How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain - Chapter 58
Blake placed the two family crests side by side.
The Flaubert Marquis family crest with a silver dragon embracing a sword.
The Kadenhart Duchy’s crest with a sword thrust among blooming roses.
“Your Grace? What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Mason cautiously asked, feeling uneasy as Blake’s gaze at the family crests grew increasingly fierce.
He hunched over, half-hiding his face behind his beer mug, ready to use it as a shield should any scolding come his way.
“Do you know this?”
Blake spoke without even glancing at Mason.
“The silver dragon in the Flaubert family crest is holding a scabbard, not a sword.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Mason took the Flaubert wooden tag with a puzzled voice. Sean also opened his eyes wide and leaned toward Mason to look at the tag together.
“What are you saying, Your Grace? Here, it’s clearly holding a sword… Huh? Wait?”
Mason, who had been pointing at the sword blade in the dragon’s embrace, noticed that the sword had no hilt.
“It-it’s true? There’s only a blade? No, so does that mean it’s actually a scabbard? Now that I look at it, it is too ornate to be just a blade.”
With the blade pointing upward and the part where the hilt should be intricately decorated with tail and claws, it was difficult to notice the missing hilt without careful observation.
“But then why is the dragon bleeding so profusely? Anyone would think this is a sword blade.”
People assumed the dragon was holding a sword because of the wound marks on the dragon’s body where it embraced the object.
Mason protested incredulously, and Sean, who took the tag from his hands, examined the crest carefully before asking with curious eyes.
“Is it really a scabbard?”
“Who knows? Only the Flaubert family members would know the truth.”
Family crests were often remembered only by their symbolic elements, colors, and overall impression.
Among the imperial families, only the Flaubert Marquis family had a silver dragon in their crest, so people immediately thought of the Marquis family when they saw the dragon.
But nobody ever thought to look at it in detail.
This wasn’t unique to the Flaubert family crest. It was common for all families with distinctive symbolic crests.
Generally, people didn’t know the details of crests unless it was their own family’s, and many didn’t even know the details of their own.
While they learned the meaning behind the crests during family history lessons with their tutors, most forgot about it since it wasn’t particularly useful information in daily life.
“Just as the Kadenhart family crest has roses but no thorns that should rightfully be there.”
The same was true for the Kadenhart Duchy.
The roses around the sword were so beautifully bloomed that people described it as a sword thrust into rose vines.
But looking closely, there were actually no vines.
“I’ve never thought about it deeply before…”
The crest had been passed down since ancient ancestors, so he’d never paid much attention to such details.
But things changed when he received the Flaubert family wooden tag from Angelina.
Taking it out almost daily to handle and examine it, he began noticing things he’d never known before.
The scabbard was one of them, and…
“…Don’t you think these two are similar?”
Blake spoke while placing the two family tags side by side. His finger pointed to the scabbard held by the dragon and the sword buried among roses.
One was a sword and one was a scabbard, so they had to be different. Yet they gave off a strangely similar atmosphere.
It seemed the sword in the Kadenhart crest would fit perfectly into the scabbard in the Flaubert crest.
Rather, they would match well. As if they were originally a pair.
“Aren’t all noble family crests similar? They’re all drawn somewhat dark and angular.”
Mason seemed to think differently.
“Mason is right. Isn’t it because one is a sword and one is a scabbard that you feel they should be joined?”
Sean agreed with Mason, though for a slightly different reason.
“And crests are just crests, they don’t actually exist.”
They tried to dismiss it lightly as if wondering why he was concerned about such things. But their eyes quickly assessed Blake.
‘Has he really fallen for that young lady?’
To think he would try to connect even the family crests to this extent.
Sean had believed his lord Blake wasn’t someone easily swayed by emotions. While he cared for his people, his judgment rarely clouded due to feelings.
He was clear about right and wrong, almost to the point of coldness, and above all, he had no interest in romance or love.
But what was this situation?
‘…Could it be worse because he’s so inexperienced?’
Sean’s worries doubled.
The claim about coming to verify the truth might all be an excuse. It seemed he just wanted to see the young lady.
Apparently… his lord couldn’t distinguish between attraction and curiosity.
This was serious.
“Your Grace. This matter really requires caution. You must think two, three times before deciding to get involved. Do you understand?”
Sean spoke urgently out of frustration, but…
“Come to think of it… Artoas, the duchy’s heirloom sword, also doesn’t have its scabbard…”
Blake’s thoughts were already elsewhere.
Sean could tell this journey would be the crisis of his lifetime among all the years he had served Blake.
***
Laura had been deeply troubled lately.
It was because of the young lady.
She had been a young lady who was so careful even with her breathing, fearing her mistakes might harm her brother.
Laura had always felt sorry for her, but she changed dramatically after her 18th birthday.
After suffering from headaches, she spent several days in a daze, and then for some reason, she demanded pocket money from the Marquis.
She had never asked the Marquis for anything in her life.
Since what she did with the allowance was for the sake of the Marquis territory, Laura thought perhaps she was apologizing this way because she felt sorry about not having a birthday party.
However, that changed too when she met the Duke of Kadenhart that day.
Not recognizing who he was, the young lady went to an auction house for him and even suddenly showed competitive spirit there.
Seeing how greatly surprised she was later upon learning he was a duke, it seemed she truly hadn’t known.
Laura naturally thought she would hand over the sword to the Marquis and step back. The usual young lady would never involve herself in matters concerning other families.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she headed to the magic tower with that sword.
Someone who never left the Marquis territory unless traveling with the Marquis…
Surely when she was young, something bad happened to her in the Dark Forest.
That was something the young lady couldn’t remember, a fact Laura learned after gaining the Marquis’s complete trust about five years into serving Angelina.
That’s when she also learned the Marquis was the Tower Master and took the vow of silence. It was a spell that would bring the most painful death if one attempted to reveal the secret.
Everyone who served the young lady closely, except for her, knew the Marquis’s identity and took that magical vow.
She began to see the Marquis’s almost obsessive love that secretly protected the young lady.
Laura wondered if perhaps the Marquis had sealed the memories of what happened in the Dark Forest, but she didn’t ask for details. She considered that beyond her authority.
And so, the young lady who had been like a shadow, like a doll, wanting nothing and showing little emotional fluctuation…
“I’ve packed the scroll… What else am I forgetting?”
Had turned the Sun God’s Order into an enemy.
Why? For what reason? Since when?
There was nothing she could understand.
If she hadn’t known the Marquis was the Tower Master, she would have thought it was all the Tower Master’s manipulation.
But when she reported what happened at the Grand Temple to the Marquis, he acted as if it was the first he’d heard of it. His face even turned pale, showing he was clearly shocked.
Seeing the Marquis’s hands tremble slightly for the first time, she could be certain it wasn’t his directive.
Afterward, the Marquis said the Duke of Kadenhart must be plotting something.
But Laura found it difficult to agree.
She had personally witnessed all interactions between the Duke and the young lady.
If anything, it was the young lady who drew the Duke in, not the other way around.
Just what…
