One Must Be Sacrificed
“They said one child must be given up. Only one could be saved.”
What kind of memory was this?
It felt as though she were hidden in a dark place, secretly watching. Someone was engaged in a clandestine conversation, and besides the Duke and Duchess of Grusewald, there was one other person present.
It’s Adela.
“One was born with crippled legs. The other child… appears healthy, yet she carries a curse upon her heart. For this child with the weak heart… the curse causes her heart to grow along with her body until it eventually bursts and kills her.”
“Are you saying the one with the cursed heart is Lady Orldette?”
“Yes.”
“How did this entanglement occur?”
“It was… the ring I gave my wife that caused the problem. It was fashioned from a beast’s fang, and unfortunately that ring contained an ability known as the Beast’s Curse. The beast’s power embedded in the ring affected the children in the womb. There is a legend that jewels or ornaments crafted from beast byproducts bring good fortune, so I paid a fortune to acquire it at auction… Who could have known it would become a curse?”
“...Is there truly no way to break it?”
Adela gazed at the Duchess with something like pity. The woman, drunk beyond reason, sat slumped over, barely able to hold herself upright.
“To lift the Beast’s Curse, one must find the original owner of this fang.”
“Since it has become a byproduct, does that not mean the creature’s body has already been dismantled?”
“Precisely. Which means there is no method to dispel the curse.”
“...Then Lady Orldette will ultimately die? Is that why you have kept Lady Odeliana alive?”
“They said one child could be saved. By sacrificing the other.”
“......”
“When Orldette’s heart reaches its limit, the symptoms will manifest. At that moment, if we extract the heart of the other child who shares the curse and transplant it, we can save Orldette and free her from the curse entirely. It is the act of transferring the divided curse into a single body.”
“Is such a thing even possible? Replacing a person’s organ…”
“After years of searching, I learned of the Qingene people, a minority tribe from the Eastern Continent. They taught me this method. It is difficult, they said, but not impossible.”
“Dear heavens…”
“The heart must be fully grown before the replacement can avoid triggering the curse. If performed earlier, the curse will simply move. The heart’s curse shows no significant warning signs until the moment before it bursts, and abnormalities only begin to appear when death is near. Therefore, Odeliana must not be killed until then. Keep her alive, but break her spirit. Ensure she cannot… act out. Let her live knowing nothing, and depart quietly.”
Odeliana von Grusewald fell into confusion at the unfamiliar memory. Seeing her like that, the naked Orldette let out a giggling laugh and mocked her.
“Why do you look so shocked? Your face has gone deathly pale.”
“......”
“I won’t steal him from you. I simply want to see just how handsome the man is. So come on, show me.”
Odeliana, who had been staring blankly at Orldette, let out a stunned laugh.
“I always thought something felt off.”
“What?”
“We were born from the same womb, yet the reason I was abandoned… wasn’t simply because of the disability that showed on the outside.”
“What are you suddenly babbling about? Hey, you there—maid. What’s wrong with her?”
At Orldette’s words, Malena, who had been standing back, stepped forward and answered.
“She appears to be having one of her mad episodes.”
“What?”
“Please rise, young miss. The elder young miss once flew into a fit of madness and tore the mouth of a maid named Adela.”
The color drained from Orldette’s face, all her earlier composure vanishing in an instant.
“Why are you only telling me that now!”
She shouted at Malena, then hastily pulled on the clothes that had slipped to the floor and scrambled to her feet.
“If you’re going to lose your mind, at least do it cleanly.”
Orldette looked down at her with utter contempt, as though she were no more than an insect, then left without a backward glance. She was clearly terrified that even the slightest blemish might mar her beautiful body and face. The way she fled was almost identical to Hermann’s escape, and the sight was utterly ridiculous.
Malena clicked her tongue and examined Odeliana’s condition.
“Are you all right? Your face is terribly pale.”
Reading the room, Malena prepared a cup of warm tea and offered it. But to Odeliana, still reeling from the shock, neither Malena nor the carefully prepared tea existed.
This isn’t a hallucination. It’s part of this body’s… long-buried memories.
“...Damn it all.”
The pieces finally clicked into place.
Why they had persistently fed heart-tonic medicine to a perfectly healthy person. Why they had kept her alive without a trace of affection, raising her in secret. All her lingering questions had now been completely answered. In the end, she had been raised as a living sacrifice for Orldette’s sake.
Break her spirit? It meant crushing any thought of resistance, any will to crawl out into the world on her own. That was why Adela had been able to abuse her so casually. The abuse in that place had been the master’s will before it was the maids’ petty revenge; they had no choice but to carry it out faithfully.
The woman who had stolen her husband in her previous life was now the one who would steal her heart in this one? Was there any more filthy, horrific karmic bond than this? The realization that Countess Orldette von Grusewald was her mortal enemy in both lives—threatening her very life—filled Odeliana with both bitter resentment and a strange, fierce exultation.
“This wretched life always drives me into a corner.”
“...My lady?”
“It tramples people the moment it sees an opening. No matter how hard you struggle, nothing changes… It laughs at me, telling me my miserable fate will never improve.”
“...I don’t understand what you’re saying all of a sudden, but please calm down first.”
How could she possibly calm down? Regrettably, there was no path where both of them could live. One of them absolutely had to die.
And fate stood on Orldette’s side, not hers.
Who else knows this truth? Hermann, Orldette, Blair… Are they all aware?
The family had chosen Orldette von Grusewald and discarded Odeliana von Grusewald. If so, what about Blair?
Sudden fear gripped Odeliana. Distrust toward Blair bloomed inside her chest. The suspicion that her second brother, whose contact had been severed, had fled because her proposal had become too burdensome now felt like cold, hard fact.
Could she truly trust him? Was it safe to rely on him? After all, Blair was also a member of the Grusewald family. What if he simply handed her over and told them to take her heart?
Would he choose her? Would he turn his back on their family?
“...I’m scared.”
“......”
“I’m scared. So scared I think I might die.”
Had there ever been a time in her life when she felt this terrified? Not when she marched onto the battlefield to face countless enemies. Not when she was suddenly stranded in a blinding blizzard. Not even when she had been falsely accused of trying to poison Joslyn.
Overwhelming fear crushed her entire being.
She was in the heart of enemy territory. Enemies surrounded her on all sides. The terror that her heart might be ripped out at any moment made the organ—which already knew the pain of being stabbed—burn as though it were on fire.
It was all because of this frail body. Yes, this pathetically weak body. A powerless body that could do nothing but tremble in fear, lacking even the strength to protect itself.
“Please calm yourself, my lady. No one can threaten you.”
“...Huk, huk, huk!”
Her body convulsed violently. The tingling that began in her hands and feet spread through her limbs until her airway closed. Unable to breathe, her mind grew distant. Her vision darkened as though she were truly dying, and then everything went black.
Her fingers and toes began twisting into unnatural shapes. The muscles in her face contorted grotesquely. Her chest heaved up and down as she gasped desperately for air.
Just before she suffocated, Malena seized her hand in a firm grip.
“Focus on your breathing. That’s it—breathe in slowly, then breathe out.”
“......”
“It’s all right. You’re safe, my lady. There’s nothing to fear.”
Odeliana fought to stop thinking entirely and concentrate only on breathing. Her mind felt bleached white with pain, but each time the panic surged, Malena stroked her back and steadied her.
Thanks to Malena’s devoted efforts, Odeliana slowly regained control. Yet soon afterward, like a flower left to wither, all color drained from her face and she slumped weakly.
“...I want to become stronger.”
“......”
“I want to be free.”
Odeliana closed her eyes within Malena’s arms. Malena gazed down at her with pity. It was the first time her usually resolute master had ever revealed her innermost heart.