PMEVBO 58

The Hayut Massacre.

That’s what the world called the tragedy that unfolded at Hayut Castle that day.

Most of the bodies in the main hall were damaged, but Kogaron’s corpse was particularly mutilated. His right arm and leg had been severed, and his torso was charred by fire.

After identifying Kogaron’s body, Isabelle immediately rushed to the place where his remains had been found. She wanted to find her father’s limbs.

For three days and nights, she searched through the debris until her delicate hands were covered in blood, but she could not find Kogaron’s limbs. Instead, she found a signet ring, now darkened and blackened, among the charred remains.

After that, Isabelle sent word to the villa where her younger brother, Iser, was convalescing, informing him that their parents had passed away.

A month later, the villa’s butler came to see Isabelle.

“My Lady, the young master… has never stayed at the villa I’ve managed these past five years.”

The butler spoke in a trembling voice, his head bowed. He looked like someone confessing a long-hidden sin.

Isabelle’s mind went completely blank in that instant.

“What? What do you mean…? I sent letters there every month and sometimes received replies… That… that doesn’t make any sense.”

The butler remained silent.

“What, is something wrong? Father clearly said that boy was recuperating there. But you’re saying he wasn’t there… does that makes sense…?”

Isabelle desperately hoped the butler would agree with her. But the truth he stammered out after a long silence was horrifying.

“…His Grace the Duke gave an order. An order to make it appear as if the young master was recuperating at the villa…”

“What? Why would Father do such a thing… No, more importantly, where is he now…?”

“I don’t know that either. …I’m sorry, My Lady.”

A clue to Iser’s whereabouts was found in the annex. Unlike the main building, which was burned to its bare frame, the annex was relatively intact. And there, Isabelle found ‘it’.

An experiment log titled “Experiments and Considerations for Immortality”, written in her adoptive father’s handwriting…

“Father… did this… to Ir…?”

Isabelle refused to believe it.

The day she found that experiment log, Isabelle’s world fell apart.

On the day she lost her father after her mother, Kogaron tenderly comforted the weeping Isabelle, promising to be a father to both siblings, taking on the role of his deceased brother. For the past five years, Isabelle had lived peacefully within Kogaron’s protective embrace.

‘But that peace was built upon the sacrifice of my beloved only brother…’

And worse…

Damn it, the experimental tool was stolen.

I still can’t believe this happened to me.

It’s been at least a month since it was stolen, so the experimental tool’s survival is unlikely. I am thorough and perfect, which is why I kept a tight grip on the leash of that bastard who was desperate to die. An ordinary creature couldn’t have handled it and would have let him die.

That priest is the most suspicious of all.

If the contents of the experiment log are true… her brother was cornered enough to choose death, and he was even kidnapped by the madman murderer who caused the Hayut Massacre. And Kogaron declared that brother dead.

“Ir is dead…?”

He suffered so terribly, endured such horrors… yet, his own sister, never even knew. Thinking of how frightening and agonizing it must have been for her little brother to face it alone, her insides twisted in pain.

“My poor brother… what am I supposed to do…”

Isabelle wailed bitterly before her brother’s death, with no body, no belongings.

From the moment she first faced her adoptive parents’ corpses, Isabelle’s goal was revenge.

No matter the cost, she wanted to tear him apart. Otherwise, she felt she wouldn’t be able to face them after death.

But after learning the truth about Iser that day, her goal was no longer revenge. Something more urgent than her rage toward those who abused and killed her brother consumed her.

Was it really true that the child had been abused by Kogaron? What kind of death had he met? And… where was his body? Isabelle wanted to know everything.

There was only one person who could provide answers to all these questions.

The mass murderer, Lucariel.

The underground prison ‘Hell’ where Lucariel was incarcerated was located within the Holy City. For a non-clergy member to enter there, becoming a prison guard was the only option.

However, only commoners could apply for the prison guard position, and recruitment itself occurred unexpectedly, with no set schedule. Isabelle prepared to become a guard and even studied psychology to draw out the answers she sought from Lucariel, the mass murderer.

Then, one day, the recruitment announcement finally came.

It was six years after the Hayut Massacre.

Isabelle took the recruitment exam under the commoner identity ‘Eve’ and passed without issue.

Before departing for the Holy City, Isabelle made one final stop at Hayut Castle. Time within the castle had frozen on that day six years prior. Even amidst the profusion of spring blossoms, the castle’s skeletal framework, starkly exposed, resembled a corpse left with only bones.

In truth, Isabelle had received compensation from the Pope. It was a sum large enough to rebuild the castle and still have money left over. Yet she donated every last coin. She refused to spend the price of so many lives merely on rebuilding a castle.

The annex was the space where Iser had lived as a child. It was also where the murderer, Lucariel, had been exiled. Wandering aimlessly through the annex, her footsteps eventually led her to a room. It was where she had found the experiment log.

The room, its door and windows shattered to pieces, was covered in dust.

“Ir, where are you…?”

Your sister want to find even a handful of your bones and bury them.

Isabelle glanced around the room briefly before slowly walking back out into the hallway. That was when it happened.

Thud, thud─

Footsteps echoed from inside the room.

She turned her head without thinking, her gaze returning to the room. Standing there was a tall, slender man.

Cherry blossom petals carried by the spring breeze drifted in through the broken window. His waist-length pink hair mingled with the petals, softly fluttering.

Whenever she saw a man around Iser’s age, she imagined what her brother would have looked like had he lived. His build changed with each imagination, but his face remained the same.

Then, the man slowly turned his head.

A beautiful face, radiant with life, alone in the faded room. It was a face that resembled her mother, Shua, the most beautiful person she had ever seen in her life. And even the mole on his right cheek…

“It’s been a long time, sister.”

The moment she heard those words, Isabelle lunged forward, rushing to embrace the man.

Her trembling fingertips traced her brother’s cheek. She asked in a quivering voice.

“…Are you really here?”

“Yes.”

Iser bowed his head toward Isabelle as he answered. Then, like a child, Isabelle burst into tears.

“All this time… where were you…! Sis… Sister thought… you were… dead… “

”I’m sorry for making you worry.”

Isabelle couldn’t continue speaking through her sobs, and Iser quietly patted her back.

Iser was a child who struggled with physical contact with others. Yet now, her brother was comforting her with an unexpectedly gentle touch, almost as if he had learned it from someone.

The moment her sobs subsided slightly, Isabelle suddenly remembered her brother’s peculiar constitution. She immediately cupped both of Iser’s cheeks. Surprisingly, the areas touching Iser didn’t hurt.

“Ir, you… this…”

“I’m fine now. I’m all better.”

Iser answered with a smile.

But Isabelle’s heart ached as if it were being torn apart. She had read the experiment log written by Kogaron and now knew that the peculiar constitution that had made her brother’s childhood so painful was not a simple illness.

Just as she closed her eyes, fearing the tears would burst forth again, a soft, low voice reached her.

“So I’ve found a place I want to go.”

“…A place you want to go?”

Even during his childhood, when he was confined to this annex, Iser had never once said those words.

“Where? Where do you want to go?”

Isabelle asked resolutely. She was determined to take him there, no matter what it took.

Iser picked up the dagger lying on the desk and answered calmly.

“The place you were going to go.”

“What…?”

Just as Isabelle froze in bewilderment at the incomprehensible answer, Iser brought the dagger to his own long hair, gathered into a single ponytail, without hesitation.

Swoosh─

Long pink hair scattered across the marble floor. The hair that had once reached his waist was now severed at shoulder length.

Gazing down at Isabelle with a serene expression, Iser spoke softly.

“I’m sorry, sister. I’ll be the one to go to him.”