CH 30

I blinked and corrected my shaky vision.

What I saw in front of me was my familiar room.

It wasn’t Viola’s room, it wasn’t a prison, and it wasn’t the lobby of the mansion.

The bluish morning light shimmered in the window.

“A dream?”

I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

‘A dream? It can’t be.’

It was vivid as if it had happened right in front of my eyes.

It was never a dream.

The same shock as when I dreamed of the Empire’s destruction a year ago ran through my body.

‘Why did I dream like that the moment I didn’t want to have a precognitive dream?’

Isn’t this timing astonishing?

The dreams kept showing up as if to tell me never to forget them.

‘I’m scared.’

I thought I could relax because dreams and reality were going differently, but I felt anxious again.

Above all, the dreams showed why my sisters committed treason.

I didn’t even have a question about what the direct cause of the rebellion might be before I thought about stopping the rebellion by becoming close with my sisters.

When I was tired and decided to give up everything, my sisters changed and I thought I had achieved my goal by getting close to them.

Even when I dreamed of Liliana getting engaged and estranged from the family, I was relieved that in the end, the reality was different from the dream.

I thought the dreams I had before were just coincidences, and I hoped that the dream of the Empire being destroyed was just a useless dream.

And it was the same now.

‘But there’s a what-if.’

What if it was just a coincidence that Lilliana’s fate changed?

Or what if it still happened somehow?

Even if she was already living a life as a scholar under the order of the Emperor, what if someone used dirty tricks to kick her out?

The flood of negative thoughts grew bigger.

I curled up in fear and closed my eyes tightly.

In the dream, Liliana was betrayed by the person she loved, and Viola was betrayed by the lord she wanted to trust until the end.

At the end of their decisions, leaving the family behind, and leaving everything behind, they ended up being useless and abandoned.

If the precognitive dreams came true somehow, in the end, my sisters might commit treason due to the shock of betrayal, and the family and empire might perish together.

I didn’t want to cling to the uncertainty, but I couldn’t just ignore it because I knew it was related to my sisters and my family.

‘The damn Imperial family.’

First Prince Ronald Odphelia.

Princess Blair Odphelia.

I gritted my teeth when I thought of the pitiful sisters who were used and abandoned in my dream after being entangled in the crown prince selection.

‘Bad people. I’ll never see my sisters playing into their hands again.’

I jumped out of my seat and sat down at the desk.

I hurriedly took out a piece of paper and meticulously wrote down notes so that I didn’t forget the dream I had, then I fell into deep thoughts.

‘As long as Sisters doesn’t come into contact with the Imperial family, this could work.’

Sister Lilliana was studying hard as a scholar, and the First Prince hadn’t returned from another country yet.

So I wouldn’t have to worry about Liliana for the time being.

I suppressed my uneasiness and sighed as I scribbled the name of the next person.

‘What’s left is Viola…’

I thought of the sparsely connected scenes.

‘It was after she lost the knight competition that Viola began to break down.’

Obviously, she went up to the final easily, and at the beginning of the game, she was leisurely facing the sword.

‘Then, it means that there was a problem during the game….’

Looking back to the words Viola shouted, she said that the other knight had done something cowardly, but nothing was revealed.

Eventually, Viola couldn’t contain her resentment and anger, and she couldn’t recover her crushed pride, so she ended up in a mess.

‘Then there’s only one way, I have to stop Sister Viola from joining the knight competition.’

When the Imperial family investigated directly afterward, they couldn’t find anything suspicious, so the possibility of me figuring it out after the incident was extremely small.

No matter how strong Viola was, if she got caught up in such nonsense, the outcome was not guaranteed.

However, when I thought of the upcoming future, the fear I felt last year came back.

“No. Now that I know the cause, I have come up with a way to stop it. Let’s hope, Daisy.”

I calmed down and looked out the window.

‘Sister Viola?’

At the familiar figure, I hurriedly approached the window.

There I could see Viola passing by, soaking in sweat.

‘You’re working hard from early in the morning.’

Viola was the one who worked so hard that she sweated profusely from early morning.

Even if she was called a genius, she wasn’t arrogant and always worked hard in her place, so I didn’t want to see her broken again.

‘I can never let you be treated like that.’

Viola should never be defeated, nor should Princess Blair reach out to her.

“The schedule for the knight competition hasn’t come out yet, so I’ll have to think about how to prevent it before then.”

✲ ✲ ✲

“God. If you’re looking down on me, please let me know.”

I put my hands together and prayed to God with a desperate heart.

‘Please tell me when the knight competition is!’

I wanted to shout loudly, hoping that it would be heard high in the sky, but considering that it was a prayer room, I shouted vigorously to myself.

‘There are only rumors about the location, the exact date is kept secret!’

I was so frustrated that it felt like my veins would burst out of my neck, and the hands I folded together trembled.

I asked around, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find out the date of the knight competition.

“That’s how special the competition is. Can I prevent her from participating in such a competition?’

Unable to overcome the frustration at not making progress, I let out a sigh.

I came to the temple to calm down my complicated mind, but it wasn’t as effective as before.

I glared at the crowd outside in contrast to the quiet prayer room.

‘I didn’t know there are still so many people coming to see Adelio.’

I came to the temple to get peace of mind, but in fact, I came to see Adelio after a long time.

However, there were still many people looking for Adelio as a popular figure in the temple, but he didn’t show up at all.

Seeing that I couldn’t see him, I wondered if he might be caught in a group somewhere.

‘He asked me to have a meal with him, but he hasn’t contacted me.’

I wanted to schedule a meal today, but it felt like it would be difficult.

‘Was he just being polite?’

The prayer was over, and since it didn’t seem like I was able to see the person I wanted to meet, I thought it was time to go back.

I tidied up my clothes and quietly slipped out through the side door.

‘I don’t want to be treated the same.’

It was a contradiction that I had come to the temple for the same purpose as them, and yet I didn’t want to be treated the same way.

‘No. But since Adelio and I are friends, isn’t it a bit different?’

I took a little nervous step at the answer that didn’t return, but suddenly someone grabbed my shoulder.

I couldn’t overcome the recoil with the whirling sound and my hair shook violently like a wave.

A familiar scent tickled the tip of my nose through the fluttering hair.

A refreshing scent soon spread around me and made me feel as if I was being engulfed in the scent.

“Got you.”

Adelio looked at me and smiled broadly like a mischievous boy.

My eyes stared at his tousled hair and crooked collar as if he had just run over to here, and he began to tidy up my hair with an embarrassed expression.

“I am sorry. I’m just so happy.”

“It’s fine.”

Seriously, this body’s heart started beating loudly again as if it really hurt somewhere.

I spoke in a slightly louder voice than usual, fearing that he could hear my heart.

“Did you run here?”

“Yes. Because I saw Daisy in the distance while passing by.”

“From where?”

Adelio pointed his index finger to the hallway of the building across the street.

I was surprised to hear that he had just run through a distance that would have taken 10 minutes to go up and down because of the stairs.

“You should have called out to me.”

“You looked like you were lost in deep thought. And you don’t like drawing attention, Daisy.”

I nodded slightly at Adelio’s words, and he quickly tidied up his collar.

I was happy that he had come all the way here out of consideration for me.

“Are you here to pray? If I had been near the prayer room, we could have talked a little longer, what a shame.”

“Actually, the reason I came here today.”

“Yes.”

I fiddled with my fingers for no reason, sparing my words, then averted my gaze and said.

“The reason I came here is to make a meal appointment.”

“…”

Adelio, who had been speaking softly a moment before, suddenly shut his mouth.

I was suddenly afraid that he wouldn’t be able to say anything.

‘Was he really just being polite?’

As I wondered if I shouldn’t have mentioned it, I turned my head to immediately cancel it, then my eyes met Adelio, who was smiling very happily.

“…Why are you smiling like that?”

“Oh. I’m so glad. Because Daisy is visiting the temple to see me.”

“That’s because I made a promise.”

My voice gradually diminished in embarrassment.

Adelio also raised his hand to cover his mouth, perhaps feeling embarrassed, but when he tried to cover it, his eyes were smiling, so there seemed to be no point in covering it.

“I also want to make an appointment right away, but I think I have to postpone it a little bit.”

“Is there something wrong?”

In response to my question, Adelio added an explanation as if it was nothing special.

“There is a request for cooperation from the Imperial family because the knight competition will be held in a month.”

“Yes?”

“Because the knight competition gathers various classes, there is a lack of manpower. Thanks to that, I’ve been out of it these days.”

He put on a startled expression as I blinked foolishly at the sudden information.

“Ah, it’s a secret.”

Oh, God

It seemed God had seriously listened to my prayers.