Chapter 1

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: There Is No Mercy 1

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The castle shrouded in darkness was eerily silent.

The servants had all gone home, and even the guards who normally patrolled the grounds had ceased their footsteps, leaving the place steeped in desolation.

A place that should have been bustling with guards coming and going at all hours was now devoid of any movement, as if under someone's strict orders.

'I'm sorry, Sierra. You know I can't defy the Bozbon Duke Family. Anyway... I'm really sorry.'

As I walked down the corridor, fragments of memory resurfaced over the sound of my footsteps, echoing as vividly as if it were yesterday.

My steps pressing against the floor felt heavy, and my exhales were weary.

This mansion, once my home, now felt like a stranger's landscape.

The silent corridor was filled only with the sound of my heels clicking against the floor.

Then, faint moans drifted down upon it.

A sound that shouldn't be heard, and one I shouldn't be hearing.

This was the bedroom I shared with my husband.

And a hollow space he had never once embraced me in.

Standing before the firmly shut door, I closed my eyes and tilted my head.

My head against the door buzzed.

It felt like all strength had drained from my body.

The world was dark and silent, yet unfamiliar voices disturbed my ears.

'I'm afraid we can't protect it. As long as the Bozbons hold firm, the ownership will transfer.'

I opened my eyes at the voice resounding in my mind.

And exhaled, facing the reality I had denied.

"How is it? I'm better than Sierra, aren't I?"

A voice laced with heat mentioned my name.

Followed by another all-too-familiar voice.

"Much better."

The moment that voice reached me, my breath drew out long.

It was my husband's voice.

I closed my eyes to cool my rigid head.

I had to see.

I had to confirm it with my own eyes.

With that resolve, I slowly turned the doorknob.

Soon, the scene inside the opened room unfolded.

A woman sitting at an angle.

And a man embracing her, kissing her.

The bed they were on was the one where I lay down to sleep.

"Oh, you've come?"

I bit my lip hard as I faced the woman greeting me leisurely.

So, it had come to this.

My old friend.

"Bellieta."

The woman on the bed, disheveled, gave a faint smile and placed her hand on the man's body above her.

Then she opened her mouth leisurely.

"Why did you come so soon, Sierra?"

Bellieta wore a lazy expression on her smiling face.

As I watched her, I turned my head to look at Reiton.

He wasn't surprised in the least; instead, he looked annoyed at my interruption.

The smile Reiton directed at Bellieta in his arms couldn't compare to the fake, laced-with-lies smile he gave me.

Where had it all gone wrong?

"Why the hurt look, Sierra? Are you upset that I merely used your husband a little?"

Her giggling laughter rang in my ears, but strangely, no anger rose within me.

After hundreds of efforts and endurance, having lost everything I'd poured my all into protecting.

I wasn't so foolish as to grieve over losing one more man.

"The one who gets stupidly stolen from is at fault, not the one who steals, Sierra. Isn't that right?"

The one stolen from is at fault...

Yes, not wrong. At least, not to you. That's your common sense.

From the start, my relationship with Bellieta had been one-sided.

The stealer and the one refusing to be stolen from.

I was the latter, Bellieta the former.

The only daughter of the Bozbon family, called the sky above the skies, held power no one could rival.

When such a Bellieta coveted and took what was mine, I couldn't stop her.

No matter what I did to stay two steps ahead, she filled the gap with power and influence.

"Reiton."

He reacted to my curtly spat words.

His gaze, turning to me while holding another woman, was cold.

"Using me to get Bellieta..."

Even granting her a hundred concessions, I could understand Bellieta.

She was always like that.

But Leiton's betrayal struck me deeply.

The only man who had held me steady after my parents died in an accident.

How could I not develop feelings for him?

"No need for such a wounded expression. What I wanted was just one thing."

Reiton let out a deep laugh, kissed Bellieta, and murmured lowly.

"Only Bellieta. And you were merely a tool to obtain her."

A tool...

Is that why? Why he never once held me.

The day after my parents' death, with nowhere to lean on, I had been led by those enveloping hands into marriage with this man.

Reiton had said he would wait until I could open my heart.

It was consideration for me, and I was grateful for it.

How ridiculous it all was. My delusions.

Bellieta pushed Reiton away and slowly rose.

The mask on Bellieta's face rejoiced at the fact that this tiresome play could finally end.

'I'm sorry, Count. I wanted to stay until the end after all the grace from you and the Brilloxens. But I can no longer operate the merchant guild in opposition to the Bozbons. Truly sorry.'

How many had she taken?

As I counted them in my mind, a laugh suddenly escaped me.

What did any of this matter?

Bellieta had stolen the most irreplaceable thing of all.

'Mother... Father.'

As faces I'd never see again came to mind, a voice sounded.

"Bellieta's shadow, Bellieta's maid, Bellieta's mirror, Bellieta's doll."

"......"

"Everything you have is mine. Even your man."

Vicious.

Hideous.

And exhausting.

I was growing weary of Bellieta's vicious obsession.

The countless years I'd spent over 25 years trying to escape her flashed by quickly.

I first met Bellieta in a small class I took for studies.

From there, we grew close, and at my first banquet, she led me.

The clever, bright Bellieta.

The duke family's beloved only daughter, adored by all.

Such a Bellieta approached me first.

It was true that I benefited positively from her.

But at some point, Bellieta changed.

Her dominant demeanor vanished, and she began mimicking me exactly, like drawing a picture.

Wearing the same clothes, studying the same things, eating the same food, sharing the same habits.

As if we'd set up a mirror facing each other.

The moment I realized it, my name had vanished, replaced by one prefixed with Bellieta's.

People saw me as Bellieta's shadow.

How far did it reach?

When would this hand pulling me so relentlessly let go?

I struggled to break free. Struggled to flee.

I fought to overcome.

But like a giant versus a dwarf, the Bozbons reigning over the imperial family crushed the Brilloxens mercilessly.

Even my parents.

She took everything by killing the only ones protecting me, whom I also wanted to protect.

My parents passed in a carriage accident, but it was no accident—it was murder.

People claimed no evidence, just a simple mishap, but I didn't believe it.

The day Bellieta found my missing parents' wrecked carriage.

I'd discovered the Bozbon seal in their carriage.

There were even testimonies of knights moving.

But the empire dismissed the evidence, and witnesses vanished.

Thus, I lost everything.

Friends, people, wealth, power, property, name, family.

And family too.

I'd only struggled to survive, yet all I held was a handful of dust.

A quagmire.

If I had to describe my feelings, it was like being trapped in a quagmire.

Just my head above an endless swamp, barely alive.

I couldn't escape.

Nor break free.

A laugh suddenly escaped me.

"Bellieta, always coveting what was mine. Have you taken it all now?"

Bellieta smiled brightly and shook her head.

She approached the window with a deep pond right below, slowly opening the box on the table.

"Do you know what this is?"

Bellieta stroked the box as if caressing something precious, savoring my expression as she opened it.

Inside was the urn containing my parents' ashes, which even I hadn't yet scattered.

"How did you...?"

It was the last trace of my parents, killed by her own hands.

Bellieta chuckled softly, pleased with my expression.

I tried to stay composed, but seeing the relic in her hands made my heart pound fiercely.

"Don't try to deceive me. That's fake..."

"Why? Did you think the archbishop guarding it meant you couldn't touch it? Oh dear, how unfortunate."

Bellieta smirked, curling her lip.

"Even the archbishop is just a lowly priest before the Bozbon name."

Bellieta caressed the urn in her palm.

The moment I saw it, I could delay no longer.

"Give it here."

"I can't do that. If I give this, I've taken everything of yours—what reason would I have? Oh, one more thing."

Bellieta grinned, pointing to the necklace around my neck.

The one and only necklace gifted by Grand Archmage and Sage, my mentor, Ezekiel Roth.

By now, knights had blocked the door behind me, ensuring I couldn't flee.

Once Brilloxen knights who protected me.

No longer.

"My dear friend Sierra. The friend I want to resemble. Please don't resent me. You brought it all on yourself, didn't you?"

"...I brought it on myself."

I let out a hollow laugh, as if deranged.

I brought it on myself?

Looking back, I couldn't see what wrong I'd committed. No, I didn't even want to know.

No matter the great sin, it didn't justify this.

She could touch me, but not my parents—and certainly not mock their ashes.

"...Give it here. I'll give you the necklace, so hand that over."

"Is there any need? It'll all come to me anyway."

As Bellieta's voice sounded, knights approached.

There was no escape.

"Hand it over without getting hurt, Sierra. It'd be a shame to scar that pretty face. Hm?"

A chill wind blew in from the window behind her as she smiled condescendingly.

The moment the wind hit me, my head cleared.

The wind showed me where I had to go.

"...Take it."

I approached slowly.

Very slowly.

Bellieta's eyes gleamed. Facing her ecstatic face that it was finally over, I unclasped the necklace and placed it in her outstretched palm.

"...I won't die, Bellieta."

Snatching the urn from her hand, I shoved her with my body.

"What are you doing?!"

I shoved the staggering Bellieta again.

I forced her back as she flailed, refusing to fall.

"Die!"

The one chance to kill the off-guard Bellieta.

So I pushed without yielding.

A burning pain like fire seared me.

Turning, I saw Reiton standing there.

His sword buried in my shoulder.

"That should do it."

"You..."

Thud!

My body lurched backward from his push.

Bellieta, behind me, was pulled inside by someone, and I tilted downward.

In my falling vision, headfirst, I saw Reiton holding Bellieta.

The moment that image burned into my eyes, the sound of water filled my ears, and waves enveloped me.

I sank into the pitch-black depths like an abyss.

I clutched the urn of my parents' ashes tightly to my chest.

The necklace slipped from my hand, slowly floating upward.

Watching it sink with me instead of rising, a laugh escaped.

This surely isn't the ending you wanted.

And not one I desired either.

Unlike my chilling body, my insides burned.

The endless resentment of the unfulfilled gripped my heart.

If possible, I'd rise now and kill Bellieta, but that was impossible now.

I slowly reached for the rising necklace and grasped it.

Not right now, perhaps.

But from the end of my death, I curse you, Bellieta.

Even if you reborn and reborn again, living new lives, may every one be tragic and despairing.

If I get one more chance, with my curse infused, I'll lay your neck on a sharp guillotine.

The day the blade severs your neck and displays it on the high spire.

You'll regret everything you did to me, Bellieta.

'See you later, Bellieta.'

My fake.

My body sank into the deep abyss.