Chapter 16

~ 16 ~

“Psychke, are you inside?”

While laying on the bed, Psychke was staring blanky at the ceiling.

Behind the knocking to her door, she knew exactly who it is, but more importantly the fact that the person shouldn’t be here.

Psychke doubted her ears. Then, after the visitor called her once more, she got up and opened the door.

“I heard you’re back, so you’re here.”

“…… ”

The word ‘father’ has no meaning to her.

Psychke bit her lip.

The Duke and the head of Silkisia has a distorted expression, perhaps because of her response.

Psychke, who let him in, muttered reluctantly.

“Why… have you come here?”

“It had been a while since we last saw each other, and you even haven’t said hello to me?”

“… Recently, you looked quite fine.”

It may be a while for her father, but for her, it was a rather quick reunion, who had gone back in time.

Moreover, she was unjustly killed in her last life, therefore, him being here doesn’t deserve her welcome.

“Hmm.”

Unlike before when I tried to look good in front of her father, she doesn’t have that stomach to be like that anymore.

While looking at Psychke, who wouldn’t make a single eye contact with him, the Duke felt rather strange and concluded that something was definitely wrong.

He tore down his expression in an instant, then straightened his posture as if nothing had happened.

“Yes. You’re also doing well here, right?”

“… Yes.”

She didn’t want to alter her boring reply to him.

Psychke answered him rather brief and after a moment, she told him, while looking at the bed.

“I’m tired, so I ask of your kindness to leave now.”

He was displeased and wiggled his brows. He quickly dissipated what he was feeling, and the corners of his mouth trembled.

“You can rest a little later. We have a welcoming party for Lillian’s return.”

“…”

“Everyone in the house is present, so don’t miss it.”

“I’m not feeling well. I’m sorry.”

“Can you not at least look at my face?”

“No, it’s hard to even move. “

Psychke cut his words off embarrassingly.

“I’ll say my congratulations to Lillian separately. I didn’t even get a present for her anyway–”

“Psychke.”

The duke, who cut her words in return, paused as it to look at her face.

But Psychke never raised her eyes to him.

The Duke stared at her with his expressionless face. He seemed like a person who wanted to see through what the other person was thinking.

Then he suddenly smiled sweetly and spoke softly.

***

“Oh, my God.”

“She has no shame. Does she know where she is right now?”

Seasonal flowers, colorful balloons, sweet music, and fragrant foods.

As soon as she entered the beautifully decorated garden, lots of eyes landed to her figure like a dagger. The same goes to their sharp words.

Ignoring all of those clear insults, Psychke moved forward.

In her head, the behavior and the way the Duke of Silkisia spoke, which she had just experienced, were floating.

‘Just exactly why?’

The duke had never said anything friendly to her because she was only adopted.

It was all about throwing compliments like he was treating a beggar who was kind.

However, just now…….

“I really want you to come there.”

He had asked her to attend Lillian’s return, acting sweet and close as if to coax his grumpy daughter.

As he said that, Psychke had decided to attend the party.

She didn’t feel the affection of a father from her foster father’s sugarcoated words.

That moment,

‘The important thing is psyche! That kid would never–‘

The conversation she had overheard kept bothering her.

Also, the strange atmosphere of the Duke, who almost in his life, neglected her, has changed overnight.

What the hell is he up to?! It’s worrying her.

“You came, Psyckhe!”

A clear voice resonated through her busy mind. She then saw Lillian’s radiant smile when she saw her. Her beautiful silver hair which had pins and made of expensive jewels.

White pears and diamonds were hanging on her ear and neck, which were pale as ever.

The light pink dress, reminiscent of spring flowers, danced in waves whenever the owner, Lillian, moved.

‘She usually wears flashy dress, but now… she looked quite not bad.’

It was the opposite of what Pyschke looked like in plain clothes.

She thought that this was the clear difference between the real and fake. It even illuminates through Lillian’s dress.

“I thought you wouldn’t come. I’m so glad you came.”

“Because you shine more when I’m with you?”

“… Huh?”

She guessed that she was pretty twisted inside.

The sincerity that she had swallowed by force came out recklessly.

Looking at Lillian’s innocent face, crushing down, Psychke couldn’t help but to laugh.

Her sneer turned to a grin and congratulated Lillian for her return.

“I’m glad you’re back, too.”

“….”

“I mean it.”

If Lillian hadn’t come, she would have still lived longing for a love that she would never receive for the rest of her life. Psychke smiled as she looked at Lillian, who seemed to be judging whether the words from her happiness were sincere.

She was literally in a bad mood, but she kept laughing somehow.

Might be because of the fact that Lillian acted innocent as she could.

Or, she didn’t know if it’s because she had heard strange things about Lillian directly from her family.

“Are you arguing with your sister again?” “Did you say hello to your father?” “You seem to go out too often these days, so please refrain from going out.”

Lenox, Yzhar.

Terrible families.

Drinking red wine like blood with their words in one ear.

Drinking wine as red as blood, spilling their words and going in her ears.

“Today is a very happy day.”

When the duke returned from his hard work, he made a long speech, starting with, ‘How can I not be happy when my daughter, whom I thought was dead, came back uninjured and alive?’

Psychke did not bother to listen.

She knew what he was going to say, since she have heard it before in her last life.

Although the real princess had come back, the castle of Silkisia’s reputation wasn’t recovered at all.

However, she will not be able to act as one of the Silkisia from now on, and even her title as a princess became unacceptable for people since she was a fake one.

Oh, she shouldn’t have come.

Just the thought which lingered in her mind, made her heart throbbed. She bitterly emptied the glass of wine, ignoring how she was hurt inside.

And when she had just taken off her lips from the glass…

A voice like a bolt from the blue hit her ears.

“… Never forget that even though Lillian is back, Pychke is also a stark of Silkiisia.”

‘What kind of….? What is this?’

It’s exactly the opposite from what she remembered.

Psychke looked up at the Duke.

There was a cold silence in the garden, and everyone was looking at the same place with their embarrassed faces.

The Duke scoured the frozen. Then, the moment she made eye contact with Psyckhe, the Duke stated.

“Psychke Silkisia. To set an example as Lillian’s sister and the first princess. I’ll look forward to it.”

Silent consternations covered the garden once again.

And,

Clang clang–

A glass dropped by someone foresaw a strong wave.

***

The party celebrated its return soon ended.

The Duke admitted in public. For Psychke, the castle of Silkisia is still alive.

In addition, by calling her ‘Lillian’s sister’, he implicitly implied that Psychke was higher in rank than Lillian, even though she was the same princess as before.

Psychke and Lillian turned white, Lenox’s eyes turned as big as a full moon, and Yzhar stared at his father with his stiffened face.

The atmosphere between the Silkisia, which should be the one celebrating and happy were tarnished, and now, what could the rest of them say?

The banquet ended in confusion.

The duke left as soon as he finished his closing address.

Yzhar, who had a dark gaze throughout the party, chased him and complained.

“What do you mean, Lillian’s sister who doesn’t even know where she came from? My father’s bloodline, my sister. This is ridiculous.”

A voice echoed like a cave in the empty hallway.

The Duke stopped his foot. Wearing the mask of a benevolent father throughout the party, he stared at his son with a fearful look.

Then he shook his fist unannounced.

There was a clatter of flesh. Yzahr head swung to one side.

“I told you to keep an eye on Psychke.”

“…”

“She has changed. Silkishia has changed more than anyone else, and the girl who used to follow me around has changed too!”

He gnashed his teeth at the thought of the adopted child he met before the party began.

Psychke’s eyes, which had always longed for his affection, were nowhere to be found. Her gesture which shows her fright of being abandoned and her scared voice of being discarded away had vanished as if it was never there to begin with.

He had been wondering about it since Lillian came back, but he never knew that it was this serious. It was a disaster.

“… I am sorry.”

Yzhar replied, swallowing the blood in his mouth.

It’s been like that for a long time. His father worked on Psychke to the point of wonder.

After adopting her, pretending not to be interested and isolating her from people around them, he brainwashed her by saying, “All you have left is your family.”

The father was not the type to give affection to his children. Thus, he didn’t believe in Lillian’s replacement in the first place.

He doesn’t know why he brought that crap (Psychke). He followed the meaning, saying, “I’m sure he brought her in for some reason.”

However, as the matter came to this point, the question that had been suppressed deeply in his heart came to the top of his head.

Who the hell is Psychke?

Why is he working so hard for that adopted child?

“Since when did she become like that. Huh? Since when she changed?”

“… I think it was from the day Lillian came back.”

Yeah, the Psychke that day was definitely weird.

Resignation, futility, indifference. Her gestures and speech that seem to have given up everything.

He thought that perhaps because that she was only growing up, but it wasn’t that reason.

Since the real Princess is back, she must have realized that no matter how hard she struggles, there is no place for fake people.

“Lillian, Lillian. Ha.”

The Duke, who has pondered his own daughter’s name dozens of times, frowned.

He let out a long, troubled breath, then recoiled his neck with one hand covering his eyes.

“What’s she doing these days?”

“If you’re asking about Lillian, she was still learning how to become-“

“No! Not her, I mean Psychke. I heard that she had gotten closer to a soldier.”

“…Yes, I’m trying to get an excuse and send it out before they get any closer. There’s nothing else. Except for increased encounters with the Duke of Lestir.”

“Verndia, with that guy?”

The Duke of Silkisia, who remembered that the installation did not fit the subject they were talking about, laughed coldly.

“She must be leaving Silkisia for that Lestir. I wouldn’t take that, stupid.”

“I’ll attach the guards.”

“You idiot. She’s better at swordsmanship than you are. Are you trying to tell me you weren’t watching her?”

Yzhar clenched his fist who had heard his hidden inferiority complex.

Blue veins popped out on the back of his hand, and his shoulders, which were firmly strengthened by swordsmanship, trembled.

The duke clapped his tongue at the piteousness.

“We must change her mind at all costs. I mean, let me know that Silkisia is the only place for her to be. Do you understand?”

“… I’ll keep that in mind.”

Psychke is an adoptee, Lillian is not self-aware as a princess, and Lenox is still young, but unclear.

Yzhar is the only one whom he can entrust the future of Silkisia.

What should he do when he is not this reliable?

The duke left with a deep sigh innocently.

Yzhar, who was left alone, stood still for a while with his head down with his face that he didn’t know what he was thinking seriously about.