The Cruelest Truth
The fact that Scarlet was connected to a witch was something that must never be revealed. Since everyone present had agreed on this, by the time they finished cleaning up the scene, it was already quite late. Sylvia had parted ways with Luke and Yoon Siwoo—who had volunteered to escort the unconscious Scarlet to her home—and returned to her mansion.
Greeting Sylvia at the front gate was her attendant, Sebastian, who had been waiting for her return. "My Lady! Even if you had urgent business, how could you just send a single text message like that! And if you were going to be back this late, you should have at least contacted me! Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
At Sebastian’s outburst, Sylvia realized that after sending him the text, she had turned off her phone. When she checked it, she saw countless missed calls and messages. In the past, seeing this would have turned her face pale with anxiety, but to the current Sylvia, it felt like nothing at all. She calmly opened her mouth to apologize to Sebastian.
"I'm sorry, Sebastian. It was truly an urgent matter."
"At the very least, you should have told me beforehand what you were going to do! Even if there were no important appointments today, what am I supposed to do when you just notify me like this? What am I supposed to say if the elders come looking for you? Do you want to see me get fired from my position as your attendant?"
"That won't happen. I don't dislike you, Sebastian. But I don't think I can tell you what I went to do. It was a private matter." Sylvia said this with a faint smile. She had acted with the resolve that she might be severely scolded. Although he held the title of attendant, he was a person the elders of the family had personally assigned to her. He had the authority to monitor her every move and lecture her if she did not act in a manner befitting the heir of the Astra family. In the past, she wouldn't have even dared to speak to him like this, knowing he had the backing of the elders' prestige. But once she learned of the things those high-and-mighty people had been doing behind her back, such things felt trivial.
Sylvia waited for Sebastian to roar at her.
"......Is that so. I understand."
However, he didn't say anything about her insincere response; he simply nodded and took his place a few paces behind her, just as he always did when escorting her. She was flustered by the unexpected reaction, but since not being scolded was a good thing, Sylvia walked quietly toward her room. The sound of footsteps echoed on the way to her room. Amidst those sounds, Sebastian’s voice mingled in.
"My Lady, if it is not an imposition, may I speak a few words to myself?"
Sylvia nodded slightly at his words.
"My Lady, you see, I have always felt great gratitude toward the Astra family, who took in an orphan like me after I lost my parents to a monster. It is also why I work for the Astra family like this, to repay that grace."
Just as he said, Sebastian was a human who was not originally of the Astra bloodline. The elders of the family had taken in and raised Sebastian, who was left alone after his parents, who had ties to the Astras, met their end at the hands of a monster.
"I was twenty years old then. Since I started this job when you were six, it has already been over ten years. Do you know what request I received from the elders when I was chosen as your attendant? It was to watch over you so that you could grow up to be an heir worthy of the Astra name, and to nag you a little."
He had wanted to repay that grace, and following their orders, he had served as her attendant, bodyguard, and teacher since she was young.
"I thought it was right to treat you as strictly as possible, for your own sake. Always better than others, always without a single lapse. But you accomplished all of that without a single complaint. And you grew up to be a more wonderful heir to the Astra family than anyone else. But lately, watching you, I felt that you had changed a bit."
Sylvia thought she would hear the nagging she hadn't heard earlier. But what she heard was something completely different from her imagination.
"And that side of you is much better to look at. Being happy about getting a ring with a friend, laughing while reading children's fairy tales. Seeing your expression brighten after entering the Academy, I realized that was the real you, not the heir of the Astra family. And that I was the one who had made it so you couldn't smile like that. So, I will apologize. I am sorry. It seems I caused you great pain because I was young and foolish."
At those words, Sylvia bit her lip hard.
"I will not tell the elders about today's events. I am an employee, so I must manage your schedule, but you are free to act as you please during your free time. As long as you let me know in advance. If you have any worries, you may tell me as well."
Such kindness was, to her, poison right now. The elders of the Astra family were bad people. Therefore, Sebastian, who followed their orders, was also a bad person. If only he had remained someone she could keep hating, her heart would have been at ease.
By the time they reached her room, Sebastian said, "My Lady, I will prepare some tea for you to drink before you sleep. Today...... chamomile would be good."
Sylvia, who had been holding the doorknob, trembled at those words and asked, "......Was it that obvious?"
Then Sebastian replied, "I have been serving you for ten years."
Chamomile tea was known for its effectiveness in soothing sorrow. Sylvia stood still in front of the door until the sound of footsteps faded away behind her, and when it became quiet, she opened the door and entered her room. And as soon as she closed the door, she collapsed to the floor.
Sitting blankly while recalling the things she had heard today, she heard a knock, *knock-knock*, from outside the door. Sylvia slowly stood up, smoothed her clothes, and opened the door, but Sebastian was nowhere to be seen. Only a tray with a steaming cup of tea and a macaron remained.
He really is unnecessarily perceptive......
Sylvia pulled the tray into her room, sat down in front of the door, took a sip of tea, and took a bite of the macaron. But before she could even savor the taste, tears poured out.
"*Hic*...... *Ugh*, *sob*, *h-hic*......"
With her head buried in her knees as tears streamed down, Sylvia chewed over the worries she could never tell anyone else. That her friend was actually an experimental subject created by her own family, that the creation of that subject had been planned because of her, and that due to the torture-like experiments conducted there, her friend had at most three years left to live. The guilt, sorrow, frustration, and confusion coming from that could not be soothed even by the sweetness of her favorite snack or the tea meant to calm her sadness. And so, the girl buried her head in her knees and sobbed for a long time.
*
The next day, Sylvia told Sebastian she was going out. When he asked where she was going in the rain, she replied that she was going to meet a friend, and when he offered to drive her, she declined. She wanted to trust him, but because of Luke's words that if Scarlet's existence were discovered by the family, they might try to "dispose" of her, she wanted to create as little anxiety as possible. To Sebastian, who looked at her with concern as he was also in charge of her protection, Sylvia forced a smile. She told him that she was a hero, too, and had the strength to take care of herself. With that, Sylvia crossed over to District 15 through the gate.
She had heard Scarlet's home address from Yoon Siwoo when they parted ways yesterday. The ring that had fallen on the street yesterday. Sylvia had come to Scarlet's house to return it, as she hadn't been able to give it to her in the confusion, but when she arrived at the address she received via text, she couldn't close her mouth.
'......She lives here?'
That was because the building standing there was hard to call a house by her standards. It was already a dilapidated-looking building, and with the rain falling on top of that, it looked exactly like an abandoned house. Unable to believe that a person lived in a building that looked like it wouldn't be strange if a ghost popped out right away, Sylvia climbed to the second floor of the building written in the address with trembling eyes.
The door marked 203. She knocked, but when there was no sound, she was flustered, and then she discovered a hole next to the doorknob. Just in case, she put her hand in and was able to open the locked door.
'No matter how much, isn't this a bit too much for a girl to live in......'
Thinking that, Sylvia carefully opened the door and entered, and she could immediately see Scarlet lying on the bed, looking at her with blank eyes. Because the room was so small, she could take it all in at a glance. She was shocked by the size of the room, thinking that even the bathroom in her mansion was wider than this. She hadn't known she was living in such poverty.
"......"
While she was flustered about what to say, Scarlet, who had been lying on the bed, opened her mouth. "......What did you come here for?"
Whatever her family circumstances were, whatever her past was, that wasn't important. Since she had nodded at the request to remain friends if possible, she thought she should treat her as normally as possible, and recalled the purpose of coming here today. Holding out the ring she had put in her pocket, Sylvia said.
"......Um, I picked this up on the street. I thought Scarlet dropped it, so I came to return it......"
And Sylvia saw her face, which hadn't looked very good, distort strangely. If she had to define it, it was a smile. But Sylvia had never seen such a sad-looking smile in her life. With that smile, Scarlet pushed away the hand Sylvia had extended with the ring and said, "I'm sorry, I don't think I can accept that."
At that moment, for some reason, Sylvia felt like she knew what words would come next. Hesitation, anxiety, but the feeling that it had to be this way was conveyed in that smile. And it was a feeling she had experienced once before. What had she said at that time?
"I'm sorry for everything until now. It was all my fault. So, I will tell you the truth today."
Her heart pounded like crazy with a sense of foreboding. Her lips moved slowly.
"I"
"From the beginning"
"Never"
"Thought of Sylvia"
"As a friend."
That was the one thing Sylvia never wanted to hear from her.