My Childhood Friends Are Trying To Kill Me

***

At that moment, she felt like her blood was flowing upside down.

“Your grandfather tried to stop her…Your mother told him to leave them alone. I don’t know if it’s because she doesn’t remember… I think she’s having a hard time because she’s from the royal family, and she’s instinctive…”

She heard from her mother that her grandfather had explained it in advance.

But that was true.

Was she just going to wait and see?

“I have to go right now.”

Her clenched fists trembled. She was choked up and felt angry.

She thought that only the twins came…

Why did Julianna and Ruth come here?

‘And she is begging my mom to go to the Imperial Castle with her?’

Lelia hurried forward without knowing that her eyes were red.

To be honest, she hated Julianna and Ruth just as much as the twin princes.

Perhaps it was because she was in a garden away from the castle, the time taken to get to the castle felt too long. She started to run by the time she was almost reaching the castle.

Her friends followed her from behind and called out to her, but she couldn’t hear their voices.

Lelia opened the gate and went up the stairs.

There was no need to go to the drawing room on the second floor. As soon as she climbed the stairs, she saw people gathered at the second floor’s hall.

The maids stood at a distance and watched with an anxious look.

When Lelia appeared, they hesitated before moving out of the way.

“…”

Lelia walked slowly, breathing heavily.

Other than her grandmother, all the members of her family were watching her mother with an uncomfortable look

In the middle, her mother stood, troubled, and the twin princes were in front of her.

“…”

She also saw Princess Julianna holding her mother’s hand and Ruth standing behind her.

As soon as she saw them, she heard the sound of something popping and breaking within.

Lelia went straight up and pushed Princess Julianna and the princes, who were holding her mother, away.

It was a rough and hard push.

“What is this…?”

The two princes seemed angry at the sudden push, but stopped after confirming that it was Lelia.

“Le-Lelia?”

Julianna called her name in a welcoming tone. How much did she cry? There were marks of tears rolling down her cheeks.

Lelia’s heart fluttered with anger. It was the first time she had ever felt this angry.

When she put strength in her eyes and stared at Julianna, Julianna spotted a momentary flash of resentment in those eyes.

Julianna returned it with a gentle look and grabbed Lelia’s hand.

“Lelia, I… I’m asking you to do this. Let’s go back to the Imperial Castle. Please? My father…”

“Why are you looking for your father here?”

Julianna’s expression hardened upon hearing the cold voice.

It was so cold that Lelia’s mother, family, and friends that stood behind her, all had expressions of surprise.

“Your father is in the Imperial Castle, so I would like to ask you, why are you here?”

Lelia looked at the twin princes and Julianna.

She was so angry that it seemed like a fireball was sitting in her heart.

Julianna and the twin princes were bewildered at her anger .

In particular, Julianna asked her as if she was stunned.

“You… How can you do that? You made my father suffer like that! It’s all your fault!”

Julianna shouted and began to cry.

Her voice cracked as she spoke.

With all her might, she tried to express her anger and resentment she had against Lelia.

“It’s all because of you! Because of you, my father…!”

“Julianna, calm down.”

Ruth stopped Julianna before she could hit Lelia’s shoulder with her fist.

“Let go of me! How can she do that to my father, while she’s pretending to be the only victim?! Are you that happy to be alone in your mother’s arms?”

“Julianna…”

“Please let go of me. It’s all because of her! All that has happened to my father…!”

“…”

Lelia’s expression was distorted.

Emperor Perseus, what?

What happened to him?

She almost asked impulsively, but she held it in.

Honestly, she didn’t want to know.

At that time, Cedric, who had been silent, spoke in a frustrated tone of voice.

“Lelia, I don’t blame you for what happened to our father. But… It’s not like you’re completely blameless.”

“…”

“So we should take our mother to the Imperial Castle. If we want our father to recover, we need to take our mom….”

“Yeah, she needs to go with us…”

“Sigh…”

Lelia snorted at the words of Cedric and Damien. She really wanted to burst into laughter at the absurdity of this situation.

“What will you do with her? What exactly are you putting our mother in the Imperial Castle for? Would the empress stay silent?”

“…”

When Lelia hit the nail on the head, Cedric and Damien were rendered speechless and were unable to refute her words.

The princes did not seem to have given it any thought.

Like idiots.

“Hah, how dare you speak of my mother?”

Julianna staggered in anger.

Lelia ignored her and asked Cedric and Damien again.

“Your father has nothing to do with me now. He promised to never come again and left forever. So until my mother’s memory comes back, you guys…”

“You don’t even have memories of your mother!”

Damien, who was listening to Lelia, shouted.

Unlike Cedric, who tried to keep his calm, he seemed to have no intentions of holding back his anger.

“…”

Damien shouted with malice.

“We missed her more than you did! You don’t even have any memories of her! You don’t even have the right! We’re… We’re more for her…!”

“Damien!”

Grandfather yelled at Damien loudly.

Nevertheless, Damien’s look of resentment toward Lelia did not abate.

Lelia felt like she was hit in the back of her head by a big hammer.

How could he say that like it’s nothing… How could he…

“Still…”

Lelia muttered with an empty voice. Everyone looked at her without making a sound.

“But you guys were together…”

“…….”

“I’ve been robbed by my uncle since I was young… I was deprived of everything, I had nothing, but you guys had everything. You’ve always been with your family…”

It was her innermost thoughts that she had never spoken of.

The memories of living in the Imperial castle were still vivid. She watched them from afar, thinking about what she should fill her stomach with.

Bright smiles and laughter.

It was typical of a happy and harmonious family.

She tried not to get hurt whenever she saw them, but the truth was, she was shaken.

Deprivation, helplessness, envy, jealousy. All kinds of dark emotions came flooding in like a tsunami, and at the end, nothing remained. Even those negative feelings were swept away as if she didn’t deserve them.

It was like looting.

“…Please stop taking her from me and go back. I’ll send her to you when my mother’s memories come back. Please…”

As if begging, Lelia looked at the two princes and said with a hollow voice.

They couldn’t say anything.

“Please… Please go… Please….”

Tears dripped down from Lelia’s eyes as she was holding back.

Lelia suddenly thought of something and asked.

“Would you do me this favor if I knelt down like I did when I was young?”

“What…!”

Cedric and Damien’s expressions were distorted.

Julianna’s eyes widened as she took a step back.

Lelia continued to talk while looking at them.

“Don’t you remember? If you want, I’ll kneel down and bow with my head on the floor just like I did then. Even if it’s for hundreds of times, I’ll apologize for nothing.”

“…”

Damien looked at Cedric as if he didn’t understand what she was saying.

They didn’t seem to remember.

It was a terrible memory for Lelia, but to them, it wasn’t important enough to remember.

At that moment, Julianna muttered as if she remembered something.

“At that time… At that time, it was just….”

Cedric also mumbled at the sudden realization.

“At that time, we were so young, we were just joking…”

“Are you kidding me?”

When Lelia asked back, he couldn’t answer.

Finally, Damien frowned as if he remembered belatedly.

“But Haah!”

He said with a despondent laugh.

“Are you really doing this now? Back then, we were younger! Then, I didn’t know you were my younger sister! And you pushed Julianna first!”

“…”

“I thought you were the daughter of Princess Iris, so it would be obvious that we’ll make you do that! You hurt Julianna. You expected us to stay still? It’s not a big deal to kneel down and say sorry…”

“Damien…”

Cedric tried to stop him, but Damien laughed even louder.

“If not, was it because we took away your beggar-like place? You ran away and met your grandfather. Ever since then, you’ve been able to live comfortably until now! How dare you monopolize our mom? Do you know how much we missed her?”

Everyone who was watching had hardened expressions.

It was easy for everyone to picture the humiliation that young Lelia had to go through.

The maids present at the scene were restless. They felt like they’ve heard something they shouldn’t know.

Most of the maids worked in the castle for a long time, so they remembered Lelia when she first arrived at the Superion’s castle.

She was so small and skinny that she looked like a pitiful child. They felt sorry for the skinny kid.

However, what made the child pitiful was not her skinny body, but her expression.

A face that was devoid of life.

What sort of harsh experiences the child must have gone through?

The expressions she made easily made their hearts collapse.

They finally knew the reason.

They said that they knew everything about her since she was young, but they couldn’t have guessed that she experienced something so terrible.

It must have been such a dark time.

She even knelt down in front of Julianna for hurting her….

The maids looked at the princes and Julianna with resentment.

“Oh my god.”

Damien noticed people’s gazes at him. He spat out a small swear word as if he was dying of resentment.

It was then.

“Who, who… knelt down in front of Julianna… Placed her forehead on the floor… You made her do that?”

Duke Superion muttered in a trembling voice.

Anger could be detected at the end of his speech.

Everyone flinched at the spirit of the old man who still spoke like a tiger.

The Duke walked slowly and stood in front of Cedric and Damien. Then, he looked at Julianna standing next to them.

“Who, and in front of whom?”

***