Intrusion
Please. I beg of you. Sister.
Not a single night since that evening had she managed to sleep in peace.
The little brother she had watched over since childhood—more precious, more beautiful than anyone else—had looked at her with the coldest expression she had ever seen on his face. His tone had been polite. Impeccably so. And yet every word had been ice as he stepped away from her side and made that single request.
Please don’t try to kill me.
She had only wanted him never to leave her. She had known it was wrong, and still she had made a scene. Without meaning to, she had confessed something that should never have left her lips.
Of course she had never expected the confession to end well. Even in the worst case, she had imagined he would simply find her disgusting for looking at her own brother that way. What she received instead was a despair she had never once imagined possible.
Don’t kill me?
What was that supposed to mean?
Like that damned Hero girl…
You’re asking whether you’ll kill me if you can’t have me the way you want.
I never once intended to do whatever I pleased with you. Do you have any idea how hard I’ve held myself back all this time? Why are you comparing me to that bitch?
And… that girl isn’t simply trying to be with you. If she can’t have her way, she tries to kill you…
That damned girl is trying to kill you?
She remembered the night the Hero had been dragged away by the Pope. The way the girl had cried out the name that seemed to belong to him, the expression of pure despair on her face—it had looked exactly like someone being torn from the lover they truly loved. The chaos she had caused had been incomprehensible, absurd… yet no one present that night could have failed to understand that every single act had been born of love for him.
And yet she would kill him if she couldn’t have her way?
It made no sense.
And if she ever truly tried… even if the Goddess herself had delivered a final oracle, even if the world itself were to end—how could I possibly stand by and let it happen?
“Ed…”
Why can’t you trust me? Why do you look at me the same way you look at that vile girl?
I love you so much that no matter how desperately I want to hold you, no matter how badly I want to crush you against me… I never want to hurt you. Not even a little.
That was why—
Sister, how can you show me a face like that?!
He had shouted at her through tears. Then he had left her behind with that freezing expression. She should have been drowning in guilt for wounding him so deeply. Instead, in her frenzy, she had drawn up her mana without realizing it and threatened him.
Lirith… I think you’ve calmed down enough by now. You may come out.
Even after her mother ordered her released from solitary confinement, she could not bring herself to face him. She remained inside the room.
The most important reason she refused to leave was simple.
“Ed… you don’t want to see this sister of yours anymore either, do you…”
The little brother she loved no longer wished to meet her.
Shamelessly, for a fleeting moment, she had even entertained the foolish hope that he might come looking for her out of worry.
“Crazy bitch…”
Lirith spat the curse at herself and stared at the blank wall.
How many days had passed? Soon—any day now—Edward and the Imperial Princess would hold their wedding. Perhaps they already had.
“Today or tomorrow, most likely…”
Honestly speaking, Princess Charlotte—ability, lineage, appearance—was more than enough to be her brother’s partner. If one person absolutely had to be chosen…
“There’s no one better than that girl…”
She herself had already made a catastrophic mistake. She no longer had any justification, or even the will, to oppose their marriage. She did not want to let him go. She had no choice but to leave them alone.
Still… the old rumors about Charlotte’s less-than-stellar history with men left her uneasy. If that girl ever neglected her little brother while entertaining other men, Lirith would never forgive her.
Even so…
“She’s still better than that insane bitch…”
The Hero who might try to kill him if she could not have him as she pleased. Lirith still did not understand why her brother spoke of her that way.
And then—
Sister, please don’t become the same kind of person as those girls from this life of mine…
“Ed… ‘this life’… ‘those girls’… what on earth are you talking about…”
She had asked him the moment she heard the words, but he had never answered. Those mysterious phrases were all she had left to turn over inside this solitary room. With nothing else to do but regret, she revisited every word her brother had spoken, one by one, whenever time allowed.
“There’s something special about Ed…”
First: the phrase “this life.” No one who had lived only once would ever say that.
Second: “those girls.” Plural. If he had meant only the Hero, he would have said “that girl.”
After long, solitary deliberation, the conclusion she reached was one she never wanted to imagine—one that filled her with pure horror.
“Don’t tell me Ed…”
“No… no…”
Lirith muttered to herself in panic. If—if what she was thinking was true—then her brother’s misunderstanding of her actions that night made perfect sense. And her little brother would have…
“No!!”
She screamed, refusing to think any further.
At that moment—
“My lady?”
A woman’s voice called her name.
“E-Emma?”
“Why did you suddenly scream like that? I know you’re suffering, but…”
“… ”
Faced with Emma’s pitying expression, Lirith simply stayed silent. She did not want to answer.
Emma sighed.
“Haa… My lady, I’m struggling just as much… but I think it’s time we both give up.”
She seemed to believe Lirith was still barricaded in this room out of refusal to let Edward go.
“My lady, I’m sure you already know, but the wedding is scheduled for tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, is it…”
“Pardon? His Grace the Grand Duke came by this afternoon specifically to tell you…”
“Ah… Mother did visit, didn’t she…”
Emma had repeated the wedding date to drive the point home—that it was already too late. Camilla had clearly told her earlier that day, yet Lirith had not even been listening. Only now, hearing it from Emma, did the fact register. Concerned, Emma spoke gently.
“…Lady Lirith, you need to pull yourself together.”
“Hahaha… Emma… you’re hardly in any state to lecture me, are you? You said you’re suffering terribly yourself.”
Lirith only answered with a sneer. Emma did not deny it.
“You’re right…”
She, too, poured every ounce of strength into restraint, terrified of crossing the line at any moment. But she had not come here for idle conversation.
“Even so… tomorrow, at the very least, you must come to your senses and attend.”
“Ha!… What are you talking about… You just told me to give up. Then I have no business being there…”
Lirith let out a hollow laugh at the suggestion that she attend the wedding. Emma raised her voice.
“You must! You absolutely have to attend!”
“You don’t want to go either! Don’t you dare order me around!”
Lirith snapped at the maid who, despite her far lower station, dared to shout at her. Emma did not back down. After a brief silence she spoke again.
“…What if Young Master is in danger?”
“What…?”
This time Lirith could not brush the words aside. If she failed to appear tomorrow, Edward would be placed in danger?
“Don’t tell me the Hero is planning something?”
Had the Hero somehow learned of the wedding and intended to crash it?
“…I can’t give you the details, but… if even one more person is there to help tomorrow… we can protect Young Master.”
Emma’s answer was deliberately vague.
“Why can’t you tell me everything?! That’s an order—speak!”
Lirith demanded an explanation at once, but—
“I’m sorry, my lady. I’ll take my leave now…”
“Emma!!”
—the maid said only what she had come to say and left the room.
Alone once more, Lirith felt less anger at a mere maid’s insolence than pure dread for the safety of the little brother she loved.
“Ed… no…”
.
.
.
And so the day of the wedding arrived.
KRAAAAAAAAAANG!!!
WEE-OOO WEE-OOO!!
Two colossal auras collided with a deafening explosion. The emergency magical alarms installed around the wedding venue began to shriek.
The cause of the chaos was simple.
“You again?”
Covered head to toe in blood, standing atop the corpses of the guards who had been protecting the venue, was the Hero Lee Hye-yeong.
“You! What the hell is that appearance?!”
And facing her, roaring in fury, was Edward’s older sister Lirith.
Both women had wrapped their bodies in Aura and crashed into each other.
The moment Lirith saw the blood-soaked Hero trying to force her way into the wedding hall, she had attacked without hesitation. She ignored the fact that the Goddess stood behind the girl. She ignored the possibility that the world itself might end. All that mattered was ensuring Edward faced not even the slightest danger.
“Hmm? Ah… this? On the way to see Hyeonwoo—no, Ed—I just cleaned up a few pests that got in my way…”
Lee Hye-yeong glanced at her own clothes and the bodies under her feet as she answered.
“Don’t you dare speak Ed’s name with that filthy mouth!”
Lirith found the Hero’s entire existence so repulsive that she screamed the demand. Lee Hye-yeong only laughed hollowly and shot back.
“Ha! You’re saying the exact same thing as that maid bitch. What, are you Ed’s lover or something?”
“That’s…”
Because of what had happened with her brother a month ago, Lirith could not answer easily. Seeing her falter, the Hero looked at her with pure incredulity.
“You’re his sister, for crying out loud. So why are you carrying the same feelings I am?”
“I am nothing like you!”
The single most unbearable accusation—that she and the Hero were the same—made Lirith explode on the spot.
“Kyahaahahaha!! Ed… looks like he’s surrounded by crazy bitches after all.”
Lee Hye-yeong stared at her with a mixture of amusement and disbelief, then threw her head back and laughed.
“The craziest bitch here is you…”
Lirith fired the insult right back, but—
“Mmm… you’re planning to get in my way too… and you’re Ed’s sister, so killing you feels a little off…”
—Lee Hye-yeong showed no particular reaction. She seemed to ponder for a moment, then—
“Ah! Now that I think about it, I can see that garbage, impossible fantasy written all over your face, so I guess I have to kill you after all!”
—she spoke as though she had just solved a trivial riddle, raised the Aura blade already formed in her hand, and pointed it at Lirith.
Lirith refused to flinch. She drew up her mana and shouted back.
“Don’t make me laugh! I don’t care how much the Goddess is backing you—I’m not letting this slide!”
When she had caused a scene in Camilla’s office, she had restrained herself because it was her mother’s building and because Edward was staying there. She had clad herself in Aura, yes, but she had held back. This time was different. To protect the little brother she loved, she wrapped herself in an Aura as vast and distinct as the one Grace had used the night she overwhelmed the Hero, and prepared to fight.
Lee Hye-yeong only laughed louder.
“Kyahaahahaha!! I won’t lose to anyone anymore!”
Far from panicking the way she once had when she faced Grace’s true power, the Hero radiated pure confidence.
And so—
KRAAAAAAAAAANG!!
—two women who had each spent more than a month locked in solitary confinement began their violent clash over the same man.
One to claim him.
One to protect him.