
Sue buried her face in her trembling hands. She didn’t even know who she was talking to anymore. She just wanted to say it. That was all.
“Sue Byron is arrogant, violent, and curses people with magic. She abandons people easily, she’s jealous, and she’s manipulative. She’s a malicious person who obsessively torments people she dislikes.”
Her voice, though trembling, was strong. She suddenly lifted her head.
“It’s all true.”
“…You…”
Noel bit his lip hard and instinctively stepped back.
“I did it again today. Go to the infirmary. Giona Vercia, the girl you know so well, is probably hiding under the covers, crying her eyes out.”
“Byron…!”
Sue’s lips, which had been twisted into a mocking smile, were now contorted into an ugly grimace. A bright flash of lightning illuminated the glass garden. Their shadows stretched out on the floor, then disappeared.
“Noel. Raines Noel.”
She called his name, her voice pleading. It didn’t matter if the person in front of her was Noel or her father. She just needed someone to listen to her disgust.
“I have hundreds of other things to worry about besides you. I don’t have time to chat and laugh with you.”
“……”
“Don’t bother with me anymore. I’m busy serving Lady Enzhe. Take care of your own problems.”
“…I wouldn’t have come if I could.”
Noel muttered. Sue gasped at his low, strained voice. He was annoyed with her for the first time.
“I didn’t want to pretend to be your friend either, I didn’t want to deceive anyone, I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want any of this!”
He shouted, his voice filled with frustration, clutching his chest. His eyes, cold and hard, glared at her, as if he wanted to kill her.
“Really?”
Sue retorted immediately, without thinking.
“Then do something about it before you die. Whether it works or not.”
Her response to her ‘friend’, who had finally shown his true feelings, was nothing but cynicism.
Sue averted her gaze from Noel, who was staring at her with a bewildered expression. She turned her head slightly and saw a familiar face through the glass wall. It was the same face she had seen before.
She could no longer tell whose face it was. But that person wasn’t inside the garden, nor were they standing outside in the rain. She had no idea where they were or what they were trying to do.
“Hey.”
But as she made eye contact with the person trapped between the glass panes, Sue finally realized her own feelings. The realization made her entire body stiffen, as if she was about to vomit.
“What the hell are you doing?”
I’m so frustrated with you, I could die.
***
Sue Byron ran out of the glass garden and walked down the silent street. She couldn’t go back to her townhouse and just kept walking and walking, aimlessly. Sharp raindrops pierced her like needles.
“Hey, Miss, spare some change?”
A raspy voice called out to her from somewhere. She looked down and saw a beggar, dressed in rags, holding out a wooden bowl with a grin.
“…There are beggars even in the capital?”
“Of course. Even a place like Löhn is full of people like me. So please have mercy.”
The beggar, as if he had heard her muttered complaint, grinned, his toothless mouth wide open, and looked her up and down.
Sue didn’t say anything and took out her wallet from her inner pocket, tossing it into the beggar’s bowl.
“A-are you… are you really giving me this?!”
The beggar’s eyes bulged as he looked inside the wallet. Sue nodded silently and continued walking.
She felt like she had to show kindness to anyone who looked pitiful, no matter who they were. It didn’t matter if the beggar accepted it or not, or if he bowed and thanked her. She had to be kind. She had to get rid of this horrible, creepy feeling that was crawling up her limbs.
She left the beggar behind and reached a wider street. Her lips trembled from the cold. Her body was reaching its limit.