Chapter 358
Chapter 358
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 358
Chapter Title: Epilogue: Yurensuto -2
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"......"
"......"
In the deep darkness where even the lanterns had been extinguished, Yuna and I lay side by side on the same bed, our eyes wide open. All in silence.
Both our attempt to sleep and our attempt to get cozy had failed.
We hadn't neglected trying to set the mood in all sorts of ways. We'd gotten permission for a joint bath, and thinking we could at least fool around without going all the way, we'd cautiously touched each other.
"Uhmm..."
"Hmm..."
At that moment, we saw the same emotion in each other's eyes. A fishy feeling. Suspicion.
The Yurensuto couple—these guys didn't seem to have changed a bit. What was the point of all that talk about a joint wedding ceremony? And above all, that Jewel or whatever. The whole thing with Yuna's little sister felt off. Even if she was on a diet, was it right for family to not show their faces even once?
As I subtly traced Yuna's ribcage to feel out her figure, that conversation from earlier kept coming back to me.
They'd talked about noble pride and all that, but in the end, it boiled down to the Yurensuto couple not lifting a finger to help the Violet Magic Tower when it was at its most desperate.
The thought hit me out of nowhere, blowing away any lingering flirtation.
Yuna did the same, tracing my nape with her pinky finger and fiddling down to my collarbone before suddenly getting lost in thought, some suspicious detail popping into her head.
"...They didn't boast about the 'Wall of Glory.' Yeah. They used to love that wall so much. Ah, sorry. It just came to mind."
"I understand."
And just like that, the mood was shattered. It was like two melodrama characters suddenly filming the opening of a mystery novel.
"Um, tonight... shall we just, y'know, sleep?"
"Y-Yeah, let's."
In the end, we decided to just hit the hay.
You might say if we were so curious, we could just look into it—but there was a reason for our hesitation.
If we didn't dig it up, if we just pretended not to know and moved on, Yuna could at least have a harmonious family on the surface. I remembered how happy she'd been at the Yurensuto couple's praise.
Truth can hurt sometimes. Sure, Pandora's box had hope at the bottom, but it was buried under a pile of all sorts of nasty things.
Surface packaging isn't always bad. Whether it's illusion or reality, if you can draw joy and meaning from it, isn't that a good thing? So we'd tried pulling the covers over our heads and drifting off.
Yuna seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
In my past life, I had no parents. In this one, mine sold me off. If Yuna could just swallow her curiosity, maybe I could feel some family warmth indirectly through her side of things.
We could roughly read each other's minds without a word. That's why we kept our mouths shut—for each other's sake. But our eyelids just wouldn't cooperate.
...Damn, this is eating at me.
We bolted upright at the same time, kicking off the covers. Yuna gathered her loose hair into two braids and said slyly,
"...Wanna look into it?"
"...Should we?"
Yeah, couldn't hold back anymore.
We're the type who dig when we're curious and throw low kicks when something smells fishy. What we needed right now wasn't honeymoon vibes—it was the wisdom of a detective.
I snapped my fingers, donning the Violet Magic Tower robe. Yeah, this sense of stability. The fancy getup had felt stuffy and cumbersome. Yuna looked glad to see me like this too.
A little disappointing.
"...Didn't like me all dressed up? You seem to prefer my usual look."
"No, it's not that I didn't like it... It was nice. But seeing you all dolled up makes my heart race—it's tough. The usual you gives me that psychological comfort."
"If that's the issue... then tonight, let's keep it casual, detective."
"...Yeah. Let's get started, Watson."
Back in our Za-Top combo, we quietly slipped out the door with a soft rustle. Time to uncover what this nagging unease lurking in the darkness really was.
Rustle rustle.
Moving fast under the optical camouflage of Illusion Magic, we sneaked along. The second floor where we were staying really seemed cleared of servants—no one in the halls.
Where to start?
"The 'Wall of Glory'—if its spot hasn't changed, it'll be in the corner of the first floor. We can tell if her parents have changed or not from that."
"Got it. Then no honest stairs—let's go through the window."
We opened a second-floor hallway window, hopped out, slid down the wall, and neutralized the security on the first-floor corner room's window before slipping right in.
Thud.
Intrusion complete in seconds. The room was dark with no lights on, so I made a light at my fingertip and beamed it conically at one wall like a flashlight.
I didn't want to light up the whole room in case light leaked through the door crack.
The walls were packed with achievements. The Yurensuto couple's feats, and below them, the engraved names Siselle, Yuna, Yuna's Little Sister. Their "glory."
'Awarded at the Redburn Ducal House's children's martial arts tournament.'
'Praise from Lady Alorad's salon.'
'Academy admission certificate,' and so on.
The walls were densely plastered with the family's various bragging rights. The obsessive density made my head spin, but Yuna just tilted her head in puzzlement.
"...Why?"
"Less changed than I thought..."
"This?"
"Yeah. It was already like this before I left the family. And check the dates—all these records are from years ago."
Sure enough. The "glories" on the wall were all pretty old. Had they stopped updating? Had the Yurensuto couple shed their obsession with honor and reformed?
If so, perfect. Our suspicions were just overthinking it.
"Did Jewel and Siselle do something while I was gone? Or did they have some epiphany and change their minds... Eek."
"......?"
Yuna gasped like she'd spotted something shocking, letting out a squeak. Her gaze was fixed upward—at the ceiling.
I swung the light up. And saw it.
"......"
'Regarding Knight Siselle Yurensuto of the Eastern Front.'
'Violet Magic Tower Master: The Reason for Imperial Funding.'
'Year 445 Record: Praised for Beauty at Count Browsu's Banquet.'
Barnacle-like "glories" plastered ceiling to ceiling.
I swung the light around. The next wall, the one after— the whole room was stuffed with "glory." Even the floor was covered. All of it stories about Siselle and Yuna.
Tiny praises, even the smallest tidbits of gossip—all framed and displayed. No one would collect material this obsessively even for worship.
"What the fuck..."
Chilling.
The Yurensuto couple hadn't changed. If anything, they'd gotten worse.
Maybe Siselle and Yuna's "successes" had only reinforced their beliefs. Blind to how their daughters' spirits were crumbling, convinced it was all thanks to their upbringing.
That much wasn't a huge problem. The real issue was elsewhere.
From this wall, I read two ominous things. The famed Eastern Front knight Siselle Yurensuto and Violet Magic Tower Master Yuna Yurensuto... their "glories" piled up like mountains.
But Yuna's youngest sister's? Barely any.
Yuna's face drained of color fast.
"...They compared. Had to have. To Jewel. 'Your sisters are doing so well—what about you?'..."
I couldn't even imagine the colossal pressure from that gap.
In that light...
'I'm only eating one meal a day to lose weight. With the wedding coming up, I need to look my prettiest, right?'
The countess's words twisted into something sadistic. We scoured the packed 'Wall of Glory' and found a clue—a pathetic "glory" hung in the corner.
-Jewel Yurensuto, scheduled for marriage to Count Montueb.
"...I know this guy. From way back, but I heard about him a lot from our parents. They said he carries strong imperial blood. Marrying him and having kids would make the Yurensuto gold hair even richer."
"Maybe they're pushing the marriage to thicken the noble bloodline. Like some kind of breeding program."
Compared endlessly to her sky-high sisters, and in the end, basically sold off to another house... that was the presumption.
An ugly story.
But so far, it was just presumption. Maybe Yuna's little sister had coincidentally fallen for a good-bloodline guy and made it to the altar.
That notion got smashed by Yuna's follow-up.
"...This Count Montueb was in his fifties back then. Probably sixties now..."
"Holy hell."
Yuna and I stared at each other in the dark. Face-to-face like this, we could read each other's hearts without a word.
Crush them.
They were beyond any goodwill we could accept.
"...I wanted love. Even fake, deceptive love—I could take it. But love that torments someone? No. I can't just leave this be."
"Then let's rewrite the story. We should at least pull your little sister out of here. Siselle found her own path— she deserves a shot too. Let's go hear her side."
"Yeah. Let's."
I raised a finger and extended my mana, scanning the whole mansion and pinpointing where Yuna's sister was from her bio signature. Third floor.
We turned into a butterfly and a crow, flapping up with a soft flutter. We eased open a third-floor window, slipped inside, and landed carefully.
There lay a gaunt girl on an ornate bed. She was out cold, like the dead. No angle screamed "needs a diet."
"Where's there even fat to lose..."
"Jewel, Jewel... wake up for a sec."
Tap tap.
Yuna gave her a light shake, and her eyelids fluttered open, revealing violet eyes clouded with sleepiness and daze.
Once her brain fully booted and registered two intruders in her room, Yuna's little sister let out a shriek.
"...Kyaa!"
It cut off midway into something kinda cute.
She darted her eyes around before feigning calm and speaking up.
"...If you're thieves, you'd do better in other rooms. Just dresses and corsets here—no food, even. If dress-frill jewel shards are fine, help yourself."
I was impressed.
"Bloodline really is something. Yuna's sister—your judgment's sharp."
"......?"
If she'd screamed bloody murder, she'd be the first to catch a blade. So she'd self-censored the noise and offered up thief bait instead.
Now that she'd confirmed identities, she stared hard at Yuna's purple eyes before finally clocking the family resemblance.
"...Yuna sis?"
"Yup. It's Yuna sis."
"Ha... The mansion was all noisy—must've been you coming back. Reaaally glad. Family acts like I don't exist, you're comfy in the tower, and now—"
"Enough."
She clapped a hand over her sister's mouth to cut off potential drama. Better quick resolution than dredging up her tower nightmares.
Then straight to the point.
"I can get you out. Shake your head if you wanna stay in the Yurensuto house. Nod if you wanna break free."
"......"
Her little sister waggled her head in a triangle shape.
"?"
As we puzzled over that, she brushed the hand off her mouth and boldly declared,
"Doesn't mean I wanna live as a commoner. Without talents like you sisters, leaving the family just lands me rolling in some brothel. Better hang onto the noble title."
"......"
"I get you're here to help. But I wanna know the details—financial backing, debt load, any other strings."
"...!!"
Yuna's little sister was no ordinary girl.