The World Without My Sister Who Everyone Loved - Chapter 2

“…..”

This guy…

What did you just say?

I felt dizzy.

“Sienna?”

I could hardly hear the calls of the Great Duke over the sound of my pounding heart.

As if he felt that something was wrong, the Duke carefully tried to reach out to Siena

“Ah..”

At that moment, Sienna unwittingly avoided the hand of the Great Duke.

“..euk!”

Then, she made a loud noise and fell back.

“Sienna! What are you doing!”

The director was shocked and sharply rebuked Siena, but neither the Grand Duke nor Siena paid attention to the words.

Awkwardly, she couldn’t reach his hand which stopped in the air, and the Grand Duke was staring at Sienna, who had fallen to the ground.

‘…Aren’t you embarrassed…?’

It seemed so unrealistic.

‘No, it must be an illusion.’

Sienna clenched her trembling hands

Anyway, I have to answer.  She stuttered with her dry mouth.

“I’m….”

Honestly, I hated this.

The castle of Grand Duke Nacht was Sienna’s grave. Sienna lived there like a ghost for nearly a decade, and was never loved by anyone. She was then betrayed by her older sister, who she thought loved her and took her own life.

‘The place where my miserable ending is scheduled.’

I never wanted to step into that castle again. No, not even just that, I wanted to leave this capital and go to a faraway place even if I died.

‘Even if I end up dying, that’s not bad either.’

I have to make those words sound polite and spit them out.

Her mouth couldn’t move.

It was to be expected. Unlike Sienna’s mature spirit, her body was still eleven years old. Her terrified child’s body was almost in a panic.

As she sat on the floor where she had fallen in a cold sweat, stuttering her words, the Grand Duke attempted to reach out his hand once again.

First of all, I was thinking of raising a child…

“..Heu Euk.”

“Sienna!”

“N-n…”

Sienna couldn’t even say the word no.

However,  she was overwhelmed by an indescribable fear that made her faint before his hand could reach her.

“…..”

“Oh my God, Sienna!”

While the frightened director approached and took care of the fallen child, the Grand Duke froze in place with his hand left hanging in the air.

‘Just now..,’

Her actions clearly spoke ‘rejection’ more clearly than words could.

* * *

It’s been like that for a long time.

Next to the perfect Loreina, Sienna was seen as being less than what she was.

But paradoxically, Loreina was the only one who was good to me.

A long time ago, at their first meeting…

“Oh, my god, you’re Sienna!”

“N-Nice to meet you, Miss Loreina. I’m…

“What do you mean Miss Loreina!”

On the first day we met, Loreina held my hand in the city and said,

“We’re guardians of the same family. So let’s be sisters.”

“Yes?

Watching Sienna’s eyes widen in disbelief, Laureina burst into laughter.

Her laughter was so clear and sweet.

It seemed to be the sound that a silver bell would make if it were shaken by a breeze.

“I’ve always wanted a younger sister. So why don’t you call me sister?”

And so, Sienna became a sister to Loreina.

“Sienna, I’ll be staying at my family’s villa this summer. Why don’t you come with me?”

“Sister…”

“My parents were also very curious about you when I told them I had a sister. Let’s go, shall we?”

The summer I spent with Loreina was fun.

“You must be Sienna.”

“Thank you for coming along with Loreina.”

Lorraine’s parents were also warm to Sienna, who was just a commoner.

But that was not the only surprise.

“Sienna, are you sleeping?”

One late night in the summer, Loreina visited Siena.

“I came here to do something with Sienna before I go to bed.”

“What is it?”

Sienna always did her best to play with Loreina.

I wanted my sweet sister to enjoy her time with me, so I would do my best to respond to Loreina’s suggestions, even if it was a little too much.

“Let’s do this together.”

Loreina opened an old book on the bed.

It was a book made of leather. The old, spot-stained cover seemed unappealing to young Sienna’s eyes, but Loreina seemed excited.

Since Sienna couldn’t read, Loreina told her what the book was for..

“Here, there is a way to share mana with others.”

“Yeah?”

“Shh! You can’t get caught, Sienna. I want to give you mana. I’m afraid you don’t have a lot of it.”

“Really?”

Sienna had to be a useful wizard. Otherwise, it would have disgraced the face of the Grand Duke who had chosen her.

But you don’t have much mana……

Loreina soothed Siena, who had paled as she became anxious..

“It’s all right, Sienna. I can give you some. I have a lot of mana.”

“But….”

The sensible Sienna thought that Loreina having a lot of mana and sharing it with Sienna as two separate matters.

“No, no. How can you… That’s how you lie to other people.”

“Do you want to go back to the orphanage, Sienna?”

Sienna became speechless at the painful question.

“I want to be your sister forever. Don’t you?”

“Sister…”

Sienna’s eyes dimmed in an instant.

No one has ever been as friendly as Loreina.

Sienna nodded because she wanted to stay with Loreina.

So Sienna and Loreina secretly held the ceremony..

“It’ll be a secret that only we know.”

A secret.

I remember my heart started pounding at the words.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep this secret, Sienna.”

I should have known then.

There was no turning back from that point on.

‘No, it doesn’t matter if you knew.’

Things had already reached an irreversible point.

At that time Sienna wanted to be next to Loreina at any cost.

At that time, I didn’t doubt it was worth it.

‘It was all a mistake….’

How naive she was to trust and expect something from others.

‘So, I can’t be like that this time.’

Siena slowly began to wake up after her nightmare.

‘I don’t think waking up means the end of the nightmare.’

It was time to go back to a nightmarish life that she could never wake up from.

* * *

While Sienna was unconscious-
P/N: After this, describes what happens while Sienna is unconscious. 😉

“Mr. Marnan Kendall.”

The Grand Duke was questioning the orphanage director.

“You may not know this, but very few children are born with the gift for using magic.”

The director, who shook and bowed his head, was severely criticized.

“Though these children are the guardians who will serve the Emperor and the Empire’s people, I will say this.”

“R, Royal Highness…”

“Neither I, nor these children here, are the military resources of the Empire. They should not be damaged or exploited for any reason.”

Director Kendall swallowed visibly and scrambled to make an excuse.

Though he had always scolded others with an arrogant attitude, he had never experienced it himself.

And in the face of an opponent such as the Grand Duke of Nacht, it became even more difficult for him to respond properly.

‘Damn it… you humiliated me just because that girl fainted!’

Sienna had fainted after hearing the Grand Duke’s suggestion to go with him.

The Grand Duke looked down at the fallen child with a stiff face.

It was as if she had fainted, refusing to touch him…

‘I must be wrong.’

The timing was terrible, but there were plenty of other reasons for the child to fall.

‘Either, you’re very nervous…’

Still, he was a grand duke who was called King of the Underworld. It wasn’t impossible for a small frightened child to pass out because of him.

‘…However.’

However, it seemed that the child who fell in the arms of the Grand Duke was a bit skinny, and her complexion didn’t seem too well.

Despite having bathed and put on clean clothes, the fact that she was malnourished could not be hidden.

Even the condition of the children around her didn’t seem all that different.