#32. What Did You Just Say About My Youngest Sister?

But before Siyeref could further contemplate this strange phenomenon.

“Enough.”

A cold voice cut through the space. His father, the Grand Duke of Dragonia, muttered with a chilling expression.

“Even if the Griffones imperial family rules the Hakan Empire, to so brazenly invade Dragonia in the Northwest……”

Siyeref’s expression also turned cold as he recognized the reality.

The relationship between Dragonia and the Griffones imperial family could never be called good. Though not comparable to Phoenix, Dragonia did not trust the imperial family.

‘And now, they even send spies?’

They had to catch them. If they couldn’t capture them alive, they needed to secure at least the bodies.

“I’ll have to take action personally.”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia said, crushing out his cigarette.

Watching him, Siyeref suddenly realized.

This acrid scent of tobacco that always emanated from his father was, for some reason, absent in that moment when he met his youngest sister.

‘It was like that before too.’

Even when his father brought home the youngest…… before she was even given the name Partanie.

Back then, his father didn’t smell of tobacco either. He had noticed it at the time, but didn’t pay much attention to such a trivial change.

He only thought it was a headache when his father declared he would give her the name ‘Par’.

After that, whenever the youngest looked up at him with adoring eyes, secretly following him around, and brightly smiling with sparkling eyes when their gazes met, Siyeref thought.

How innocent…… and foolish she was.

‘To survive in the main castle, she shouldn’t be so pure.’

To trust and show affection for the abstract concept of family to such an extent.

It felt bizarre, like watching a cat licking a lion’s fur.

Was it because she didn’t know what impact her name brought?

Or was it because she was a girl?

Partanie was truly so different from the other Dragonia siblings.

Unlike his younger brothers who would get up like roly-poly toys no matter how many times they were beaten and kicked, his small and fragile younger sister seemed like she would break and shatter if just a finger brushed against her wrong.

So he found her bothersome.

The way her face lit up with a clear smile whenever she looked at him tickled his heart in a most uncomfortable way.

‘……Father must have his own calculations.’

In giving Par her name, yet not revealing her birth mother’s identity,

And then bringing her here only to neglect her.

So Siyeref also stood by and watched.

He believed that simply by not hurting her with his own hands, he was already treating her better than his younger brothers.

That’s why Siyeref didn’t feel any particular remorse or guilt when he heard that his youngest sister had fallen ill and nearly died.

Surely that was the case, but…….

“……”

Why was it?

Why did seeing tears flow down Partanie’s gaunt cheeks feel so painfully unbearable?

His head throbbed. It was as if someone was screaming loudly in his ear.

Telling him to stop those tears immediately. That he would regret it if he didn’t.

But that mysterious auditory hallucination—.

‘I have only one wish.’

It disappeared without a trace before Partanie’s next words.

‘To be disinherited.’

The words were so unbelievable that Siyeref thought he had misheard.

Because at that moment, he himself was not in a normal state.

Freezing up helplessly at his youngest sister’s tears, hearing strange hallucinations…… all these were reactions unlike him.

Setting aside the hallucination, why would mere tears, meaningless moisture that countless women shed before him, affect him so?

For some reason, those wetting his youngest sister’s cheeks felt different.

Each droplet of tears as they fell seemed to burn into his body painfully, like a brand.

He felt like he should kneel down right then and apologize.

Say he was sorry, that he had done wrong. Ask forgiveness for being heartless all his life, say that he truly didn’t know she would die then…….

‘Didn’t know what?’

And dying? Who?

For a moment, a certain scene flashed in Siyeref’s mind.

A world filled with terribly white snow. A frail silhouette collapsed, spitting dark red blood…….

But that vague memory passed too quickly for even Siyeref himself to properly recognize what had appeared in his mind.

He only realized that something was wrong.

‘This shouldn’t happen.’

He needed to turn back. To stop it.

But what?

Partanie appeared again in Siyeref’s retinas.

‘I want to remove this grand name ‘Par’ too.’

Despite her pitifully heartbreaking face, her voice was straight and her tone calm.

As if stating a wish she had cherished all her life, Partanie spoke clearly without stuttering or slurring a single syllable.

‘After all, I’m not really a daughter of Dragonia……’

Stop.

Siyeref unconsciously whispered inside his mouth.

Stop it!

Just as he was inwardly shouting, the Grand Duke of Dragonia roared.

‘Silence, who dares!’

Only after hearing that voice did Siyeref’s mind fully return.

Putting on the dry, expressionless face he had cultivated as a habit for decades, he stepped forward toward his youngest sister.

The people who had been shocked by the quiet lady’s rebellion and the Grand Duke’s anger only then recognized him and addressed him.

But Siyeref’s eyes held only one girl.

And the moment their eyes met, Siyeref finally realized that Partanie’s irises weren’t simply blue-purple.

They were beautiful eyes that reflected as clear violet or transparent blue depending on the angle of light.

The luxuriant eyelashes that cast long shadows over them trembled weakly as they recognized him.

As if she didn’t want to see him.

‘Why?’

He couldn’t believe it.

Siyeref remembered Partanie on the day he left Dragonia, running after his carriage and tearfully saying to him.

‘Brother, please be careful!’

Unable to find anyone to connect with in the Blue Brick Castle, she had been so lonely and frightened, yet still worried about him…… that young, foolish, and innocent face.

The waves of blue-violet hair fluttering in the cold wind, and ears and nose tip reddened by the cold.

The loving gaze that tried to capture him until the last moment.

‘But why had she changed so much?’

He couldn’t find any trace of affection for him in that face with lips pursed in wariness.

A shabby knife was held in her hand, which was tightly clenched as if tense.

Only after seeing the trembling silver blade and desperate eyes did Siyeref realize.

Partanie was intending to wield that.

Against others, or if she couldn’t protect herself with it, then against herself.

‘How dare she.’

A flame of anger rose over the oil of shock.

Siyeref didn’t even know what words he was uttering.

But he saw those plump lips silently mouthing ‘Arrogance?’ and turning red as if in anger.

And in the child’s eyes, which had been sinking into endless darkness, a spark of fire flared up brightly.

At that sight, Siyeref felt an inexplicable elation and relief.

His sister who had loved him was still alive. She hadn’t died…….

“……right?”

The Grand Duke of Dragonia’s voice cut through Siyeref’s thoughts.

Having momentarily failed to register his father’s words, Siyeref only came to his senses when he saw the Grand Duke of Dragonia’s ice-cold eyes, the same color as his own.

A detailed map of the Grand Duchy of Dragonia spread out before him.

He was being asked for his opinion on the spies’ escape route. Having grasped the situation, Siyeref pointed to several places on the map and said.

“According to my estimation……”

After that, the Grand Duke of Dragonia and Siyeref discussed how to proceed with the search.

“I’ll depart first, you follow.”

“I receive your command.”

As Siyeref left the Grand Duke’s office and was about to exit the Blue Brick Castle with his subordinates, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Lord Siyeref?”

Ivan, a subordinate who had been quickening his pace, turned back to look at his master with confusion.

Siyeref’s gaze was fixed on the ‘Red Velvet Room’.

‘Ah.’

Understanding his master’s mind, Ivan promptly opened his mouth.

“Please don’t worry too much. She’ll come out soon.”

“What?”

“I mean the lady’s room. You’re uncomfortable that the youngest lady is using it, right?”

Ivan’s thinking was perfectly reasonable. Hadn’t his master, Siyeref, said so himself?

‘Using the mistress’s bedroom, the ‘Red Velvet Room,’ and still demanding to be disinherited.’

You criticized her for her arrogance. Truly, you were right. Ivan frowned.

‘A Dragonia bloodline nearly dying from mere cold.’

And then, without any shame, whining about how difficult it was.

The Grand Duke of Dragonia personally apologized, even Lord Taran apologized desperately, yet she still acted so stubbornly.

Naturally, he didn’t take her talk of disinheritance seriously.

As his master had coldly rebuked, he perceived Partanie’s cry as merely the foolish tantrum of the youngest lady.

“Really, there should be a limit to childishness. Not even knowing what an honor it is to use the ‘Red Velvet Room’.”

“Ivan.”

Siyeref’s aide gave him a look that said to stop, but Ivan didn’t notice and continued to sneer.

“To dare to lie down in the place where Her Highness the lady spent her last moments and then have the audacity to……”

But he couldn’t continue.

“Childish, you say?”

His blue eyes were so chilling they could freeze the heart.

“L-Lord Siyeref……”

“Why stop? Continue your prattle.”

It was a monotone bass. Yet Ivan felt suffocated and chilled as if being crushed.

“I-if I was disrespectful, I apologize. I-I was just……”

“If you were disrespectful?”

Ha, Siyeref laughed dryly.

His face was so ruthless it was unapproachable, emanating a murderous pressure.

“How dare someone like you say anything about my youngest sister?”