The Radiant Young Lady of the Dark Family - Chapter 5
After her mother passed away, she didn’t have any proper memories with her father or younger brother. However, she was at least certain that her family were not blood-crazed murderers.
If that was the case, the possibility of it being someone’s trap was the highest, and the only face that came to mind was her aunt’s.
She was the only one who survived. It was said that she was, fortunately, visiting her parents’ home at that time, but afterward, she came up to the capital with her daughter as if it had been planned.
Her aunt was a woman who considered marrying a man from a Count’s family and having a child as a lifelong shame.
That’s why even though her daughter was in the South, she was here using the absence of the mistress of the duke’s residence as an excuse.
Such an aunt brings her daughter to the duke’s residence, which now lacks a head of the family as if she had been waiting for this moment.
She was the heroine of this story.
Yes, surprisingly, the protagonist in the spotlight of this novel was the aunt’s daughter who came up to the capital due to the death of the Cellie family.
To avoid the same life as in the past, she had to completely cut off her aunt. Then… what would happen to the original story if the heroine’s path to the capital was cut off?
“……”
Hartbisa looked down at the series of events drawn on the parchment with dry eyes.
The reason for the Cellie family’s extinction, the tragedy of the extinction being the starting point of the original story – everything seemed determined to shake Hartbisa’s happiness.
Hartbisa folded the parchment.
“Why should I care?”
That was the conclusion. Let the protagonist drive the original story or connect with the male lead as she pleases.
If the protagonist’s appearance starts with the death of others, even her family’s death, then whatever happens to such a story is none of her concern.
“I’ll protect my family myself.”
And to achieve her goal, her current position needed to change first. For that……
Hartbisa immediately thought of one person.
‘Vanwilhelm Cellie.’
Hartbisa’s father, the current head of the Cellie family, is also known as the Emperor’s dog and the Empire’s shadow.
Her father had been on a business trip for the past few months but was due to return soon.
Hartbisa gathered the folded parchment while thinking about how to approach her father.
As she reached out to put it in the innermost drawer, she unexpectedly touched an old wooden box.
Due to being hidden deep inside, dust had accumulated on top of the box. After dusting it off and opening the box, letters poured out.
“This is.”
The old letters, seemingly exchanged over several years, were all from one person. Hartbisa remembered him.
Hartbisa’s pen pal and mysterious man, Shine.
The man who introduced himself as Shine had sent a letter through a messenger bird a few years ago. It contained a short sentence in ancient language along with a request for help with interpretation.
Hartbisa had never revealed to anyone that she could speak the ancient language, so she ignored that suspicious letter.
But Shine persistently asked about her well-being and told her about the weather of the day and his own stories.
For Hartbisa, whose all social activities were blocked by her aunt, Shine became the only breathing hole.
So, exchanging letters one by one had accumulated this much over time.
“Was the letter that came a month ago the last one?”
Recently, she hadn’t been able to reply to the letters due to being dragged to parties and locked in solitary confinement.
Hartbisa looked down at the neat handwriting of the man.
He always addressed her like this in the first sentence:
「To my dearest」
When she was locked in her room and thought herself worthless, these words of his made her feel quite decent.
But now, she would no longer lower herself…
“……”
She decided to confront anyone who stands in her way while opposing her aunt.
From now on, there will be many enemies, and everyone connected to her could be in danger.
Therefore, she didn’t want to involve him, who had been the only breathing hole in her gloomy adolescence, in her affairs anymore.
“It would be right to say goodbye at this point.”
If it were her former self, she would have hidden without being able to send any reply, but now it was different.
After much consideration, Hartbisa wrote a reply on the parchment.
***
Peee-
A snow-white lark fluttered its wings beyond the window.
The man, who was sitting at his desk working, heard the sound and walked to the window in one breath.
When he opened the window, a small lark flew in and perched on a wooden stick in one corner of the office as if finding its place. The moment its feet touched the stick, sharp claws appeared, and the small, cute lark’s appearance vanished, replaced by a large white hawk.
Peee-
Despite being a bird of prey with a sharp beak, it chirped in a rather cute voice towards its master. He gently stroked the back of his hand along the hawk’s nape.
“After changing into a lark a few times, it seems you’ve completely forgotten your original form.”
He had sent it as a messenger bird, but one day it came wearing a red yarn like a scarf. The next time it came holding a handkerchief, and now it was being called by the nickname ‘Moon’ in the letters.
He thought of the woman who would give such a name to this bird of prey with a rather serious face, then chuckled.
The man happily opened Hartbisa’s long-awaited letter.
「To Shine.
Due to personal circumstances, it will be difficult for me to write letters from now on. Thank you so much for everything. Your pseudonym, I actually thought it was a bit embarrassing, but it really became the light in my gloomy daily life. I’m glad I exchanged letters with you, I truly mean it. Take care.
P.S. Please take good care of Moon’s meals. He’s been looking a bit weak lately.」
That was all the content of the letter.
Just as he had unilaterally started it, she had unilaterally cut it off, but he hadn’t imagined she would end it first.
She was a woman who was always mindful of others, even in letters. Even if he asked about something troublesome, she would just laugh it off, keeping her uncomfortable feelings bottled up inside.
So this was a very welcome change.
It’s just a bit ironic that the first time she asserted herself was to say goodbye.
The man slightly raised the corners of his mouth in a smile and gently stroked the hawk’s head area with his finger.
“Until the end, she only thinks about you rather than me. How disappointing.”
Personal circumstances, huh?
He pondered for a moment, examining Hartbisa’s letter, then quietly called out to someone.
“Pattison.”
“Yes.”
Although it was a small voice, the man in uniform revealed himself as if he had been waiting.
“I need to purchase a large piece of land in the north where the Pale River passes.”
“Understood, Young Grand Duke.”
At his response, the man referred to as the Young Grand Duke smiled a beautiful smile as if painted.
Tastian Empire’s only Young Grand Duke, Bertolph Radant. He was Shine, Hartbisa’s letter correspondent.
***
There’s an old founding myth that every child raised in the Tastian Empire knows.
It’s a story about a god who fell in love with foolish and weak humans and gave them six blessings as a gift.
This Tastian Empire was built upon the power of those blessings.
The inherited blessings are different from magic and are called innate abilities, and most families who inherited these blessings enjoyed great glory.
The Cellie family was also one of the families that inherited a blessing.
Unlike the Imperial family, the Duchy of Lamberth, or the County of Malana, the glory that trailed behind the Cellie family, who operated from the shadows, was stained entirely in blood.
Hartbisa woke up early and stepped out of her bedroom.
It was time for the sun to rise, but no sunlight was streaming into the room. Beyond the slightly drawn curtains, a gloomy sky could be seen.
“A land even the sun has turned its back on.”
It was a land that truly matched the nickname of the Cellie family. Hartbisa closed the curtains again and began her early preparations.
Due to the protagonist’s influence, most families with inherited special abilities in the empire ended up becoming the female lead’s allies. The Cellie family, despite being one of these inheriting families, was merely used as a stepping stone to introduce the female lead’s entrance. Yet, there existed one particular inheriting family that remained completely unconnected to the female lead, standing apart from this pattern.
‘The Radantu Grand Duke family.’
There was hardly anything memorable about them.
Not only were they outside the empire’s sphere of influence and had autonomy, but they also ran an academy.
It even became the central stage of the novel as the female lead who came up to the capital with the male lead enrolled there. I think the Young Grand Duke was also attending there.
“Bertolph Radant. That was his name, right?”
I’ve only heard the name. He never appeared in the novel.
…Well. I guess that means he’s not important.
The ones Hartbisa needs to be careful of now are different people.
Hartbisa confirmed that the morning sun was faintly rising and got up from her seat.
It was time to start moving in earnest.
***
From the entrance of the Cellie mansion, shrouded in fog, sand dust rose.
Among the guards dressed in shadow-like black armor, a tall man who particularly stood out revealed himself.
The middle-aged man brushed back his jet-black hair. Fatigue was clearly visible in his languid eyes.
