LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 197
Chapter 197: Side Story 3
Since that day, Kashmir returned to a world where it was just the two of them again. However, it was not the same as before.
“….Sister.”
“Sister!”
“Uh, huh? Why? What is it?”
“……Come here. Let me wipe your tears.”
“Uh, I…”
“That’s right. You’re crying.”
For a while, Kashmir was completely broken. She didn’t go to work, and no matter how many times she was called, there was no response. Sitting in her chair like a corpse, she only stared out the window. She seemed like someone who had received a death sentence.
Aria didn’t ask Kashmir what had happened. Some things were painful enough just to be repeated.
Silently, Aria stayed by Kashmir’s side and thought constantly.
She wished that Kashmir would stay only with her. She longed for the owner of her narrow world to look only at her. Hence, this situation was nothing short of a fulfillment of Aria’s wish.
‘Why isn’t this enjoyable at all?’
Her chest felt tight. Whenever she looked into those hollow, empty eyes, the air felt choked.
She thought that if she held onto her tightly, she’d become happy.
Because it was her first love, and she knew nothing about love, she thought that was enough.
But now that such a situation had arisen, Aria was certain. This was not what she wished for.
‘Maybe I…
With a resolute gaze, she looked out the window. White snowflakes were pouring down from the dark night sky, ready to engulf the world.
‘I wish for my sister’s happiness.’
Just holding her was not enough. Kashmir needed to be happy. She should look at her with a warm gaze, her bright smile illuminating her face.
“Sister.”
The vacant, pale-pink eyes showed no movement. Aria felt a flame ignite within her.
“Kashmir!”
Kashmir reacted only after Aria yelled at the top of her lungs. Aria stared straight into her wide-open eyes, looking shocked.
“What are you doing right now!”
“Uh…what?”
“You said you’d make me happy.
You’ve said it so many times! Are you just going to stay like this?”
Aria felt her eyes grow warm with tears.
She had a premonition that in the distant future, she would regret today. Dying together might be the best conclusion, but she had forcibly dragged a star that should have sunk to the bottom. Perhaps Kashmir would go somewhere far beyond her reach after today.
“I don’t want you to heal your illness. I don’t want a big house or delicious meals! Do whatever you want outside! Honestly, being here with you is so much better! But, but I don’t want my sister to stop moving and die like this!”
Yet, the stars were most beautiful when in the sky.
“Without your happiness, I won’t be happy!”
Stars too, surely, were happiest when they were in the sky.
“……Ah.”
Kashmir sighed. Her hazy eyes became blank, soon filling with moisture.
“I’m sorry…”
As her small head bowed, tears fell to the floor like raindrops.
Aria sighed slowly as she wrapped her arms around her sister’s shoulders, which looked particularly narrow today.
“Be happy. Just like you wish for my happiness, I wish for yours.”
“But I can’t be happy. I’ve sinned…”
Kashmir’s voice was cut off by her sobs. Aria gently caressed her sister’s head, just as her sister often did for her.
“Then you will atone by making others happy. And for my happiness, be happy. Not for you, but for me.”
Aria said this without knowing anything.
In fact, Aria didn’t care if Kashmir was a serial killer. Whether it was due to a lack of formal education or just her nature, Kashmir was her law and moral standard.
No matter what sin Kashmir had committed, Aria considered her happiness the most important.
“Is it okay for me to do that…?”
Kashmir looked up at Aria with a face in a wreck. Despite the pain in her heart, Aria felt an odd sense of spite. The one person who could hurt her was only Kashmir, and yet, it felt like Kashmir wasn’t her sister anymore.
“Yes. I’ll allow it.”
Still, her hand stroking Kashmir’s black hair was gentle.
“Ugh…”
“O’…”
Kashmir cried for a long time that day, wrapped in Aria’s arms.
After that night, Kashmir strangely changed. She was still a bit twisted, but she had grown so much more than before. It was beyond Aria’s expectations. Kashmir began to shine again.
‘How can I be by my dazzling sister’s side?’
Aria always thought about this while watching Kashmir who seemed to drift further away. It was a pointless worry since she wouldn’t live long anyway.
Aria’s body weakened over time. Even after drinking the fairy forest’s healing water that Kashmir bought with the money from blood, her body didn’t improve, leaving her feeling not just resentful but almost disgusted.
Would she be able to live up to the most beautiful age of sixteen?
Aria thought without hope. A dream too grand for her, something that would be just ordinary for others. The realization often made her feel powerless.
“Sister, how about we stop buying the fairy forest’s healing water? It doesn’t seem to work much…”
“Aria.”
Although Aria thought it might be better to use the enormous sum of money spent on trying to save her to enjoy her remaining time more luxuriously, it wasn’t executed.
“I will definitely save you. Absolutely.”
Kashmir muttered while gripping Aria’s hand tightly like it was a lifeline. Those eyes, filled with insanity, looked strangely pitiful, making it hard for Aria to voice her opinion strongly.
That was the reason for Kashmir’s existence. Taking ineffective medicine at a devilishly high price while placing all her hope in Aria was how she sustained her life.
‘It’ll continue until I die.’
Kashmir would become broken, return, earn money in exchange, drink the ineffective healing water from the fairy forest, and while the disease’s progression would pause for a moment, it wouldn’t be long before it worsened again. It was a pattern that would repeat until her death.
By some winter when she was fifteen, she had thought that way.
That night, as she lay in her old bed, trying to sleep.
“Ack!”
The pain came suddenly. It felt as if her insides twisted and all her blood flowed back as if frozen. In the moment where her body felt like it was shattering into pieces, Aria thought.
‘I’m dying.’
After that, she couldn’t grasp the situation well. Like flicking the light switch on and off quickly, she repeatedly slipped in and out of consciousness.
Amidst it all, she remembered that her body kept shaking, hot tears soaked her skin, and she vomited blood several times.
And then.
‘If you save my sister, I will become the Duke’s loyal sword.’
‘Duke, please… I can be really useful. If you just save Aria, I will forever be the loyal sword of the House of Crisis. I won’t even dare to aspire to inherit the name of Crisis! If you want me to be merely a dog of Crisis, I will be, and if you want me to die, I will die…’
‘Please… save Aria…’
Kashmir had desperately pleaded for her sake.
Aria felt as if she were teetering on the brink of the spirit world and wondered what it would be like if there were no burden like herself for Kashmir.
Kashmir was a sword master—something she desperately hid so that no one would ever think she knew—but she must have rapidly grown stronger with Aria as motivation. However, even without that, the fact that she became a sword master itself proved her extraordinary talent.
With such talent, even as a commoner, she would have been welcomed anywhere. The Knights Order of the Imperial Palace would have opened their arms to her, guaranteeing her uniform profit and honor for life if she entered there.
Aria knew well that Kashmir had chosen the dangerous and precarious work of a mercenary because of her.
Aria was well aware of her self-objectification. Being a useless burden who could provide no help to Kashmir, she had plenty of desires, and her personality was terrible. No matter how you looked at it, she was a nuisance. Now, she was begging someone she didn’t even remember who that was.
‘Maybe it’s better to just die now.’
As her consciousness began to fade, Aria thought that way.
And blackout.
When Aria opened her eyes again, she saw a clean, luxurious room she had never seen before.
“Ah, you’re awake?”
As Aria blinked, trying to comprehend the situation, a kind voice tickled her ear. Aria turned to look at him with empty eyes.
“I see you, Miss. Chief Butler Taylor…”
“Where is my sister?”
“What did you say?”
“Where is my sister, Kashmir?”
Aria was half out of her mind. From the fact that she was alive when she should have been dead to the unfamiliar environment, nothing made sense to her. Above all, the fact that Kashmir was not by her side drove her mad.
“I heard that Lady Kashmir went out for a walk.”
Even in the face of Aria’s hysterical attitude, Taylor responded calmly. Aria, holding onto the blanket as if to tear it apart, began to think quickly.
‘When I saw the view outside, it was right in the middle of the capital. From the surrounding furnishings, this is the mansion of the House of Crisis. How am I here? No, I’ll think about that later. I’m on the second floor. The second floor of a nobleman’s mansion is usually where family members live or where important guests are hosted. Considering the size of the mansion and the view outside, this room is likely the first or second room on the right. The further to the right, the more precious the guests… To use such a place, the Duke’s permission is essential.’
Aria was not just playing around at home. The thousands, tens of thousands of books that had been in the library were stored whole in her brain. Knowledge related to nobility also lingered in a corner of her mind.
“First, let’s have a meal…”
“Take me to your master.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Aria jumped up from her seat and walked towards the door. Her body felt unexpectedly light, which was awkward. She knew that Taylor looked several times her age, making her attitude extremely rude, but she was not in the right mind to observe manners.
“Tell Duke Caesar Crisis to come.”
Aria’s blue eyes blazed like wildfire.