CH 108

It was a strange feeling to be ‘born’ as a person I already knew. 

“Fifteen years…..” 

I murmured as I wiped the snow that had piled up by the window with my hand.  Since I turned fifteen, the gap between the years I had lived as Anissa and the years I had lived in my previous life was gradually getting smaller. 

I remembered Anissa Euclid’s narrative and what she was like, but the way I lived my life was entirely different from her. 

‘If I was the real Anissa, I would have gotten angry.’

I stared down at the piece of confession that Damon left behind. 

The report-like letter was very long but there wasn’t much that I didn’t know about the content. 

To sum it up, Camille kidnapped Anissa Euclid because she thought I was the key to destroying the North. Damon was involved in this series of processes.

He seemed to be terribly sorry for that fact and began to tell me about Euclid’s latest developments after meeting me in the temple. 

Damon was the knight who kidnapped me and the letter Josef intercepted was also his. 

‘But Damon wrote a false report.’

I recalled the letter I found in Josef’s lab. Damon, Camille’s escort knight, lied that only the nanny’s baby survived. 

‘Why did he report that Anissa Euclid was dead and only the nanny’s baby survived?’

Damon had apologized for kidnapping me but he didn’t completely tell me the truth either. 

‘At any rate, he’s a mysterious wizard.’ 

I tilted my head as I unfolded the map he had kindly sent me with the locations of the holy relics marked out.

There were fourteen holy relics of Hera hidden in the continent, among them, I had darkened four relics with the shadow and handed them over to Dietrich. 

‘It was like getting everything free of charge.’

In the original, Lagrange also won the first round though it wasn’t due to the relic, in the end, Dietrich eventually won his first victory.

[The light of five stars dwells within the son of the sun.]

As I had expected, Hermann began looking for the relics. If Damon’s information was true, then five of the remaining ten holy relics were already in Hermann’s hands. 

Finding the rest of the hidden relics wouldn’t be easy. 

I chewed on my fingertips in anxiety. 

‘We have to take the lead at all cost.’

The rose war now was not just a mere battle to demonstrate strength, but a fight to take the flag. Instead of just sitting idly and believing in the original’s setting, as long as I had decided for Lagrange’s victory, to win or lose was the same as if it was up to me. 

‘Originally, it would have been Charl’s burden.’

As if waking me up from my thoughts, someone knocked incessantly on the sandalwood desk again and again. There was only one person in Lagrange whom I could feel the agitation just by the sound of their knocking. 

“My lady!”

“Yeah, what?”

“Phew. Your way of speaking is becoming more and more like His Grace.”

As I glanced absent-mindedly at Lancel, he flinched and continued.

“A guest has arrived.”

“A guest? They didn’t come for Dietrich?”

“I’ll tell you but please don’t be angry at me.” 

With the way he’s speaking, somebody might think I’m always after him. I couldn’t help laughing looking at him who had his eyes opened wide. 

“Who’s here?”

“It’s Charlotte Vallandia.”

“Who let her in?!”

I screamed in surprise at Lance’s quick response. 

‘I told them to raise the drawbridge whenever Charlotte comes around the castle!’ 

“She came together with Duchess Dona Euclid so how could we close the door and treat them poorly?”

“Dona Euclid? 

I paused at the unexpected name that came out of Lancel’s mouth. There was considerable distance between Euclid and Lagrange, and to think the Duchess would come to visit? 

“If I go down in this state, they’ll look down on me again. Call Marilyn.”

“Yes!”

“Ah, no. Never mind.”

I was used to wearing comfortable riding pants or dresses with wide breadth while in Nature. 

In the south and capital, I would be belittled saying it’s nothing short of sleepwear, but in Lagrange, there was no one who would point out to me how I’m dressed. 

‘There’s no reason for me to be wary of Dona Euclid.

This was the North and not the South, so the ones who should be wary was them and not me. 

I snorted and clasped the hem of the pleasantly plain dress and entered the drawing-room. 

“Duchess.”

At my words, Dona Euclid stood up from the sofa. Following Dona, Charlotte stepped forward but I raised my hand and stopped her.  

“Are you going to say you’re glad to see me again?”

“Anissa!”

Charl bit her lips as if disappointed by my reaction. I stared at her and tilted my head.

“Why? Are you upset?”

“Of course. We were friends. It’s natural that I’m glad to see you, Anissa.” 

“We were friends?”

Since when the hell? 

At my gentle question, Charlotte balked and licked her lips. I turned my head after staring at her tiresome face. 

“Duchess. What brings you to this far North?”

“First, let’s sit. This conversation might take longer.” 

Although I had deliberately kept a cold tone, Dona remained unfazed and motioned toward me. 

‘Still, a duchess is a duchess.’ 

Years have passed but the fact that she’s a beauty with a fragile impression had not changed. I stared at her sitting on the sofa, whose face still comes to mind whenever I close my eyes. 

‘That kind of good-natured face tried to kill me.’

Just because I was not born with the power of the sun god, and for the sole reason that I was born with red eyes. 

“I heard that it’s the princess who goes around taking away the holy relics of the sun god.”

“Who knows.” 

Hera’s relics originally belonged to the temple so the words ‘taking away’ would be appropriated, but I shrugged my shoulders without admitting it. 

“I think it was Charl, the saint of the temple, who had said that the relics had no owner and that there was no price that could be put on them.” 

“I didn’t come all the way here just to play mind games.”

“Then just say what you have to say.”

“Where in the world did you learn a habit like that!” 

When Dona sharply raised her eyes and scolded me, the maid standing next to me puts down the kettle with a clattering sound. The Duchess, who was interrupted by the maid’s actions, stared down at her in displeasure. 

“Is how Lagrange teaches their maids?  To put down the teacup hard so that the water splashes?”

The maid, who brought me my favorite flavored tea, did not break at Dona’s reprimand as if she would protect me. 

“Even if you have no habit, there are limitations! Princess, take that maid right now–”

“Lucy.” 

I stopped the Duchess’ words which were close to a scream and called the maid. It was then that she pouted her lips, thinking that I was going to scold her, and answered timidly.

“Yes, Princess.”

“Thank you. You must have noticed that I don’t like tea leaves if they don’t mix well.” 

As gloating at the Duchess, I slurped my tea and smiled at her. 

“Please continue, Duchess.”

“Ha. Princess, I think there must be a misunderstanding, but I have no intentions of fighting with you.”

She suddenly changed the mood and dabbed her moist eyes with a handkerchief. Charl put on a sad face as if to match her and held her hand. 

“That’s right, Anissa. We didn’t come here about matters regarding Euclid or Lagrange.”

“Then?” 

As I narrowed my eyes to grasp their intentions, the Duchess suddenly grabbed my hand resting on top of the table. 

“People don’t know about this but I have lost a daughter.” 

I let out a wry laugh at Dona’s unexpected words.

I see. 

‘There’s no way I wouldn’t know.’ 

In fact, it was more surprising that she didn’t know when I was in the capital. Because I had a strange resemblance to Dona Euclid in appearance. 

The gentle drooping of the eyes, the small, dainty nose, and even the fragile impression, were all the same.

‘For people who didn’t know, they would have let it go saying that we had a resemblance.’

Dona Euclid and the Duke were the only ones with memories of their young daughter being kidnapped. With my appearance being similar, and with just the right age, there’s no way they couldn’t have suspected. 

‘You just pretended not to know because you simply didn’t need it.’

“What about it?”

“Lagrange kidnapped my daughter.” 

And it was Euclid who had ordered the child to be killed.

I stared at Dona Euclid’s shameless face with indifferent eyes. The time for me to be shaken simply because she was my biological mother was long overdue. 

‘Family doesn’t mean blood-related to me anymore.’

My family was here in Lagrange. Yuric and Veronica, Rose, Maslow, Riesling.

And Dietrich, who is considered the greatest villain in the world. 

“What is it you want to say, Duchess?”

“...My daughter.”

“Excuse me?”

“I missed you.” 

Charlotte started sniffling next to her as if she was more moved by the mother-daughter reunion. I frowned, getting annoyed at her crying. 

“Charlotte hinted to me about your powers. I must have been mistaken because that’s not a shadow demon’s power.”

“You can become the light of the South even now. Do you know how much I’ve looked for you?”

The Duchess even hugged me and patted me thinking that I was stunned by their shamelessness to even open my mouth.

“You must be surprised. But it’s the truth. I’m your mother, Anissa.” 

“......So what?” 

So what if you’re my real mother?