Stone Thrown into the Lake - Chapter 26

It was evident that Yvor did not take an interest in Ranan’s actions then. At the time, Yvor Adela was only blinded by the brother of her imagination.

Yvor looked at her father, at a loss. As she quietened down, Ranan lowered his hand that had grabbed her arm and held her hands. She tried to shake him off but he increased the force of his grip.

“You are a good girl, a good daughter. You can’t disobey me. There is no way you would do anything that’s detrimental to Salzmia, right?”

‘Listen to me, my daughter. My daughter, that Salzmia has given everything to raise. You have to be the prince’s wife. You can finally be sold off at the right price. Look at how the people that ridiculed us were reduced from ten to seven noble families. This father has never forgotten every single word they said, not even in my dreams.’ He whispered.

‘Let us overthrow them and stand at the top of this country. Even if you and I will fall to hell after our deaths, if the name of this family remains in glory, what can’t be done?’

“Dedicate your entirety to the glory of Salzmia, my beloved daughter.”

Words of absolute belief and nary a doubt in his daughter flowed out of his mouth in its totality. Goosebumps formed on her back.

“It is obvious that that would be the case, no?”

Ranan asked confidently. It was only then that Yvor Adela realized why she had tried to give Duran things that he was unwilling for in the past. Everything she had wanted to give to Duran then, were exactly what her father had wanted.

Ranan Elmund had raised his daughter very well. She was brought up extremely well. She was molded the way he wanted her to be. A daughter that would dedicate her life completely for Salzmia, a well-raised doll whose foolishness was to the point of speechlessness. The goosebumps ran down her back, nailing her to the ground. Everything she thought of, everything that she had accomplished, could be found here.

“…”

Yvor Adela looked at Ranan Elmund silently. There was no doubt on his face that she would do his bidding at a single word of his. Now, Yvor knows it well. Ranan’s confidence was not unfounded.

In the past, Yvor Adela was a child that knew only to do as she was taught. Her parents raised her as a domestic animal, so she grew up as one. If her father made her learn this, she learnt this and if he wanted her to learn that, she followed suit. If her parents commanded so, as their child, she followed obediently.

Just like that, the things he gave became her foundation. Even if she doesn’t love him, even if she thought of him as a quill or a penny, he had been in control of her growth since her birth.

“Let’s hold a banquet. Dress up as prettily as you can.” Her father whispered in a gentle voice.

It’s alright.

Everything is fine.

It’s alright if she repairs mistakes and learns what she was lacking. She was able to learn perfectly once she was taught, even with a new teacher.

Like an inexperienced child, trying to learn how to produce a melodic tone towards the prince in one try, instead of the strict rules of etiquette that even her father disliked, she learnt the methods of pleasing a man.

She spoke like the obedient daughter of her father, who always gave the same answer.

“……Yes, father.”

Yvor Adela dug deeply into the foundations that made up herself and retrieved the answers that were buried long ago. At the satisfactory answer, Ranan released her hand and stroked her chin.

“You will definitely do well. You are the child Salzmia has poured everything into raising. Have you not prepared yourself to continue the line of your family for times like this?”

Her father spoke cordially. Yvor Adela asked.

“Can the bloodline of the family be continued?”

She wasn’t asking because she didn’t know what he was talking about, on the contrary, she was well aware. Ranan Elmund was referring to her beloved Dew. He replied, as if he was giving confirmation.

“I’m talking about your half-brother.”

Yvor seeked confirmation again.

“……That boy, he had not received any education at all.”

“What purpose will there be to teach him?”

“He’s my brother.”

Ranan Elmund smiled at her naive expression. At the sight of a young sacrificial lamb chasing after him, unaware of its fate to become a burnt offering, he gave an appropriate smile.

“That’s just the blood of Salzmia.”

Rana continued to speak.

“A stallion should just play the part of a stallion. Even if he is an illegitimate child, he would just need to perform as a man. He just needs to marry a good woman. She will do well in bearing children of the next generation.”

He was saying that the purpose of Yvor Adela’s dear brother was just that. As a thought entered her mind, Ranan took out something from his inner chest pocket.

It was a letter that was torn open. Yvor narrowed her eyes for a moment. The broken wax seal looked quite familiar. The design of a bird holding a grapevine was Yvor Adela’s emblem. Ranan threw the ripped letter onto the floor. It fell down like a miserable corpse.

“So, don’t waste your time on this. It arrived just as I was about to leave, so I brought it along with me.”

It was a letter she wrote. It was the only unbidden heartfelt thoughts she had written and sent after meeting young Duran. Ranan casually trampled on the pieces of her heart and spoke.

“Since a while ago, I had wanted to ask this once. Why are you squandering this away?”

“Since a while ago?”

“That’s right, how many years has it been?”

He was right. A few years. Yvor slowly asked.

“Did Father receive all the letters I had sent?”

Ranan didn’t answer. It was a question too trivial for him to answer. What would you do with something like that? A young girl that didn’t even know she was human, created a heart with much difficulty. But to the father that didn’t raise his child as a human, it was worthless.

The pieces of her youthful heart were trampled upon and thrown away by her father, his hands gathering it and making it so that she could never feel love. Consistently, throughout her entire life.

As if she was looking up at the water surface from the riverbed, the distant sense of reality returned in an instant. Yvor Adela now understood just where did the letters that Duran did not receive in the past went, and the identity of the person that was her co-conspirator.

“That–”

Ranan opened his mouth. There was no doubt who ‘that’ was referring to. It’s Duran Craig. The language used wasn’t even meant for calling a person.

“Don’t call my brother in that manner when you’re in my castle.”

Ranan looked at Yvor, as if he had heard a strange tone of voice from her.

Ranan looked at Yvor strangely, as if he had heard oddity within her tone of voice.

The front that she tried hard to maintain crumbled into pieces. Whether it was a thought or an emotion, it swelled like a flood.

Perhaps she has already heard something similar to these words once in the past. Her father told her to become the queen. He also said that Salzmia’s family line could be carried on even without her. At that time, the former Yvor Adela, who did not know how Duran Craig or even she herself lived, heard those words and had a thought.

Then, if Ranan dies prematurely, she can give the whole of Salzmia to her beloved brother.

Salzmia. It was the most valuable thing she had in the past. The glory, future, and power of Salzmia, all of it were useless. They were more apparent than a rag-doll older sister.

Her brother will understand that this is natural, like she did. Her existence and upbringing was for the sake of his father’s longing for power and glory of his family, and so would her Dew.

Where in the world can such a foolish sister be found? She didn’t even feel like berating herself over how stupid she was anymore. If she had to choose the most foolish and terrible thing in the world, the answer would, without a doubt, simply be her.

“My one and only brother, whom I love dearly.”

‘That’s what you are.’

She finally thought. He gave her this foundation so that he could force her beloved little brother to do something he wouldn’t have wanted to, and then he could abandon the child, keeping him alone. He did it so that she wouldn’t be able to communicate with her brother or tell him what she was doing.

Yvor, who felt nailed to the bottom of a river, did not hold on and was swept away by the rapids.

Contrary to Duran Craig’s belief, Yvor Adela was neither sweet nor soft. She had never had such a moment in the past and present.

The new Queen, who enjoyed the blood of enemies, was close to her true essence, and a woman who would rather be willing to live everything for the purpose and one value Ranan Elmund believed was her truth. Like Duran Craig, Yvor Adela, who lived her entire life in love with only her younger brother, was also more familiar with hate than love.

Therefore, most of the feelings left with her, who had poured out all the good and warm feelings she had for Duran, were the opposite.

As much as she tried to give Duran all the good she had, there were far more thorns left in her than that. It was like shards of pottery shattered to pick out the finest or soot from a stove that worked to heat something up.

So, all of her thorns, which she had sharpened herself, dug into her. This was because all the mistakes have been hers. There was no one else who did anything wrong except her. Even those who bothered her did it all for her.

She has done many wrongs, and she has sinned against countless people. She had no one to blame but herself. Leaving her little brother lonely, unable to even say that she loves him, and leaving him in such pain… Only one of her thorns, which she had sharpened against her own bones, rose outward.

‘You.’

Yvor suddenly said. The sound did not leak out and lingered in the mouth. Even if it’s not everything. In the end, even if you can’t blame others for what you’ve done with your own hands. But only one. It was the first time she had met anyone she could blame other than herself.

Ranan Elmund.

He was her enemy.

This Yvor Adela had her posture right. She straightened her back, keeping her hands straight to show her graceful appearance. A long time ago, teachers in Salzmia taught her that she should always be the most beautiful in front of the enemy.

“…You must have gotten really weird.”

Ranan Almund, who had been looking at her for a long time, sighed.

“Where on Earth should I start teaching again? Men are ruined by women, and women are destroyed by affection.”

“Yvor,” he called.

Yvor Adela did not answer. Ranan’s eyes were coloured with ambiguous warmth. When touched, her tepid body temperature seemed to be soaking wet. It was the eyes of a father to see his rebellious daughter for the first time in his life.

Ybor Adela found it very eerie. However, to find the most similar thing to such body temperature, it has to be the word ‘negative’.

“Yvor, my daughter.” Ranan Elmund said with a name Yvor would not find; her father’s affection.

“Don’t love anyone.”

That’s what Elmund said. It was the only love he gave to his daughter. Yvor Adela, a willing enemy of her father, thought his love was worse than a pair of old shoes picked up and hidden by a wild dog.

“You don’t have to teach me anymore. I learned to be full and overflowing.”

It was true. She learned too well. Thus, in the end, she could not love the only person she wanted to love and lived her whole life as an illusion. All she had sowed around her was hatred and just hatred in the past. Everything she created was a sin. This Yvor Adela never wanted to live like that again. Now she really knew how to love.

“Yvor.”

“I will hold a banquet. Will you come back after that?”

Ranan looked at her as if measuring something. Yvor, who looked like a lake whose depth was about to be measured, spoke first before he tried to talk to her to measure her more.

“Father, do what you do. For our Salzmia.”

Yvor spoke of a name that was not worth even a piece of paper. She intended to return everything that her father had taught her, and she wanted to take away the bad things in her this way.

Then, all that would be left would be fine and soft, so if she gives it all to Duran, it will not hurt him. Yvor Adela believed so.

The Prince’s Welcome Banquet, a banquet for the first time in almost 10 years, was scheduled at Serium Castle for the coming full moon.