Episode 99
Before the fire broke out at the Rossi estate, while Elonia stood frozen in shock in the basement, Dianne’s ragged breathing gradually calmed.
Dianne looked at the broken prayer altar in her hands and murmured,
“Oh… I was going to give this to Elonia. I’ll have to find another one…”
She tossed the broken altar aside, then spoke to the empty space where Elonia was hiding,
“Sorry, Elonia. I found the prettiest one, but it broke… I’ll find another one for you. Just wait a little longer.”
“…!”
Elonia was startled. Dianne’s vacant eyes were looking directly at her.
‘She can’t see me, so how… Ah.’
Elonia noticed the pool of blood at her feet, the blood that had flowed from the cleric’s head. Dianne had noticed the small footprints in the blood.
Elonia deactivated her invisibility spell. Dianne smiled brightly.
“You should have told me if you wanted to play hide-and-seek.”
“…Why did you kill him?”
Elonia asked, her face grim.
Dianne blinked innocently, tilting her head as she looked at the ceiling, feigning thought.
“Hmm… I don’t know? My hand just moved on its own?”
She giggled, as if trying to dismiss it as a mistake. Thanks to the cleric’s hood, her face was clean, showing no trace of the brutal act she had just committed.
Elonia, despite having killed people herself, was disturbed by the dissonance between Dianne’s innocent appearance and the brutal act she had just witnessed.
Elonia clenched her fists, her voice low and dangerous.
“What are you planning?”
“Planning? You were in trouble, so I helped you. I’m hurt that you would suspect your friend.”
“Friend? Don’t make me laugh. Your true identity has already been exposed.”
“…What are you talking about, Elonia?”
“Noah Anglores. That’s your real name, isn’t it?”
Dianne’s face became expressionless again. And Dianne, or rather, Noah, repeated her earlier words.
“Elonia, I’m Dianne.”
“No, you’re Noah. Not Dianne of Ravanta, but Noah of Delan.”
“…I’m Dianne.”
“You’re Noah. No matter how much you believe it, you’re still Noah.”
Just like Elonia couldn’t abandon her past self as Chelon, Noah, despite her insistence, was still Noah.
Noah’s face hardened.
She pushed Elonia against a shelf.
“I’m Dianne!”
She grabbed a prayer altar from the shelf and forced it into Elonia’s hand.
“…”
But Elonia’s eyes remained clear.
She looked up at Noah, her gaze unwavering. Noah, her voice filled with disbelief, asked,
“…Elonia, you’re not affected by this? Even after touching it?”
“Your holy tools don’t work on me.”
“I see. As expected.”
Noah’s eyes gleamed with a chilling intensity.
She dropped the prayer altar onto the blood-soaked floor.
“My instincts were right.”
A broken laugh escaped her lips, then turned into a sob.
“I almost… I almost had it… It’s all my fault, for being so greedy… It’s all over.”
Noah slumped to the ground, defeated.
Her vacant eyes regained their focus, as if she had finally awakened from a delusional dream and returned to the cold, harsh reality.
Elonia, certain that Noah had regained her sanity, pressed on, drawing her dagger and holding it to Noah’s throat.
“Noah, tell me everything you know. If you want to leave this place alive.”
Her voice, cold and sharp, pierced Noah’s ears.
Noah remained on the ground, her head bowed.
After a long silence, she finally raised her hand, clutching Elonia’s skirt, her voice filled with desperation.
“Your Highness, I’ll tell you everything. I won’t lie. Just please… spare my father, Count Rossi.”
The Delan Kingdom had enjoyed peace and prosperity in exchange for supplying Heilan with weapons. As long as Chelon Heilan was alive, their safety and wealth were guaranteed.
But Chelon Heilan had been killed by Artius, the war hero and tyrant, and Delan, which had always been spared from the war, was swiftly conquered by Ravanta.
Noah had been five years old when she lost her father.
After his death, their family had begun to decline, along with the entire nation.
Noah, losing hope as she grew older, had received an unexpected offer four years later, right after Prince Dolce’s death.
Felix, the new king of Heilan, had approached her and said,
“I have a task for you.”
A task?
Noah, her eyes filled with fear, had looked at her mother, who was standing behind Felix. Baroness Anglores had coldly averted her gaze.
Noah had realized,
Ah, I’m being sold.
The adults had erased Noah Anglores of Delan and secretly sent her to Ravanta.
She had been dressed in the same clothes the real Dianne had been wearing when she died and presented to Count Rossi.
Count Rossi, who had supposedly lost both his wife and daughter, hadn’t been angry. He had embraced Noah, tears streaming down his face.
“Dianne! Where have you been? I would have bought you any jewel you wanted. Don’t ever run away again.”
Noah had instantly understood her situation and her mission.
She had become Dianne.
She hadn’t felt any sympathy for the grieving man. Ravanta was her enemy.
But Count Rossi’s kindness had been her undoing.
“Dianne, I bought you this ribbon. I thought you would like it.”
Her real father had never bought her ribbons, never brushed her hair. He had only yelled at them if they weren’t there to greet him when he returned home.
She remembered him as a stern and distant figure, someone she had been afraid to approach.
But Count Rossi was different. He gently brushed her curly hair with his large, calloused hands, careful not to hurt her.
Noah realized that a father could be kind and loving.
And she felt a pang of guilt.
She was giving this kind man false hope.
“I can’t do this.”
Noah had been able to endure her new life in a foreign land, pretending to be someone else, because of the hope that she would be able to return home after completing her mission, the hope that she would finally earn her mother’s approval.
As long as she had that dream, she could endure anything.
But sometimes, she was overwhelmed by anxiety, wondering if it was all just a delusion.
Just like her, Count Rossi would also suffer when the truth was revealed.
So Noah, on the eve of her enrollment at the academy, had prepared to run away.
If she gave up, her mother in Delan would be killed. But she wanted to protect Count Rossi, the man who had shown her what it felt like to be loved, rather than her own mother, who had sold her off.
She couldn’t bear to deceive him any longer.
She didn’t want to betray his kindness.
So she had opened her window in the middle of the night, a prayer altar clutched in her hand, ready to escape.
But Count Rossi had stopped her.
“Dianne.”
“F-father.”
“What are you doing on the windowsill? It’s dangerous.”
Count Rossi had lifted her down and gently taken the prayer altar from her hands.
“It’s not safe to go out at this hour. And tomorrow is an important day, isn’t it? Let’s go to sleep.”
His usual kindness had been unbearable that night.
She had felt like she was truly Dianne Rossi. But that feeling only reminded her that she was Noah.
The dead Dianne was so loved, while she, the living Noah, could never be happy. Jealousy and self-loathing consumed her, and she lashed out,
“…An important day? It’s only important for your real daughter, not for me!”
“D-Dianne.”
“I’m not Dianne. I’m Noah! I’m not your real daughter! Your real daughter is dead! I’m a fake!”
Noah pushed him away, her voice hoarse from shouting and crying.
It was over.
There was no way he wouldn’t realize the truth now. He would report her to the Imperial Palace. But what hurt her more was the thought of his betrayed and heartbroken expression.
Noah lowered her head, unable to face him.
Count Rossi approached her.
Noah braced herself, expecting to be slapped, accused of impersonating his daughter.
But he didn’t say anything, didn’t raise his hand. He knelt down, took her hand, and wiped away her tears.
Noah, surprised, looked up at him.
Count Rossi, his face creased with pain, smiled sadly and said,
“Noah, you’re my daughter. Even if you’re from Delan, you’re still my daughter.”
“…!”
Noah froze.
She had revealed her name, but he couldn’t have known that she was from Delan.
And yet, he knew.
Noah, her voice trembling, asked,
“H-how long have you known…?”
Count Rossi smiled faintly, his eyes closing as he pulled her into a tight embrace.
“Whether you’re Noah of Delan or Dianne of Ravanta, you’re still my daughter.”
“N-no… I can’t be your daughter. Ravanta is my enemy.”
“Noah, then don’t throw away your life for your enemy. I was already as good as dead that day. But you brought me back to life. So use me to survive.”
Noah didn’t know when his brainwashing had been broken.
Perhaps it had been broken from the moment they first met.
She might have resembled Dianne, but she was still a different person. And Count Rossi, a loving father, couldn’t have been fooled.
“Noah, don’t leave. Please don’t leave me.”
But how could he consider her, a Delan citizen, his daughter? It was different from her considering him her father.
“Why…?”
The question escaped her lips, her voice choked with emotion.
“I’m not heartless enough to abandon a child with nowhere to go.”
Tears welled up in her eyes.
He was so kind. He could have abandoned her, a child of the enemy nation.
“…Count Rossi.”
“Yes, Noah.”
“Father.”
“Yes, Noah.”
He didn’t hesitate, even when she called him “Father.”
Noah, her hands trembling, hugged him tightly.
“I’ll protect you, Father, no matter what. I’ll survive.”
“Yes, Noah. That’s a good girl…”
Count Rossi hugged her tightly, as if he would never let her go.
He felt sorry for the real Dianne. But she wouldn’t want her father to die either.
Noah also wanted to protect Count Rossi. He was her family now. She would complete her mission and protect him, no matter the cost.
With renewed determination, she summoned a cleric of the Calamity God and had him strengthen Count Rossi’s brainwashing.
But perhaps her desire to protect him, to spare him from harm, had been too strong.
Noah, desperate to escape this hell, returned to the Rossi estate after failing to use the princess for her mission.