Olivia still shuddered when she remembered that day.
During the Duke's absence, the Duchess of Piretta went into labor a month earlier than expected.
The rain poured down heavily in the usually clear sky, and the labor pains continued for two days.
When the Duke of Piretta, who loved his wife dearly, canceled his schedule and returned, the maternity ward was filled with the smell of blood.
The Duke, who had entered the delivery room without listening to the orders not to enter, soon witnessed the tiny baby, which was like a blob of blood, and the cold, cooling body of his wife.
“Helen... Helen. Why isn’t Helen breathing?”
The midwife remained silent, and Olivia, the maid who had served the Duchess since childhood, burst into tears.
“Helen, Helen!”
The Duke, who was searching for the light that had gone out in his wife's green eyes, soon began to sob, unable to even close the dead woman's eyes.
The midwife broke the silence, perhaps because it was a familiar sight, and handed the Duke a baby, washed and wrapped.
“Please hug her. She is a beautiful princess.”
The Duke did not even look at the midwife who repeatedly urged him to come. His eyes were fixed only on the dead Helen, and when the child began to cry madly, he turned to that place.
The Duke stared at the smell of blood and the blonde hair that resembled his own with a distorted expression.
“...We don’t need a child who killed his mother.”
“!”
The midwife unconsciously hugged the lump tightly. Words too harsh to be said to the lump that had not even opened its eyes were pouring out of the Duke's mouth.
“Throw it away.”
With those words, the Duke never looked back at the child again. The Duke's escort snatched the child from the midwife and left the delivery room.
“Your Excellency! You can’t do this! You’re abandoning the Princess who is still a flesh and blood! Lady Helen will see you in Abadelia and cry...”
“If you don’t want to die, shut your mouth.”
"Your Excellency!"
“I can’t give a Piretta to a child who was born by killing its mother.”
When Olivia, who was glaring at the Duke who was completely unable to understand her words and whose cheeks were wet with tears, was about to run out of the delivery room to find her child.
“Oh, here comes another baby!!”
The Duke's eyes, which had been broken as he held Helen's hand, began to waver for a moment.
“What a miracle!! I guess they were twins!”
The midwife, who had been left in a daze after losing the baby, dug between the dead woman's legs.
The baby's head, which was preparing to come out of the mother's body, which was unable to exert force, began to emerge.
Unlike the first child who had caused so much suffering to her mother, the child was born from Helen's body in one go thanks to the desperate efforts of the midwife.
The midwife sobbed as she washed the baby.
“Princess, it’s your princess. You’re twin sisters!”
When the baby stopped crying, the midwife began to slap the baby's bottom and then perform artificial respiration. The Duke stared blankly at the midwife who continued to work while crying to save the baby.
“Father. The baby... is dying...?”
A child's voice echoed through the quiet and desperate maternity room.
“Gregory.”
The child who had followed his father who had pushed his way in without permission, could not stand the continued commotion and stepped into the delivery room.
“My, my brother... is dying...?”
The Duke groaned softly and staggered as his large, turquoise eyes grew wet.
In the eyes of young Gregory, it was clear that he saw Helen.
“It’s Adrienne, it’s Adrienne?”
“...”
“If it’s a boy, it’s Adrian. If it’s a sister, it’s Adrienne.”
Gregory approached the pale Helen and the Duke beside her and began to shed heavy tears.
“It’s a name I made with my mother...”
“Hh..."
Soon, the baby's cries resonated through the delivery room. Gregory hurriedly ran to the midwife.
The midwife gave the baby to a young boy who had been practicing carrying the baby with his mother instead of the Duke, the father.
The baby, who had been crying for a while, soon became quiet, as if she were very comfortable in her brother's arms. Gregory finally smiled bashfully at the sight of the red baby who couldn't even open her eyes. It was a smile that could only be shown when the baby still didn't know about the death of her mother.
“...Adrienne.”
"Father?"
“This is Adrienne Piretta.”
The Duke could not bear to cast the child out after seeing that sight, so he spoke without looking at the child who had barely survived.
Gregory's smile, which resembled his mother's, seemed to have saved his last remaining sanity.
Olivia was relieved that Adrienne was alive, but she quickly ran out to find the other twin.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know. It’s absolutely ridiculous. If the Lord knew, He would punish me.”
Olivia barely managed to get up, then sat hunched over in her chair, burying her face in her handkerchief.
“You know, young lady? I sent one of the Princess away first.”
“...”
That was why Olivia, who was of noble birth but from a humble family, volunteered to work as a nanny, something that only commoners did.
First, her infinite loyalty to the Duchess of Piretta.
Secondly, to overcome the sadness of having a child around the same time as the Duchess and having to send the child away to Abelia right after giving birth.
At that time, Olivia was half crazy.
Her husband died of illness before she could tell him the news of her pregnancy. Her child died immediately after birth. The aura of death was cast upon her, so much so that even her mistress, the Duchess, thought it was a curse.
Olivia ran out of the delivery room like crazy, snatching the baby from the escort and screaming.
“The Duke has entrusted this task to me, the Duchess’s confidant!”
The thought of killing a child must have been uncomfortable for the escort, so he simply handed the child over to Olivia.
Olivia debated whether to return to the delivery room or hide the baby.
The Duke's heart was temporarily softened by Gregory's appearance and the miracle of the child barely surviving, but will that mercy reach this child as well?
She hid the child in her mansion outside the mansion and waited for the right time. She even brought in a wet nurse to make up for the lack of milk she had to give to Adrienne, and she raised her as if she were her own daughter.
But even when the child's pale skin glowed white, and her eyes opened wide and met the human's gaze with the same sage-green eyes as Helen Piretta... the Duke did not look for the child.
Olivia cried all the time while breastfeeding Adrienne.
Every time she saw Adrienne looking up at her with eyes that knew nothing, she would think of her sister in her own home instead of the Piretta mansion and would cry inwardly toward Helen Piretta.
One day, while she was quietly observing the Duke's expression.
“The escort said that you said you would kill that kid.”
“...”
“Did you kill the child?”
She waited for the Duke to finally come to his senses and say that he wanted to bring his daughter to him.
“You must have killed her, right?”
And with those cruel words, even her last bit of faith was shattered.
“...What could I do? Since Madam has passed away, my master is Your Excellency.”
She answered thus and left the child with the neighbor in case the Duke should check on it.
As expected.
The words of the retreating escort.
She beat her chest and wept as she sent off her daughter's small coffin, which was placed neatly on the saddle.
“From now on, you are my daughter, Blie.”
And Olivia gave the Princess the name 'Blie', which was her daughter's name.
I sat down in my seat at the unbelievable story. No one there could easily add anything.
“When the lady was alive, the Duke never left the estate easily. But after the lady passed away, he could only spend a few days at the estate. That’s why I always resented him. The reason I dared to talk back to him even though I was a nanny was because I was the lady’s person who had seen everything.”
“If you had told him a little later that Blie was alive, would my father have killed you?”
“The midwife who delivered the Princess died in an accident soon after. I am sure it was not an accident. I was afraid of the Duke. Even if he found out later that she was alive and brought her into the mansion, I thought that all he could give Lady Blie was a cold stare and a wound.”
“It might not have been like that. My father’s eyes weren’t like that when he looked at me.”
“That’s because he saw Madame Helen in the frail young lady. So, while I wished for you to become healthy, I also wished for you to grow up like a fragile flower. I was afraid that the sick young lady might one day receive a cold look from His Excellency.”
“Blie... Then how did Blie live?”
I finally asked the question that had been nagging at me.
It felt uncomfortable like there was a thorn stuck in my throat.
“I raised her in hiding at the edge of the Piretta territory for a while, then sent her to my relatives in Elacon. I desperately wanted to be with Lady Blie... but I also had a duty to look after Miss Adrienne, so I visited her whenever I had vacations.”
“So the research results always say that they are from Elacon.”
Rhodnes suddenly interrupted and sighed. He held my shoulders tightly from behind, but I had a hard time controlling my trembling body.
“Then one day, when I heard that Lady Blie had run away, I was about to head to Elacon right away. But Lady Blie, who had run away, came to my mansion at the edge of the territory.”
Olivia recalled that day and burst into tears again.
“It was when the news of Miss Adrienne’s marriage made all Ronta buzz. She came in clutching several newspapers... and kept asking me about the family I worked for and Miss Adrienne. So at that time, like an idiot, I..."
Olivia's sad sobs echoed across the floor.
“I said everything like a fool. I wanted to apologize. I couldn’t be by her side even though I decided to take her as my daughter. Lady Blie went back, but it wasn’t to my relative’s house. However, she occasionally sent me letters to check up on me in Elacon.”
Olivia wiped her face with a soaking wet handkerchief as she recalled the memory.
And then.
Rossi, who had been listening quietly, opened her mouth.
“I think I was the one who lived with that kid after she ran away.”
Everyone's eyes turned to her.
“I’m starting to see things a little more clearly now, the blonde girl. The reason she was able to open that mana stone coffin.”
Rossi forced the corners of her lips up with a somewhat relieved expression.
“Blie, it’s clear that her magic was put into the mana stone. But that magic is something you’re born with.”
I stared at her blankly, my eyes still in shock.
“It was also because the young lady was weak. It was also because Blie’s magic was strangely strong.”
“Strong magic power? Are you saying that Blie is not some random sorcerer, but that she really has that much magic power?”
“The mystery has been solved. The Piretta Territory was the capital when Ronta was an ancient kingdom. There aren’t many people with magical powers now, but the power buried in the land that was once a magical kingdom sometimes manifests in a very small number of people, like Blie. The probability is high because Piretta’s blood is mixed with the blood of the ancient royal family. However, you are twins, so you should have grown up together and shared it.”
"Then..."
“That magical power was originally supposed to be shared between you and Blie. That’s why you were weak because you didn’t have what you were supposed to have, and Blie was full of strength. Even though your souls were switched, the magical power Blie put into the mana stone recognized you as its owner. That’s why the coffin had to be opened.”
During the Duke's absence, the Duchess of Piretta went into labor a month earlier than expected.
The rain poured down heavily in the usually clear sky, and the labor pains continued for two days.
When the Duke of Piretta, who loved his wife dearly, canceled his schedule and returned, the maternity ward was filled with the smell of blood.
The Duke, who had entered the delivery room without listening to the orders not to enter, soon witnessed the tiny baby, which was like a blob of blood, and the cold, cooling body of his wife.
“Helen... Helen. Why isn’t Helen breathing?”
The midwife remained silent, and Olivia, the maid who had served the Duchess since childhood, burst into tears.
“Helen, Helen!”
The Duke, who was searching for the light that had gone out in his wife's green eyes, soon began to sob, unable to even close the dead woman's eyes.
The midwife broke the silence, perhaps because it was a familiar sight, and handed the Duke a baby, washed and wrapped.
“Please hug her. She is a beautiful princess.”
The Duke did not even look at the midwife who repeatedly urged him to come. His eyes were fixed only on the dead Helen, and when the child began to cry madly, he turned to that place.
The Duke stared at the smell of blood and the blonde hair that resembled his own with a distorted expression.
“...We don’t need a child who killed his mother.”
“!”
The midwife unconsciously hugged the lump tightly. Words too harsh to be said to the lump that had not even opened its eyes were pouring out of the Duke's mouth.
“Throw it away.”
With those words, the Duke never looked back at the child again. The Duke's escort snatched the child from the midwife and left the delivery room.
“Your Excellency! You can’t do this! You’re abandoning the Princess who is still a flesh and blood! Lady Helen will see you in Abadelia and cry...”
“If you don’t want to die, shut your mouth.”
"Your Excellency!"
“I can’t give a Piretta to a child who was born by killing its mother.”
When Olivia, who was glaring at the Duke who was completely unable to understand her words and whose cheeks were wet with tears, was about to run out of the delivery room to find her child.
“Oh, here comes another baby!!”
The Duke's eyes, which had been broken as he held Helen's hand, began to waver for a moment.
“What a miracle!! I guess they were twins!”
The midwife, who had been left in a daze after losing the baby, dug between the dead woman's legs.
The baby's head, which was preparing to come out of the mother's body, which was unable to exert force, began to emerge.
Unlike the first child who had caused so much suffering to her mother, the child was born from Helen's body in one go thanks to the desperate efforts of the midwife.
The midwife sobbed as she washed the baby.
“Princess, it’s your princess. You’re twin sisters!”
When the baby stopped crying, the midwife began to slap the baby's bottom and then perform artificial respiration. The Duke stared blankly at the midwife who continued to work while crying to save the baby.
“Father. The baby... is dying...?”
A child's voice echoed through the quiet and desperate maternity room.
“Gregory.”
The child who had followed his father who had pushed his way in without permission, could not stand the continued commotion and stepped into the delivery room.
“My, my brother... is dying...?”
The Duke groaned softly and staggered as his large, turquoise eyes grew wet.
In the eyes of young Gregory, it was clear that he saw Helen.
“It’s Adrienne, it’s Adrienne?”
“...”
“If it’s a boy, it’s Adrian. If it’s a sister, it’s Adrienne.”
Gregory approached the pale Helen and the Duke beside her and began to shed heavy tears.
“It’s a name I made with my mother...”
“Hh..."
Soon, the baby's cries resonated through the delivery room. Gregory hurriedly ran to the midwife.
The midwife gave the baby to a young boy who had been practicing carrying the baby with his mother instead of the Duke, the father.
The baby, who had been crying for a while, soon became quiet, as if she were very comfortable in her brother's arms. Gregory finally smiled bashfully at the sight of the red baby who couldn't even open her eyes. It was a smile that could only be shown when the baby still didn't know about the death of her mother.
“...Adrienne.”
"Father?"
“This is Adrienne Piretta.”
The Duke could not bear to cast the child out after seeing that sight, so he spoke without looking at the child who had barely survived.
Gregory's smile, which resembled his mother's, seemed to have saved his last remaining sanity.
Olivia was relieved that Adrienne was alive, but she quickly ran out to find the other twin.
***
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I know. It’s absolutely ridiculous. If the Lord knew, He would punish me.”
Olivia barely managed to get up, then sat hunched over in her chair, burying her face in her handkerchief.
“You know, young lady? I sent one of the Princess away first.”
“...”
That was why Olivia, who was of noble birth but from a humble family, volunteered to work as a nanny, something that only commoners did.
First, her infinite loyalty to the Duchess of Piretta.
Secondly, to overcome the sadness of having a child around the same time as the Duchess and having to send the child away to Abelia right after giving birth.
***
At that time, Olivia was half crazy.
Her husband died of illness before she could tell him the news of her pregnancy. Her child died immediately after birth. The aura of death was cast upon her, so much so that even her mistress, the Duchess, thought it was a curse.
Olivia ran out of the delivery room like crazy, snatching the baby from the escort and screaming.
“The Duke has entrusted this task to me, the Duchess’s confidant!”
The thought of killing a child must have been uncomfortable for the escort, so he simply handed the child over to Olivia.
Olivia debated whether to return to the delivery room or hide the baby.
The Duke's heart was temporarily softened by Gregory's appearance and the miracle of the child barely surviving, but will that mercy reach this child as well?
She hid the child in her mansion outside the mansion and waited for the right time. She even brought in a wet nurse to make up for the lack of milk she had to give to Adrienne, and she raised her as if she were her own daughter.
But even when the child's pale skin glowed white, and her eyes opened wide and met the human's gaze with the same sage-green eyes as Helen Piretta... the Duke did not look for the child.
Olivia cried all the time while breastfeeding Adrienne.
Every time she saw Adrienne looking up at her with eyes that knew nothing, she would think of her sister in her own home instead of the Piretta mansion and would cry inwardly toward Helen Piretta.
One day, while she was quietly observing the Duke's expression.
“The escort said that you said you would kill that kid.”
“...”
“Did you kill the child?”
She waited for the Duke to finally come to his senses and say that he wanted to bring his daughter to him.
“You must have killed her, right?”
And with those cruel words, even her last bit of faith was shattered.
“...What could I do? Since Madam has passed away, my master is Your Excellency.”
She answered thus and left the child with the neighbor in case the Duke should check on it.
As expected.
She led the escort that came that night to check on her, dug up her grave, and handed over her casket.
She beat her chest and wept as she sent off her daughter's small coffin, which was placed neatly on the saddle.
“From now on, you are my daughter, Blie.”
And Olivia gave the Princess the name 'Blie', which was her daughter's name.
***
I sat down in my seat at the unbelievable story. No one there could easily add anything.
“When the lady was alive, the Duke never left the estate easily. But after the lady passed away, he could only spend a few days at the estate. That’s why I always resented him. The reason I dared to talk back to him even though I was a nanny was because I was the lady’s person who had seen everything.”
“If you had told him a little later that Blie was alive, would my father have killed you?”
“The midwife who delivered the Princess died in an accident soon after. I am sure it was not an accident. I was afraid of the Duke. Even if he found out later that she was alive and brought her into the mansion, I thought that all he could give Lady Blie was a cold stare and a wound.”
“It might not have been like that. My father’s eyes weren’t like that when he looked at me.”
“That’s because he saw Madame Helen in the frail young lady. So, while I wished for you to become healthy, I also wished for you to grow up like a fragile flower. I was afraid that the sick young lady might one day receive a cold look from His Excellency.”
“Blie... Then how did Blie live?”
I finally asked the question that had been nagging at me.
It felt uncomfortable like there was a thorn stuck in my throat.
“I raised her in hiding at the edge of the Piretta territory for a while, then sent her to my relatives in Elacon. I desperately wanted to be with Lady Blie... but I also had a duty to look after Miss Adrienne, so I visited her whenever I had vacations.”
“So the research results always say that they are from Elacon.”
Rhodnes suddenly interrupted and sighed. He held my shoulders tightly from behind, but I had a hard time controlling my trembling body.
“Then one day, when I heard that Lady Blie had run away, I was about to head to Elacon right away. But Lady Blie, who had run away, came to my mansion at the edge of the territory.”
Olivia recalled that day and burst into tears again.
“It was when the news of Miss Adrienne’s marriage made all Ronta buzz. She came in clutching several newspapers... and kept asking me about the family I worked for and Miss Adrienne. So at that time, like an idiot, I..."
Olivia's sad sobs echoed across the floor.
“I said everything like a fool. I wanted to apologize. I couldn’t be by her side even though I decided to take her as my daughter. Lady Blie went back, but it wasn’t to my relative’s house. However, she occasionally sent me letters to check up on me in Elacon.”
Olivia wiped her face with a soaking wet handkerchief as she recalled the memory.
And then.
Rossi, who had been listening quietly, opened her mouth.
“I think I was the one who lived with that kid after she ran away.”
Everyone's eyes turned to her.
“I’m starting to see things a little more clearly now, the blonde girl. The reason she was able to open that mana stone coffin.”
Rossi forced the corners of her lips up with a somewhat relieved expression.
“Blie, it’s clear that her magic was put into the mana stone. But that magic is something you’re born with.”
I stared at her blankly, my eyes still in shock.
“It was also because the young lady was weak. It was also because Blie’s magic was strangely strong.”
“Strong magic power? Are you saying that Blie is not some random sorcerer, but that she really has that much magic power?”
“The mystery has been solved. The Piretta Territory was the capital when Ronta was an ancient kingdom. There aren’t many people with magical powers now, but the power buried in the land that was once a magical kingdom sometimes manifests in a very small number of people, like Blie. The probability is high because Piretta’s blood is mixed with the blood of the ancient royal family. However, you are twins, so you should have grown up together and shared it.”
"Then..."
“That magical power was originally supposed to be shared between you and Blie. That’s why you were weak because you didn’t have what you were supposed to have, and Blie was full of strength. Even though your souls were switched, the magical power Blie put into the mana stone recognized you as its owner. That’s why the coffin had to be opened.”
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