How to Live as the Terminally Ill Younger Sister of the Villain - Chapter 82

***

Angelina walked on the beach with her shoes off.

“I remember playing like this in the old days, too.”

Holding her shoes in one hand, feeling the ticklish sand with her bare feet, she smiled nostalgically.

Following a few steps behind, Ante’s eyes deepened as if he too was recalling distant memories.

“Hey, brother.”

“Yes, what is it, Lina?”

“What was I like when I was little?”

“…Why suddenly ask that?”

“I just became curious all of a sudden.”

When she was comforting Blake and talking about parents she couldn’t remember, she just suddenly became curious.

“Maybe my memory is bad… I can’t remember anything at all.”

Though she had wrapped it in nice words for Blake, truthfully, she had no memories at all, to the point where it was awkward to give advice. As if someone had completely extracted all her childhood memories.

“I have vague emotional memories that I was loved a lot, that brother took good care of me, but I can’t remember anything like mother’s and father’s voices or scents.”

“……”

Angelina kicked at the white sand with her toes, creating a small dust cloud. The fine sand coated her lower garments like a layer.

“My memories of uncle are also spotty.”

What little remained were only bad ones, like him yelling and locking her in rooms.

It was frustrating that there was nothing worth remembering.

Her kicking at the sand, despite it accumulating on her clothes, only stopped when Ante spoke.

“You don’t need to remember.”

Angelina, who had been watching the dust clouds on the beach, raised her head and slowly turned to look at Ante.

Not because of what he said. But because his voice was darker than usual.

Ante, who had stopped a few steps away, was frowning. He looked uncomfortable, as if recalling unpleasant memories.

To Angelina, who was used to seeing only his bright smile every day, this side of him was unfamiliar. And worrying.

“Brother?”

“You were loved. That’s all you need to know.”

“…’I’ was?”

When she questioned the strange nuance in his words, the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. Smiling with a frown made it look like cynical self-mockery.

“Yes, you were.”

At those words that confirmed the strange aspect…

“…What about you, brother?”

She couldn’t help but ask.

Ante, who had been quietly looking at Angelina with a complicated expression, slowly approached her.

Then he held her face with his long, beautiful hands. While gently caressing her cheeks, he gave a fresh smile.

“Brother had Lina, didn’t he?”

Though it was a statement that omitted much, she could instantly grasp the numerous meanings contained within.

‘She’ was loved, but her brother wasn’t.

“Brother only needs Lina.”

From a time so long ago that even she can’t remember, her brother only had her.

“Because Lina is the most beautiful gift that came into brother’s life.”

Then she…

The love she received was it really their parents’ love? Or was it brother’s love?

Then their parents…

「If only he could destroy the Sun God’s Order, he would do anything. He would gladly offer even his soul.」

Brother who hates the Sun God’s Order.

The uncle who abused us and the Sun God’s Order that was close to such an uncle.

And… the parents who didn’t love us and the Grand Temple they always visited.

‘…I see.’

Now she understands.

Ante’s animosity towards the Order might have started a very long time ago.

This probably isn’t all. There must be infinitely more hidden things besides this.

But that beginning probably…

“Brother.”

Angelina firmly took his hands that were cupping her face, lowered them, and while keeping her head down, gently caressed the back of his hands.

“Don’t live only with hatred. It’s not good for you.”

Perhaps the reason brother becomes the villain in the original story was truly for no other reason than her death.

Unable to bear that piercing longing, he took out his anger on the male and female lead, and they became targets because he thought they were connected to the Sun God’s Order.

Hating the Sun God’s Order… ah yes, it was the natural progression.

“There are many beautiful things in the world besides me, brother.”

Then is it something that can’t be prevented, no matter how much we struggle? Even though we’ve come this far… was it all meaningless?

“Love other things like you love me. And live while being loved too, like that.”

When Angelina raised her head again, her eyes were moist. With eyes that looked like they might drop tears at any moment, she carefully examined Ante’s face.

And with an affectionate smile, she whispered.

“Brother has Lord Jacob, Laura, Haley, Lord Jake, and now even Pudding by his side.”

“……”

“The Duke and Catherine are all good people too… Don’t suffer alone.”

“……”

“Promise me, okay?”

“Lina, why are you saying such things?”

Ante, who had been silently listening to all her words, asked with a hardened face. His face, beautiful even with furrowed brows, was dyed red in the sunset light.

“Having Lina is enough, so why?”

Why is she talking as if she won’t be here?

“Lina, are you hiding something from brother?”

Anxiety gnawed at his heart.

Maybe these are just words of concern for her brother. But that look in her eyes isn’t something that can be dismissed so easily.

He knew too well, having watched her all his life, capturing every moment without missing anything.

There’s something.

Besides not telling him about the Magic Tower Master and the plans to backstab the Order, there’s something else.

There must be some very unsettling secret.

“Lina.”

“Does brother have something to hide from me?”

“……”

At those words that came striking back, Ante’s lips pressed tightly shut.

As he stared at her with confused eyes, Angelina gave a gentle smile.

“Without brother, there is no me.”

As if she knew everything.

As if telling him to pretend there’s nothing.

That threat-that she wouldn’t remove this blunt suspicion until he revealed his secret-sounded like a death sentence to Ante.

When his secrets were ones he could never tell her, even if he died.

‘In the end… it comes to this… I gave birth to a monster…’

The moment she discovers it, their relationship will end.

These eyes that are now only full of love will turn to hatred and disgust the moment she learns the truth.

He couldn’t bear that.

He can’t lose Lina.

‘…I should have never given birth in the first place.’

So that night’s tragedy…

“No, there isn’t.”

The blood flowing in this body, the fact that it’s that of a monster, that night when he accepted it…

“No, I don’t either.”

He could never let Lina find out, above all else.

***

After returning from the walk, Angelina quickly fell into a deep sleep. It was natural to be tired after such an eventful day.

After confirming she was sound asleep, Ante summoned Haley and Laura.

“We need to find out, it seems.”

“Find out what?”

“The reason why Lina is suddenly moving like this. The source of her information.”

Why did a child who was content spending leisurely time at home suddenly start targeting the Order?

The motivation and cause were still completely unknown.

He thought he would naturally find out as time passed and he watched her more carefully.

But no matter how much he watched, there was no way she could have found out about matters concerning the Order or the Magic Tower Master’s tendencies.

Since she never left Laura and Haley’s sight, there was no one she could have met secretly, so how…?

“She’s definitely hiding something.”

But it was maddening that he couldn’t even begin to guess what it might be.

“…The young lady has indeed been saying many strange things lately.”

“Strange things?”

“What she said that day when the Marquis came to pick up Catherine.”

‘Much later… when I have to leave, please take care of brother.’

When the words were relayed, Ante’s brows furrowed.

“You said you once asked her why she was doing all this?”

“Yes. Her answer then also had concerning aspects.”

‘I want to dedicate the time allowed to me to this.’

“At the time, I focused on her saying she had found something she wanted for the first time, but…”